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Monday August 21, 2017

Cyclist Shane Perkins in this undated fi le photo. SD-Agencies

ROMELU LUKAKU starred on his competitive Old Trafford debut, scoring twice as Man-chester United began the 2017-18 campaign with a comfortable 4-0 win over West Ham to lead the early Premier League table.

Lukaku had netted in his fi rst league appearances for both West Brom and Everton and he repeated that feat Sunday, getting on the end of a Marcus Rashford pass to give the host a deserved lead in the 33rd minute.

Nemanja Matic also began to swiftly justify the fee paid by United to reunite the Serbian with his former Chelsea man-ager Jose Mourinho, impress-ing throughout at the base of midfi eld and completing a timely interception to trigger the coun-ter-attack that ended in Lukaku’s fi rst goal.

The Belgian center-forward doubled his tally eight minutes into the second half, when he headed home a Henrikh Mkhi-taryan free-kick.

Substitute Anthony Martial and midfi elder Paul Pogba added gloss to the scoreline by scoring late on, leaving Mourinho and the home faithful cheered by the sight of a dominant display to open the campaign as the team seeks to challenge for a fi rst league title since 2012-13.

A sustained run of away fi x-

Lukaku delivers on Old Trafford debut

tures to open the campaign for West Ham, a consequence of London Stadium temporarily reverting to its original purpose to host the IAAF World Cham-pionships, continues with a trip to Southampton next weekend, when United is also on the road at Swansea City.

The best chance yet arrived in the 27th minute when Pogba’s lofted pass forward released Juan Mata into a dangerous

position inside the area. The ex-Chelsea and Valencia man could have taken a shot at goal but opted instead to try and square for Lukaku, Ogbonna again com-pleting a good clearance.

There was no denying the Belgium striker six minutes later, though. A Matic intercep-tion just inside the United half allowed Marcus Rashford to break at pace, the youngster’s carefully weighted pass slip-

ping in Lukaku to race in on goal and slam a fi erce, fi rst-time fi nish past Joe Hart and into the back of the net with the help of the post.

West Ham had to wait until fi rst-half injury time to register a shot on target, Edimilson Fernandes shooting straight at David de Gea in a frustrating conclusion to a fl owing move involving Andre Ayew and Mark Noble. (SD-Agencies)

Manchester United’s Eric Bailly celebrates scoring their fi rst goal with Romelu Lukaku (L). SD-Agencies

China’s Zhou Peng in the game against Jordan on Saturday. SD-Agencies

Jean Michael Seri

China to play Lebanon for 5th place CHINA will be playing Lebanon for fi fth in the FIBA Asia Cup after routing Jordan 86-55 on Saturday and Lebanon outpac-ing the Philippines 106-87 in the games played for classifi ca-tion from 5 to 8.

China almost led from start to fi nish, and though a third quarter run saw Jordan get to within four points down to China, it was the closest they would get the rest of the way.

A dominant 31-11 fi nal period sealed Jordan’s fate, as they had no answers for China, who led with an incredibly effi cient 14 points from 19-year old Hu Jinqiu, who did not miss a shot.

Wu Qian and Hu Dejun added 13 points-a-piece, whilst Mohammad Hussein led Jordan with 18 points and 8 rebounds, and Amin Abu Hawwas joined him in double fi gures with 12 points.

Lebanon for its part domi-nated every offensive category whilst Norvel Pelle took care of things on the defensive end, on their way to a convincing 106-87 victory over the Philippines.

It sets up a fi fth place playoff with China today, whilst the Philippines will aim for seventh when they face Jordan.

Australia and Iran will vie for the title of the Cup after Australia overcame New Zealand 106-79 and Iran beat South Korea 87-81 on Saturday.

Australia were the fi rst to book their space in the fi nal as Mat-thew Hodgson top scored with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting and six players hit double fi gures in the win for Australia.

In the other semifi nal, Iran scored 30 points in the fi rst quarter against South Korea who scored only 13, but saw the South Koreans make a huge comeback and level the score as of the beginning of the second half.

But in the 4th quarter the Ira-nians played a nerves-controlled game and managed to beat the hasty South Koreans 87-81.

B. Yakshali scored 21 points for Iran and A. Haddadi backed his team with 14 rebounds and 8 assists, while S. Oh scored 21 points and made 5 rebounds for South Korea. (Xinhua)

BARCELONA is targeting Nice midfi elder Jean Michael Seri in a €40 million (US$47 mil-lion) deal as the club’s pursuit of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele goes cold.

The Catalans have now made the 26-year-old their main target, as they believe they can sign the midfi elder if they acti-vate the valuation clause agreed between Seri and Nice.

The Catalans have yet to make a formal approach, however.

The potential arrival of Seri would not stop Barcelona from pursuing Coutinho and Dem-bele, who have been identifi ed as the prime targets to replace new PSG man Neymar.

Seri impressed with seven goals and nine assists in all competitions last season, help-ing Nice reach the Champions League with a third-place fi nish in Ligue 1.

(SD-Agencies)

Barca pursues $47m Seri deal

Cyclist Perkins gets nod for Russia switchAUSTRALIAN cyclist Shane Perkins has been given the green light to attain Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin, paving the way for the twice world champion to represent his new country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The Melbourne-born 30-year-old won a sprint bronze for Australia at the 2012 Olympic Games in London but missed out on selection for last year’s Rio Games.

“The president resolved to grant Russian Federation citizenship to Shane Alan Perkins,” the Kremlin said in

a statement on its website.Perkins posted a picture of

himself on Twitter wearing Russia colors on his bike and wrote: “I’m the most excited guy in the world right now! I can make my dreams come true!”

Perkins, a good friend of

Russia’s reigning world cham-pion sprinter Denis Dmitriev, who took bronze in the sprint at Rio, began seriously consid-ering defecting less than a year ago. He told local media that he was frustrated at being shut out of Australia’s high performance program.

Perkin’s father Daryl, a former national champion, raced in the now defunct tandem sprint with Ian Browne at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. They were beaten by the silver medal-win-ning Soviet Union pair of Imants Bodnieks and Viktor Logunov in the quarterfi nals. (SD-Agencies)

SPAIN’S La Liga returned Friday under the shadow of terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cam-brils that left at least 14 killed and more than 100 injured.

The league’s authorities still plan for all 10 La Liga fi xtures to take place, including Barcelona’s match at home to Real Betis on Sunday.

All games across the top two divisions will be preceded by a minute’s silence.

“LaLiga has asked the RFEF [Royal Spanish Football Federa-tion] to hold a minute’s silence in all matches of the fi rst day of the competition in LaLiga Santander and LaLiga 1l2l3,” La Liga said in a statement.

Barca’s players held a minute’s

silence before training Friday, while the club published a pic-ture of the players and coaching staff with the hashtag “Tots-SomBarcelona” [“We are all Barcelona”] on its social media channels.

“As a mark of respect, the fl ags will fl y at half-mast at the club’s facilities and the players from both teams will wear black arm-bands in all the club’s matches this weekend,” Barca added in a statement.

Barcelona’s other top fl ight side Espanyol was away to Sevilla on Saturday.

“With our hearts still shrink-ing to see Barcelona, our beloved Barcelona, attacked vilely by terror and hate, we

want to show our solidarity with all the people affected as well as to thank enormously all the support received by both the city and our club,” Espanyol said in a statement.

The league’s biggest stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were among those to lead tributes to the victims as the shocking events of Friday unfolded.

That mood was refl ected on the front pages of Spain’s sport newspapers Friday.

The fi rst league matches of the season take place Friday night when Leganes welcomed Alaves in Madrid before Valencia hosted Las Palmas.

(SD-Agencies)

Terrorist attacks mar La Liga’s return