Topic: Sports News

[Kharane]

london ? Arsenal are no longer fighting for the Premier League title, but manager Arsene Wenger is determined they do not let their season fizzle out when Reading head to the Emirates Stadium today.

Their defeat by leaders Manchester United last weekend left Arsenal third in and with only second place in the Premier League to aim for this term.

Finishing runners-up will be a tough task after second-placed Chelsea, who?ve now played one game more than London rivals Arsenal, went seven points clear of the Gunners following a 1-0 win away to Everton on Thursday.

But Wenger is confident his current crop of gifted young players will eventually bring silverware back to Arsenal.

Theo Walcott is likely to be given a start against Reading as reward for his impressive performances from the substitutes bench in recent weeks, and Wenger hopes a victory would raise morale within his squad.

?You cannot knock this team for spirit, but when you get knock after knock it is hard to take,? Wenger said.

?I feel we have quality here and I have worked a lot with this team. People do not know what it means to me to walk out with them.

?I think we have done a lot for promoting this league all over this world.

?But I want to win trophies, and am sad we can?t win any this season. But we want to continue with the way we play, but then play better, too.

?There has been a thin margin between winning and losing this season.?

Wenger will wait on the fitness of goalkeeper Manuel Almunia before deciding his squad for this game. But if the Spaniard is available after a wrist injury then Jens Lehmann is likely to drop to the bench.

?I will make a decision,? Wenger explained.

?He got injured in training on the Friday before Manchester. We sent him for a scan and there was an inflammation so he could not play.?

Bacary Sagna, Mathieu Flamini (both ankle) and Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) are all still missing for Arsenal.

Reading, however, are likely to welcome back influential midfield player Glen Little to their starting line-up.

He has not started a match for over a year due to an Achilles problem, but will now help their bid for top-flight survival. Steve Coppell?s side are just three points clear of the relegation zone, and have not managed to score a goal in their past three matches.

?Arsenal?s season is over in terms of winning the Premier League but as far as the Champions League is concerned finishing second will qualify them automatically so they still have a lot to aim for and play for,? Coppell said.

?Is it a good time to play them? We?ll know within the first 10 minutes. But beforehand you can?t predict an attitude they are going to have and I?m certainly not going to waste time doing it.

?They will want to put on a good show in front of their own fans. They must be looking at us to be prime candidates as the next lambs for slaughter.?

Reading play Wigan, Tottenham and Derby after their visit to North London.

?This game won?t break our season, but it could make it,? Coppell added.

?So as far as I?m concerned it is not a no-lose game, because with four games to go a loss is significant. But there is everything to play for and everything to gain for us.?

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[yaLch!!]

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[Kharane]

LISBON: Cristiano Ronaldo?s footballing talent has never been in doubt, the only problem has been questions raised over whether he tended to falter in the really big matches.
For Manchester United fans there are few doubts now after his extraordinary goal haul this season which has seen them land the Premiership - he scored the penalty that set them on their way in the final match against Wigan to take his overall total to 41 for the season including 31 in the league - and to the Champions League final where they play Chelsea next week.
However, Euro 2008 will present a new challenge for the twinklytoed winger, as the spotlight will be firmly on him and whether he can step up to the plate and inspire the Portuguese to go one better than last time and win the title.
With the ?golden generation? of Luis Figo, Rui Costa and Pedro Pauleta finally retired and despite their nickname not having won one senior trophy, the weight of a nation?s hopes will fall on the 23-year-old from Madeira.
It seems rather unfair given that there remains a more experienced bunch of players who have been around the block, not least in Deco, Simao Sabrosa and Ricardo Carvalho but that is how high Ronaldo himself has raised the bar over the past few years.
For Portugal?s fiery coach Luiz Felipe Scolari there are no doubts about Ronaldo?s standing in the footballing ladder.
?According to me, Ronaldo is the best player in the world,? said ?Big Phil?, who is certainly not a man to be argued with.
?And I hope that he will not just be the best with Manchester United, but also with the national side during Euro.
?Ronaldo has come on a lot as not only a player, but also and especially as a human being.
?However, the national side is not just dependant on Cristiano Ronaldo. If that was the case it would hardly be worth playing in the finals,? added Scolari, who gave Ronaldo his first cap back in 2003.  (AFP)

[Kharane]

LONDON: Joe Cole admits Chelsea will go in the Champions League final against Manchester United in the unusual position of being underdogs.
There are not many occasions when the Stamford Bridge billionaires have to play second fiddle to their opponents, but Cole believes United?s Premier League title success means they are favourites to win in Moscow on May 21.
However the England winger?s downbeat verdict came laced with a warning for Sir Alex Ferguson?s side.
Although Chelsea were pipped to the English crown on the last day of the season, Avram Grant?s team have been in fine form and Cole insists it would be foolish to underestimate the Blues.
?We will be going in as underdogs, of course, because they have got the championship. But also the people at United will be looking at Chelsea and thinking with all the injury problems and turmoil which the club has had to deal with this year, we finished just two points behind them,? Cole said.
?The Champions League final is the top of the mountain, the benchmark for any club. To win it is a massive achievement and we?re determined to do it.
?We are not too interested in plaudits - you want trophies. We fought United all the way and we are disappointed not to have won, but credit has to go to the whole squad and everyone around the place who have kept it going, shown real steel and determination.?
Chelsea?s first Champions League final appearance offers the perfect chance to avenge United?s title triumph and salvage a season that could be their first without a trophy since 2004.
But Cole is adamant the campaign will have been a success regardless of the result in Russia and he expects to return to any even stronger squad next season.
?There are people who will say if you win one game you are a god, and if you lose one game then you are the biggest duffer to have ever played football,? Cole said.
?If you look back at it, with all that has happened, you have to say the club is going in the right direction whatever happens in Moscow.
?If we were to win Wednesday night, then we would be going full speed ahead again.
?The owner and his money have given us the opportunity to be in this position together. We appreciate that and just want to get the job done for all the fans and for everyone around us at the club.?
While Cole can afford to be relatively sanguine about Chelsea?s future, boss Grant must be slightly more concerned about the repercussions of returning home empty-handed.
The club?s chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Peter Kenyon both recently passed up the chance to guarantee Grant will still be in charge next season, giving the impression that a defeat could be the signal for a more high-profile manager to take his place.
Cole insists Grant can cope with the strain. He said: ?It is part and parcel of being a manager or a footballer. There is always someone ready to have a pop at you.
?I don?t pay any attention to what those people think of me, and I am sure Avram doesn?t either. He has got broad shoulders. ?We all want to win it for our own reasons, but mainly for the club with everyone pulling in the right way.
?The people in charge are doing a great job and we are going in the right direction.?
Whatever the result in Russia, Cole suspects Chelsea could be back in the final soon as Premier League clubs continue to dominate the competition.
Although this is the first all-English final, it is also the fourth year in a row there has been representation from England in Europe?s biggest club match.
?I think it does show how strong the Premier League is and has been so for the past five years,? he said. ?If you look at how the English teams have done in Europe, it has been phenomenal really.
Now our players and clubs are getting that experience, I can see us dominating for a long time.? (AFP)

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Portsmouth triumph in the FA Cup final as Kanu's first-half goal gives Harry Redknapp's side a 1-0 win over Cardiff.

[anaRCHy]

Shitt !! i was hoping cardiff will win and they can go to uefa cup...

shitt....dyammmn

[ангел]

hehe anaruuuuuu..maile ta Portsmouth..bhaner baseko ..thik jiterakheko k kya khusi ma ta

[Kharane]

MOSCOW: Any player on a single yellow card at the end of the quarter-final stage of Euro 2008 will have it cancelled, UEFA announced yesterday after a two-day Executive Committee meeting.
The proposal was agreed unanimously by the committee and means that a player given a second yellow card of the competition in the semi-finals is not then suspended for the final if his team qualifies.
Previously, players had single yellow cards cancelled after the group stage so that if they picked up yellows in the quarter-finals and semi-finals they were suspended for the showpiece event.
UEFA president Michel Platini said he was delighted with the ruling.
?It is based on a footballing decision and I am happy the executive committee gave their unanimous approval for it. It means the fans should be able to see the best players in the final, as long as they do not pick up two yellow cards or get sent off in the semi-final.?
UEFA also simplified its national team ranking procedure which determines each national team?s coefficient.
The change should stop draws producing so-called ?groups of death? in future final tournaments, such as Group C in next month?s Euro 2008 tournament which comprises world champions Italy, World Cup finalists France, the Netherlands and Romania.
?The system has been simplified and is now based just on competitive matches played by a national team in the European championship or World Cup, friendlies are not taken into account,? said David Taylor, UEFA?s general secretary.
He said it meant that draws for the qualifying and final rounds of the European championships should now be fairer and better balanced. (Reuters)

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 Man Utd win in dramatic shoot-out
Manchester United beat Chelsea after a dramatic penalty shoot-out to win the Champions League.

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Congrats COngrates Supporters lai
Enjoy your day of party

[Kharane]

MOSCOW: Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar was Manchester United's hero as Sir Alex Ferguson's side claimed the club's third European Cup with a penalty shoot-out win over Chelsea on a night of almost unbearable drama in Moscow.
As many had predicted, the competition's first all-English final ended in penalties and ultimately it was van der Sar's full-length save from Nicolas Anelka that ensured United won the shoot-out 6-5 after the match had ended 1-1 after extra-time.
The triumph ensured ensured a season that has seen United mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster ended with both the Premier League and Champions League trophies back at Old Trafford.
Chelsea had their chance to claim the trophy for the first time after Cristiano Ronaldo had had his effort saved by Petr Cech. But captain John Terry pushed his spot-kick - Chelsea's fifth - wide of the target.
It was hard on the London club, who could justifiably claim to have come closest to winning the match in the two hours that preceded the dramatic finale.
It was also debatable whether Terry would have taken a penalty had Didier Drogba not been sent off shortly before the end of extra-time for tapping Nemanja Vidic on the face as several players on either side squared up to each other.
United's early domination had yielded a deserved opener in the form of Ronaldo's 26th-minute header, the Portuguese winger's 42nd goal of an extraordinary season.
But after failing to take the chances that followed, Ferguson's men were pegged back by Frank Lampard's equaliser on the stroke of half-time.
Chelsea went on to dominate after the break and almost claimed a winner when Drogba's 25-yard shot came back off the post with van der Sar beaten.
Chelsea struck the woodwork again in the opening period of extra-time, Lampard's cute shot on the turn bouncing off the bar with United's goalkeeper once more struggling.
Substitute Ryan Giggs then had a glorious chance to mark his record-breaking 759th appearance for United in style but the veteran winger never really connected with Patrice Evra's cutback and Terry was able to head the ball to safety.
With the exception of Park Ji-Sung's exclusion from United's match-day squad, there were no suprises in the personnel on display, although Ferguson did tweak United's usual shape.
Owen Hargreaves was deployed on the right side of midfield with Ronaldo in the left-sided role that Park had been tipped to fill.
With Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez alongside each other in attack, Ferguson also departed from the lone-striker policy that has served United well in getting to the final, notably in the semi-final win over Barcelona.
Michael Essien's relative inexperience at right-back may have influenced United's thinking and it was the Ghanaian's poor positioning that enabled United to take the lead.
From his own throw-in on the right, Wes Brown combined with Scholes to escape from Lampard and the rightback was allowed to drift infield before curling a cross to the back post. Ronaldo had peeled off Essien and, with the luxury of an unchallenged header, directed the ball just inside the post.
The goal every neutral and television director had hoped for had the desired effect of bringing the match to life.
Michael Ballack fired a chance to equalise over the bar and United enjoyed a greater let-off minutes later when only an instinctive reflex save from van der Sar prevented Rio Ferdinand from heading into his own net as Ballack strained to reach Drogba's knockdown.
United hit back with Rooney sending Ronaldo clear on the left. The winger's cross was met by Tevez with a diving header that Cech blocked at close range but could not hold.
Terry scuffed the loose ball into the path of Michael Carrick but by the time the midfielder had driven it goalwards, Cech was on his feet and able to palm a poorly directed drive to safety.
United went close again three minutes from the break. Rooney's low cross from the right was cleverly directed into the space between Cech and his centrebacks and Tevez got a boot to it at full stretch but the ball spun wide of the target.
As the half drew to a close it was Chelsea who were in the ascendant but they still required a generous slice of luck to claim their equaliser as a result of a long-range shot from Essien that looked unlikely to trouble van der Sar.
After deflecting off the boot of Vidic, the ball rebounded off Ferdinand's back to leave Lampard with the simple task of tapping in from six yards.
Chelsea continued to dominate after the break, forcing Ferguson to pull Hargreaves into the middle of midfield with Rooney dropping deep on the right.
Still Chelsea pressed and Drogba, largely anonymous until then, almost conjured up a winner with 12 minutes left, his 25-yard drive curling beyond van der Sar's dive and onto the post.
Five minutes later, United finally produced a second-half shot. Tevez's effort was close but not close enough to prevent the match slipping towards the conclusion many had regarded as inevitable. (AFP)

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Congrats COngrates Supporters lai
Enjoy your day of party

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