(Home teams listed first)
Second Round.
First Leg
Arsenal (England) 1, AS Roma (Italy) 0
Atletico Madrid (Spain) 2, FC Porto (Portugal) 2
Inter Milan (Italy) 0, Manchester United (England) 0
Lyon (France) 1, Barcelona (Spain) 1
Interim Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink said he expected energy, passion and no excuses from his side against Juventus in the home leg of the Champions League first knockout round on Wednesday.
Hiddink, in charge for only eight days, told a news conference on Tuesday his players would not use his brief acquaintance with them as an excuse for a poor performance against the Turin side coached by former Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri.
“Of course, every manager likes to have six weeks to implement things,” the Dutchman said. “I have to do it in a reduced time but we have to do it …and with pleasure. We must not give ourselves an excuse because it means you give less,” he said.
Hiddink’s team won his first game in charge 1-0 at Aston Villa last Saturday.
The Dutchman, who took on the Chelsea job until the end of the season alongside his duties as Russian national coach as a favor to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, said he considered Ranieri a “gentleman coach” as well as a shrewd tactician who handled the big stars in his team well.
“From what I’ve seen recently he’s a very good organizer. Juventus show themselves to have enormous tactical discipline and play like a team. They are organized in a very disciplined way.”
The game would be challenging and exciting because the Champions League remained one of the club’s ambitions, Hiddink said.
Chelsea have reached the semifinals in four of the last five seasons and lost last year’s final to Manchester United on penalties, a game Hiddink watched at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow.
Ranieri, who took Chelsea to the semifinal in 2004, before being replaced by Jose Mourinho, said he still had good memories of his time in London but was now thinking only about Wednesday’s game.
“When the draw took place I got a good feeling. You don’t forget four years, they were four beautiful years,” Ranieri said. “But now I am focused on the game and that’s what it’s all about.”
The Italian, who became Abramovich’s first managerial casualty in 2004, said the English club remained favorites for the tie but that Juventus would not “take that lying down.”
Three managers have come and gone since Ranieri at Chelsea and the Juventus coach added he felt English football was becoming like the Italian game where owners were impatient for immediate success and coaches did not have time to build a team.
“New owners whether they are American, Arab or Russian are all convinced that if they spend they will win. But it’s not true. A football team is built brick by brick, one area of the team at a time, developing the locker room. It’s not just money that makes you win,” he said.
Ranieri, who said he still kept a house in London, had no hard feelings. “I think even if we had won the Champions League I knew my days were numbered,” he said, adding Abramovich had told him last time he saw him that he would always be welcome at Stamford Bridge.
Juventus have four fit strikers and Ranieri said they were all playing well. Asked whether he would play Alessandro Del Piero as well as fit-again David Trezeguet and Brazil’s Amauri, Ranieri refused to be drawn, saying he also had the option of playing Vincenzo Iaquinta.
He added he was proud of the part he had played in developing Chelsea’s core players such as captain John Terry and vice-captain Frank Lampard.
“All coaches aim to see young players and spot their potential and risk playing them and they are proud when they are successful. They are important at the beginning but after that the players do the job themselves,” he said.
Lampard paid a warm tribute to Ranieri, saying he deserved credit for turning Chelsea from also-rans in a side capable of winning honors.
Chelsea will still be without defender Ricardo Carvalho, who is recovering from a hamstring strain and midfielder Deco who has a slight tear in his hamstring and will be out for a few days. Joe Cole and Michael Essien are long term injuries with ligament damage though Essien has begun light training and should be fit to return next month.
With Manchester United again out front in English soccer, Alex Ferguson finds his nemesis waiting: Jose Mourinho.
Ferguson already is in command of traditional rivals Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal as he chases his third straight Premier League title. He also has a Wembley date with Tottenham in the League Cup final Sunday.
Now he faces a manager he has beaten only once in 12 games. Mourinho, in charge of Champions League rival Inter Milan, repeatedly beat Ferguson when leading Chelsea to back-to-back Premier League titles. He also edged him in the 2007 FA Cup final.
Ferguson and Man U fans have painful memories of Mourinho racing down the Old Trafford sideline waving his arms in celebration after a last-minute goal by FC Porto knocked their team out of the 2004 Champions League.
Mourinho led the Portuguese club to the title that season. He meets Ferguson again in the same competition.
This time, United is the defending champion and appears on course for its third consecutive domestic league title. Inter, which last won European soccer’s biggest competition in 1965, is well ahead of its rivals as it eyes its fourth straight Serie A championship.
Although this is a Champions League game, Mourinho also has an amazing home record of going unbeaten in 110 league games with FC Porto, Chelsea and now Inter Milan. The streak goes back exactly seven years (Feb. 23, 2002).
The fact that Inter hasn’t won this title for 45 seasons is nothing new for Mourinho. When he took charge of Chelsea, the club hadn’t won the league title for 50 years. Declaring himself the “Special One”, he gave the club not just one league championship but two in a row.
Despite their rivalry, the two managers have a huge respect for each other bordering on friendship. During his time at Chelsea, Mourinho would take a bottle of quality wine to meetings with Manchester United because he knew the United manager was a collector.
“It will be a great pleasure to meet him again and it will be the same for him,” Mourinho said. “We have had a great relationship from the start built on great respect and I hope it goes on like this to the end.”
Mourinho has started the mind games ahead of the first leg meeting at San Siro on Tuesday. The champions of England and Italy meet again at Old Trafford March 11 and one of them will go out of the competition.
In a clear attempt to get under Ferguson’s skin, he has tried to predict the tactics and lineup the veteran Scot will employ at San Siro as well as the frame of mind of the United players.
“I’m not saying they’re scared of us, but they respect us,” Mourinho said. “I don’t think they’ll come with their usual approach. They will change more than us. We will play as we’ve always played in the Champions League.
“We aren’t scared, but I doubt they will play with (Cristiano) Ronaldo, (Wayne) Rooney, (Carlos) Tevez and (Dimitar) Berbatov, as they often do in the Premier League. They aren’t coming to San Siro to win.”
Mourinho accepts that Ronaldo was voted world and European player of the year for 2008 after he scored 42 goals for Manchester United during the season when it won both the Premier and Champions leagues. But he said his vote went to one of his own players.
“When people asked me before those awards who I thought deserved it, I said (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic,” Mourinho said. “When players are with me, I always say that my players are the best. This is the way I work.
“I say (Ibrahimovic) is the best because he’s mine. If I have to feed some self-confidence, I want to do it to my players, not anyone else’s.”
If United’s players need a pregame boost, they may get it from Ferguson. But they probably don’t need to talk to him, just take a look at his record.
Ten Premier League titles in 16 years, two Champions Leagues, five FA Cups, two League Cups, two Club World Cups and a European Cup Winners Cup say it all.
Jonathan Woodgate scored on an 86th-minute header Monday, giving Tottenham a 2-1 victory at Hull in the Premier League and easing the prospect of relegation.
Aaron Lennon put Tottenham ahead in the 17th minute with his second goal of the season, but Hull defender Michael Turner tied it in the 27th.
Woodgate’s powerful header off a corner kick moved Tottenham up two places to 14th, one behind Hull and five points ahead of the relegation zone.
Tottenham next faces Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup on Thursday and then Manchester United in the League Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.
This was Tottenham’s first road victory since a 2-0 win at West Ham on Dec. 8. Hull, in its first season in the top division, is flirting with relegation after a promising start to the season.
Lyon hopes that its run of victories and Barcelona’s recent dip in form will favor the French club Tuesday when the two sides meet in the first knockout round of the Champions League.
“Barcelona is a great team, they’ll be the favorites,” Lyon forward Cesar Delgado said Monday. “But tomorrow we have the opportunity to prove that Lyon is a great team, too. We can win that match. We just need to be self-confident. We have the ability to do it.”
Lyon has won its last three matches to increase its lead in the French league and could afford to field a makeshift team in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Nancy. Captain Juninho and France striker Karim Benzema, along with Fabio Grosso, Honorato Ederson and Kader Keita were all rested from the starting lineup.
By contrast, a Barcelona side that had looked invincible until recently has suddenly become mortal, with Espanyol ending its 22-game unbeaten run in the Spanish league on Saturday with a 2-1 victory.
Although the Catalan club had to play with 10 men after Seydou Keita was sent off in the 39th minute, and remains at the top of the standings, Barcelona has collected only one point from its last two matches.
“We’ll be facing a team who play good football and who have quality players,” Lyon defender Cris said. “But we’re hitting form just at the time to put on a great performance against Barcelona.
“We’ll try to press them high up the pitch, because they’ve got good players up front. We’re going to have to be aggressive when it comes to marking them.”
Juninho was also optimistic.
“If we play at our best level, we can compete and even win because we have already performed well against big European teams,” he said.
In its favor, Lyon has one of the tightest defenses in the French league with 16 goals conceded in 25 matches.
However, it has the worst defense in the Champions League of all the teams who have reached the knockout phase, conceding 10 goals in the six matches during the group stage.
That statistic will be a worrying one, given Barcelona’s attacking threat.
The 2006 Champions League winner has the deadliest strike force in Europe, scoring 71 goals in 24 Spanish league matches this season - twice as many as Lyon in the French league - and 105 goals in all competitions.
Barcelona’s attack is based on a fearsome trident formed by Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi, who have scored 51 goals in the Spanish league and 66 in all competitions.
“Henry is so smart,” Lyon defender John Mensah was quoted as saying by L’Equipe. “He forces you to be very focused, always on your guard.”
Lyon’s priority in trying to keep them quiet will be to cut off their supply lines from Barcelona’s midfield. To succeed in that, the French side is likely to deploy a five-man midfield, supporting a lone striker up front.
The prospect of being swamped by Lyon in the middle of the field does not appear to bother Eto’o.
“We’re still the best team in the world,” Eto’o told L’Equipe. “We will play the same way on Tuesday. We will attack with only one thing in mind: scoring a goal.”
Eto’o will be hoping Barcelona’s defense will also rise to the occasion Tuesday. The Spanish side conceded eight goals in the group stage, losing to Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2, while Lyon can boast the second best attack of the group stage with 14 goals.
“Benzema is a great player,” Messi said. “A quality player who can make the difference.”
Benzema is the top striker in the Champions League with five goals, the same as Messi, Steven Gerrard and Miroslav Klose.
“It’s a team that plays at a high tempo,” Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. “Against that kind of team, we know that any lapse of concentration can cost us dearly.”
Barcelona will be without Gabriel Milito (knee), Eric Abidal (groin) and Andres Iniesta (hamstring), while Lyon will miss Francois Clerc (knee), Anthony Reveillere (knee), Sidney Govou (Achilles tendon) and Mathieu Bodmer (groin). Lyon’s Fabio Santos (thigh) is doubtful.
Lyon held Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Stade Gerland in the group stage last season, having lost at Camp Nou 3-0.
Results from the 24th round of Spain’s first-division football league (home teams listed first).
Saturday’s Games
Barcelona 1, Espanyol 2
Real Madrid 6, Real Betis 1
Villarreal 2, Sporting Gijon 1
Sevilla 1, Atletico Madrid 0
Sunday’s Games
Valladolid 1, Malaga 3
Recreativo Huelva 1, Almeria 1
Mallorca 1, Racing Santander 0
Osasuna 2, Numancia 0
Getafe 1, Athletic Bilbao 1
Deportivo La Coruna 1, Valencia 1
Saturday, Feb. 28
Athletic Bilbao vs. Sevilla
Espanyol vs. Real Madrid
Sunday, March 1
Malaga vs. Recreativo Huelva
Almeria vs. Getafe
Racing Santander vs. Osasuna
Numancia vs. Deportivo La Coruna
Sporting Gijon vs. Mallorca
Atletico Madrid vs. Barcelona
Valencia vs. Valladolid
Real Betis vs. Villarreal
Results from the 25th round of the French first-division football league (home teams listed first).
Saturday’s Games
Nancy 0, Lyon 2
Grenoble 0, Paris Saint-Germain 0
Toulouse 0, Valenciennes 0
Lorient 1, Sochaux 2
Le Havre 1, Auxerre 2
Nantes 1, Caen 1
Nice 0, Rennes 1
Sunday’s Games
Saint-Etienne 1, Bordeaux 1
Marseille 0, Le Mans 0
Lille 2, Monaco 1
Saturday, Feb. 28
Le Mans vs. Le Havre
Valenciennes vs. Lille
Sochaux vs. Nice
Nantes vs. Grenoble
Auxerre vs. Toulouse
Sunday, March 1
Caen vs. Marseille
Paris Saint-Germain vs Nancy
Bordeaux vs. Lorient
Monaco vs. Saint-Etienne
Lyon vs. Rennes
Results after Sunday’s games in the 23rd round of the Greek league (home teams listed first).
Saturday’s Games
Xanthi 0, OFI 0
Panathinaikos 2, Panionios 1
PAOK 1, Iraklis 0
Sunday’s Games
Panserraikos 1 Levadiakos 0
Thrasivoulos 0 Panthrakikos 2
Larissa 1, Aris 1
Asteras 0, AEK 1
Ergotelis 1, Olympiakos 0
Results from the 19th round of the Portuguese first-division football league (home teams listed first).
Friday’s Game
Pacos de Ferreira 0, FC Porto 2
Saturday’s Games
Rio Ave 1, Setubal 0
Sporting 3, Benfica 2
Sunday’s Games
Academica 3, Maritimo 1
Amadora 1, Nacional 0
Naval 1, Braga 2
Guimaraes 0, Trofense 1
Monday’s Games
Leixoes vs. Belenenses
Zimbabwe’s national football team flew out Friday morning for the inaugural African Nations Championships in the Ivory Coast after initially threatening to boycott the trip because of a dispute over allowances and appearance fees.
The players want assurances that they will be paid and there are fears that they could still refuse to take the field if the cash-strapped Zimbabwe Football Association does not dispatch the money as promised.
The trip itself had hung in the balance until the Zimbabwean government intervened at the last minute to pay for the teams flight to the tournament.
Zimbabwe, with a new coalition government which has Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister, has for a decade experienced a serious economic and social crisis and sport has fallen down the list of priorities.
The African Nations Championships is designed by the Confederation of African Football for players still playing in their domestic leagues. Zimbabwe are in Group B and will face pre-tournament favorites Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya.
