Dhaka defeated defending champions Chittagong by six wickets while Sylhet pulled off a one-wicket win against Khulna and Rajshahi registered a massive 140-run vicrory over Barisal in the fifth round one-day matches of the Ispahani Mirzapore Tea 6th National Cricket League on Friday.
   At the Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Dhaka won the toss and elected to field first. Chittagong were in dire straits from the beginning as their first three batsmen – Nazimuddin, Ehasnaul Huq and Nafees Iqbal – returned to the dressing-room scoring 1, 2, and 7 runs respectively. Aftab Ahmed’s 70 off 95 balls with three fours and one six and a late-order contribution of 23 from Azam Iqbal, 22 from wicketkeeper Mohammed Rabbi and 26 from Ahsanullah Hasan took Chittagong to 198 for nine in the stipulated 50 overs.
   Anwar Hossain Monir took two wickets for 43 runs, Talha Jubaer captured three for 33 and Khaled Mahmud got two for 39.
   Dhaka were provided with a good foundation as opener Rashedul Huq scored 71 off 91 balls with 11 fours and one six to put the team firmly on the winning track. Mehrab Jr (28), Mehrab Hossain Sr (15), Md Ashraful (23) and Niamur Rashid (44 not out) all put on some runs to enable Dhaka to reach 201 for four with 3.2 overs to spare.
   In-form batsman Golam Rahman Himel was among runs again scoring 76 this time to steer Sylhet to a one-wicket victory over Khulna at the Khulna Divisional Stadium.
   Chasing a target of 159 Sylhet scored 161 for nine with 7.3 overs to spare. Golam Rahman faced 109 balls hit nine fours and one six. Ejaz Ahmed was the other notable scorer with 31 off 33 balls. National pacer Mashrafee bin Mortaza captured four for 25 runs but failed to make his team the winners.
   Earlier, Khulna was bowled out for 158 with Manjarul Islam Rana making 30 and Mashrafee chipping in with the highest 31 off 32 balls decorated with four boundaries and one six. Ashiqur Rahman took three for 36 and Nabil Samad and Imtiaz Hossain grabbed two each conceding 24 and 32 runs respectively.
   Rajshahi, playing at their home ground, bundled out Barisal for 99 runs with left-arm spinner Saifulah Khan Gem taking five wickets for 22 runs. Under the Duckworth-Lewis method Barisal was set a target of 240 in 40 overs after a sudden rain interrupted the procedure in the midway of the match. Hannan Sarkar was the highest scorer with 27 off 21 balls hitting four boundaries.
   Rajshahi won the toss and batted first and compiled 260 for eight in 48 overs. Moniruzzanman played a run-a-ball 67 innings with 10 boundaries and one six and Mushfiqur Rahman contributed an unbeaten 62 off 79 balls with the help of two fours and one six. Khaled Mashud scored 24 and Hasanuzzaman hit 28. Arafat Salahuddin grabbed two wickets for 61 runs for Barisal.

Novice New Zealand Test batsman Hamish Marshall can claim a world record following his 146-run innings in the first Test against Australia here Friday.
   When he was bowled between the legs by Shane Warne, as New Zealand were dismissed for 433 on day two of the match, it left Marshall with an average of 127.5 from three Tests after scores of 40 not out on debut in Johannesburg in 2000, and 69 in Chittagong last year.
   The previous highest test average was 112 by West Indian Andy Ganteaume, who had just one Test innings against England in Trinidad in 1948.
   Third on the list is the great Australian Don Bradman, who averaged a more genuine 99.94 from 52 Tests.
   Marshall batted 338 minutes, faced 256 balls and hit 23 fours and a six before Warne turned one sharply out of the rough and it hit middle stump to end a fourth wicket stand of 131 with Nathan Astle.
   The innings was the equal fifth highest by a New Zealander against Australia, alongside Mark Greatbatch's 146 not out in Perth in 1989-90.
   The record is Martin Crowe's 188 in Brisbane in 1985-86.
   Marshall's innings was also the eighth highest debut innings against Australia by all batsmen.

Muktijoddha coach Shafiqul Islam Manik hopes to continue his team’s good form against Al Faisaly of Jordan in the group A match of the Asian Football Confederation Cup to be held on March 16 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
   Muktijoddha, boosted by a creditable goalless draw against Kolkata giants East Bengal, returned home on Thursday night and had a light practice session on Friday.
   Coach Manik, however, was wary of their high-profile opponents who reached the semi-finals in the last edition. ‘Al Faisaly are one of the best teams in the tournament and the standard of Jordanian football is much higher than ours, we hope to continue the teamwork against them on our home ground,’ said Manik.
   Manik was frustrated as he thought with a little help of luck his team could have won against East Bengal. ‘Kanchan’s header hit the woodwork and one ball had floated beyond the goal-line but the referee was not in a position to judge it,’ said Manik.
   Al Faisaly is scheduled to arrive on Monday.

Zimbabwe (189/7) against South Africa at tea, day 1
   Andy Blignaut’s half-century prevented Zimbabwe from more humiliation on the first day of the second Test against South Africa on Friday.
   Zimbabwe, who lost the first Test in less than two days, were 189 for seven at tea with Blignaut 51 not out and Heath Streak on 22. The pair added 74 in a face-saving stand for the eighth wicket after the tourists had slumped to 115 for seven.
   The attacking Blignaut faced 51 balls and hit four fours and a six.
   Fast bowler Jacques Kallis took three for 30 from 10 overs before leaving the field an injured right hip. South Africa were also without fast bowlers Andre Nel, who has a strained left hamstring, and Charl Langeveldt, who has a lower back spasm.
   As a result of the spate of injuries the home side used up all of their available substitutes, and had to resort to sending fitness trainer Adrian le Roux on to the field.
   Le Roux, who had no high level playing experience, was on the field for three overs before Nel returned.
   South Africa were forced to resort to the part-time bowling skills of captain Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers, who had not bowled in a first-class match before Friday.
   Kallis first struck three overs before lunch when Brendan Taylor offered no stroke to an inswinger and was bowled for four, leaving Zimbabwe 96-4 at the first interval.
   Kallis then dismissed Dion Ebrahim, who batted patiently for his 37, in identical fashion seven overs after lunch.
   Elton Chigumbura, who failed to score, became Kallis’s third victim when he drove uppishly to substitute fielder Aaron Phangiso at mid-off.
   Chigumbura’s dismissal ended a slide that cost Zimbabwe three wickets for no runs in the space of 14 balls.

Grand Master Ziaur Rahman of Biman clinched his ninth national title defeating Aminul Islam Palash in the last round of the Mercantile Bank 31st National Chess Championship on Friday.
   International Master Reefat bin Sattar of Biman became runner-up drawing his last match with Abdullah al Rakib.
   Zia earned 12 points from the 13 games and was unbeaten in the tournament.
   He won his first national title in 1988 and was the champion in 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004.
   He has won the most number of titles in the 31-edition history of the national chess.
   International Master Reefat bin Sattar earned 9.5 points at the end of tournament to take the runner-up spot.
   Reefat, who was the champion in 2000 and 2003, played superbly in the last stage of the meet to topple IM Abdullah al Rakib who became fourth with 9 points.
   Grand Master Niaz Murshed and IM Enamul Hossain Razib both earned 8.5 points but Niaz was placed
   fifth.
   Niaz did not turn up for his last round match with Mehedi Hasan Parag who was placed seventh with 6.5 points. FM Aminul Islam finished sixth earning seven points.

Cricket’s leading nations outside the Test elite will have more to play for than ever before at this year’s International Cricket Council Trophy with five places at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies on offer to the 12 sides taking part in the all-Ireland event this July.
   The eighth ICC Trophy will see 42 matches held at a record 25 venues in both Northern Ireland, a province of the United Kingdom, and the independent Republic of Ireland beginning with six matches around the northern centre of Belfast on July 1 and concluding with
   the final at Clontarf, in the southern capital of Dublin on July 13.
   Hosts Ireland will be in Group A of the one-day tournament with Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Uganda, the United States and Bermuda while Group B features the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Namibia, Oman and Canada.
   ‘It is 25 years since Sri Lanka beat Canada in the final of the first ICC Trophy in England and on the occasion of this event’s Silver Jubilee there is more at stake for the 12 participating teams than ever,’ said ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed
   who was speaking at receptions in Dublin and Belfast on Thursday.
   ‘As well as competing for the prestigious ICC Trophy, this event is about the five remaining places at the next ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies.
   ‘There are five previous winners of the ICC Trophy. Three have gone on to claim Test match status (Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh) while the other two, the holders Holland and United Arab Emirates, will be amongst the contenders in Ireland.’
   Speed added: ‘The Irish Cricket Union and its stakeholders now have three-and-a-half months to deliver a world-class event and I wish them every success with their task.’
   ICU president Stan Mitchell said the ICC Trophy, which this year will feature coloured clothing for the first time, would be a huge boost for cricket on both sides of the border.
   ‘The tournament will simply be the biggest event in the long history of the Irish Cricket Union and with five places at stake for the next ICC Cricket World Cup, it will build up terrific support.
   ‘Cricket knows no boundaries in Ireland and we are particularly grateful to the ICC for breaking with the tradition of one centre to allow the tournament to be played north and south of the border.’
   At the last ICC Trophy, in 2001, the Netherlands beat Nambia in the final in Toronto with hosts Canada also qualifying for the 2003 World Cup in southern Africa after defeating Scotland in the third-place play-off.
   Ireland famously beat the West Indies back in 1969 and, more recently, have helped nurture the talent of promising Middlesex batsman Ed Joyce, now an England hopeful.

Sachin Tendulkar has come in for intense criticism to bat slowly on the third day of the first cricket Test against Pakistan at Mohali on Thursday but the little master himself is inclined to believe that there were extraneous factors that affected his scoring rate.
   Tendulkar, without quite justifying his reasons to bat slow, is of the belief that the low sightscreen at the Mohali stadium was a prime reason for him to slip into a defensive mould on the crucial afternoon of the first Test.
   Tendulkar made it a point to mention that the ICC should standardized sightscreen and all international matches must be played under a specific dimension of the sightscreen.
   Tendulkar, because of low sightscreen, couldn’t pick the ball in the background. His problem was only accentuated after lunch as the stadium started to fill up like it hadn’t on the first two days. With so much colour in the background, Tendulkar just couldn’t pick the line of the ball.
   That’s why Tendulkar was coming forward defensively and presenting a straight bat to most of the deliveries.

Sesil Karatancheva shook off a subpar serve that produced 16 double faults, advancing to the second round of the WTA Indian Wells event with a come-from-behind win over Marlene Weingartner.
   The 15-year-old Bulgarian dropped the first set in a tiebreaker but then settled down to post a 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 6-2 win over the German on Thursday.
   Karatancheva, who has put together an impressive 10-5 record so far in 2005, was facing the 25-year-old Weingartner for the first time. She opened the season by winning her first five matches.
   Her next match is against two-time Indian Wells champion and top seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States.
   The world number one is fresh off a victory at the WTA tournament in Dubai and playing some of the best tennis of her 12 year professional career.
   ‘I am excited to be playing the best player in the world,’ Karatancheva said.
   She reached the third round in Indian Wells last year, losing to Russia’s Maria Sharapova.
   Karatancheva played four events in 2004 as a 14-year-old, collecting 70,000 US dollars.
   But she is best known for her outspoken comments before the Sharapova match, where she boasted she was going to ‘kick her (expletive) off’.
   ‘The attention was cool, but I prefer getting all this attention with my game, rather than with my mouth,’ Karatancheva said. ‘It was a phase every 14 year old goes through in life and it was my lesson.’
   Italian Antonella Serra Zanetti weathered a first set blip to beat Czech Barbora Strycova 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
   France’s Emilie Loit, who is ranked 37th in the world, manhandled Hungary’s Petra Mandula 6-3, 6-0
   In other matches on Thursday, Luxembourg’s Anne Kremer stopped Alisa Kleybanova, of Russia, 6-4, 6-4, Czech Nicole Vaidisova defeated American Mashona Washington 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, South Korea’s Yoon-Jeong Cho rallied to beat Marta Marrero, of Spain, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 and Daja Bedanova stopped fellow Czech Kveta Peschke 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
   The women’s draw here includes the three top-ranked players as France’s Amelie Mauresmo is seeded second and Russia’s Sharapova third.
   Mauresmo kicks off her Indian Wells campaign on Friday by taking on Italian Tathania Garbin in the main stadium.
   The Williams (Venus and Serena) sisters are absent, having decided not to compete here since they were viciously booed by the crowd in 2001.
   Play in the ATP men’s masters series event begins on Friday with Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero squaring off against Russian Igor Andreev and hard-serving Englishman Greg Rusedski battling American Jeff Salzenstein.

Pakistani leg-spinner Danish Kaneria said Friday he was determined to raise his bowling performance after being denied the wicket of star Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar in the first Test here.
   Tendulkar got the benefit of the doubt from South African umpire Rudi Koertzen on Thursday when silly-point fielder Asim Kamal appealed for a bat-pad catch off Kaneria.
   The Indian was then on eight and went on to make 94, narrowly missing a world record 35th Test century.
   TV replays, however, showed the ball had hit the bat and pad on way to the fielder.
   ‘It is part of the game that I did not get Tendulkar out cheaply and that spurred me on to take six wickets,’ said Kaneria who finished with 6-150, his ninth haul of five or more wickets in a Test innings.
   ‘I became aggressive after that and it motivated me to work hard and get more wickets,’ said the 24-year-old, only the second Hindu after Anil Dalpat to represent Pakistan in Test cricket.
   Kaneria bowled his heart out, sending down 53.4 overs to emerge the best Pakistani bowler against the strong Indian batting line-up.
   He claimed all the four Indian wickets to fall on Friday, his morning spell reading 6.4-1-29-4.
   His brilliant effort, however, failed to stop India from compiling a 204-run lead. Pakistan were facing defeat at 257-6 in the second innings, only 53 runs ahead with just four wickets in hand.
   ‘We will try our best to set a stiff target for India. It’s up to the remaining batsmen to occupy the crease as long as possible,’ said Kaneria.
   All-rounder Abdul Razzaq was the last recognised batsman at the crease with 22.
   Keeping him company was wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal. They would be followed by tail-enders Mohammad Sami, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Kaneria.
   Kaneria said the modest success enjoyed by Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne in India had never worried him.
   ‘No, I never thought that I would also fail just because Warne has not lived up his reputation in India.
   ‘I always work hard and here too I earned my wickets,’ said Kaneria, who dedicated his six-wicket haul to his new-born daughter Parisa.

PAOLO Maldini is a one-club family man who juggles his time between cementing his legendary status and his role as director of the Milan Foundation, a charitable organisation designed to help socially disadvantaged children.
   Wayne Rooney, on the other hand, is widely portrayed as a Shrek-like turncoat who varies his time between saving English football and being castigated for corrupting the nation’s youth with his foul mouth. Stylistically, one is Armani and the other Army & Navy, which is why watching them bridge the generation gap at the San Siro was such enthralling viewing.
   Would youth taunt experience or would it be the night that Rooney’s callowness was exposed by a man old enough to be his father? Maldini still likes to gallop forward, and if he churns the turf rather than scorches it these days, he still has a presence. Not quite the swashbuckling star of yore, then, but neither is he a knee-buckled icon living on past glories.
   The first half was his. This was a night when Manchester United needed someone to eke their way into folklore, as Roy Keane had done against Juventus in Turin in 1999, but Rooney was forced to drop deeper and deeper in search of a kick while Cristiano Ronaldo was dominated by Maldini’s ability to play like a souped-up Peter Pan.
   The stature of Maldini should not be underestimated. While it is often said that Rooney is no respecter of reputation, it is worth remembering that last summer, on holiday in Miami, an awestruck Wes Brown asked the man with the tousled hair and doe-eyes for an autograph. This is the Maldini effect. He commands respect, not only for what he has done for 20 years at Milan, but for what he is still doing at the ripe age of 36.
   As Rooney drifted, eventually to the periphery and beyond, United craved his spark.
   So what if he is bad for kids? Like Keane, he is at his best when teetering on the edge of self-destruction, but he looked subdued, unsure of his role, almost resigned.
   United needed the Rooney who had played with fire against Arsenal at Highbury, but it appeared as though he had believed this week’s headlines about how his rough edges were doing for the nation’s youth what junk food and Eminem had achieved.
   The goal was coming as United’s big players failed to dredge their core for a big game. Rui Costa and Andrea Pirlo took control of midfield, Ronaldo began shooting from the sort of range that would have troubled The Jackal in Frederick Forsyth’s novel and United were unable to expose the war-weary limbs of the veteran left-back.
   It might have been different had Ryan Giggs’s first-half drive bounced the other side of a post, but like their talismanic captain, Milan improved with each passing minute.
   Defeat against a side of this calibre is no disgrace, but Ferguson’s record in Europe, 1999 notwithstanding, is a greasy smear on his record. Can he really be called a great when one – slightly fortuitous – victory, in his solitary European Cup final, is all he has to show for his travails? It is to be hoped that Rooney and Ronaldo learn from the chastening experience. It has been proved that, contrary to one school of thought, you can win things with kids, and Rooney was lustrous at Euro 2004. However, it is Maldini who has the chance to add to a cabinet chock full of European medals.
   If Rooney wants to silence those harbingers of doom predicting a troubled future, he might look back on this game and the efforts of Maldini, and decide that the way forward is to settle down and have quiet nights in for the next 20 years. Then again, maybe not.

Former soccer star Diego Maradona is back at home - even though it is only a temporary home - to recover after undergoing stomach surgery in an effort to lose weight and he’s on his best behaviour, his Colombian physicians say.
   Very early on Wednesday Maradona, accompanied by his sister Rita, practically slunk out of the Medihelp Clinic, where he underwent a gastric bypass on Saturday. He returned to his apartment in the Caribbean city of Cartagena only a few minutes’ drive from the medical centre.
   In Cartagena, Maradona has rented a two-storey penthouse on the ninth and tenth floors of a luxury apartment building in the Bocagrande district. From his position up high he has a fabulous view of the Bay of Cartagena and the swimming pool in the complex.
   The former captain of the Argentina national team probably chose the penthouse to escape media attention, although the number of fans gathering outside the building has diminished in recent days.
   ‘When he first got here (in February), there was a lot of noise, people shouting, carrying posters, now everything is much calmer,’ a domestic worker at the building said.
   A neighbour said that fans were now leaving Maradona alone, although she said he rarely goes out anyway during the day time, waiting to exit until after 11 in the evening.
   But now that Maradona has undergone the stomach surgery he will probably have to change those nighttime outings.
   According to physician Francisco Holguin, head of the team that operated on Maradona, the 44-year-old has pledged to strictly follow his treatment.
   Holguin said that in coming days Maradona will be subjected to regular medical check-ups and physicians will perform the examinations at his apartment.
   Holguin said that Maradona can carry out normal activities, ‘He can go out whenever he wishes to,’ but that he should take it easy, since like any surgery patient, his defences are low.
   Holguin has denied that the surgery performed on Maradona was not advisable in a patient suffering from cocaine addiction, heart trouble and high blood pressure.
   Maradona has gone through several near-death incidents - the latest last year in Buenos Aires when he had to be rushed to hospital and put on a respirator.
   Since a drug-overdose nearly killed him in 2000 he was in drug rehabilitation in Cuba, and last year spent five months at a psychiatric clinic outside Buenos Aires.
   He later returned to Cuba to continue treatment.
   Holguin said physicians in Cuba had prepared Maradona for the gastric bypass. Now weighing 121kg, Maradona wants to get down to about 75kg.
   The physician said that the former soccer legend was very ‘disciplined’ and even called him an ‘exemplary patient’. ‘He’s the best patient we have had,’ Holguin said when Maradona was still at the clinic.
   Meanwhile, Diego Maradona has to follow a strict diet set by doctors in order to lose weight and not to gain kilograms again, his doctor Francisco Holguin said on Thursday.
   The former Argentine national soccer team captain, who on Saturday underwent a surgery to have his stomach reduced, was released on Wednesday and continued his recovery at his flat of Cartagena, at the Colombian Caribbean tourist resort Cartagena.
    ‘We gave Diego a very strict and clear diet, he will start in four or five weeks,’ said Holguin.
   He added that Maradona will little by little do some physical exercises, which will be increased in intensity.

Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid are looking to salvage something from the season on the domestic front after their midweek exits from the Champions League.
   For the first time in 13 years, there is no Spanish club in the last eight of Europe’s top club competition and winning the Spanish title is the only chance of glory remaining for the two former Champions League winners.
   Barcelona have an eight-point cushion at the top of the table over their bitter rivals Real and will be looking to consolidate it at home to Athletic Bilbao today.
   ‘We can’t repeat the same errors in the league,’ reflected Barca’s World Player of the Year Ronaldinho on Thursday, thinking about what went wrong in their 4-2 second leg defeat to English Premier League leaders Chelsea.
   ‘Now we are working hard to recover our dignity against Athletic. We’ve been talking in the dressing room and we’ve been saying that we have to forget what happened in London and just get going again.
   ‘The league isn’t won yet and it’s still a very important title for all the fans. But we know we’ve got the quality to take it,’ added the Brazilian.
   One positive note for Barca coach Frank Rijkaard is that his players survived the battle of Stamford Bridge relatively intact, although goalkeeper Victor Valdes is still suffering from a strained neck.
   At least Barcelona can take some comfort from the fact that they have a big advantage at the top of the league.
   Real Madrid now face the prospect of going two seasons without winning a trophy, which will inevitably lead to speculation about how many of their ‘galacticos’ will be leaving in the summer.
   ‘I don’t want to finish my contract at Real Madrid without winning a trophy,’ said David Beckham on Thursday.
   Beckham’s time in the Spanish capital is currently scheduled to come to an end in 2007 however he will have the opportunity to contemplate whether he should leave sooner as he misses Sunday’s game at Getafe through suspension.
   His absence will be a blow to the midfield schemes of Real coach Wanderley Luxemburgo as the England captain has been an ever-present starter in the league since the former Brazil boss arrived in December.
   Fellow superstar Ronaldo believes Real can still win a record 30th championship despite the gap, if only by looking at how they themselves threw away the title last season.
   ‘We know all too well that Barca can still be caught. We only need to look back to what happened to us last year,’ said Ronaldo, who was sent off late in the match against Juventus on Wednesday.
   The prospect of another barren season was weighing heavily on the shoulders of almost every Real player on their return to Madrid on Thursday.
   ‘There’s double the pressure to win the league,’ commented England striker Michael Owen, another man who has been rumoured to be thinking about leaving Real at the end of the season.
   Struggling Getafe will welcome Real for their first league visit with some pressure of their own to contend with.

Jose Mourinho would doubtless have preferred Chelsea to be still involved in the FA Cup for this weekend’s quarter-finals.
   But the burden of an unexpected weekend off will inevitably be made a little lighter for Mourinho and his squad by the prospect of kicking back and watching their biggest rivals, Manchester United and Arsenal, in the ignominious position of scrapping to keep their seasons alive.
   Midweek setbacks in the Champions League and Chelsea’s commanding lead in the Premiership have left the once dominant duo with only one shot at silverware between them.
   Of the two, it is Arsenal that look to have the tougher task this weekend as they seek to reach the last four of the world’s oldest Cup tournament for a fifth successive year – an achievement that would match the record set by Manchester United between 1962 and 1966.
   Today’s lunchtime trip to Bolton will inevitably revive memories of the 1-0 defeat that Arsene Wenger’s side suffered at the Reebok Stadium in January.
   It was a setback that left Arsenal’s title defence in tatters and prompted Bolton boss Sam Allardyce to claim he had ‘sussed’ how to beat the Gunners.
   Whether Allardyce, who revels in his side’s unfashionable pedigree, really has uncovered a magic formula for cutting fancy pants clubs from the capital down to size should be clear by early afternoon today.
   Arsenal’s chances of proving him wrong have not been helped however by the fact that they will be missing Thierry Henry, who suffered a calf injury against Bayern Munich in midweek.
   Henry has been quick to identify the underlying reasons for Arsenal’s failure to build upon last season’s unbeaten romp to the Premiership title, a triumph many confidently predicted would carry over into a successful assault on Europe.
   ‘After what we did last year, everyone’s expectation was to do better,’ the French striker acknowledged.
   ‘But if you look at the money the club spent, we are not out there, even with the likes of Tottenham and Birmingham. I am not even talking about Manchester United or Chelsea. That is not an excuse – just my answer to the question. That is not my job – the one I have out there on the pitch is difficult enough.’
   Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been forced to operate under financial restraints dictated by the club’s planned move, at the end of next season, to a new 400-million-pound stadium, close to their current base at Highbury.
   The restrictions have been in place for several years however – the difference this year is that Arsenal have been less fortunate with injuries and have been unable to bring in experienced, temporary replacements for the likes of Sol Campbell, Gilberto Silva and Edu.
   Manchester United, who struggled to both make and take chances against AC Milan in the San Siro on Wednesday night, will not expect the same level of resistance from a Southampton side currently preoccupied by their struggle for Premiership survival.
   But the south coast side have shown signs of a revival of late and manager Harry Redknapp will revel in the opportunity of repeating the famous FA Cup upset he inflicted on United in 1984, when he was manager of third division Bournemouth.
   ‘They’ve got great attacking players and they are full of quality but we are playing well at the moment, so we’ll see how we go,’ Redknapp said.

Joint Serie A leaders AC Milan and Juventus switch their attention to the title race this weekend after successfully navigating their way into the quarter-finals of the Champions League with enthralling midweek victories over two of Europe’s superpowers.
   On Sunday Milan face less illustrious opposition in the shape of Sampdoria while Juventus visit struggling Chievo.
   Milan are looking for their seventh consecutive league win, and a key factor behind their awesome run has been the form of rampaging wing-back Marcos Cafu.
   The Brazilian may be 34 years old and in the twilight of a distinguished career, but he has lost none of his enthusiasm for the game.
   ‘I can’t wait to jump in the car in the morning to get to Milanello (Milan’s training ground),’ said the 2002 World Cup winner.
   ‘It gives me a lift. I train all day. When normal training is finished I get a ball and practise runs and crosses into the area. I do loads of them, 100 a day.’
   David Trezeguet, who scored Juve’s first goal on Wednesday with a superb overhead kick, admitted his acrobatic strike went a long way to putting his difficulties this season behind him.
   The France international has played only a bit-part in Juve’s campaign, having undergone shoulder surgery before being laid low by a virus.
   ‘That goal has done me a lot of good after a difficult 12 months,’ said the 27-year-old, who is expected to start on Sunday in Verona.

Real Madrid striker Ronaldo has openly admitted he would ‘happily return’ to former club Inter Milan.
   Speaking after Real’s Champions League elimination in Turin, Ronaldo said, ‘I would happily return to Inter Milan as they always will be a club that I have close to my heart.’
   The Brazilian was also asked about Inter striker Adriano’s rumoured switch to Real.
   ‘There has been no negotiation,’ he replied. ‘Real Madrid have never spoken to me about Adriano.’

Last season’s UEFA Cup semi-finalists Newcastle United rode out a stormy encounter in Athens against Olympiakos Piraeus to put one foot in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
   The Greek side’s 80th birthday celebrations turned sour at the Karaiskakis stadium in a volatile second knockout round, first leg clash which Newcastle won 3-1. Olympiakos had two players sent off in the first half while Spanish referee Arturo Ibanez awarded a penalty to each side.
   Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon and Dutch side AZ Alkmaar chalked up impressive away wins while former winners Parma had eight players booked but held Sevilla to a 0-0 draw in Spain.
   Newcastle’s passage to victory in Athens was made easier after the Greek league leaders were reduced to nine men, Grigoris Georgatos and Athanasios Kostoulas dismissed in the opening 45 minutes.
   Alan Shearer gave Greek international keeper Antonis Nikopolidis no chance from the spot, but the lead lasted just three minutes before Andy O’Brien was penalised for a shirt pull and Serbian Predrag Djordjevic made it 1-1. They held out until 68 minutes when Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert converted a cross from James Milner to give Newcastle breathing space for the second leg.
   Sporting, who will host the final at their Alvalade stadium in Lisbon on May 18, were three goals up and cruising to a decisive win at the Riverside against Middlesbrough before two late goals gave the Premier League side hope for the return leg.

Manager Kevin Keegan has left Manchester City by mutual consent, the Premier League club confirmed on Friday.
   The 54-year-old former England and Newcastle manager had been due to leave when his contract expired at the end of next season.
   ‘Manchester City football club announces that by mutual agreement our manager Kevin Keegan will leave the club with immediate effect. We all believe that this is in the best interest of the club,’ a statement on City’s website said.
   Keegan, who previously resigned from Newcastle and England, had only recently said he intended to stay until the end of his contract when he has always said he would leave the club.
   However, uncertainty surrounding his future has been circling in recent weeks.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was Thursday fined 5,000 pounds for remarks questioning the integrity of the referee who handled his side’s League Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester United.
   The Portuguese had claimed after the match, which finished goalless, that Sir Alex Ferguson had successfully applied pressure to referee Neale Barry with a half-time chat. The result, according to Mourinho, was a second half of ‘whistle after whistle, fault after fault, cheat and cheat.’
   The fine received by Mourinho is a third of the size of the one imposed on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in December for remarks in which he directly branded Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy a cheat.
   Later Thursday, Chelsea were fined 15,000 pounds and warned as to their future conduct by the Football Association following their part in a mass brawl following the end of their 1-0 win away to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park last month.

Lazio’s Paolo Di Canio was fined 10,000 euros for making a fascist salute during their derby match with AS Roma at the Olympic stadium last month, the Italian press reported on Friday.
   The Italian football federation disciplinary commission also handed the same punishment to the club. On January 6 this year, Di Canio gave a straight-arm salute to Lazio supporters in their 3-1 victory over their arch-rivals.
   Di Canio, however, denied there was any significance in the gesture other than to celebrate victory. ‘It was solely a victory gesture,’ he said. ‘I am a professional and my way of celebrating has nothing to do with politics.’
   However, the disciplinary commission decided that a straight-arm salute with the fingers of the right hand held tight together could not be confused with a celebratory gesture.