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The Bangladesh national football team retuned home on Friday from Tashkent with the hope to rectify their flaws when they take on Hong Kong in Dhaka on March 1. The national booters were handed a 0-5 drubbing by the strong Uzbekistan side in near minus temperature.
   Saeed Hasan Kanan, who acted as the coach as Cruciani was in the stands serving the first of his two-match ban, was realistic about the result. ‘Uzbekistan are one of the best teams in Asia and their power, skill and tactics are far better than ours. However, we made mistakes to concede the first two goals and to be frank our players are not accustomed to playing in such a chilly condition, some of the players got nosebleeds after their arrival in Tashkent,’ said Kanan.
   The national team will start practice today to face Hong Kong, who lost 0-3 at home to Qatar.

A five-member Japanese handball team comprising four players and one referee arrived in Dhaka on Friday to play exhibition matches against the local teams as part of the EXIM Bank Handball Development Programme, organised by the Bangladesh Handball Federation in co-operation with the Japan International Co-operation Agency.
   Professor Norio Simizo, a first-class international handball referee, will conduct referee refreshers courses. The players are Kimtaro Kamaya, Arika Won, Tadasi Sato and Mitsuki Hirai. The officials of the federation received them on their arrival at the Zia International Airport.

England will not be asking for immediate reinforcements ahead of next week’s Test series against India despite the 16-man touring squad being wrecked with injuries and illness.
   Captain Michael Vaughan was given a cortisone injection to speed up the recovery of a recurring knee injury in time for the first of three back-to-back Tests starting in Nagpur on March 1.
   Star batsman Kevin Pietersen is suffering from a back strain, fast bowler Simon Jones and off-spinner Shaun Udal are recovering from stomach bugs and all-rounder Paul Collingwood has been afflicted with a back spasm.
   With just five days to go for the first Test, England are in danger of not being able to field 11 fit men, but coach Duncan Fletcher refused to panic.
   ‘We can’t make a decision over replacements just yet, we have to give it some more time,’ Fletcher said on Friday.
   ‘Simon Jones could wake up and be fine in two days, while if the injection works, Vaughan could be alright by next week. We’ll just have to fiddle things about for the moment.’
   Vaughan remains in serious doubt for the first Test, just as he was in Pakistan late last year when the knee injury flared up in a practice match at the start of the tour.
   The England captain missed the one-dayers in Pakistan to have his third surgery in six years on his right knee in December.
   The 31-year-old was forced to sit out of the ongoing three-day match against the Indian Board President’s XI here and team doctor Peter Gregory hoped the cortisone injection will work wonders.
   ‘It’s got to be a concern when your captain can’t play in the match before the first Test, but he has a chance for next week,’ Gregory said.
   ‘A jab normally starts to work after 48 hours, but you can’t expect the full effect for about two weeks.’
   Pietersen, 25, retired hurt for 47 after injuring his back on Thursday despite being strapped up on the field by team physiotherapist Kirk Russell.
   ‘He just tweaked it and we took him off as a precautionary measure,’ said Fletcher. ‘I hope it gets better in the next couple of days.
   ‘We wanted to make sure it didn’t get any worse before the first Test.’
   England will play three Tests and seven one-day internationals during the two-month tour.

New Zealand will continue their search for a solid top order batting combination here today as they attempt to clinch the one-day series against the beleaguered West Indies with a third straight win.
   New Zealand won the first two matches in the five-game series but came close to imploding in the second on Wednesday. They slumped to 13-4 while chasing the modest target of 200, and it was left to Peter Fulton, Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori in the middle order to save the day.
   Opening batsman Jamie How, who made 66 in the first match and a duck in the second, is being left out on Saturday as New Zealand selectors attempt to expand their squad of match hardened players ahead of next year’s World Cup.
   But skipper Stephen Fleming denied Friday a suggestion by West Indies vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan that New Zealand’s approach to rotation revealed an ‘over-confident’ team.
   ‘We won’t compromise the game. Certainly from my point of view we can’t afford to, we’re not that good,’ Fleming said.
   Although the top batsmen performed well in the first match in Christchurch last weekend, New Zealand’s top order has often looked fragile in recent years.
   ‘I think it’s been good for the first two games with everybody contributing, but it’s back to the top five or six getting the majority of the runs and giving the guys down below the freedom to ice the cake instead of having to win the match,’ Fleming said.
   ‘And we’ve got work to do at the top. They’ve got a good opening attack with reasonable bowlers and if we don’t bat well, they will expose us again, so it’s up to the batters to get runs.’
   Sarwan acknowledged it was time for the West Indies’ experienced top order to perform after a poor start to the tour.
   ‘We have stressed how important partnerships are and I don’t think one individual player could do it,’ Sarwan said.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez believes that Arsenal striker Thierry Henry will stay with the London club next season rather than move to Spain.
   Asked about Real’s reported interest in signing the Frenchman in an interview with radio station Onda Cero, Perez replied: ‘Arsenal want him to stay and I believe he will continue playing with them.’
   Henry, who scored a brilliant individual goal in his side’s 1-0 win over Real in the first leg of their Champions League knockout tie, has been linked in newspapers with both Barcelona and Real.

Cristiano Ronaldo has ruled out a move away from Manchester United and has vowed to repay Sir Alex Ferguson’s faith in him.
   The Portuguese winger has been linked with a possible move to Juventus in recent weeks with the Italians holding a long-standing interest in Ronaldo.
   Ronaldo endured a difficult start to the season, but he has started to show his best form in the last few games netting four goals in his last three games.
   The 21-year-old believes he owes United a lot and is happy to stay at Old Trafford.
   ‘United have stood by me and been there for me and I want to repay that,’ Ronaldo told the Manchester Evening News.
   ‘They were also the only club that showed 100 per cent commitment towards me. They brought me to England and tried to make me a better player and they have worked hard. There is nobody else who could make me what I am now and I am really thankful. I will repay the faith.’
   Ronaldo has had to deal with the death of his father last summer and he is determined to win this weekend’s Carling Cup final in memory of his father.
   ‘Obviously it has been really hard to take since my father died,’ added Ronaldo.
   ‘Psychologically it was very tough and you are bound to take it onto the pitch whether you like it or not. I know he won’t be there on Sunday and that will be tough to take. But he will be with me in my heart. I will think about him and I would like to win it for him.’

Terrence Duffin has been named as Zimbabwe’s captain for their home one-day series against Kenya. The left-handed batsman succeeds Tatenda Taibu, who resigned last November in protest at the way the game was being run.
   Duffin has played two Test matches but has never before been chosen for the limited-overs side.

Gautam Gambhir overcame the disappointment of being axed from India’s Test side to take a century off England’s attack in a three-day tour game here on Friday.
   The left-handed opener made 108 a day after the selectors picked Wasim Jaffar ahead of him to open India’s innings with Virender Sehwag in the first Test starting in Nagpur on March 1.
   Suresh Raina celebrated his inclusion in the Test side with 62 as the Board President’s XI scored 342 for eight declared in reply to England’s 238 on the second day.
   The tourists, trailing by 104 runs on the first innings, were 10-1 in their second knock by stumps.
   England’s bowlers toiled through the day under oppressive heat in their last practice match before the three back-to-back Tests.
   Gambhir, who hit 15 boundaries, put on 64 for the second wicket with Dhiraj Jadhav and 86 for the third with Raina.
   England paid dearly for two missed chances by wicket-keeper Geraint Jones, who dropped Gambhir down the leg-side off Steve Harmison and then failed to stump Raina off Monty Panesar.
   Harmison provided the first break before lunch when he had Jadhav edging a catch to Jones as the hosts moved from their overnight 93-1 to 187-2 by lunch.
   Gambhir, who reached his hundred by slashing Panesar for his 14th boundary, fell soon after when he cut a wide ball from Andrew Flintoff to Andrew Strauss at point.

Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry has moved to stem fears over Mali midfielder Mohamed Sissoko after a Portuguese medic suggested his vision could be severely compromised.
   Sissoko flew back from Portugal Wednesday following an overnight stay in hospital after a kick in the head by Brazilian midfielder Beto in the Reds’ 1-0 Champions League defeat to Benfica forced him off in the first half.
   The Mali international suffered damage to the retina in his right eye and is currently being cared for by specialists in London.
   Parry said it was too early to say what the extent of the problem was even though Joao Paco, clinical director of the hospital which treated Sissoko in Lisbon, said his vision could be compromised by up to 80 per cent.
   ‘We don’t want to sound too pessimistic because it’s too early to tell,’ Parry told the club’s website.
   ‘What Momo needs right now is our support and the best care he can get. His right eye is closed down and it’s been difficult to assess the damage because of the swelling and bleeding.
   ‘However, it’s too early to jump to conclusions. Obviously this is a very traumatic time for Momo and the club is in constant contact with his family and representatives. It’s a very nasty injury.

Rejected by the national cricket selectors from the Indian team for the first Test against England, Sourav Ganguly on Friday declined to comment on the decision.
   ‘I will not give reaction to anyone because I nothing to react on,’ he told reporters in the face of persistent queries about his not being chosen for the test.
   Despite persistent efforts by newspersons, who continued to chase the former Indian skipper since late afternoon when news broke out that the Kolkata boy has been ignored by the selection panel yet again, Ganguly desisted from making any comment.
   A large posse of newspersons, photographers and electronic media had gathered at the Eden Gardens this afternoon, where Ganguly was practicing.
   When their labours did not yield fruit at the Eden, the newspersons followed Ganguly to his residence in the southern outskirts of the city, but failed to elicit any reaction from him.
   In the evening, Ganguly attended a function organised by a private television channel where he received an award for being voted ‘Sera Bangalee’ (best Bengalee) of 2005 from among a galaxy of nominees including nobel laureate Amartya Sen and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee.
   Ganguly was chosen for this award by the viewers of the channel through SMS poll.
   ‘It feels great to receive such an award. My joy increases when I think that I have been chosen from among so many men of substance. I will be a happy man if another player, especially a cricketer, is selected for the award in the newer future,’ Ganguly
   said after receiving the award from veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee.
   But, to the disappointment of journalists, Ganguly did not utter any word about his non-selection for the Nagpur Test, and gave them the slip after the function.
   Efforts to contact Ganguly over phone also proved futile.

Roma are determined to raise the spirits of their injured captain Francesco Totti by beating fierce city rivals Lazio here on Sunday and setting a new record for consecutive Serie A wins.
   Totti broke a bone in his left leg in last week’s 1-0 win over Empoli as Roma claimed their 10th straight victory, equalling the previous record shared by three other clubs: Juventus (1931-32), AC Milan (1950-51) and Bologna (1963-64).
   ‘It’s difficult to think that Totti won’t be there for the derby because as captain it’s a special occasion for him, and that’s why we really want to win it for him,’ said Roma midfielder Damiano Tommasi.
   ‘There’s only one Totti, so now we all have to play a captain’s role. The only way we can make up for losing him is to pull together that little bit more and keep this winning run going.
   ‘There isn’t a leader like him, he’s a symbol of Rome. He accepts the burden of responsibility and takes a weight off of our shoulders.
   ‘He has a big presence in the dressing room and when he plays we have something extra in our armoury. His skill can turn a match in an instant. Now we’ll have to invent something new.’
   The support for him following his injury has been overwhelming. Even Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi went to visit the talented number 10 in hospital to wish him a speedy recovery.
   Lazio striker Tommaso Rocchi, whose diving header sealed a 2-1 win at Fiorentina last week, cannot wait for Sunday’s match.
   Leaders Juventus, who are 10 points clear of second-placed AC Milan and are set to retain the title, will be entertaining relegation-threatened Lecce.
   Juve have leaked five goals in their last two matches, and coach Fabio Capello is concerned about his team’s recent vulnerability at the back.
   Lecce are one off the bottom with just 15 points from their 26 matches played, seven adrift of third-from-bottom Empoli. Three teams will be relegated from Italy’s top division.
   AC Milan, held to a 1-1 draw by Bayern Munich on Tuesday, visit Palermo, the team that knocked them out of the Italian Cup.
   Inter Milan, who fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 away to Ajax on Wednesday, host Udinese at the San Siro.

Real Madrid captain Raul believes his strike partner Ronaldo must work hard to win back the fans’ affections after the Brazilian criticised their attitude towards him the day before the Champions League defeat by Arsenal.
   ‘He is loved in the Bernabeu when he does things well and scores goals,’ Raul told a news conference on Thursday.
   ‘The fans are demanding with everyone, and we will help him in every way we can. But he must do his part as well. We need Ronaldo at his best.’
   The Brazil striker, Real’s top scorer with 10 goals this season, surprised everyone with his outburst on Monday as he complained about being whistled off the pitch after not scoring during the previous weekend’s 3-0 win over Alaves.
   ‘The fans have never accepted me and their reaction is something to take into account when thinking about my future,’ the three-time World Player of the Year said.
   ‘I’ve always said that I don’t want to be where I’m not loved. I’ve never felt at home at the Bernabeu, the fans have never treated me with affection.
   ‘I will make a decision at the end of the season.’
   Raul, who in contrast was given a standing ovation by the crowd as he returned against Alaves after three months out through injury, chided Ronaldo for his timing.
   ‘The only thing he did wrong was to say what he did, when he did,’ Raul added.
   ‘I won’t make a judgment on whether what he said was right or not, but it did cast a cloud over the magic of a Champions League game thinking more of himself than the team.’
   Real lost their round of 16 first leg 1-0 to Arsenal, and must turn the tie round in London on March 8 to avoid exiting the competition.
   Their next game is against lowly Real Mallorca in the Primera Liga on Sunday.

Legendary Spanish striker Telmo ‘Zarra’ Zarraonandia ‘Zarra’, whose goal against England in the Maracana Stadium gave his country their only World Cup semi-final berth in 1950, died Thursday aged 85, hospital sources in Bilbao said.
   Zarra, who made his name with all-Basque side Athletic Bilbao, won 20 caps and on July 2 wrote his entry in the game’s history books in scoring the goal that knocked out England.
   Spain would go on to come fourth in the tournament, their best placing to date.
   The Bilbao club issued a statement saying it was sad to note the passing of a man who wore the red and white stripes for 16 seasons.
   Six times La Liga top-scorer, his 38 goals in the 1950-1951 season were a record, equalled in 1990 by Real Madrid’s Hugo Sanchez.
   In all, Zarra netted 252 goals in 277 top flight games.

Criticising the dropping of Sourav Ganguly from Test team, Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar on Friday urged the former Indian skipper not to consider quitting the game and fight on to regain his place in the Indian team.
   ‘Today, Sourav Ganguly is insulted and humiliated, but I want to tell him that he should not quit at this age. He has to play and prove his worth. We are all with him,’ said Bhattacharjee, who was sharing the dais with Ganguly at a function organised by a local Bengali daily.
   Gavaskar, who was also one of the dignitaries on the dais, said ‘thirty-three is no age to quit. If 33 is the figure to quit, then I would have not gone on to score my 34th hundred’.
   Ganguly, who was invited as a speaker, refrained from saying anything on his dropping from the Indian team.

Former Yorkshire and England batsman Geoffrey Boycott is set to return to Headingley as a member of the board. He has been invited to become a non-executive director of the club, but his appointment has to be approved at the club’s AGM on 25 March.
   ‘The Yorkshire cricketing public have always given me tremendous support. If the members feel I can contribute to the future success of the club, I will be delighted to serve on the board,’ said Boycott.
   ‘My love for the club has been wholehearted and unquestionable throughout all my life.’
   Boycott made his Yorkshire debut in 1962 and went on to score more than 32,500 first-class runs for the club.

Alan Smith, who underwent surgery Monday on the horror injury he suffered in Manchester United’s FA Cup loss to Liverpool, could be back in action for the start of next season.
   That was manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s prediction on Thursday following a visit to the United midfielder in hospital where he is being treated for a broken leg, dislocated ankle and damaged ligaments.
   At the weekend, Ferguson described Smith’s injury as one of the worst he had ever witnessed after the England international attempted to charge down John Arne Riise’s free-kick.
   However, it appears talk of Smith’s career being in jeopardy is wide of the mark.
   Ferguson said the operation to reset the 25-year-old’s leg was a success and he could be back in action by the beginning of September.
   ‘There is no doubt Alan will be back,’ said the United boss.

June 22, 2006, a date falling during the middle of this summer’s World Cup in Germany, will see the 20th anniversary of a sequence which reinvented football and, for many, made them question the parameters of their very existence. Diego Armando Maradona’s second goal against England in the epic World Cup quarterfinal at Mexico ‘86, for a large number of fans, can never be transcended. But why exactly is this goal – voted Goal of the Century in an Internet poll conducted by FIFA in 2002 – so incredibly popular?
   The status of Maradona’s strike is a result of its qualities on two levels. The first is in pure footballing terms. In the searing heat of the Azteca stadium, Maradona, receiving the ball inside his own half, whirled like a dervish to create space before charging off on a 60-meter run which took him past half the opposition outfield players, plus the goalkeeper, in such mesmeric style that no matter how many times one sees it, it never ceases to amaze.
   Add in the fact that Maradona utterly dominated the tournament in a way that no player has before or since and that he effectively constituted a one-man team for the winning country, and it is easy to see why people the world over revere that goal. As the London-based writer and Maradona fan Nadeem Azam has summarized, ‘Perfect weather. Perfect stadium. Perfect goal. Perfect player.’
   But it is the second level – the sociological, political and cultural qualities of the moment – that virtually guarantees Maradona’s goal its place at the centre of football’s pantheon. Perhaps more than any other player, Maradona represents our planet’s disenfranchised majority; those living marginal existences in environmentally-stressed areas of urban deprivation, whose hopes, fears and dreams are routinely and systemically ignored and who only have each other for comfort.
   They are able to connect with a man who is himself partly of indigenous blood, raised in poverty and grounded in their reality, whatever his nominal or actual wealth. That the opponents were England, for a long time the world’s pre-eminent colonial nation, only adds to the intensity.
   While the English media in particular have focused on the game’s significance in respect of the recently-fought war between the two countries over the disputed Falkland Islands, for Argentina, the tie represented the chance to take vengeance for a much deeper historical grudge.
   During 1806-7, Great Britain tried to invade Spanish colonies in Latin America three times. Buenos Aires was attacked twice and for a time occupied, and it was only considerable heroism on the part of the subjects of the city that forced the British Lieutenant General John Whitelock, the commander of the British forces, to concede defeat. Despite this, British influence in Argentina remained substantial, and as the respected World Soccer columnist Tim Vickery has noted of the Argentines:
   ‘They had virtually been part of the British Empire, and on the great leveller of the football field they had always longed for a chance to avenge the humiliation. It was the game where Maradona lived out the fantasy of an entire nation.’
   The fantasy was by no means restricted to Argentina – or Maradona’s second goal. A few minutes before his seismic strike, Maradona scored what was in some respects an even more sensational goal, clearly handling the ball into the net when jumping in an aerial challenge against the hapless England goalkeeper, Peter Shilton.
   While in the aftermath, Maradona obliquely referred to the incident as caused by the so-called ‘Hand of God’, last summer, when speaking on his new talk show La Noche del Diez (‘The Night of the Number 10’), he revealed that that he hit the ball with his hand purposely and that he immediately knew the goal was illegitimate. ‘I was waiting for my team-mates to embrace me, and no one came. I told them, “Come hug me, or the referee isn’t going to allow it”.’
   As Maradona ironically observed about the Hand of God in his autobiography, Yo Soy El Diego (I am Diego), ‘It was a little bit like pick-pocketing the English.’
   Accordingly, Maradona’s majestic strike should not be seen in isolation. Rather, it is the most iconic statement of the world’s most iconic player; a player who represented the aspirations of the oppressed; a player who ultimately illustrated that human nature, which often struggles to fight its own shadow, can also attain a cosmic lightness of being.
   Five who could make like Maradona
   Scoring jaw-dropping solo goals is not the sole preserve of Diego Maradona. Recent World Cups have been marked by marvellous individual efforts from the likes of Roberto Baggio (for Italy against Czechoslovakia, 1990) and Saeed Al-Owairan (for Saudi Arabia against Belgium, 1994). Here are five players who could enchant the biggest global audience of all at this summer’s World Cup:
   1 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden): Ibrahimovic, who is of Bosnian parentage, allies Swedish muscle with Balkan flair. He possesses phenomenal close control and invention, and scored a Maradona-esque goal, slaloming past seven challenges, in his final game for Ajax Amsterdam before joining Juventus in August 2004.
   2 Michael Owen (England): As a sprightly 18-year-old, Owen sparkled during the 1998 World Cup, and scored a world-class goal against Argentina in the last sixteen. When in peak physical condition, he still has the ability to net a similar goal.
   3 Ronaldinho (Brazil): Currently Brazil’s best player, Ronaldinho specialises in mazy dribbles which culminate in spectacular goals. He registered two such strikes for his club, Barcelona, in this season’s match against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, earning a standing ovation from the Madrid fans.
   4 Lionel Messi (Argentina): Prodigy Messi, who like Ronaldinho plies his trade with Barcelona, is arguably the closest thing the present-day Argentina team have to Diego Maradona. A player of immense skill, poise and personal charm.
   5 Sergio Aguero (Argentina): One year younger than Messi at 17 years, Aguero can also dribble past players effortlessly. Still at Independiente in his country of origin, but Spanish club Villarreal have already offered $20 million for his services.

Argentina legend Diego Maradona has hailed Barcelona’s Lionel Messi as his natural successor after his Champions League display against Chelsea.
   He said, ‘I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentinian football and his name is Messi.
   ‘Messi is beautiful to watch – my kind of player in our blue and white jersey.
   ‘He’s a leader and is offering classes in beautiful football. He has something different to any other player in the world,’ added Maradona
   And the former World Cup-winning captain said, ‘Messi is the best player in the world, along with Ronaldinho. I see him as very similar to me.’
   Former Barcelona player and coach Johan Cruyff said, ‘Messi is the reason why Barcelona are a better team this season. The boy can conquer the whole stage’.
   Last June Messi was the inspiration behind Argentina’s under-20 World Cup win. He was named player of the tournament in Holland and was also the leading goal-scorer.
   And such has been his impact that Argentina boss Jose Pekerman is under mounting pressure to take him to this summer’s World Cup in Germany.

Chelsea have promised to punish any fans found to have made death threats to referee Terje Hauge in the wake of the Champions League loss to Barcelona.
   The threats appeared on messageboards on Chelsea’s official website after the Norwegian red-carded Asier del Horno.
   A club statement said: ‘If Chelsea are able to trace the authors, and if they are season-ticket holders or members, then action will be taken.’
   The club also vowed to conduct a review of monitoring procedures on the site. The statement said Chelsea ‘totally condemns’ such death threats but warned that tracing the source of the messages may not be easy.
   ‘Chelsea would like to stress that, at this stage, it is impossible to say whether the messages were posted by Chelsea fans as the site is publicly accessible,’ it added.
   ‘Similarly the club is not in control of other fan websites, inside or outside of the UK that claim connections with Chelsea, and those websites are also publicly accessible.’
   Hauge gave Chelsea defender Del Horno a straight red card for a challenge on Lionel Messi in the first half of the first leg, last 16 encounter at Stamford Bridge.

Inter Milan striker Adriano on Thursday won his appeal to have a two-match ban for violent conduct revoked.
   Earlier this week, the 24-year-old Brazil international received a suspension for apparently slapping Livorno defender Alessandro Grandoni in last week’s 0-0 Serie A draw.
   But Adriano protested his innocence and Inter lodged an appeal with the Italian football league’s disciplinary panel.
   After reviewing television evidence, the panel decided the pictures ‘failed to undoubtedly prove that Adriano actually made contact with Grandoni’s face.’

After Barcelona’s impressive 2-1 win over Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday the Spanish league leaders will be looking for another fighting performance at Real Zaragoza today.
   Zaragoza have knocked Barcelona out of the Spanish Cup for the last two years, and like with the English Premiership leaders, there is a similar sense of revenge brewing with the Catalan club.
   ‘There are a similar side to Chelsea, they play well on the counter-attack,’ analysed Barca’s Edmilson on Thursday.
   ‘We lost there 4-2 in January but this time we will be paying closer attention to Diego Milito and Ewerthon (who scored two goals apiece in the defeat),’ added the Brazilian midfielder.
   However, Barcelona may have to visit Zaragoza’s imposing La Romareda stadium, where Real Madrid also sensationally crashed 6-1 in the Spanish Cup three weeks ago, without Ronaldinho.
   The World Player of the Year suffered a slight sprain to his left ankle against Chelsea and Barca medical staff said that Ronaldinho would have a fitness test on Friday to see whether he travels to Zaragoza.
   By contrast, Zaragoza welcome back midfielder Albert Celades after suspension to face his former club where he started his professional career and spent seven seasons.
   Barcelona have a six-point lead over second-placed Valencia who play host to Getafe on Sunday.
   The 2004 champions might have to face their visitors from Madrid’s southern suburbs without two key players.
   Goalkeeper Santiago Canizares, who has kept a clean sheet in eight out of his last 12 games, didn’t train on Thursday, while top scorer David Villa ended the session early with muscular twinges in his right leg.
   ‘But we have the advantage that when teams come to Valencia they know they are facing an uphill battle,’ said Valencia defender Fabio Aurelio, reflecting on the fact that they have only lost once at home in the league this season.
   Real Madrid are one place and one point behind Valencia in third and will be looking to recover from their shock 1-0 defeat by Arsenal with a good outing at Real Mallorca on Sunday.
   Ronaldo has been in terrible form recently but the debate about whether he should be dropped may become null and void as the three-time World Player of the Year suffered a slightly strained left thigh against the English side and missed training on Thursday.
   If Ronaldo isn’t fit for the short trip across the Mediterranean then club captain Raul Gonzalez could step into the breech, despite him only just returning to full fitness after three months out with a knee injury.
   Another injury worry for Real coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro is Jose Maria ‘Guti’ Gutierrez, who also had problems with his left thigh in the wake of the Arsenal encounter.
   Lopez Caro already knows he will have to replace Jonathan Woodgate in the back four, with the injury-plagued defender out for two weeks with a strained hamstring.
   Mallorca, who are in the relegation zone two places off the bottom, will be without their Argentine duo of Guillermo Pereyra and Eduardo Tuzzio, who are both suspended.

Chelsea get a chance to put their Champions League misery behind them against Portsmouth, while Liverpool can boost their hopes of finishing second when they host Manchester City in Premier League action this weekend.
   Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat by Barcelona in the first leg of their first knockout round tie in the Champions League has even left coach Jose Mourinho wondering if his team should concentrate on domestic duties for the rest of the season.
   ‘It will be very difficult in Barcelona. Can we go there to compete? Because if we can’t we might as well go with a B team and concentrate on the FA Cup and Premier League,’ he said.
   Champions Chelsea will be determined to stretch their lead over Manchester United, who face Wigan Athletic in Sunday’s League Cup final, to 15 points with a win over Harry Redknapp’s relegation contenders at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
   Liverpool can move level on 54 points with United if they beat Stuart Pearce’s Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday and would open up an eight point gap over fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, who have already played their fixture against Wigan.
   Arsenal, buoyed by a stunning 1-0 win at Real Madrid, have a chance to close the gap on their north London rivals to two points with victory at Blackburn Rovers as the battle for the final Champions League qualifying spot heats up.
   ‘We now need to do something good against Blackburn. We need to do the same thing in the Premiership as well,’ said defender Kolo Toure. ‘We have the second half against Real and it’s going to be tough. But we just need to think of the next game.’
   Rovers will provide tough opposition at Ewood Park, though, as Mark Hughes’s team battle for a European place of their own. Blackburn are a point behind Arsenal and West Ham United after an impressive run of six victories in nine league games.
   With eighth-placed Wigan preoccupied in Cardiff and West Ham without a game this weekend, Bolton Wanderers can climb to sixth with a win over poor travellers Fulham at the Reebok on Sunday. Bolton are a point behind Wigan but have three games in hand.
   Bolton’s fixture congestion was eased somewhat on Thursday when they bowed out of the UEFA Cup after losing 2-1 at Olympique Marseille, having drawn the first leg 0-0.
   ‘We’ve got to put the defeat behind us now and look forward to playing Fulham,’ Bolton midfielder Kevin Nolan told Channel Five after defeat in France.
   At the bottom, Birmingham City will be desperate to take all three points from their clash with basement side Sunderland at St Andrews. Steve Bruce’s team are six points adrift of West Bromwich Albion who are in the safety zone with a game in hand.
   Bryan Robson’s West Brom will bid to maintain their cushion with a win over visiting Middlesbrough, who have finally run into some form after a sticky patch that has still left them hovering just two points above their opponents.
   Boro qualified for a UEFA Cup last 16 clash with AS Roma on Thursday, despite a 1-0 home defeat by VfB Stuttgart.'

The World Cup will not be halted by fears of bird flu in Germany, FIFA vice-president Julio Grondona said on Thursday.
   ‘Everything’s been sold, the World Cup can’t be suspended,’ Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association, told the local radio station Mitre during an interview.
   ‘I was in Zurich last week and I didn’t see anywhere that chicken was not being sold or not being eaten. I think it’s something that’s not an issue yet.’
   Grondona was asked his opinion after Argentine media reported this week that Germany’s Economy Minister Michael Glos had said an increase in cases of the deadly bird flu disease in the country would not affect its World Cup preparations.
   ‘It’s got to be something of great magnitude at all levels for measures to be taken to suspend a World Cup,’ Grondona said.

Shizuka Arakawa won Japan’s first medal of the Winter Olympics, taking the women’s figure skating title on Thursday after falls doomed the golden dreams of Irina Slutskaya and Sasha Cohen.
   Arakawa, the 2004 world champion, performed a dazzling free skate routine to finish with 191.34 points, defeating American champion Cohen by 7.98 points as Russian two-time world champion Slutskaya took bronze with 181.44 points.
   The lanky 24-year-old landed triple jumps and combinations to upset Slutskaya, 27, who fell on a triple loop while skating the final performance in hopes of improving upon her silver-medal finish from 2002.
   Cohen, who led after the short programme, has a history of being unable to produce two good performances in the same competition and fell once and stumbled on another landing to settle for silver.
   Surprising Arakawa captured Japan’s first figure skating gold and second-ever medal in the event, following Midori Ito’s silver medal in 1992.
   Seven-time European champion Slutskaya could not complete a Russian sweep of Turin figure skating gold after wins by Yevgeny Plushenko, Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin in pairs and ice dancers Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov.
   Japan’s Fumie Suguri was fourth on 175.23 followed by Canada’s Joannie Rochette and Americans Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, the late replacement for Michelle Kwan.
   With three days remaining, Germany topped the medal table with nine golds while Russia and Austria were both on eight after the Russian women’s 4x6km biathlon relay victory, a triumph dedicated to a dope cheat, Olga Pylova.
   Disgraced Pyleva, 30, received a two-year ban and was stripped of a 15km silver medal after testing positive for carphedon.
   Turin’s lone doping positive to date claimed the drug was taken unknowingly in medication for a foot injury and her ex-teammates sided with her in dedicating their victory to Pyleva.
   Three other golds were won Thursday with China’s Han Xiaopeng taking the men’s freestyle aerials crown, Switzerland’s Daniela Meuli winning the women’s snowboard parallel giant slalom and Sweden capturing the women’s curling title.
   Han performed two spectacular jumps to capture China’s second gold medal of the Olympics, becoming the first Chinese to take gold on snow.
   Han, 22, became the event’s youngest-ever Olympic champion thanks to a last leap - a back-lay-double-full-full - that scored 250.77 points to edge Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus.
   ‘I never thought this would happen. I’m overjoyed with such a win. I feel like I’m in a dream,’ Han said. ‘I was so happy to win the first gold medal for China ever on the snow.’
   Sweden defeated the Swiss 7-6 after an extra end in the dramatic women’s curling final. Canada captured bronze by beating Norway 11-5.
   Skip Miriam Ott made a dramatic last-rock take-out in the 10th end to score two points and pull Norway level 6-6, but Swedish skip Anette Norberg answered on the final rock with a double take-out to score the deciding point.
   Reigning world champion Meuli defeated German world junior champion Amelie Kober in the last snowboard event of these Olympics when Kober fell in the second run.

The Independent University Bangladesh secured a comprehensive eight-wicket against State University of Bangladesh in the fourth match of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh Fair Play Cup 2006 at the ULAB ground on Friday.
   Put into bat SUB were shot out for 85 in 17.2 overs. The winners lost two wickets to overhaul the target in 16.3 overs.

Amelie Mauresmo’s 16-match unbeaten run, which included the first Grand Slam title of her career and three successive titles, came to an end with a rain-interrupted defeat in the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open here Friday.
   But even though the top-seeded Australian Open champion from France was surprisingly beaten by the unseeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, she looks certain to become world number one again in a couple of weeks time.
   Mauresmo’s two-hour 7-6 (11/9), 6-4 defeat took place over two days, and the timing of the weather disruptions may have made it harder for a tired body which was given the challenge of another tournament this week only at the last moment after the Williams’ sisters belatedly withdrew.
   ‘She played very well,’ acknowledged Mauresmo graciously. ‘But I think I was running slightly out of gas there, and also last night.
   ‘These two things combined make it hard to come out of the court as a winner, but that’s the way it is. I knew this could happen some day, and I am OK with that.’
    ‘My concentration, focus and energy were not quite there today on the key points,’ said Mauresmo. ‘But if I still become number one I will be happy to take it. It is a reward for consistency over a whole year.’
   Kuznetsova will next play Justine Henin-Hardenne, the fourth-seeded French Open champion from Belgium, who survived a second set crisis to win the tie-break by 7-5 in a 6-4, 7-6 win over the seventh-seeded Francesca Schiavone.
   The other semi-final is between Lindsay Davenport, the titleholder from the United States, who outlasted Maria Kirilenko, the improving 19-year-old Russian by 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, and another Russian Maria Sharapova.
   The former Wimbledon champion joined the semi-finalists by gaining a 6-3, 6-4 revenge over Martina Hingis for a defeat in Tokyo the week before last.
   Sharapova’s last eight game against Hingis was far closer than the score suggests, with Hingis getting great support from a full house of 5,000, holding a point to break back to 4-4 in the fist set, and another to reach 5-5 in the second.
   It was full of fascinating rallies between the great baseline attacker and the great baseline counter-puncher, with both women more willing to come to the net than they used to be.
   But Hingis was dissatisfied with her performance.
   ‘I came up short with just about everything at the beginning and at the end,’ she reckoned harshly. ‘There were so many opportunities and can’t allow someone like her to come back into the game.
   ‘Because I had beaten her (in Tokyo) I had the mental edge. You could tell she wasn’t confident about playing me again. I made too many mistakes.’
   Asked if she had lost it or Sharapova had won it, Hingis said: ‘Both. I didn’t play as well as last time, but she served some good points. But maybe I wasn’t as concentrated as last time, after all the hanging around.’