Liverpool’s Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho (centre) shoots during the UEFA Champions League Group E match against NK Maribor at the Ljudski vrt Stadium in Maribor, Slovenia yesterday.

Reds hit seven as Spurs hold Real

SPORTWednesday 18 October 2017

Tiger Woods cleared to resume practice

Sparks bound to fly in crucial Al Sailiya, Al

Rayyan QSL clash

PAGE | 30 PAGE | 31 PAGE | 36

Maxwell hopes new technique leads to Ashes

Spac

Chelsea have no margin for error: AlonsoLondon

AFP

Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso admitted yesterday that the Premier League cham-pions cannot afford to lose another match

if they want to successfully defend the title.Antonio Conte’s side are lagging nine points

behind leaders Manchester City after losing their last two league matches.

The Blues, who host Roma in the Champi-ons League today, crashed to a shock 2-1 defeat at lowly Crystal Palace on Saturday, an embar-rassing setback that followed a damaging 1-0 loss to City at Stamford Bridge.

With title contenders Manchester United and Tottenham also in good form, Alonso knows Chelsea are in danger of losing touch with the early pace-setters.

Recalling Chelsea’s 13-match winning streak which followed losses to Liverpool and Arsenal early last season, Alonso said he believes the Blues need to be even more consistent if they are to catch City.

“We’ve lost a lot of points already. We can-not lose any more games,” Alonso told reporters yesterday. “It’ll obviously be very hard. There are teams playing very good football and there are so many games still to come.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUEYESTERDAY’S RESULTS

GROUP E

NK Maribor 0 - 7 LiverpoolSpartak Moscow 5 - 1 Sevilla

GROUP F

Feyenoord 1 - 2 Shakhtar DonetskManchester City 2 - 1 Napoli

GROUP G

Monaco 1 - 2 BesiktasRB Leipzig 3 - 2 FC Porto

GROUP H

Apoel Nicosia 1 - 1 Borussia DortmundReal Madrid 1 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur

Maribor

AFP

Liverpool eased the pres-sure on Jurgen Klopp as Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah inspired a 7-0 thrash-

ing of Maribor in the Champions League yesterday.

After drawing their first two European fixtures and splutter-ing in the Premier League, Liverpool arrived in Slovenia with critics questioning Klopp’s sign-ings and tactics.

But, for once, Klopp’s team showed a ruthless touch in the

opposition penalty area to demol-ish woeful Maribor.

Firmino opened the scoring and Philippe Coutinho increased Liverpool’s lead before Salah’s brace put the Reds four up by half-time at Stadion Ljudski Vrt.

Firmino netted again after the break, with Alex Oxlade-Cham-b e r l a i n a n d T r e n t Alexander-Arnold also on the scoresheet as Liverpool’s goal blitz moved them into first place in Group E with three matches left.

A pair of stunning second-half saves from Hugo Lloris salvaged a precious point for Tottenham

Hotspur as they held European champions Real Madrid 1-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu yesterday.

Both sides remain unbeaten in this season’s Champions League and well placed to progress to the last 16. They each have seven points after Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty cancelled out Raphael Varane’s own goal in the first period.

The sides meet again with top spot in Group H on the line at Wembley on November 1.

Elsewhere, Manchester City conceded two penalties -- one that was squandered, one that was scored -- as they edged

Napoli 2-1 yesterday to tighten their grip on Champions League Group F.

In a much-hyped clash of the highest-scor-ing teams in Europe’s five major leagues, City swiftly went 2-0 up through Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus at the Etihad Stadium and looked set for another breezy win.

But Napoli hit back, Ederson having to save a penalty from Dries Mertens before Ama-dou Diawara netted from 12 yards

in the 73rd minute, and City man-ager Pep Guardiola will have been grateful for the final whistle.

With three wins in three games, City are firmly on track for the last 16, while Napoli, who have won all eight of their domestic league matches to date, face a battle to progress after their second defeat of the campaign.

It was only City’s sec-ond win in nine games against Italian sides, but although they preserved their 100 percent record in Europe this season, the

way they let Napoli back into the game suggested they are not quite the finished article yet.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUETODAY’S FIXTURES

GROUP A

Benfica vs Manchester UnitedCSKA Moscow vs FC Basel

GROUP B

Bayern Munich vs CelticRSC Anderlecht vs Paris Saint Germain

GROUP C

FK Qarabag vs Atlético MadridChelsea vs Roma

GROUP D

Barcelona vs OlympiakosJuventus vs Sporting Lisbon

30 WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

Under-pressure Maxwell hopes new technique leads to Ashes

Melbourne

Reuters

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell (pic-tured) is well known for his batting pyro-technics but hopes a

defensive tweak to his technique can be key to locking up the con-tentious number six spot for the Ashes.

Since scoring a mature and composed century against India in the Ranchi Test in March, the man nicknamed ‘the Big Show’ has failed to surpass 50 in seven Test innings and his selection for the upcoming series against Eng-land is far from assured.

Australia coach Darren Leh-mann has said Maxwell’s number six spot is up for grabs, leaving the 29-year-old righthander in a shoot-out with other hopefuls in the domestic Sheffield Shield in the lead up to the first Test in Brisbane on November 23.

Maxwell’s faltering output prompted a self-analysis and he was not impressed with what he saw on video review.

“It was a little bit frustrating watching myself back and going ‘I don’t like what I see there’,” he told local media.

“I looked back at a lot of footage and I just noticed a few

things creeping into my game.“I had a very one-day tech-

nique where I was able to work the ball sidewards with my hands. I basically got rid of that and made sure I was holding my shape a lot longer.”

The correction failed to bring a big score during last month’s tour of Bangladesh but Maxwell said it had a l r e a d y helped soak up minutes out in the mid-dle, as shown by a 9 8 - b a l l knock of 38 in

the second Test in Chittagong.“I’ve really honed a tech-

nique that can bat a long period of time and I changed a few things technically to make sure I had a solid defence and some-thing that could sustain long periods of pressure,” he said.

“Unfortunately the way I got out was a bit disap-pointing, to have the ball just sort of crawl over my

body and get to the keeper was a bit frus-trating, but the work I

did throughout that period showed me that

was I was doing was the right thing.”

Maxwell’s lean run

s a w him

axed after three matches of the one-day international series in India but former Australia cap-tain Steve Waugh has backed him to make an impression in the Ashes if selectors stick with him.

“He’s inconsistent but he’s a match winner and there are not too many of them around,” Waugh told local media. “If he’s managed the right way he can be a force in test match cricket, there’s no doubt about that.

“With him he looks like a confidence player so if he gets picked I would say to him ‘you are playing every test match’ and then you will get the benefit.”

While a handy offspin bowler and an excellent fielder, Maxwell’s batting average stands

at 26.07 after seven Tests.Top order batsman Shaun

Marsh, who has an average of 36 from 23 Tests, and discarded opener Joe Burns (37.95 from 13 tests) are two players seen push-ing for selection.

“There is some good, healthy rivalry for it and whoever plays well, hopefully they play well during the Ashes,” said Maxwell.

“I think it would be a huge personal accomplishment to hold my spot in the Australian test team after I’ve had a fair few doubters, especially in the long form of the game.

“So if I could hold my spot for that period of time and beyond, that would be exceptional.”

shape a lot longer.”The correction failed

to bring a big scoreduriingn last month’s tour of Bangladesh but Maxwell said it had a l r e a d yhelped soakup minutesout in the mid-dle, as shown by a 9 8 - b a l lknk ock of 38 in

thing that could sustain longperiods of pressure,” he said.

“Unfortunately the way I got out was a bit disap-pointing, to have the ball just sort of crawl over my

body and get to thekeeper was a bit frus-trating, but the work I

did throughout that period showed me that

was I was doing was the right thing.”

Maxwell’s lean run

s a w him

I had a very one-day technique where I was able to work the ball sidewards with my hands. I basically got rid of that and made sure I was holding my shape a lot longer: Glenn Maxwell

Pakistan eye series win as SL seek turnaroundAbu Dhabi

Agencies

Pakistan will be looking to seal the five-match series when they will meet Sri

Lanka today in the third ODI at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

Babar Azam scored a succes-sive hundred while Shadab Khan gave his career best bowling and batting performance to help Paki-stan thump Sri Lanka by 32 runs in the second game. Pakistan won the first match by 83 runs.

One-drop batsman Babar knocked a fighting 133-ball 103 while Shadab scored a career best 52 not out to lift Pakistan from a struggling 79-5 before Shadab the bowler returned with his best figures of 3-47 to dis-miss Sri Lanka for 187 all out in 48 overs.

The 23-year-old Babar and Shadab, who turned 19 earlier this month, were engaged in a match-turning 109-run seventh wicket stand which helped Pakistan reach 291-9 on a sluggish Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

“Our batting collapsed but the way they batted after that on a difficult pitch was brilliant. Can’t praise the bowlers enough for defending this 220,” Sarfraz said after the victory.

The victory gave Pakistan a 2-0 lead and a win will secure series win for Sarfraz Ahmed’s men. The loss, however, was Sri Lanka’s ninth defeat in a row.

A defeat today will take the tally to double figures and the Islanders are desperate to avoid that.

Skipper Upul Tharanga who became the first Sri Lankan and 11th batsmen in the one-day his-tory to carry his bat through a complete innings with a fight-ing 144-ball 112 not out, will remain the key for his side as they seek the turnaround in the series.

Pakistan are likely to field the same XI, giving Ahmed Shehzad another run despite scores of 0 and 8 so far.

Pakistan’s Shadab Khan (left) and Babar Azam run between the wicket during the second ODI against Sri Lanka at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Monday. Both were engaged in a match-turning 109-run seventh wicket stand.

Indian court reinstates Sreesanth fixing life ban New Delhi

AFP

A life ban on Indian fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (pictured) for

match-fixing was reinstated by a court yesterday following an appeal by the country’s cricket board.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had moved the Kerala High Court

in August to review an order that acquitted Sreesanth due to lack of proof. The court in a fresh verdict overturned its pre-vious judgement. But Sreesanth, 34, vowed to keep fighting against what he called “injus-tice” against him.

“All I have is my family and lots of dear ones who still believes in me... I will keep fighting and make sure I don’t give up,” he said in a Tweet.

“This is the worst decision ever..special rule for me?what about real culprits?What about chennai super kings ? And what about Rajasthan ?,” Sreesanth wrote on Twitter. He and two other Rajasthan Royals players were banned for life over alleged involvement in betting and spot-fixing following a 2013 scandal in the IPL

Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandila were arrested

along with scores of bookies as part of a probe into allegations that players had under-per-formed in return for cash.

Criminal charges were later dropped, but the players remained banned for breach-ing the BCCI’s code of conduct.Sreesanth, who is 13 short of 100 Test wickets, has played 27 Tests and 53 one-day interna-tionals since making his debut in 2005.

Pakistan’s Amir back in Twenty20 squad Lahore

AFP

Pakistan recalled pace spearhead Mohammad Amir (pictured) in the

16-man squad for the three-match Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka starting next week.

The 25-year-old suffered a shin injury during the second Test in Dubai but is included in the squad after rehab in the hope that he will recover in time.

The first two matches will be played in Abu Dhabi on October 26 and 27 before teams fly to Lahore for the final game on October 29.

Sarfraz Ahmed will lead the Pakistan side.

Sri Lanka Cricket on Mon-day confirmed their team will tour Lahore in a ‘fly in, fly out’ arrangement for just one day -- eight years after their team bus was attacked by gunmen in the same city.

The attacks, which left eight people killed and seven visit-ing players and their staff injured, forced international teams to stay away from Paki-stan over security fears.

Pakistan successfully hosted the final of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore earlier this year and last month’s

three-match Twenty20 series against a World XI revived international cricket in the country.

Also staging a comeback in the squad is spinning allrounder Mohammad Hafeez who was dropped for the World XI series, while pace allrounder Amir Yamin has also been recalled after his performance in domestic matches.

Yamin played his last inter-national match, against England in the UAE, in 2015.

Squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Fakhar Za-

man, Ahmed Shahzad, Babar Azam, Shoaib

Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Imad Wasim,

Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem

Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Amir Yamin, Mohammad

Amir (subject to fitness clearance), Rumman

Raees, Usman Shinwari, Umar Amin

PAKISTAN T20 SQUAD

Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla,

Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock,

AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Robbie

Frylinck, Beuran Hendricks, David Miller,

Mangaliso Mosehle, Dane Paterson,

Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo,

Tabraiz Shamsi

SOUTH AFRICA T20 SQUAD

Frylinck gets call-up to SA T20 squad Cape Town

Reuters

All-rounder Robbie Frylinck has been handed a first call-up

to South Africa’s Twenty20 squad for the two-match series against Bangladesh next week.

Faf du Plessis resumes the captaincy after missing the team’s last series in England but spinner Imran Tahir and quick bowler Kagiso Rabada have both been rest, Cricket South Africa said yesterday.

“The selection of Robbie provides another opportunity to explore our depth in the important all-rounder posi-tion,” said selector Linda Zondi.

“Apart from his bowling strengths he has a proven record as a finisher with the bat.

“Imran remains our first-choice spinner in both the limited overs formats but we also need to develop depth in this important area which is why we have given further opportunities to (Tabraiz) Shamsi and (Aaron) Phangiso.”

South Africa host the T20 internationals in Bloemfon-tein on October 26 and Potchefstroom on October 29.

Middlesex have their appeal dismissed AFP

Middlesex failed yester-day in their appeal against a two-point

penalty for slow over rates, which means they will be rel-egated just a year after winning the county championship.

The club, who play at Lord’s, were docked the points during their match against Surrey in August -- a game that was abandoned when a crossbow bolt was fired into The Oval.

They were subsequently relegated by a single point after losing their final match of the season to Somerset.

The Cricket Discipline Commission chairman Tim O’Gorman said: “I do not accept that Middlesex only agreed to the abandonment of the match on condition that their slow over rate in the first innings would be over-looked,” he said.

31WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Former World No.1 Tiger Woods can resume practice but when will he return to competitive action, is remain to be seen.

IOC ‘disappointed’ by Innsbruck snub, still hopes for good bidsZurich

Reuters

The International Olym-p i c C o m m i t t e e yesterday said it was

disappointed by the referen-dum defeat of Innsbruck’s plan to bid for the 2026 Win-ter Olympics, with some in the movement saying another dual Games award could be on the cards.

The IOC has been strug-gling in recent years to convince potential hosts of the benefits of hosting the Games and about a dozen cit-ies have pulled out of bidding for the 2022, 2024 and 2026 Olympics.

In an effort to secure the long-term future of the Games the IOC in September awarded the 2024 and the 2028 Summer Olympics to Paris and Los Angeles after they were the only remain-ing bidders.

“The IOC would have liked to continue its prelim-inary exploratory talks with Innsbruck,” an IOC spokes-man said.

“The IOC shares the dis-appointment for the Austrian Olympic Committee, the many supporting athletes and the promoters of the project who worked on it with so much energy and commitment.

“This would have been a solid foundation to develop an excellent candidature for sustainable Olympic winter Games.”

The Austrian Alpine city, venue of the 1964 and the 1976 Winter Games as well as the 2012 winter youth Olympics, saw its 2026 plans derailed on Sunday when 53 percent of voters in a local referendum voted against the planned candidacy.

“The IOC will continue its

exploratory talks with inter-ested NOCs and cities from America, Asia and Europe within the framework of its new candidature process,” the IOC official said.

“We are certain that an excellent host city for the Olympic Winter Games 2026 will emerge from this process.”

Bids from Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Japan, Canada and the United States are still likely for 2026 with the candidacy process to start in 2018 and a decision to be taken in 2019.

However, the Austrian refusal is a further slap in the face for the IOC’s Agenda 2020, a set of reforms intro-duced in 2014 and aimed, among other things, at reduc-ing the size and cost of the Games to make them more attractive to potential hosts.

It has so far failed to deliver on that front with four cities pulling out of the 2022 campaign and two more bids killed off at referendum stage. Four cities stopped their bids in mid-race for 2024 before Innsbruck’s refusal for 2026.

“Auf Wiedersehen Inns-bruck and Austria,” IOC member Richard Peterkin posted on Twitter.

“Another Olympic bid falls by the wayside follow-ing a referendum rejection. Not even close. Disruptive.”

The outspoken Peterkin, who has repeatedly urged the IOC to take stronger action against the flagging interest in the Games, said a dual award-ing such as that for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics was an option, even if it was supposed to have been a one-off.

“Dual award now look-ing possible for 2026 if two strong bids remain in the running,” he added.

Baldwin feared losing hand after lion biteGlasgow

Reuters

Wales hooker Scott Bald-win (pictured) has said he feared losing

his left hand to an infection after being bitten while petting a lion in South Africa last month.

The 29-year-old was described as “stupid” by Ospreys coach Steve Tandy after suffer-ing the wound, which needed stitches, during a pre-match visit to a game park ahead of a Pro14

match against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

“The infection was the major issue,” the 29-year-old told the BBC. “The next day it started tracking up my arm. The surgeon said there was a chance I could lose my hand.”

Baldwin underwent two operations in South Africa before flying to Swansea to consult a plastic surgeon and said he was extremely fortunate not to have sustained a worse injury.

“The bite went straight

through the other side of the hand,” Baldwin added.

“But I was really lucky it didn’t hit any tendons or liga-ments. The surgeon said it was like winning the lottery... it was the best possible outcome con-sidering I had been bitten by a lion.”

With his stitches out, Bald-win hopes to return to training in the coming week but will make a final call after meeting with his coach and medical teams.

Olympic queen Biles chooses new coach Los Angeles

AFP

Olympic gymnastics queen Simone Biles has appointed a new coach as

she begins her comeback to the sport after a year-long break, US media reported yesterday.

Biles, the reigning all-around Olympic champion and 10-time World Championship gold med-allist, has hired France’s Laurent Landi as she begins her journey towards the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The 20-year-old superstar

took a sabbatical from gymnas-tics following her performances at the Rio de Janeiro games last year, where she won four gold medals and a bronze.

The change of coach comes after former mentor Aimee Boorman, who worked with Biles for more than a decade, relo-cated to Florida from Houston.

Biles said she was drawn to Landi through his work with USA team-mate Madison Kocian, who won a silver medal on the une-ven bars in Rio.

The uneven bars was the only event in which Biles failed to reach the final in Brazil.

“That is his speciality, so hopefully I will become a better bars swinger, and confidence-wise, I will improve,” Biles told the Houston Chronicle.

Biles said she had also been impressed with the Frenchman’s ability to put athletes at ease dur-ing competition.

“Laurent Landi does a good job not letting pressure get to the athletes,” she told the Chronicle. “You can see some coaches get stressed but he doesn’t.”

Biles’ 14 months off since the Olympics has included travel, sponsorship work and a stint on reality television competition “Dancing With the Stars.”

She told the Chronicle she is looking forward to returning to competition, most likely in July

Hopefully, I will become a better bars swinger, and confidence-wise, I will improve. Laurent Landi does a good job not letting pressure get to the athletes: Simone Biles 2018.“The time off has been

really good,” said the star Olympian.

“It’s been exciting to get to do things that I never would have had the opportunity to do,

and the time off was good men-tally and physically. “But I am committed to going back to the gym and starting the entire process and working back up to where I was.”

Gold medalist Simone Biles of the USA

celebrates on a podium after winning the

women’s balance beam final at the 45th FIG Artistic Gymnastics

World Championships in Nanning, China, in this file

photo.

We haven’t even addressed when he comes back to play again. We have not addressed one thing: Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent at Excel Sports Management

New York AP

Tiger Woods is swinging a

driver without pain, and

his agent says doctors

have cleared the former

world No. 1 to practice

without limitations.

Still to be determined is when

Woods can play in a tournament.

“We haven’t even addressed

when he comes back to play again.

We have not addressed one thing,”

said Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent

at Excel Sports Management. “He

wants to play this so

conservatively.”

Steinberg said Woods received

a “good report” last week from doc-

tors who performed fusion surgery

on his lower back in April. Woods

posted a video on Twitter on Octo-

ber 7 of him hitting a smooth iron

shot. Then on Sunday, Woods

posted another video — in a red

shirt, no less — hitting a driver.

“Making progress,” he tweeted.

Woods, whose last victory was

four years ago at the Bridgestone

Invitational for his record 18th

World Golf Championships title, has

not played since he withdrew from

the Dubai Desert Classic on Febru-

ary 3 because of back spasms.

Two months later, he had a

fourth surgery on his back in 19

months.

Woods first posted a video on

August 31 hitting pitch shots. Stein-

berg said doctors last week allowed

Woods “to proceed with no restric-

tions,” which is when he began

posting video of fuller golf shots.

“He has started to hit balls at a

more aggressive rate,” Steinberg

said.

“He feels really good, but he’s

going to take it very slowly. I think

he’s excited that he’s not feeling

pain. That’s what gets him excited,

being able to bend down and pick

up his kids.

“He’s taking it from wedges and

short irons to the longer clubs. But

he’s still doing it in a really cautious

manner.”

Woods was an assistant cap-

tain at the Presidents Cup two

weeks ago, and he said then his

priorities were to get his health in

order, make sure he is pain-free

and then wait on word from his

doctors.

“I’m still training. I’m getting

stronger,” he said on September

27. “But I certainly don’t have my

golf muscles trained.”

Woods last year returned after

15 months to play in his Hero World

Challenge in the Bahamas, where

he finished 15th in an 18-man field.

The tournament is a week after

Thanksgiving. Two spots are still

available for sponsor exemptions

to players in the top 50 in the

world, or to the tournament host,

which is Woods.

Woods cleared to resume practice

32 WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017SPORT 33WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Tough test awaits Froome as Tour organisers spice up the route Paris

AFP

Chris Froome could face his toughest Tour de France challenge so far in 2018 after organis-ers yesterday unveiled

a route and format that are poten-tially unfavourable to the reigning

champion.The race, which

starts on the

island of Noirmoutier off the Vendee coast on July 7, lacks a long, flat individual time trial where four-time winner Froome often pulverises opponents.

Six mountain stages and four hilly stages are packed into the latter part of the Tour before it ends on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on July 29.

“It’s different every year and it’s difficult every year,” Froome said.

“I like the look of the Alpe d’Huez stage, for me that’s the

‘Queen’ stage on this Tour,” he added, referring to

the poten-

tially decisive, gruelling mountain climb. Another tester will be stage nine, which follows a cobbled road to Roubaix, echoing the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic.

“It’s a massive challenge with a lot of windy dangerous stages, I wasn’t counting on racing Paris-Roubaix this year but I’ll have to re-evaluate that now,” Froome joked.

“It’s going to be a very nerv-ous race until we reach the Alps,” he said

Such relentless hill and moun-tain terrain may well grind down Froome’s protective entourage who have so successfully snuffed

out attacks in recent Tours.British sprinter

Mark Cav-

endish said he was not looking to the hilly challenge.

“There’s lots of sprint oppor-tunities early on but the second bit, I’m not really sure I’ll get that far,” said the Quick Step rider with 30 Tour de France stage wins to his name.

The much lighter Briton Simon Yates, the 2017 winner of the white jersey for riders under-25, had other concerns.

“I’m a very light man, so I’m not looking forward to the wind in the Vendee,” said Yates, who rides for Orica.

On top of that, teams will be allowed just eight riders in 2018 rather than the usual nine, leav-ing Froome less protected by his Sky teammates than he has been used to.

The 2018 route for the w o r l d ’ s m o s t

prestigious cycling race is basi-cally split into two sections.

The first is largely flat but fea-tures a series of potentially punishing challenges.

They include a 35-kilometre (22-mile) team time trial on

day three on wind-s w e p t

plains, then a Brittany run to the pretty seaside town of Quimper on day five featuring 10 hills.

The route designers have also built in two ascents of the feared Mur de Bretagne while on stage eight and the day after comes the

cobbled road to Roubaix.When asked if the 2018 route

would be tough for Sky captain Froome, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said all the riders taking part were champions.

“But the winner will need the stamina to roll through windy plains and do well in the team time-trial, he’ll need to be able to resist the cobbles and have enough steam to get through all the mountains,” Prudhomme told reporters.

“I know of a few such speci-mens from the Netherlands and from Britain,” he joked, without referring to Froome or the 2017 Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumou-lin by name.

Route designer Thierry Gou-venou said the switch between the two sections “is perhaps the great-est challenge of this Tour”.

After a rest day on which the riders fly from the north coast to Annecy, there follow three visu-ally stunning Alpine mountain

stages, four hilly stages and three Pyrenean mountain stages inside a breathless 12 days.

But the two key mountain challenges are a brutal, uphill 31km individual time trial and a short 65km 17th stage featuring 38km of climbs to a summit fin-ish at the Col de Portet.

Portet is the highest summit, at 2,215 metres, ever to feature on a Tour de France.

“And there are a few other surprises hidden in there along the way,” Gouvenou promised.

It’s a massive challenge with a lot of windy dangerous stages, I wasn’t counting on racing Paris-Roubaix this year but I’ll have to re-evaluate that now, says Froome

The winner will need the stamina to roll through windy plains and do well in the team time-trial, he’ll need to be able to resist the cobbles and have enough steam to get through all the mountains: Tour Director Prudhomme

2018 Tour de France: Key stages STAGE 3 CHOLET - CHOLET: 35KM TEAM TIME-TRIAL

Chris Froome’s team Sky wilted at last month’s Bergen world team time-trial as the 2017 Giro d’Italia winner Dutchman Tom Dumoulin led Sunweb to victory over the 45km route. This one is shorter, but Sky will have to think long and hard about the make up of the team they select in a tactical balance between the power for here and the lightweight climbers they’ll need for the slog though the mountains.

STAGE 9 ARRAS - ROUBAIX: 154 KM

Pure climbers will be fretting about their eventual place on the podium when they look at this one with 15 cobbled sections, the longest section of cobbles since the 1980’s from the fabled Paris-Roubaix classic which require power and endurance with middleweight riders doing well. It starts and ends early to avoid clashing with the World Cup final.

STAGE 12 BOURG SAINT-MAURICE - ALPE D’HUEZ: 175 KM Not one, not two but three feared climbs as this Alpine stage tackles

the Col de La Madeleine, the Col de la Croix de Fer and the Alpe d’Huez’s 21 mythical turns to an eagerly awaited summit finish. With almost 71km in total of climbing, defending champion Chris Froome thinks the Tour can be won or lost here.

STAGE 17 BAGNERES-DE-LUCHON - SAINT-LARY-SOULAN, COL

DE PORTET: 65 KM

A short, sharp shock which Tour organisers believe is thoroughly attackable terrain with a stunningly beautiful backdrop and summit fin-ish at 2,215m where the oxygen is rarefied and the pure climbers will thrive.

STAGE 20 SAINT-PEE-SUR-NIVELLE - ESPELETTE: 31KM (INDI-

VIDUAL TIME-TRIAL)

Froome and Dumoulin, both good climbers and good time triallists if they can get this far, are already on many people’s minds when they look at this penultimate stage where a 31km, on-your-own, uphill slog faces all pretenders to the title, the podium and the top ten.

TOUR R OUTE

Stage 1: Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile to Fonte-

nay-le-Comte, 189km

Stage 2: Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to La

Roche-sur-Yon, 183km

Stage 3: Cholet to Cholet, team time trial,

35km

Stage 4: La Baule to Sarzeau, 192km

Stage 5: Lorient to Quimper, 203km

Stage 6: Brest to Mur de Bretagne, 181km

Stage 7: Fougeres to Chartres, 231km

Stage 8: Dreux to Amiens, 181km

Stage 9: Arras to Roubaix, 154km

Rest day in Annecy

Stage 10: Annecy to Le Grand Bornand,

159km

Stage 11: Albertville to La Rosiere, 108km

Stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice to L’Alpe

d’Huez, 175km

Stage 13: Bourg d’Oisans to Valence,

169km

Stage 14: Saint-Pauol-Trois-Chateaux to

Mende, 187km

Stage 15: Millau to Carcassonne, 181km

Rest day in Carcassonne

Stage 16: Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-

Luchon, 218km

Stage 17: Bagneres-de-Luchon to Saint-

Lary-Soulan, 65km

Stage 18: Tries-sur-Baise to Pau, 172km

Stage 19: Lourdes to Laruns, 200km

Stage 20: Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle to Espe-

lette, individual time trial, 31km

Stage 21: Houilles to Paris Champs-

Elysées, 115km

Paris

AFP

Mark Cavendish revealed at yester-day’s Tour de France 2018 route presen-tation that his bid to

reach Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins comes second to the flowers winners get on the podium, at least for his daughter.

Cavendish has 30 Tour de France stage wins and makes no bones about his ambition to one day pass Merckx, but for his daugh-ter Delilah Grace it’s all about the flowers.

Cavendish was filmed with the five-year-old on his lap answer-ing a question over what the Tour de France meant to him, from career-defining stage wins to glory and peak moments.

“None of that for her, she just

wants the flowers,” said Cavendish.

The 32-year-old was realistic over his chances of bridging the echelon, to use a cycling term, between himself and the legendary Belgian this time around.

“There are plenty of sprint stages in the first week,” said Cav-endish, who suffered a fractured collarbone in a bunch finish in stage 4 this year when he fell after being elbowed by Peter Sagan, who was disqualified over the incident.

“There are sprints in the sec-ond and third weeks, but I just don’t know if I’ll get that far,” said Cavendish, who is on the Dimen-sion Data team, which features 13 African riders.

“I’ll have to go into it further, have a much better look at exactly where the climbs are.”

In fact there are eight flat

stages for Cavendish to close in on Merckx, who was known as the Cannibal because of his desire to win everything.

There are also five hilly stages, six mountainous stages, two time-trials and, crucially for heavily built sprinters considering giving up before the mountains, two rest days.

In 2017 the giant German sprinter Marcel Kittel, who weighs 87 kilogrammes (192 pounds) won five stages before pulling out half-way because of a fall.

“I might need a miracle to get to Paris,” Cavendish said, and while there are no miracles in cycling, the 2018 Tour does pass through the town of Lourdes, where mira-cles have been said to occur since a child claimed to have seen what is now known as “Our Lady of Lourdes” and from where stage 19 begins.

Cav’s daughter wants the flowers, not recordFroome wins

Velo d’Or award for 3rd timeParis

AP

Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome has capped his season by winning the Velo d’Or award as the best rider of 2017.

The Team Sky leader succeeded three-time world champion Peter Sagan.

Froome enjoyed a spectacular year, becoming the third man to complete the Tour-Vuelta double in the same season, after Jacques Anquetil in 1963 and Bernard Hinault in 1978, when the Vuelta was still held in the spring before the Tour.

Froome was awarded his trophy on Tuesday dur-ing the presentation of the Tour de France route. He says “it’s obviously a season I will remember all my life.”

Froome will be chasing a record-equaling fifth Tour victory next year to move level with Anquetil, Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain.

Tour de France 2017 winner Chris Froome of Britain poses with the Velo d’Or award (Golden bike trophy) he received during the presentation of the itinerary of the 2018 Tour de France cycling race in Paris , France yesterday.

Title holder Britain’s Chris Froome poses in front of a map of the official route of the 2018 edition of the Tour de France cycling race during its presentation in Paris yesterday.

The pack of riders, including Team Sky rider Chris Froome of Britain (right) wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey, ride near the Arc de Triomphe during the 109.5-km (68 miles) final stage of the 102nd Tour de France cycling race from Sevres to Paris Champs-Elysees, France in this July 26, 2015 file photo. The itinerary of the 2018 edition of the world’s greatest cycling event was revealed during a ceremony yesterday. The event will start from Noirmoutier-en-L’Ile on July 7 and will finish at the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 29, 2018.

34 WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

Italy to meet Sweden in

tricky World Cup play-offParis

AFP

Four-time winners Italy will play Swe-den in a play-off for a place in the 2018 World Cup while the Republic of Ireland take on Denmark, follow-ing the draw yesterday.

Northern Ireland will tackle Switzerland and Croatia and Greece will contest the other two-legged Europe zone play-offs to be played between November 9 and November 14.

Veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon’s Italy, who were seeded for the draw in Zurich, will travel to Sweden for the first leg of their tie as they seek a ticket to Russia.

Gabriele Oriali, the Italy team manager who attended the draw in place of coach Gian Piero Ventura, said: “I think it could have been bet-ter. But we accept this draw. We are Italy and we shouldn’t be afraid of anyone.

“Sweden are a very strong team, who qual-ified in a difficult group. They beat France and eliminated the Netherlands.

“We have optimism and history (on our side). Imagine a World Cup without Italy.”

The Italians were condemned to the play-offs after finishing runners-up to Spain in their qualifying group, but they have not missed a World Cup finals since 1958.

Sweden coach Janne Andersson (pictured) said he expected “two tough games”.

“But it would have been the same with other countries. I’m happy we know now. Now we can start work,” he told Sky Sports News.

Northern Ireland coach Michael O’Neill admitted he faced an uphill task against the Swiss as he bids to steer his country to the finals for the first time since 1986.

The Northern Irish will play at home in the first leg.

“Switzerland had a great campaign though their group was one of the easiest. Our job is to make their life as difficult as possible,” he said.

“Having played Germany twice in the group it will set us up nicely for the match,” O’Neill said.

“Our aim is to take a lead to Switzerland and we had seven clean sheets in our qualifi-ers so we need a tight five when we go there.”

The Republic of Ireland need to keep up

the form they showed at the end of qualifying when they eliminated Wales to reach the play-offs, their coach Martin O’Neill said.

They have the advantage of hosting Den-mark in the second leg.

“We have momentum and that’s impor-tant,” O’Neill said. “We won the last two games to get here. I’m now concerned with the next couple of weeks and making sure my players don’t get injuries at club level.”

Croatia will host surprise Euro 2004 win-ners Greece in the first leg of their playoff.

Croatia’s coach Zlatko Dalic said the tie would be “a difficult job”, but added: “I’m optimistic.”

Spanish player Fernando Hierro displays the name ‘Italy’ during the FIFA World Cup European play-off draw in Zurich, Switzerland, yesterday.

Socceroos warned to expect the worst against Honduras

Euro play-offs draw

Republic of Ireland meet Denmark, Northern Ireland will tackle Switzerland, while Croatia and Greece will contest the two-legged Europe zone play-offs between November 9 and November 14.

Hong Kong

Reuters

Former Australia coach Pim Verbeek has warned the Socceroos to expect the worst when they travel to Hon-duras for the first leg of their intercontinental qualifying

match for next year’s World Cup finals in November.Ange Postecoglou’s team face off against the Hondurans,

who finished fourth in North and Central America’s qualify-ing campaign, having narrowly defeated Syria in an Asian playoff last week.

The winners over two legs will go into the December 1 draw for Russia and Verbeek, who took Australia to the finals in 2010, believes the challenge facing the Socceroos will be unlike any they have previously encountered.

“The Australians will find it very different to many of the places they’ve been,” Verbeek, who is currently coaching Oman’s national team, said.

“The closest comparison is to Uruguay, when they went there in 2005, but it’s worse.

“It’s a long journey too, they’ll probably have to fly to Miami and then down to Honduras. Then they have to go back, so it’s going to be a tough challenge with no real time for preparation because the distances are so big.

“It’s going to be hard.”Football Federation Australia (FFA) are reported in local

media to be looking at hiring a charter plane to get the team to and from Central America, as they did for the trip to Syria.

Verbeek has first-hand experience of taking a team to San Pedro Sula, where the first leg will be played on Novem-ber 10, having travelled with the Netherlands Antilles to the Honduran capital to play a World Cup qualifying match in 2004.

The Caribbean side lost that game to the Bora Miluti-novic-coached Hondurans to exit qualifying for Germany 2006.

Then, as now, the situation in the country was fraught with security issues.

Honduras currently boasts the highest murder rate in the world, according to the Central Intelligence Agency, while Australia’s department of foreign affairs advises travellers visiting the country to “exercise a high degree of caution”.

“Honduras is not the safest place,” said Verbeek.“I was there quite a few years ago when I was coach of

the Dutch Antilles, we played a World Cup match there and it was dangerous.

“We had a truck in front of our team bus and one behind with heavily armed guards every time we trav-elled and we were told that we were never to leave the hotel.”

The second leg will be played at Sydney’s Olympic Sta-dium on November 15.

Bayern Munich’s German defender Jerome Boateng attends a press conference on the eve of the Champions League group B match against Celtic Glasgow in Munich, southern Germany, yesterday.

Bayern regroup for Celtic challenge under HeynckesMunich, Germany AFP

Bayern Munich are looking to regroup in the Champi-ons League at home to

Celtic today as Jupp Heynckes coaches his first European game since winning the 2013 final.

The 72-year-old steered Bayern to the Champions League title four years ago by beating Borussia Dortmund at Wembley to complete the tre-ble of European, Bundesliga and German Cup titles in the 2012/13 season.

However, after Carlo Ance-lotti was sacked in the wake of Bayern’s 3-0 hammering at Paris Saint-Germain three

weeks ago, Heynckes came out of retirement to return as head coach until the end of the season.

After four years out, Celtic’s visit to Allianz Arena is Hey-nckes’ first real test as Bayern look to show reaction from their thrashing in Paris.

Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who has scored six goals in five matches at the Allianz Arena this season, said Heynckes has already made an impact after just a week back. “He wants us to focus on the details. In training ses-sions, every pass and every shot is important,” said Lewandowski.

“We have to remain focused.

We need to go forward together as a team and have fun.”

Lewandowski is Bayern’s most successful foreign goals-corer, with a total of 24 goals, and has scored 10 times in his last twelve Champions League matches.

The striker has made no secret of his desire to win the Champions League title this season.

With three points from their first two games, Bayern need a home win to get them back on track in Group B.

“It’s a very important game for us,” admitted Lewandowski, who scored in Saturday’s 5-0 thrashing of Freiburg in the Bundesliga.

35WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Frazier, Judge power Yankees past AstrosNew York

AFP

Home runs from Todd Frazier and Aaron Judge powered the New York Yankees to an 8-1 victory

over the Houston Astros on Mon-day and back into their American League Championship Series.

After dropping the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Houston, the Yankees bounced back before a sell-out crowd of 49,373 at Yankee Stadium to trim the Astros’ series lead to 2-1.

Aaron Judge, the rookie sen-sation and AL Most Valuable Player candidate, broke out of his playoff slump with a two-out, three-run home run off of Astros relief pitcher Charlie Morton that highlighted a five-run fourth inning.

Judge came up big defen-sively as well, with a leaping catch into the right field wall in the top of the fourth that denied Yuli Gurriel at least an extra base hit and possibly a home run.

Judge’s diving catch of a ball hit by Cameron Maybin gave the Yankees their first out of the fifth.

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia pitched six gritty, scoreless innings.

Frazier gave Sabathia some early breathing room with a two-out, three-run homer off of Astros starting pitcher Charlie Morton in the bottom of the sec-ond inning.

Judge came into the game in a 4-for-31 slump in these play-offs -- including 19 strikeouts -- said he was pleased to provide support for Sabathia.

“It felt good to put a couple more runs on the board for CC,” Judge said of his home run. “He was working his butt off, did a great job tonight, and just to add

those extra couple of runs was huge for us.”

Sabathia allowed three hits in six scoreless innings, striking out five. He’s 10-0 this season when pitching following a Yan-kees defeat.

The 37-year old pitcher was making his 22nd post-season start, and produced his first

scoreless playoff outing. “It’s weird,” he said. “Me being 37, smoke and mirrors, getting a shutout.

“I wanted to come out and try to give it everything I could to throw strikes and have a good performance.”

New York took the lead in the second. Starlin Castro sparked

the two-out rally with an infield single. Aaron Hicks followed with a single to left-center before third baseman Frazier smacked a fastball that was down and out-side into the right field stands.

“That home run I hit, it was unorthodox, but I’ll take a hun-dred like it,” he said.

While the Astros’ big bats

struggled -- Jose Altuve and Car-los Correa were a combined 1-for-8 at the plate -- Houston avoided being blanked when they posted their lone run in the ninth on a bases-loaded walk by Alex Bregman.

“CC was really good because he didn’t make a lot of mistakes,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.

“He can pitch with the ele-vated fastball. He’s got a pretty good breaking ball, especially when he gets you in the swing mode.

“We were a little swing happy tonight against him and he took advantage of being able to pitch to the outer parts of the strike zone.”

The Yankees will try to level the series when they host game four.

The winner of the series will face either the Los Angeles Dodg-ers or Chicago Cubs in the World Series.

The Dodgers lead the reign-ing champion Cubs 2-0 in the National League Championship Series with game three in Chicago.

New York Yankees third baseman Chase Headley (12) hits an RBI single during the fourth inning against the Houston Astros during game three of the 2017 ALCS playoff baseball series at Yankee Stadium on Monday.

Bounce back

After dropping first two games of the best-of-seven series, the Yankees bounced back to trim the Astros’ series lead.

Titans finally find a way past ColtsNashville, Tennessee

AP

Marcus Mariota threw a 53-yard touchdown pass to Taywan Tay-lor with 5:29 left , helping the

Tennessee Titans beat the Indianapolis Colts 36-22 on Monday night to end an 11-game skid tied for the NFL’s longest active losing streak against one team.

Mariota didn’t move around much on a cool night after missing a game with a strained left hamstring, but still man-aged to throw for a season-high 306 yards. He completed each of his three passes on the drive that ended with Tay-lor’s tiebreaking score.

The Titans (3-3) also ended a two-game skid with the win.

Jacoby Brissett tried to rally the Colts (2-4) to a second straight overtime. But Titans linebacker Wesley Woodyard forced Brissett out of bounds shy of the first down marker on fourth-and-inches with 2:19 left. Coach Chuck Pagano lost his challenge.

Derrick Henry then clinched the win for Tennessee with a 72-yard TD run with 47 seconds left. Henry, the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner, finished with a career-high 131 yards on 19 carries. DeMarco Murray also scored.

The Titans looked like the NFL’s worst scoring defense in the first half instead of Indianapolis, with Brissett directing the Colts to a 13-9 halftime lead. John Simon then intercepted Mariota’s first

pass of the third quarter and returned it 26 yards for a TD.

But the Titans forced the Colts to go three-and-out on three of their first four drives of the second half, and Avery Wil-liamson stripped tight end Jack Doyle of the ball after a catch.

Tennessee kicker Ryan Succop went 5 for 5 to break the NFL record for most consecutive successful field goals inside of 50 yards. He connected from 48, 32 and 40 yards in the first half and then hit from 23 and 48 yards in the third.

Succop began the day tied with Matt Bryant, who connected on 46 straight field goals inside 50 yards between 2013 and 2015 for the Atlanta Falcons.

Adam Vinatieri, the Colts’ accom-plished kicker, got three field goals himself, including a 52-yarder. But he missed an extra point off the left upright.

The Colts’ team message got a prime-time audience with outside linebacker Jabaal Sheard wearing a black T-shirt with the message “We Will” over his jer-sey during the coin toss. On the back were the words “Stand For: Equality Justice Unity Respect Dialogue Opportunity.”

The Colts have been wearing these T-shirts during pregame warmups for the last couple of weeks.

A handful of Titans, including defen-sive lineman Jurrell Casey, raised a fist into the air after the national anthem ended. Wide receiver Rishard Matthews stayed off the field during the anthem for a third straight game.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota (8) drops back to pass during the first half against the Indianapolis Colts at Nissan Stadium during their NFL game on Monday.

LeBron’s status for opener vs Celtics still unclearIndependence, Ohio

AP

Following Cleveland’s final practice before a season opener against Boston with

playoff-level hype, Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue still wasn’t sure if LeBron James was play-ing today.

“Oh, he’s gonna go,” Smith said of his celebrated teammate. “He’s gonna go, trust me that. I don’t care what he’s gotta do, he’s gonna play.”

While Smith may be giving James the green light, Lue and other team officials remained unsure of James’ status for the game against the Celtics and former Cavs guard Kyrie Irving, whose ballyhooed return to Cleveland is expected to be part homecoming, part hate-fest.

James didn’t speak to report-ers following Monday’s practice, but the three-time champion was in a playful mood while engag-ing in a competitive outside shooting contest with teammates

Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and Jeff Green.

James has been slowed by a sprained left ankle suffered in practice on September27. He played in only one of Cleveland’s five exhibition games, and his absence has kept a starting lineup that now includes Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose from getting much floor time together.

The 32-year-old James hasn’t missed an opener in his previ-ous 14 seasons, and it would be hard to imagine sitting this one

out given the attention with Irv-ing coming back following this summer’s blockbuster trade between the teams — and the All-Star guard’s recent swipe at Cleveland.

Just so he’s protected, Lue has made a contingency lineup in case James doesn’t play. Smith will take his spot in the Cavs’ “B’’ lineup.

Lue has said for days that he doesn’t know for sure if James will be ready.

“You know I never hide stuff

from you guys,” Lue said when pressed about his superstar’s availability. “I really don’t know, I mean, just depends on how he feels after today. ... I’m prepar-ing that he is (playing).”

Smith, who is beginning his third full season with Cleveland, knows it will take a lot more than a sore ankle to keep James off the floor.

“Just because he loves the game,” he said. “We were talk-ing about it, he’s never missed, since he was 8 years old and he

started playing, he’s never missed a first game. I’m prepar-ing for him to play.”

The Cavaliers have struggled mightily when James has been out of the lineup, losing 11 straight regular-season games and going 4-23 without him since 2014. With a revamped roster and more offensive options than ever, Lue believes the Cavs are more equipped to compete when James is on the bench.

“We’ll be a lot better off,” he said.

NHL: Kucherov scored twice as Lightning tame Red WingsNew York

Reuters

Nikita Kucherov scored twice, including the game-winner in the third period,

as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 on Monday.

Kucherov slammed the rebound of a Steven Stamkos shot past Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard 1:47 into the third to snap a 2-2 tie.

Kucherov has now scored in all six games this season, the first NHL player to do that since Keith Tka-chuk of the St. Louis Blues in 2008-09. The Tampa Bay winger has seven goals in all.

The Lightning (5-1-0) beat the Red Wings (4-2-0) for the eighth consecutive regular-season meeting.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring 9:15 into the game while killing a penalty. Lightning forward Tyler Johnson pounced on a turn-over, burst past Red Wings defenseman Trevor Daley into the clear and slid the puck between Howard’s pads.

36 WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

QFA and Uzbekistan Football Federation sign agreementThe Peninsula

The Qatar Football Associ-ation (QFA) and the Uzbekistan Football Fed-

eration (UFF) signed a memorandum of collaboration yesterday at QFA’s headquar-ters at Al Bidda Tower.

The agreement, which focuses on areas of cooperation between the two parties, was signed by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of the QFA and Umid Ahmadjonov, President of the UFF.

The signing ceremony was also attended by Saoud Al Mohannadi, Vice President of the QFA, Mansoor Al Ansari, General Secretary of the QFA.

The upcoming period will witness the establishment of a joint working group which will study the legal frameworks in detail in order to activate the agreement.

A plan of action will also be prepared, which will include a report on the most important achievements, schedule of activities and events that will bring together the two associa-tions in the coming period.

The purpose of this agree-ment is for both associations to invest in the brotherly and bilat-eral relations between the two countries and further explore areas of interest between them.

The memorandum signed will see both federations share expertise and experiences in the areas of training of technical personnel, sports science, and sports medicine.

Additionally, the memoran-dum will also focus on

exchanges of information and technical material to serve the development of football in both countries which acts as a mile-stone aimed at facilitating the growth and development of football in Qatar and Uzbekistan.

The establishment of train-ing camps and benefitting from the exceptional expertise of Aspire Academy and Aspetar will also be an aspect of the agreement.

Commenting on the occa-sion, President of the UFF, Umid

Ahmadjonov said: “I am very happy to be here in Qatar and thank Sheikh Hamad bin Kha-lifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of the QFA for the warm welcome. This is not strange to Qatar and its people. I am also happy to sign this

memorandum of collaboration between the UFF and QFA, and I hope our fruitful collaboration will continue further in the next period.”

He added: “The agreement is an extension of our existing bilateral relations as we have a longstanding history of joint work, and this agreement will undoubtedly have a great impact in strengthening the relations between us and the QFA. Qatar has great sports infrastructure and facilities, and it is a pioneer in this field. I am proud of what I saw at during my visit at Aspire, which is a sign that this cooperation will develop our football at all levels.”

He also said: “I have also seen the tremendous prepara-tions undertaken for hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™, and I am confident that Qatar will organise a unique tourna-ment, which is a great honor to all of us as Qatar represents Asia.”

Other key areas covered by the agreement include transfer of knowledge at the technical and administrative level of both associations and attention will be given to the exchange of expertise on the use of techni-cal experts, coaches and referees through organizing dif-ferent workshops, training camps, and seminars.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of Qatar Football Association (QFA) hands over a memento to Umid Ahmadjonov, President of Uzbekistan Football Federation (UFF) after signing a memorandum of collaboration at QFA’s headquarters at Al Bidda Tower yesterday.

Sparks bound to fly in crucial Al Sailiya, Al Rayyan QSL clashArmstrong Vas The Peninsula

Fifth-placed Al Sailiya will aim for full points - which will help them to leapfrog

over Al Rayyan - when the two teams clash in Round Five of the QNB Stars League (QSL) at the Al Ahli Stadium on Friday.

Both the teams are prepar-ing hard for their tough match and sparks are bound to fly in the clash as both are tied with same number of points (9) and also on goal difference but Al Rayyan are placed fourth hav-ing scored more goals.

Moroccan forward Abder-razzak Hamdellah is leading The Lions’ charge while Al Sailiya should take heart from the fact that Brazilian Wagner Ribeiro has sort of regained his original form, as was evident

from his display over Al Kharaitiyat in their previous game.

The Al Sailiya team manage-ment hailed the Brazilian playmaker, who came up with a delightful display during their victory over Al Kharaitiyat on Saturday.

Al Sailiya players are keen to build on their victories in the previous two rounds and have been training under the watch-ful eyes of Tunisian coach Sami Trabelsi.

The fifth round will kick off tomorrow with matches set for Friday and Saturday.

Al Kharaitiyat will open the proceedings by taking on Al Gharafa at the Al Khor Stadium tomorrow.

On Friday, besides the Al Sailiya-Al Rayyan clash, Al Khor will meet Al Markhiya and Al Arabi face Al Sadd. The round’s

action will conclude on Satur-day, with Umm Salal taking on Al Duhail and Qatar SC facing Al Ahli.

Elsewhere, Al Sadd will be looking to take forward their impeccable performance into Round five when they take on Al Arabi in the derby match on October 20 at Al Arabi Stadium.

The Al Arabi-Al Sadd derby is part of the Qatar football leg-end and it always evokes a keen i n t e r e s t a m o n g a l l stakeholders.

Both the teams go into the match at back of contrasting records against their name.

Al Sadd go into the Match of the Week on the back of a strong performance against Qatar SC while Al Arabi had lost to Umm Salal in the previous round and must find motivation ahead of the derby.

Al Sadd and Al Duhail are moving neck and neck atop the standings, the latter leading the table on goal difference, while Al Arabi are ninth with three points that they gained from their victory over Qatar SC in Round 3. So there is a lot at stake

for both sides. The presence of top players on both sides will be the icing on the cake.

Al Duhail’s game against Umm Salal will also have all ingredients of a thriller.

The Red Knights will be bolstered by the presence of coach Djamel Belmadi back on the touchline as he was ordered to be on the stands for their last two league matches due to a disciplinary action taken after their Round 2 fixture against Al Arabi.

The face-off between two in-form strikers, Youssef El Arabi of Al Duhail and Yannick Sagbo of Umm Salal, will be the sub-plot of this encounter.

Both players performed cru-cial roles, with hat-tricks, in their Round 3 victories. El Arabi is leading the top scorers’ chart with eight goals.

Al Graham will also be on a high, having scored their first victory in the league, when they face Al Kharaitiyat. Promoted Al Markhiya and Al Ahli will have to raise their game by a few notches to move up from the bottom when they play Al Khor and Qatar SC respectively.

The fourth-round action saw the maximum number of goals (27) scored for a week so far in this season’s league. Obviously, there were many high-scoring games and outstanding individ-ual performances.

There was not a single drawn result too. All these factors augur well for the competition and fans can look forward to more and more exciting contests in the coming weekend.

Al Markhiya’s Rebin Ghareeb Solaka (left) and Al Sailiya’s Temurkhuja Abdukholikov vie for the ball possession during their QNB Stars League match.

QATAR STARS LEAGUE Tomorrow

Al Kharaitiyat vs Al Gharafa at the Al Khor Stadium 19:35

Friday’s matches

Al Sailiya vs Al Rayyan at Al Ahli Stadium 17:25

Al Khor vs Al Markhiya at Al Khor Stadium 17:25

Al Arabi vs Al Sadd at Al Arabi Stadium 19:35

Saturday’s matches

Umm Salal vs Al Duhail at Al Gharafa Stadium 17:25

Qatar SC vs Al Ahli at Al Duhail Stadium 19:35

Action from last week’s QNB Stars League match between Al Rayyan and Al Markhiya.

Schumacher’s teenage son dreams of F1Berlin

AFP

Michael Schumacher’s 18-year-old son Mick may not have stood

out in his first season of For-mula Three but his sights remain firmly set on Formula One.

“Yes, my goal is always F1,” Mick Schumacher told German sports agency SID, after finishing the F3 season in 12th place with one podium finish, coming third at Monza in April.

“I am concentrating on myself and I do not look at the other drivers. Everyone progresses at their own pace, it’s not comparable,” he said after a question about young F1 drivers like Lance Stroll, 18, and Max Verstappen, who drove in his first Grand Prix at the age of 17.

“I take one step after another and try to prepare myself for my future,” Schu-macher said. “When I feel I’m ready, I will take the next step, but first I have to prove myself.”

“I attacked my first F3 season with the aim to learn as much as possible,” he said. “This is what happened this year, and I’m really pleased. I try to improve myself in all areas.”

Meanwhile, Robert Kubica, bidding to return to Formula One after a seven-year absence, completed a ‘productive’ test with Wil-liams in Hungary yesterday.

It was the 32-year-old’s second test with the former champions, who conducted the session in secrecy and gave little away about it.

A spokeswoman said sim-ply that he had “completed another productive day run-ning with the team” in a 2014 specification FW36 car.

There were no timings or details about the number of laps completed. Kubica’s pre-vious test at Silverstone on October 11 was described merely as a ‘successful day’.