Ajax held as Shakhtar ease to qualifying win

Lazio sign striker Immobile from Seville

PARIS, July 27, (Agencies): Four-time European champions Ajax laboured to a 1-1 draw at home to PAOK in the first leg of Tuesday’s Champions League third qualifying round, while Shakhtar Donetsk overcame Young Boys 2-0.

Djalma Campos handed PAOK a firsthalf lead in Amsterdam, and although Kasper Dolberg equalised before the hour Ajax still face a tricky task in next week’s second leg in Greece.

In Lviv, Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Switzerland’s Young Boys with goals in either half from Brazil international Bernard and Ukraine striker Yevhen Seleznyov as the visitors saw Milan Vilotic sent off.

BATE Borisov of Belarus, who are seeking to reach the group stage for the fifth time in six seasons, beat Irish outfit Dundalk 1-0, while Dinamo Zagreb eased past Georgia’s Dinamo Tbilisi 2-0.

Italian side Lazio have signed striker Ciro Immobile from Spain’s Seville, both clubs said on Wednesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The 26-year-old has played 15 times for Italy and spent the second half of last season on loan with Serie A club Torino.

He made two appearances for his country at the European Championship.

Immobile scored five goals in 14 league games for Torino and two in eight La Liga appearances for Seville last season.

Australia international left back Brad Smith has joined Bournemouth from Liverpool on a four-year contract, the Premier League clubs said on Wednesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but British media reported that Bournemouth had paid three million pounds ($3.94 million) for the 22-yearold.

Smith made 10 appearances for Liverpool under manager Juergen Klopp last season and scored against Exeter City in the FA Cup in January. New Barcelona’s Portuguese forward Andre Gomes (left), poses with his new jersey beside Barcelona’s president Josep Maria Bartomeu (right), on the pitch during his official presentation at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona on July 27, after signing his new contract with

the Catalan club. (AFP)

Austrian international Marko Arnautovic has signed a four-year extension with Stoke City, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old, who had a year remaining on his previous four-year deal, was Stoke’s top scorer with 12 goals in all competitions last season as Mark Hughes’ side finished ninth in the league table.

The striker, who has often played in a wide role with Stoke, had been linked by British media with a potential move to fellow Premier League club Everton and Ligue 1 champions Paris St Germain.

Veteran Croatian striker Ivica Olic, who turns 37 in September, has signed a one-year contract with German secondtier club 1860 Munich, Wednesday.

It had been thought Olic’s career was over after he was injured in March while training with Hamburg, but the offer from 1860 will extend his playing career into next season.

Olic has scored 72 goals in 238 Bundesliga games and made 104 appearances for Croatia, scoring 20 goals for his country, before retiring from international football in March.

it was announced

Brazilian international striker Alexandre Pato has joined Spanish club Villarreal from Corinthians, the Sao Paulo outfit announced on Tuesday.

No details were given on the transfer fee or length of the contract, although local media reported the Spanish club paid an estimated three million euros ($3.2m) to obtain 60 percent of the player’s rights for four years with the remainder held by Pato.

Pato, 26, has already played in Europe with AC Milan from 2008 to 2013 and for six months with Chelsea last season during a disappointing loan spell in which he played two matches and scored one goal.

Barcelona paraded Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes at the Camp Nou on Wednesday after his 55-million-euro capture from Valencia on a five-year deal.

The 22-year-old, part of Portugal’s European Championship-winning side, has a release clause of 100 million euros ($110 mn, £84 mn) and will cost an initial 35 million euros, with 20 million in add-ons.

Gomes, who agreed the move last week, said he chose the Spanish champions because he felt it gave him the best chance to progress as a player.

Barcelona says Argentina international Javier Mascherano has agreed to extend his contract with the Spanish champions until June 2019.

Club executive Albert Soler says “we have reached an agreement to improve (Mascherano’s) contract” without specifying the financial details.

The 32-year-old Mascherano plays as a central defender for Barcelona alongside fellow first-choice centerback Gerard Pique.

Since his arrival in 2010 from Liverpool, he has played in 282 games for Barcelona and helped it win 16 titles, including two Champions League crowns.

Also on Wednesday, Barcelona presented new midfielder Andre Gomes.

Real Madrid

coach

Zinedine Zidane has ended speculation regarding the future of Colombian international James Rodriguez by confirming the 25-year-old winger will remain at the club.

Reports in England and Spain linked Rodriguez, who joined Real from Monaco shortly after the 2014 World Cup, with a move to the Premier League this summer, with Manchester United among the clubs keen to acquire his services.

Speaking ahead of his team’s opening pre-season game against Paris SaintGermain on Thursday at the Ohio Stadium in Columbus, United States, Zidane said: “James is a Real Madrid player.

The biggest football event of the year in the occupied Palestinian territories took place on Tuesday with a rare match between teams from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Shabab Khan Yunis, from Gaza’s second city, hosted Hebron’s Ahly alKhalil who beat the hosts 1-0 in the first leg of the Palestinian Cup.

The cup pits the winners of leagues in Gaza and the West Bank against each other for a place at the next season’s AFC Asian Cup.

The return leg is set to be played in Hebron on Saturday, but whether it takes place will depend on Israel allowing the Khan Yunis players to travel to the West Bank city.

Palestinian footballers routinely complain of being unable to attend matches because of Israel’s stringent restrictions on movement between the two territories.

Arsenal’s Mertesacker

German centre back Per will be sidelined for a few months with a knee problem, the Premier League club’s manager Arsene Wenger told a news conference on Tuesday.

He was injured in Friday’s friendly away to Lens and ruled out of the preseason tour of the United States which kicks off on Friday MLS All-Stars in San Jose,

Immobile

against the California.

Mertesacker’s injury means Wenger may have to rush back Laurent Koscielny, who is resting after helping France reach the Euro 2016 final, for the start of the Premier League season.

Gabriel has also missed the US tour with tonsillitis, leaving Calum Chambers as their most experienced centre back.

England Under-21 central defender Rob Holding, 20, joined the club from Bolton Wanderers last week.

Arsenal start their league campaign at home to Liverpool on Aug 14.

Former German Football Association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach will appeal against a one-year ban by world soccer’s governing body FIFA, he said on Wednesday.

FIFA’s Ethics Committee banned Niersbach on Monday for failing to report potential misconduct surrounding the award of the 2006 soccer World Cup to Germany.

“After consulting my lawyers I will file an appeal, even just to be able to get a written explanation for this verdict,” Niersbach told Germany’s Bild newspaper.

Niersbach, who sat on the FIFA Council and is a member of the executive committee of European soccer’s governing body UEFA, resigned as DFB president in November after he was unable to explain a 6.7 million euro ($7.4 million) payment from the German World Cup organisers to FIFA.

A report in May from the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee — an independent body — found Niersbach had violated its ethics code and recommended he be banned for two years from all football-related activity and fined.

The German, who has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing, said at the time he disagreed with the severity of the recommendations.

Niersbach is also under investigation by Frankfurt prosecutors for suspected tax evasion over the payment to FIFA.

England’s Football Association plans to let teams make an additional, fourth, substitution in extra-time from the quarter-finals onwards of next season’s FA Cup, the governing body said Wednesday.

The rule change, which still requires approval from the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game’s global law-makers, will see teams who have made all three changes during the regulation 90 minutes of a quarterfinal, semi-final or final tie permitted one more substitute during the 30 minutes of extra-time.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn said on www.thefa.com: “With the Cup now adopting a straight knock-out format from the quarter-finals onwards (there will be no replays in any matches from the stage), the introduction of a fourth substitute in extra-time will bring extra intrigue and interest.”