Celtic survive Astana to reach group stage

Ex-Dinamo boss injured after shooting

PARIS, Aug 22, (Agencies): Celtic qualified for the lucrative Champions League group stage on Tuesday despite losing 4-3 to Astana in the second leg of their play-off in Kazakhstan.

Patrick Twumasi scored twice as Astana, beaten 5-0 last week in Glasgow, threatened an incredible comeback before Brendan Rodgers’ side secured their place with an 8-4 aggregate victory.

Kristoffer Ajer diverted a Dmitri Shomko shot beyond Craig Gordon as Astana took the lead on 26 minutes, but Scott Sinclair settled Celtic nerves with a superb equaliser.

However, Serikzhan Muzhikov drilled Astana back ahead on the night before Ghanaian striker Twumasi added a brace to leave Celtic rattled and facing a tense final 20 minutes.

Olivier Ntcham ended Astana’s hopes though when his deflected strike made it 4-2 before Leigh Griffiths reduced the deficit further in the final minute.

Monaco’s unsettled striker Kylian Mbappe came under fire on Tuesday from hardcore supporters of the French champions.

Ultras Monaco 1994 took to Twitter to claim that the reported Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid target had “proved nothing special in his few dozen matches as a professional”.

Mbappe was left out of Monaco’s squad for Friday’s Ligue 1 outing at Metz as speculation intensified surrounding the teen sensation’s future.

“Kylian is not at 100 percent. He is not in great form. But that is to be expected of a kid who is just 18,” Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim explained.

Mbappe’s new employers will have to meet a reported 180 million euros ($211 million) price tag to secure the services of a player who scored 26 goals in 44 matches last season.

The club’s Ultras said they were “amazed and indignant” at the amount of money “involved in Mbappe’s transfer and in his salary to extend his contract”.

“No player is worth so many millions of euros,” argued UM1994.

In their Twitter criticism Monaco’s Ultras spoke of “the love and respect for the shirt of the club that helped shape him for life”.

And they reminded Kylian Mbappe “and his entourage” that “nothing or no one is bigger than AS Monaco.”

Their statement concluded with a vote of confidence in the club’s directors “to construct a team capable of defending our title with or without Mbappe”.

Monaco have lost three key members of the title-winning team this summer.

Full-back Benjamin Mendy was sold to Manchester City for a reported £52 million (58 million euros, $67 million) fee, a world record for a defender, last month, joining Portuguese playmaker Bernardo Silva at the club.

Powerful midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko meanwhile joined Chelsea.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s final route of appeal against his five-match ban for pushing a referee after being sent off in the Spanish Super Cup was rejected by Spain’s administrative sports court (TAD) on Tuesday.

“TAD has rejected the appeal presented by Real Madrid against the five-match ban,” a TAD spokesperson confirmed to AFP.

Ronaldo blasted his treatment by the Spanish football federation as “persecution” after he was controversially shown a second yellow card for diving after coming off the bench to score as Real won the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup 3-1.

The Portugal captain was handed a one-match ban for the 10th red card of his career and a further four-game suspension for pushing referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea in protest.

“Impossible to be immune to this situation, 5 games!!” Ronaldo posted to his 108 million followers on Instagram after his first appeal was dismissed by the federation last week.

Controversial former Dinamo Zagreb director Zdravko Mamic was shot and injured in Bosnia on Monday, police and media reported.

Croatia’s state TV said Mamic was shot in his leg and taken to a local

Seattle Sounders’ Christian Roldan (left), challenges a Minnesota United player for the ball during an MLS soccer match on

Aug 20, in Seattle. (AP)

hospital on Monday. It said the injury was not life-threatening.

Police were searching for two possible assailants.

Bosnian media said Mamic was attending a memorial for his father at a graveyard near the town of Tomislavgrad when two people fired at him from a nearby forest. Another report said it was a drive-by shooting.

Croatia’s TV said Mamic voluntarily left the hospital in Bosnia after doctors managed to stop the bleeding, and he went to the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

Bosnian police declined to confirm the identity of the victim by name, but said a man with the initials ZM and born in 1959 in the Croatian city of Bjelovar, just like Mamic, was shot and injured.

Valencia defender Joao Cancelo has joined Inter Milan on a one-year loan deal, the Serie A club said on Tuesday (www.inter.it).

Italian media reported that the 23-year-old has joined Inter in exchange for French midfielder Geoffrey Kongdobia, who joined Valencia on loan on Monday.

The Milan-based club has the option to make the Portugal international’s move permanent for a reported fee of 35 million euros ($41 million).

“I intend to settle in as quickly as possible, I’m a player who likes to help my team mates and I’ll give my all for Inter,” said Cancelo, capped five times by Portugal.

Bayern Munich received a timely boost on Tuesday when Thiago Alcantara, Arjen Robben and Javi Martinez all returned to training ahead of Saturday’s Bundesliga match at Werder Bremen.

The trio sat out last Friday’s opening match of the season when the defending champions eased to a 3-1 win at home to Bayer Leverkusen.

Robben pulled up in training on Saturday with a thigh strain, while this was the first time Martinez and Thiago have trained this season.

Thiago is returning after a calf problem and stomach muscle injury, while Martinez missed the past two weeks with a leg injury, after breaking his collarbone towards the end of last season.

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Julian Weigl returned to team training on Tuesday just over three months after breaking his ankle, the club said.

Germany international Weigl, who suffered the injury in May, will miss the national team’s World Cup qualifying matches in early September, but could be back in action for his club by Sept 9 when they travel to Freiburg.