Messi, Ronaldo back in CL action
Chelsea welcome Bayern
LONDON, Feb 24, (AP): Lionel Messi is back in top form going into the game, giving Barcelona extra hope they can leave behind the off-field problems that have hurt the club this year.
Messi ended a four-game scoreless streak with a fourgoal performance in the team’s 5-0 rout of Eibar in the Spanish league on Saturday at the Camp Nou.
“It’s important that he is at his best,” Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic said of Messi. “When he is playing well, it’s better for all of us.” Barcelona’s fourth straight league win helped ease some of the pressure on club president Josep Bartomeu, who was jeered by part of the crowd amid one of the club’s worst institutional crises. They include a divisive coaching change and public conflicts between players and club directors.
New coach Quique Setién said the players are not being distracted by these issues and the team carries good momentum entering the match against Napoli, which have won six of their last seven matches in all competition under coach Gennaro Gattuso. “The team is fully focused,” Setién said. Bayern coach Hansi Flick was keen to check out his options for the upcoming game at Stamford Bridge in the 3-2 win over Paderborn on Friday that kept Bayern top of the Bundesliga.
He played three at the back, with Joshua Kimmich to David Alaba’s right and Lucas Hernandez to his left as a central unit, but the latter showed he is still not fully fit after recovering from injury.
Alphonso Davies dropped back to help Hernandez, with Alvaro Odriozola on the other side and appearing slightly lost in his first league start since joining on loan from Real Madrid.
Suspended against Paderborn, Benjamin Pavard will return to the starting lineup against Chelsea, with Jerome Boateng also coming back to strengthen the defense. Both Niklas Süle and Javi Martinez are injured.
Corentin Tolisso and Philippe Coutinho were both taken off early against Paderborn and are unlikely to be given another chance in London, with Thomas Müller and Kingsley Coman expected to be preferred.
Bayern lost the 2012 final in their own stadium on penalties to Chelsea.
“We don’t need to speak about it,” said captain Manuel
Napoli vs Barcelona beIN SPORTS 1HD 13HD
23:00 local
Chelsea vs Bayern beIN SPORTS 2HD 11HD
23:00 local
Real vs Man City beIN SPORTS 1HD 11HD
23:00 local (Wednesday)
Lyon vs Juventus beIN SPORTS 2HD 13HD
23:00 local (Wednesday)
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring his side’s opening goal during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Eibar at the Camp Nou
stadium in Barcelona, Spain Feb 22. (AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb 24, (AP): An Omani cricketer has been banned for seven years after admitting to corruption charges relating to qualifiers for the men’s Twenty20 World Cup.
The International Cricket Council announced Monday that Yousuf Abdulrahim Al Balushi had accepted four charges of breaching the ICC AntiCorruption Code, including an attempt to solicit another player for match fixing, failing to report illegal match fixing approaches from three people and trying to obstruct an investigation by deleting evidence from his telephone.
The ICC said the charges all related to the T20 qualifiers held in the United Arab Emirates last year.
“This is a very serious offense where a player attempted but failed to get a teammate to engage in corrupt activity in high-profile games and this is reflected in the severity of the sentence,” Alex Marshall, the ICC”s general manager for integrity, said. “Without Mr. Balushi’s admission of guilt and full cooperation throughout our investigation, the ban could have been significantly longer.”
The maximum penalty under the code is a life ban from all involvement in cricket, including playing, coaching or officiating at any match.
An investigation found that Balushi, who was playing in the Oman domestic competition at the time, was initially asked by a contact he knew from an unsanctioned tournament in Bahrain in 2017 to “do some work together” and to set up contact with three Oman players.
He did not facilitate the contact in that case, but didn’t report the approach to cricket integrity officials.
He was later approached by two associates of the initial contact, and passed on a message to an Oman player. The player rejected the approach and immediately reported it to anti-corruption officials.
Oman was one of four teams that secured a place through qualifying for the first round of the men’s T20 World Cup in Australia starting in October. The top four teams in the first round will progress to a Super 12 stage, joining the top eight teams at the World Cup.
Champions League title.
Ronaldo marked his 1,000th official match by scoring a record-equaling goal to help Juventus win 2-1 at Spal on Saturday.
The 35-year-old Ronaldo scored for an 11th straight league game, matching the Serie A record set by Gabriel Batistuta in 1994 and equaled by Fabio Quagliarella last season.
Ronaldo has scored only two goals in this season’s Champions League but has been in superb form since the end of the group stages and his glut of goals has taken his tally in Serie A to 21 in as many matches.
Lyon coach Rudi Garcia was asked on how he plans to stop Ronaldo.
“You stop him at the border, if he decides that he doesn’t like Lyon and doesn’t want to play here,” Garcia said. “Jokes aside, he can be contained with a defensive team-effort ... I’ll say to everyone that it’s a challenge, a challenge. This must be the motivation. Also for me.” With that win, Juventus remained one point clear of Lazio at the top of the Italian standings. Lyon also won at the weekend, 2-0 at Metz. It is seventh in the French league.