Barca open four-point gap with sensational display, Real held

MADRID: Barcelona opened up a four-point gap at the top of the Spanish First Division on Sunday when they staged another sensational display of attacking football to sweep aside Malaga 4-1.

Motivated by Real Madrid’s shock 1-1 draw at bottom side Almeria earlier in the day, Barcelona were quickly out of the blocks and Andres Iniesta scored the opening goal after just seven minutes.

World Player of the Year Lionel Messi was running circles around the Malaga defence and the little Argentine set up David Villa to double the advantage, while Pedro Rodriguez added a third before the break.

Malaga had more possession in the second half and they pulled a goal back through a fine Duda free-kick.

But Barcelona raised their level again, and Villa latched on to a Xavi Hernandez pass to notch up his second of the night.

“It is ridiculous to talk about a four-point gap at this stage of the season as it is nothing. There is a long way to go and we can drop points,” said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.

“We will continue to take risks and play our style of football. It is important for us to keep working and concentrating on our own situation.”

Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini admitted that his side were well beaten.

An Esteban Granero strike rescued a point for misfiring Real against Almeria. In stark contrast to Barcelona, the talk in recent weeks has been over Real’s lack of fire-power following an injury to Gonzalo Higuain and although they saw plenty of the ball in midfield they were unable to create any clear chances in the first half.

Karim Benzema was brought on for Kaka after the break but it was Almeria who broke the deadlock on the hour mark against the run of play through Jose Ulloa.

Substitute Granero fired Real level in the 77th minute and in an action-packed finish Cristiano Ronaldo hit the post for the visitors with a free-kick.

“We dropped two points but looking at the first half of the season as a whole then we have done well,” said Real coach Jose Mourinho.

“I also want to say that we want to win the title and not just have good results so we will have to wait and see what happens from here on.”

Mourinho was furious with the referee who turned down a succession of penalty appeals.

“I hope that Perez Lasa does not referee our games again and also those of Barcelona. I do not complain about referees and I prefer to talk positively about them. However, I have known Mr Lasa since 1996 and the Lasa of 2011 is exactly the same.”

Valencia beat Deportivo Coruna 2-0 and their fourth consecutive victory means they remain two points behind third-placed Villarreal.

After a tight start, the game opened up following the break but it appeared to be heading for a draw until Jeremy Mathieu squeezed the ball home from a tight angle with 13 minutes to go.

Then Pablo Hernandez added another with a breakaway goal in injury time. 

  

Van Nistelrooy not allowed to rejoin Real

HAMBURG: Hamburg striker Ruud van Nistelrooy will not be allowed to rejoin Real Madrid, the German club’s director of sport, Bastian Reinhardt, said on Sunday.

With Real’s Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain out for the next four months with a back injury, 34-year-old Dutchman Van Nistelrooy, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has been targeted as a replacement.

“We will not let him leave,” said Reinhardt.

“He will see out the end of his contract, the decision is final.” 

  

Thank you for not sacking me, says Qatar coach Metsu

DOHA: Flamboyant French coach Bruno Metsu has thanked his Qatar football bosses for not sacking him.

Metsu, who has been in the job since September 2008, has steered his team into the Asian Cup quarter-finals for only the second time in their history.

But his position was tenuous after the host nation lost their opening match to Uzbekistan 2-0.

Over the years, failure at the tournament has seen many heads roll and Saudi Arabia maintained the tradition when they lost their opener in Doha to Syria 2-1, immediately firing Jose Peseiro.

Metsu was grateful he avoided the same fate.

“I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to all the Qatar officials for their trust in me after losing the first match against Uzbekistan and they did not resort to actions like the Saudi Football Federation,” he said.

The relieved Metsu was speaking after Qatar beat Kuwait 3-0 to book their place in the last eight.

“I dedicate this win to the officials and the Qatar Football Association and all the players,” he added.

Uzbekistan joined Qatar in the last eight after they grabbed the point they needed in a 2-2 draw with China to top Group A with seven points from three matches, one ahead of Qatar with China third on four and Kuwait last with none.

  

High five for Japan

DOHA: Japan routed Saudi Arabia 5-0 yesterday to set up an Asian Cup quarter-final clash with hosts Qatar, while Jordan joined them in the last eight by coming from behind to defeat neighbours Syria 2-1.

A hat-trick from striker Shinji Oka­zaki was the centrepiece of a comfortable Japan victory that consigned traditional giants Saudi Arabia to one of the most abject and humiliating defeats in their history.

Jordan, meanwhile, had to battle back from a goal down and were indebted to some generous Syrian defending as they booked a last-eight date with Group A winners Uzbekistan.

The emphatic margin of Japan’s victory saw them through as Group B winners, pipping Jordan to top spot on goal difference.

Three-time champions Japan, who needed an injury-time goal to rescue a 1-1 draw with Jordan in their opening game, raced into a 3-0 lead inside 20 minutes at Doha’s Al Rayyan Stadium.

Reported Stuttgart target Okazaki, a replacement for injured playmaker Keisuke Honda, broke the deadlock in the eighth minute before doubling Japan’s lead five minutes later with a diving header from Shinji Kagawa’s centre.

Ryoichi Maeda made it 3-0 when he flicked home Yuto Nagamoto’s cross in the 19th minute and Saudi Arabia, who sacked Portuguese coach Jose Pereiro after their opening 2-1 defeat by Syria, were already dead and buried.

Maeda extended Japan’s lead early in the second half before Okazaki lashed home his third in the 80th minute as the hapless Saudis, themselves three-time champions, crashed to a third successive defeat in the competition.

A draw would have been sufficient to take Jordan through at the expense of Middle East neighbours Syria and they saw Hasan Abdel Fattah fire narrowly wide after only 36 seconds at the Qatar Sports Club Stadium.

Syria gradually assumed control of the game, however, and on 15 minutes they took the lead.

Sanharib Malki’s low shot was parried by Jordan goalkeeper Amer Shafi into the path of Mohamed Al Zino, who gleefully slammed the ball into an open goal from six yards.

Syria were through as things stood, but with their fans launching a premature Mexican wave, Jordan levelled.

It was a desperately poor goal to concede, defender Ali Dyab rising to meet Amer Deeb’s innocuous cross from the Syrian right and succeeding only in heading the ball over goalkeeper Mosab Balhous and into his own net.

Jordan completed the turnaround shortly before the hour mark with another goal that owed much to statuesque reactions in the Syrian defence.

A goal-kick from Jordan goalkeeper Amer Shafi was allowed to reach the edge of the Syria box and striker Odai Al Shaify capitalised on the hesitancy to poke the ball past Balhous and send the Jordan fans into raptures. 

  

King gives Bahrain a lift ahead of decider

DOHA: A phone call from King Hamad Isa al-Khalifa has left Bahrain’s players in buoyant mood as they attempt to record a first victory over Australia and reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals.

Bahrain need to beat the best FIFA ranked side in the 16-team tournament if they are to reach the quarter-finals with Australia requiring only a point at the Al Sadd Stadium today to make the last eight.

Bahrain, who have lost all four previous meetings against Australia, will be without goal-scoring midfielder Faouzi Aaish who is suspended after being sent off in their 5-2 win over India on Friday, but hopes are high they can reach the last eight for only the second time following the royal call.

“The call raised the level of moral and spirit amongst the players. This call is a decoration on our chest,” Bahrain coach Salman Shareeda told reporters yesterday ahead of the Group C clash.

“His majesty’s call was very much impressive and expressive and shows his majesty is following up on his sons and his citizens. He is satisfied with our performances.”

Shareeda cut a grumpy figure at yesterday’s media conference where he offered vague replies to questions about how his team will overcome Australia, who will replace Aaish and how he will shore up the team’s leaky defence.

“We are unlucky we have had many injuries so far and these have been injuries in the past few days,” Shareeda, who has only been in charge of the team since October, revealed.

Although when asked which players had suffered the injuries and, if necessary, who would replace them, a secretive Shareeda replied:

“We, as a technical management, have agreed with our own substitutes. We are prepared to meet and face Australia, the substitutes are already there and have already been selected.”

Australia’s coach Holger Osieck was in far more jovial mood when he spoke with the media earlier.

“We are in a position where we have our fate in our own hands if we put in a good performance we will definitely achieve our target,” Osieck said.

“We don’t consider anything other than a victory. When you try and play a tactical game (for a draw) you lose your direction, strength ... you definitely should avoid this.”

South Korea, seeking their first title since 1960, are expected to easily sweep aside the tournament’s lowest ranked side India and join either Australia or Bahrain in the last eight.

Manchester United midfielder and Korean captain Park Ji-sung is being troubled by toothache but it should not prevent him from lining up at the Al Gharafa Stadium today. 

  

Tevez and new boy Dzeko look perfect City couple

MANCHESTER: Aleksandar Kola­rov believes that Manchester City’s strike-force of Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko could prove to be the most potent in the Premier League.

City host Leicester in the FA Cup third round replay today, fresh from a second spell at the top of the Premier League this season after a 4-3 victory over Wolves.

That was the first time Tevez and Bosnian forward Dzeko, a £27mil signing from German club Wolfsburg, have partnered each other in attack.

Tevez scored twice and Dzeko also played a key role in the victory over their struggling opponents.

Manager Roberto Mancini has allow­ed Roque Santa Cruz to join Blackburn on loan for the rest of the season and doubts remain about Emmanuel Adebayor’s future at East­lands.

But with Mario Balotelli set to return from a knee problem in three weeks, Serbian defender Kolarov, who arrived from Lazio in the summer, thinks that City’s attack has to be feared.

“Edin is a great player and he was very good in his first game,” he said.

“It’s a shame that he didn’t score against Wolves, but he made one for Yaya (Toure) and he is very happy about that. We scored four goals as a team, and Edin and Carlos already look good together in attack – they may be the best in the Premier League. But we have all to keep on working hard and building on what we do in training.”

City have suffered just one defeat in their last 16 matches in all competitions as they prepare for their replay against former manager Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Leicester.

But after keeping three consecutive clean sheets, they conceded two poor goals in the 2-2 draw at Leicester, before letting in three against lowly Wolves.

Kolarov admits Mancini’s side cannot afford to be so slack if they are to end their trophy drought this season.

He added: “It’s never, never over in the Premier League until the 90 minutes has gone and you have to stay focused. We made a couple of mistakes against Wolves, and you just can’t do that at this level. We can’t be making mistakes like that.”

Judging by his selection from the first game at the Walkers Stadium, Mancini is likely to pick a strong side against the Second Division team for the replay.

David Silva made a brief substitute appearance against Wolves and may be given a start against Leicester and Mancini may also take the chance to give Dzeko another taste of English football. Micah Richards is unlikely to be risked after a back injury, while Balotelli is still on the sidelines.

  

Kenny is still up for the fight

LONDON: Kenny Dalglish showed he has lost none of his passion as Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw in the Mersey derby.

Kop King Kenny, back in charge at Anfield for the first time since 1991, roared at ref Phil Dowd over both Everton goals.

Liverpool took the lead against their neighbours with a fine strike from Portuguese midfielder Raul Meireles.

But in the space of six minutes after half time, Sylvain Distin and Jermaine Beckford gave Everton the lead before Dirk Kuyt’s penalty earned a point.

Dalglish said: “Their first goal should not have been a corner, even if I had got lenses in I could have seen that!

“For the second one, Martin Kelly got battered and we got turned on the edge of the box when we were about to clear it.

“Maybe on another day you’d get them given in your favour. But the thing we can do something about is the way we play.

“And the way we committed ourselves was a great credit to the players – and the supporters responded to that.

“We were a wee bit unfortunate to come in at half-time only 1-0 up.

“They got two quick goals but we showed a real desire to get back into the game.

“Overall I’m disappointed because we had the most shots, efforts and clear-cut chances and you could say we deserved more.”

In contrast with Dalglish’s upbeat mood, Everton boss David Moyes groaned: “I’m disappointed we didn’t take all three points.

“But I am delighted we went in at half-time only 1-0 down. Liverpool had been the better team. We had some youngsters playing in their first derby and they looked as if they were a bit overawed by the game – they didn’t really recognise what was required.

“But they soon found out, didn’t they? And I tell you what – they didn’t half respond in the second half.”