NST Online: Sports

Football / Champions League: City face tough baptism

Posted: 25 Aug 2011 05:54 PM PDT

MONACO: Titleholders Barcelona were pitted against seven-time winners AC Milan in the draw for the 2011/2012 Champions League group stages held here yesterday.

Aside from Milan, knocked out in the last 16 last term, Pep Guardiola's Spanish giants will also face FC Bate Borisov of Belarus and Viktoria Plzen in Group H.

Manchester United, making a record 17th appearance in the world's top club competition, were the first of the 32 teams to be drawn out of UEFA's 'hat' by Portuguese legend Luis Figo.

Sir Alex Ferguson's three-time winners face Benfica, the Portuguese double winners from the early 1960s, FC Basel and Romanian outfit FC Otelul Galati in Group C.

Figo's former club, nine-time kings of Europe Real Madrid, come up against old foes Lyon of France, Dutch heavyweights Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb.

Yesterday's 32-team draw featured 11 previous winners and five newcomers, with among the debutants Ferguson's 'noisy neighbours', Manchester City.

Roberto Mancini's expensively assembled side were handed a tricky assignment with four-time winners Bayern Munich, who had to come through the play-offs, keeping them company in Group A.

Also on City's radar are Italian group stage first timers Napoli and Villarreal.

Arsenal's tricky start to the season with star players Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri leaving the Emirates Stadium for pastures new was eased by their defeat of Udinese in the play-offs.

And the Gunners' reward for securing their 14th Champions League campaign was a match-up against Didier Deschamps' Marseille, Borussia Dortmund and Olympiakos.

Chelsea, the fourth representative from the Premier League and last season's quarter-finalists, are in Group E with Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk.

Last season's quarter-finalists and three-time champions Inter Milan come up against Russian outfit CSKA Moscow, Lille and Trabzonspor in Group B.

Group G comprises another former winner of the competition in FC Porto, who face Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg and APOEL Nicosia.

The long road to the May 19, 2012 final at Bayern's Munich stadium starts on September 13 with the opening salvoes of this season's group stages.

The top two placed teams in each group advance to the first knockout round, with the third-placed teams dropping down to the Europa League.

Meanwhile, Lionel Messi won the inaugural UEFA Best Player in Europe award for the 2010-11 season. Messi beat his Barcelona teammate Xavi Hernandez and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid in a poll of journalists from across Europe. — AFP

Football: Safee looks set for QPR trial

Posted: 25 Aug 2011 05:04 PM PDT

2011/08/26
Devinder Singh
devinder@nst.com.my

Safee Sali will be given a chance to impress QPR manager Neil Warnock.

NEW Queen's Park Rangers owner Tan Sri Tony Fernandes will hand two Malaysian national players, including Safee Sali, a trial at the English Premier League club.

Fernandes said QPR manager Neil Warnock was impressed with Safee after watching tapes of the Pelita Jaya striker, who was instrumental in Malaysia's AFF Cup triumph last year.

"Neil Warnock saw tapes of Safee and he was very impressed. We're hoping to bring him and one other over for a trial after the transfer period closes," Fernandes told radio station Hitz.fm yesterday.

"The potential for a Malaysian (player) to be noticed is much bigger now that we are here (in England)."

Safee, who joined Indonesian Super League side Pelita from Selangor early this year, would not be the first Malaysian to go on trial at an English club.

Kedah winger Baddrol Bakhtiar and Selangor's Bunyamin Umar attended a two-week training stint with Chelsea in 2008 while Sabah's Liverpool-born goalkeeper Syed Adney Syed Hussein had trials with Middlesbrough and Darlington.

But if Safee is to have any hope of playing in England, QPR would need to overcome stringent British work permit requirements as Fernandes acknowledged.

"We have some issues with the ranking (of the national team) and work permit. We'll deal with it when the time comes," added Fernandes.

To qualify for a work permit, a non-European Union player must feature in at least 75 per cent of his national team's 'A' level matches and his country must have averaged at least 70th in Fifa's world rankings.

While Safee is a first choice for Malaysia, the country's ranking of 146 works against him.

It was the same fate that befell former national midfielder Lim Chan Yew in 2005 when he was about to sign with Bournemouth, then in the English Third Division, only to fail to obtain a work permit.

Safee will return to Selangor, albeit for a one-off outing, at the annual Sultan of Selangor's Cup clash with Singapore in Shah Alam on Oct 1.

Safee will be one of four guest players, including three Britons, who will turn out for Selangor to level the playing field against a Singapore side dominated by naturalised players.

"We hope to have three players from Britain and Safee to balance the Selangor team against a strong Singapore side," said organising chairman Datuk Abdul Karim Munisar on Wednesday.

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Khamis, 25 Ogos 2011

NST Online: Sports

NST Online: Sports

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan