Champions League: Barcelona seek redemption, PSG to consolidate on October 21, 2014 / in Sports 2:59 pm / Comments

Manchester City continue their search for a first Champions League win this season when they face CSKA Moscow on Tuesday, while Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are among the sides in action elsewhere.

AFP Sports looks at all the fixtures in Groups F on Tuesday:

Group F

APOEL V PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN (1845 GMT)

French champions PSG have yet to lose in this campaign despite rarely performing anywhere near their free-flowing best from last season. However, they were outstanding in defeating Barcelona 3-2 three weeks ago and are fresh from a 3-1 win against Lens in Ligue 1 on Friday.
Coach Laurent Blanc is still without Marquinhos, Ezequiel Lavezzi and talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic but skipper Thiago Silva returns to the squad for the first time since suffering a thigh injury more than two months ago.

APOEL, who ran Barcelona close in defeat and then drew with Ajax last time out, famously beat another French side, Lyon, on penalties in the last 16 in 2012. Giorgos Donis’s side are usually strong at home and are unbeaten in five since losing at the Camp Nou.

BARCELONA V AJAX (1845 GMT)

These clubs are meeting for the second consecutive season in the Champions League, with Barcelona hoping for a repeat of their 4-0 win over Ajax at the Camp Nou in September last year. The Catalans have won seven out of eight games in La Liga this season and are yet to concede a goal domestically, but they lost 3-2 at PSG in their last Group F outing and may have one eye on Saturday’s trip to face eternal rivals Real Madrid.

Ajax drew 1-1 at APOEL three weeks ago and have not won any of their last eight away matches in the Champions League. The Amsterdam club, whose coach Frank de Boer was a team-mate of opposite number Luis Enrique at Barcelona over a decade ago, are unbeaten in eight games but drew 1-1 at Twente in the Eredivisie on Saturday. The visitors will perhaps be relieved that this will be the last game of former Ajax star Luis Suarez’s suspension for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup.

Personal interest guided Keshi’s players’ selection — NFF on October 19, 2014 / in Sports 12:36 am / Comments

BY BEN EFE, Windhoek

A member of the Nigeria Football Federation disclosed more reasons why coach Stephen Keshi’s contract was not renewed by the federation.

The official who is part of Nigeria’s delegation to the ongoing African Women Championship in Namibia, alleged that some of the players Keshi invited to the national team, were those he had personal interest in.

“We found out that some of the players he invited were those under managers close to him.

“He was taking risk by not inviting players on merit. This was not very good for our football

“He did not have the interest of the nation at heart. This is one of the reasons the NFF had no option than to let him go.” said the NFF member here in Windhoek.

Last Thursday the NFF decided against renewing Keshi’s contract, which expired after the World Cup. After he won the Nations Cup for Nigeria and took the country to a second round finish for the first time in 20 years, Keshi’s interest on the job seem to have waned, he was called upon by the Sports minister, Tammy Danango to fill the gap for the Nations Cup qualifiers, but that seem to have worked against the country as Keshi, despite the fact that team continued to struggle, left out some players who many Nigerian fans believed could have helped the team’s qualification campaign.
Nigerians were clearly not happy with his decision to shut out some players. His excuses were untenable. But because we didn’t want to interfere, we let him carry on and now we are back on a familiar trend of basing our possible qualification on permutations.”

He said a player like Kelechi Iheancho was too young to play for the Eagles. When it was obvious the Eagles lacked a creative midfielder. But how old was Keshi when he was invited to the national team. These are some of the things we could not come to terms with,” said the NFF member.

Wenger defends Ozil treatment on October 16, 2014 / in Sports 12:44 pm / Comments

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said Thursday the club had done nothing wrong in allowing record-signing Mesut Ozil to play on during a Premier League defeat at Chelsea despite complaining of a knee problem.





Scans carried out by world champions Germany during recent Euro 2016 qualifiers saw Ozil diagnosed with a “partial rupture of the outer band of the left knee joint”.

The former Real Madrid playmaker has subsequently be ruled out for up to two months.

There had been reports veteran French boss Wenger ignored concerns from both Ozil and Arsenal’s own medical staff in keeping the player on during an eventual 2-0 loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

But Wenger, speaking ahead of Saturday’s game against Hull, said: “He (Ozil) told me that once it was discovered on the scan. He did not tell me anything during the game, I did not even know.

“What happened was that at half-time, just before we went out, the physio told me ‘Ozil has a little pain with his knee, but it is not bad’.

“He wanted to go on and I told him ‘if you don’t feel well, tell me and I will take you off straight away’. He never did that during the whole game, and after I left him on because we were in a position where we needed to score a goal and he can deliver the final ball.

“Then after the game, he went to Germany. With Germany, they thought at the start it was nothing.

“We played on Sunday, on Monday he was off, and on Tuesday they gave him the day off. He was supposed to practise on Wednesday.

“On Wednesday morning, he said he could still not practise.
“They sent him for a scan, and in this scan they discovered that he has a knee ligament injury which is quite serious.”

Ozil is not expected to return to action until the start of 2015.

Wenger added: “That is the only positive, that he will get the rest that he had not maybe enough after the World Cup.

“Although I must say, I gave them until August 11, Germany played the final on 13 July, that was a month and should be enough after a big competition.

“He is out for a while now, I think at least six weeks.

Super Falcons coach commends team for AWC semifinals ticket

Abuja – Super Falcons Head Coach, Edwin Okon, on Tuesday commended his team for securing a semifinal place at the ongoing Africa Women Championship (AWC) in Namibia.

The Super Falcons whitewashed Zambia’s She-Polopolo 6-0 to cruise into the semi-finals.

Desire Oparanozie, scored a brace while Ngozi Okobi, Osinachi Ohale, Asisat Oshoala and veteran goal poacher, Perpetua Nkwocha, also registered their names on the scorers sheet.

A statement issued after the match by Gracious Akujiobi, the team’s Media Officer, quoted Okon as saying that the aim was to win the trophy.

“I am excited with the semifinal berth but it is not yet over.

“Our eyes are on the ball and we are looking to get to the final and win the cup for