Grand National photographic exhibition
Published March 30, 2010 | 
Liverpool: A Grand National photographic exhibition featuring historic images from the Liverpool ECHOs archives will go on show at the Liverpool ECHO building, Old Hall Street, from Monday March 29 until Wednesday April 7 when it will transfer to the race course. The organisers have said they would love to hear Aintree stories and memories from the public. If you have a story or pictures, you can get in touch with them under dan.kay@liverpool.com or +44 151 472 2487.
ATP Miami Masters – Tuesday Preview
Published March 30, 2010 | The fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open on Tuesday features an outstanding line-up, led by World No. 1 and 2005-06 champion Roger Federer, No. 4 and two-time finalist Rafael Nadal, No. 5 seed Robin Soderling
of Sweden and No. 6 and ’04 champion Andy Roddick.
Overall, 12 of the Top 16 seeds are remaining. The only unseeded players left are American Mardy Fish and German Benjamin Becker.
Leading off the busy schedule is No. 8 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga against No. 12 Juan Carlos Ferrero. The Frenchman won the previous encounter in Lyon in 2008.
The second men’s match is between Roddick and Becker with the American winning all three previous match-ups (7-0 in sets). In the final day session match, Nadal brings an 8-3 career advantage against countryman and No. 15 seed David Ferrer.
In the evening session, Federer takes an 8-1 mark against No. 16 seed Tomas Berdych.
Here are the Tuesday fourth round match-ups:
No. 1 Roger Federer vs. No. 16 Tomas Berdych, Federer leads 8-1
No. 4 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 15 David Ferrer, Nadal leads 8-3
No. 5 Robin Soderling vs. No. 9 Fernando Gonzalez, Tied 4-4
No. 6 Andy Roddick vs. Benjamin Becker, Roddick leads 3-0
No. 7 Marin Cilic vs. No. 10 Fernando Verdasco, Tied 2-2
No. 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. No. 12 Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tsonga leads 1-0
No. 13 Mikhail Youzhny vs. Mardy Fish, Tied 1-1
No. 27 Thomaz Bellucci vs. No. 33 Nicolas Almagro, First Meeting
UEFA Champions League Preview – Lyon v Bordeaux
Published March 30, 2010 | The UEFA Champions League has its first all-French encounter when Olympique Lyonnais and FC Girondins de Bordeaux square off in the quarter-finals.
• Bordeaux broke Lyon’s seven-year stranglehold at the top of Ligue 1 last season and are now aiming to destroy Les Gones’ dream of reaching a first UEFA Champions League semi-final.
• There will be cause for confidence in both camps going into this first leg: Lyon are unbeaten at home in the competition this season and defeated Real Madrid CF in the last round, while Bordeaux are the UEFA Champions League’s form team with seven successive victories.
Previous meetings
• The teams have already met in Lyon in Ligue 1 this term, Marouane Chamakh’s 86th-minute header earning Bordeaux a 1-0 victory on 13 December.
• Bordeaux won the clubs’ first league meeting in Lyon by the same score on 11 February 1952. The pair’s overall head-to-head record in the French top flight could hardly be closer: Bordeaux have 32 wins and Lyon 31 with 26
draws. The record between them at the Stade de Gerland is 21 wins for Lyon, 12 for Bordeaux and 12 draws.
• Lyon’s most emphatic home victory against Bordeaux, a 5-1 win on 15 May 2005, secured a fourth successive league title. Cris and Sidney Govou both scored twice.
• In the French Cup, Néstor Combin struck twice as Lyon defeated Bordeaux 2-0 in the 1964 final. In 1972/73 Lyon prevailed 4-3 on aggregate (3-0 at home, 1-3 away) in the last 16 en route to winning the trophy again.
• Bordeaux have won two of the clubs’ three French League Cup meetings, notably in the 2007 final decided by Henrique’s 89th-minute header.
• Les Marine et Blanc defeated Lyon 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the last 16 of the 2001/02 competition, which they eventually won. That avenged a 1-0 win for Lyon at the same stage in 2000.
Match background
• Lyon have a strong home record in this season’s UEFA Champions League. Including the 5-1 qualifying round win against RSC Anderlecht, they have collected four wins and a draw from five games. The Group E runners-up claimed the scalp of Real Madrid in the first knockout round by prevailing 1-0 at home, then drawing 1-1 in Spain.
• Lyon are seeking their first appearance in the last four of the UEFA Champions League having fallen at this hurdle three times previously – in 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2005/06.
• Bordeaux’s UEFA Champions League away form has been impressive with three wins and a draw from four games.
• Indeed their overall efforts in reaching the quarter-finals have been eye-catching. From the group stage onwards, the French titleholders have won more matches (seven) than any other club and share with FC Barcelona the highest number of clean sheets (five).
• This is Bordeaux’s first quarter-final in Europe’s elite club competition since the 1980s. In 1984/85 they defeated FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate draw to reach their only semi-final, where they suffered an overall 3-2 reverse against eventual champions Juventus.
• Les Girondins returned to the last eight in 1987/88, but went out on away goals after a 1-1 aggregate draw against a PSV Eindhoven side who went on to win the trophy.
• In the intervening years Bordeaux have contested three UEFA Cup quarter-finals, most recently in 2003/04 when again they lost to the winners that year, Valencia CF.
• While this is Bordeaux’s first European tie against a compatriot club, Lyon beat Montpellier Hérault SC home (3-2) and away (1-0) in the 1997 UEFA Intertoto Cup final.
Team ties
• Puel has faced French opposition before in Europe. His previous experience as a coach came with LOSC Lille Métropole in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup when Les Dogues went down 1-0 on aggregate to AJ Auxerre in the round of 16, paying the price for a narrow first-leg home loss. Jean II Makoun and Mathieu Bodmer were in Lille’s squad alongside Matthieu Chalmé. Another Bordeaux player, Michaël Ciani, featured for the opposition.
• Blanc was captain of the Olympique de Marseille team that defeated AS Monaco FC in the third round of the 1998/99 UEFA Cup. Puel was then an assistant of Monaco coach Jean Tigana, whom he replaced at the helm soon after.
• Puel coached Franck Jurietti at Monaco during 2000/01.
• Lyon’s Govou, Hugo Lloris, Anthony Réveillère and Jérémy Toulalan are colleagues of Bordeaux’s Cédric Carasso, Ciani, Alou Diarra and Yoann Gourcuff in the France national squad.
• Bordeaux captain Diarra spent the 2006/07 season with Lyon, making 15 Ligue 1 appearances and scoring one goal.
• Brazilian internationals Cris and Michel Bastos will face countrymen Fernando, Henrique, Jussiê and Wendel.
• There is also an Argentinian connection between the squads with Lisandro and César Delgado up against compatriots Fernando Cavenaghi and Diego Placente.
• Ederson and Hugo Lloris were formerly team-mates of David Bellion at OGC Nice, while Kim Källström and Gourcuff played together at Stade Rennais FC. Bodmer and Yoan Gouffran were in the same SM Caen squad in 2002/03,
although they never played together.
• Bernard Lacombe, Les Gones’ presidential adviser and a former French international striker, played for both Lyon (1969-78) and Bordeaux (1979-87).
• France coach Raymond Domenech has also played for both sides. He won the French Cup with hometown club Lyon in 1973 and the French title with Bordeaux in 1984.
• The second leg takes place on 7 April. The victors will meet the winner of the quarter-final between FC Bayern München and Manchester United FC in the last four.
Lyon Injury news
• Anderson – out since last season (knee, calf, shoulder)
• Mathieu Bodmer – out 26 September to 9 January and 9 January to 27 February (groin)
• Michel Bastos – out 6-27 March (muscular injury)
• Jean II Makoun – out 10-27 March (groin)
• François Clerc – out 4-21 November, 21 November to 6 December and since 6 December (knee)
• Jean-Alain Boumsong – out since 10 March (calf)
• Johan Hartock – out since 18 March (ruptured Achilles)
• Third-choice goalkeeper Hartock will miss the rest of the season.
Bordeaux Injury news
• Henrique – out 9 October to 23 January (knee)
• Marc Planus – out since 10 March (knee)
• Abdoulaye Traoré – out since 12 March (hamstring)
• Grégory Sertic – out since 21 March (broken toe)
UEFA Champions League Preview – Bayern Munich v Manchester Utd
Published March 30, 2010 | FC Bayern München have their sights set on a first UEFA Champions League semi-final since winning the trophy in 2001 but first they must overcome a formidable obstacle in Manchester United FC.
• No Bayern fan needs reminding of the threat of the English visitors, who famously beat the Bavarian giants 2-1 in the 1999 final in Barcelona.
• Bayern defeated United at this stage in 2001 but that was the last time they advanced from the quarter-finals, a hurdle they have failed to surmount on four subsequent occasions (2001/02, 2004/05, 2006/07, 2008/09).
• United, by contrast, will arrive in Munich aiming to reach the semi-finals for the fourth year running. Winners in 2008 and runners-up last season, they hope to become the first team since Juventus (1996-98) to appear in three successive finals and will not be short on confidence having won every away game in this season’s competition.
Previous meetings
• The clubs’ most memorable encounter was the 1999 UEFA Champions League final when United famously broke Bayern hearts with added-time goals from substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Bayern had led for 84 minutes following Mario Basler’s sixth-minute opener.
• Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville were in the United team in Barcelona that evening while Wes Brown was an unused substitute. It remains the only time United have beaten Bayern in seven competitive meetings.
• The full lineups were:
Man United: Schmeichel, Neville, Johnsen, Stam, Irwin, Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Blomqvist (Sheringham 67), Cole (Solskjær 81), Yorke.
Bayern: Kahn, Linke, Matthäus (Fink 80) , Kuffour, Babbel, Jeremies, Effenberg, Tarnat, Basler (Salihamidžić 90), Jancker, Zickler (Scholl 71).
• The teams had met in the group stage earlier that same season, playing out two draws. They both advanced at the expense of an FC Barcelona side coached by Louis van Gaal, now in charge of Bayern.
• Bayern gained a measure of revenge for their 1999 defeat when they overcame United in the 2000/01 quarter-finals. After a 1-0 win at Old Trafford, the Bavarian club prevailed 2-1 in the return leg where Giggs hit the visitors’ consolation goal.
• United midfielder Owen Hargreaves was in the Bayern lineup for the clubs’ most recent encounter in Munich, a 1-1 draw in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League second group stage.
Match background
• Second in Group A, Bayern reached the last eight with an away-goals victory against ACF Fiorentina, following up a 2-1 home success with a 3-2 away loss.
• With two wins, a draw and a defeat, Bayern’s home form has been mixed in Europe in 2009/10. In the group stage they managed only one goal in three matches in Munich.
• United have scored as many UEFA Champions League goals in Germany this term as Bayern, given their 3-1 success at VfL Wolfsburg in the group stage.
• United, winners of Group B, have an unparalleled 100% record on their travels. They recorded their fourth away victory out of four when beating AC Milan 3-2 in the first leg of their last-16 tie, completing the job with a 4-0 triumph at Old Trafford.
• Bayern’s most recent visitors from England were Bolton Wanderers FC who earned a 2-2 draw in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage.
• The only English club to have won at Bayern are Norwich City FC, 2-1 victors at the old Olympiastadion in the UEFA Cup second round in 1993/94.
• In two-legged ties against English sides, Bayern have registered five wins and five defeats.
• The Bundesliga outfit lifted the European Champion Clubs’ Cup with a 2-0 final triumph against Leeds United AFC in 1975. They lost 1-0 to Aston Villa FC in the 1982 final prior to that 1999 defeat by Man United.
• In two-legged ties with German teams, United have recorded two wins and three defeats, those losses coming in their last three ties.
Team ties
• Van Gaal has a 100% record in two-legged encounters with English teams. He oversaw a UEFA Cup victory against Newcastle United FC with AZ Alkmaar in 2006/07 and, a decade ago, guided Barcelona past Chelsea FC at this stage of the UEFA Champions League.
• The Dutchman’s first taste of European competition as a player brought home and away victories for R. Antwerp FC against Aston Villa in the 1975/76 UEFA Cup.
• Van Gaal’s most recent encounter with Premier League opposition was with Alkmaar when they went down 3-2 at home to Everton in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage.
• Sir Alex enjoyed a memorable success with Aberdeen FC against Bayern in the 1982/83 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals, winning 3-2 at Pittodrie after a goalless draw in Germany. His Aberdeen side went on to win the trophy and the following year beat Hamburger SV to claim the UEFA Super Cup.
• Bayern’s executive board chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was in the West Germany side that beat a Scotland outfit coached by Sir Alex at the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
• Mark van Bommel played with Ji-Sung Park in the PSV Eindhoven team beaten by Milan in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
• Hans-Jörg Butt appeared alongside Dimitar Berbatov in the Bayer 04 Leverkusen side that overcame United in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League semi-final. Butt also played for Leverkusen against United in the first group stage in 2002/03 when Berbatov scored against his future club, although United won both matches.
• Berbatov made 154 Bundesliga appearances for Leverkusen from 2001 to 2006, scoring 69 goals. He struck three times in the league against Bayern, two in a 4-1 win in August 2004 and another a year later, this time in 5-2 home loss.
Bayern Munich Injury News:
• Arjen Robben – out 30 September to 24 October, 24 October to 3 November, 7 November to 4 December (knee)
• Diego Contento – out 6-13 March (cut right knee)
• Franck Ribéry – out 3 October to 23 January (knee, toes) and 9-24 March (ankle)
• Ivica Olić – out 19-24 March (calf)
• Martín Demichelis – out 3-27 March (broken cheekbone/jaw)
• Mario Gómez – out since 9 March (calf)
• Robben picked up a calf injury against Stuttgart.
• Demichelis suffered a facial injury in Argentina’s 1-0 win against Germany in Munich.
Man Utd Injury News:
• Rio Ferdinand – out 25 October to 23 January (calf) and 16 February to 6 March (back)
• Rafael – out 28 February to 10 March (calf)
• Wayne Rooney – out 3-10 March (knee)
• Ryan Giggs – out 10 February to 21 March (fractured right arm)
• Jonny Evans – out 28 February to 27 March (knee)
• John O’Shea – out since 18 November (leg)
• Anderson – out since 23 February (cruciate knee ligament)
• Michael Owen – out since 28 February (hamstring)
• Wes Brown – out since 6 March (broken metatarsal)
• Anderson has been ruled out of the rest for the campaign. O’Shea and Owen are unlikely to play again this season.
Social
RSS Feed
news.betinternet.com/feed
Follow Us
twitter.com/betinternetlive
Connect on Facebook
facebook.com/betinternet