WORLD SERVICERoyston Drenthe joins Racing
Murcia, just weeks after being
declared bankrupt.
ENGLAND:Manchester City beat
Manchester United 2-0 to join
Spurs in the Carabao Cup final.
ITALY:In a key clash at the top of
Serie A, championsJuventus beat
leaders Milan 3-1. Milan remain a
point ahead of Inter in second,
whileJuve move up to fourth.
FRANCE:Paris-Saint Germain
draw1-1 with Saint-Etienne in
Mauricio Pochettino’s first game.
CYPRUS:Former Republic of
Ireland manager Mick McCarthy
is sacked by APOEL just two
months after his appointment.
ThursdayJanuary 7
ITALY:Former Brazil and Inter
right-back Maicon joins Serie D
team Sona, with his15-year-old
son also joining the semi-pro side.
FridayJanuary 8
GERMANY:Bayern Munich throw
away a 2-0 lead against Borussia
Monchengladbach, losing 3-2.
SaturdayJanuary 9
ENGLAND:In the FA Cup third
round, sixth-tier Chorley beat Derby
2-0, and West Bromwich Albion
lose to Blackpool on penalties.
GERMANY:Jadon Sancho scores
one goal and assists another as
Dortmund win 3-1 at RB Leipzig.
ITALY:Milan move four points
clear at the top of Serie A by
beating Torino 2-0.
FRANCE:Mauricio Pochettino
picks up his first win at PSG,
with a 3-0 victory over Brest.
SCOTLAND:Gary Mackay-Steven
joins Hearts after two seasons in
MLS with New York City FC.
SundayJanuary 10
NETHERLANDS:Ajax come from
two goals down to draw 2-2 with
PSVin“De Topper”.
ENGLAND:In the FA Cup third
round, Marine host Tottenham and
lose 5-0. Elsewhere, Leeds lose
3-0 to Crawley, while Brighton
need penalties to overcome
League Two Newport County.
BANGLADESH:Bashundhara
Kings retain the Federation Cup
by beating Saif Sporting Club1-0.
ENGLAND: Former Fulham hero
Tosh Chamberlain dies aged 86.
TuesdayJanuary 12
SPAIN:Atletico Madrid beat
Sevilla 2-0 to move four points
clear at the top of La Liga.in charge of Egyptian club Ismaily – replaces French
coach Didier Gomes da Rosa, who has moved to
Tanzania to take charge of Simba, the third team in
this group.Jesic’s principle task is to shake off a
feeling of inferiority when his side take on Egyptian
opposition.
Ahly hired the South African coach Pitso
Mosimane just before they won the last edition of
the Champions League, but there was no mouth-
watering reunion with his former club Mamelodi
Sundowns, as they were drawn into separate groups.
Last season’s runners-up Zamalek also have a
home start against Mouloudia Alger, while 2018 and
2019 winners Esperance host rookies Teungueth.
The Senegalese club pulled off the shock of the
last preliminary round by holding Raja Casablanca
of Morocco, last season’s semi-finalists, to a goalless
draw over two legs, before winning the subsequent
penalty shootout in Casablanca. The second leg was
played on a waterlogged pitch that voided any
semblance of passable football and left the safety of
the players badly compromised.
Teungueth is a club just a decade old, from
Rufisque next to the capital Dakar, but playing their
game at Thies. They were runners-up in the third tier
in 2015, won the second division with a record
number of points in 2016, the cup in 2019 and
qualified to compete in this Champions League after
being top of the Ligue1 table in Senegal before the
season was abandoned due to COVID.
They bring an unknown factor but are expected to
be overwhelmed.
The other newcomers are Kaizer Chiefs, the most
popular and successful club in South Africa. They
won the now-defunct African Cup Winners’ Cup
previously in 2001 but since have shown little
enthusiasm for continental adventures. Typically,
South African clubs believed there to be more
value in their domestic competition, which does
have significant prize money and television revenue,
but are beginning to change their attitude.
Ironically, Chiefs’ progress to the group phase for
the first time comes amid their worst-ever start to a
domestic season as they grapple with a FIFA transfer
ban that disqualified them from any new signings.
But the club’s hierarchy say they want to prove
themselves in the Champions League and this is
possible. They have a difficult start in Group C, away
at Wydad, but could progress at the expense of the
other two clubs in the group – Petro Atletico of
Angola and Horoya from Guinea.
Their attitude could all change, however, if their
domestic travails. Then the temptation to hold back
key players for league fixtures might be too strong to
resist and leave the Champions League campaign to
their fringe squad players.
All16 competitors in the group phase had to get
through preliminary round ties, except Zamalek, who
had a first round bye and whose second round
opponents from Chad withdrew.
The second knockout round had some
controversial outcomes with former champions
Asante Kotoko of Ghana disqualified ahead of their
return leg tie in Sudan with Al Hilal after seven
players returned positive COVID tests.
The tests were conducted in Sudan after their
arrival for the second leg game. Kotoko claimed they
were not true and that when players subsequently
re-tested the results were negative.
They said they intended to appeal to the
Confederation of African Football but are not likely
to have much joy. Ghanaian official testing of Al Hilal
before the first leg disqualified two of the Sudanese
club’s players.
It was even more suspicious as Simba overcame
Zimbabwe champions FC Platinum, who also had
multiple players declared ineligible after testing just
two hours before kick-off of the second leg in Dar es
Salaam. A deflated, and makeshift, Platinum lost 4-1
as their Tanzanian hosts overturned a1-0 deficit
from the first leg.Coach...Pitso Mosimane left Mamelodi
Sundowns for Al Ahly after the sides
met in last season’s quarter-finalsContenders...Zamalek
beat two-time winners
Esperance on their way
to last year’s finalPoint to prove...Kaizer Chiefs have reached
the group stage for the first time