Haddenham united football club

* Leicester City, who are behind second-placed United in the Premier League only on goal difference, were knocked out of the Europa League on February 25 after sliding to a 2-0 loss at home to Czech champions Slavia Prague.

* Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck a late winner as Arsenal dug deep to beat Benfica 3-2 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate to reach the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday (Feb 25).

* AC Milan progressed to the last 16 of the Europa League on away goals after struggling to a 1-1 draw at home to Red Star Belgrade on Thursday, with the visitors playing the final 20 minutes with 10 men as the tie finished 3-3 on aggregate.

* Gonzalo López Lauch is helping bring the late Diego Maradona back to life, one mosaic tile at a time. The visual artist, part of a group called Comando Maradona, unveiled on Thursday (Feb 25) a colorful mural of the Argentine player and legend who died on Nov 25 last year, sparking an outpouring of grief from Buenos Aires to Naples, Italy.

* Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes are over and the main target now is to win the Champions League, forward Sadio Mane said. Liverpool ripped up the record books last season on the way to their first English top-flight title in 30 years, but a season marred by injuries and poor form has left the club sixth and trailing leaders Manchester City by 19 points.

* World number two Rafa Nadal has withdrawn from next week’s Rotterdam Open due to a back injury, organisers of the ATP 500 event said on Thursday. The 20-time Grand Slam winner has been struggling with a back issue since the build-up to the Australian Open and was forced to skip Spain’s ATP Cup ties earlier this month.

* CF Montreal’s plan for Thierry Henry to lead a turnaround in the MLS club’s fortunes ended abruptly on Thursday as the former French international stepped down as head coach after one season due to family issues.

* Italian champions Juventus on Thursday (Feb 25) reported losses of 113.7 million euros (US$139 million) for the first half of the current financial year, more than double the deficit for the same period the previous season largely due to the coronavirus pandemic. The latest figures compare to losses of 50.3 million euros in the first half of the club’s 2019/20 financial year, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

* The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) elected former England captain Charlotte Edwards as their first female president on Thursday. Edwards, 41, led England to World Cup success in 2009 and scored 10,000 runs across all formats in a playing career spanning two decades.

The Catalans created little in one of their worst first-half displays at the Camp Nou this season but found a breakthrough early in the second when Martin Braithwaite released Messi with a classy backheel and the Argentine did the rest.

* Bernardo Silva scored once and set up another as Manchester City eased to a 2-0 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach in their Champions League last-16 first leg on Wednesday (Feb 25), extending their winning run to 19 games in all competitions.

* Ferland Mendy grabbed a late winner to earn lacklustre Real Madrid a 1-0 win over 10-man Atalanta in Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg.

* Dele Alli and Gareth Bale staked their claims for places in Tottenham Hotspur’s first team with superbly-taken goals in a 4-0 victory over Austrian club Wolfsberg in the Europa League last 32 second leg on Wednesday.

* Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said he is still in contact with former charge Erling Braut Haaland and has not ruled out a future move for the Borussia Dortmund star. The 20-year-old striker has established himself as one of the hottest prospects in world football during goal-laden stints with Austrian side Salzburg and Dortmund.

* World number one Ash Barty has withdrawn from next week’s Qatar Open in Doha due to a left leg injury, organisers of the WTA 500 tournament said on Wednesday. Barty’s decision comes after being knocked out of the Adelaide International on Wednesday, losing 6-3 6-4 to American Danielle Collins in the second round.

* American Grant Holloway broke the world indoor 60m hurdles record that had endured since 1994 on Wednesday, finishing in 7.29 seconds to shave 0.01 seconds off the previous mark set by Briton Colin Jackson. Holloway, the 110m hurdles world champion, won the race at the Villa de Madrid by 0.22 seconds, extending his victory streak in indoor sprint hurdles to 54 races.

* Tiger Woods could return to competitive golf within a year, top orthopedic surgeons said on Wednesday, but the road back from serious leg injuries sustained in a car crash will be a long and grueling one.

* Celtic manager Neil Lennon has stepped down following a dismal campaign that has left the Scottish Premiership club 18 points behind leaders Rangers, the club said on Wednesday.

The Polish striker pounced on a poorly judged back pass after nine minutes to steer in his 72nd goal in the competition. In doing so, he surpassed former Real Madrid striker Raul in the competition scoring charts to reach a total only bettered by Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo, with 134 goals, and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, with 119.

* A spectacular Olivier Giroud overhead kick gave Chelsea a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid in Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg in Bucharest. The French striker broke the deadlock in the 68th minute with an outrageous bicycle kick which was flagged offside but eventually given following a lengthy VAR review as the ball had come off Atletico’s Mario Hermoso before Giroud hit it.

* Golfing champion Tiger Woods was hospitalised in Los Angeles on Tuesday with severe leg injuries suffered when his car swerved off a road and rolled down a steep hillside, requiring rescue crews to pry him from the wreckage, authorities said.

* Real Madrid will attack Atalanta in Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg in Italy and go all out for victory despite missing close to half of their squad due to injury, coach Zinedine Zidane said. Real are missing nine first-team players including captain Sergio Ramos, record signing Eden Hazard and top scorer Karim Benzema but have managed to overcome their injury problems in recent league matches, winning their last four outings.

* UEFA have cancelled the planned finals of its Under-19 European Championships for both men and women due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the confederation said on Tuesday. The men’s tournament was due to be held in Romania from June 30 with the women’s event schedule for Belarus from July 21.

* Argentine Federico Coria upset sixth-seeded Dominik Koepfer in straight sets Tuesday in the first round of the Cordoba (Argentina) Open. Coria recorded a 6-1, 6-4 victory in 1 hour, 9 minutes over the German.

* Great Britain’s Andy Murray lost in straight sets and No. 8 seed Jan-Lennard Struff was defeated by his countryman Peter Gojowczyk in the second round at Montpellier, France. Gojowczyk won the all-German battle 6-3, 6-4. Murray fell 7-6 (8), 6-1 to Belarus’ Egor Gerasimov.

* Sixth-seeded Radu Albot of Moldova needed three sets to defeat Australian qualifier John-Patrick Smith in the second round at Singapore. Albot won 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in 1 1/2 hours.

* Manchester City will not change their approach for Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg encounter with Borussia Moenchengladbach but cannot get complacent, manager Pep Guardiola said on Tuesday. Premier League leaders City beat Arsenal 1-0 last Sunday to extend their winning streak in all competitions to 18 games and will be firm favourites against Gladbach but Guardiola said his side must show the German team the respect they deserve.

* Czech free-diver David Vencl swam nearly 81 metres beneath the ice on Tuesday, breaking the world record after braving the freezing water wearing only a swimsuit.

* MotoGP team boss and motorcycling world champion Fausto Gresini died at the age of 60 in Bologna on Tuesday, two months after contracting COVID-19. The Italian was placed in a medically-induced coma at a Bologna hospital when he caught the virus in December but taken out of it when his condition improved in January.

* World number three Simona Halep has withdrawn from next week’s Qatar Open in Doha, the organisers of the WTA 500 tournament announced on Tuesday. Halep, who lost in straight sets to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter-finals last week, did not specify why she was pulling out of the March 1-6 hard court tournament.

* Everton’s planning application for a new 52,888-capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock has been unanimously approved by Liverpool City Council, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.

* Torino have suspended a training session due to concerns of further COVID-19 cases in the squad, the Serie A club announced on Tuesday. Three unnamed players tested positive for the virus last week, two on Thursday Feb. 18 and another on Saturday Feb. 20.

* A superb free kick from Brazilian winger Raphinha capped a 3-0 win for Leeds United over Southampton at Elland Road on Tuesday, condemning the struggling Saints to their seventh defeat in eight Premier League games. The win brought to an end a two-game losing run for Leeds and lifted them to 10th place in the table on 35 points, while Southampton remain 14th on 30 points, eight points above the relegation places.

HAMMER TIME: David Moyes may struggle to keep young star Declan Rice at West Ham in the coming seasons. AFP Photo

Paul Kennedy

I’ve always had a soft spot for West Ham United. They are probably the London team I hate the least.

Aside from a couple of dodgy movies in the 1990s glamourising football hooliganism that I wasn’t keen on, (who can forget Frodo from Lord of the Rings portraying a soccer yob) I do actually like watching them play.

Through the years they have always had a good youth system (Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, and more recently, Declan Rice) but because they have never been considered Premier League big boys, these players did, or will, move on.

I like Liverpudlian Kevin Nolan, who captained West Ham in days gone by and is now assistant manager, and I was impressed after they narrowly lost to Liverpool in the 2006 FA Cup final when the majority of their supporters hung around and applauded Liverpool’s lap of honour, a fact noted and praised by Steven Gerrard in his autobiography.

But another reason I am a fan of the Irons is that really they are no threat to my team.

That is until this season.

Although Liverpool have beaten them home and away already in this campaign, they find themselves currently five points behind West Ham who are quite simply flying right now.

I’ve wracked my brain this week wondering why they have made the sudden turnaround from also-rans to top four contenders and I thought maybe it is because of the lack of supporters in the stadium.

West Ham, against the wishes of the majority of their faithful fans, moved from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium five years ago.

Results didn’t go to plan and many complained about the venue, making their feelings known during matches, particularly when they lost.

I raised my hypothesis with a Hammer buddy who shot my theory down instantly.

He claims, and to be honest, he knows a damn sight more about West Ham than I do, that much more credit must be given to the players and even more to manager David Moyes.

It wasn’t that long ago Moyes was personally picked to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, and some would argue he wasn’t given enough time at Old Trafford.

But according to the West Ham fan I spoke to, Moyes has instilled a far better training regime and gotten rid of the squad’s bad apples who were not pulling their weight.

The talents of Declan Rice are plain to see, and they will do well to keep hold of him over the next few seasons, but right now things are certainly going well for Moyes and West Ham.

Realistically speaking, I don’t think they will finish this season in a Champion’s League position, and I believe a Europa League spot is far more realistic.

I know I will be laughed at considering Liverpool’s prolonged slump, but I do feel the Reds will be above West Ham by the end of the season, although not by much.

What the Hammers’ owners need to do is look at the success they have right now, realise that they are lucky to have David Moyes and his managerial team at the helm and invest in the future.

With the right signings in the summer, good, solid players rather than so-called superstars, then this season’s success so far will not just be written off as a flash in the pan.

It’s a good time to be a West Ham fan, and I’ve a feeling long will that continue.  VNS

What you need to know today in Vietnam:

Society

— Vietnam reported seven local COVID-19 infections on Thursday and zero ones on Friday morning, with the national tally standing at 2,421, including 1,520 domestic cases.

— Ho Chi Minh City authorities said on Thursday that non-essential businesses will be allowed to reopen from March 1, except for discos, bars, clubs, karaoke parlors, and sports facilities with a closed setting. The city has recorded zero community coronavirus cases since February 11.

— Vietnam debuted a national population database on Thursday. The database is managed by the Ministry of Public Security.

— Vietnam is considering approving vaccines produced by the U.S.’s Moderna and Russia’s JSC Generium for emergency use to fight COVID-19, the government said on its verified Facebook account on Thursday. A batch of 117,600 AstraZeneca doses arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday, ready for vaccination next month.

— Police in Long An Province, located in southern Vietnam, said on Thursday that they were detaining four people on suspicion of illegally transporting people across the border into Cambodia.

Business

— Casino operators in Vietnam have suggested that the government allow them to open more venues in major tourist attractions and permit locals to gamble there, at a time when domestic tourists prove a lifeline for tourism given COVID-19 travel restrictions.

— Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. decided on Thursday to withdraw from the Vinh Tan 3 coal-fired power plant project in Vietnam amid growing international concern about climate change, according to Nikkei Asia.

Sports

— The White House has not made a final decision on whether the United States will take part in the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman said on Thursday, even as some Republicans call for a boycott, according to Reuters.

World News

— “U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday directed U.S. military airstrikes in eastern Syria against facilities belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militia, in a calibrated response to recent rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq,” Reuters reported.

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