CORNER KICKS
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1_Chelsea’s chances of reaching the European Champions League final for the first time in the team’s 103-year history received an immeasurable boost Tuesday when a last-second own goal by Liverpool defender John Arne Riise gave the London club a 1-1 tie at Anfield.
The second leg of the semifinal will be played April 30 at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea has not lost in 80 games over four years.
With one of Liverpool’s North American co-owners, Tom Hicks, looking on from the stands, the five-time European champion, which has reached the final twice in the last three years, appeared set to win the game on Dutch winger Dirk Kuyt’s first-half goal, when things fell apart.
Austria referee Konrad Plautz had added four minutes of stoppage time, and it was 4:06 into injury time when Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou sent a cross in from the left. Riise stooped low and tried to head the ball away but succeeded only in deflecting it into the roof of his own net.
2_The second semifinal will be held today when Manchester United plays Barcelona in Spain.
Barcelona Coach Frank Rijkaard will leave it until the last moment to select his starting lineup, where his choice of attacking players could have a huge bearing on the outcome.
Rijkaard has to decide whether Lionel Messi is able to make his first start in eight weeks after suffering a thigh injury, whether to take a chance on out-of-form Thierry Henry and unhappy Samuel Eto’o, whether Deco is match fit, or whether to give youngsters Bojan Krkic or Gio dos Santos an opportunity.
Manchester United is full of confidence, knowing that Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney are in top form. The visit to Nou Camp will be United’s first since its pulsating 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final.
3_Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, now the coach of Manchester City in the English Premier League, was quick to react when rumors surfaced of Ronaldinho possibly being interested in a move from Barcelona to Manchester City.
“We would be able to find a place in our team for him, I can guarantee that,” Eriksson said, adding, “I would be happy to take Kaka at the same time.”
The possibility of Ronaldinho moving to England gained new life after Manchester City acknowledged it had been in talks with the former FIFA world player of the year’s agent. It is widely believed, however, that the talks were merely aimed at putting pressure on Barcelona and AC Milan to reach agreement on the Brazilian star’s desired move to Italy.
4 _Saprissa of Costa Rica will play Pachuca of Mexico tonight (7:30, FSC, FSE) in San Jose, Costa Rica, in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup final. Pachuca is the defending champion of the tournament. The second leg will be played in Mexico on April 30, with the winner advancing to the FIFA Club World Championship in Japan in December.
5_According to the Brazilian club Flamengo, its coach, Joel Santana, has accepted an offer to take over as South Africa’s national team coach after Carlos Alberto Parreira’s resignation.
Santana was recommended to the 2010 World Cup hosts by Parreira, who stepped down Monday in order to return to Brazil to care for his wife, Leila, who South African newspapers reported was suffering from cancer.
“I regret very much that it has come to this, but my family needs me, especially my wife,” Parreira said. “Every human being needs to find balance between their personal and professional lives.”
Kleber Leite, Flamengo’s vice president, said on the team’s website that Santana, 59, had told him that he would “earn in 30 months more than he has earned in the last 30 years” by becoming South Africa’s coach.
Santana has coached 10 teams in Brazil and has coached on the club level in Saudi Arabia and Japan but has never had charge of a national team.
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MAKING THEIR PITCH
Sigi Schmid, Columbus Crew coach, on his
team’s victory over D.C. United in Washington:
‘I was never worried. There was a German pope in town, who gave a German Mass. With me being a German coach, I was never worried at all.’
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STAT OF THE WEEK
That broken nose suffered recently by veteran Chivas USA and former Mexico national team defender Claudio Suarez, above, was the sixth of his career.
