BARCELONA: Barcelona put their weekend humiliation at the hands of Hercules behind them with two-goal Lionel Messi inspiring a 5-1 Champions League rout of Panathinaikos on Tuesday in their Group D opener.Barcelona fell behind to a Sidney Govou goal on 20 minutes but responded with three

MANCHESTER: Manchester United winger Antonio Valencia suffered a suspected dislocated and fractured ankle during the 0-0 Champions League draw with Rangers, manager Sir Alex Ferguson said.Valencia was stretchered off following a sliding challenge from Kirk Broadfoot in the second half at

PARIS: Holders Inter Milan drew 2-2 at competition debutants FC Twente as the Champions League group phase began on Tuesday, while Manchester United were held by Rangers and Barcelona thrashed Panathinaikos.Theo Janssen was the star for Twente, Dutch champions for the first time in their

PARIS: Roberto Mancini`s first European campaign as Manchester City coach begins in earnest on Thursday, when they visit Red Bull Salzburg in their opening Europa League group phase fixture. Having failed to qualify for a place among the Champions League heavyweights last season, City

SYDNEY: Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt hopes to lower his 100 metres world record from 9.58 to 9.4 seconds, a mark he believes would never be beaten, a report said on Wednesday.However Bolt, in Sydney for 10-year anniversary celebrations of the 2000 Olympics, said bettering the time

MADRID: World number one tennis ace Rafael Nadal Wednesday downplayed his achievement in completing a career Grand Slam, describing it as merely "a step forward" in his career."I`m not the best sportsman, it`s quite obvious that I`m not," the Spaniard told a news conference on his arrival

HONG KONG: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday called for the 18-year-old star at the centre of cricket`s spot-fixing scandal to be shown compassion as the player is from a poor family.Pakistan`s tour of England has been overshadowed by newspaper allegations of a

KARACHI: The International Cricket Council will convene a preliminary hearing into allegations of spot fixing against three Pakistani players in 40 days time, the legal adviser to the country`s cricket board said on Tuesday.Tafazzul Rizvi told Reuters that the players, Salman Butt,

LONDON: Robert Huth scored with virtually the last kick of the match to earn Stoke City their first Premier League points of the season with a 2-1 win over Aston Villa on Monday.New Villa manager Gerard Houllier was not in the ground and Stoke boss Tony Pulis also missed the first half

BOSTON: Tiger Woods was in danger of losing his five-year grip on golf`s world number one ranking to Phil Mickelson or Steve Stricker in Monday`s last round of the PGA Deutsche Bank Championship.Woods fired a two-under par 69 on Sunday to share 23rd place and trail leader Jason Day of

CARDIF: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi blasted Yasir Hameed as being mentally a teenager but the batsman insisted he was duped by a newspaper over betting scam claims which eclipsed the team`s defeat to England.One-day skipper Afridi tore into Test batsman Hameed, who claimed he had done

LONDON: Former England captain Geoff Boycott said Monday that Pakistani cricket was repeatedly implicated in corruption scandals because authorities had not clamped down hard enough in the past.The no-nonsense Yorkshireman said the International Cricket Council (ICC) had failed to tackle

NEW YORK: Reigning champion Kim Clijsters rolled into the US Open quarter-finals on Sunday while third seed Venus Williams booked a date with French Open champion Francesca Schiavone to decide a semi-final spot.Belgian second seed Clijsters needed only 59 minutes to eliminate Serbian

NEW YORK: Rafael Nadal swept into the last 16 at the US Open on Sunday, but Andy Murray`s campaign came to a shuddering halt.Top seed Nadal swept past Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 as Spanish players dominated the top half of the draw, filling five out of eight places through into

NEW YORK: Roger Federer has warned Rafa Nadal that he must win the U.S. Open to stand any chance of being labeled as the greatest to ever play the game.Nadal has captured eight grand slam titles and time is on the 24-year-old Spaniard`s side as he bids to catch the record total of 16 won

CARDIFF: The British newspaper whose allegations of a betting scam have rocked the world of cricket said Saturday that a fourth Pakistan player was being probed over the claims, but declined to name him. The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Pakistan`s coach refused to comment on

NEW YORK: Top seed Caroline Wozniacki and former world number one Maria Sharapova booked a fourth-round showdown with straight-set US Open triumphs on Saturday while Roger Federer cruised into the last 16 as well.Danish 20-year-old Wozniacki, last year`s US Open runner-up, routed Taiwan`s

LONDON: Kevin Pietersen has apologised for his furious reaction to England`s decision to leave him out of the one-day squads to face Pakistan.Pietersen was axed from the five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches after a poor run for England in an attempt to give him time to

NEW YORK: Ukraine`s Kateryna Bondarenko delivered the first major upset of the US Open on Tuesday by eliminating Chinese eighth seed Li Na 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to spoil historic hopes for Asia`s top-ranked player.Li, the highest Chinese seed in Grand Slam history, made her best Slam run into

ROME: Serie A giants Juventus made their 10th signing since the end of a disappointing campaign last term on Tuesday taking central defender Leandro Rinaudo on loan from Napoli for 600,000 euros.The 27-year-old - who signed for Napoli from Palermo in 2008 for 4.5million euros - will cost