Persepolis, Zob Ahan BattlingFor Hazfi Semi Spot

Popular club Persepolis is scheduled to meet Zob Ahan in the quarterfinal of Iran’s Hazfi Cup.
The capital-based club has failed to gain good results in the league games. The team has collected 42 points to stand 6th in the 18-team league table. This is while Zob Ahan with 26 points is 15th, ISNA wrote.
Zob Ahan has good record in the knockout competition. When Mansour Ibrahimzadeh was at the helm of the team, Zob Ahan lifted the trophy. Right now, Farhad Kazemi is the team’s top trainer. He has good record with Sepahan, but no one knows can he get the same results with this club.
On the other side, Persepolis has reached this stage with two big victories. The team routed Malavan with 6 goals and rolled over Naft Tehran with 4. They hope that they will be able to claim the prestigious cup for the 6th time.
Meanwhile, Persepolis midfielder Ali Karimi is ready to face Zon Ahan.
Karimi has been sidelined with injury since the goalless draw against the Saba in January, Mehr News Agency wrote.
“MRI on Karimi’s knee shows his lateral collateral ligament has been recovered. He has no problem for playing against Zob Ahan,” Persepolis Doctor Vajihollah Cheshmesari said.
Persepolis captain Mehdi Mahdavikia is also fit, according to the doctor.
The Hazfi Cup is a knockout cup competition in Iranian football, run by the Iranian Football Federation. The competition wasn’t regarded important by clubs until the IFF decided to award one of Iran’s AFC Champions League spots to the champion.
The competition was founded in 1975. Esteqlal has won the cup on the most occasions, with 6 wins. The current holders are also Esteqlal.

United Will Welcome Ronaldo

From Page 1
The trouble for them is that Real are enjoying their own good run after two morale-boosting results against arch-rivals Barcelona last week, a 3-1 win in the King’s Cup and 2-1 victory in La Liga.
United manager Alex Ferguson said his team’s focus had been on trying to stifle Real’s threat on the break.
“We know that Madrid are one of the best counter-attacking teams in Europe,” he told reporters. “That is what we will be up against on Tuesday and that is why our preparations are centered around making sure their counter-attack doesn’t kill us.”
Real’s preparations for the big game have been taking place a stone’s throw away from United’s with Jose Mourinho’s side using Manchester City’s training facilities after arriving in England a day earlier than usual for a European game.
Mourinho, who enjoys sharing a bottle of wine with Ferguson, will be without goalkeeper Iker Casillas who has fractured his hand but otherwise has a full squad to chose from and one that is bursting with confidence.
“We are very going through a good streak. We have shown that we are a group and we fight until the end,” centre back Pepe told reporters.
“We have got two important consecutive wins, both because of how we played and because of who they came against, which is a great motivation for the match against Manchester United.
“We are going into (the United game) at the best time.”
Ferguson has no new injury concerns but has been presented with a selection headache after midfielder Shinji Kagawa presented a good case with his hat-trick against Norwich, while Ryan Giggs is on the verge of a 1,000th professional appearance. Whoever he picks, he might have a moment of nostalgia when Ronaldo--who scored Real’s equalizer in the first leg--makes his first Old Trafford return.
“He’ll get a good reception,” Ferguson said on the club’s website. “All our former players who come back, who have been great players, get a good reception.

Rosberg Heads Alonso in Last Test

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the winter on the last day of the final pre-season test.
The German followed up team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s impressive performance on Saturday by lopping more than 0.4 seconds off the Englishman’s time, BBC wrote.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso also beat Hamilton’s mark in setting the second fastest time of the winter, 0.364 secs behind Rosberg.
McLaren’s Jenson Button was third ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.
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The four pace-setting times were all set on a fascinating morning that saw Rosberg and Alonso trading places at the top of the time sheets until Rosberg settled the issue with a one minute 20.130 second lap.
Rosberg said, “As we all know you need to be very careful with testing because we don’t know what everyone is doing and we know for a fact that our competitors have not shown their potential, for sure.
“What we can say is that we have definitely made progress. I’m pleased with the way the winter has gone. So ‘pleased’ is probably the best word, but we need to wait and see.”
Of the front-runners, only Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen improved in the afternoon - he had missed all but a few minutes of the morning session while the team fixed a gearbox problem.
“The winter could have been better for us and we had some more difficulties today but hopefully we will be up there at the first race,” said Raikkonen.

Ogier Plays Down WRC Favorites Tag

Sebastien Ogier is refusing to accept that he and Volkswagen are favorites for this year’s World Rally Championship despite his strong start to the season.
The German car maker has enjoyed a dream start to the 2013 campaign after Ogier finished second in Monte Carlo and then claimed an emphatic win in Sweden.
According to AutoSport, Ogier’s closest rival, Sebastien Loeb--the winner in Monte Carlo and runner-up in Sweden--is only competing in four rounds of the World Rally Championship this year.
Despite Loeb’s impending absence, Ogier insists there is still a long way to go in the championship.
“We have only completed two of the 13 rounds of the World Championship. We still don’t really know how good we are,” Ogier said ahead of this weekend’s Rally Mexico.
“We will have to wait and see how we fair on gravel, as that is the surface on which most of the WRC rallies are staged.
“Maybe we will rethink our goals for the season after Portugal or Argentina.
“One thing is certain, however: if we are still in with a chance at the end of the season, we will fight all the way.”
Ogier said he is not planning to change his approach despite his strong outings in the first two rallies, which he feels have increased the pressure on VW’s rivals.
“I will approach all the rallies with the same fighting spirit,” he said.
“We are obviously more than happy with the way the season has started. However, Monte Carlo and Sweden are unique rallies, which cannot be compared with other rounds of the World Championship.
“We still have a long way to go. However, we can now relax a little, as we already have valuable World Championship points.

Heat Rally Past Knicks

LeBron James stretched his arm above the rim, soaring high on a shaky knee and turning his steal into a finishing dunk as Carmelo Anthony hung his head near midcourt. The Heat took the Knicks’ best shot, but it wasn’t good enough to beat the defending champs. Nothing is right now, AP wrote.
James had 29 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, and Miami tied a franchise record with its 14th straight victory, rallying for a 99-93 victory at New York on Sunday.
‘’We feel like this is one of our better wins of the season, even under the circumstances that we went through tonight, a little adversity being down double digits,’’ James said.
Dwyane Wade added 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Heat, who had to overcome a 16-point deficit to beat the Knicks for the first time in three tries this season. Chris Bosh bounced back from a dismal first half to finish with 16 points and Shane Battier hit all four 3-point attempts to score 12.
The Heat won their sixth straight on the road by controlling the final minutes against a team that had a pair of 20-point victories over them this season and looked ready to run them out of the building again.
But James shook off a third-quarter leg injury and was back in top form by the finish, putting it away by coming up with a steal and throwing down a dunk with 23 seconds left.
‘’Obviously, it’s great to win games, period. But when you’re on a win streak, you’ve got to find many different ways to win ballgames and we’ve had comebacks in the last seconds, we’ve had double-overtime games, but this was probably the most thrilling one,’’ Wade said.

Iran to Host World Grappling Wrestling Championships

The Islamic Republic of Iran is set to host the World Cup Grappling Wrestling Championships in May.
On Sunday, the Deputy Director of Iran’s Zurkhaneh Sports Federation Mohammad Khoshjaan told reporters in the western Iranian city of Sanadaj that the World Grappling wrestling matches will be held in the country in mid-May, Press TV wrote.
He added that the sports event would bring together athletes from 40 countries.
Grappling is a wrestling style that consists of controlling the opponent without using striking and also includes the use of submission holds.
It starts from a standing position or on the ground after a throw, and the goal is to make the opponent submit via the use of immobilization techniques such as locks.
On February 22, the Iranian team grabbed the 2013 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup title after a 6-1 victory against Russia in the final at the 12,000-seat hall of the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran.
The Iranian Greco-Roman wrestling team also reached the finals but had to settle for a silver medal after losing to Russia on February 20.

Capello Denies Chelsea Talk

Former England manager Fabio Capello has denied having any contact with Chelsea regarding the manager’s job at Stamford Bridge.
It was reported in both England and Capello’s native Italy over the weekend that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was considering replacing Rafa Benitez, who last week criticized both the club’s hierarchy and Chelsea fans for not giving him the necessary support, Eurosport reported.
Capello, who has been repeatedly linked with Chelsea in the Abramovich era, currently manages the Russian national side but it has been suggested he could combine both roles until the end of the season, when interim manager Benitez will leave the club in any case.
Guus Hiddink performed a similar role in 2009 when the Dutchman, also in charge of Russia, arrived as a replacement for Luiz Felipe Scolari and won the FA Cup.
However, Capello says he has not been contacted by Abramovich and is currently happy with the job he has in Russia.
“No offer has arrived from Abramovich, none of it is true,” Capello said. “I am thinking about the Russian national team, and I feel very happy in Moscow.”
Capello was appointed as Russia manager in July 2012 and his team currently top World Cup qualifying Group F with a record of four wins from four.

Wenger: Top-Four Place Difficult

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admitted his side would struggle to claim a top-four Premier League place after their 2-1 defeat at rivals Tottenham.
Arsenal are seven points behind third-placed Spurs and five behind Chelsea in fourth with 10 league games left, BBC wrote.
“We have to fight and it will be difficult now, because we dropped points that we couldn’t afford to drop,” said the Frenchman.
“But we will fight and we will keep our spirit.”
Arsenal have not finished below Spurs in the league since 1995 and outside the top four since 1996, when they finished fifth.
They are currently in their 15th consecutive season of participation in the Champions League.
However, they are 3-1 down after the first leg of their Champions League tie against Bayern Munich in London with the return on 12 March in Germany.
And their hopes of hopes of qualifying for European football’s elite competition via a top-four finish suffered at White Hart Lane, where the Gunners were punished for a spell of poor defending late in the first half.
Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon capitalized to score twice for Spurs in the space of three first-half minutes.
Per Mertesacker’s header went in off Bale to give Arsenal hope after the break but Tottenham held on for a vital three points.
“That was very important,” said Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas. “It meant a lot for our fans--we wanted to get this one over Arsenal and create a distance between us.
“Seven points is not big enough in the Premier League, because this time last year Arsenal came back [from a similar deficit].
“We aim to continue doing well, but we have difficult fixtures coming up against Manchester City and Liverpool. We will try to push on and qualify for the Champions League.”
Wenger’s side defeated Spurs 5-2 last season at Emirates Stadium with 12 games to go to reduce the deficit between the two teams to seven points - and Arsenal went on to overhaul their opponents and claim third place.
Tottenham claimed fourth but their place in the Champions League was taken by Chelsea, who finished sixth but won Europe’s top competition.

European Indoor Championship

Perri Shakes-Drayton sealed double gold at the European Indoor Championships, winning the individual 400m in 50.85 seconds and the 4x400m relay.