SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017

42

Dortmund and Monaco prepare for quarters goalfest

Allegri’s defensive art form threatens Barcelona

New York Red Bulls’s Aaron Long (33) moves the ball past Orlando City’s Matias Perez Garcia (32) during the second half of an MLS soccer game on April 9, in Orlando, Florida. Orlando won 1-0. (AP)

MILAN, April 10, (RTRS): Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri believes that defending is just as much as an art form as attacking and advises anyone who wants to watch a show to go to the circus.

The dominant force in Italian foot-ball, Juventus will take on the role of underdogs when they host Barcelona’s array of creative talent in the fi rst leg of their Champions League quarter-fi nal on Tuesday.

Yet while Barca boast Europe’s most spectacular strikeforce, Juve have arguably the continent’s best defence, based on the ‘BBC’ line-up of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Gior-gio Chiellini, underpinned by veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

Juventus, well on course for a sixth successive Italian title, have conceded only two Champions League goals this season and just 20 in 31 Serie A games, making them a tough nut to crack even for Barcelona’s prolifi c trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

Despite this, Allegri has faced criti-cism that his side have often had to grind out results rather than winning in style, but he reckons such comments make him smile rather than anger him.

“Football is very simple and consists of two aspects that you have to do well — attacking and defending,” he said.

“There’s no shame in being good at defending. In fact, it’s just as beautiful as a great attacking move.

“I am very happy for those who can turn football into a show but, as far as I’m concerned, if you want to see a show, you should go to the circus.

“Committing fouls and winning aerial battles are also very important.”

He also pondered whether dominat-ing possession — as Barca do routinely — was a good thing.

“Sometimes, you have 35 percent

possession and create seven or eight scoring opportunities. Some games, you have 70 percent possession and have three shots on target. So which is better?”

Not that the omens are too promis-ing for Allegri, who has already faced Barcelona nine times, including eight Champions League meetings in three seasons when he was coach of AC Mi-lan, and managed just one win.

His Milan side were knocked out 3-1 on aggregate in the 2011-12 quar-

ter-fi nals, then lost 4-2 on aggregate in the round of 16 the following season despite winning the fi rst leg 2-0 at San Siro.

He also faced them as Juventus coach in the 2014-15 fi nal when Barce-lona won 3-1 but the phlegmatic coach remains undeterred.

“Nothing is impossible,” he said. “Above all, we have to play a perfect game on a technical level. We have to play, believing we can go through. We’ll need to be at our best both when attacking and defending.”

Despite their attacking qualities, Borussia Dortmund and Monaco face similar concerns as they prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-fi nal fi rst leg, with both having their defensive frailties brutally exposed in recent weeks.

No side had ever advanced through a knockout tie conceding six goals but swashbuckling Monaco threw caution to the wind to oust Manchester City, netting three away goals in a 5-3 defeat in the fi rst leg before running out 3-1 winners at home to advance on away goals.

Youngster Kylian Mpabbe has been a revelation, while the 31-year-old Radamel Falcao is enjoying a new lease of life after appearing to put his fi tness problems behind him.

Dortmund, with seven-goal front-man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leading the way, broke the record for goals scored in the competition’s group stage when they netted 21 to fi nish in top spot above Real Madrid, after a group-stage campaign that included an 8-4 demolition of Legia Warsaw.

Against Benfi ca in the round of 16, they also demonstrated their offensive class to come back from a 1-0 fi rst-leg defeat and win 4-0 at home.

“I want everyone who comes to the stadium to enjoy watching us because we play attacking football and outscore our opponents,” coach Thomas Tuchel told Uefa.com.

“I think we are good at winning the ball back, good at playing at a high tempo, good at quick attacking inter-play and we’re also a hard-working team.”

Like Monaco, Dortmund have en-joyed the emergence of a talented sensation, with 19-year-old French international Ousmane Dembele con-tributing fi ve assists in his maiden Eu-ropean campaign.

While there are no doubts about ei-ther side’s attacking quality ahead of their fi rst competitive meeting, both have recently been brutally exposed defensively against high-quality op-position.

Monaco have conceded eight goals in their last two away games and 13 in their entire Champions League campaign — more than any of the other quarter-fi nalists — and they were crushed 4-1 by Paris St Germain in the League Cup fi nal on April 1.

Dortmund were outclassed 4-1 by Bayern Munich at the weekend and it is little surprise that Tuchel predicts both sides will look to play to their strengths on Tuesday.

“(Monaco) play at a very high tempo and, in addition to individual talent, they have a very strong team ethic,” the coach added.

FC Barcelona’s head coach Luis Enrique gestures during a Span-ish La Liga soccer match between Malaga and Barcelona in Malaga,

Spain on April 8. (AP)

Lazio’s Ciro Immobile shoots the ball during the Italian Serie A soc-cer match between Lazio and Napoli at the Olympic stadium in

Rome, Italy on April 9. (AP)

Napoli drub Lazio in battle for CL place

Cavani-led PSG rout Guingamp to stay in contentionPARIS, April 10, (AP): Edinson Ca-vani set up Angel Di Maria for the opening goal and then scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain shrugged off a sluggish fi rst-half performance to beat Guingamp 4-0 in the French league.

Cavani’s goals have largely carried PSG and the Uruguay striker has an outstanding record of 42 in 41 games this season, including 29 in the league. Midfi elder Blaise Matuidi added the fourth goal in injury time.

Defending champion SPSG remain three points behind league leader Mo-naco with seven games left, although the lead is effectively four points be-

cause Monaco’s goal difference is +19 better.

Nice are four points behind Mona-co, having played one game more than the top two clubs. Nice beat Lille 2-1 on Friday and Monaco won 1-0 at An-gers on Saturday, thanks to Radamel Falcao’s 25th goal of the season.

“We’re holding on to Monaco and Nice aren’t far behind,” Matuidi said. “It’s a great league this season.”

Guingamp were the last team to beat PSG in the league, shortly before Christ-mas, and were gaining in confi dence be-fore carelessly losing possession near the halfway line in the 56th minute.

The ball was pinged quickly to Cavani rampaging down the left, and his fi zzing pass across the penalty area rolled into the path of Di Maria, who advanced be-fore lofting the ball over Swedish goal-keeper Karl-Johan Johnsson.

Four minutes later, Guingamp were caught out again near the halfway line and two quick passes sent Cavani into the penalty area. He was tackled but won the loose ball and curled it into

Rossi tears ligaments in knee, out 6 monthsMADRID, April 10, (AP): Celta Vigo forward Giuseppe Rossi tore liga-ments in his left knee and will be sidelined for six months, the Span-ish club said Monday.

Celta said Rossi will undergo sur-gery to repair the damage.

The 30-year-old American-born Italian has had several serious knee injuries, but all were to his right knee.

An incredibly gifted scorer, Ros-si’s career has been plagued by injuries. His latest occurred in the fi rst half of Celta’s 2-0 loss to Eibar on Sunday. He walked off the fi eld and sat on the bench. A week ago, Rossi scored a hat trick for Celta in a 3-1 win over Las Palmas.

After breaking out with former club Villarreal, Rossi was in line to join the elite scorers in Europe when he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament during a game against Real Madrid in October 2011. He needed three operations before returning in May 2013 after joining Italian club Fiorentina.

He also missed four months of the 2013-14 season with a sprained

ligament, ruling him out of Italy’s World Cup squad.

Rossi underwent a fourth opera-tion on his troublesome right knee in September 2014 and missed the whole season.

He returned to Spain last season with Levante, before joining Celta this campaign. He has also played for Manchester United, Newcastle and Parma.

❑ ❑ ❑

Former Arsenal captain Tony Adams took charge of struggling Spanish team Granada on Mon-day, seeking to improve a coaching career that has failed to match his achievements as a player.

Adams is widely regarded as a great at Arsenal, where he made 669 appearances as a center back from 1983-2002, was captain for 14 years and won 10 major trophies. He also played 66 times for Eng-land’s national team.

As a coach, though, he didn’t last long at either Wycombe Wander-ers (2003-04) or Premier League

side Portsmouth (2008-09) and then failed to crack the top six in Azerbaijani league in charge of Ga-bala in 2010-11.

Since then, Adams has worked as a sporting director of Gabala and Chinese team Chongqing Li-fan, and at Granada through his links to the DDMC soccer manage-ment fi rm belonging to the club’s Chinese owner.

When Granada decided to end Lucas Alcaraz’s third stint as coach a day after Sunday’s 3-1 loss to Valencia, Adams was hired on an interim basis.

He inherits a team facing rel-egation, seven points from safety in second-to-last place with seven matches left. Granada is winless in six games and is on its third coach of the season, with Alcaraz having replaced the fi red Paco Jemez.

Adams’ fi rst match in charge will be on Sunday against Celta Vigo.

Following loss to Valencia, Alcar-az criticized his team, saying: “We aren’t up to the standards of this city, this league, or this fan base.”

the bottom right corner.His second of the night was even

better, as he latched onto a superb cross-fi eld pass from Di Maria and cushioned the ball into his path before driving a low shot into the bottom left corner in the 71st minute.

Although Cavani hit the crossbar with a glancing header in the 18th, and Johnsson saved a shot from Matu-idi, mid-table Guingamp looked sharp breaking forward during the fi rst half.

PSG seemed nervous and center half Presnel Kimpembe’s risky pass

out from the back landed straight at the feet of forward Jimmy Briand, whose shot fl ew just over the bar, moments before the break.

Shortly after halftime, Guingamp forward Alexandre Mendy hit the side netting after bursting into the area.

“We weren’t very good in the fi rst half, but we did much better in the second,” Matuidi said on Canal Plus television.

Ultimately, two errors let PSG back in the game, and the individual class of two players costing more than 60 mil-

lion euros ($64 million) each made the difference.

Lorenzo Insigne atoned for a glaring fi rst-half miss to help Napoli win 3-0 at Lazio in Serie A and all but guarantee his team a spot in next season’s Cham-pions League.

Jose Callejon marked his 200th ap-pearance for Napoli with the opening goal as Maurizio Sarri’s team moved seven points clear of fourth-place Lazio.

Napoli remained four points behind second-place Roma, with seven rounds remaining.

Juve vs Barca beIN SPORTS 1HD, 11HD21:45 local

Dortmund vs Monaco beIN SPORTS 2HD21:45 local

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