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Fergie tells Unitedto remain focused

Aston Villa’s Andreas Weimann celebrates scoring against Queens Park Rangers Picture: AFP

SOCCER

MANCHESTER United man-ager Alex Ferguson haswarned his team not to getcarried away believing theycan romp to a record EnglishPremier League triumph.

United are 15 points clearat the top after their 1-0 homewin over Reading on Satur-day, which followed defend-ing champions ManchesterCity’s 2-0 defeat at Everton.

But Ferguson refused to becomplacent despite Unitedbeing in a position to win thetitle by a record margin.

The 18 points by whichUnited won the 2000 cham-pionship from Arsenal re-mains the largest winningcushion, not only in the his-tory of Premier League but intop-flight English football.

‘‘They can say what theylike – you don’t get points ormedals for being complacentand we won’t be,’’ he said. ‘‘Itwasn’t a great performancebut . . . where we are today isnot down to today, it’s downto the previous six months.

‘‘The team has shown greatconsistency and played a lotof great football and the goaldifference over City is bignow — 15 points.’’

Match winner WayneRooney echoed his managerand refused to get carriedaway by the commandinggap, a margin that looks cer-tain to bring them a 20th Eng-lish league championship.

‘‘You have to be profess-ional,’’ Rooney said. ‘‘Weknow we’re in a fantastic pos-ition with nine games to goand 15 points clear but wehave to go out and do our jobweek in, week out.’’

Victory for United againstSunderland in their nextgame, in two weeks, coupled

with a City defeat wouldbuild Ferguson’s side an18-point advantage aheadof the Manchester derby atOld Trafford.

A win for United in thatfixture, on April 8, wouldleave City mathematicallyunable to overhaul United’spoint tally in the sevenremaining matches.

Everton’s win temporarilyput them into fifth place, butthey slipped back to sixthafter Arsenal won 2-0 atSwansea City to move towithin two points of fourth-placed Chelsea.

January signing NachoMonreal and Gervinhostruck late in the game at theLiberty Stadium as ArseneWenger’s side responded inpositive fashion to their mid-week elimination from theChampions League.

Meanwhile, Liverpool lostground in the race for Euro-pean qualification after los-ing 3-1 at Southampton.

Morgan Schneiderlin putSouthampton ahead at StMary’s, before Rickie Lam-bert doubled the hosts’ leadwith a deflected free-kick.

Philippe Coutinho repliedfor Liverpool on the stroke ofhalf time, but Rodriguezmade sure of victory in the80th minute as MauricioPochettino’s side pulledseven points clear of the rel-egation places.

Queens Park Rangers wereleft seven points adrift ofsafety at the foot of the tableafter losing 3-2 to relegationrivals Aston Villa in a thrill-ing encounter at Villa Park.

In the day’s other game,Stoke City failed to reversetheir rather disappointingrecent form, with a scorelessdraw at home to West Brom-wich Albion.

Juve boss returns fire at criticsJUVENTUS coach AntonioConte hit back at critics af-ter second-half goals fromMirko Vucinic and ClaudioMarchisio secured a 2-0 winat Bologna that allowed theTurin giants to move12 points clear at the topof Serie A.

Bologna, beaten onlythree times this year andcoming off the back of a 1-0win over Inter at the SanSiro last week, had hoped tobe able to continue their

purple patch at a sold-outStadio dell’Ara.

Juventus turned on theclass to secure a 20th win ofthe season that mostpundits believe was enoughto secure their 29th leaguetitle, and they now lead Na-poli in the title race, whileBologna have slipped twoplaces to 12th.

Conte later came undercriticism for what Bolognabelieved were over-the-topcelebrations on the part of

the Juve coach, but Contehit back, instead criticisingthe hostile welcome hisclub received on their ar-rival in Bologna.

‘‘Can’t I even celebratewith the fans after sucha victory?’’ he said.

‘‘And let’s discuss moreserious matters – peoplewho welcomed us withstones and sticks, people . . .shouting obscenities.

‘‘These people should beashamed, not me.’’

Cardiff end losing streak at SheffieldCARDIFF got back on trackin the race to reach the Prem-ier League as the Champion-ship leaders cruised to a 2-0win at Sheffield Wednesdayon Saturday.

Malky Mackay’s team end-ed a three-match winless runthat had threatened to derailtheir automatic promotionhopes thanks to Don Cowie’sfirst goal since September onthe stroke of half-time andMatthew Connolly’s 65th-minute header.

It was a vital win for theBluebirds, who are nowseven points clear at the topafter second-placed Hull andthird-placed Watford lost.

Wednesday, managed byformer Cardiff boss DaveJones, are a point above thebottom three after a thirdloss in their past fourmatches.

Hull lost ground on Cardiffafter throwing away a lead ina 2-1 loss against NottinghamForest at the KC Stadium.

Gianfranco Zola’s Watfordcould not capitalise on Hull’sloss as Bobby Hassell’s 35thminute gave Barnsley a 1-0win at Oakwell to ease histeam’s relegation fears.

FA Cup semi-finalists Mill-wall recorded a 2-0 victoryat Charlton. Kenny Jackett’steam set up a Wembley show-down with Wigan by beatingBlackburn 1-0 in an FA Cupquarter-final replay on Wed-nesday and carried themomentum to The Valley.

CelticsnatchinjurytimewinGEORGIOS Samarasscored a wonder winnerfor Celtic four minutesinto stoppage time as theyfought from 3-1 down torecord a remarkable 4-3win over Aberdeen

The Greek striker, asecond half substitute forBeram Kayal, popped upfive yards out to send anunstoppable overheadkick past Jamie Langfieldto cap a dramatic come-back that keeps Celtic 15points clear in the Scott-ish Premier League.

Kris Commons had gotthe home side off to adream start with a goal af-ter only 12 seconds.

However, Celtic failedto build on their advan-tage and Scott Vernon lev-elled on half time.

Josh Magennis rifledthe Dons into the lead inthe 53rd minute before hisback-flick diverted GavinRae’s shot past FraserForster on the hour mark.

Aberdeen looked to beheading to their firstleague win at Celtic Parksince October 2004 beforeCharlie Mulgrew’s de-flected shot gave theHoops some hope in the68th minute.

Gary Hooper noddedthe equaliser in the 87thminute before Samaraspopped up deep into stop-page time to spark wildcelebrations.

Celtic manager NeilLennon praised his side’sfighting spirit.

‘‘It was absolutely bril-liant. People were ac-cusing the players of com-placency and not showingenough desire but I thinkwhen the fourth goal wentin you could see what itmean to them and the sup-porters,’’ Lennon said.

‘‘We keep giving cheapgoals away but our desireto win the game was fan-tastic today.’’

Aberdeen managerCraig Brown was dis-traught in defeat.

‘‘You would have to seeit to believe it,’’ he said.

‘‘We didn’t competentlywithstand the aerial bom-bardment at the end andthat’s where we have letourselves down havinggot into a good position.

‘‘At 3-1, you would havethought a draw was a badresult so a defeat is a verybad result consideringwhere we were.’’

Ronaldo sparks Madrid to lifeREAL Madrid trailed twicebefore fighting back withthree goals in seven minutesto beat Mallorca 5-2 on Satur-day and avoid another slip-up to a low-profile Spanishleague side.

Mallorca led 2-1 atSantiago Bernabeu Stadiumafter goals from Emilio Nsueand Alejandro Alfaro, bothset up by Giovani dos Santos,with Gonzalo Higuain scor-ing in between for the hosts.

After a sluggish first half,Cristiano Ronaldo sparkedMadrid to life with an equal-iser in the 51st.

Luka Modric put Madridahead three minutes laterwith a screamer, similar tohis Champions League goalagainst Manchester United,and Higuain added anotherin the 57th. Karim Benzemascored in stoppage time.

Madrid trail leaderBarcelona by 10 points.