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Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez is confident his side will be among the clubs who will challenge for the Champions League title this season after the Spanish giants were knocked out of the competition in the group stage last term. "We will compete and dream big. Otherwise, I would have stayed at home," Xavi told a news conference on the eve of Wednesday's opening Group C game against Viktoria Plzen.
In a rebuilding mode after the departure of some high-profile stars in Roy Krishna, David Williams, Sandesh Jhingan and Tiri, Juan Ferrando's side faced a rude reality check when they were eliminated in the group stage of the Durand Cup. A shocking 2-3 reversal against I-League franchise Rajasthan United in their season opener and a 1-1 draw against Mumbai City FC highlighted that they are still a team in transition. Despite some promising signings in Ashique Kuruniyan, Vishal Kaith, Asish Rai, Brendan Hamil and Florentin Pogba, ATK Mohun Bagan failed to score against East Bengal and an own-goal by their rival gave them a lucky 1-0 win in the season's opening derby.
Canada at Sydney Football Stadium, a second loss in four days to the Olympic champions. The hosts made the perfect start when teenager Mary Fowler scored in the third minute from a Sam Kerr pass, delighting the crowd of 27,000 who had flocked to watch the first football match at the sparkling new arena.
Magnus Carlsen caused a major drama late on Monday night as he withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup, a classical format tournament being held at St Louis, Missouri. The Norwegian announced his decision --- ahead of his fourth round encounter against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov --- via a cryptic tweet which had a short clip of Jose Mourinho wherein the latter says “If I speak, I am in big trouble” during one of his previous press conference about refereeing. The 31-year-old wrote, “I’ve withdrawn from the tournament. I’ve always enjoyed playing in the @STLChessClub, and hope to be back in the future.”
Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Bhavnagar will play hosts to the National Games being held after a gap of seven years since 2015, while the track cycling event will be held in New Delhi. "To ensure the esteemed significance of the National Games, participation of all eligible eminent athletes who have taken part/won medals in the International Games and Championships are necessary to compete in the 36th National Games," the IOA said in a letter to all the NSFs and state Olympic associations.
Indian team vice-captain Harmanpreet was named along with two Belgians in Arthur de Sloover and Tom Boon, Niklas Wellen of Germany and Thierry Brinkman of the Netherlands for the FIH Men's Player of the Year award. There is no Indian in the list of players nominated for the FIH Women's Player of the Year award. Harmanpreet had also won the coveted award last year when the Indian players and coaches swept all the honours after their historic Olympic Games performance in Tokyo where the men's team won a bronze for the first time after 41 years while the women's side lost in the bronze-medal match.
South Africa won the first Test at Lord's by an innings and 12 runs, before England, led by the captain marvel Ben Stokes, thrashed the tourists by an innings and 85 runs at Old Trafford. The dust has settled on that encounter and in the interim both teams have lost an important member of their middle order, with England's Jonny Bairstow having suffered a freak leg injury playing golf and South Africa's Rassie van der Dussen nursing a fractured finger. Both seam attacks are world class, and for the third Test running it is likely that the bat – and who can get first innings runs – will decide the outcome.
The two countries are level at 1-1 after the opening two Tests, both of which were won by an innings and concluded inside three days. They meet at The Oval from Thursday in the final Test of the series. South Africa's bowlers decimated England in the first Test at Lord's but were put the sword in the second at Old Trafford where South Africa failed to score more than 200 runs in either innings.