European soccer round-up – Bayern close in, Chelsea made to wait

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Bayern Munich all but secured the Bundesliga title with victory over VfL Bochum. The Premier League contest will go to the wire next Sunday as leaders Chelsea and second-placed Manchester United both won.

Inter’s 2-0 win at Lazio was cheered by both sets of fans because it meant the home team’s bitter city rivals AS Roma dropped back to second.

GERMANY

Bayern Munich effectively won the Bundesliga with a match to spare when they beat VfL Bochum 3-1 thanks to a Thomas Mueller hat-trick, while Schalke 04 lost 2-0 at home to Werder Bremen.

The Bavarians, chasing a treble of league, cup and Champions League, are three points clear of Schalke with a game to play and a goal difference which is better by 17.

Hertha Berlin were relegated after a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen. Bremen’s win kept them third and on course for a place in the qualifying round of next season’s Champions League.

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ENGLAND

The Premier League will be decided by next Sunday’s final round of fixtures after Chelsea won 2-0 at Liverpool and Manchester United won 1-0 at Sunderland to keep the gap between the top two at one point.

Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, with his 21st goal of the season, secured Chelsea’s win as Liverpool ran out of steam in the wake of Thursday’s Europa Cup game against Atletico Madrid. A first-half shot for Nani proved enough for United.

Chelsea next host Wigan Athletic while United are at home to Stoke City. Chelsea’s superior goal difference means that for United to retain their title they must win and hope the Londoners lose or draw.

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ITALY

Inter Milan are two points clear with two games to go after winning 2-0 at Lazio, where even the home fans cheered goals from Walter Samuel and Thiago Motta because it dented AS Roma’s title hopes.

Roma had done their job by prevailing 2-1 at Parma thanks to a sublime goal and an superb assist from Francesco Totti.

Twice European champions Juventus will not feature in next season’s Champions League after a 1-1 draw at Catania ensured the seventh-placed side cannot finish fourth.

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SPAIN

Cristiano Ronaldo kept Real Madrid in the La Liga title race when his last-minute header secured a nervy 3-2 comeback win at home to mid-table Osasuna.

Leaders Barcelona proved they were over their Champions League exit to Inter Milan when Lionel Messi scored twice in a 4-1 victory at Villarreal. Barca have 90 points, one ahead of Real with three matches left to play.

Nikola Zigic scored both goals in Valencia’s 2-0 victory at Espanyol that kept them secure in third on 65 points, in the last automatic Champions league qualification slot.

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NETHERLANDS

Twente Enschede clinched their first Dutch championship title with a 2-0 win over 10-man NAC Breda on the final day of the season.

Bryan Ruiz opened the scoring midway through the first half, just after Csaba Feher had been sent off for a two-legged tackle on Theo Janssen and Miroslav Stoch sealed the win for the club, coached by former England manager Steve McClaren.

Twente finished with 86 points after 34 matches, one above Ajax Amsterdam who won 4-1 at NEC Nijmegen. The league’s top scorer Luis Suarez scored twice for Ajax to take his tally to 35 for the season

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FRANCE

Olympique Marseille moved closer to their first Ligue 1 title since 1992 when they snatched a goalless draw at second-placed AJ Auxerre.

The result left Marseille on 72 points, five ahead of Auxerre with three games remaining.

Marseille will be crowned champions if they beat Stade Rennes at home on Wednesday and Auxerre fail to win at Lyon.

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PORTUGAL

Benfica missed out on the chance of clinching the title this weekend when they were beaten 3-1 at Lisbon rivals Porto.

The leaders, three points ahead of Braga, can still lift the trophy if they draw or win their final match against Rio Ave. But thanks to a better head-to-head record, Braga will win the league if they beat Nacional and Benfica lose.

Porto’s Bruno Alves headed in just before halftime, but defender Luisao equalised before Ernesto Farias and Fernando Belluschi scored one each to give Porto the win.

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CROATIA

Dinamo Zagreb won their 12th league title and fifth in succession but celebrations were marred by crowd trouble when supporters hurled flares on to the pitch and clashed with riot police.

The champions drew 0-0 with traditional rivals Hajduk Split for an unassailable seven-point lead with two games left.

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SERBIA

Champions Partizan Belgrade and arch rivals Red Star both won to set up a potentially decisive derby next Saturday in their two-team title race.

Goals by Cleo and Sasa Ilic handed Partizan a 2-0 win at Smederevo to leave a point ahead of Red Star, whose striker Aleksandar Jevtic led the way in a 4-0 rout of neighbours Cukaricki with a first half hat-trick.

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CZECH REPUBLIC

The four-way title race is set for a thrilling climax after leaders Sparta Prague held closest rivals Banik Ostrava to a 1-1 draw and stayed ahead on goal difference with three matches remaining.

Both teams have 55 points, one ahead of third-placed Jablonec, who won 4-0 at Bohemians Prague to stay a point in front of Teplice, in the hunt for their first league title after a 5-0 home rout of Kladno.

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BULGARIA

Litex Lovech clinched their third league title with two games to spare after a 3-0 win at Lokomotiv Plovdiv left them seven points clear of CSKA Sofia, who were 5-1 winners at home to city rivals Lokomotiv.

Frenchman Wilfried Niflore turned in two close-range goals for Litex either side of a clinical finish by Brazilian midfielder Tom, as last season’s Cup winners celebrated their first league title since 1999.

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RUSSIA

Spartak Nalchik continued their excellent start to the March-November season with a 1-0 home win over Dynamo Moscow to stay top on goal difference from Zenit St. Petersburg, who beat Saturn Ramenskoye 1-0.

Nikita Malyarov kept Spartak in pole position with a superb solo effort while Belgium defender Nicolas Lombaerts headed an 88th-minute winner for 2007 champions Zenit.

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UKRAINE

Leaders Shakhtar Donetsk won 2-0 at Metalurh Zaporizhya to stay three points clear of champions Dynamo Kiev, who beat bottom team Zakarpattia Uzhhorod by the same score, ahead of their potentially decisive clash on Wednesday.

Brazilians Ilisnho and Douglas Costa scored in each half for Shakhtar while Artem Milevskiy and Danilo Silva were on target for Dynamo, the winners of 13 league titles in Ukraine and as many in the former Soviet Union.

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POLAND

Champions Wisla Krakow slipped to a 1-0 home defeat against Korona Kielce, allowing closest rivals Lech Poznan to close the gap to a point with three games left after they strolled to a 3-0 success at Slask Wroclaw.

Robert Lewandowski scored twice and Dmitrij Injac added a third for Lech, bidding for their first league title since 1993. Third-placed Ruch Chorzow have an outside chance after a 1-0 win over Legia Warsaw left them four points off the pace.

(Editing by Alison Wildey; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Bayern slam Ribery’s Champions League final ban

April 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Bayern Munich have reacted angrily and will appeal against the three-match ban imposed on Franck Ribery on Wednesday that will rule the France midfielder out of next month’s Champions League final.

“In detailing the reasons for their verdict … UEFA said Ribery was guilty of assault,” the Bundesliga club said on their website (http://www.fcbayern.t-home.de).

“FC Bayern cannot accept this verdict in any sense and holds that it is entirely false. The accusation of assault is inapplicable in this case,” the club added.

“Ribery cannot be accused of intentionally attempting to injure his opponent … Lisandro Lopez was able to continue the match uninjured. FC Bayern and Franck Ribery cannot accept the verdict and will lodge an appeal, using all legal remedies at the club’s disposal.”

The influential Ribery was sent off for a bad tackle on Olympique Lyon striker Lopez in the first half of last week’s semi-final first leg.

The red card meant he was automatically suspended for the second leg in France on Tuesday, which Bayern won 3-0 to advance 4-0 on aggregate, and European soccer’s governing body UEFA then decided to add two further games to his punishment.

The Champions League final, to be held at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium on May 22, will be against Inter Milan or Barcelona.

SIGNIFICANT BLOW

Ribery’s absence, if confirmed, would be a significant blow to Bayern who have reached the final for the first time since they won the competition in 2001.

The Frenchman joined the club in 2007 and made an immediate impact, helping the Bavarians win a league and cup double in his first season.

The 27-year-old, though, has yet to decide whether he will stay at Bayern at the end of the campaign.

Ribery’s sending-off against Lyon came after it emerged he had been quizzed by French police as a witness in a prostitution investigation.

Bayern coach Louis van Gaal said at the time he felt Ribery’s tackle was a yellow card offence.

“I thought, watching from the bench, he stood too long on the opponent’s leg,” Van Gaal said. “I do not think it was a red card because it was the inner foot and not a foul with full force.”

Bayern are still chasing a Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League treble.

(Writing by Brian Homewood, editing by Tony Jimenez. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Bayern slam Ribery’s Champions League final ban

April 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Bayern Munich have reacted angrily and will appeal against the three-match ban imposed on Franck Ribery on Wednesday that will rule the France midfielder out of next month’s Champions League final.

“In detailing the reasons for their verdict … UEFA said Ribery was guilty of assault,” the Bundesliga club said on their website (http://www.fcbayern.t-home.de).

“FC Bayern cannot accept this verdict in any sense and holds that it is entirely false. The accusation of assault is inapplicable in this case,” the club added.

“Ribery cannot be accused of intentionally attempting to injure his opponent … Lisandro Lopez was able to continue the match uninjured. FC Bayern and Franck Ribery cannot accept the verdict and will lodge an appeal, using all legal remedies at the club’s disposal.”

The influential Ribery was sent off for a bad tackle on Olympique Lyon striker Lopez in the first half of last week’s semi-final first leg.

The red card meant he was automatically suspended for the second leg in France on Tuesday, which Bayern won 3-0 to advance 4-0 on aggregate, and European soccer’s governing body UEFA then decided to add two further games to his punishment.

The Champions League final, to be held at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium on May 22, will be against Inter Milan or Barcelona.

SIGNIFICANT BLOW

Ribery’s absence, if confirmed, would be a significant blow to Bayern who have reached the final for the first time since they won the competition in 2001.

The Frenchman joined the club in 2007 and made an immediate impact, helping the Bavarians win a league and cup double in his first season.

The 27-year-old, though, has yet to decide whether he will stay at Bayern at the end of the campaign.

Ribery’s sending-off against Lyon came after it emerged he had been quizzed by French police as a witness in a prostitution investigation.

Bayern coach Louis van Gaal said at the time he felt Ribery’s tackle was a yellow card offence.

“I thought, watching from the bench, he stood too long on the opponent’s leg,” Van Gaal said. “I do not think it was a red card because it was the inner foot and not a foul with full force.”

Bayern are still chasing a Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League treble.

(Writing by Brian Homewood, editing by Tony Jimenez. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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In Germany, an outpost of Pompeii shows its age

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Aschaffenburg, Germany – So ancient is Europe that even a “new” building often seems as battered and worn as an “old” one. East of Frankfurt, restorers have struggled to remove the scars of nearly 160 years from a reproduction Roman villa which used to offer a vision of luxury living in the Italian city of Pompeii before a volcanic eruption on August 24 in 79 AD.

Mount Vesuvius exploded, raining ash on the city, sending streams of lava racing down the mountainside and suffocating its people with toxic gases. In three days, the Italian city was covered by a 2.6- metre-thick layer of volcanic material.

In the 19th century, archaeological excavations brought much of the city back to light, inspiring not just a fascination with Roman life but also a desire to look beyond the faded frescoes, grey old stone and blank marble of Ancient Rome and visualize it in full colour.

The Pompejanum was built in the German city of Aschaffenburg as a replica of a villa in Pompeii. The rich reds, intense blues and greens of its wall paintings are a shock to anyone expecting the dullness of the ancient ruins.

“The excavations were expanding during the reign of King Ludwig I of Bavaria,” explained a Pompejanum art historian, Werner Helmberger.

Like many educated Europeans, Ludwig had made the Grand Tour to Italy and had been fascinated by the discoveries.

“He noticed how quickly the colourful Roman frescoes faded when they were brought to light,” said Georg Fahrenschon, today’s Bavarian finance minister, who oversaw funding of the replica’s restoration. That gave him the idea of building a reproduction villa.

“He never intended to live there. Its purpose was to educate Bavarians about classical architecture,” said Helmberger.

In 1843, Ludwig laid the foundation stone at Aschaffenburg, a town in the far north of his kingdom, and the replica with its colourful interior was completed in 1850. But within a century it was as much a ruin as Pompeii was.

During the Second World War, the US Army shelled Aschaffenburg. The walls of the Pompejanum were smashed and the frescoes lost. The building is close to the Main River, and dampness from the soil crept into what was left, worsening the damage, along with vandalism.

Teenagers lit campfires in the rooms or scratched hearts into the plaster. A bullet which remains impacted in the nose of the goddess Hera in a mosaic apparently dates from those violent days.

Restoration of this outpost of Campania began in the 1960s. In the decades since, fashions in historical preservation have regularly changed and each phase followed different principles. The last, intensive phase began in 1989.

In line with current principles that advocate showing a building’s many phases, parts of the Pompejanum are fully restored to their 1848 state and others seem frozen in their state of war destruction in 1945.

The Housewife’s Room, opened to the public this month when the work was completed, has largely grey walls, where the US shells wrecked the frescoes. They have only been restored at a few spots.

Restorer Armin Schmickl-Prochnow said: “We make a point of only using the materials of 2,000 years ago. They are simply earth pigments with some lime added to bond them.”

Raimund Wuensche, head of the Bavarian state antiquities collection, said the 12.7 million euros (17 million dollars) spent since the 1960s on restoring the Pompejanum had been well worth it.

“It’s a unique feeling here: the space, the frescoes, the culture, all in one place.”

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