Clijsters and Williams dream return

Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters Made their Returns after a long time following their respective victories on their matches.

Former world number ones Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters made triumphant returns to the WTA after long layoffs with victories at the WTA and ATP Miami hardcourt tournament.Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, who has not played a WTA event since pulling out of last year’s US Open, defeated Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-0, 6-3 in 77 minutes.“It was great to be back out there,” said Williams. “It was a bit nerve-wracking but I was able to get a great start and settle in and play well against a really difficult opponent. It was definitely an ideal start.”Belgium’s Clijsters, playing for the first time since her Australian Open semi-final loss to World number one Victoria Azarenka, rallied to eliminate Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.“It’s always tough to get that first match rhythm under your belt,” said Clijsters. “But as I started to feel more comfortable with the conditions and being in a match situation again I was hitting better.”Williams advanced to a second-round match against Czech third-seed, and Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, while next up for Clijsters is her first match against Germany’s 14th-seeded Julia Goerges.

Liverpool earns a shocking defeat from QPR

After starting a Good Game Liverpool ends the match by Losing from QPR By 3-2. QPR scored 2 away goals  in the last 13 minutes to end the match.Kenny Dalglish admits Liverpool must learn from their meltdown against QPR if they are to avoid their Premier League season drifting to a disappointing end.And the Reds boss admits he is concerned his side may suffer in the FA Cup semi-final, when they face Everton or Sunderland at Wembley, if they continue to fail to close games out.

But Dalglish was puzzled as to how Liverpool managed to go from being in control thanks to goals from Sebastian Coates and Dirk Kuyt, to leaving West London with nothing after Shaun Derry, Djibril Cisse and Jamie Mackie had hit back.

Dalglish, who had admitted ahead of the game that his side need to win all 10 of their fixtures if they were to hope for a top-four spot, said: “I don’t think anybody saw it coming. We started fantastically, the only thing that was missing was a bit of luck in front of goal.”

For QPR, Mackie and manager Mark Hughes believe the result could be the catalyst for survival. The win was only their second in 17 games and took them out of the bottom three and two points clear of the relegation zone.

Hughes said: “It could be a defining moment. I think we have to make sure it is.”

Liverpool had started the game well and could have been 4-0 up inside the opening 12 minutes, as Luis Suarez, Martin Skrtel and Kuyt had chances denied.

Coates fired Liverpool in front nine minutes after the break with a spectacular overhead kick, before Kuyt latched onto the rebound from Paddy Kenny’s save off Stewart Downing’s shot to double the visitors’ lead.

But Derry rose to meet Adel Taarabt’s corner to head in his first goal for QPR, before Cisse did the same to level the scores against his old employers.

And Mackie took advantage of some sloppy defending in stoppage time to race onto Luke Young’s through-ball and score what could be a crucial goal for both ends of the table.

Hughes added: “Tonight is right up there and I think everyone sensed the emotion and significance of the result.” —

Man city Keeps Closing Gap On Man Utd

Manchester City Defeated Chelsea By a 2-1 Thriller as Samir Nasri  Scored 86Th minute winner against Chelsea.After seeing his side go 1-0 down via a fortuitous Gary Cahill goal, goals from Sergio Augero and Samir Nasri saw City claim all three points and keep up with pace-setters Manchester United.

The gap between the two rivals at the top of the Premier League is back to just a single point, and Mancini admitted feeling frustrated after seeing profligacy in front of goal by his team in the opening stages.

Mancini told reporters: “I was frustrated in the first half when we had three or four incredible chances and didn't score,"

"In this moment, at this stage of the season, when you get chances you need to score because it is very important.

"At times we have played some fantastic football but in the last month we have been so-so. But after this hopefully something can change.

"It was a big performance, we expended a lot of energy and now we need to recover very well."

By beating Chelsea, City set a new Premier League record of 20 consecutive home wins dating back until March 5 2011.

City can, temporarily at least, overtake United when they travel to Stoke on Saturday, with their rivals having to wait until Monday to face Fulham at Old Trafford.

However, Mancini knows Tony Pulis’ team, who drew 1-1 away at Tottenham on Wednesday, will prove a difficult challenge, adding: "We have a very difficult game on Saturday against Stoke and this game was important for the three points."

Real Madrid Getting Barca Back On Track

Barça Rising & Madrid Falling 

Real Madrid Drew the match against Villarreal 1-1 and now the 10 points lead Is ended  And the gap is now six.

Barcelona defeated Granada 5-3 on Tuesday with three goals from Lionel Messi.

Congratulations on Messi becoming FC Barcelona’s all-time leading goal scorer!

Pep Guardiola stated that Lionel Messi is comparable to Michael Jordan. Maybe Pep read my article "Leo Messi: King of Football Kings" 

"Lionel Messi" world’s highest-paid footballer

Argentina’s Lionel Messi is the world’s highest-paid footballer, followed by David Beckham of England and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, according to France Football magazine. Barcelona talisman Messi earns some 33 million euros ($43.5 million) a year with a 10.5-million-euro salary, 1.5 million euros in bonuses and 21 million euros in advertising and other contracts. Former Manchester United midfielder Beckham, now at LA Galaxy, takes home 31.5 million euros, largely due to his 26 million euros’ worth of advertising and endorsement contracts. Real Madrid’s Ronaldo earns 29.2 million euros, from a 13-million-euro annual salary and 15.5 million euros from off-the-pitch revenue, France Football said in an article to be published on Tuesday. Ronaldo’s coach at the Camp Nou, Portugal’s Jose Mourinho, topped the list of highest-earning managers with 14.8 million euros a year, followed by Paris Saint-Germain’s Carlo Ancelotti (13.5 million euros).

Dakar Rally 2013 will start in Lima

Next year's Dakar Rally will start on Jan 5 in Lima, Peru, and finish on Jan. 20 at Santiago, Chile. The new route was announced Wednesday by officials in Peru, which will replace Argentina as the starting point of the race. The race has begun from Argentina the last four years. The route from Lima to Santiago will still take the race into Argentina. Lima was in the spotlight earlier this year when the race finished there after starting in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

Afghanistan booked their place in 2012 World Twenty20

The coveted berth came with a 47-run victory over Namibia in the first final of the 16-nation qualifying tournament. In a battle of two undefeated teams, Afghanistan were bowled out for 146 in their 20 overs before Namibia were dismissed for 99 in the 19th over. Despite the loss, Namibia will get a second chance of making the World Twenty20 when they face either Ireland or the Netherlands in Saturday s second qualifying final. Afghanistan, who also played in the 2010 World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, saw openers Karim Sadiq (28) and Javed Ahmadi (24) give their side a flying start with a partnership of 57 by the seventh over. But Namibia slammed the brakes on the scoring rate with skipper Sarel Burger taking with 3 for 16. However, the African side never recovered from a precarious 18 for four by the fourth over with seamer Dawlat Zadran boasting figures of 3 for 1 off his first two overs. Burger and Nicholaas Scholtz, with 22 runs each, gave a little middle-order impetus, but Afghanistan were simply too powerful in all departments as they coasted to a place in the finals in Sri Lanka in September and October. Right-arm fast bowler Aftab Alam claimed 4 for 25, sweeping up the tail in the process. Earlier, Ireland swept past Canada in the play-offs, winning by 10 wickets while the Netherlands edged out Scotland by three wickets. Ireland will face the Dutch on Friday with the winner of that game taking on Namibia on Saturday for the second available berth in Sri Lanka. Afghanistan and the winner of Saturday s final play-off will meet in the tournament finale on Saturday night. The winner will be slotted into Group B in Sri Lanka alongside Australia and the West Indies with the runner-up going into Group A against India and defending champions England.

Wayne Rooney has apologised

The striker accidentally broke the boy s wrist with a stray shot before his side s 5-0 win at Wolves on Sunday. Rooney was taking shots at goal during the pre-match warm-up and one wild effort from the United star flew into the crowd and struck Jamie Thomas on the wrist as he tried to block the ball. Thomas managed to watch the first half of the Premier League match, but was taken into the first aid tent after his arm "ballooned" at half time.

Pakistani Shaheens have beaten Bangladeshi Tigers

In the end, it was 4 runs required off one ball for Bangladesh to win, and Aizaz Cheema couldn’t do better than bowling a perfect yorker to bring home the victory well longed for now. Bangladesh fell two runs short of Pakistan’s modest total of 236. Pace bowler Aizaz Cheema grabbed three wickets at key moments to help Pakistan beat Bangladesh by two runs in a thrilling final to win the Asia Cup for the second time on Thursday. The home side came agonisingly close to becoming the new Asian champions with nine needed in the final over. However, Cheema conceded only six runs and took a wicket in the process to see his side home. Shahadat Hossain took the strike in the final ball after Cheema bowled Abdur Razzak when a boundary would have done it for Bangladesh. But he could manage just a leg bye as the home side were restricted to 234 for eight in reply to Pakistan s 236 for nine. Tamim Iqbal scored 60 off 68 balls, his fourth half-century in as many matches in the tournament, and Shakib Al Hassan (68) added 89 runs for the fourth wicket stand with Nasir Hossain (28) to put Bangladesh in control. Umar Gul broke their resistance, inducing Nasir to hit a catch to Misbah-ul-Haq at mid-wicket and Cheema silenced the roaring Sher-e-Bangla crowd in the next over when he bowled Shakib around his legs. Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was caught by Nasir Jamshed on the square-leg boundary off Cheema for 10 then Mashrafe Mortaza struck 18 off eight balls. Shahid Afridi won the man-of-the-match award after scoring 32 runs off 22 balls and conceding 28 from his 10 overs. Pakistan opener Mohammad Hafeez scored 40 off 87 balls and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed contributed 46 not out. Sarfraz took 19 runs off the final over bowled by Shahadat that finally proved to have made the difference Shakib, who also took two wickets for Bangladesh alongside Mortaza and Razzak, was adjudged player of the tournament