Public warned of rising fraud - Oman Daily Observer

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SPORT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013
Special Aguero goal helps City sink United
Manchester City’s James Milner (left) shoots to score against Manchester United during their English Premier League match in Manchester on Monday. — Reuters
MANCHESTER — Sergio Aguero tore
through the Manchester United defence
to score a dazzling winner as
Manchester City beat the Premier
League leaders 2-1 on Monday to remind
them they are still champions
for a few more weeks.
Second-placed City's second successive
league win at Old Trafford,
following last term's 6-1 demolition
job, allowed them to narrow
the gap on United to 12 points with
seven games left although manager
Roberto Mancini said the title race
was over.
"The championship is inished," the
Italian told a news conference. "Our
supporters deserve this victory, after
we were 15 points behind it was important
for them.
"It is important for us because we
can clinch second position."
A blistering opening 10 minutes
gave way to a scrappy irst half before
the visitors broke the deadlock in the
51st minute with James Milner's de-
lected goal.
The lead lasted eight minutes
before an unfortunate own goal
from City captain Vincent Kompany
following a superb free kick by Robin
van Persie but substitute Aguero
came on to snatch the points with a
special goal in the 78th minute.
United lead the way with 77 points
from 31 games with City on 65. Thirdplaced
Chelsea are on 58 points, level
with Tottenham Hotspur who have
played a game more than their London
rivals.
While City have effectively already
handed over their crown, United manager
Alex Ferguson is avoiding taking
possession until the mathematics are
complete.
"We won't be complacent. If you
look at the history of this club over
the years we always make it dificult
for ourselves," he told the BBC.
"The supporters are hanging on
the edge of their seats every year. It is
a 12-point lead, we go to Stoke at the
weekend and we will have a go."
On a chilly evening at Old Trafford,
visiting fans taunted their hosts
by singing 'We are the champions —
champions of England' and reminded
them of last season's hammering that
proved key when they won the title
on goal difference.
The frenetic start to the game highlighted
there was more than just three
points at stake as United sought to
eradicate memories of that drubbing
Negredo double helps
Sevilla beat Bilbao
MADRID — Alvaro Negredo scored
twice to lead Sevilla to a 2-1 home
win over Athletic Bilbao in La Liga
on Monday and keep alive their
hopes of qualifying for Europe next
season.
The Spain striker netted in the
fourth and 87th minutes to take his
tally for the season to 17 in an entertaining
clash where both sides
inished with 10 men.
Sevilla are 10th with 41 points
and eight games left to play, six
short of Malaga in sixth place and
the last Europa League qualiication
berth.
The hosts were quickly in front
when Negredo licked a header
past Gorka Iraizoz from Ivan Rakitic's
teasing free kick, and he was
denied a second before the break
thanks only to Carlos Gurpegi's outstretched
boot.
Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente,
the leading igure in last season's
headline-grabbing Europa League
and King's Cup campaigns, continued
to show a worrying lack of con-
idence in front of goal.
He made way for Aritz Aduriz at
halftime and Bilbao were level in the
55th when Gurpegi licked a header
from a free kick inside the far post.
Sevilla lost defender Fernando
Navarro to a second yellow card in
the 73rd, and Bilbao defender Aymeric
Laporte followed him down
the tunnel in the 80th.
With four minutes remaining,
Sevilla's Jose Antonio Reyes broke
down the left and his raking low
cross left Negredo with a simple inish
at the far post.
Marcelo Bielsa's Bilbao are 13th
with 35 points, nine above the relegation
places. — Reuters
Bayern to receive league
crown in May: DFL
BERLIN — New Bundesliga winners
Bayern Munich will oficially receive
the championship shield after their
inal home game against Augsburg on
May 11, the German Football League
(DFL) said yesterday.
The Bavarians were conirmed
German league champions on Saturday
after Bastian Schweinsteiger's
second-half winner sealed a 1-0 victory
at Eintracht Frankfurt, securing
the title with six games left.
Traditionally, the winning team
receive the trophy on the last day
of the season, when Bayern are at
Moenchengladbach, but with the title
having been won so early, the Bavarian
giants will celebrate at Munich's
Allianz Arena.
With the league celebrating its
50th year, DFL president Reinhard
Rauball will present Bayern with the
shield, which is 53 centimetres (21
inches) in diameter, weighs 11 kg
(24lbs) and was made in 1949.
It carries the names of all of the
German champions dating back to
1903, when VfB Leipzig were the
winners, and is insured to the value
of 50,000 euros ($65,200, £42,000).
City’s Sergio Aguero celebrates after scoring against United. — Reuters
Hernanes scores, misses
penalty in derby draw
ROME — Lazio midielder Hernanes
scored a superb irst-half goal then
turned villain by missing one penalty
and giving away another in a pulsating
1-1 Serie A derby draw with AS
Roma on Monday.
Thirty-six-year-old forward Francesco
Totti converted Roma's penalty
but his side missed out on a win
when Erik Lamela contrived to head
over from two metres with the goal at
his mercy late in the game.
Lazio, who won the previous three
Rome derbies, played the last 20 minutes
with 10 men after Giuseppe Biava
was sent off for a second bookable
offence.
The match was preceded by fan
violence and police said two people
were stabbed when rival groups of
fans clashed in the city. Television
pictures showed police in riot gear
scufling with a group of supporters
who threw rocks and bottles near the
Stadio Olimpico.
Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno
said that businesses in the area
around the stadium had been forced
to close during the clashes.
Fifth-placed Lazio, seven points
adrift of a Champions League playoff
place, dominated the irst half
and Hernanes put them ahead with a
superb effort in the 16th minute, cutting
inside a defender and scoring in
the top corner from 25 metres.
Roma, lucky to be just one goal
down at halftime, had an ever bigger
let off four minutes after halftime
when Marquinho handled in the
area, only for Hernanes to nonchalantly
side-foot wide from the penalty
spot.
That proved the turning point and
Hernanes compounded his mistake
eight minutes later by tripping Miralem
Pjanic in the Lazio area.
Totti, who made his Roma debut
just over 20 years ago, made no mistake,
placing a low shot just inside
the left hand post for the ninth Rome
derby goal of his career and his 12th
goal of the season.
Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti
did well to save a Totti freekick
at the foot of the post before Argentine
midielder Lamela somehow
headed over from almost under the
crossbar following a Totti corner.
Lazio's point put them ifth in Serie
A with 51 points from 31 games,
eight behind third-place AC Milan
and a place in the Champions League
qualifying rounds. Roma are seventh
with 48 points. — Reuters
Lazio’s Hernanes (right) celebrates after scoring against AS Roma
during their Italian Serie A match in Rome on Monday. — Reuters
and City reproduced leeting glimpses
of last term's attacking spark.
BARREN SPELL
The visitors had the better chances
as Samir Nasri, Milner and David Silva
wasted decent opportunities while
United forward Van Persie, enduring
a barren spell of 10 games without a
goal, experienced yet more frustration.
The Dutchman's early shot across
goal went just wide of the far post and
he later ired wildly into the crowd
from distance.
United's stand-in centre back Phil
Jones was quick off the mark to intercept
after good work from Silva who
tried to set up former Old Trafford favourite
Carlos Tevez.
City were inally rewarded for their
domination of possession when Ryan
Giggs messed up an attempted backheel
to allow Gareth Barry to run free
down the left and lay the ball to Nasri
who set up Milner for a shot that went
in off Jones.
The goal brought to an end a sixmatch
run of clean sheets in the
league for United but City celebrations
were short-lived as the leaders
quickly pulled level.
Jones' header from an inswinging
Van Persie free kick, which had
already beaten keeper Joe Hart, hit
Kompany on the back before lying
into the net for an own goal.
Both teams chased the winner with
Danny Welbeck heading straight at
Hart and Ashley Young also on target
but it was the introduction of Aguero
in place of Nasri with less than 20
minutes to go that proved decisive.
The Argentine, who started on the
bench but could be fully it in time
for this weekend's FA Cup semiinal
against Chelsea, picked the ball up on
the edge of the box and drifted past
several defenders before iring high
into the net.
Players from both sides squared
up as tempers frayed towards the end
when United failed to put the ball out
of play when Silva was down with a
hamstring injury that Mancini said
was likely to keep him out of the Chelsea
game.
Ferguson wrote in his programme
notes: "How do we analyse this season
— is it one of regret or celebration?
For me it's something of the proverbial
curate's egg, part bad but with
some great redeeming features."
He would agree Monday's result
was not one of them. — Reuters
‘Goal-line
technology
set for
2013-14’
LONDON — The Football Association
expects goal-line technology to
be formally approved in time for the
2013-14 Premier League campaign
at a meeting of clubs this week, an
FA oficial said yesterday.
Last week, world governing body
Fifa appointed a German irm, Goal-
Control, to provide the technology
(GLT) at the Confederations Cup in
Brazil in June. If successful, it will
then be used at next year's World
Cup.
FA general secretary Alex Horne
said he expected Premier League
clubs to ratify use of the technology
when they convene tomorrow.
"I always thought it was an ideal
piece of technology to allow into the
game," said Horne. "The (Premier
League) club meeting is on Thursday,
so I'm expecting it to go through
at that meeting."
The Premier League is reportedly
keen to introduce GLT and last
year met licenced companies Hawk-
Eye and GoalRef to discuss installing
their systems at top-light grounds.
London's Wembley Stadium was
also used for an experiment with
British system Hawk-Eye during a
friendly between England and Belgium
last year, although the results
were not made public.
"There are occasions (when GLT
is needed) and we've seen them
here at Wembley, we've seen them
in World Cups, we've seen them 11
or 12 times in the Premier League
this season alone," Horne told the
BBC. "So technology that says 'Yes,
the ball has crossed the line' and lets
the referee know makes an awful lot
of sense to me." — AFP