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Thursday September 21, 2017

LIONEL MESSI added to his impressive start to the season by scoring four goals and help-ing Barcelona rout Eibar 6-1 to extend its perfect record in the Spanish league on Tuesday.

Messi converted a penalty in the fi rst half and scored three more goals in the second to give Barcelona its fi fth straight victory in the league.

The Argentina playmaker took his tally to 12 goals in eight matches this season, including nine in fi ve league games.

Messi had already scored a hat trick in Barcelona’s 5-0 rout of Espanyol in the Catalan derby two rounds ago.

The result gave Barcelona a fi ve-point lead over Sevilla, which hosts Las Palmas in a later match. Real Sociedad, six points back, is at Levante today.

Defending champion Real Madrid, seven points behind Barcelona, hosts Real Betis later.

It has been a rather unex-pectedly good start to the season for Barcelona, which began the league amid turmoil after seeing Neymar leave for Paris Saint-Germain and losing the Spanish Super Cup match to Real Madrid.

It is the best start to the league for Messi, who in 2011-12 had scored eight goals after fi ve matches.

He is the league’s leading scorer, with four goals more than Simone Zaza of Valencia, who had a hat trick in a 5-0

LIVERPOOL failed to fi nish off a slew of chances and conceded a sloppy goal in a 2-0 loss at Leicester in the English League Cup, arousing the ire of its frus-trated manager Juergen Klopp on Tuesday.

It is becoming a familiar narra-tive for the Reds in a disappoint-ing month when they haven’t won any of their four matches. Questions are now being asked the team’s effi ciency at both ends of the fi eld.

Liverpool over-ran Leicester in a dominant fi rst-half display, with Philippe Coutinho orches-trating the attacks from mid-fi eld. But the visitors struggled after the Brazil playmaker was substituted at halftime of the third-round match in a pre-

planned move from Klopp.In another game-changing

substitution, Shinji Okazaki came on in the 53rd minute for Leicester, scored 12 minutes later with a defl ected shot after Liverpool’s defense was beaten to two headers, and then laid the ball on for Islam Slimani to drive home a stunning second goal at King Power stadium.

“Second ball from a corner and a goal from a throw-in — I’m sick of goals like this, to be honest. Unbelievable,” Klopp said.

Referring to the fi rst goal, Klopp added: “We didn’t push up together — I say it one time, I say it 1,000 times. It’s not nice to concede these goals.”

Since beating Arsenal 4-0 in the Premier League before the

international break, Liverpool has been thrashed 5-0 by Man-chester City and drawn 1-1 at home to Burnley in the league, conceded late to draw 2-2 with Sevilla in the Champions League, and has now been eliminated from the League Cup.

Klopp is easing Coutinho back to full match sharpness after the midfi elder missed Liverpool’s fi rst six games of the season — offi cially because of injury and illness — while he was the subject of three transfer bids from Barcelona.

Leicester couldn’t handle Coutinho’s passing and move-ment in the fi rst half, and only came into the game when he was off the fi eld.

“They’ve got a world-class

WORLD number one Mark Selby crashed out of the World Open at the fi rst round stage in Yushan, East China’s Jiangxi Province, on Tuesday.

The reigning world champion was beaten 5-2 by Lee Walker, giving the Welshman his fi rst win in the fi nal stages of an event this season.

Walker told World Snooker: “He didn’t play his best today, but when he does not many people can beat him so I’m over the moon.

“I obviously felt pressure at the end because it is a great win. However, you can settle a bit because nobody expects you to win.”

Meanwhile, in another major upset former world champion Shaun Murphy was beaten 5-2 by Daniel Wells.

Murphy revealed he had been struggling with a neck injury sustained during travel from the Indian Open last week.

He said: “I was in real pain throughout the match. In one way I’m relieved the match is over, but I don’t want to take anything away from Daniel.”

Ding Junhui was a 5-3 winner over home favorite Zhang Anda, while Mark Allen beat Oliver Lines 5-1 to reach the last 32.

(SD-Agencies)

Mark Selby

World No. 1 Mark Selby crashes out of World Open

Liverpool eliminated from League Cup

Messi nets 4 to keep Barca perfect

rout of Malaga earlier Tuesday.“He is one of the smartest

players I’ve ever seen on a fi eld,” Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said of Messi. “You don’t really know how, but he is always in good position. He is extraordinary.”

It was the fourth time Messi has scored four goals or more with Barcelona.

Brazil midfi elder Paulinho and Denis Suarez also scored for the Catalan club, while

Sergi Enrich netted Eibar’s goal.

Barcelona was without Ous-mane Dembele, who injured his left thigh at the weekend and is expected to be sidelined for up to four months.

The young France forward, Barcelona’s top signing during the transfer window, traveled to Finland to undergo surgery on a ruptured tendon. He made only three appearances after arriving to replace Neymar.

Valverde left Luis Suarez on the bench and started with Gerard Deulofeu, Denis Suarez and Messi in the attack. Paulinho, the Brazil midfi elder who came off the bench to score the winner against Getafe on Saturday, also made it to the starting lineup.

“Today we have been able to rest certain players and give playing time to others who needed to play and it turned out well,” Valverde said. (SD-Agencies)

CHINA’S Peng Shuai survived a huge scare against Ons Jabeur to book her place in the second round of the Guangzhou Open on Tuesday.

The top seed looked in control of her opening match in China as she took the fi rst set, but Jabeur came roaring back to win fi ve games in a row and level the match.

Jabeur continued to apply pressure in the decider but Peng survived — saving 10 break points — and recorded a 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-3 win.

There were two upsets Tues-day, with Elise Mertens and Sam Stosur — seeded fi fth and seventh respectively — knocked out.

Mertens suffered a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) reverse to Wang Yafan,

who will meet Evgeniya Rodina following the Russian’s 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 6-0 victory over Arina Rodionova.

Former U.S. Open champion Stosur, meanwhile, was beaten 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 7-5 by Han Xinyun while Zhang Shuai, Alize Cornet, Zhang Kailin and Lizette Cabrera were Tuesday’s other winners.

(SD-Agencies)

Peng digs deep to avoid Guangzhou upset

Peng Shuai

player in Coutinho,” Leicester manager Craig Shakespeare said. “I was very relieved when he went off.”

Liverpool fi nished the game

having had 21 shots, but only three on target. Against Burn-ley on Saturday, the Reds only scored once from 35 shots. (SD-Agencies)

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi celebrates with Paulinho and Denis Suarez after scoring their fi fth goal against Eibar in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

Leicester City’s Vicente Iborra (2nd L) in action with Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho (R) during their match in Leicester, Britain, on Tuesday. SD-Agencies