Baggio to bid adieu on April 28
Milan: Former European Footballer of the Year Roberto Baggio will make a farewell appearance for Italy in their friendly match against Spain in Genoa on April 28.
Brescia forward Baggio, 37, announced last December that he would retire from the game at the end of this season.
Baggio has played 55 times for his country since making his debut against the Netherlands in 1988 and scored 27 goals.
He said it had been a tough decision to retire from the game. “It was a painful choice but one that everyone has to deal with and I have to accept it,” he told Porta a Porta. “I’m trying to cope with it but it is not easy.”
Teheran: China’s hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Games football tournament were crushed when Iran came from behind to win their group A clash 2-1 here.
Friday’s victory kept alive Iran’s outside hopes of pipping group leaders South Korea to the one qualifying place for Athens although the Koreans need just a point from their last two games to go through.
The Iranians must now beat Malaysia here on April 30 and hope that China can defeat South Korea the following day in Changsha to keep their qualification dream alive.
London: Women’s world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe is back in training for the Athens Olympics after a hernia operation.
Radcliffe, 30, had the operation in Germany after pulling out of last month’s world cross-country championships with a hamstring injury.
“I was running again five days after the operation and three weeks later I’m back in full training,” Radcliffe was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday. Radcliffe set a world record of 2::15:25 seconds when winning the London Marathon last year. She is not defending her title on Sunday.
Welkom (SA): World champion Valentino Rossi claimed pole position for Sunday’s MotoGP South African Grand Prix at the Phakisa Freeway Circuit on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Italian left it until the final five minutes of the session to post a record fastest time of 1:32.647 around the 4.242km track.
Rossi, riding a Yamaha, was two-tenths of a second ahead of Spain’s Sete Gibernau on a Honda, with fellow-Honda rider Max Biaggi taking third place.
The second row was completed by American Nicky Hayden on a Honda, compatriot Colin Edwards also on a Honda and Japan’s Shinya Nakano on the much-improved Kawasaki.
Charleston: Fourth seed Venus Williams advanced to her first semi-final of the year with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Vera Zvonareva at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston on Friday.
In other quarter-final action, 11th seed Patty Schnyder caused the biggest upset of the round when the Swiss left-hander defeated fifth-seeded American Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-2.
Schnyder needed just 52 minutes to end Davenport’s good run that stretched back to the win in Amelia Island last week.
In the semi-finals, Venus plays Croatia’s Jelena Kostanic, who defeated Hungary’s Petra Mandula 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, while Schnyder meets 16th-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain who celebrated her 32nd birthday with a 6-3, 6-1 win over eighth seed Nadia Petrova of Russia.
Sport on Screen
Motorcycling: Moto GP, South African GP, from 2.30 pm on TEN Sports
Cricket: England vs West Indies, first ODI, live from 7.00 pm on TEN Sports
Soccer: Premier League, live from 6.25 pm on ESPN n Soccer: Spanish League, live from 12.30 am (Monday) on ESPN
Tennis: US Men’s Clay Court Championship, live from 12.30 am (Monday) on STAR Sports
