Champions League: Arsenal, Chelsea crash as Bayern Munich cruise

September 30, 2015

Paris, Sep 30: Arsenal and Chelsea had a Champion League night to forget on Tuesday as a Robert Lewandowski hat-trick helped Bayern Munich crush Dinamo Zagreb.

Bayern

Champions Barcelona, missing injured icon Lionel Messi, followed up their opening Group E draw at Roma with a stirring come-from-behind 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen.

The Germans appeared to have the three points in the bag after Kyriakos Papadopoulos`s header before the break.

But Luis Suarez turned the game around in the final 10 minutes as Sergi Roberto tapped home the rebound after the Uruguayan`s initial effort had been saved.

And the former Liverpool striker thumped home a stunning effort to hand Barca a hard-fought three points, two minutes later.

With Roma sent on their way 3-2 by BATE Borisov it left Barca shading Group E.

Jose Mourinho`s return to Porto, the team who the Portuguese guided to the 2004 title, proved an unhappy affair.

Andre Andre`s opener for Porto late in the first half was quickly cancelled out by a superb Willian free-kick, but Maicon`s 52nd-minute header proved to be the difference in this Group G clash played at a rip-roaring pace.

Dynamo Kiev, 2-0 winners over Maccabi Tel Aviv, top the table on goal difference with Chelsea in third.

Arguably the most stunning result of the evening emerged from the Emirates Stadium, where Greek champions Olympiakos shocked Arsenal 3-2 to leave the Gunners stone last in Group F.

The Greeks, ending a 12-match losing run in England, left Arsenal and their coach Arsene Wenger ashen-faced, and the team`s fans jeering at the final whistle.

After falling behind to Felipe Pardo`s deflected opener, Arsenal equalised through Theo Walcott.

But then a horrendous mistake from goalkeeper David Ospina, selected over regular first choice Petr Cech, allowed a Kostas Fortounis corner to slip through his grasp for an embarrassing own goal.

Alexis Sanchez dragged Arsenal back into it with a second half equaliser, but incredibly the north Londoners imploded again with more slack defending gifting Iceland striker Alfred Finnbogason the winner.

Beaten in the group curtain raiser in Zagreb Arsenal are now up against it to extricate themselves from the pool stages.

To compound their plight free-shooting Bayern Munich await, the German giants flexing their muscles in Zagreb.

Bayern top the table, Pep Guardiola`s side cruising towards the knockout stage after Lewandowski`s treble, and goals from Douglas Costa and Mario Goetze steamrollered Dinamo Zagreb 5-0.

"We played in a very concentrated fashion from the start and when you take your goal chances, the game was over after 30 minutes," said Bayern captain Philipp Lahm.

Poland hot-shot Lewandowski has now scored 10 goals in his last three games after netting five in just nine spectacular minutes of Bayern`s 5-1 hammering of Wolfsburg last Tuesday before claiming two more in Saturday`s 3-0 win at Mainz.

"He`s had an unbelievable week behind him," admitted Lahm.

Elsewhere, Zenit St Petersburg remained unbeaten with a 2-1 home win over Belgian outfit Gent to top Group H from Valencia, 1-0 winners at Lyon.

Wednesday`s menu features the two Manchester clubs, United and City, against Vfl Wolfsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach, while Real Madrid are in Malmo and Paris Saint-Germain have a tricky assignment away to Shakhtar Donetsk.

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March 5,2020

New Delhi, Mar 5: India's men's team skipper Virat Kohli congratulated the Harmanpreet Kaur-led women's side for reaching its maiden final of the T20 World Cup in Australia, saying the outfit's performance is something to be "proud" of.

The Indian women's team advanced to the the summit clash owing to a superior group stage record, after the semifinal clash against England was abandoned without a ball being bowled at the Sydney Cricket Ground due to persistent rain.

"Congratulations to the Indian Women's team on qualifying for the @T20WorldCup final. We are proud of you girls and wish you all the luck for the finals," Kohli tweeted.

Former India opener Virender Sehwag also took to Twitter to wish the Indian side luck for the final which is scheduled to be played in Melbourne on Sunday.

"...A reward for winning all the matches in the group stage. Congratulations @BCCIWomen and wishing you glory this Sunday #T20WorldCup," Sehwag said.

Former India Test specialist VVS Laxman hailed the side for its unbeaten record in the tournament so far.

"Would have been great to see the match, but many congratulations to @BCCIWomen for making it to the finals of the #T20WorldCup . A reward for winning 4 out of 4 in the group stages. Wishing the girls the very best for the finals on #WomensDay"

India have been in red-hot form in the tournament winning all four of their group A matches.

They began with a win over defending champions Australia followed by victories against Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka to top group A with eight points from four matches.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will take on the winner of the second semifinal between hosts Australia and South Africa in the summit clash.

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February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Skipper Virat Kohli has become the first Indian to reach the 50M followers mark on social media platform Instagram. Kohli, who is breaking cricketing records with each passing match, has a great social media following.

The 31-year old has so far made 930 posts on the platform and his social media posts continue to enthrall fans worldwide. Overall, Instagram's official account has the most number of followers and it is followed by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 200M followers.

In terms of Indians with most number of followers, Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is on the second spot with 49.9 followers while Deepika Padukone is on the third place with 44.1 followers.

Last year, Kohli had become the most successful Indian Test captain, surpassing Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Currently, Kohli is in action against New Zealand and his side would take on the hosts in the two-match Test series, slated to commence from February 21.

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March 19,2020

London, Mar 19: Talking about the break in cricketing activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa pacer Dale Steyn said that the disease seems to be to the only topic of conversation these days.

"I don't know how to describe it. Doesn't matter where you go, everyone is talking about it - whether it is on an airplane or you are just popping into a grocery store. It just seems like it is the only topic of conversation," ESPN Cricinfo quoted Steyn as saying.

"Yeah, it's so strange. Normally if I am on holiday I'll be planning a fishing trip or a surfing trip. At the moment I am just chilling at home," he added.

Steyn was last seen in action in the Pakistan Super League where he took two wickets in two matches.

When asked whether he has enough hand sanitizers, he replied: "We just decided that stockpiling is definitely not the way to go. It is not fair on everybody who needs that stuff. I went to the grocery store the other day and everyone had bought all the toilet paper. We have what we need, and when that runs out, that runs out, and we need to go and get some more".

"We didn't feel it was necessary to go and absolutely just, like, zombie our lives up. There's other people that live on a day-to-day basis. They are not going to get all of that stuff, so we thought it was best not to do that".

Steyn also had a message for the fans, "Stay healthy, wash your hands, look after yourself, don't be greedy. Right now they are saying old people are really struggling, so if in a position to help, rather help them than help yourself. Pretty simple, really."

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the ODI series between India-South Africa and Australia-New Zealand have been postponed.

The start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has also been postponed until April 15.

Cricket South Africa has suspended all forms of cricket for 60 days while Cricket Australia has advised all its employees to work from home.

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