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Thursday, October 2, 2008

More injury Blues for Chelsea

Chelsea could be down to the bare bones for the clash with Aston Villa after Didier Drogba joined the injury list.

Drogba suffered suspected knee ligament damage in Chelsea's 0-0 Champions League draw with CFR Cluj on Wednesday night, leaving the field on a stretcher and the stadium on crutches with his right leg in a brace.
Manager Luiz Felipe Scolari was already without Deco, Joe Cole, Michael Essien and Ricardo Carvalho.
Ashley Cole sat out with a sore back while John Terry (back) and Alex (buttock) both finished it in pain.
Scolari should get a clearer picture of where he stands over the next 24 hours but Chelsea do not boast an extensive squad and the potential loss of eight key players could be a major problem.
An extended lay-off for Drogba, who was making only his third start after undergoing a knee operation in the summer, would leave Nicolas Anelka as Chelsea's only fit out-and-out striker.
With Carvalho sidelined for the next fortnight, Scolari will be anxious both Terry, who was holding his back in the closing stages, and Alex recover for the weekend or Chelsea will be out of senior centre-backs.
Scolari is at least optimistic that Ashley Cole will return to face Villa, though the long-term prognosis for Drogba did not look promising.
The Ivorian appeared to jar his right knee as he stretched to reach a cross from Florent Malouda and immediately crumpled to the floor.
The only up-side of a difficult evening in Transylvania was that Chelsea left with a point and not a defeat that could so easily have befallen them.
Cluj are enjoying a dream debut season in the Champions League, with their 2-1 victory at Roma supplemented by a valuable point against the group favourites.
The stands shook as the locals stamped their feet and unfurled a giant image of striker Juan Culio, who scored both goals in Rome, dressed as Dracula and tying a Cluj scarf around Big Ben.
It proved a symbolic image because Chelsea could never shake off the battling, resilient Romanian double-winners.
Terry and Alex were unusually shaky at the back while Mikel John Obi was less than commanding in midfield. If Cluj had had more guile and quality up front they would have claimed a second major European scalp.
Frank Lampard was Chelsea's brightest spark but he could not unlock the determined Cluj rearguard on his own.
"The result is OK given we didn't play well," said Scolari.
"It was difficult for us. The players and I know that a point is OK. They beat Roma, they are confident, they're playing at home, they wanted to show to the people they are very good.
"We knew this and we prepared but we missed one or two times in front of goal. Nil-nil is not a bad result."
by espnstar.com/football/premier-league/news

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Liverpool's all-time goal-scorers

After Steven Gerrard's century, let's take a look at the all-time list of Liverpool's goalscorers in all competitions.
Player Goals

1 Ian Rush 346

2 Roger Hunt 286

3 Gordon Hodgson 241

4 Billy Liddell 228

5 Robbie Fowler 183

6 Kenny Dalglish 172

7 Michael Owen 158

8 Harry Chambers 151

9 Sam Raybould 130

10 Jack Parkinson 129

11 Dick Forshaw 124

12 Ian St John 118

13 Jack Balmer 111

14 John Barnes 108

15 Kevin Keegan 100

= Steve Gerrard 100
* Find out more on SportsCenter!
by espnstar.com/football/premier-league/news



Roddick wins opener in Japan

Andy Roddick was pushed to the limit by Ivo Minar but managed to come through 7-6 (13/11) 6-7 (4/7) 7-6 (7/2).

After a marathon first set, Roddick seemed on his way to victory as he served for the match at 6-5 in the second. The 102nd-ranked Minar, however, extended the match with one of his two breaks and won the tiebreak to force a decisive third set.
Each player held serve in the third set before the eighth-ranked Roddick, who finished with 37 aces, finally put things away in the tie-break. Roddick will face Austria's Jurgen Melzer, against whom he has won all eight previous meetings, in the third round.
Defending champion and top seed David Ferrer also needed three sets to book his place in the third round, topping unseeded American Jesse Levine 6-4 4-6 6-1 to set up a clash with Japan's Takao Suzuki, who forged a 7-6 (7/5) 4-6 7-6 (7/5) upset of 15th-seeded Italian Simone Bolelli.
Also needing three sets to advance on Wednesday were third seed Fernando Gonzalez - who rallied past Yen-Hsun Lu 1-6 7-5 6-3 - and seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Tsonga, who won his first career title in Bangkok on Sunday, overcame a slow start to secure a 4-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 victory over American Bobby Reynolds. The Australian Open finalist, who missed the French Open and Wimbledon following knee surgery, will face Serb Viktor Troicki next.
Gonzalez will face unseeded American Amer Delic next while sixth seed Tommy Robredo and ninth seed Tomas Berdych will contest the other third-round match in that quarter of the draw.
Elsewhere, Juan Martin Del Potro beat Israel's Dudi Sela 7-5 6-0 Israel's Dudi Sela to set up a meeting with 11th seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
The remaining quarter of the draw saw eighth seed Mikhail Youzhny and 12th seed Rainer Schuettler advance to set up a third-round showdown, while Kei Nishikori of Japan upset 16th seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez to book a match with Richard Gasquet, seeded four.
by espnstar.com/tennis/news


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