Gomez pulls out of Euro qualifiers
BERLIN: Forward Mario Gomez pulled out of Germany’s squad today with a thigh injury, one day after scoring a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win at Kaiserslautern. The German football federation (DFB) said in a statement that Brazilian-born Cacau would take Gomez’s place in the squad for Friday’s Euro 2012 qualifier at home to Austria and the friendly away to Poland four days later. Germany have a maximum 21 points in Euro 2012 qualifying Group A and need just two points from their final three games to be sure of a place in Poland and Ukraine next year. They have won their last six meetings against Austria.Gomez, who has scored 19 goals in 47 appearances for Germany, also grabbed Bayern’s winner against FC Zurich last Tuesday to guarantee them a place in the Champions League group stage. The 26-year-old was Bundesliga topscorer last season when he also notched seven goals for his country, including both in the 2-1 win away to Austria in June. (Reuters)
Advani falters at World Billiards C’ships
New Delhi: Indian cueist Pankaj Advani faltered in the finals once again as England’s Mike Russell successfully defended his Point format title in the IBSF World Billiards Championship being played in Carlow, Ireland. In a repeat of last year’s final in the Point format, former champion Advani went down 3-6 to ten-time World champion Russell in the summit clash last night at The Ivy Rooms. In the last edition of the IBSF championship played in Pune, Advani had failed to defend both his titles and lost to English cueist Russell in both point and time formats. In 2008, Advani had won both the titles in the Point and Time formats, defeating compatriots Geet Sethi and Devendra Joshi, respectively. In the final, Russell controlled every thing from the beginning and demonstrated a fantastic billiards in first four games where he produced four unfinished breaks (three 150s and one 148) to almost outplay Advani. (PTI)
Johnston accuses Trott of uttering slang
London: Former Ireland skipper Trent Johnston has accused England batsman Jonathan Trott of saying abusive words to some kids during a one-off ODI match between the two sides but later removed the post from twitter, according to a media report here. The ‘Sun’ reported that Johnston claimed on Twitter: “Word on the street is Trott told a bunch of kids (including my son) to f*** off when they asked for an autograph”. Trott, who top-scored with 69 from 105 balls in England’s win in Dublin, though, denied the charges, an England spokesman said. “I have spoken to Jonathan Trott who assures me it did not take place and we understand Trent Johnston has now deleted the post,” the spokesman was quoted as saying. (PTI)