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Soccer

Champions League playoff bracket finalized; Celtic, Fenerbahce crash out

There were some notable results as the third Champions League qualifying round reached its conclusion Tuesday with 10 second-leg ties taking place across Europe.

Arguably the round’s biggest heavyweight clash between Fenerbache and Benfica – the Turkish league and Portuguese league runners-up, respectively – played out to a 1-1 draw, which saw the Lisbon side progress courtesy of its 1-0 win at home in the first leg.

Meanwhile, Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic suffered their earliest continental exit since 2011-12 thanks to a dismal 2-1 defeat at Greek champion AEK Athens. The Yellow-Blacks had earned a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Glasgow despite playing the majority of the final 35 minutes with 10 men.

Full second-leg results from third qualifying round:

Champions Path

AEK Athens 2-1 Celtic (3-2 on agg.)

BATE Borisov 1-1 FK Qarabag (2-1 on agg.)

Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 Astana (3-0 on agg.)

MOL Vidi 0-0 Malmo (1-1 on agg. via away-goal rule)

Shkendija 0-1 Red Bull Salzburg (0-4 on agg.)

Spartak Trnava 1-2 Red Star Belgrade (2-3 on agg.)

Losing teams drop into the Europa League playoff round

League Path

Ajax 3-0 Standard Liege (5-2 on agg.)

Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 Slavia Prague (3-1 on agg.)

Fenerbahce 1-1 Benfica (1-2 on agg.)

Spartak Moscow 0-0 PAOK Salonika (2-3 on agg.)

Losing teams drop into Europa League group stage

The winning teams from those 10 ties will now advance to the marathon competition’s final tie before the group stage, the playoff round, where they will be joined by Dutch Eredivisie champion PSV Eindhoven and Swiss Super League king BSC Young Boys.

Full playoff-round fixtures (teams at home in first leg listed first):

Ajax vs. Dynamo Kyiv

BATE Borisov vs. PSV Eindhoven

Benfica vs. PAOK Salonika

BSC Young Boys vs. Dinamo Zagreb

MOL Vidi vs. AEK Athens

Red Star Belgrade vs. Red Bull Salzburg

Ties to be played Aug. 21-22 and Aug. 28-29.

NFL

Vikings honor Sparano before preseason game

MINNEAPOLIS — Surrounded by her children, Jeanette Sparano stood at the 40-yard line before kickoff at U.S. Bank Stadium for nearly an hour. One by one, the widow of Tony Sparano Sr., the Minnesota Vikings offensive line coach who died unexpectedly last month, was greeted by players and coaches who offered hugs and words of encouragement before the family served as honorary captains ahead of the Vikings-Jaguars preseason game.

Sparano died from arteriosclerotic heart disease at his home in Eden Prairie two days before rookies and quarterbacks reported to camp. He was 56 years old.

Jeanette proudly donned the name she was given by the man she fell in love with as a teenager, a cursive “Sparano” decal with glitter surrounding the letters stuck on the outside of her tote bag. Standing with her arms around daughter Ryan and son Tony Jr., an assistant offensive line coach for Jacksonville, the three joined the rest of the 66,637 in attendance to honor their father and husband with a moment of silence followed by a tribute video that played on the jumbotron.

A painting of recently-deceased Vikings offensive line coach Tony Sparano was presented to his family before Saturday’s preseason game. Adam Bettcher/Getty Images

The video opened with a scene of Sparano inside the locker room at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum giving a heartfelt speech to his players after the Raiders beat Kansas City in Nov. 2014. It was the first of three wins for the Raiders that season after Sparano was named interim head coach, tasked with guiding Oakland through murky waters during an 0-10 start.

Moments from Sparano’s time as a coach in Minnesota, Miami and Oakland played on screen, encapsulating the love he had for his job and how proud he was of his players.

“He loved them like they were us,” Tony Jr. said.

Testimony from Jeanette, Tony Jr., Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman painted the picture of a coach whose tireless work ethic was second to none; a man who prided himself on bringing out the best in his players.

“Let’s get the details right! Pay attention to the details!” Sparano Sr. said to his players in Miami.

The Vikings will wear “TS” decals on the back of their helmets this season to honor Sparano’s legacy. The 19-year NFL veteran coach spent two seasons in Minnesota working with the offensive line. Injuries ravaged his unit in back-to-back years but didn’t hold the Vikings back from reaching the NFC Championship in 2017. The offensive line, which helped the run game go from 32nd to seventh in the NFL, played a major part in that.

“I like the fact that we took a bunch of guys and molded them into one,” Sparano Sr. said in an interview that played on screen.

After the emotional ceremony, Jeanette linked arms with her children as they made their way onto the field. Walking on either side of the Sparano family was the Vikings offensive line, who stood in unison at midfield as the family called the coin toss.

These players were more than that for Sparano. They were an extension of his family.

His starting offensive linemen from the 2017 season — Riley Reiff, Nick Easton, Pat Elflein, Joe Berger and Mike Remmers — along with Rashod Hill served as pallbearers at his funeral. Berger, who played for Sparano in Dallas, Miami and Minnesota, was on hand Saturday to cap off the ceremony by sounding the gjallarhorn before kickoff.

Soccer

De Bruyne: Champions League glory not pivotal in determining City's success

London – Manchester City don’t need to win the Champions League to be judged a success, claims Belgian star Kevin de Bruyne in an interview with the BBC.

European club football’s most prestigious trophy has proved elusive to City despite the hundreds of millions invested in players since Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club in 2008 with a semi-final appearance in the 2015/16 season under Manuel Pellegrini their best showing.

However, De Bruyne — whose Champions League hopes were dashed by Premier League rivals Liverpool last season — tells the BBC winning the league crown last season probably ranks as a greater achievement than if one were to win the Champions League.

“I don’t agree that we have to win the Champions League to be a success,” said De Bruyne, who has been with City since 2015.

“It is a big title to win but in the Champions League you don’t need to have the consistency that you need in the league.

“We were great for the whole year, maybe a bit less against Liverpool, and so we were out.”

De Bruyne speaks with even more recent painful experience of disappointment at a major tournament with Belgium beaten by eventual champions France in the World Cup semi-finals.

“It is a tournament, you need to be good at the right time,” he said.

“In the league if you have a bad spell then you are running behind.

“It is a different prospect, cup games are different to a league.”

De Bruyne, who scored a stunning goal in Belgium’s 2-1 World Cup quarter-final win over Brazil, says he enjoys a professional relationship with City manager Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is filmed in the eight part documentary series ‘All or Nothing’ made by Amazon covering City last season — which is to be aired on the streaming service Amazon Prime on Friday — telling the players if they felt they would play better by hating him then they should do so.

“Pep has different relationships with everyone,” De Bruyne told the BBC.

“I am lucky that I like to play the way already that he implemented so it was an easier transition, more natural.”

De Bruyne, who unlike his former Genk team-mate Thibaut Courtois did not enjoy a successful time when he joined Chelsea in 2012 and was eventually sold to German outfit VfL Wolfsburg in 2014, concedes levity can be in short supply in Guardiola’s pep talks.

“Pep can be intense,” said the 27-year-old who scored eight goals and provided 16 assists in City’s title win which yielded several records including passing 100 points,

“In the end sometimes it can be an overload (of information from him) but every person in life has that when they are at work. We cope with it fine.

“You don’t have to shout at him, you talk like an adult, you are both people who came here to win as a team. If you explain what you are thinking then there is no problem.”

NFL

Source: Packers' Kumerow avoids serious injury

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The conversation about Jake Kumerow, who’s been dubbed by one member of the Green Bay Packers as “one of the talks of training camp,” won’t be coming to an end.

That’s because the popular receiver avoided a serious shoulder injury.

Kumerow sustained a sprained SC joint in his shoulder that neither he nor the Packers medical staff views as a serious concern, a source told ESPN on Friday. It is expected to heal relatively quickly with rest and shouldn’t impact Kumerow’s availability for the regular season should he make the roster — something that seemed like a foregone conclusion after his performance in Thursday’s night’s preseason win over the Steelers.

The former Division III standout at UW-Whitewater, who has become a local favorite, sustained the injury when he dove into the end zone on his 82-yard catch-and-run touchdown against Pittsburgh. He caught three passes for 114 yards and the touchdown. Kumerow leads the NFL in preseason receiving yards with 190 and has a pair of touchdowns in as many games.

He’s the son of former first-round pick Eric Kumerow and the first cousin of Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa.

Kumerow has drawn praise from Aaron Rodgers and other veterans in the locker room. Cornerback Tramon Williams called him “one of the talks of training camp.”

The 6-foot-4, long-haired Kumerow, 26, first broke into the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Bengals in 2015. He was cut at the end of training camp in both 2015 and 2016 and last year was released with an ankle injury. The Packers signed him to their practice squad last December.

“From the first time he got here, it’s never been too big for him,” Rodgers said Thursday night. “He continues to make plays, and that’s how you make the squad: You ball out on game day and you do things on special teams when you’re a fringe guy and you give yourself an opportunity, not just for this squad, but for any team watching [No.] 16 on film.”

The Packers sustained two other known injuries on Thursday night: running back Jamaal Williams (ankle) and guard Justin McCray (calf). Coach Mike McCarthy offered no updates on their conditions on Friday, but both players indicated after the game that their injuries were not believed to be serious.

A source said tests showed McCray sustained just a calf contusion that should not keep him out long, if at all.

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Soccer