Ernesto Valverde wanted to keep Barcelona's feet on the ground after their 3-0 win over Liverpool so he hit his players where it hurt.
"Liverpool are a team that can make any opponent suffer," he said in the press conference after the match.
"And of course last year we had a three-goal advantage in the quarter-finals. And we were knocked out."
Valverde knows that loss to Roma still rankles with his players, barely a week passing without one of them referencing the game that defined their season last year and could yet shape this one too.
The tie looked over after a 4-1 thrashing at Camp Nou only for a 3-0 loss in Rome to complete one of the great Champions League comebacks and send the Italians into the semis.
That Real Madrid went on to win the tournament for a fourth time in five years rubbed salt into the wound.
"It is a thorn in our side," said Luis Suarez in September.  But it was not just that Barca had fallen short, for a third consecutive year. It was the way they had thrown ..

Valverde warns Barcelona to be wary of history at Anfield

PTI Automatic

Dries Mertens on Sunday overtook club legend Diego Maradona in Napoli's all-time Serie A scorers list after bagging his 82st goal in a 2-1 win over Cagliari which sealed second place in this season.
The Belgian striker headed in the equaliser after 85 minutes in Naples to surpass former Argentinian ace Maradona, who hit 81 league goals between 1984 and 1991.
Mertens is now the third best Serie A scorer in the club's history, behind Antonio Vojak, who hit a record 102 league goals between 1929 and 1935 and Slovakian Marek Hamsik, who achieved 100 before leaving to play in China this season.
"I'm very happy to have overtaken Maradona and to be a part of Napoli's history," said Mertens, 31, who arrived in southern Italy in 2013 from PSV Eindhoven.
"We must be proud of the our second place."
"The future? If I want to score goals in Italy I have to stay. I have always said that I feel good here, I have a contract for next year and I am very happy to stay here."
Hamsik has scored the most ..

Mertens overtakes Maradona's Napoli goal record, pledges to stay

Clubs or countries whose fans racially abuse players should be fined millions, docked points or even expelled from competitions, Viv Anderson, the first black footballer to play for England, told AFP.
The 62-year-old former full-back lambasted UEFA's decision to fine Montenegro's football authorities 20,000 euros ($22,400) for their fans' racial abuse of England players, including Raheem Sterling and Danny Rose, in a Euro 2020 qualifier in March.
Anderson, an integral part of Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest side that won two European Cups and went on to play for Manchester United and Arsenal, said unless there was a real deterrent racism would not be quelled at football matches.
"If a fine is a million pounds, you dock points and chuck the team out of the competition the associations will soon wake up and go we need to do something about this," said Anderson, speaking at the Sport Resolutions Annual Conference 2019 in London last week.
"By fining Montenegro 20,000 euros that's ...

Football pioneer Anderson calls for harsh penalties for racist abuse

Lorenzo Insigne stepped up to slot in a 98th-minute penalty as Napoli came from behind to beat Cagliari 2-1 on Sunday to guarantee they finish second in the Italian league this season behind Juventus.
Carlo Ancelotti's side have a 10-point lead on third-placed Inter Milan with three games left.
But they are a massive 16 points behind Juventus who had already won an eighth consecutive Serie A title with five games to spare.
"Keeping up with Juventus was honestly difficult," said Ancelotti.
"Of course we lost the strong motivation because the gap was great, but second place satisfies us and the team will certainly be reinforced for next season."
After a drab first half in Naples the hosts fell behind after Leonardo Pavoletti fired the Sardinians ahead after 63 minutes.
But Dries Mertens headed Napoli back into the game with just five minutes to go and in a dramatic finale the hosts were awarded a late penalty after consultation with VAR when Artur Ionita handled a Faouzi Ghoulam cross, .

Insigne's 98th-minute penalty seals second spot for Napoli in Serie A

Pep Guardiola has suggested remaining in control of this season's relentless Premier League title race is his most satisfying achievement as a manager.
The Manchester City boss says the English top division is the toughest domestic competition he has faced during a 10-season coaching career that has brought him 25 trophies.
City have won 12 Premier League matches in a row, and are on course to finish just two short of matching last season's competition record of 100 points, yet they are being pushed all the way by Liverpool, who have set extraordinary standards of their own.
Jurgen Klopp's side have lost just once in the league all season, against City in January, and recorded their eighth successive top-flight victory on Saturday, beating Newcastle 3-2 to return to the top of the table.
City have a game in hand, at home to Leicester on Monday, but are likely to have to win both that and their final league match at Brighton next Sunday to retain their title.
"Yeah, it's the toughest ..

Guardiola says City title bid ranks alongside greatest achievements

Naomi Osaka eased concerns about her form and fitness by coming through a tricky first round against Dominika Cibulkova on Sunday at the Madrid Open, declaring she's "more comfortable" on clay courts than in the past.
Osaka has struggled since splitting with her coach Sascha Bajin in February while an abdominal injury forced her to withdraw in Stuttgart eight days ago, creating doubts about her challenge at the French Open later this month.
But there was little sign of physical problems during a testing 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) victory over Cibulkova and afterwards, Osaka said: "I feel good. I don't have much pain in my abs so that's always a good sign." The Japanese world number one will now face Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo in round two.
Osaka looked set for a more comfortable passage after a dominant opening set but she was stretched by the battling Cibulkova in the second.
By the end, Osaka had hit 43 winners and eight aces while world 33 Cibulkova conjured up 23 winners.
"I was also kind of 

Osaka 'comfortable on clay' in Madrid opener, Kyrgios exits

Pat Cummins grabbed two wickets in his first over before a New Zealand XI recovered to make 215 in a one-day practice match Monday that marked a return to Australian duty for Steve Smith and David Warner after their ball-tampering bans.
A weakened New Zealand, missing Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill and Trent Boult, who remain on Indian Premier League duties, were on the ropes after their horror start.
But Tom Blundell led a fightback and top scored with 77 before they were all out after 46.1 overs.  Cummins ended with 3-36 off eight overs as Australia warm up for the defence of their World Cup title in England. Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jason Behrendorff also took three apiece.
Skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bowl, with Smith and Warner picked for the first time since serving year-long bans for their part in the "Sandpaper-gate" ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town that rocked Australian cricket.
After they were warmly welcomed by a small crowd, Smith celebrated his ...

Cummins rocks New Zealand as Smith, Warner make comeback

China's central bank said Monday it would cut the amount of cash that small and medium-sized banks hold in reserve in Beijing's latest move to boost the stuttering economy.
Authorities will slash the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) on May 15, with the aim of lowering financing costs for small businesses, the People's Bank of China said in a statement.
For county-level rural banks with limited scope, the RRR will be cut to eight per cent, in line with the rate at rural credit cooperatives.
Roughly 1,000 banks will benefit from the action, unlocking 280 billion yuan ( USD 41.6 billion) for lending to small private companies, the central bank said.
It is the second such move this year as China seeks to blunt the impact of a weakening economy and slowing global demand for its exports.
The move comes as Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to raise tariffs on hundreds of billions worth of Chinese goods at the end of the week, throwing a spanner in trade talks that had appeared on track to ...

China to cut reserve requirements for small banks

Real Madrid delivered a winning response to Zinedine Zidane's stinging criticism as Mariano Diaz scored twice in a 3-2 victory over Villarreal on Sunday.
An angry Zidane questioned the attitude of his players after last week's 1-0 loss to Rayo Vallecano and reacted by making more changes, with Luka Modric and Gareth Bale not even included in the squad.
"I am the coach," Zidane said. "I pick the squad and that's it." Instead, youngsters like Jesus Vallejo, Brahim Diaz and Federico Valverde were given chances to impress, along with Mariano, who has barely been used since joining from Lyon last summer.
His two goals, either side of Vallejo scoring his first for the club, were enough, despite Jaume Costa pulling a late goal back for Villarreal to set up an unexpectedly nervy finish.
"We played better than against Rayo," Zidane said.
"We needed that and the players needed it. We played well, no more, we're not throwing flowers into the air. We did the job and we won."
The result leaves ...

'We're not throwing flowers into the air, we did the job' - Zidane

Former Panamanian minister Laurentino Cortizo declared victory in the country's presidential polls on Sunday, though the electoral commission has yet to announce the official winner of the vote.
"I feel very happy. I won. We won. What we have to do now is join forces as a country," Social Democrat Cortizo told reporters.

Panama's Cortizo declares victory in presidential vote

Palestinian leaders in Gaza agreed a ceasefire with Israel early Monday, three officials with knowledge of the talks said, after the most serious flare-up since a 2014 war.
Egypt brokered an agreement to cease hostilities from 4:30 am (0130 GMT) local time, an official from the strip's Islamist rulers Hamas and another from its allied group Islamic Jihad said on condition of anonymity.
An Egyptian official also confirmed the deal on condition of anonymity.
An Israeli army spokeswoman had no comment.

Palestinians agree Gaza ceasefire: Hamas, Islamic Jihad sources

President Donald Trump sent Asian markets plunging Monday after threatening to hike tariffs on USD 200 billion of Chinese goods at the end of the week in a bid to speed up stuttering trade talks between the economic superpowers.
Shanghai and Hong Kong equities led big losses across the region, with the Chinese yuan also taking a battering after the president threw a spanner into the high-level negotiations, which many observers were expecting to wrap up imminently.
"For 10 months, China has been paying Tariffs to the USA of 25 per cent on 50 Billion Dollars of High Tech, and 10 per cent on 200 Billion Dollars of other goods," Trump tweeted Sunday night.
"The 10 per cent will go up to 25 per cent on Friday."
The warning will throw a shadow over the next round of talks, with a delegation from Beijing due in Washington this week, with Bloomberg News reporting the Chinese side are considering their position.
The two sides have imposed tariffs on USD 360 billion in two-way trade since last 

Asian markets plunge as Trump threatens to hike China tariffs

Air strikes by Syrian regime ally Russia on Sunday forced the closure of two hospitals and also damaged a third one in the jihadist-held Syrian province of Idlib, a war monitor said.
It came as eight civilians were killed in bombardment by the regime and Russia across the northwestern province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Idlib and other adjacent territories of Syria held by jihadists have faced intensifying bombardment in the past month.
On Sunday, air strikes hit a hospital in Kafranbel and another located underground on the outskirts of Hass.
The raids were blamed on Russia by the Observatory. An AFP cameraman filmed the two facilities hit by strikes.
"The hospital in Kafranbel is out of order. The patients were transferred to other facilities in the region," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding one civilian was killed.
In Hass, air strikes blamed on Russia halted services at an underground hospital, said Syria Relief and ...

Air raids hit three hospitals in Syria's Idlib: monitor

Forty-one people including at least two children are believed to have died when a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing and was engulfed in flames at Moscow's busiest airport Sunday, investigators said.
Dramatic footage shared on social media showed Aeroflot's Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, land at Sheremetyevo international airport, flames and black smoke pouring from its fuselage.
Passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide at the front and running from the blazing plane as huge black columns of smoke billowed into the sky.
"There were 78 people including crew members on board the plane," the Investigative Committee said in a statement, adding it had headed to the northwest Russian city of Murmansk.
"According to the updated info which the investigation has as of now, 37 people survived."
Another 11 people were injured, Dmitry Matveyev, the Moscow region's health minister said earlier in the day.
Three of them had been hospitalised but they were not in a ...

41 feared dead in Russian plane blaze disaster: investigators

At least 13 people died Sunday after a passenger plane on fire attempted an emergency landing at Moscow's busiest airport as flames and thick black smoke poured from the fuselage, Russian news agencies reported.
"For the moment, we confirm the death of 13 people, two of them children,' said a spokeswoman for the crash investigation team, Svetlana Petrenko, the agency reported.
Dramatic footage shared on social media showed the Aeroflot-owned aircraft engulfed in flames as it landed on the tarmac at Sheremetyevo, Moscow's busiest airport.
In the videos, passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide at the front and running from the blazing plane as huge black columns of smoke billowed into the sky.
The Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 carrying 73 passengers and five crew members had just left Sheremetyevo, on a domestic route, when the crew issued a distress signal, officials said.
Data from tracking website Flightradar24 indicates the emergency happened around 30 minutes ..

At least 13 dead in Moscow plane blaze: Russian agencies

Air strikes by Syrian regime ally Russia on Sunday forced the closure of two hospitals in the jihadist-held Syrian province of Idlib, a war monitor said.
It came on a day that eight civilians were killed in bombardment by the regime and Russia across the northwestern province, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Idlib and other adjacent territories of Syria held by jihadists have faced intensifying bombardment in the past month.
On Sunday air strikes hit a hospital in Kafranbel and another located underground on the outskirts of Hass.
The raids were blamed on Russia by the Observatory.
An AFP cameraman filmed the two facilities hit by strikes.
"The hospital in Kafranbel is out of order. The patients were transferred to other facilities in the region," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding one civilian was killed.
In Hass, air strikes blamed on Russia halted services at an underground hospital, said Syria Relief and Development, a ...

Air raids shut two hospitals in Syria's Idlib: Monitor

The United Nations has called for a "humanitarian truce" to halt fighting in Libya from the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Monday.
Around 400 people have been killed in clashes since military strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive against the seat of the internationally recognised unity government in Tripoli on April 4.
The UN mission in the country proposed the "extendable one-week" ceasefire "during which all parties pledge to halt all forms of military operations" in a statement Sunday.
It called on the warring sides to "allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need" and use the truce to exchange prisoners and bodies of those killed in the clashes.
Libya has been mired in chaos since the ouster and killing of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with Haftar supporting a rival administration in the east of the country.
The flare-up in fighting has displaced some 55,000 and sparked fears of a humanitarian crisis as civilians remain trapped in the conflict zone.

UN calls for week-long Libya Ramadan truce

An Algerian military judge on Sunday remanded the powerful brother of deposed president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and two former intelligence chiefs in custody on charges including "conspiring" against the state, prosecutors said.
The arrests of Said Bouteflika, General Mohamed Mediene and Athmane Tartag on Saturday were the highest-profile legal moves against loyalists of the ex-leader since he resigned last month in the face of mass protests and pressure from the army.
Military prosecutors in the southern town of Blida said in a statement the men had been placed under provisionary detention Sunday on accusations of "undermining the authority of the army" and "conspiring against the authority of the state".
Said Bouteflika, 61, was widely seen as the real power behind the presidency after his brother suffered a debilitating stroke in 2013.
Mediene, known as Toufik, headed the all-powerful secret service for 25 years and Tartag served as intelligence coordinator.
Over a month after the ...

Brother of Algeria's Bouteflika, ex-spy bosses in custody

At least 13 people died after a passenger plane made an emergency landing in Moscow Sunday with flames coming from its fuselage, the TASS news agency reported, citing investigators.
"For the moment, we confirm the death of 13 people, two of them children,' said a spokeswoman for the crash investigation team, Svetlana Petrenko, the agency reported.

13 killed in Moscow plane blaze disaster: Agencies

West Indies openers John Campbell and Shai Hope shattered the record for the highest first-wicket partnership in a one-day international with a stand of 365 as their side thrashed Ireland by 196 runs in Dublin on Sunday.
Campbell made 179 and Hope 170 in an eventual total of 381 for three after the visitors were sent in to bat by Ireland captain William Porterfield at Clontarf.
The Caribbean duo were only seven runs shy of the record partnership for any wicket in a men's ODI, with their fellow West Indians Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels smashing 372 for the second wicket against Zimbabwe in Canberra during the 2015 World Cup.
Campbell and Hope did, however, comfortably exceeded the previous opening best at this level of 304 set by Pakistan's Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in July last year.
Hope was first to his century while Campbell quickly followed to him to a hundred -- his first in international cricket.
They were both dismissed in the 48th over, ...

Windies' ODI record 365-run opening stand sets up Ireland win

England captain Eoin Morgan led his side to a seven-wicket win over Pakistan in a lone Twenty20 international in Cardiff on Sunday with an unbeaten innings of 57.
Test skipper Joe Root made 47 and James Vince 36 as England overhauled Pakistan's total of 173 for six with four balls to spare at Sophia Gardens.
This was England's second victory in three days after their one-day international success away to Morgan's native Ireland in Dublin on Friday as they continued an encouraging start to a season that sees them staging both the 50-over World Cup and the Ashes.
England fast bowler Jofra Archer also continued his push for a World Cup call-up by taking two for 29 in Pakistan's innings.
The recalled Ben Duckett fell early in England's chase, driving Shaheen Afridi to mid-off, but Vince and Root kept England up with the run-rate thanks to a series of sparkling shots.
Vince was caught down the legside by Pakistan captain and wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed off Imad Wasim but Morgan kept the ...

AFP

AFP

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