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LIVERPOOL — Lacklustre Liverpool beat Midtjylland 2-0 on Tuesday to make it two wins out of two in the Champions League, but their defensive problems mounted as Fabinho limped off injured.

The Premier League champions were toothless in the first half but finally clicked 10 minutes after the break when the impressive Trent Alexander-Arnold set up Diogo Jota for a tap-in.

A late penalty lashed home by substitute Mohamed Salah gave the scoreline unwarranted gloss as Liverpool went to top of Group D.

“It was a tough night,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told BT Sport. “It’s a bit like in a marriage, there are good and bad times. It’s not a bad time but it’s a tricky time. A hundred per cent we have to stick together and fight harder and that’s what the boys did tonight.”

The German boss said Fabinho’s injury was “exactly the last thing we needed”.

“He felt his hamstring so that’s not good,” said Klopp. “He didn’t feel it that much — he said he could’ve played on — but not sprinting so that doesn’t help. We will see, we will have to do a scan and see but clearly it’s not good.”

Klopp left his first-choice attack of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino on the bench against the Danes, giving his second string a chance to shine.

But Liverpool, lacking urgency and fluency at an empty Anfield, struggled to break down the hard-working visitors, who had lost their Champions League opener to Atalanta 4-0.

Midtjylland had a chance to take a shock lead in the opening minutes when a long clip down the middle sent Anders Dreyer in on goal and Alisson Becker had to make a smart save.

Liverpool, who beat Ajax away in their Champions League opener, dominated possession but struggled to create clear chances.

Alexander-Arnold threat

Most of what little threat there was in the first half came from full-back Alexander-Arnold, who was lively down the right.

He produced a cross which Takumi Minamino failed to connect with before dancing through the Midtjylland defence but failing to find the Japan international.

But Klopp’s problems became a lot more serious just before the half-hour when Fabinho, filling in alongside Joe Gomez in central defence, limped off with an apparent hamstring injury, with teenager Rhys Williams entering the fray.

Klopp is already coming to terms with the absence of central defensive lynchpin Virgil van Dijk, who could be out for the whole season.

As half-time approached, Alexander-Arnold drilled another cross to Minamino, who headed wide.

But Liverpool failed to register a single first-half shot on target for the first time in 51 home games in all competitions, since October 2018.

Georginio Wijnaldum replaced captain Jordan Henderson at half-time and after a few minutes Klopp ordered Salah and Mane to warm up on the sidelines.

The breakthrough finally came when Alexander-Arnold received the ball on the right and found Xherdan Shaqiri, who played a delightful reverse pass back into the path of the marauding full-back.

The England international squared for Jota to finish from close range.

It was Liverpool’s 10,000th goal in all competitions, 128 years after their first, netted by Jock Smith in September 1892.

Salah and Mane were introduced on the hour mark for Minamino and the disappointing Divock Origi but Liverpool still struggled to find their rhythm and it was Midtjylland who threatened next as their substitute Evander fired narrowly wide.

Firmino wasted a clear chance for Liverpool in the closing minutes after yet more good work from Alexander-Arnold

The home side almost paid the price immediately but Dreyer could only find the side-netting after drifting past Gomez.

Liverpool escaped and Salah won the penalty after a searching through-ball from Alexander-Arnold. He lashed home to make the three points safe.

MILAN — Andrea Pirlo sees positives despite preparing for his biggest match since taking over as Juventus coach with COVID-19 -stricken Cristiano Ronaldo in doubt against Lionel Messi’s Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Pirlo took over after Maurizio Sarri was sacked immediately after Juventus’ last 16 exit to Lyon in August, the veteran coach lamenting another failure in a “competition cursed for Juve”.

The Turin side have won the tournament twice, but not since 1996. They have been runners-up seven times, including twice in the last five years.

In fact, 41-year-old Pirlo’s last Juventus game as a player came in the 3-1 loss to Barcelona in the 2015 Champions League final.

Juventus signed Portuguese star Ronaldo in 2018 with the aim of lifting the coveted European trophy, and his absence against Messi’s Barcelona could weigh heavy.

The 35-year-old will need to test negative 24 hours before being allowed to feature in Turin. The return at the Camp Nou is on December 8.

“We miss him right now, of course,” said Colombian teammate Juan Cuadrado. “He’s a champion. In these very difficult matches, his strength, his mentality and his desire shine through.”

Ronaldo scored three goals for Juventus in their first two league games, before contracting the virus while on international duty.

Even if Pirlo has yet to record a loss this season, Juventus are fifth in Serie A, with three draws in five games.

“Barcelona? It doesn’t worry me, they are two different matches,” said Pirlo after Sunday’s 1-1 stalemate against Hellas Verona.

“Verona play differently than Barcelona, against teams that play like this you have to prepare a certain type of match.

“We’re in the construction phase,” continued the novice coach. 

“We’re sorry to leave points on the road, but we are on the right path. We are building a long-term project. I only see positive things.”

Pirlo’s main weapons in Ronaldo’s absence have been Spanish forward Alvaro Morata, who scored both goals against Dynamo Kiev, and Swedish striker Dejan Kulusevski, who rescued the point against Verona.

Former Chelsea and Real Madrid player Morata returned to Juventus this season with Kulusevski signed from Atalanta in January before being loaned back immediately to Parma.

The 20-year-old Swede was up and running immediately, scoring on his club debut in September and came off the bench to give Juventus the edge against Verona.

Pirlo has also been impressed with how Paulo Dybala performed “well above expectations”, in his seasonal debut against Verona after over three months out.

Captain Giorgio Chiellini’s presence is in doubt, with fellow defender Leonardo Bonucci’s thigh strain being monitored, although Gianluca Frabotta, 21, has stepped into the breach, with Alex Sandro also out.

“Seeing how we started the other championships, this start has been a bit slow,” said Cuadrado of the nine-time reigning Italian champions. “But we haven’t lost yet.”

Both teams won their Group G openers with Barcelona beating Hungarians Ferencvaros 5-1 and Juventus 2-0 at Dynamo Kiev.

If Ronaldo misses his chance to line out on Wednesday he will have to wait until December to renew his rivalry with Argentine Messi.

They are the two greatest players of their generation with 11 Ballons d’Or between them, and the two highest scorers in Champions League history.

They have not faced off since the Portuguese superstar left Real Madrid for Juventus, and both are running out of time to win the Champions League again.

Messi, now 33, has featured in four victorious campaigns, all with Barcelona, while Ronaldo has won it five times, four with Real Madrid and once with Manchester United.

Ronaldo has 130 Champions league goals, of which ten have been for Juventus, to Messi’s 116.

Messi has won 16 of their 35 encounters to Ronaldo’s 10, with the remaining nine ending in draws. Messi has also scored 22 goals in those games to Ronaldo’s 19.

The pair have only met five times in Champions League games, most recently in the semifinal in 2011.

Barcelona got the better of Real Madrid with a 3-1 aggregate win with Messi scoring twice in the first leg.

Their most memorable clash was the 2009 Champions League final when Messi scored as Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0.

MARSEILLE — Andre Villas-Boas loves Marseille and the French giants’ supporters love him for ending their seven-year absence from the Champions League, in which they host Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City this week.

There was a once a time, a decade ago now, when “AVB” and Pep were the two most coveted coaches in Europe, both winning European trophies in the same 2010/11 season in charge of Porto and Barcelona respectively.

The young Villas-Boas shared some of the same reference points as Guardiola. Both crossed paths with Jose Mourinho in the early years of his career and Bobby Robson was a mentor to both, giving a young Villas-Boas work in the scouting department at Porto and then making Pep a central part of his team at Barcelona.

“AVB” was just 33 in 2011 when, as Guardiola led Barcelona to the Champions League, he won four trophies with Porto including the Europa League.

His career did not quite scale the expected heights after that. He left for Chelsea but did not last the season, and by the time the London club beat Guardiola’s Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals en route to winning the trophy, Roberto di Matteo was in charge.

Their paths did not cross then, but they will now, with Villas-Boas hoping to outfox Guardiola and damage City’s European prospects.

Marseille are up against it after losing 1-0 to Olympiakos last week, while City beat Porto. But the OM coach is unlikely to have changed the optimistic outlook with which he came into the campaign.

“We can compete in this group. We can’t be too down after being in Pot Four when the draw was made,” Villas-Boas told AFP last week.

“I like to aim high. We dreamt of being in this competition, so now we are targeting the last 16.”

For Marseille being in the Champions League is a huge deal.

France’s best-supported club remains the only Ligue 1 team ever to have won the competition, in 1993.

Although they reached the Europa League final in 2018, OM had been absent from the Champions League for seven years before Villas-Boas led them back there thanks to a second-place finish in the last, curtailed Ligue 1 campaign.

Emotional attachment

Appointed in 2019 to return to coaching in Europe, three years after leaving Zenit Saint-Petersburg for China, “AVB” quickly won over the club’s fans and they were horrified when he nearly walked away in the close season.

Unhappy at seeing sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta depart, Villas-Boas threatened to go too before being persuaded to stay for the final year of his contract.

Now he could be prepared to extend that deal.

“In February we can talk. The January transfer window will have closed and we will more or less be able to see where we stand,” he told AFP.

“The most important thing is that I am very happy here. I am emotionally attached to this club, to its history, the players who have played here, its impact in Europe. It’s magnificent.”

Villas-Boas has restored pride to Marseille, and with players like Dimitri Payet and Florian Thauvin, there is hope they can enjoy more success this season. Marseille have already beaten PSG for the first time in nine years.

It will nevertheless not be the same against City without the presence of 60,000 fans at the Velodrome, one of Europe’s most spine-tingling atmospheres.

Instead the health crisis means the stadium will be empty on Tuesday.

“The biggest disappointment for us is to return to this competition and find ourselves — with OM’s European history, two Champions League finals, three finals in the UEFA Cup or Europa League — playing without our fans, when the fervour of the supporters is sort of the thing that defines OM,” Villas-Boas said.

“We were not able to celebrate qualifying because of the times we are in, and now we can’t experience it with our supporters. That is tough.”

BARCELONA — Real Madrid averted a crisis in the best way possible on Saturday by beating Barcelona 3-1 in the first empty Clasico, landing an early blow in La Liga’s title race.

Barca had the chance to inflict a third consecutive defeat on their rivals and increase the pressure on Zinedine Zidane. 

Instead, Madrid’s win earns them a six-point lead over the Catalans, having played one game more.

“They are only three points but we have to enjoy them, especially after everything that has been said about the squad,” said Zidane.

Sergio Ramos’ penalty and a late Luka Modric goal finished Barcelona off after Federico Valverde and Ansu Fati had traded early strikes in a compelling game that defied those expecting further evidence of two heavyweights in decline. 

“You always have bad spells in a season and hopefully this one only lasted a week,” said Ramos. “To win in the home of your oldest rivals is always satisfying.”

Atletico Madrid took advantage by beating Real Betis 2-0 to move up to second in the table but Sevilla missed out, slipping to a surprise 1-0 loss at home to Eibar.

Barcelona might feel hard done by, especially as Ramos’ penalty was awarded after a check by VAR and a hugely exaggerated fall by Madrid’s captain after Clement Lenglet tugged his shirt. 

“Maybe one day you can explain how VAR works here in Spain,” said Ronald Koeman. “We’ve had five games in the league and VAR has only intervened against Barca.”

But aside from an impressive spell in the first half, when Lionel Messi threatened to win the game on his own, Madrid were dominant for longer spells and pulled away when it mattered. 

This was Koeman’s first Clasico as Barcelona coach and some of the pressure Zidane would have felt from a loss is now transferred to the Dutchman, who has overseen only three wins from his first six games in charge. 

Barcelona face Juventus on Wednesday in the Champions League, without the suspended Gerard Pique.

Every Barca set-back now reflects on the future of Messi, for whom this could even have been the last Clasico at Camp Nou. The Argentinian, who failed in his attempt to leave last summer, has still to score from open play this season.

In the previous week, Real Madrid had lost to Shakhtar Donestsk and promoted Cadiz, while Barcelona were beaten by Getafe.

Yet a dip in quality does not have to mean a drop in drama and any doubts about the thrill of this fixture were answered in eight minutes, as both teams had scored.

Madrid made the start they dreamed of when Karim Benzema drifted deep into the right channel and was allowed to turn, with the sprinting Valverde going beyond him.

Valverde pierced the gap before lifting a curved shot past Neto and into the far corner.

But within three minutes, Barcelona were level. Messi, from almost left-back, chipped a ball over the top freeing Jordi Alba, who fired into the front post where Fati had nipped ahead of Ramos and turned in. 

It was fast and open for the rest of the half, with Messi enjoying a golden spell. He glided past Casemiro and then swerved around Ramos, but onto his right foot, the finish stabbed into Thibaut Courtois at the near post. 

Benzema should have scored too and Madrid finished the stronger before half-time but Barca were better just after. Fati flashed wide and Philippe Coutinho missed a free header at the back post.

Their momentum was checked by Lenglet’s error, a tug in the box clear enough that Ramos’ shirt was stretched, even if the fall was comical. Referee Juan Martinez checked the monitor. Ramos found the corner. 

Barca wanted a penalty themselves when Ramos booted a clearance into the arm of Raphael Varane but this time there was no whistle and Madrid were hardly troubled thereafter.

Ramos and Valverde both could have made it three in the final minutes before substitute Modric did, finishing beautifully after Neto rushed out.

LONDON — Jurgen Klopp fears this season will be the toughest of his career as Liverpool navigate the unique challenges of defending the Premier League title in the coronavirus age.

Klopp’s side have already seen Sadio Mane and Thiago Alcantara briefly sidelined by COVID-19 this season, while a host of injuries have also taken their toll.

The delayed start to this season, a result of the previous campaign’s three-month hiatus because of the pandemic, means teams are being stretched to breaking point by the gruelling schedule.

Liverpool boss Klopp has lost Virgil van Dijk to a knee injury that will sideline him for most of the season, with Joel Matip, Naby Keita and Thiago missing the midweek Champions League win over Ajax because of knocks. 

Jordan Henderson was limited to just 45 minutes in that game on medical advice, while Klopp substituted Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Mane in the second half against Ajax in order to protect their fitness.

“It will become more challenging. It is already,” Klopp said when asked if this was the most testing season he had faced.

“Life is more challenging than what I ever experienced before and with football it is no different.

“We need help from everybody just to bring the boys through it. We’ve had a lot of discussions with that [medical] department.”

Concerned that his stars will be burned out by the intense fixture list, Klopp called for common sense from the schedule makers.

“I have no problem that we have to play again and I will not moan about anything but, with this schedule thing, we have to make sure that the teams who play midweek don’t play 12.30 on Saturday,” he said.

“If you play Tuesday in the Champions League, for example, then 12:30 Saturday is fine. If you play Wednesday then Saturday 12:30 is ‘Oh my God!’

“We need to have the time to rest. I know people don’t want to hear it and they go back to all the other things they say about professional football players.

“But it’s like Formula One. Everyone can drive a car but it is difficult to drive at 480kph in a pretty close area and then you hope that your brakes work.”

Van Dijk injury

Klopp admits he does not want to know how long he is going to be without Virgil van Dijk, who faces months out of action after injuring his knee.

The Netherlands international suffered cruciate ligament damage after a tackle from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in last week’s Merseyside derby and is awaiting a date for surgery.

Klopp now only has two fit senior centre-backs in Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, with midfielder Fabinho providing impressive cover in the midweek Champions League victory over Ajax.

Liverpool have refused to put a timescale on how long Van Dijk will be out but have not yet ruled him out of the whole season.

“We don’t even want to know it, to be honest. It will take time, that’s clear,” Klopp said on Friday.

“In the end, it’s really like this: all people are different and so we should not limit that by saying ‘for him it was that long, for him it was that long’.”

AMMAN  — Jordan dropped one spot to 97th when FIFA Rankings were announced ahead of the weekend.

The team has been idle after the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world sporting agenda in the midst of the Kingdom’s matches for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Qatar and 2023 Asian Cup in China.

After a long lull, the Jordan Football Association (JFA) announced the team is set to hold a training camp in Dubai on November 8-17 where it is slated to play Iraq and Syria in two friendlies as Jordan gets ready to resume the qualifiers.

It has been a year since last official matches as Jordan last played Taiwan beating them 5-0 in the qualifiers . Earlier results included a 2-1 win over Taiwan 2-1, losing 1-0 to Australia, holding Kuwait 0-0 and beating Nepal 3-0. Jordan is now third in the group and still has matches against Kuwait, Nepal and Australia but has complicated its qualifying chances as only the top team from each of the eight competing groups and four best second place finishers will move to the 2023 Asian Cup finals and Round 3 of World Cup qualifiers. 

Observers had pointed out to an incoherent line-up and postponing the local league as one reason behind Jordan’s unsteady performance. Experts and football analysts joined fans in calling on the JFA to terminate the contract of Belgian coach Vital Borkelmans who was brought in as an assistant and seems to have not been able to put the team on the right track.

Apart from official competitions, the team was not any better in friendlies nor were they able to go above 97th in FIFA Rakings throughout last year. 

In the latest FIFA World Rankings, Jordan is now 97th overall, 12th among Arab teams and 16th in the continent lagging behind relatively uncompetitive Asian teams compared to their best ranking of 37th in 2004.

Jordan trails Japan (27), Iran (29), South Korea (38), Australia (42), Qatar (57), Saudi Arabia (67), Iraq (70), the UAE (74), China (75), Syria (79), Oman (82), Uzbekistan (84), Lebanon (91), Vietnam (94) and Kyrgyzstan (96).

In the top 10 Belgium is in the top spot with World Cup champ France in second, followed Brazil, England, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Croatia and Columbia. 

Tunisia is the top-ranked Arab team at 30th, followed by Morocco (39), Egypt (52) and Qatar (57).

In last year’s friendlies, Jordan lost 4-2 to Paraguay in a friendly against the team that reached the World Cup eight times, and had their best World Cup showing in 2010 when it was knocked out of the quarter-finals.

In the last edition of the Asian Cup Jordan reached the Round of 16. Since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972, Jordan reached the Asian Cup finals four times. The highlight was at the 13th Asian Cup in 2004, when Jordan lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA Ranking of 37th. Jordan also reached the Asian Cup in 2011 and 2015 and 2019. 

On the world scene, the national team’s peak performance was in 2013 when the team was on the verge of qualifying to the 2014 World Cup for the first time and advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie. The Kingdom had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since first taking part in qualifiers. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times since 1986 qualifiers. 

In 2019, Jordan finished runner-up to Bahrain at the 9th West Asian Championship. It was the fourth time for Jordan in the final after 2002, 2008 and 2014. Iran won the title for the fourth time in 2008. Iraq won the title once in 2002, Kuwait in 2010, Syria in 2012 and Qatar in 2014 and Bahrain in 2019.

MADRID — Real Madrid won La Liga only three months ago because of their defensive steel and a relentless will to win but ahead of Saturday's Clasico against Barcelona, they appear to be a team unravelling.

After losing 1-0 at home to Cadiz for the first time in their history last weekend, Madrid fell 3-2 in the Champions League on Wednesday to Shakhtar Donetsk, who had 10 first team players and nine staff missing due to coronavirus infections.

Just as Cadiz had waltzed almost at will through the same Madrid defence that conceded only 25 league goals last season, Shakhtar wreaked havoc in Zinedine Zidane's back-line and on another night would have scored more.

The three goals they did chalk up in 13 wild first-half minutes was the same number Madrid shipped in their first nine games following La Liga's resumption last season.

And while there is no measure for commitment or concentration, it was clear both against Cadiz and Shakhtar that some of Madrid's players had lost their edge.

Lethargic performances, where the pressing was slack and the passing imprecise, suggest this team is not as tuned in as they were in June and July.

"We lacked a bit of everything but above all our confidence, which is the most important thing," said Zidane.

In some ways, perhaps, this is not a regression but a return to form for Zidane's Madrid, who have often excelled with a trophy in sight but floundered during the day-to-day grind.

Before lockdown in Spain compressed the run-in and sharpened their focus, Madrid were already a team suffering from inconsistency.

In February and March, they won only three times in eight games, slipping up against opponents such as Real Sociedad, Celta Vigo, Levante and Real Betis.

This time last year, Madrid had just lost away at Real Mallorca to make it five wins from 11 games and leave Zidane on the brink of the sack.

It is to Zidane's credit they turned their form around, doing just enough to keep pace with Barcelona and then pull away from them when it mattered.

Zidane extracted the maximum from an ageing squad that he was promised would be refreshed but, two years on, still feels all too familiar.

'I have to find the solution'

Like Barcelona, Madrid have found the financial implications of the pandemic made swift or serious change impossible.

The transfer window was largely a cost-reducing exercise for Spain's leading clubs and their quality has certainly stagnated, as Atletico Madrid demonstrated on Wednesday in their 4-0 humbling at the hands of Bayern Munich.

It means it might not be a vintage Clasico this weekend but for Madrid it has become more important now, and for Zidane too.

Two defeats in a week is one thing but three, the last of them against Barcelona, would the alter the dynamic.

"I'm the coach, I have to find the solution, I didn't find it today and it was difficult for my players," said Zidane on Wednesday night.

Zidane has credit in the bank but he will also know this run cannot continue, especially with Champions League games coming thick and fast over the next few weeks.

The demanding schedule appeals to Zidane's inclinations to rotate but he may have learned this week that his squad has its limitations.

Ferland Mendy has proven himself a significantly more reliable option at left-back than Marcelo. Casemiro is the only suitable defensive midfielder. Luka Jovic is not able to cover for Karim Benzema.

Sergio Ramos should return as well against Barcelona, after being left out of the loss to Shakhtar with a knee injury. Madrid have lost seven out of their last eight Champions League games without him.

If Zidane has Ramos and his best team available, it would not be a surprise to see them respond at Camp Nou, where Barca will have the pressure to assert themselves as the home team, but without the spur of a home crowd.

And Madrid will have critics to answer and pressure to feed off. Doubts, though, will remain about their stomach for the fight long-term. Cadiz and Shakhtar have made sure of that.

LONDON — The doping charges brought against Bahrain’s 400 metre world champion Salwa Eid Naser have been dismissed, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Naser was provisionally suspended in June and charged with failing to meet “whereabouts” criteria in circumstances the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal said “would have been comical were the consequences not so serious”.

The AIU charged the Nigerian-born runner with four alleged “whereabouts” failures which included three missed tests between March 2019 and January this year.

But the Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that one of those, on April 12, 2019, “cannot be confirmed” as a missed test by the athlete, meaning Naser had not missed three tests within 12 months which is required to prove an anti-doping violation.

The tribunal reported problems with the online whereabouts system “ADAMS” for both sides.

It said that Naser had never managed to log on to ADAMS let alone submit her whereabouts information. The Bahrain athletics federation had delegated the task to one of its officials, who failed to update Naser’s whereabouts for a test in January of this year after sleeping through the morning deadline to update her location.

The tribunal rejected Naser’s assertion that this should not count as a missed test.

For the earlier test, last April, the tribunal ruled that even though Naser’s ADAMS information gave the wrong address, the inspector should have done better once he had worked out the correct building.

“What happened next would have been comical were the consequences not so serious,” said the ruling.

The inspector, Enrique Martinez, turned up at 6:00 am and was reluctant to wake anyone other than Naser.

He first mistook a parking place number for a door number and knocked for five minutes on a store room. He did not realise that the apartment block intercom did not work or that, for that reason, the outside door had been left unlocked.

In the last five minutes of the designated hour, the tester is allowed to phone, but Naser’s number on ADAMS was wrong.

Naser, meanwhile, was where she said she would be, asleep in her flat. Because Martinez never managed to reach her door, she did not, the tribunal ruled, miss the test.

The problems have been highlighted by the long-running saga of US sprinter Christian Coleman who appealed one ban for missing three tests so he could run in the 2019 World Championships, where he won 100m and 100m relay golds, but was in June provisionally suspended again.

At the same world championships in Doha, Naser, who improved by a second a season from 2016-19, stunned athletics when she powered to the third-fastest 400m in history to take the title.

Her time of 48.14 seconds has only been bettered by East German Marita Koch and former Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvilova in the 1980s.

The AIU is the independent anti-doping watchdog for track and field, set up in 2017.

It has the right to appeal the verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

AMSTERDAM — Ajax host Liverpool in the Champions League on Wednesday, 18 months after being denied the chance to play the Anfield club in the final by a stunning Tottenham Hotspur comeback in the semi-final in Amsterdam.

The Dutch side wowed Europe on that run to the last four, before many of their best players were unsurprisingly picked off by wealthier clubs elsewhere.

AFP Sport looks at what remains of that Ajax team:

Moved on

The two big names to leave in the summer of 2019 were the Dutch international duo of Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong.

Centre-back De Ligt, who captained Ajax in that campaign aged 19, scored the winner against Juventus in the quarter-finals and also scored against Tottenham in the semifinal. He moved to Juventus for 75 million euros ($84.2 million) plus 10.5 million euros of add-ons, a world-record fee for a defender.

Meanwhile midfielder De Jong, now 23, was sold to Barcelona in a deal worth a total of 86 million euros that was agreed midway through the 2018-19 season.

Kasper Dolberg was really only a bit-part player in that Champions League campaign, but Ajax still cashed in on the Danish striker, selling him to French club Nice for 20.5 million euros. Another Dane, veteran midfielder Lasse Schone, left for Genoa in Italy.

After failing to progress beyond the group stage of last season’s competition, Ajax allowed another mainstay of their side to go, with supremely gifted Moroccan international attacking midfielder Hakim Ziyech joining Chelsea for 40 million euros.

And Donny van de Beek was the most recent to move on, the 23-year-old midfielder who scored the only goal away to Spurs in the first leg of the semifinal being sold to Manchester United in September for 39 million euros.

In total the four-time European champions have raised nearly 300 million euros in transfer fees from selling members of that squad that won the domestic double in 2019 as well as going so far in Europe.

Stayed put

Most of the exciting young talents in that side have moved on, but others remain. Erik ten Hag is still the coach, while Serbian international Dusan Tadic is still one of Ajax’s main goal-scoring threats.

The former Southampton man netted six times in that European run and scored 16 more last season in all competitions in a campaign that was eventually cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic, with no champion crowned. Tadic also scored twice in the 5-1 weekend defeat of Heerenveen.

Goalkeeper Andre Onana, centre-back Daley Blind, Argentine left-back Nicolas Tagliafico and the Moroccan right-back Noussair Mazraoui all remain key elements too.

Further forward, Brazil winger David Neres — who was on target in the 2019 quarter-final against Juventus — is also still part of Ten Hag’s squad.

The new faces

Ajax have reinvested some of the money brought in from sales over the last 18 months, shelling out fees of more than 15 million euros to sign Dutch international forward Quincy Promes from Sevilla, Mexico midfielder Edson Alvarez and the young Brazilian attacker Antony.

The latter came off the bench to score at the weekend. Also on target in that game was Mohammed Kudus, a 20-year-old Ghana international recruited from Nordsjaelland in Denmark.

Ajax continue to put faith in youth, but they have brought in experience too. Midfielder Davy Klaassen was signed from Werder Bremen in a 14 million-euro deal and returns to the club he left in 2017 for a failed stint on the blue side of Merseyside at Everton.

PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain came so close to winning the prize they crave more than anything in last season’s Champions League and are hoping to go one better this time, but there are concerns that the Qatar-owned club might actually have gone backwards in recent months.

Bayern Munich’s greater experience told in Lisbon in August, and there were tears at the end for Neymar as the French champions agonisingly lost 1-0 in their first ever Champions League final.

Two months on, Thomas Tuchel’s side begin their latest bid for European success at home to Manchester United on Tuesday, in a rematch of the last-16 tie in 2019 which PSG lost to a controversial late penalty.

It therefore brings back memories of just one of several painful defeats in the Champions League in recent years, but the reality is that Paris should be considered favourites against the Old Trafford side and to win a group also containing RB Leipzig and Istanbul Basaksehir.

Yet, whether this will be the season that they do go all the way remains to be seen.

Tuchel has been the first to complain that his squad is weaker than it was last season as PSG — having already seen several key players depart over the summer — have started the new campaign hamstrung by injuries, suspensions and coronavirus cases. 

‘Clumsy and rushed’

Right-back Thomas Meunier and all-time record goal-scorer Edinson Cavani left when their contracts ended, not even sticking around for the latter stages of the Champions League in August — Cavani is now at United and so could come back to haunt his old side this week.

Skipper Thiago Silva did stay for the “Final Eight” in Lisbon but has since joined Chelsea and complained that sporting director Leonardo had been “clumsy and rushed” in refusing to offer him a deal to stay.

“Not only with me,” the Brazilian told France Football. “Cavani is the top scorer in PSG’s history. I am saying this so that the club progresses and doesn’t make the same mistakes in future.”

Tuchel would appear to agree with that view, with his apparently difficult relationship with the man who makes the signings producing regular headlines in France.

“We will do everything we possibly can and we will never accept excuses but we have to face up to the reality and that is that we have lost players,” the German, who is in the final year of his contract, said earlier this month as he indicated PSG could not win the Champions League without major strengthening.

“We didn’t like what he said. The club didn’t like it and I didn’t like it either,” said Leonardo.

“If you decide to stay, you have to respect the club’s sporting policy, the internal rules and the situation at the club.”

New signings 

late in coming

But if there was no love lost just a few weeks ago, Tuchel would have been pleased to see several new signings arrive just before the transfer window closed on October 5.

PSG signed two new midfielders, with Portuguese international Danilo Pereira arriving on loan from Porto and Rafinha joining on a three-year deal from Barcelona.

Italy striker Moise Kean was also captured on loan from Everton to strengthen the attack.

Neymar and Kylian Mbappe are still there of course, and so is Angel di Maria, but they still look light in defence.

Friday’s 4-0 win over Nimes was their fifth in a row in Ligue 1 after starting the campaign with two straight defeats, yet question marks remain about their longer-term prospects this season.

Meanwhile in the short term PSG are still missing a host of players for the start of their European campaign.

Influential left-back Juan Bernat is out with a knee injury, while midfield duo Marco Verratti and Leandro Paredes are expected to miss Tuesday’s game and Mauro Icardi is absent too.

Di Maria, at least, can play here while he serves a ban domestically.