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BARCELONA/BERLIN — Barcelona’s lethal attack has put them on course for a seventh Champions League semifinal place in eight years but their shaky defence gives Paris Saint Germain a glimmer of hope on Tuesday.

The Catalan side are renowned for the quick passing possession game that brought them so much success under Pep Guardiola, but now coach Luis Enrique is looking to triumph with a more direct approach.

Luis Enrique remains on track to emulate his predecessor and win the treble in his first season in charge, using a style of play based around the quality of his forwards.

The Barca coach had to endure plenty of criticism during the first half of the campaign and there were even question marks over whether he would last the season as he tinkered with his side’s formation.

Luis Enrique has now finally settled on a game plan, one that often involves longer balls. It’s a ploy which has greatly benefited Luis Suarez who’s been deployed as a central striker.

Lionel Messi, converted into the central figure of Barca’s attacking trident by Guardiola, himself suggested it would be better for Suarez to play through the middle.

After a slow start following his post-world cup biting ban Suarez has now scored crucial goals for Barca including a double in their 3-1 first leg victory over PSG in Paris.

Atletico Madrid, last season, are the only team to have stopped Barca getting to the semifinals of the Champions League since 2007 and it would take something special from PSG to deny them.

However, for all Barca’s flair going forward they are prone to making mistakes defensively and PSG’s only goal in the first leg came from Jeremy Mathieu, who put the ball in his own net.

They also struggled defensively in their 2-0 win over Valencia at the weekend and it is an area that PSG can look to exploit.

“We were not organised and lacked control in the first half [against Valencia] and they put us under pressure,” Barca midfielder, Javier Mascherano, told reporters.

“These are the types of things that we have to overcome and we will analyse it.”

PSG warmed up for the Camp Nou showdown with a 3-1 victory over Nice and have Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marco Verratti back after missing the first leg through suspension.

There are fitness worries, though, with Thiago Motta, Thiago Silva and David Luiz all doubtful.

Bayern-Porto 

Bayern Munich are on a mission with coach Pep Guardiola firing up his injury-hit team as they seek to reverse a 3-1 deficit against Porto in the Champions League quarter-final second leg on Tuesday.

The five-times European champions, who have reached the final three times since 2010, find themselves in the unusual position of having to come from behind.

Guardiola, who has only ever recorded wins as player and coach against Porto, will also be forced to try to turn things around without several of his leading lights.

“People do not know how difficult our situation is,” he told reporters after Bayern’s 2-0 victory over Hoffenheim on Saturday that kept them on course for the Bundesliga title.

“I will never in my life forget these months and I am proud of the team. Now we have on Tuesday the most important Champions League game. It will of course be difficult but this a is our big goal.”

Bayern players need all the pep talk they can get with Arjen Robben, David Alaba, Medhi Benatia and Javi Martinez certain to miss the game at the Allianz Arena.

Winger Franck Ribery is also highly unlikely to be fit for the German champions after being sidelined for five weeks with an ankle injury.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, who had been out for two weeks with an ankle knock, did not play on Saturday due to a virus but should be fit along with captain Philipp Lahm.

However, the Bavarians, chasing a treble of titles, have also been rocked by the sudden departure of long-time team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfahrt this week, saying he had been blamed for the defeat in Porto.

“The coach was very emotional [in Hoffenheim],” Bayern midfielder Sebastian Rode said. “He wanted to weld us together. He said we need to remain calm and focused in this situation and if we believe in ourselves and the team then we can overcome obstacles.”

Porto are in fine form, having yet to lose in the Champions League this season and showing superb focus in the first leg to contain Bayern.

The Portuguese edged past Academica Coimbra 1-0 in the league, with coach Julen Lopotegui making nine changes to the squad that beat Bayern.

“We were coming from a tremendously demanding game, both physically and psychologically, and we felt this was our best team at the moment,” said the Spaniard of their narrow win. “We had to make some changes, we needed a fresh team to win this match.” With Danilo and Alex Sandro suspended they will need another fresh team if they are to deny Bayern — who have yet to concede a goal at home in this competition this season — a fourth straight semi-final spot.

The last time the Porto went through to the last four was when they won the trophy in 2004.

CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving scored 30 points in his play-off debut and LeBron James added 20 in his first postseason game with Cleveland in five years as Cavaliers opened a run toward an NBA title with a 113-100 victory over Boston Celtics on Sunday.

Irving made five 3-pointers and Kevin Love, another postseason rookie, had 19 points and 12 rebounds.

It was Cleveland’s first home playoff game since May 11, 2010, when Celtics won Game 5 and James left the floor to some boos from Cavaliers fans. He departed for Miami two months later, but he’s home now, all is forgiven and Cleveland is aiming to end a championship drought dating to 1964.

Isaiah Thomas scored 22 points to lead the seventh-seeded Celtics. They will try to even the best-of-7 series in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

Clippers point guard Chris Paul scored 32 points, and Blake Griffin added 26 points and 12 rebounds, as Los Angeles surged in second half to beat San Antonio Spurs 107-92 in their first-round playoff series opener.

Jamal Crawford added 17 points for Clippers, who met the defending NBA champions’ challenge in a difficult postseason-opening matchup for two powers. Griffin threw down his usual array of roof-raising dunks, while Paul quarterbacked Los Angeles to an 18-point lead in the third quarter.

Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points for Spurs, who had won the opening game in their previous 11 playoff series. Tim Duncan had 11 points and 11 rebounds, but the Spurs couldn’t rally from their hefty second-half deficit.

Game 2 is Wednesday night.

In Atlanta, Kyle Korver scored 21 points, including five 3-pointers, as the top-seeded Hawks held off Brooklyn Nets 99-92 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoff series.

Hawks led nearly the entire game and pushed the margin as high as 16 points, but Nets kept coming back. Finally, Jeff Teague dropped in a floater coming off the left wing, giving Atlanta a 95-89 lead. Joe Johnson missed a 3-pointer from the corner for Brooklyn, and Teague made a pair of free throws with just under a minute remaining to essentially seal it.

Teague and DeMarre Carroll scored 17 points apiece.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Atlanta.

Memphis Grizzlies downed the Portland Trail Blazers 100-86 after reserve Beno Udrih scored 20 points in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series.

Zach Randolph had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Marc Gasol added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Mike Conley finished with 16 points and didn’t play the fourth quarter. Jeff Green had 11.

LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 32 points while taking more shots than anyone had ever taken against Memphis in the postseason, going 13 of 34. Damian Lillard added 14 points, shooting 5 of 21 overall and 0 of 6 beyond the arc. Nicolas Batum had 15 points. Trail Blazers have lost five straight overall.

Game 2 is Wednesday night.

Meanhile, Toronto Raptors’ Nigerian-born general manager Masai Ujiri was fined $35,000 and the team docked $25,000 by the NBA on Sunday for his expletive Saturday talking about Washington forward Paul Pierce when addressing fans before Raptors’ play-off opener.

“People want me to say something about Paul Pierce but, we don’t give a [expletive] about ‘it’,” Ujiri told a cheering crowd outside the Air Canada Centre in an area dubbed Jurassic Park.

Ujiri was referring to the Wizards’ veteran who told ESPN he wasn’t worried about Raptors because “I don’t feel they have the ‘it’ that makes you worried.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver attended Raptors’ overtime loss in Game 1 of the first-round play-off series. Last year, Ujiri was fined $25,000 by the NBA for ending a speech with an expletive before the team’s postseason opener against the Brooklyn Nets.

AMMAN — The 3rd AFC U-14 Girls Regional Championship for West Asia kicks off in Bahrain on Monday with five teams competing.

Jordan plays Iraq as the UAE plays Palestine on the opening day. They will join host Bahrain in the five-day event played under the single round robin system.

Jordan holds the West Zone title from the past two editions. Last year, the U-14 squad retained the title in Amman after an unbeaten streak that saw them beat Bahrain 4-0, Qatar 7-0, Palestine 5-0 and the UAE 3-0.

Jordan had also won the inaugural event in Doha, Qatar, in 2013 with an unbeaten streak as well.

Led by HRH Prince Ali, the Jordan Football Association has placed great emphasis on developing the game in the Kingdom. Jordan will host the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup and is now gearing up to implement executive plans to prepare four stadiums as well as 16 practice fields. Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain. 

Last month, the senior women’s team went up two spots to 54th in the latest FIFA World Rankings. The Kingdom leads all Arab teams and is 11th in the Asian continent ahead of Japan, North Korea, Australia, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Myanmar and Uzbekistan.

The latest rank comes after the squad topped Asian Group A qualifiers and reached Round 2 of the qualifiers — the first phase of the qualifying journey to the 2016 Summer Olympics football tournament — which are set for September.

Jordan beat Uzbekistan 2-0, Hong Kong 1-0 and Palestine 6-0. Group leaders will join Vietnam and Thailand in Round 2, from which the top team will move to Round 3 to play the top five seeded teams — Japan, Australia, South Korea, North Korea and China — which eventually qualifies the top two to represent Asia at the Olympic Games. It is Jordan’s second time in the qualifiers after the 2012 London Olympic qualifiers when they advanced to Round 2. 

Team officials hope the squad will make up for a disappointing 2014 season when the senior women’s team exited Round 1 of the 2014 Asian Games and similarly exited the Round 1 of their first 2014 AFC Women’s Asian Cup where they were also the only Arab team to have ever qualified. The squad is reigning West Asian champs. Jordan won the West Asian title twice in 2005 and 2007, conceded to the UAE in 2010 and 2012, and regained it in 2014 as Iran, Lebanon as well as two-time champs and titleholders, UAE missed the event.

In age divisions, the U-19 team last year failed to repeat their 2007 qualification to the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship which eventually qualifies the top three teams to the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. The U-16 team failed to qualify to the 2015 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship after qualifying in 2013.

Asian zones: 

South and Central Zone

Group A: Iran, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal

Group B: Bhutan, Bangladesh and India

ASEAN Zone

Group A: Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia

Group B: Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines

East Zone

Group A: Japan, Taiwan, Guam and South Korea

Group B: China, North Korea, Hong Kong and Northern Mariana Islands

West Zone

Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and the UAE

NASSAU, Bahamas — CONCACAF’s congress witnessed an outburst of support for incumbent Sepp Blatter ahead of next month’s FIFA presidential election but one of his rivals Dutch FA chief Michael van Praag believes that does not tell the whole story.

Blatter’s electoral machine is in full-swing with Africa, South America and the CONCACAF regions already looking strong for him, though van Praag said many of those opposed to the Swiss may be keeping their heads down before the May 29 vote.

All three candidates running against Blatter — van Praag, HRH Prince Ali and former Portugal international Luis Figo — spent time in the Bahamas meeting delegates privately, as they have been doing in other regions.

“We knew in advance there was support for Mr Blatter in this region,” Van Praag told Reuters in reference to 10 Caribbean and Central American federations speaking in support of Blatter while none publicly backed his three opponents.

“But I know from my meetings that there also countries in CONCACAF that want a change, they are sure of that and they are not going to vote for Mr Blatter.”

Van Praag said reluctance to make opposition to Blatter public ahead of the vote is not limited to the CONCACAF region.

“I was in Africa at their congress in Cairo last week and there are delegates from African countries who also want a change now and who read the various programmes of Prince Ali, Luis Figo and myself,” van Praag added.

“They keep their cards close to their chest and they don’t want to disclose to others what they are going to do.

“The FIFA congress has a secret ballot, so there can be surprises.”

Van Praag could expect support from Dutch speaking territories in the region, Suriname, Curacao and Aruba while Prince Ali has been nominated by CONCACAF’s biggest federation — the United States.

Figo, while unhappy with the fact that only Blatter was allowed to address the congress, also indicated he had picked up backing in the region that has 35 votes.

“I leave the Bahamas with important support in the Americas and a strengthened will to implement changes,” he told Reuters.

The three will meet next month to discuss their strategy for the vote.

“We will sit together sometime in May and see what the situation is,” said Van Praag.

“Everybody is trying to shoot holes in the defence wall of Mr Blatter. That is good... I am very satisfied with the situation.”

AMMAN — Mohammed Kukhen on Friday was crowned champion of the second round of the Jordan Drift Championship “Kumho Drift” held at the SOFEX Racetrack with the participation of 49 drivers from Palestine, Syria and Jordan.

Kukhen collected 539 points in his BMW A46, followed by his brother Omar Kukhen (531 points) in his BMW A36 and Othman Tekriti (525 points) in his BMW A36.

Kukhen who won the first round said that it was a very tough challenge.

“It was a big challenge and very tough competition especially that we had a huge number of drivers, and for the first time from Syria and Palestine, but I managed to keep the pressure on and win the round,” he said.

“My brother was the one to beat which was not easy at all, but I managed to win by a mere eight points. I am excited because I’m heading the standings now, but there will be more challenges in the next rounds,” he added.

Jordan Motorsport CEO Othman Naseef told The Jordan Times that the second round had more heat.

“We are happy to have a high calibre of drivers who are taking things seriously and doing all they can to win and we are excited that drivers from Palestine and Syria joined the round,” he said.

“Our next event, the second round of the Rally Championship, will be held on April 24 and I am sure it will be very challenging too,” he added.

Drifting consists of three rounds with the last round hosting best 13 drifters. Drivers will have to own special drift driving licence and they will be judged by a committee of experienced drivers.

Drifting is a kind of driving technique that goes back to the 70s in Japan and used by drivers through oversteering and causing a loss of traction whether in the rear wheels or all tyres while controlling a certain entry to exit of a corner.

AMMAN — Wihdat have a clear seven-point lead as they head into Week 19 of the 63rd Jordan Professional League which kicks off on Friday.

Wihdat are now closer to retaining their title after they scored two consecutive wins to boost their lead, the last being 3-0 over Baqaa. The team  now lead with 40 points ahead of their much anticipated match against Faisali set for Sunday.

It will be the 76th match between the all-time rivals, with Wihdat winning 27 times and Faisali 26. Wihdat won the Leg 1 match 2-0 in November.

Ramtha still trail in second place as they were held 2-2 by Shabab Urdun. They will next play Baqaa.

Jazira are third after a 0-0 draw with Faisali and they next take on That Ras.

Former Jordan Cup champs That Ras are now fourth after they beat Ittihad Ramtha 1-0. They will now face Jazira in a vital match.

Sarih are fifth after they lost to Manshieh 2-1. They will next go up against former champs Shabab Urdun, who are 11th. Ahli advanced to sixth after they beat Hussein Irbid 1-0. They will next play Manshieh as both hope to advance further up the standings.

Faisali still trail at the lower end of the standings for the first time ever since the League kicked off in 1944. Baqaa, a usual top five finisher, are now 10th while former champs Shabab Urdun have also disappointed fans and are 11th. While Ittihad Ramtha are sure to be relegated, the second team facing relegation is still undecided putting a lot of pressure of teams from 9-11 places.

Ramtha’s Rakan Khalidi, whose injury forced him to miss most of the last League matches, leads the scorers with nine goals while Wihdat’s Mahmoud Zaatara has seven.

Wihdat won the first competition of the 2014/15 season after they beat Baqaa 2-0 in the 32nd Super Cup. The Jordan Cup semis will now be played after the League ends as Faisali play Wihdat and Ramtha face That Ras in the semis. 

Last season, Wihdat won the League title for the 13th time. They beat Baqaa to win the Jordan Cup while Shabab Urdun beat That Ras to win the 31st Super Cup. The Jordan Football Association Shield was not held.

MANAMA — A Chinese Grand Prix podium hostess who had champagne sprayed in her face by race winner Lewis Hamilton has played down the incident after the Formula One world champion was accused of sexist bullying.

“It lasted for only one or two seconds, and I didn’t think too much about it,” Liu Siying, a 22-year-old graduate of the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art who works for a real estate company, told the Shanghai Daily.

“I think some foreign media are more sensitive about the topic than local media,” she added. “I was just told by my employer to stand on the podium and that’s what I did.”

Sunday’s incident, highlighted in photographs that showed the woman flinching as the winner aimed a stream of fizz at her, triggered condemnation from some critics in Britain and Germany as well as on Chinese social media.

The Daily Mail said Hamilton had been “ungallant” while Wednesday’s Times newspaper asked in its leader column, below comment on the British election and the plight of migrants dying at sea off the North African coast, what the Briton had been thinking.

“They shake up champagne a lot in F1, of course, and as a regular winner Hamilton is practised in it. His die-hard fans have naturally accused his many Chinese critics of having a collective sense of humour failure,” the paper declared.

“Well, we’ve had one too. Hamilton is a great driver but nothing gives him the right to behave like a hooligan. Not even winning.”

The practice of Formula One drivers spraying champagne on the podium dates back decades, with the Mumm brand providing the fizz since 2000, and many in the sport were bemused by the criticism.

Race winners routinely spray everyone within sight, or who has not already retreated from the podium, as well as themselves.

Red Bull technical head Adrian Newey once even appeared on the podium wearing goggles to protect his eyes from the drenching that was to come.

There will be no champagne to spray in Bahrain this weekend, however, with the Middle East’s oldest Grand Prix offering bottles of non-alcoholic rosewater known as Waard instead. 

Meanwhile, Renault say they have done their best to fix the engine problems that blighted last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix but offered no guarantee that Sunday’s race in Bahrain would be trouble free.

“In the short time since the Chinese Grand Prix we have been checking and rechecking systems and procedures to implement fixes for the next race in Bahrain,” said Renault sport F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul in a statement.

“Due to logistics of the back-to-back races a complete guarantee will be difficult but we have made improvements to prevent the race stoppers we saw in China. Our motivation is as high as ever.”

Former Formula One champions Red Bull scored just two points in Shanghai while their sister team Toro Rosso drew a blank after engine-related retirements.

Daniil Kvyat’s race ended spectacularly with the Russian pulling up with smoke spewing from his Red Bull, while Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen brought out the safety car three laps from the end when his car halted on the main straight.

Renault have been under fire from Red Bull this season, after a 2014 season dominated by Mercedes, but Abiteboul said Renault had made real progress in performance and driveability since the opening race in Australia.

Sebastian Vettel knows all about rifts with a teammate, and he may secretly hope the latest acrimony between world champion Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate continues to grow at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Only three races into the Formula One season, Mercedes are playing down a new spat between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg — last year’s runner-up — following last weekend’s Chinese GP. An irate Rosberg accused Hamilton of deliberately driving slowly to back him up into Vettel’s Ferrari. Two-time champion Hamilton won the race easily to increase his overall lead, with Rosberg ahead of Vettel.

“It was definitely tense after the race but we had a good sit down, a good discussion,” said Rosberg, backtracking diplomatically in the days after the race and echoing the words of Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff in saying the matter was closed.

Not so easy to believe, knowing the recent past.

Rosberg’s outburst quickly jogged memories and re-opened barely-healed wounds from last season, when tensions between the childhood friends and teenage karting rivals neared breaking point at times.

It did not matter so much then, however, because Mercedes sealed the drivers’ and constructors’ titles with dismissive ease to take over from Red Bull — Vettel’s former team — as the dominant force in Formula One.

There were no rivals in 2014, so Mercedes could afford not to care who won between Brit Hamilton and his German rival.

There were some public rebukes from team management, but overall they let them race against each other and even argue — as long as the disputes were kept under control and did not spill over onto the track as they did in Monaco and, more notably, Belgium.

But this year promises to be so much different because Vettel and Ferrari are both back with a very loud bang.

It could prove to be the smartest team switches in F1 history, with Vettel reviving the flagging fortunes of a despondent Ferrari team that was itself plagued by internal disputes between management and two-time champion Fernando Alonso, who quit to join McLaren.

In return, Ferrari reinvigorated a lacklustre Vettel, with the German driver even questioning his future in F1 after failing to win a race for Red Bull last year — compared to a record-equalling 13 race wins on his way to a fourth straight F1 title in 2013.

While Rosberg was widely expected to be Hamilton’s main challenger this year, Vettel is four points ahead of Rosberg in the standings. The margin is trivial at this stage, but Vettel has clearly got his swagger back.

He showed aggression and tactical nous to outsmart Mercedes and win the Malaysian GP two weeks ago. He also placed third at the season-opening Australian GP.

Vettel is one shy of his podium total for 2014 — when he struggled badly in his final year with Red Bull and was outperformed by his junior teammate, Daniel Ricciardo.

“It’s been three out of three so far, so it feels pretty good,” Vettel said. “A lot of things have changed... I’m really enjoying the work and hopefully we can get a little bit closer to challenge [Mercedes].”

With an outside shot at challenging for a fifth F1 title looking feasible, Vettel may be well served by subtly stoking the flames of the rift between Hamilton and Rosberg whenever he can, with a choice comment now and again.

From past experience, he knows just how distracting this can be, because he had frosty relations with Mark Webber — his former teammate — when they raced together for Red Bull and were rivals for the title. Neither obeyed team orders then, either.

Although both have been around for many years, Hamilton — who has 35 GP wins compared to Vettel’s 40 — have rarely gone toe-to-toe for a whole season.

Vettel was just starting out in F1 when Hamilton won his first title, in 2008, and finished way back in fifth place last year.

A close rivalry between Vettel and Hamilton this year would be healthy for the sport and would give Rosberg someone else to focus on.

TURIN, Italy — A controversial penalty handed Juventus a narrow 1-0 win over Monaco in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday, leaving everything to play for in next week’s return match in the principality.

Arturo Vidal scored his first goal of this season’s competition in the 57th minute of an entertaining match after Ricardo Carvalho was judged to have fouled Alvaro Morata in the box.

“It’s a great injustice, the penalty was non-existent and I hope that doesn’t have an influence on the final result of this tie,” Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim said. “I thought we would get a better result. But we showed that we are well organised, that we are a good team and we created a lot of difficulties for Juve.

“I like justice and for me the rules and regulations should be the same for everyone in sport and in life. I’m disappointed... I am convinced the result is due to a wrong decision taken by the match officials.”

Monaco had been denied a penalty of its own in the first half when Anthony Martial tangled with Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini.

Juventus, which leads Serie A and is in the Italian Cup final, remains on course for a treble under new coach Massimiliano Allegri.

“I haven’t seen [the penalty] again so I can’t judge,” Allegri said. “It seemed to be a foul as a last man, however from the bench I didn’t see if it was outside or inside.

“People who want to enjoy themselves can go to the circus. We have one objective and that is getting through. I’m happy with the result and the performance in parts, especially how we managed to defend at the end without conceding.”

In the night’s other match, Real Madrid drew 0-0 at Atletico Madrid.

Juventus was looking to preserve an impressive home record which had seen it lose just one of 16 European matches at the Juventus Stadium.

It was also boosted by Andrea Pirlo’s return from injury after a three-week absence and the playmaker set up the first chance of the match with a delightful ball over the top which Morata volleyed over — although the lineseman’s flag was up for offside.

Carlos Tevez went close to scoring the opener in the seventh minute but Monaco goalkeeper Danijel Subasic dived smartly to his right to deny the Italian league’s leading goalscorer.

Monaco appeared content to sit back and hit Juventus on the counter and it should have taken the lead in the 10th minute. Martial’s pace took him past Leonardo Bonucci on the left flank and he picked out an unmarked Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco, only for the midfielder to fire straight at Gianluigi Buffon.

The Italy keeper was called into action again moments later to fingertip Ferreira-Carrasco’s deflected effort around the left post.

Juve began to up the intensity again after a spell of Monaco pressure and Tevez wasted a golden opportunity when Claudio Marchisio found him unmarked with a delightful cross but the Argentine’s weak effort went straight to Subasic.

Vidal also wasted good chances, including right on the stroke of halftime when he beat the offside trap to go through one-on-one but blasted over from close range.

Juventus finally broke the deadlock after Morata beat the offside trap but was brought down by Carvalho. The foul appeared to be outside the area and Monaco again protested in vain.

Vidal, who had missed two penalties this season, calmly fired it into the top left corner.

AMMAN — The second round of the Jordan Drift Championship kicks off on Friday with the participation of more than 40 drivers at the SOFEX racetrack.

The event is headed by the winner of the first round Mohammad Kukhun, who beat 31 drivers at the Arena racetrack in Madaba to take the lead after clocking 1m27.55s in his BMW A46 and collecting 519 points. He was followed by his brother Omar Kukhun (1m29.45s, 506 points) in his BMW A36 and Othman Takriti (1m22.58s, 490 points) in his BMW A30.

Othman Naseef, Jordan Motorsports CEO, told The Jordan Times that drifting is gaining unmatched popularity among fans.

“Since we introduced drifting in 2014, in a controlled environment, this type of sport has gained a lot of dedicated fans and drivers.

“We are happy to see that positive response from everyone,” he said.

“We expect more a challenging atmosphere this round as the track is different from the Arena in Madaba and it needs more focus and skill,” Naseef added.

Drivers are judged according to speed, angle and perfect track line (90 points), Showmanship (5 points) and smoking tyres (5 points) which gives it the right edge that only experienced drivers are able to make a difference.

According to Naseef, April 24 will witness the second round of the Rally Championship.

“We will celebrate Labour Day with the second round of the Speed Test Championship May 1st at the Royal Automobile Club of Jordan Racetrack [RACJ],” Naseef said.

“We are trying to keep fans in the same mood for auto sports so they can enjoy their time. The event at the RACJ will be more of a family event so we ask fans to join us and enjoy the event,” he said.

Drifting consists of three rounds with the last round hosting the best 13 drifters. Drivers will have to have a special drift driving licence and they will be judged by a committee of experienced drivers.

Drifting is a kind of driving technique that goes back to the 70s in Japan and used by drivers through oversteering and causing a loss of traction whether in the rear wheels or all tyres while controlling a certain entry to exit of a corner.