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LONDON — The priority is returning to the Champions League for Manchester United. Winning the FA Cup, though, would provide a bonus prize at the end of a first stuttering season in England for coach Louis van Gaal.

Knock out Arsenal in the quarter-finals and the path to Wembley Stadium would become a lot smoother. Liverpool, which host Blackburn on Sunday, are the only other Premier League power still in the competition after a string of upsets in earlier rounds.

And United, which are a point behind third-place Arsenal in the league, overcame the London club 2-1 in November.

Now comes the Old Trafford cup meeting on Monday.

“If we beat them it is a big blow for them, but if they beat us it is a big blow for us,” Van Gaal said. “It is very important game, not only for the FA Cup, but also for the rat race.”

United, despite producing few convincing performances this season, have ground out wins and are still far better placed domestically than last season under David Moyes, when they failed to qualify for the Champions League.

“People are always going to question the biggest club in the world, but we just concentrate on ourselves,” United winger Ashley Young said. “We don’t listen to anyone else. We just listen to the manager and the staff at the club.”

While Van Gaal is yet to complete a season in England, Arsene Wenger has been at Arsenal for 19 years, despite winning only one trophy in the last nine years — the 2014 FA Cup.

“It can only be in England, I believe, where managers are so long committed with one club,” Van Gaal said.

Before United hosts Arsenal, the other three quarter-finals will have taken place. Here is a look at those games:

Liverpool-Blackburn

Once Premier League rivals, Blackburn are spending their third season in the second tier, and sitting far from the promotion places in 10th place.

Liverpool, though, are back on the right track to qualify for the Champions League for a second successive season after going 12 games unbeaten in the league to rise to fifth.

Like United, though, finishing in the top four is a priority, but manager Brendan Rodgers is yet to win his first trophy in management.

Aston Villa-West Brom

Now out of the relegation zone, new Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood could book a trip to Wembley by repeating Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion when they meet again in the FA Cup on Saturday.

“We want to get to Wembley,” Sherwood said. “West Brom will have to improve to stop us getting there ... everyone can see we’re improving and the result [on Tuesday] is massive for us.”

Bradford-Reading

Reading of the second tier are seeking their first FA Cup semifinal since 1927. For Bradford, the wait has been even longer, having last made the last four in 1911.

But third-tier Bradford have emerged as a cup specialist, reaching the 2013 League Cup final and advancing in the FA Cup this year by ousting Premier League leader Chelsea and then Sunderland.

“This is what being involved in football is all about, and the big teams from the Premier League will be casting very envious eyes on ourselves and Reading playing in an FA Cup quarter final on Saturday,” Bradford manager Phil Parkinson said.

“We are playing a team from a higher division, who have been in the Premier League twice in the last nine years and we are enjoying testing ourselves against these types of teams.”

AMMAN — Jordan’s national football squad will regroup this week to play Syria on March 26 and Saudi Arabia on March 30 as the team undergoes a transitional phase and will soon start preparing for upcoming international qualifiers.

These will be the first matches since Jordan exited the first round of the 16th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. Jordan’s upcoming long-term agenda will include qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup which will be expanded from 16 to 24 teams, with the qualifying process doubling as part of the qualification for the 2018 World Cup.

Coach Ahmad Abdul Qader will now lead the team in the upcoming period after head coach Ray Wilkins departed following Jordan’s failure to repeat its quarter-final Asian Cup qualification in 2004 and 2011.

The line-up will be completed after Wihdat and Jazira play second stage AFC Cup matches this week and pros playing abroad are released from their respective club duties. Abdul Qader noted U-23 players will be excluded this month as they play the Olympic qualifiers.

Both coaches leading the team have an excellent record with age-divisions: Abdul Qader led the U-19 team to Jordan’s best achievement of fourth place and qualification to the U-19 World Cup in 2007 while Islam Diyabat led the U-22 team to a bronze medal finish in the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship after beating South Korea.

At the last Asian Cup earlier this year, Jordan lost 2-0 to defending champions Japan, 1-0 to Iraq and only saved face when substitute striker Hamza Dardour ended an 11-match winless streak and scored four goals in their 5-1 win over Palestine. Jordan dropped four spots to 97th in the lastest FIFA rankings after eliminated from its third Asian Cup. 

The Kingdom’s best performance was at the 13th Asian Cup in 2004 where it lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th. Jordan did not play in the 2007 finals.

MADRID — Two goals by Neymar and one from Luis Suarez gave Barcelona a 3-1 victory over 10-man Villarreal on Wednesday and a place in the final of the Copa del Rey.

Barcelona advanced 6-2 on aggregate after winning the first leg of the semifinal by the same scoreline.

In the other semifinal, Athletic Bilbao beat Espanyol 2-0 away on the night and 3-1 on aggregate, crushing the hosts’ hopes of an all-Catalan final.

Villarreal began by pressing forward but Barcelona struck first with an inspired pass by Lionel Messi that Neymar lobbed over goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo in the third minute.

Jonathan dos Santos equalised for Villarreal in the 39th minute when he buried Jaume Costa’s pass to the far post.

But Villarreal went a man down in the 65th minute after a straight red card for Tomas Pina for a clumsy tackle from behind on Neymar.

Suarez sidestepped a defender and Asenjo to score in the 73rd minute and Neymar headed in his sixth goal in this season’s Copa from a pinpoint cross from Xavi Hernandez in the 88th.

“Once again in a final,” Neymar said. “Villarreal is a good team with many high quality players and we knew it was going to be a difficult match, so that pushed us to try and start the game well.”

Although Villarreal mounted six attacks early on, they had difficulty in breaking down Barcelona’s defense and goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen made his first save by palming Denis Cheryshev’s shot away in the 21st minute.

Frustration began to show in Villarreal’s squad, with Dos Santos and Cheryshev receiving yellow cards in quick succession before the Mexico midfielder scored for the hosts.

Pina twisted Sergio Busquets’ ankle badly when he accidentally landed on it in the 41st minute while making a pass.

Busquets was taken off the field in obvious pain on a stretcher and replaced by Jeremy Mathieu. Later, Barcelona said the Spain midfielder had sustained a high ankle sprain and would need to undergo tests to determine the extent of the injury.

Fans at the Madrigal Stadium cheered Asenjo as he dived to save a shot by Messi in the 55th minute and again when he stopped one by Neymar in the 72nd minute.

“We’re sad. We knew it was going to be a complicated match against Barcelona that’s playing very well,” Dos Santos said. “Their first goal wasn’t what we were expecting but after that we pressed them at all times and although we regained control of the match, Barcelona can kill you off at any moment.”

Athletic kept alive its remaining hope of success this season after being knocked out of the Europa League by Torino last week and remaining stubbornly glued to La Liga’s mid-table.

Aritz Aduriz pounced on a poor clearance to open the scoring for in the 13th minute.

Xabier Etxeita doubled the tally for Athletic when he headed in a corner kick in the 42nd minute.

Athletic goalkeeper Iago Herrerin was substituted by Gorka Iraizoz in the 66th minute after injuring his left knee.

AMMAN — The Kingdom’s U-23 football team will play North Korea on Friday in the first of three matches as part of its training camp in Ajman, the UAE, ahead of the Olympic qualifiers starting March 25.

The team is slated to play a second match on March 9 against North Korea before facing Lebanon on March 12. En route to the qualifiers in Pakistan, the team will play Bahrain in a friendly on March 17.

Jordan will play in Group B alongside hosts Pakistan on March 25 before facing Turkmenistan on March 27, Kyrgyzstan on March 29 and Kuwait on March 31. The team is aiming to qualify for the  2016 AFC U-23 Championship which will take place in Qatar in January 2016. 

A total of 43 teams are in the qualification tournament playing in 10 groups of five or four teams.  The top team from each of the groups in addition to the top second-placed team from groups that have five teams will move to the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship from which the top three advance to the 2016 Summer Olympics Football tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Head coach Jamal Abu Abed will finalise the line-up after the camp and it was reported that he was closely coordinating with Wihdat coach Abdullah Abu Zameh, as many U-23 players are also on Wihdat’s line-up and play AFC Cup matches during the same time.

The team’s agenda has been hampered by other competitions including the Jordan Professional League.  Last month, when the League was on break as the national team played at the Asian Cup, the U-23 team played four friendlies losing  to Manshieh 2-1, beating Wihdat 5-2, holding Faisali 0-0 and beating Jazira 2-1.

Last year, the U-23 team faced the same dilemma when it represented Jordan at the Asian Games. Despite a bumpy preparation period amid the busy agenda of the national team as well as club competitions, the squad was impressive and reached the quarters.

Similarly, the team took bronze in the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship after beating South Korea. The event, which has now been renamed the AFC U-23 Championship, saw Iraq beat Saudi Arabia to take the title.

Before the latest local matches, the squad hosted Oman, losing 2-1 and winning 1-0. They beat Uzbekistan 2-1, held Iran 2-2 and 1-1, held Kuwait 1-1 twice and Qatar 0-0. They finished second at the Palestine International Championship and hosted the England C squad in a historic match, losing 1-0.

BARCELONA — With Real Madrid’s attack losing its potency and the team faltering in crunch games the tide has started to turn surprisingly rapidly against coach Carlo Ancelotti.

Such is the level of expectation at the Bernabeu that winning a coveted 10th European Cup last season and overseeing their Spanish record 22-match winning streak before Christmas, has done little to bolster the Italian’s position.

They are two points clear at the top of La Liga and well placed to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-0 win at Schalke 04 in their last 16 first leg but they are not playing with the same gusto as earlier in the campaign.

Fans and the Madrid media alike have been harsh in their criticism of the side and that puts extra significance on the Clasico against second-placed Barcelona later this month.

During Real’s 22-match winning run they averaged more than three goals a game but now have 24 from the last 13 matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been unable to sustain the sensational form with which he began the season and has a modest seven goals in 2015, while Karim Benzema has five and Gareth Bale three. Their combined total is the same as Lionel Messi’s at Barcelona.

Real’s poor return from league matches with their direct rivals has also been highlighted and the board led by President Florentino Perez are said to feel that while Ancelotti is on good terms with the players he lacks authority when necessary.

He lost a lot of credit due to the manner of Real’s 4-0 hammering by local rivals Atletico Madrid last month.

The team again failed to rise to the occasion last weekend when they drew 1-1 at home to a Villarreal side that had rested players ahead of their King’s Cup semi-final with Barcelona.

Weary Kroos

A failure to rotate the squad sufficiently has also been blamed for players, and in particular Toni Kroos, looking weary.

Kroos, in his first season since moving from Bayern Munich, has been taken aback by the scale of expectation at the club.

“We were in Dubai recently and that’s the kind of place where you think you’re going a long way away,” he told FIFA.com.

“However, once we got there I had the feeling that the people were even crazier, so to speak, than they are in Madrid and Spain.

“That says it all. The club have won an unbelievable number of trophies and still have a top quality team with top-class players. I think that alone is what makes Real Madrid so interesting.”

Ancelotti has been hampered by injuries but is hopeful of having midfielder Luka Modric back in time for the clash with Barcelona on March 22 at the Nou Camp.

If Real president Florentino Perez did wield the axe, with rumours he may be paving the way for youth team coach Zinedine Zidane to take over, there would be no shortage of suitors for Ancelotti, with Manchester City likely to head the queue.

AMMAN — Jordan Professional League headed into a month-long break as clubs and national teams agendas hampered efforts to continue the schedule that will now resume on April 2 and end May 17.

The break has come under much scrutiny from most observers and coaches who underlined that the League’s long break would adversely affect teams, player preparedness and strain club budgets even further.

However, the competitions committee at the Jordan Football Association (JFA) was left with no choice as the U-23 team started a training camp with little time left ahead of Olympic qualifiers starting on March 23, and the national team is set for a friendly against Saudi Arabia on March 30.

Wihdat and Jazira resume their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup matches next week and both stadiums in Amman are undergoing maintenance.

Wihdat still lead with three points after they beat Hussein 3-0. Ramtha are second after they edged neighbours Ittihad Ramtha 1-0 and Jazira remained third after a 1-0 win over Manshieh.

Former Jordan Cup champs That Ras are fourth after being held 1-1 with Baqaa, Sarih climbed up two spots after a 1-0 defeat of Ahli and Shabab Urdun went up a spot to 10th after a 1-0 win over Faisali.

Although Ramtha’s Rakan Khalidi is still on the injury list, he still leads the scorers with eight goals while Wihdat’s Mahmoud Zaatara has seven.

The season has been adversely affected with inconsistent results, the continuous change of coaches and less fans attending. 

Faisali still trail at the lower end of the standings for the first time ever since the League kicked off in 1944. Former champs Shabab Urdun also disappointed fans, while Baqaa, a usual top five finisher, is now 9th after only three wins.

Wihdat won the first major competition of the 2014/15 football season calendar 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 for the 13th time and beat Baqaa to win the Jordan Cup. Shabab Urdun beat That Ras to win the 31st Super Cup. The JFA Shield was not held.

Standings after Week 15 

(Last week’s rank in parenthesis)

AMSTERDAM — FIFA presidential candidate Michael van Praag said he would ensure full disclosure of Michael Garcia’s report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups if he is elected in May.

Football’s governing body has been under pressure to publish former FIFA ethics investigator Garcia’s report to help shed light on what happened during the turbulent process for the tournaments awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively.

Van Praag, the president of the Dutch football association (KNVB), wants to extend the size of the World Cup to 40 countries, open regional FIFA embassies to assist development and give more money to member associations.

The 67-year-old reiterated his previous promise that he would only serve four years if elected. He is one of three candidates taking on incumbent Sepp Blatter in the election at the FIFA congress in Zurich at the end of May.

Van Praag said his primary concern would be to leave football in a better state for the next generation.

“We must ensure that football continues to be for everyone,” he said at the Dutch football headquarters on Monday as he presented his election manifesto in Zeist.

“We see that the stream of negative reports about our FIFA continues. We see reports that are quashed. We see films by and about FIFA which cost 20 million euros to produce. And we see continuing stories around the allocation of World Cup.

“That’s not my world football body, that’s not the way the sport to which I owe so much, should be portrayed. Normalisation, that’s the key word. The organisation must go back to being plain normal,” Van Praag added.

He said he would insist on transparency as part of the ‘normalisation’ process and would make clear details of the Garcia report, FIFA finances and his own remuneration if elected on May 29. He also wants full details to be publicly disclosed after every major FIFA meeting.

FIFA has endured a non-stop pounding following its decision in 2010 to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

Corruption allegations surrounding those votes led to Garcia’s two-year-long inquiry into the voting process before he quit as FIFA’s chief investigator in December saying there was no credible leadership at the top.

In his plans for a 40-team tournament, Van Praag outlined an added place for each confederation and a return to the old system where the winners were also automatically through to the following edition as holders.

Van Praag said if elected he would increase FIFA’s annual grant to member countries from $250,000 to $1-million and give added money for infra structure development to countries seeking help.

MADRID — Having dented Real Madrid’s lead in the Spanish league, Villarreal face a bigger task of having to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit against Barcelona to advance past the semifinals in the Copa del Rey.

Three things are in their favour: It’s at home, they have an away goal, and they have a fiercely competitive team, as Madrid learned when Gerard Moreno’s equaliser silenced the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday.

The advantage still lies with Barcelona and their strikeforce of Lionel Messi, Neymar and an increasingly confident Luis Suarez.

Barcelona’s crosstown rival, Espanyol, host Athletic Bilbao in the other more evenly matched return leg, although the hosts enjoy the benefit of an away goal after a 1-1 draw at San Mames.

Suarez beds in

Although Barcelona fans never lost hope, it has taken longer than most anticipated for Suarez to adapt to coach Luis Enrique’s squad. However, changing teams is never always smooth and Suarez started late because of his biting ban from the World Cup.

But he’s warming up well. After scoring just three times last year, Suarez has this year found the back of the net seven times from 18 shots on goal in 13 matches, including both in the 2-1 Champions league win at Manchester City.

Suarez scored his third goal of the week on Saturday and had a part in both others in a 3-1 league win at Granada on Saturday.

All Catalan hopes 

Athletic come to their semifinal buoyed by a regionally important 1-0 win in a gruelling Basque derby at Eibar on Sunday.

The copa is Athletic’s remaining hope of glory this season, after crashing out of the Europa League 3-2 against Torino last week — the Italian team progressed 5-4 on aggregate — and remaining stubbornly glued to La Liga’s mid-table.

Two factors weigh against Ernesto Valverde’s team. If the game goes into extra time, Espanyol will be more rested, having played on Friday, and beating Cordoba 1-0.

And Espanyol will guard their away goal, encouraged by the prospect of a lucrative and locally appealing all-Catalan final.

Full strength 

Luis Enrique will have a full-strength squad available against Villarreal, as centre back Gerard Pique has returned from suspension.

The coach’s main concern will be whether to risk key midfielder Javier Mascherano and Suarez, who are both on two yellow cards in the competition, and would miss the final should they pick up another and Barcelona advanced.

Pique and Sergio Busquets, who rested against Granada, could substitute for the in-form Mascherano and Pedro Rodriguez could go on for Suarez.

Vital away goal

Villarreal initially played a cautious game at the Camp Nou, hunkering down in the first half, then countering after the break and scoring thanks to Manuel Trigueros blistering shot.

At El Madrigal Stadium, coach Marcelino Garcia will look for an explosive start to subdue Barcelona.

LONDON — Sepp Blatter and his three FIFA presidential election rivals have been invited to participate in a television debate by the BBC and Sky.

The London-based broadcasters have written to the candidates proposing a one-hour “fans’ congress” live on their globally available channels, websites and Facebook ahead of the election in May.

The 78-year-old Blatter is seeking a fifth, four-year term running football. FIFA Vice President for Asia HRH Prince Ali, Portugal great Luis Figo and Dutch Football Association Chief Michael van Praag want to end Blatter’s reign, which began in 1998.

Prince Ali and Figo have already said publicly they are willing to participate in a debate. In a letter to Blatter seen by The Associated Press, Sky and BBC wrote: “There is significant interest from other candidates.”

The broadcasters would invite supporters representing the 209 FIFA member nations to the debate, with questions coming from the audience and viewers worldwide. They want to air the debate in April or May and a moderator is yet to be decided.

Unlike his rivals, Blatter has not published any details of his plans for FIFA if he wins the secret May 29 election of the 209 national associations.

“We believe this will present an unprecedented opportunity for the candidates to set out their plans and communicate directly with fans from around the world,” Sky News said in a statement. “We hope for a positive response from all four candidates.”

The English Football Association, which has been one of the most vocal anti-Blatter voices in world football, offered its national stadium as a debate location.

“I would love to see the four candidates for this election get in a room together and be questioned,” FA chairman Greg Dyke said. “We would happily host it at Wembley.”

Meanwhile, Blatter is concerned by a study that highlighted the scale of Russian football’s racism problem ahead of the 2018 World Cup, warning there “must be some sanctions” if the extremism is not eradicated.

A report produced by the Fare network, an organisation that combats discrimination in football, and the Moscow-based SOVA Centre showed that Russia is plagued by a racist and far-right extremist fan culture.

“I am aware of the report,” Blatter told The Associated Press. “We are concerned, definitely.”

Blatter’s approach to combating racism faced criticism before FIFA eventually introduced tougher sanctions in 2013, which can see a team being banned from a tournament for repeat offences by a club or its fans.

Blatter spoke last July to Russian President Vladimir Putin about making the tackling of racism a priority, but cases have continued to blight the 2018 World Cup host nation, including in high-profile Champions League games.

“Education, definitely is required, and if it does not stop then there must be some sanctions,” Blatter said on the sidelines of meeting of football rule-makers. “We have started a big education programme with them. They are aware of the situation.”

The “Time for Action” report on Russian racism, which the AP revealed on Friday, details dozens of cases of discriminatory behaviour linked to Russian football over two seasons and warned that “it will be difficult to ensure the safety of visitors” to the World Cup.

LONDON — A decade on from the first trophy from the Roman Abramovich-era, Chelsea collected the League Cup with just three survivors from the 2005 matchday squad.

After scoring the first goal in the 2-0 victory over Tottenham, captain John Terry was followed up to the Wembley Stadium royal box by goalkeeper Petr Cech and striker Didier Drogba on Sunday. Then came Jose Mourinho to raise aloft the trophy — the same one that kick-started his trophy-laden first spell as Chelsea manager in 2005.

“It’s given us a taste of where we want to be at the end of the season, lifting more trophies obviously,” Mourinho said. “This is our first one collectively, and looking back in 2004-05 it definitely had that effect on the squad. Hopefully it can have the same effect again to this new and upcoming squad.”

Mourinho sees this as a new era for the Blues in his second season back.

“It’s the first [trophy] of a new team,” Mourinho said. “You have Petr Cech, John Terry, Didier Drogba and, after that, everybody belongs to a new generation of players.”

Such as 20-year-old Kurt Zouma, who was pushed forward into midfield as a defensive shield as Nemanja Matic was suspended for the final, and helped Chelsea stifle Tottenham striker Harry Kane. And Eden Hazard, fresh from signing a new contract until 2020, helped to unsettle the north London club with his dribbling and creativity.

It was Diego Costa’s strike — deflected in by Tottenham defender Kyle Walker — that ensured Chelsea would take its first trophy since the 2013 Europa League back to Stamford Bridge.

Further success could come on two fronts this season. In the Champions League, Chelsea is locked at 1-1 with Paris Saint-Germain after the first leg of their Round of 16 match. In the Premier League, Chelsea has a five-point lead over Manchester City — and now with a game in hand after the champions lost at Liverpool on Sunday.

After Mourinho’s longest trophy drought — Sunday’s success came almost three years after his 2012 Spanish title triumph with Real Madrid — the relief for the Portuguese manager was evident at Wembley.

“Two seasons without a trophy... looked like I was 20 years without a trophy,” the 52-year-old Mourinho said. “This is a good problem, to have that feeling that two years is a long time. That’s a good feeling.

“For me, it’s important to feel that I’m a kid. Before the game, that I had the same feelings as my first final however many years ago.”

And the oldies are there to share in the success, and help to deliver further trophies before June.

“After that [2005 League Cup final] we got more experience in big moments, big games, big finals like this one,” said the 36-year-old Drogba, who was a late substitute on Sunday. “It’s a step forward for this team. We want to grow up... and I’m really happy to be part of this team and help them to become better and stronger.”