CATALUNYA CHRONICLE SPORT’S PAGE

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2010 MotoGP Calendar

The MotoGP season gets started on April 11th in Qatar with a floodlit night race and hopes that the Spanish riders Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa can improve on last year’s second and third final positions.  Spain is again hosting its fair share of races with Jerez on May 2nd, Catalunya on July 4th and Valencia providing the season’s climax on November 7th.

• 11 April – Qatar – Losail
• 25 April – Japan – Motegi
• 2 May – Spain – Jerez
• 23 May – France – Le Mans
• 06 June – Italy – Mugello
• 20 June – Great Britain – Silverstone
• 26 June – Netherlands** – Assen
• 4 July – Catalunya – Catalunya
• 18 July – Germany – Sachsenring
• 25 July – United States*** – Laguna Seca
• 15 August – Czech Republic – Brno
• 29 August – Indianapolis – Indianapolis
• 05 September – San Marino & Riviera di Rimini – Misano
• 19 September – Hungary – Balatonring
• 10 October – Malaysia – Sepang
• 17 October – Australia – Phillip Island
• 31 October – Portugal – Estoril
• 7 November – Spain -Valencia

Spain beat France in Friendly

The beginning of March saw Spain beat the French in Paris, their first away victory over France since 1968, and an impressive addition to their recent run of form with 42 victories in their last 45 fixtures.  There wasn’t much between the two sides early on but it didn’t take long for Spain to stamp their authority on the game.  David Villa put the first one away for Spain, his 36th goal in 55 matches for Spain, and Sergio Ramos sealed the game for Spain on the stroke of half-time.

Messi Magic For Barça While Madrid Go Out

Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at the Bernabéu by Olympique de Lyon, putting them out of the Champions League 1-2 on aggregate.  It’s the sixth consecutive year Real Madrid have reached this stage of the Champions League and then failed to progress to the quarter finals.  Despite getting off to a great start with an early goal after just seven minutes from Cristiano Ronaldo Madrid failed to capitalise on the opportunities they had in the first half giving Lyon time to regroup at half time and come back with an equaliser from Pjanic.

Meanwhile Lionel Messi put in a fantastic performance for Barça scoring two goals and setting up a third in their 4-0 win over Stuttgart at the Nou Camp.  It was a faultless display from the Catalans and after the match both coaches heaped praise on Messi with Stuttgart’s Christian Gross saying,

“It’s fair to compare him to Maradona.”

On the domestic front Real Madrid are holding on to their lead at the top of La Liga, but only by the skin of their teeth.  At the time of going to press Madrid led Barça by a goal difference of two after a 4-1 victory over second from bottom Real Valladolid but the Catalans put up a much more impressive performance by winning 3-0 at home to third placed Valencia.  The two meet in the league on April 11 at the Bernabéu which follows Barcelona’s mid-week Champions League quarter final game against Arsenal (details below).
Champions League Fixtures
Quarter-finals: 30/31 March & 6/7 April
1. Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) v FC Girondins de Bordeaux (FRA)
2. FC Bayern München (GER) v Manchester United FC (ENG)
3. Arsenal FC (ENG) v FC Barcelona (ESP, holders)
4. FC Internazionale Milano (ITA) v PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)

Semi-finals: 20/21 & 27/28 April
Winner quarter-final 2 v Winner quarter-final 1
Winner quarter-final 4 v Winner quarter-final 3

Final: Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid; 20.45CET, Saturday 22 May

Portsmouth fail to make Football’s Rich List

Real Madrid have been crowned as the world’s richest football club in 2009 and the first to see its income pass the €400 million mark in a single year.  Barça took second place with, despite its huge debts, Manchester United coming in third.  Surprisingly Portsmouth didn’t feature.
Top Ten Football Rich List (2008 in brackets)

1. (1) Real Madrid 401.4 (365.8)
2. (3) FC Barcelona 365.9 (308.8)
3. (2) Manchester United 327.0 (324.8)
4. (4) Bayern Munich 289.5 (295.3)
5. (6) Arsenal 263.0 (264.4)
6. (5) Chelsea 242.3 (268.9)
7. (8) Liverpool 217.0 (207.4)
8. (11) Juventus 203.2 (167.5)
9. (10) Inter Milan 196.5 (172.9)
10 (7) AC Milan 196.5 (209.5)

Alonso wins for Ferrari

King Juan Carlos turned up to see Fernando Alonso got off to the perfect start with his new team by romping home to win a lacklustre Grand Prix in Bahrain.  Ferrari took the top two places after mechanical problems led to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel having to drop back halfway through the race.  Lewis Hamilton took third place for McLaren Mercedes and F1 granddaddy Michael Schumacher came in sixth on his Grand Prix comeback.

Both Hamilton and Schumacher have slammed the new rules on re-fuelling saying they will make the sport boring, with the German saying “Overtaking was basically impossible unless somebody made a mistake,” after the race.

A less impressive result for Spain came in the form of the country’s new F1 team HRT-Cosworth who, despite claims of being able to run with the best of them and fielding the late Ayrton Senna’s son Bruno as one of their drivers, failed to finish with either car.

New Balls for Shakira?

Rafa Nadal has taken some time off from his injury schedule to feature in the video for Shakira’s new single.  Her latest smash is called ‘Gypsy’ (yeah, right – where’s your heather and bad teeth?) and the video was recorded in Barcelona showing the couple in moody poses, not wearing very much (how original) and has sparked rumours of a relationship after they were spotted, wait for it, having dinner together!

Tickets for all major sporting events, including FC Barcelona tickets, La Liga tickets & Grand Prix tickets are also available online at www.GoCatalunya.com

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Posted by editor on 2010-04-06 Filed under April 2010, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry