NEYMAR V MESSI
And you thought England v Scotland was this week’s big grudge match. The giants of South America meet in Belo Horizonte on Thursday night in a key World Cup qualifier with Barcelona team-mates Neymar and Lionel Messi carrying the weight of their respective nations. Brazil lead the 10-team table with 21 points after 10 games. The top four go through and fifth-place face a play-off. Worryingly for Argentina they currently sit sixth, but it is tightly packed with six games to go and a win over their old rivals could take them into third. Defeat, though, would be very problematic indeed.
GATHERING IN LONDON
The draw for the ATP World Tour Finals, the big-money season closer, at the O2 is made in London this week before the action kicks off next Sunday. New No1 seed Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic (if he is fit), Kei Nishikori, Gael Monfils, Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem have qualified to compete for a prize pot worth $7m (£5.6m). The draw will form two groups of four, from which the top two will qualify for the semi-finals.
KINGS OF THE OCHE
Expect tributes to the broadcaster Dave Lanning, who passed away last week, as 32 of the world’s best players gather in Wolverhampton for the 10th staging of the Grand Slam of Darts. Twenty-four of the PDC’s arrow slingers will be joined by eight of the BDO’s tungsten chuckers and it would be a surprise if any of those from the latter reached the final. Michael van Gerwen, the reigning champion, is the one to watch again but Phil Taylor will be there, too. He has won six of the previous nine outings.
BAIZE BONANZA
In a similar vein, Coventry’s Ricoh Arena plays host to snooker’s Champion of Champions from Monday, where 16 players will battle it out for the £100,000 winner’s pot. Neil Robertson is the reigning champion having overcome Mark Allen’s challenge 12 months ago. The unmissable Ronnie O’Sullivan withdrew then, but he has qualified this time as No3 seed, beginning with a tie against Finland’s Robin Hull in a quickfire best of seven shootout.
CHECK MATE
Another round of Checkatrade Trophy awkwardness – the reformatted, rebranded Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, now featuring the glamour and credibility of top-flight U23 sides, and widespread fan boycotts. Among the ties: Everton’s U23s at home to Blackpool, Chelsea U23s v Oxford, and Wolves U23s v Accrington. Last month Accrington tweeted after their 4-1 win at Chesterfield: “Reports of an away following of 2 at Chesterfield last night are untrue. We counted at least 6.”
LOOK OUT FOR … A CRICKET SCORE
We’re on cricket this week? No, World Cup football – but it could feature a cricket score on Friday. As in a mauling, a thrashing, a romp, a trouncing. It’s San Marino versus the world champions.
Could be messy. It’s a proper mismatch. Germany are the toughest opponents Europe’s most-loved minnows have faced for a while and the two times they’ve met before, a decade ago, ended 6-0 and 13-0. On the other hand, San Marino are on a high of their own after a landmark moment last month.
They won? No, but they scored an away goal in a qualifier against Norway. They still lost 4-1, but it was a special moment for the 201st-ranked side – Mattia Stefanelli equalised, sparking wild celebrations, and provoking an instant viral clip of the reaction in the Norwegian broadcaster’s studio. It was San Marino’s first away goal in World Cup qualifying in 15 years. The icing on the cake: Stefanelli won CNN’s goal of the week competition.
Isn’t all this a bit patronising? Yes, but the team and the fans rise above it and they boast one of the most entertaining unofficial official Twitter feeds in international football. @Soccersanmarino reacted to their goal in Norway with: “WE [EFFING] SCORED AN AWAY GOAL. STEFANELLI YOU [EFFING] LEGEND!” – a message that retweeted more than 37,000 times. The writer later reflected: “I have more retweets on this tweet than there are inhabitants in San Marino. Madness.”
But even with all that positivity, Friday will be a cakewalk for the visitors? Surely. Then again, England thought the same when they went there in 1993, and they conceded after 8.3 seconds. It made for a classic piece of high-pitched breathless commentary from Jonathan Pearce, who was covering it for London’s Capital Gold radio: “Welcome to Bologna on Capital Gold Sport for England versus San Marino with Tennent’s Pilsner brewed with Czechoslovakian yeast for that extra Pilsner taste and England are one down.”
Germany would never let that happen… Seems unlikely. They’re at their slickest right now: top of Group C and lifted by having newly retired record-scorer Miroslav Klose on Joachim Löw’s coaching team. Löw, meanwhile, plans to celebrate his recent contract extension by taking his squad to meet the pope before they play Italy on the 15th. “It does not matter which religious ideologies you have,” Löw says. “This will be great day.”
