Spain crowned European Champions

Spain 1(Torres 33') Germany 0

Vienna: Spain ended their 44-year wait for a major international title with a 1-0 victory over Germany at the Euro 2008 final here on Sunday.Fernando Torres scored the only goal of the game in the first half as football's perennial underachievers finally banished that unwanted tag to the history books.It was the first time Spain had won the European title since 1964 and their first final since 1984.They seemed to start tentatively and a mistake from Sergio Ramos gave Miroslav Klose a glorious opportunity after just four minutes, but after taking the ball past Carles Puyol his next touch was too strong and he ran the ball out of play.Spain gradually started to settle but three-time champions Germany still had the next chance, Thomas Hitzlsperger hitting a tame shot straight at Spain captain Iker Casillas.Just before the quarter-hour mark Jens Lehmann came to Germany's rescue as a cross from Andres Iniesta deflected off Christoph Metzelder's boot and only a stunning reaction save from the Arsenal stopper prevented a goal.Spain were starting to take control and Torres headed a Xavi free-kick over the bar.On 23 minutes Sergio Ramos cut in from the right and crossed to the back post where Torres climbed above the considerably taller Per Mertersacker; his downward header beat Lehmann but unfortunately for Spain not the base of the post.Up the other end Spain's slightly suspect defence was struggling to cope with the direct running of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski but Germany created little despite captain Michael Ballack's volley being blocked by Sergio Ramos.Then on 33 minutes Torres put Spain ahead with a moment of sublime quality. He latched onto a piercing through ball from Xavi, outpaced Philipp Lahm and chipped the ball over the advancing Lehmann with a flicked shot that could have threaded the eye of a needle.Spain were suddenly rampant and Iniesta crossed to the back post where the unmarked David Silva had a rush of blood to the head and lashed a volley wildly over.Spain seemed brimming with confidence at the start of the second period and both Xavi and Silva went close with long range efforts before Torres again outpaced the German defence but couldn't quite reach the ball before Lehmann came out to smother.Germany coach Joachim Loew responded by sending on a second forward in Kevin Kuranyi to replace midfielder Hitzlsperger.That immediately shifted the momentum of the game and on the hour a mistake from Puyol was almost punished as Ballack fired just wide; moments later Casillas came storming out of goal to take a cross from Ballack off Kuranyi's head.Spain remained dangerous and Sergio Ramos forced Lehmann into a fine block with a powerful header from a Xavi free-kick before Torsten Frings cleared a shot from Iniesta off the line.Brazil-born Marcos Senna came within inches of settling the game in the final 10 minutes but he couldn't quite stretch his leg out far enough to meet substitute Daniel Guiza's downward header with the goal at his mercy.

Massa takes lead in driver's standing as he won French GP

Magny Cours: Ferrari’s Felipe Massa won Formula One’s French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours today to head the drivers’ championship standings for the first time this season. The Brazilian finished the 70-lap race 18 seconds clear of teammate Kimi Raikkonen, the world champion, who lost the race lead after his exhaust broke. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was third after holding off the challenge of McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen. BMW’s Robert Kubica, who started as the leader in the standings, was fifth. Red Bull's Mark Webber, in sixth, and Renault duo Nelson Piquet and Fernando Alonso were today’s other points scorers. Massa, after his third win this season, tops the standings on 48 points, 2 ahead of Kubica. Raikkonen is third on 43, and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who failed to score a point, drops to fourth on 38 after a second straight disappointing race. “That was fantastic, I didn’t expect that,” Massa told the post-race news conference. “Today I had a lot of luck with Kimi having his exhaust problem, but fortunately for the team he could finish, so this was a good present for me.” Hamilton was penalized 10 places on the grid after his pit-lane crash in Montreal two weeks ago and started in 13th. There was another setback for the Briton today when he incurred a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner in overtaking the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel at a chicane early in the race. The punishment hit his chances of finishing in the points and he came 10th. Raikkonen and Massa filled the first two places on the grid after dominating in qualifying, and proceeded to take charge in the race. Raikkonen led in the early stages as the pair pulled clear of the field, and Massa took over in mid-race when Raikkonen — winner of the event last year — had the exhaust problem. Even so, he managed to get the car to the finish line.

Nadal and Ana are Mr. & Mrs of the Roland Garros

Paris: Rafael Nadal produced a flawless exhibition of claycourt tennis to demolish world No 1 Roger Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 on Sunday and win his fourth straight French Open title. The Spaniard was at his relentless best as he tore Federer apart in one hour, 48 minutes to deny the Swiss a career Grand Slam. By doing so, the Spaniard equalled Bjorn Borg’s feat of four consecutive titles at Roland Garros. The Swiss raised himself in the second set and had a break point at 3-3, but Nadal slammed the door shut and crushed a hapless Federer in the third to clinch the title without losing a set. The shattering defeat for the Swiss star meant that he has now lost 11 times in 17 meetings with the 22-year-old Spaniard and nine times out of 10 on clay. The Spaniard also topped the winners tally, hitting 46 to Federer’s 31 leaving the Swiss to admit that his rival, who didn’t drop a set in the entire tournament, is getting better all the time.

Ana claimed her maiden grand slam

Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic won the French Open on Saturday, her first Grand Slam title,by ending Dinara Safina’s heroic run to the final and crowning her elevation to the world number one spot in style. Ivanovic won 6-4, 6-3 as Russian 13th seed Safina saw her hopes of joining big brother Marat as a Grand Slam champion dashed. For the second seeded pin-up, it was third time lucky after she had lost both her previous major finals - to Justine Henin here 12 months ago and Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open in January. The Russian, who had spent two more hours than Ivanovic getting to the title match, endured a nerve-wracking start to the final being broken twice to quickly slip 1-4 down before fighting back to 4-4 with two breaks of her own. A year ago, Ivanovic suffered numbing stagefright on her Grand Slam final debut winning just three games against fourtime winner Henin. With the recently-retired world number one now looking on from the VIP enclosure on Court Philippe Chatrier, Ivanovic stopped the rot to break back to lead 5-4. The 20-year-old wasted a first set point but wrapped up the opener after 45 minutes when Safina, pinned behind the baseline, slapped a backhand high and long. Ivanovic, finding depth and power with her confident, accurate groundstrokes, broke a lacklustre Safina again to take a 2-1 lead in the second set which became 3-1 thanks to a love service game. She held another shaky service to lead 4-2 while Safina overcame her fourth and fifth double faults of the match to hold in the seventh game. But the battling Russian finally ran out of steam in the ninth game when she handed her opponent three match points with the title gratefully gobbled up when an Ivanovic return died at her feet after 1hr 38mins on court.

Kubica of BMW claimed his maiden victory at canadian GP

Montreal: Robert Kubica claimed his maiden victory and took control of the world drivers’ championship as Lewis Hamilton’s Canadian Grand Prix ended in disaster here on Sunday. Pole Kubica survived a horrendous crash at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve 12 months ago and the BMW Sauber driver took full advantage of a pit-lane accident that took out McLaren’s world championship leader Hamilton and world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari. Hamilton crashed into the back of Raikkonen as t h e y emerged from a pit stop on lap 18 with the Englishman failing to spot at the red light at the end of the lane as the Ferrari was waiting on the line. It was a BMW Sauber one-two as Nick Heidfeld claimed the runners-up spot for the second year in a row. The drama also cleared the way for Scotland’s David Coulthard to score his first points of the season with an invaluable third-place finish to ease the pressure on his seat at Red Bull Racing. Hamilton, the defending race winner, started on the pole for the second straight year at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and led until the safety car came out and the leaders pitted on lap 19 of the 70-lap race. That followed Adrian Sutil parking his Force India entry on the grass alongside the track. Raikkonen, who came into the race trailing Hamilton by three points in the world championship, was third before the stops, but came out ahead of the McLaren driver and Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber on pit road. The Ferrari driver stopped at a red light at the end of pit road and Hamilton, picking up speed, rammed into the Raikkonen’s car, knocking off the rear wing. Nico Rosberg then hit the rear of Hamilton’s car. Both leaders got out of their damaged cars and Raikkonen tapped Hamilton on the helmet as he walked past, pointing toward the light. Hamilton, obviously angry at himself, pushed past several cameras in the McLaren garage.

Ivanovic to meet Safina in French Open final

Paris: Second seed Ana Ivanovic won the battle of the Serbs in a thrilling French Open semifinal on Thursday and will play Russia’s Dinara Safina for the title on Saturday. Ivanovic also clinched the World No. 1 ranking. The 20-year-old Ivanovic defeated 23-yearold Jelena Jankovic 6-4 3-6 6-4 to reach the final at Roland Garros for the second straight year having lost to Justine Henin in last year’s final. She also reached the Australian Open final in January but lost to Maria Sharapova. For third-seeded Jankovic it was the fourth time she had played in a Grand Slam semifinal and the fourth time she had failed to make it through. The 13th seeded Safina had earlier defeated compatriot and fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-2 in the first of the semifinals. In stark contrast to the first few games, Ivanovic was looking comfortable on her serve while it was a struggle each time for her opponent on hers. But all that changed in the sixth game of the set when Ivanovic inexplicably let slip a 40-0 lead to allow Jankovic to draw level at 3-3. She was broken again two games later and Jankovic served out to level the scores although she needed four set points to do so. Ivanovic had nervily lost her way and against one of the grittiest players on the women’s circuit that was a fatal mistake. Jankovic won the first two games of the deciding set to make it seven games in a row, but Ivanovic stopped the rot and got back on level terms at 3-3 by breaking to love in the sixth game. Another exchange of service breaks took it to 4-4 and two games later Ivanovic played her best game of the semifinal opening up with her groundstrokes to clinch the win.

Final squads anounced for euro 2008

All 16 competing nations at UEFA EURO 2008 have submitted their finalised 23-man squad lists to UEFA.
Countdown begins
There are just three days to go until kick-off and the countdown begins in earnest now that all 368 competing players have been named. Co-hosts Switzerland get the tournament under way against the Czech Republic in Basel on 7 June, before fellow co-hosts Austria begin their Group B campaign the following day in Vienna. Comprehensive profiles of each player with all the latest statistics will be available on http://www.euro2008.com/

UEFA EURO 2008 squads

Austria: 1Alex Manninger 2 Joachim Standfest 3 Martin Stranzl 4 Emanuel Pogatetz 5 Christian Fuchs 6 René Aufhauser 7 Ivica Vastic8 Christoph Leitgeb 9 Roland Linz 10 Andreas Ivanschitz 11 Ümit Korkmaz12 Ronald Gercaliu 13 Markus Katzer 14 György Garics 15 Sebastian Prödl 16 Jürgen Patocka 17 Martin Hiden 18 Roman Kienast 19 Jürgen Säumel 20 Martin Harnik 21 Jürgen Macho 22 Erwin Hoffer23 Ramazan ÖzcanCoach: Josef Hickersberger

Croatia: 1 Stipe Pletikosa 2 Dario Šimić 3 Josip Šimunić 4 Robert Kovač 5 Vedran Ćorluka 6 Hrvoje Vejić 7 Ivan Rakitić 8 Ognjen Vukojević 9 Nikola Kalinić 10 Niko Kovač 11 Darijo Srna 12 Mario Galinović 13 Nikola Pokrivač14 Luka Modrić 15 Dario Knežević 16 Jerko Leko 17 Ivan Klasnić 18 Ivica Olić 19 Niko Kranjčar 20 Igor Budan 21 Mladen Petrić 22 Danijel Pranjić 23 Vedran RunjeCoach: Slaven Bilić

Czech Republic: 1 Petr Čech 2 Zdeněk Grygera 3 Jan Polák 4 Tomáš Galásek 5 Radoslav Kováč 6 Marek Jankulovski 7 Libor Sionko 8 Martin Fenin 9 Jan Koller 10 Václav Svěrkoš 11 Stanislav Vlček12 Zdeněk Pospěch 13 Michal Kadlec 14 David Jarolím 15 Milan Baroš 16 Jaromír Blažek17 Marek Matějovský 18 Tomáš Sivok 19 Rudolf Skácel20 Jaroslav Plašil 21 Tomáš Ujfaluši 22 David Rozehnal 23 Daniel ZítkaCoach: Karel Brückner

France: 1 Steve Mandanda2 Jean-Alain Boumsong 3 Eric Abidal 4 Patrick Vieira 5 William Gallas 6 Claude Makelele 7 Florent Malouda 8 Nicolas Anelka 9 Karim Benzema 10 Sidney Govou 11 Samir Nasri 12 Thierry Henry 13 Patrice Evra 14 François Clerc 15 Lilian Thuram 16 Sébastien Frey 17 Sébastien Squillaci 18 Bafétimbi Gomis19 Willy Sagnol 20 Jérémy Toulalan 21 Lassana Diarra 22 Franck Ribéry 23 Grégory Coupet Coach: Raymond Domenech

Germany: 1 Jens Lehmann 2 Marcell Jansen 3 Arne Friedrich 4 Clemens Fritz 5 Heiko Westermann6 Simon Rolfes 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger 8 Torsten Frings 9 Mario Gómez 10 Oliver Neuville 11 Miroslav Klose 12 Robert Enke 13 Michael Ballack 14 Piotr Trochowski 15 Thomas Hitzlsperger 16 Philipp Lahm 17 Per Mertesacker 18 Tim Borowski 19 David Odonkor 20 Lukas Podolski 21 Christoph Metzelder 22 Kevin Kuranyi 23 René AdlerCoach: Joachim Löw

Greece: 1 Antonios Nikopolidis 2 Giourkas Seitaridis 3 Christos Patsatzoglou 4 Nikolaos Spyropoulos5 Traianos Dellas 6 Angelos Basinas 7 Georgios Samaras 8 Stylianos Giannakopoulos9 Angelos Charisteas 10 Georgios Karagounis 11 Loukas Vintra12 Konstantinos Chalkias 13 Alexandros Tzorvas14 Dimitrios Salpingidis 15 Vassilios Torosidis 16 Sotirios Kyrgiakos 17 Theofanis Gekas 18 Ioannis Goumas 19 Paraskevas Antzas 20 Ioannis Amanatidis 21 Konstantinos Katsouranis 22 Alexandros Tziolis 23 Nikolaos Liberopoulos Coach: Otto Rehhagel

Italy:1 Gianluigi Buffon 2 Christian Panucci 3 Fabio Grosso 4 Giorgio Chiellini 5 Fabio Cannavaro 6 Andrea Barzagli 7 Alessandro Del Piero 8 Gennaro Gattuso 9 Luca Toni 10 Daniele De Rossi 11 Antonio Di Natale 12 Marco Borriello13 Massimo Ambrosini 14 Marco Amelia 15 Fabio Quagliarella 16 Mauro Camoranesi 17 Morgan De Sanctis18 Antonio Cassano 19 Gianluca Zambrotta 20 Simone Perrotta 21 Andrea Pirlo 22 Alberto Aquilani 23 Marco Materazzi Coach: Roberto Donadoni

Netherlands: 1 Edwin van der Sar 2 André Ooijer 3 John Heitinga 4 Joris Mathijsen 5 Giovanni van Bronckhorst 6 Demy de Zeeuw 7 Robin van Persie 8 Orlando Engelaar 9 Ruud van Nistelrooy 10 Wesley Sneijder 11 Arjen Robben 12 Mario Melchiot 13 Henk Timmer 14 Wilfred Bouma 15 Tim de Cler 16 Maarten Stekelenburg 17 Nigel de Jong 18 Dirk Kuyt 19 Klaas Jan Huntelaar 20 Ibrahim Afellay 21 Ryan Babel 22 Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink 23 Rafael van der VaartCoach: Marco van Basten

Poland: 1 Artur Boruc 2 Mariusz Jop 3 Jakub Wawrzyniak 4 Pawel Golański 5 Dariusz Dudka 6 Jacek Bąk 7 Euzebiusz Smolarek 8 Jacek Krzynówek 9 Maciej Żurawski 10 Łukasz Garguła11 Marek Saganowski 12 Tomasz Kuszczak 13 Marcin Wasilewski 14 Michał Żewłakow 15 Michał Pazdan16 Jakub Błaszczykowski 17 Wojciech Łobodziński 18 Mariusz Lewandowski 19 Rafał Murawski 20 Roger Guerreiro21 Tomasz Zahorski 22 Łukasz Fabiański 23 Adam Kokoszka Coach: Leo Beenhakker

Portugal: 1 Ricardo 2 Paulo Ferreira 3 Bruno Alves 4 Bosingwa 5 Fernando Meira 6 Raul Meireles 7 Cristiano Ronaldo 8 Petit 9 Hugo Almeida 10 João Moutinho 11 Simão 12 Quim 13 Miguel 14 Jorge Ribeiro 15 Pepe 16 Ricardo Carvalho 17 Ricardo Quaresma 18 Miguel Veloso 19 Nani 20 Deco 21 Nuno Gomes 22 Rui Patrício23 Hélder Postiga Coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari

Romania: 1 Bogdan Lobonţ 2 Cosmin Contra 3 Răzvan Raţ 4 Gabriel Tamaş 5 Cristian Chivu 6 Mirel Rădoi 7 Florentin Petre 8 Paul Codrea 9 Ciprian Marica 10 Adrian Mutu 11 Răzvan Cociş 12 Marius Cornel Popa 13 Cristian Sapunaru 14 Sorin Ghionea 15 Dorin Goian 16 Bănel Nicoliţă 17 Cosmin Moti 18 Marius Niculae19 Adrian Cristea 20 Nicolae Dică 21 Daniel Niculae 22 Ştefan Radu 23 Eduard StăncioiuCoach: Victor Piţurcă

Russia: 1 Igor Akinfeev 2 Vasili Berezutski 3 Renat Yanbaev4 Sergei Ignashevich 5 Aleksei Berezutski 6 Roman Adamov7 Dmitri Torbinskiy 8 Denis Kolodin 9 Ivan Saenko 10 Andrei Arshavin 11 Sergei Semak12 Vladimir Gabulov 13 Pavel Pogrebnyak 14 Roman Shirokov 15 Diniyar Bilyaletdinov 16 Vyacheslav Malafeev 17 Konstantin Zyrianov 18 Yuri Zhirkov 19 Roman Pavlyuchenko 20 Igor Semshov 21 Dmitri Sychev 22 Aleksandr Anyukov 23 Vladimir Bystrov Coach: Guus Hiddink

Spain: 1 Iker Casillas 2 Raúl Albiol 3 Fernando Navarro4 Carlos Marchena 5 Carles Puyol 6 Andrés Iniesta 7 David Villa 8 Xavi Hernández 9 Fernando Torres 10 Cesc Fábregas 11 Joan Capdevila 12 Santi Cazorla 13 Andrés Palop14 Xabi Alonso 15 Sergio Ramos 16 Sergio García 17 Daniel Güiza 18 Álvaro Arbeloa19 Marcos Senna 20 Juanito Gutiérrez 21 David Silva 22 Rubén De La Red23 Pepe Reina Coach: Luis Aragonés

Sweden: 1 Andreas Isaksson 2 Mikael Nilsson 3 Olof Mellberg 4 Petter Hansson 5 Fredrik Stoor6 Tobias Linderoth 7 Niclas Alexandersson 8 Anders Svensson 9 Fredrik Ljungberg 10 Zlatan Ibrahimović 11 Johan Elmander 12 Rami Shaaban 13 Johan Wiland14 Daniel Majstorovic 15 Andreas Granqvist 16 Kim Källström 17 Henrik Larsson18 Sebastian Larsson 19 Daniel Andersson 20 Marcus Allbäck 21 Christian Wilhelmsson 22 Markus Rosenberg 23 Mikael Dorsin Coach: Lars Lagerbäck

Switzerland: 1 Diego Benaglio 2 Johan Djourou 3 Ludovic Magnin 4 Philippe Senderos 5 Stephan Lichtsteiner 6 Benjamin Huggel 7 Ricardo Cabanas8 Gökhan Inler 9 Alexander Frei 10 Hakan Yakin 11 Marco Streller 12 Eren Derdiyok 13 Stéphane Grichting 14 Daniel Gygax 15 Gelson Fernandes 16 Tranquillo Barnetta 17 Christoph Spycher 18 Pascal Zuberbühler 19 Valon Behrami 20 Patrick Müller21 Eldin Jakupovic22 Johan Vonlanthen 23 Philipp Degen Coach: Jakob Kuhn

Turkey: 1 Rüştü Reçber 2 Servet Çetin 3 Hakan Balta 4 Gökhan Zan 5 Emre Belözoğlu 6 Mehmet Topal7 Mehmet Aurélio 8 Nihat Kahveci 9 Semih Şentürk 10 Gökdeniz Karadeniz 11 Tümer Metin 12 Tolga Zengin13 Emre Güngör14 Arda Turan 15 Emre Aşık 16 Uğur Boral17 Tuncay Şanlı 18 Kazım Kazım19 Ayhan Akman 20 Sabri Sarıoğlu 21 Mevlüt Erdinç22 Hamit Altıntop 23 Volkan Demirel Coach: Fatih Terim

RajasthanRoyals win the nailbiting final of IPL against ChennaiSuperKings at Mumbai

Yusuf Pathan's phenomenal all-round act helped Rajasthan Royals win the Indian Premier League 2008 in a thrilling last-ball finish against Chennai Super Kings. In what must be one of the finest all-round performances in recent times, Pathan turned the match on its head twice --- first with the ball, then with the bat. Chennai were off to an assuring start. Parthiv Patel and S. Vidyut added 39 for the first wicket when Pathan struck. In fact, he went on to take the first three wickets, bowling his stump-to-stump spin. Then, with Rajasthan under the burner at 42-3 Pathan struck a characteristically brutal 56 (39 balls, 3 fours, 4 sixes) to bring his team at the doorsteps of a famous win. When Yusuf was run out by a blinding direct hit from point by Suresh Raina, the Royals needed 21 from 14 balls. Chennai were not spectacular with the bat, but they worked hard to get 163-5 runs on the board. The going wasn't easy --- Chennai managed just nine fours, to go with seven sixes --- and relied heavily on good running to reach their score. After an enterprising start by their openers Patel (38) and Vidyut (16), Chennai lost their way a bit against the off-spin of Yusuf Pathan who took 3-22, his best figures in the IPL. Raina provided the pulp to the innings with his 43 from 30 balls and left the stage to his skipper to provide the finishing touches. Dhoni made 29 (17 balls).Chennai must rue their finish. They made just 46 runs in the last five overs when they had six wickets in the dugout. But Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir were not easy to get away. The two mixed their full tosses, bouncers, slow balls and yorkers to keep Chennai's batsmen guessing. Pathan walked away with the man of the match in the final game while Watson is the man of the series. Tanvir, for his 22 wickets, won the purple cap. The orange cap for the highest scorer went to Shaun Marsh of Kings XI Punjab. Warne's side received a cheque of USD 1.2 million, while the runners-up Chennai got half that amount.