The round saw the dismissal of Arsenal, AC Milan, Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen as they were all unable to turn over first leg deficits. The next set of round of 16 matches will take place on 18 and 19 March.
Russians attempt to get United States barred from the Fifa World Cup
Two Russian lawyers have written an appeal to Fifa to prevent the USA from participating in the 2014 World Cup. This comes after two American senators wrote a letter to Fifa asking for the 2018 World Cup to be taken away from host country Russia due to their military involvement in the Ukraine. Fifa President Sepp Blatter has not yet commented on the situation but has previously said that in future, football’s governing body will take the political and social situation in a country into account before awarding them hosting duties.
Cricket
Protea coach defends loss against Australia
South African cricket coach Russell Domingo, has defended the country’s five-wicket loss against Australia in Durban on 12 March. Domingo stated that the team had to do without veteran bowlers Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel and was not disappointed with the way his team played.
The match was reduced to a seven over contest due to rain. South Africa was first to bat reaching a total of 80/1 at the end of seven overs. Australia started the second innings off strongly after scoring 21 runs in the first over. The game began to slow down after JP Duminy took two wickets, but picked up once more in the last two overs which saw Australia score 28 runs to reach the target of 81 with two balls remaining.
