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MANCHESTER: Manchester United’s hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals could rest on Wayne Rooney’s ability to make a rapid recovery from injury to face Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Although Rooney didn’t appear with the team at Tuesday morning’s training, his ankle ligament injury is believed to be healing quickly. The England striker was injured late in the 2-1 loss to Bayern last Tuesday in the first leg.

Rooney has scored 34 goals this season as the team chases a fourth straight Premier League title and a third consecutive Champions League final appearance. Without Rooney on Saturday, United lost to Chelsea 2-1 and dropped into second place in the Premier League behind the Blues.

“We need to rediscover that winning mentality,” United centreback Nemanja Vidic said. “The last few games have been hard, they have been emotional. But we are in this position now and we need to deal with it the best we can.

“We always look to move on. We were disappointed with the Bayern game – it wasn’t just the result, it was the way we played. But in the second half against Chelsea, we showed a bit more courage.”

Without Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov would be expected to produce goals up front for United.

Bayern prepared for second leg by beating Schalke 2-1 and returning to the top of the German standings, but Bayern coach Louis van Gaal also has injury concerns.

Winger Arjen Robben missed the first leg with a calf injury, but will be in the squad at Old Trafford, while central defender Daniel van Buyten picked up a leg injury on Saturday.

“I hope that both of them will be able to play,” Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said. “Manchester has somewhat better cards in hand but we have a small chance and we’ll try to use it.”

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LIVERPOOL: Steven Gerrard has urged Liverpool to take advantage of some home comforts and strengthen their chances of securing a top-four finish this season, starting with today’s visit of struggling Bolton.

The encounter with Owen Coyle’s side is followed by the visit of Merseyside rivals Everton and Gerrard believes the brace of games at Anfield represent a wonderful chance for his team to turn up the pressure on Tottenham, who currently occupy the place above them that Rafa Benitez’s men covet so badly.

The mood around Benitez’s squad has been sombre in the wake of their disappointing goalless draw at Wolves in mid-week, when Liverpool dropped two more points and, more worryingly, hardly gave home goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann a save to make.

The point nevertheless enabled them to climb above Manchester City into fifth place and extended their unbeaten run to five league games.

Gerrard is convinced confidence is growing in the camp and that Liverpool have turned the corner following the damaging slump earlier in the season.

The England midfielder believes Liverpool would have buckled and been beaten in a similar sort of game earlier in the season to the one they experienced at Molinuex.

Now he has set his sights on re-igniting Liverpool’s chances of Champions League qualification, despite the fact leading scorer Fernando Torres remains sidelined.

Gerrard said: “We will keep fighting for that fourth spot. We’ve got a couple of home games coming up and, if we take maximum points, I’m sure we’ll edge into that top four.

“The important thing is that we are now playing better. We’ve turned the corner and we are a much more difficult team to beat now.

“We would probably have lost that (Wolves) game 1-0 a couple of months back. Confidence was certainly low a few weeks ago.

“The squad was suffering a lot of injuries and, when you are not getting the results you expect, it affects people’s confidence individually and as a group.

“But we’ve had a couple of encouraging results. Stoke away was a tough game and we got a point and the lads performed fantastically well against Tottenham.

“Confidence is slowly coming back and, once that confidence is back, results will follow. We are very confident we can eventually edge into that top four.”

Gerrard insists the pain of past failings this season is now driving his side towards success and he added: “There were a lot of people in the dressing room hurt at seeing us lying in seventh and eighth position in the Premier League and you learn a lot from these situations when times are hard.

“We have looked at each other and we wanted to put it right. The most important thing for me over the last four or five games has been the character and the desire the players have shown. Nobody is hiding and that’s a big positive.

“Everyone knows this team has been through a difficult period. But we have shown we can dig in and battle. We know results will improve.”

Bolton will arrive at Anfield in confident mood following their crucial mid-week win over fellow strugglers Burnley and Coyle, who is hoping to sign Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere on-loan in time for this game, said: “We are still very much a work in progress so no-one is getting carried away.

“We know this will be hugely difficult for us. When Liverpool are in full throttle Anfield can be a daunting arena.” — AFP

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MANCHESTER: Brazil forward Robinho has a future with Manchester City after his six-month loan deal with former club Santos ends, City manager Roberto Mancini said yesterday.

The 26-year-old Robinho joined big-spending City in 2008 for a British record transfer fee of £32.5mil from Real Madrid but has struggled to hold down a first-team place.

A loan deal was agreed with Santos on Thursday.

Mancini said he expected Robinho to return before the start of next season and have a big impact at the club.

“I spoke to him and told him that if he stayed then I would be happy, but that if he wanted to go back to Brazil then he could go,” Mancini told reporters.

“It was important for him to play. He said he would go to Santos for five months and play there because of the World Cup.

“But after the World Cup he will come back here. He will come back here because, for me, he is a fantastic player with great technique. He can come back here and play every game.”

Mancini could lose a second striker with Benjani Mwaruwari holding talks with Premier League rivals Sunderland about a loan move to the Stadium of Light.

“I spoke with him and he told me that if there was a chance he could go somewhere and play then he would like to go,” said Mancini. — Reuters

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MILAN (AP): David Beckham marked his return to AC Milan with 76 effective minutes in a 5-2 rout of Genoa, helping the club rise to second in the Serie A on Wednesday.

Loaned backed to Milan for a second straight year to stay fit for the World Cup, Beckham made up the right side of an attacking trio with Marco Borriello and Ronaldinho, and went close to scoring in the first half, but his long-range strike hit the side netting.

Penalties from Ronaldinho and Klaas Jan Huntelaar, a brace by Borriello and an opportunist strike by Thiago Silva gave Milan the win, while Giuseppe Sculli and David Suazo scored for Genoa.

Inter Milan remained top of the standings thanks to Mario Balotelli’s early goal in a 1-0 win over Chievo Verona. The young striker linked up with new signing Goran Pandev and midfielder Wesley Sneijder in the 12th minute to score past Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino.

“I’m delighted with today’s performance,” Inter coach Jose Mourinho said. “This is the sort of team that can cause you problems, but after this performance I shall be smiling a lot.

“We had players who showed their personality and character. Across the pitch we had players who did a fantastic job.” Inter led with 42 points, eight more than Milan. Juventus was third with 33 after beating Parma 2-1.

Also, it was: Atalanta 0, Napoli 2; Bari 2, Udinese 0; Catania 1, Bologna 0; Lazio 4, Livorno 1; Sampdoria 1, Palermo 1; and Siena 1, Fiorentina 5.

Beckham made his mark in the third minute. He crossed to Borriello, but Genoa stopper Marco Amelia pushed away the striker’s close shot.

In the 13th, Amelia rescued Genoa by stopping Ronaldinho’s weak penalty after Giuseppe Biava tripped Massimo Ambrosini.

Genoa took the lead in the 25th. Rodrigo Palacio’s right cross was nodded by Sculli past Dida at the back post.

Ronaldinho atoned for his earlier penalty miss in the 32nd by thumping the ball low past Amelia to draw Milan level after the goalkeeper brought down Ambrosini.

Five minutes later Milan took the lead. Ambrosini’s free kick was cleared, Andrea Pirlo crossed the loose ball to Ronaldinho at the far post, but his header was cleared off the line and Silva slotted in the rebound.

Milan grabbed the third soon after halftime. Ronaldinho put Antonini clear behind Genoa’s defense and the defender cut the ball back for Borriello to score his fifth of the season.

After Genoa failed to clear a corner, The former Genoa striker grabbed his second of the match when he acrobatically volleyed home Pirlo’s cross.

In the 74th, Marco Rossi brought down Ronaldinho for the third penalty, and after Beckham refused the chance to take the kick, substitute Huntelaar fired home Milan’s fifth goal.

With 11 minutes remaining Suazo scored Genoa’s second.

Chievo striker Sergio Pellissier thought he should have been awarded a penalty after being brought down in the area by defender Ivan Cordoba, but while he was protesting Inter attacked.

Pandev slipped the ball to Sneijder, who put Balotelli clear. Sorrentino stopped the first shot but Balotelli struck home the rebound.

In the 20th, fullback Maicon forced Sorrentino into a save with a powerful drive and only last-ditch tackles stopped Sneijder and Christian Chivu from shooting after they had broken through Chievo’s defense.

Chivu was carried off in the second half following a clash of heads with Pellissier. The Romanian was rushed to the hospital with a fractured skull and will undergo an operation.

After halftime, Chievo had the best chance but Elvis Abruscato sent his shot wide after Luciano had picked him out at the near post.

Juventus finished its match with 10 men after defender Martin Caceres was sent off for a second yellow card.

Hasan Salihamidzic scored for Juventus in the third minute, heading in Giorgio Chiellini’s flick on from a corner. But Nicola Amoruso equalized in the 25th when he rose above defender Nicola Legrottaglie to head past Juventus goalkeeper Alex Manninger.

In the 39th, Paolo Castellini scored an own-goal to give Juventus the win.

“It was an important win for us,” Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara said. “I just wanted to help overcome the problems we were having.

We can’t think about Inter or Milan, we have to think about ourselves.”

Luca Toni made his return to Italian football after 2{ years in Germany, but he played only the last 10 minutes in AS Roma’s 2-2 draw with Cagliari.

David Pizarro and Simone Perrotta scored for Roma in the second half, but Sergio Lopez and Daniele Conti scored in injury time to earn the point.

“It is a shame because we controlled Cagliari for the entire match, except for the last eight minutes,” Roma coach Claudio Ranieri said. “We needed to concentrate right until the end.”

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PRAGUE: Sparta Prague’s former Czech international midfielder Patrik Berger has announced that he is retiring because of recurrent injuries, his team coach said yesterday.

Sparta Prague coach Jozef Chovanec said that the 36-year-old had informed him of his decision on Tuesday. “Patrik told me yesterday ‘It’s over. My knee can no longer hold up’,” said Chovanev.

Berger started his career as a Sparta Prague trainee before before joining city rival’s Slavia Prague aged 18 years. He then moved to Borussia Dortmund in Germany followed by seven years at Liverpool, then Portsmouth, Stoke City and Aston Villa.

He rejoined Sparta in 2008 but rarely featured because of health problems, playing his final match on Aug 8 last year.

Berger was capped 44 times and scored 18 goals for the Czech Republic between 1993 and 2001. — AFP

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