Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/685221
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 MAY 2016 51 THE pair clashed continuously during the early years of Wenger's tenure in North London but their relationship improved towards the end of Ferguson's reign and the former Manchester United manager maintains a deep re- spect for the Frenchman. Though Arsenal finished sec- ond in the Premier League last season, they finished 10 points behind champions Leicester City and their capitulation in the title race led to unrest among sections of the club's supporters, with Wenger shouldering the blame. However, despite Arsenal's fail- ure to sustain a title challenge in recent seasons, the 66-year-old Wenger has led his team to the last 16 of the Champions League for 16 consecutive seasons. Ferguson, who appreciates how difficult long-term consistency is to achieve, believes the criticism Wenger has received is unfair. "He (Wenger) has been fan- tastic," Ferguson was quoted as saying in the Champions League 2016 final programme. "Now he gets a lot of criticism, but I admire that he's not going to bend to the will of the critics. He stays with what he believes in. And I think people who do that are outstanding coaches. "When you talk about consist- ency, Arsene's never changed the way that his side has played."Wenger completed his first signing of the summer on Thursday, when Arsenal final- ised a deal Switzerland midfield- er Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach for a fee in the region of £30m. Ferguson has always been an admirer of Wenger's eye for tal- ent and appreciates the style of football he sets his teams out to play. Ferguson said: "I think he in- herited a team when he first came to Arsenal with Steve Bould and Martin Keown and Tony Adams - fantastic warriors - but his team evolved when they started get- ting players like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Emmanuel Petit and Sylvain Wiltord. "There was a change in the cul- ture of the team. They became a magnificent team. Arsene has never changed in the type of player he wants or the sort of play he wants. "It's always about penetration from runners off the ball, good passes into angles for the strik- ers." Sport FOOTBALL CYCLING Fergie defends 'fantastic' Wenger Sir Alex Ferguson has defended former rival Arsene Wenger, saying he admires the Arsenal boss for sticking to his footballing principles in the face of criticism Sir Alex Ferguson believes Arsene Wenger should be respected Hotspurs to play Champions League matches at Wembley TOTTENHAM Hotspur have reached agreement with the FA to host Champions League games at Wembley next season with an op- tion to use the national stadium for all matches in the 2017-18 cam- paign while they are building a new ground. "Having Tottenham at Wembley for big European nights next season is a welcome opportunity for us to further the stadium's position as a world-class venue," FA chief ex- ecutive Martin Glenn said in a joint statement with Spurs on Saturday. Tottenham are redeveloping White Hart Lane by building a 400 million pounds 61,000-seater sta- dium next to their existing ground and will have a reduced capacity next term as a result. They will use Wembley to meet UEFA require- ments. "Given the current reduction in capacity at White Hart Lane for next season and the ticketing re- quirements for (the) Champions League, playing at Wembley will mean that we can continue to ac- commodate all of our existing season ticket holders," Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said. "Our season ticket waiting list is over 50,000 so this now also of- fers us a great opportunity to pro- vide more of our supporters with a chance to see the team play live during our Champions League campaign. "Importantly, as we know it was our fans' preference, it means that we can continue to play our home matches in London during our sea- son away," Levy added on the FA website. Spurs are aiming to open their new stadium for the 2018-19 cam- paign but will have to leave White Hart Lane for the previous season to complete the latter stages of the development. They finished third in the Premier League last term which put them in the group stage of next season's Champions League so they will play at least three European matches at Wembley, which has a seating ca- pacity of 90,000 for soccer matches. Tottenham's north London rivals Arsenal played Champions League games at Wembley during the 1998- 99 and 1999-2000 while they moved from Highbury to The Emirates Stadium. "As well as helping the club and its fans, it will benefit Lon- don and English football in general with our commitment to re-invest- ing all profits back into the game," Glenn added. "The increased revenue will par- ticularly help us meet our targets for improving coaching and grassroots facilities and growing participation. "We were already on a strong fi- nancial footing, which allowed us to reinvest 117 million pounds back into the game at all levels last sea- son." Sensational Nibali all but wins the Giro d'Italia as Taaramae takes stage 20 VINCENZO Nibali will be crowned winner of the 2016 Giro d'Italia on Sunday after complet- ing one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent memory on stage 20 in the Alps. Having been 4min 43sec adrift of the pink jersey with three stag- es to go, the 31-year-old Italian reduced his deficit to 44 seconds by winning Friday's 19th stage and then moved to the top of the general classification by finish- ing 1min 36sec ahead of previ- ous race leader Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) on Saturday's penultimate stage. Nibali (Astana) now leads the Colombian by 52 seconds overall and only has to avoid crashing on a flat and largely processional fi- nal stage into Turin on Sunday to win the Giro for the second time in his career. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) will finish the race in third, 1min 17sec behind Nibali, after leap- frogging Steven Kruijswijk (Lot- toNL-Jumbo) on the 20th stage, which contained three category- one climbs and then a category- three summit finish in Sant'Anna di Vinadio. Nibali told Eurosport: "It is a crazy Giro. It has been difficult for me; exhausting. I started and I was the favourite and I felt all the pressure, but I have put on this great show in the last days and it feels even more amazing. "I thought that everything was lost. Many riders were telling me that I could still do things, and I understood that something could happen. So yesterday I attacked. I never gave up. "I understood that I could re- ally have a go today. When I was climbing I felt good, so I waited and then I attacked when we got up to altitude." Having used his Astana team- mates to thin the peloton down, Nibali launched what would turn out to be the race's decisive attack on the penultimate climb of the day, the Colle della Lombarda, with about 15km of the 134km distance remaining. Although Chaves and Valverde initially followed, Nibali was ir- resistible form and soon dropped them both as he set about eating into his 44-second overall deficit. Chaves and Valverde were soon joined by a second Colombian, Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale), who vowed to helped his compa- triot and immediately moved to the front of the trio to chase down Nibali. However, Uran's tempo proved too strong for the wilting Chaves, who fell away and dropped back to a chasing group containing Krui- jswijk and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff). It then became a fight for every second between Chaves and Ni- bali up ahead, and it was the Ital- ian who prevailed to seal one of the most unlikely grand tour vic- tories in history. Stage 20 was won by breakaway rider Rein Taaramae (Katusha), who attacked on the penultimate climb and beat Darwin Atapuma (BMC Racing) into second place by 52 seconds and Joe Dom- browski (Cannondale) into third by 1min 17sec. Vincenzo Nibali is set to repeat his 2013 victory at the Giro d'Italia