Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/700383
21 Sport maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 6 JULY 2016 FOOTBALL FOOTBALL CYCLING Valletta through to the Champions League second qualifying round WARREN ZAMMIT DESPITE losing 2-1 to B36 Tor- shavn in the second leg of the UEFA Champions league at Torshavn, Valletta are through to the next round on away goals after beating the same squad 1-0 in Malta. Valletta had one change from the team that won in Malta after Santiago Malano replaced Lwe- lyn Cremona. The Citizens were close after eight minutes when they won a free kick. Jhonnattan took charge of it, and saw his effort hitting the crossbar. A minute later, Valletta had an- other good chance to open the score after Federico Falcone's close range effort was saved by Askham. Despite Valletta being the best team in the early stages, the hosts opened the score on the 10th minute. Odmar Faero sent An- drias Eriksen through on the left, with the latter finding Hanus Thorleiffson, who slotted past Henry Bonello. Valletta managed to level mat- ters on the 24th minute. After winning a free kick on the right flank, Romeu Romao sent a cross that found Falcone who headed past Askham. After the break, B36 put Vallet- ta under pressure and managed to regain the lead on the 66th minute when off a throw in by Jo- nas Thor Naes, Lukas Cieslewicz hit low. Valletta players failed to clear their lines and the ball fell to Naes who served Hogni Eysturoy. The latter headed the ball into the direction of Hannes Angarsson who fired a shot past Bonello. On the 77th minute, Valletta were unlucky again after Jhonn- attan went on a solo effort, and saw his diagonal shot hitting the upright. Following this result, Valletta will now face Red Star Belgrade of Serbia. Valletta: Bonello, Caruana(C), Azzopardi, Gill, Santiago, Briffa, Falcone, Pani, Aguirre, Jhonnat- tann, Romeu. B36: T. Askham, Eriksen, Naes, O. Faerø, Mellemgaard, H. Askham, á Borg(C), Jakobsen, Ł Cieślewicz, Eysturoy, Thorleifs- son. Yellow cards: Bonello, Pani (Val- letta), Naes, O.Faero (B36) Referee: Roomer Tarajev (EST) Brave Birkirkara advance to Europa League second qualifying round Martino quits over Argentine FA leadership problems WARREN ZAMMIT BIRKIRKARA are through to the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League after a fine 2-0 (3-1 on aggregate) win against Siroki Brijek at the Hibernians stadium. This is the fourth time that Birkirkara managed to go through the first round of the qualifying phase. Last year, they managed to do so as well when they eliminat- ed Fc Ulisses of Armenia. Birkirkara coach, Drazen Besek made one change to the team that obtained a 1-1 draw in Bosnia Herzegovina as Ryan Camenzuli was replaced by Shaun Bajada. Birkirkara went on the attack from the beginning and had chances on goal through Gareth Sciberras and Vito Plut. However, both efforts were blocked. The stripes went ahead on the 29th minute after Srdjan Dim- itrov received from Plut and went on the left flank before slotting the ball past Antonio Soldo. Plut had another good chance on the 42nd minute when after receiving a through pass, he sent his shot inches wide. Siroki Brijeg tried to put pres- sure on the stripes throughout the second half, but despite their efforts, the stripes doubled the score on the 76th minute. Vito Plut sent a ball toward Matthew Guillamier which was deflected by Markovic, who sent the ball into his own net. Birkirkara will now face either Fc Infonet (Estonia) or Heart of Midlothian (Scotland). Birkirkara: Koprić, Bubalovic, Sciberras(C), Emerson, Dimitrov, Plut, Bajada, J. Zerafa, Scicluna, Attard, Jovic. Široki Brijeg: Soldo, Pandža, Ćorić, Plazonić, Krstanović, Bara- ban, Wagner(C), Sesar, Brekalo, Crnov, Marković. Yellow cards: Zerafa, Jovic, Ko- pric (Birkirkara), Coric, Baraban, Brekalo, Barisic (Široki Brijeg) Referee: Rahim Hasanov (AZE) Kittel wins in photo finish MARCEL Kittel edged out Bryan Coquard in a photo finish to win stage four of the Tour de France, as Peter Sagan retained the overall lead. Kittel (Etixx - Quick-Step) led out the sprint on an uphill finishing straight in Limoges and held off a strong surge from Coquard (Di- rect Energie) to claim victory by an even finer margin than Mark Cav- endish's win over Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) 24 hours earlier. Cavendish (Dimension Data) found himself boxed in with 400m to go and could only finish eighth, while Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) crossed the line third to extend his overall lead of the race courtesy of four bonus seconds. He is now 12 seconds ahead of second-placed Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx - Quick-Step) and 14 sec- onds in front of third-placed Ale- jandro Valverde (Movistar), after the pair finished in the peloton in 15th and 16th respectively. Chris Froome also crossed the line in the bunch, in 37th, but is now 18 seconds down on Sagan in fifth, having been replaced in fourth place by Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) on cumulative stage placings. Britain's Dan McLay (Fortuneo- Vital Concept), who is making his debut at the Tour, continued his excellent start to the race by cross- ing the line in seventh, his third top-10 of the race. Kittel, who now has nine Tour stage wins to his name, said: "I'm very emotional right now. It feels like my first stage win again. I'm super-happy. I'm very proud be- cause the team was really fighting for this win. "Some things went wrong these last days and I'm so happy to be back in the Tour and to win a stage, especially like this, with this up- hill. I can't believe it." Stage four was the longest of the race at 237.5km and although four riders mounted a determined breakaway, a sprint finish was nev- er in doubt. Greipel's Lotto Soudal had led the peloton for much of the final 10km but were swamped when they turned into the finishing straight and the German could not recover. Cavendish had been sitting just behind Greipel and although he finished strongly, he had too much ground to make up on Kittel and Coquard never looked like win- ning. ARGENTINA coach Gerardo Martino resigned on Tuesday citing a leadership vacuum at the Argentine FA (AFA) and problems trying to pick an 18-man squad for the Olympic soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro in August, the AFA said. "Owing to the lack of decisions in nam- ing new authorities in the Argentine Foot- ball Association and serious problems in choosing the squad to represent the coun- try at the upcoming Olympic Games, the national team's coaching staff has decided to present its resignation today," said a statement issued by the AFA in Martino's name.