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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 6 DECEMBER 2017 Sport 20 SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL OLYMPICS Ronaldo deserves more respect - Zidane CRISTIANO Ronaldo deserves more respect, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said on Tuesday as he backed the usually prolific Portuguese to come good in the second half of the season amid his worst domestic campaign in Spain. Ronaldo has scored two goals in 10 league games and came in for criticism in the Spanish media for his display in Real's goalless draw against Ath- letic Bilbao on Saturday which left the Liga champions eight points behind leaders Barce- lona. The 32-year-old is still ex- pected to pick up the Bal- lon d'Or award on Thursday for firing Real to Champions League glory last season, scor- ing hat-tricks against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid in the quarter and semi-finals and a double in the 4-1 win over Juventus in the final. If he wins the award, Ron- aldo will tie Lionel Messi's re- cord of being named the best player in the world five times. "I think Cristiano deserves more respect because he is such a great player that when things don't quite go his way everyone has something to say about him," Zidane told a news conference on Tuesday ahead of Real's final Cham- pions League Group H game with Borussia Dortmund. "The club and the fans who love Cristiano Ronaldo know what he is doing. Just last season he had a phenomenal campaign. We are halfway in- to the season, we still have six months left of the season. Six months is a very long time for Cristiano." Ronaldo has lived up to his high standards in the Cham- pions League in which he is the top scorer with eight goals from five games and on course he became the top marskman in Europe's elite competition for a sixth straight year. "For me he deserves to win the Ballon d'Or because he's had an incredible year," Real midfielder Mateo Kovacic said. "I'm very happy for him, the Ballon d'Or means a lot to him and to us although the most important thing is that we win together as a team. "I see Cristiano train every day and he is doing fine. He's going to score a lot of goals this season. Right now the ball doesn't want to go in for him, but there's a long way to go and he's going to start scoring again." Real are guaranteed to fin- ish second in Group H behind Tottenham Hotspur, while Dortmund need to win to se- cure third spot in the group and a place in the Europa League as they are locked on two points with fourth-placed APOEL Nicosia but have a su- perior head-to-head record. Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo Kremlin to defend athletes against doping allegations, keep IOC ties RUSSIA will defend its athletes against doping allegations and work to preserve its ties with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday. The IOC is set to decide on the level of Russia's participation in the 2018 Pyeo- ngchang Winter Olympics as calls to ban the country over suspected state-spon- sored doping grow louder. "We intend to defend the interests of our athletes, of the Russian Federation, to remain committed to the ideals of Olym- pism and preserve all ties with the IOC, and through these ties the problems that have arisen will be resolved," Peskov told reporters on a conference call. Peskov said on Monday that Russia was not planning to boycott the Olympics if the IOC imposed restrictions on the coun- try's participation. More than 20 athletes have been banned for life from the Olym- pics in the past weeks over alleged doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Games. The bans on the Russian athletes came as a result of an IOC investigation into allegations of widespread doping among Russians and sample tampering by labo- ratory and security officials at the Sochi Olympics. The Russian authorities have vehement- ly denied any state involvement in doping and pledged to work with international sports bodies to curb the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs in the country. Russia's Paralympic Committee, ath- letics federation and anti-doping agency RUSADA remain suspended over doping scandals. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov