Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 33

i i EDMONTON JOURNAL edmontonjournal.com SPORTS THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2009 C5 iwyr wwi Barca shocks defending champions VIOLENCE MARS CELEBRATIONS Manchester United falls short in defence of title BARNABY CIIKSTERMAN Agence Vrance-Presse ROME Barcelona stunned titleholders Manchester United to win their third Champions League crown with a 2-0 victory here on Wednesday. Goals from star forwards Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi gave the Catalans a deserved victory and denied United from becoming the first team to retain the tide since the European Cup became the Champions League in 1993. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL BARCELONA 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 0 ROME Two men, including an American mistaken for an English fan, were stabbed and eight others arrested before Wednesday's Champions League soccer final between Barcelona and Manchester United In Rome. Briton Greg Whedon, 34, was assaulted and stabbed In his left leg outside his hotel on Wednesday. Four Italians stabbed a 23-year old American during the night after assuming he was British when he spoke to them in English.

"He was found on the ground, bloody and screaming In English, with four people on top hitting and stabbing him with a knife," police said. The four Italians were arrested. Elsewhere, a 19-year old British fan and his father were arrested outside a bar overnight for hitting two policemen who had intervened to stop a brawl, police said. Two other Britons were arrested for paying a 300-euro dinner bill at the upscale Cafe de Paris restaurant on Via Veneto with fake banknotes, police said. Reuters S' niiii mini -mmm mimihfti ----'--M ALESSANDRO BIANCHI, REUTERS Barcelona's Carlos Puyol holds the trophy after their Champions League Final soccer match victory against Manchester United at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, on Wednesday.

It gave the Spaniards a unique triple, having already won their domestic league and cup and meant they repeatedafeat United achieved in 1999, which Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson had then claimed would never be matched. It crowned a marvellous debut season for his Barcelona counterpart Pep Guardiola, who at 38 becomes the youngest coach to take European club football's greatest prize. For Thierry Henry it ended years of frustration especially when his then team Arsenal lost to Barcelona in the 2006 final. "Finally I have won it! I have been waiting for so long for this moment," said the France great, only in helping it past Edwin van der Sar. That goal settled Barca into their usual stride and they started to weave the pretty patterns that have been mesmerising opponents all season, carrying them to the remarkable feat of scoring more than 150 goals.

The Spaniards were totally in the ascendancy andXavi fired a free-kick off the post on 53 minutes with van der Sar beaten as Barca threatened to run riot. The reigning champions steadied the ship and Ferguson signalled his intent when he threw Berbatov on for Park with a quarter of the match remaining. But just as the tide seemed to be turning, Barca extended their lead from the most unlikely source as Xavi picked out Messi at the back post on the edge of the six yard box, the Argentine wizard's looping header arcing into the top corner on 70 minutes. good all season but those were two shoddy goals to lose." Barca overcame early jitters to dominate large parts of the game as the English club never managed to get their game into gear. The reigning champions were enjoying all the ball and chances but out of the blue Barca took the lead.

Andres Iniesta played in Eto'o, who beat Nemanja Vidic inside the box and although Michael Carrickslid in to try to block his shot, he succeeded whose daughter celebrated her birthday as well on Wednesday. "The last five minutes were the longest of my life. Even if we were 2-0 up, we were playing the best team in the world." Ferguson accepted defeat with good grace. "We started the game brightly but the goal was a killer," said the 67-year-old Scot. "However, they are a better team than us.

We conceded two bad goals. Our defence has been Sharapova shaky, Murray melts down on clay court Lone Canadian Wozniak suffers loss, returns to action today 'W PRITHA SARKAR Reuters PARIS Maria Sharapova flirted with danger and Andy Murray sufferedamid-match meltdown before their survival instincts kicked in to carry them into the third round of the French Open on Wednesday. TENNIS of luckless fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko, and Ana Ivanovic discovered her sweet spot to crush Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-2. Despite the ruthless performance, Safina's coach Zeljko Krajan is proving to be a hard man to please. "If one day he's going to be happy, I think I will finish my career.

He is never happy. Even today, he is not happy," said the 23-year-old Safina, who won 17 consecutive games at these championships before finally allowing an opponent to take a game offher. Like Safina, Murray is also chasing a maiden grand slam title but the third seed's hopes of equalling his best performance in Paris blew hot and cold on a chilly day on Philippe Chatrier Court. "I managed to turn it around by playing a Little bit more aggressive. I got the ball deep into his backhand and came to the net quite a lot," said Murray.

After losing the second set, Murray ran around aimlessly chasing shadows and looked in danger of going two-sets-to-one down to a player ranked 101 places below him as Starace streaked 5-1 ahead. A combination of guile and deft shotmaking allowed the Briton to save two set points as he dug himself out of a hole. FRENCH OPEN The duo have never felt at home in the heartland of clay-court tennis, and after Murray was forced to change tactics to tame Italian Potito Starace 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, Sharapova maintained an aura of calm despite being five points from defeat to subdue llth-seeded fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-2, 1-6, 8-6. Rafael Nadal won a record 30th consecutive match at Roland Garros by trampling Russian Teimuraz The four-time champion eclipsed Chris Even's mark of 29, set between 1974 and 1981 the American did not compete in Paris in 1976-78 to set up a blockbuster third-round showdown with former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

REGIS DUVIGNAU. REUTERS Maria Sharapova reacts after winning against Nadia Petrova at the French Open on Wednesday. Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, was the lone Canadian in action. She, along with partner Liga Dekmeijere of Latvia, lost 6-3, 6-1 to the ninth-seeded women's doubles team of Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan and Shuai Peng of China. Wozniak returns to action first thing this morning on Court 17, against Croatia's Petra Martic.

Women's top seed Dinara Safina followed up her 6-0, 6-0 walloping of Britain's Anne Keothavong in the first round with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition L2L- BRIAN GAVRILOFF, THE JOURNAL. FILE Danielle Peers beat a health scare to return to wheelchair basketball. Peers back in action after heart surgery 2009i RONDO EX MODEL SHOWN 4-cylmdr 2 41 CWT, or available 27L CWT V6 engine Automatic Steptronic transmission Standard ABS moth Electronic Stability Control and Traction Control System 2010 SOUL sis," she admits. "I knew, with muscular dystrophy, that my sporting days were limited, and I felt that I had already experienced so much through sport." Four months after her surgery, she started attending wheelchair basketball practices. By April she was in tournament form and helped the Edmonton Inferno win their sixth national women's wheelchair basketball crown.

Peers is currendy helping run an open scrimmage Thursday nights for the Alberta Northern Lights at the ACT Centre in Rundle Park. Last month, Peers won a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. It's a new federal government award and Peers was one of 12 of A students who were honoured. "I am really excited because this award will allow me to concentrate on my research," she says of her PhD, which involves sociological examination of elite disability sport. I am feeling really well now," she says.

"I tell people that I feel like I have been doing high-altitude training for two years, and am now Living life at sea level! It is amazing how much energy I have-" Her film, IMP. Boot Camp, will be shown at the Bill Black Auitorium at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital during the Picture This Film Festival. Showtimes are from 10 a-into 9:30 p.m. today. The estiva continues from 10 a.m to 4:45 p.m.

on Friday. ctait thejouTttal.canwett.com i cylinder 1 6L. 16-vaive CWT or CAM TAIT lournal Sports Writer LDMONTON JOURNAL Danielle Peers is certainly back in the thick of things. The Canadian wheelchair basketball gold medal-List is just finishing a thesis, has just received a national scholarship and will be at the Edmonton premiere of her first film today. Quite the comeback when you consider the health scare she had two years ago.

Peers, a dynamo on the wheelchair basketball court, had been named MVP of the world championship in 2006, and the national championship in 2007. "I began to struggle with my breathing," she says. "I consulted many doctors, most of whom wrote off my issues as a form or asthma." Several new medications didn't solve aiTything. In fact, her breathing got worse and she turned blue at a summer basketball tournament Peers went to the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic at the University of Alberta and was given some startling news. "They found that I had a hole in my heart and a significant amount of deoxygenated blood was bypassing my kings and drculating through my system," she says.

Rather than going to the 2008 Par-alympic Games, Peers who has muscular dystrophy underwent heart surgery. 1 was pretty ready to write off competitive sport once I got my diagno available 2 OL. 16-valve C. Standard 6 a-tags, with actrve front headrests well 1 YEARS TV FINANCING! I in canada jUr Vt'jj hands-free connectivity Heated front seats and s'de mirrors AND INTRODUCING THE 2010 FORTE 2 tL CWT. or 0 LOSS" ROT CT 1 0 aw3Lao! 2 71 CWT V6 ergme Aomjfc S'ecrtromc f-aTsmss-on i Right now.

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