Left field

from Mark Meadows:

Montpellier need belief not Santa Claus to win Ligue 1

Put a beard on avuncular and rotund Montpellier president Louis Nicollin and he could easily be mistaken for Father Christmas.

Sadly for supporters of the high-flying Ligue 1 club, Nicollin is not a fan of miracles.

"I don't believe in Santa Claus," he said.

Nicollin refuses to dream that his side can massively upset the odds and win their first French title having finished way down in 14th last term.

But on Sunday's evidence, Montpellier really can pull off the impossible after they outplayed big-spending leaders Paris St Germain for long spells before coming away from the capital with a 2-2 draw which left them a point behind in second place.

The south coast side have scored more goals than anyone in Ligue 1 after 24 games with 47 and have opened up an eight-point gap over third-placed champions Lille, who have a game in hand.

Given they boast new France striker Olivier Giroud and skilful Morocco playmaker Younes Belhanda, Montpellier are there to pounce if the weight of expectation at PSG prompts further nerves among Carlo Ancelotti's troops with 14 games to go.

The cat flashes his claws

Karim Benzema has shrugged off the disparaging label of being Real Madrid’s pussycat and turned himself into a fearsome feline under Jose Mourinho.

In the space of a year, the 24-year-old has gone from expensive bench warmer to first-choice leader of the line at the world’s richest club by revenue, and won over a skeptical coach.

Benzema was a match-winning substitute in Tuesday’s King’s Cup first leg win at home to Malaga, when a weakened side skulked in at halftime trailing 2-0.

The French international helped galvanise his team after the break, tormenting the visitors’ defence with his pace and link-up play and bursting through the middle to grab the comeback winner late on.

It was Mourinho who burdened Benzema with the ‘cat’ label in December 2010.

Gonzalo Higuain, Mourinho’s preferred number nine at the time, had just been ruled out with a long-term back injury and the coach was pressuring the club to bring in another striker in the January transfer window.

Benzema, a 35 million-Euro signing from Olympique Lyon in 2009, was struggling to adapt and after scoring eight goals in his first season had only managed six in 21 games when Higuain was sidelined.

Don’t write off the old continent just yet

By Alan Baldwin

Speaking about the Formula One calendar and the continuing expansion to east and west, the sport’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone declared this month that Europe was “finished“.

“It will be a good place for tourism but little else,” he told Spanish Sports daily Marca. “Europe is a thing of the past.”

With the financial pages full of Europe’s woes and the rise of the fast-moving BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) bloc, the 81-year-old was not just being his usual deliberately provocative self.

Formula One has always followed the money and there is still plenty of that sloshing around in the Middle East and Asia.

When it comes to the driver market, the situation is rather different. It has not been a good month for Russians, Indians or Brazilians while French fans can scarcely believe their good fortune.

Romain Grosjean will be Kimi Raikkonen’s team mate at Lotus next year, fellow Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne will be at Toro Rosso and Charles Pic makes his debut for Marussia.

from Photographers Blog:

Tour de France 2011 – A long way to Paris

This year's riders of the Tour de France covered 3430.5 km (2131.6 miles), divided into 21 stages, according to the Tour's official website.

What you may not know is that the Reuters pictures team covering 2011's most-watched sporting event managed to tally up some 10,000 km (6213 miles).

I was excited to cover the race but aware that despite careful planning, any big job can have its moments of near disaster. After meeting at the Reuters office in Paris with team leader (and Italy chief) photographer Stefano Rellandini and French photographer Pascal Rossignol we checked all our equipment, made sure our laptops were working, that our passwords were valid and that Mifi was setup. We picked up our local phones and configured wireless transmission devices from cameras. One thing's for sure -- the planning stage is essential on a big job like this, and a good team spirit never hurts either.

The next day we drove to Vendée in the east of France, where the race was due to start and met with our veteran bike drivers Jacques Clawey and Michel Vatel. This year's team consisted of three photographers. Photographers on bikes take two types of pictures during the race: postcard (landscape shots) and action. When you’re on the postcard bike the rules are clear: you can only take photos once the bike has stopped. Take a pic when the bike is moving, and you could be out. The ‘action’ bike’s rule? Don’t crash.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Soccer Break Wednesday

Happy middle of the week to you all, and if like me you are in London where the sun is out and there is very little football to write about, you are forgiven for thinking the season is over and the grasscourt tennis season is about to kick in.

Don't look so worried, David (right). While the weather will probably change before I’ve finished writing this blog, the good news is it’s only March and there is plenty more football left. It's just this week it’s the international break.

One of the most intriguing matches is Friday’s qualifier between Serbia and Northern Ireland. Why? There will be no supporters in the ground after Serbia’s clash with Italy in October was abandoned following crowd trouble and the 2006 World Cup winners were handed a 3-0 win.

Also in action on Friday are Italy, France and the 2010 World Cup finalists Spain and the Netherlands, while on Saturday Wales host England in a British Isles derby and Norway host Denmark in a Scandinavian battle. Germany and Russia are two other big names playing.

Chelsea fans fond of Guus Hiddink should also keep a close eye on next Tuesday’s Turkey v Austria match. Blues supporters, should Carlo Ancelotti go if Chelsea fail to win any silverware this year?

Back to European football, and read here for a very dedicated look at the major European leagues including an analysis of AC Milan’s loss in form that has made the Serie A title much more open.

Some good news for Barcelona fans on Tuesday was fullback Dani Alves renewing his contract until 2015.

Welcome back “le crunch” — we’ve missed you

There will be an extra buzz around Twickenham on Saturday and it will not be just because England fans know a win over France would set them up for their first Six Nations title for eight years.

“Le Crunch” is back, and then some. The fixture that was for so long the focal point of the championship gradually lost its allure as England dropped off the pace and Wales and Ireland became the main challengers, but with two wins apiece for the cross-channel rivals so far, it once again looks the pivotal match.

With the teams on course to meet again in the quarter-finals of the World Cup later this year there is an extra edge to the clash and just in case that was not enough, along came France coach Marc Lievremont to roll back the years with his extraordinary blast last weekend.

“We appreciate our Italian cousins with whom we share the same quality of life. We appreciate the Celts and their conviviality and then among all these nations we have one huge thing in common: we all don’t like the English,” he announced.

“This insular country, who always drape themselves in the national flag, their hymns, their chants, their traditions. They are people who one regards as a very proud people.

“We beat Ireland yet left Dublin with the encouragement of all the Irish who said ‘for pity’s sake, beat the English’. With the Scots, it’s the same thing. It is also what gives you strength against the English, more than just because of rugby.”

“Oh yes” the England players and fans must have thought when they first heard that, cueing flashbacks to the days when a few choice words from the likes of hooker Brian Moore would be enough for the French to implode, explode or more usually, both.

Don’t discount Ireland for the Six Nations

By James Illingworth

The 2011 Six Nations kicks off shortly in Cardiff with much of the pre-tournament hype suggesting a two-horse race between France and England.

England’s favourites tag among English bookmakers looks unjustified if it is based on one decent performance in November against Australia, with the 2010 grand slam winners France surely still the team to beat.

But one quirk of the buildup is that Ireland appear to have been overlooked as serious challengers, a point not missed by England coach Martin Johnson.

As his Welsh counterpart Warren Gatland was doing his best Jose Mourinho impression by announcing that his team are planning to ‘wind-up’ English hooker Dylan Hartley, Johnson was keen to remind us not to write off the 2009 grand slam winners.

After being installed as third favourites, Johnson suggested that Ireland have ‘slipped under the radar’, a tag that may play into the hands of Brian O’Driscoll’s side.

Munster’s demise in this year’s Heineken Cup has led to speculation that Ireland’s golden generation of players are past their best with the new crop of talent needing a few more years to find their feet at international level.

Serbian players, fans set new Davis Cup celebration standards

Passers-by in downtown Belgrade unfamiliar with Serbia’s appetite for sports success would have been forgiven for thinking that the Balkan country won the soccer World Cup on Sunday evening and not the Davis Cup, an annual tennis competition featuring 16 teams in its top tier.

Several thousand jubilant fans, sporting national flags and team shirts, brought traffic to a halt in the city centre moments after Serbia beat France 3-2 in a pulsating three-day final to win the event in front of 17,000 supporters in the Belgrade Arena.

Fans, officials and even the French team could hardly believe their eyes as the Serbian players, led by world number three Novak Djokovic, shaved their heads on the court moments after Viktor Troicki won the final singles rubber for the home team and was mobbed by his captain and team mates.

Serbia’s tennis federation president Slobodan Zivojinovic, the former Yugoslavia’s best player in the 1980s, was the first to feel the razor as the team kept the promise they made after an equally dramatic semi-final win over the Czech Republic.

While fans set off fireworks that lit the sky in the Serbian capital, the players continued their party in a popular night club where they demonstrated some non-tennis talents.

Dancing to the tunes of a brass band with some expertise, it must be said, Djokovic and company then took over the microphone and entertained the visitors as they sang local folk songs.

It sometimes seems Serbia’s ability to produce top-level athletes is inversely proportional to its thorny path towards the European Union, the effects of political strife coupled with economic mismanagement in the 1990s still biting the country of 7.5 million.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Euro 2012 qualifiers – live

We're following all tonight's Euro 2012 qualifiers live. Join us here for updates, comments and pix ... and details of all the goals as they go in.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

France to host Euro 2016

Favourites France have been chosen to host Euro 2016 after beating Italy and Turkey.

UEFA President Michel Platini, a proud Frenchman, whipped round the card in Geneva to reveal France's name.

They will host a major soccer championship for the first time since holding the 1998 World Cup.

Italy, who missed out on Euro 2012, will again wonder where it all went wrong amid problems with new stadiums and soccer violence.

Turkey were an outside bet given UEFA took a gamble by giving Euro 2012 to Ukraine and Poland.

Especially with Euro 2016 being expanded to 24 teams, European soccer's governing body have opted for a safe pair of hands in France.