After his team finally shook off Bayern Munich in a closely-fought quarter-final which had one goal in 210 minutes, Scala’s players are ready for another tough battle.Dortmund have their central defender Jurgen Kohler and the midfielder Jorg Heinrich ruled out through injury, while the Austrian sweeper Wolfgang Feiersinger is banned with two yellow cards.Juventus, so close to elimination at the group stage, are now in a rich vein of form and look likely to make their third final in a row. “Real Madrid have a historic obligation to get to the final,” said Sanz, whose son, Fernando, is likely to make the team in place of the suspended Fernando Hierro.With Sanz’s team six points behind Barcelona in the Spanish League, Real have virtually written off holding on to their title. Juventus, the losing finalists last season and also on course for their second Italian title in a row, host Monaco, who have won the French championship by 12 points and put out Manchester United in the quarter-finals.
The Real Madrid chairman, Lorenzo Sanz, is in no doubt about who should lift this year’s cup. IN A season when Uefa allowed domestic runners-up to join Europe’s premier competition, tonight’s Champions’ Cup semi-final line-up suggests that it has at least lived up to its name.

Borussia Dortmund, the defending champions, go to Real Madrid, the record six-time winners, for tonight’s first leg. Cruyff has been out since he suffered a hairline fracture of his right ankle on 21 February.United are optimistic they will soon resolve their wrangle with Benfica over Karel Poborsky’s unpaid transfer fee. United are still waiting to receive any of the pounds 3m they reportedly agreed with the Portuguese side in December for the Czech Republic international.Danny Williamson is out of Everton’s relegation struggle after having a knee operation. In a further blow, the talented young midfielder, signed from West Ham, has suggested he may quit the club at the end of the season and return to London..

Davies has not played since suffering a recurrence of an ankle injury during the 3-2 win at Liverpool at the beginning of February.Birmingham have offered a new one-year contract to their captain Steve Bruce, who will be 38 this year, but Bruce said he would wait until the end of the season before making a decision.Pele is resigning from his position as Brazil’s special minister of sports to do television commentary for Globo TV at the World Cup – and may find his job gone when he returns. The highly rated full-back has agreed a four-year deal on improved terms.Across Manchester, the United manager, Alex Ferguson, has agreed to loan Celtic their reserve goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington for the rest of the season as cover for Jonathan Gould.The Manchester United midfielder Jordi Cruyff began his latest comeback from injury when he played in a reserve match at Preston North End on Monday. No fee has been mentioned, but City reportedly want pounds 5.5m for the 24-year-old Georgian international who joined them in a pounds 2m move from Dynamo Tbilisi in 1995.
Royle is prepared to let unsettled Kinkladze leave Maine Road and has left him out of matches even though the club are teetering on the brink of relegation to the Second Division.Better news for City yesterday came with Richard Edghill pledging his future to the club. GEORGI KINKLADZE, Manchester City’s sporadically brilliant midfielder, has flown to Amsterdam to discuss a move to Ajax. The City manager, Joe Royle, confirmed earlier this month that the Dutch side had made an enquiry about Kinkladze through an agent. Reports from Brazil said yesterday that the country’s president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, planned to eliminate the sports ministry when Pele left..

During Barnsley’s 3-2 defeat by Liverpool, Gary Willard had to take cover in the dressing-room after home fans, furious at two dismissals, tried to attack him. At Goodison, one Everton supporter made for Neale Barry after he awarded Aston Villa a penalty in their 4-1 win.
Glenn Hoddle’s agent yesterday denied that the England coach intends to leave his position for a managerial role at Monaco. Reports suggested the French champions were offering Hoddle pounds 3m tax free in a three-year deal to take over at the club where he once played. Monaco, who knocked Manchester United out of the Champions’ League, also denied having made any approach to Hoddle.Tottenham’s hopes of escaping the relegation battle have been boosted after Darren Anderton and Steffen Iversen, both out since December, made successful comebacks in the reserves yesterday and could make Saturday’s game with Everton.Chelsea are looking to add to their international roster by signing a pair of Turkish players, the striker Hakan Sukur and the midfielder Ercan Abdullah.Middlesbrough, beaten by Chelsea in the Coca-Cola Cup final on Sunday, will not take the Uefa Cup place should Chelsea win the European Cup-Winners’ Cup – it will instead go to the best-placed Premiership club not already qualified for European competition.Southampton’s England Under-21 striker Kevin Davies is ready to return to action.

The Football Association has charged Barnsley and Everton with failing to control spectators following the pitch invasion incidents in their weekend Premiership defeats. Middlesbrough’s Paul Merson has spoken of his fears and revealed that alcohol was one way he used to conquer them – a method no longer open to him now that he is teetotal.West Ham’s Stan Lazaridis is another with a fear of flying, which is particularly unfortunate given that he plays for Australia.Bergkamp’s fear of flying began when members of the Ajax youth side were killed in a crash in Surinam, but made worse by a couple of incidents during USA 94 after which he refused to fly again.. .”She always remained far to the left, and defiantly non- cooperative with official sources. Partly as a result of that tragedy perhaps, reporters travelling with teams in the 60s recall many players suffering similair anxieties, none more so than Jimmy Greaves, both with Spurs and England.
It was a common occurrence in those days for the team to lead a spontaneous round of applause once the plane had taxied to a standstill having landed safely.For all the frequency of flying in the modern game, many current players still suffer when flying.