#Title

A NIGHT LIKE NO OTHER
DHAKA ﻿FRIDAY﻿ ﻿MARCH﻿ ﻿11﻿, ﻿2022﻿, FALGUN 26, 1428 BS
“I think he’s one of the greatest players in the world, the best number nine, maybe with Lewandowski right now. I think he showed why he should, maybe, win the Ballon d’Or this year. He’s a great player, a real captain. He led the team to victory with his goals and his class.”
Thibaut Courtois
“This game will go down in history. We have seen some unbelievable Champions League ties and this is another one. I couldn’t see any way Real could get back into this. They didn’t look like scoring but then Karim Benzema... What a player!”
Michael Owen
AFP, Madrid
The old French striker outshone the young French striker as Real Madrid reasserted the old order, coming from two goals down to eliminate Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Wait goes on for PSG
With less than half an hour to go at the Bernabeu, the great Paris Saint-Germain gamble seemed to be paying off.
Last summer the club opted not to sell Kylian Mbappe, who will be a free agent after this season, and had invested heavily in an ageing Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos and also in young Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Mbappe scored to give PSG a 1-0 victory in the first leg. He then dazzled as PSG dominated the first hour in Madrid, scoring in the 39th minute, putting his team two goals up.
Then Donnarumma, trying to play out of defence, passed to Vinicius Junior who found Karim Benzema for a tap-in.
PSG imploded.
It wasn’t quite a collapse on a par with the infamous Camp Nou remontada in 2017 when Barcelona scored three times after the 88th minute to eliminate PSG 6-5 on aggregate. It was total nonetheless.Benzema hit three in 17 minutes and PSG ended a tie they had dominated, looking like kids in a playground.
In the end, the team that historically finds a way to win in the Champions League, even when they should lose, beat the team that so often manages to lose when they should have won.
Mbappe looks at home - in Madrid
The build-up was dominated by the relentless speculation on the future of Mbappe, presumed to be heading to Real Madrid as the golden keystone in a rebuild to an ageing squad.
For an hour, Mbappe looked at home at the Bernabeu. He had already had two shots saved and an effort that hit the net ruled out for offside when he ran onto Neymar’s first-time pass after 39 minutes. He froze the terrified David Alaba and then whipped a shot past Thibaut Courtois.His best moment came with an outrageous step-over to beat Courtois and net in the second half only to be ruled offside again.
Then PSG’s defence unravelled and Mbappe was reduced to a mere spectator as one of the Madrid pensioners he is slated to replace stole the show.
Old guard defend their turf
Even as Real struggled for parity in the first hour, Benzema was clearly their goal threat, with a couple of dangerous first-half headers.
After an hour he changed the game. Even at 34, Benzema is sneakily fast and he still thinks quicker than most of his opponents. With Donnarumma dribbling round his goalmouth, Benzema pounced, allowing no easy escape. The ‘keeper panicked, passed to Real’s lurking Vinicius who popped the ball back to Benzema.Mauricio Pochettino, the PSG coach, complained that Benzema had slyly kicked Donnarumma, neither the referee nor the VAR officials saw a foul.
Benzema isn’t the only old timer shining for Real long past his seeming sell-by date. Luke Modric, who is 36, set up Benzema’s second with a typical stabbed pass after 76 minutes.
PSG kicked off and rolled the ball back to their defenders. Vinicius gave chase, pressing Marquinhos who passed across his own box just as Benzema, the predator, arrived to side-foot his third. There were 11 seconds of play between the goals.
The last goal was the Frenchman’s 309th for Real, taking him past the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano. Only Raul (323) and Cristiano Ronaldo (451) have more for Real.
Since Ronaldo left, Benzema has thrived as the focus of a team without Galacticos. On Wednesday he outshone Real’s likely next superstar.
“It was a big night in the Champions League, you mustn’t let them slip by,” he said.

India greats welcome ‘Mankad’ law change
NEW DELHI
India greats such as Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday welcomed cricket’s governing body changing the law on controversial “Mankad” run outs, which will no longer be classed as “unfair play”. The rare mode of dismissal -- where a bowler runs out the non-striker in their delivery stride if the batter is out of his crease -- was named after Indian all-rounder Vinoo Mankad, who 75 years ago ran out Bill Brown twice in that fashion on a tour of Australia in 1947.
The nickname for that type of dismissal has stuck ever since, much to the annoyance of Mankad, who died in 1978, and other Indian cricketers.
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodians of the sport’s laws, have always held such dismissals are legitimate and batters should not seek to gain an advantage by backing up out of their ground.
But confusingly, the dismissal was listed under Law 41: “Unfair Play”.
But in one of several changes announced by the MCC this week that will come into effect from October 1, it will now be covered under Law 38: “Run Out”. “I was always uncomfortable with that particular dismissal being called Mankaded,” Tendulkar said in a video message.
“I am really happy that it’s been changed to run out. It always should have been run out according to me. So this is one good news for all of us.”