The big news: Will overcome goal deficit, says striker

Barcelona striker Luis Suarez said that the club has not given up on reaching the Champions League quarter-finals. The Spanish champions were beaten 4-0 by Paris St-Germain in the first-leg of their round-of-16 tie on Tuesday. They host the second leg at the Nou Camp on March 8. However, no team has overcome a 4-0 first-leg loss to reach the next round of the knockout stages.

“If we want to make history at this club, we have to turn this tie around,” said Suarez. “We are the best team in the world. If there is a team that can overturn this situation, it’s Barcelona. To lose in the manner that we did in the last 16 is difficult and painful. It’s going to be very difficult but it’s a beautiful challenge,” he added.

Barcelona have won the European Cup or Champions League five times and have reached the quarter-finals for the last nine consecutive years. Barcelona, who are second in the La Liga and one point adrift of Real Madrid, face struggling Leganes at home on Sunday.

Football:

  • Juventus striker Paulo Dybala scored twice against his former club Palermo in a comfortable 4-1 win. With the win, the champions are now 10 points clear at the top.      
  • Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho said that he has learnt his lesson of not taking FA Cup games seriously and learned from “throwing away” the games in the past. However, he will not make that mistake at Blackburn Rovers in the fifth round on Sunday.      
  • Tottenham Hotspur will win the Premier League within the next four years, says former manager Harry Redknapp. Spurs made the Champions League for the first time during Redknapp’s four-year tenure, reaching the quarter-finals in 2011.
  • Monaco missed the chance to go six points clear at the top of Ligue 1 after being held 1-1 by Bastia. 
  • Striker Gareth Bale is set to make his first appearance since November after passing a fitness test for Real Madrid’s match at home to Espanyol on Saturday.

Cricket:

  • Chamara Kapugedera’s last-ball boundary powered Sri Lanka to a five-wicket win over Australia in the first Twenty20I at Melbourne on Friday. Chasing Australia’s target of 169, Sri Lanka won the match with few hiccups towards the end.       
  • Australia skipper Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh got their tour of India off to a solid start with fine centuries on day one of their warm-up game against India A in Mumbai on Friday. The duo’s effort helped Australia post 327/5 at the end of day’s play.
  • India qualified for the ICC Women’s World Cup with a nine-wicket win against Bangladesh in the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in Colombo on Friday.
  • A five-wicket haul by Imran Tahir saw South Africa cruise to a 78-run win over New Zealand in the one-off Twenty20 in Auckland on Friday.      
  • West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuels has been cleared to bowl after serving a year-long ban for an illegal action. Samuels was banned in December 2015 after being reported during a Test against Sri Lanka. 

Tennis:

  • Top seed Kei Nishikori made it to semis of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires with a 6-1, 6-4 win over sixth seed Joao Sousa. 
  • Mikhail Kukushkin entered the semi-final of the Memphis Open with a convincing 6-0, 6-4 win over fourth seed Steve Johnson. 
  • Third seed David Goffin booked a maiden ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament semi-final after a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 triumph over fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov. 
  • World No.3 Karolina Pliskova defeated Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-0 to set up a semifinal showdown with Dominika Cibulkova at the Qatar Open.