Month: December 2016

Populist Dutch MP Geert Wilders will learn his fate Friday when judges hand down their verdict in his closely watched hate speech trial, just over three months ahead of crucial parliamentary elections.
Prosecutors are seeking a 5,000-euro ($5,300) fine for the firebrand politician, who faces charges of insulting a racial group and inciting racial hatred after comments he made about Moroccans living in the Netherlands.
Wilders, 53, whose far-right Freedom Party (PVV) is spearheading polls ahead of a crunch vote on March 15, told AFP on Thursday he won’t be present at the high security courthouse near Schiphol airport.
He’ll “issue a video reaction in English and Dutch,” afterwards said Wilders, who is represented by his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops.
Latest polls put the PVV at 34 seats in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, some 10 seats ahead of his nearest rival, Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals.
Amid a string of populist victories in Europe and the November election of Donald Trump as the next US president, the outcome of the Dutch vote will be keenly watched.
Observers say rather than hurting the controversial lawmaker, his trial has boosted his popularity among Dutch voters, worried about the influx of immigrants and driven by eurosceptic sentiments.
The three-week trial of Wilders focused in particular on a statement made at a March 2014 local government election rally in The Hague, when he asked supporters whether they wanted “fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands”.
When the crowd shouted back “Fewer! Fewer!” a smiling Wilders answered: “We’re going to organise that.”
Prosecutors told a three-judge bench they dragged Wilders to court because “racist remarks need to be stopped” after police received 6,400 complaints about his comments.
Such remarks “affect human dignity to the core,” Wouter Bos told the trial, adding “freedom of speech goes hand-in-hand with duties and responsibilities. It’s not an absolute”.
Throughout their case, prosecutors quoted numerous examples of Dutch-Moroccans who said they felt like “third-rate citizens” and that even “children are afraid” because of the politician’s statements.
Wilders boycotted most of the high-profile trial, which he called a “disgrace” as he frequently tweeted his opinions.
On the last day, he finally appeared in the dock and remained unapologetic, saying if he is found guilty “millions of Dutch citizens will be convicted with me”.
The firebrand lawmaker with his trademark peroxide hair said “it is my right and my duty as a politician to speak about the problems in our country”.
Wilders also accused prosecutors and opposition politicians of directing a “parliamentary process” against him ahead of the March polls.
Political observers say whether convicted or acquitted, Wilders will benefit either way by the publicity the trial has generated.
A conviction however means Wilders will get a criminal record which could for example impact his travel plans to the United States, popular daily tabloid Algemeen Dagblad said.
In any case the defence is sure to appeal a conviction, the paper added.
If elected as the lowlands country’s new prime minister, Wilders has vowed to confiscate Korans, close mosques and Islamic schools, shut Dutch borders and ban migrants from Islamic countries among a raft of other anti-Islamic moves.
His views have seen him receive death threats including from terror groups such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda. He is guarded at all times and called the “best protected man in The Netherlands”.

Saturday’s title-deciding MLS Cup final brings together two of Major League Soccer’s best supported and best financed clubs, Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders, each in search of a first ever championship.
Both clubs are playing in their first MLS final but their ‘barren runs’ have been of starkly different character.
Until this season, the Sounders were consistently the bridesmaids while the Canadians simply risked becoming the league’s laughing stock.
Seattle, who average a league-high 42,000 fans at each home game, have made the playoffs in every season since entering the league in 2009 but never made it to the championship game.
In contrast, Toronto, who came into MLS in 2007, failed to make the post-season for eight straight years, breaking that run last season only to be knocked out by Canadian rivals Montreal in the first round, despite investing heavily in some big-money signings.
The club has recently expanded their BMO Field, with a 36,000 capacity for Saturday’s game, and tickets sold out within minutes of going on general sale.
While last year’s final featured two relatively small-market teams with the Portland Timbers beating Columbus Crew, this encounter should generate much higher interest among television viewers.
Toronto coach Greg Vanney played for the LA Galaxy against DC United in MLS’s first ever title game in 1996 and believes this clash is set to be the most impactful in the league’s history.
“This will be the biggest MLS Cup, yet, to date. Obviously, two countries are represented with teams, and two of the major market teams, in terms of fan support, media support, all those kinds of things.
“So I think this’ll be, in terms of coverage and attention ? I think it’ll probably be the biggest MLS Cup that we’ve seen so far,? he said.
Toronto have taken full advantage of MLS’s ‘designated player’ ruling which allows for three players on contracts that mostly do not count against the salary cap.
Diminutive Italian international forward Sebastian Giovinco was brought from Juventus while Americans Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley returned to the league from Europe creating an NBA-style ‘Big Three’.
It has taken time for the investment in that trio to be complemented by a rounded squad but this season has seen the side find the kind of form that made them title contenders from early in the campaign.
Seattle have been without their biggest name, forward Clint Dempsey since August, with the US international having been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.
But in the absence of the former Fulham and Tottenham striker, homegrown youngster Jordan Morris has shined in attack.
Seattle recovered from a poor start to the season which cost their only coach from the MLS-era, Sigi Schmid, his job in late July.
Assistant Brian Schmetzer took over and the club’s form enjoyed a major upturn, significantly helped by the arrival from Boca Juniors of the talented Uruguayan international midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro, who has quickly become one of the most watchable players in the league.
“We haven?t made it easy on ourselves this year but that just makes it sweeter,” said Sounders striker Herculez Gomez, looking back on the disappointing first half of the campaign.
In the often physical contest that MLS games tend to produce, the outcome of the game could well depend on the battle of two shaven-headed enforcers in midfield.
US national team captain Michael Bradley’s form is crucial to Toronto while tough-tackling Cuban Osvaldo Alonso gives some real bite to Seattle’s midfield.

John Glenn, who made history twice as the first American to orbit Earth and the first senior citizen to venture into space, has died at the age of 95.
Glenn became a symbol of strength and the nation’s pioneering spirit, drawing admirers from all walks of life over a long career in the military, then NASA, and the US Senate.
He was chosen along with six other military pilots as part of the “Original Seven,” the very first class of US astronauts in 1959 whose saga was recounted in the classic movie “The Right Stuff.”
The US space agency NASA was among the first to pay tribute to the legendary astronaut who went on to serve as a lawmaker for more than two decades, calling him “a true American hero.”
“Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra,” NASA tweeted, echoing the famous words radioed by fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter to Glenn before he circled the Earth in 1962.
Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, according to Hank Wilson, a spokesman for the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. The cause of death was not immediately announced.
“With John’s passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend,” said President Barack Obama.
“John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond — not just to visit, but to stay,” he said.
The former astronaut and veteran of two wars had been in declining health, undergoing heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014 and reportedly suffering a stroke, and was hospitalized in Columbus more than a week before he died.
“John is one of the best and bravest men I’ve ever known,” said Secretary of State John Kerry as he paid respects to his friend and former colleague in the Senate, calling him “an inspiration.”
“Though he soared deep into space and to the heights of Capitol Hill, his heart never strayed from his steadfast Ohio roots,” said John Kasich, the governor of Glenn’s midwestern home state, in one of a stream of tributes flooding in for the national hero.
President-elect Donald Trump, who happened to be in Columbus when Glenn’s death was announced, paid his own tribute, telling a rally later in Iowa: “He was a giant among men, and a true American legend.”
The first man to orbit Earth was Russia’s Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
On February 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to accomplish the same feat, uttering the memorable phrase: “Zero G and I feel fine.”
Glenn’s flight lasted just under five hours and he circled the Earth three times, as part of NASA’s Mercury project.
Thirty-six years later, on October 29, 1998, he made history again when he returned to space at the age of 77 — becoming the oldest astronaut in space.
It was another shining moment in a career of trailblazing successes spanning decades.
Born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, Glenn joined the US Marine Corps in 1943, becoming a fighter pilot.
He served in the Pacific during World War II, and later in the Korean War, flying a total of 149 combat missions and downing three fighter jets over the Yalu River in the final nine days of fighting.
In 1957 he made the first nonstop supersonic flight from Los Angeles to New York and became an astronaut two years later.
After his 23-year career in the US military and space program ended in 1965, Glenn entered the Senate as a Democrat. He made two unsuccessful tries for the presidential nomination, in 1984 and 1988.
While in the Senate Glenn was politically progressive and kept a relatively low profile. He specialized in the fight against nuclear weapons proliferation and the disposal of nuclear waste.
He flew his own aircraft, a Beechcraft Baron, between the US capital and his home state of Ohio, boasting about his record time of one hour, 36 minutes from Washington to Dayton.
Glenn also kept fit, making his return to space possible.
He regularly passed NASA physicals and pressed the space agency to consider the possibility of sending an older person — such as himself — into space for research, particularly on the effects of weightlessness on the elderly.
In November 2011, then 90 years old, Glenn was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, with three others, the first time the prize was bestowed upon astronauts.
“We came in peace for all mankind,” he said after receiving the honor, before repeating the words he spoke half a century earlier, addressing lawmakers upon returning from his orbital flight.
“As our knowledge of the universe in which we live increases, may God grant us the wisdom and guidance to use it wisely.”
In 2012, Obama awarded Glenn the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
“The last of America’s first astronauts has left us, but propelled by their example we know that our future here on Earth compels us to keep reaching for the heavens,” the president said in his tribute to the late legend.
“On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John Glenn.”

Turmoil in the lower tiers of football in the United States has left one league on the brink of implosion and arguably the most glamorous name in American soccer, the New York Cosmos, facing an uncertain future.
Five years ago, the New York Cosmos announced their rebirth after decades of hibernation with Pele and Eric Cantona heading their delegation for a friendly against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The team, which became an iconic franchise during the 1970s heyday of the North American Soccer League — when the likes of Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto played before enthusiastic crowds of 70,000 — were back.
But fast-forward to 2016, and the ambitions which accompanied the team’s 2011 relaunch have stalled.
A crisis in the North American Soccer League (NASL), US soccer’s second tier, has prompted the Cosmos ownership to terminate the contracts of its players. While Cosmos sources insist the franchise is still in business, with no players and no stadium, it remains a club in name only.
The uncertainty shrouding the Cosmos is a direct consequence of the problems engulfing the NASL.
The league, which had once entertained hopes of becoming a viable alternative to Major League Soccer, is fighting for survival. Many teams are bleeding money, others have defected.
Minnesota United is joining Major League Soccer, while the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Ottawa Fury are heading to the United Soccer League, the third tier of US football which has close links to MLS.
Other NASL teams such as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, are in financial trouble. Rayo Oklahoma City have released their players.
“Bottom line is, the league’s collapsed,” a senior official with an NASL club told AFP on condition of anonymity this week.
The crisis forced the Cosmos, which remains the strongest brand in club football in the United States despite their status outside Major League Soccer, to furlough its playing staff.
“We can’t play in a league of seven teams. Doesn’t make any sense for us at all,” a Cosmos source told AFP. “We’re not going out of business. But we can’t play in a seven-team league. So if we can’t play in a seven-team league, we don’t need players on the payroll.”
“It’s a strategic decision we’ve taken because we can see that the league doesn’t work anymore.”
An NASL spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
Kartik Krishnaiyer, the former NASL director of communications who now writes about football, believes the league has faltered by trying to do much too soon.
“You have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run,” Krishnaiyer told AFP. “The clubs in the league have not been terribly relevant locally.
“They’ve been interested in making a big splash and getting international attention, operating at a very high level without having fundamentals in place.
“There’s been a culture of overspending on players and technical staff across the league … I think if the league hasn’t collapsed it probably has one more year if it doesn’t fix its structural problems.”
The USL meanwhile is pushing to be reclassified as a Division Two league by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), a distinction which is essentially meaningless as there is no system of promotion and relegation in US soccer.
A meeting of the USSF’s board of directors ended on Tuesday with no decision about whether to reclassify the status of the USL and NASL.
While some reports described the delay in a USSF decision as representing a lifeline to the NASL, the FiftyFive.One blog reported on Thursday that a deal to make the USL the sole second division league was “99 percent complete.”
Delaying a decision on Tuesday was a tactical move designed to allow NASL clubs interested in moving to the USL more time to finalize deals, FiftyFive.One reported.
The confusion embroiling the lower leagues leaves the Cosmos struggling to find a harbor that makes sense for a team with its rich history and aspirations.
Club officials say playing in a league regarded as the third tier of US soccer is not an option, neither is playing in the USL, where many opponents would be the reserve teams of Major League Soccer sides.
Could the Cosmos eventually end up in the MLS? With two New York clubs already in the Big Apple — New York City FC and New York Red Bulls — it is debatable whether there is room for a third.
Krishnaiyer believes the Cosmos could possibly end up in the MLS but questioned whether it would happen under the club’s current foreign-based ownership, which has previously rejected the MLS’s business model and terms of entry in order to retain control of the club.
“I think it’s certainly possible. Every single American investor that invests in a soccer club wants to be in the MLS at some point,” Krishnaiyer said.
“Whether they’re investing in a USL team or an NASL team, ultimately they want to be in the MLS … The Cosmos with the goal of being in MLS, if that’s their goal, would have to figure out a place to play.
“But I think they need a different set of investors. The important lesson from NASL is that teams have to be relevant to local markets.”

Jerry Kelly and Steve Stricker got off to a rousing start at the Franklin Templeton Shootout, firing an opening round 16-under 56 for a one-stroke lead in Naples, Florida.
The former winners of the event have a slight lead over fellow Americans Harris English and Matt Kuchar at the Tiburon Golf Club course.
Kelly and Stricker combined to shoot one eagle, 14 birdies and three pars in the first round scramble format as they finished just one stroke shy of matching the event’s 18 hole scoring record which has been set four times.
The teams will play modified alternate shot Friday and close with better ball on Saturday.
Kelly and Stricker are playing together for the record eighth time. They won in 2009, and Kelly also won with Rod Pampling 10 years ago.
Harris and Rio Olympics bronze medallist Kuchar won in their first start together in 2013 and were runners up the last two years.
Charles Howell and South African Rory Sabbatini were third at 59, and defending champions Brandt Snedeker and Jason Dufner shot a 60 with Kevin Chappell-Kevin Kisner and England’s Luke Donald-Russell Knox of Scotland.
Lexi Thompson, a seven time winner on the LPGA Tour, became just the second woman to compete in the event after Annika Sorenstam in 2006.
The 21-year-old Thompson played brilliantly, finishing with an eagle on No. 18. She and her playing partner Bryson DeChambeau, 22, were in eighth after a 62.

Unai Emery is once again a coach under pressure as his Paris Saint-Germain side prepare to face Nice on Sunday looking to close the gap on the surprise Ligue 1 leaders.
A 12-game unbeaten run had appeared the perfect response to early-season criticism of Emery at PSG, but in the last week the Spaniard has seen his side humbled 3-0 by Montpellier and then left to scramble a 2-2 draw with Ludogorets in the Champions League.
After two such worrying performances, it is debatable whether Emery could even survive a defeat at home to Nice, which would leave the defending champions seven points adrift of the southern upstarts with the season’s halfway stage approaching.
“It is a difficult spell, but we will show a reaction on Sunday in what is a huge match for us,” insisted midfielder Blaise Matuidi, just about the only PSG player deserving of pass marks against Ludogorets.
PSG needed a late Angel di Maria equaliser to avoid defeat at home to the Bulgarians after a lacklustre display but the result meant they finished second in Champions League Group A to Arsenal.
“This disappointment must give us the desire to lift our hands and show a different face in the last 16. We must improve, and that starts on Sunday against Nice,” said Emery in his still stumbling French.
PSG have Adrien Rabiot and Javier Pastore on the sidelines while Di Maria is in wretched form, so they may look to Hatem Ben Arfa for creative inspiration against the club for whom he starred last season.
Without him, the side from the Cote d’Azur — with a reported budget less than a tenth of PSG’s — have gone from strength to strength this season under Lucien Favre and they have topped the table since mid-September.
They have only lost once in the league all season and impressed in beating Toulouse 3-0 last weekend to hold a three-point lead over Monaco and a four-point advantage over the capital giants.
Mario Balotelli is in line to feature after making his comeback from a month on the sidelines with a calf injury in Thursday’s Europa League meeting with Russian outfit Krasnodar.
Monaco travel to Bordeaux on Saturday knowing a win would take them provisionally top of the table, above Nice on goal difference.
Leonardo Jardim’s prolific side are still running at an average of more than three goals per game and were able to rest key players for Wednesday’s Champions League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in Germany having already qualified for the last 16 as group winners.
They are targeting the symbolic title of topping the table at the year’s end and striker Valere Germain said: “It would be nice to be autumn champions and we will give everything in the final matches of the year to do that.”
Lyon will aim to bounce back from the disappointment of being eliminated from the Champions League after failing to get the better of Sevilla as they host Rennes.
Rennes are fourth but have struggled away from home this season and Lyon can leapfrog them with a win.
Bruno Genesio’s men also have a game in hand after their match at Metz last weekend was abandoned when firecrackers were thrown at OL goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, leaving him with “acoustic trauma” but no lasting damage.
Nantes, who are in the relegation zone, will have new coach Sergio Conceicao watching from the stands when they host Caen on Saturday.
Conceicao, the 42-year-old former Portugal winger, was in charge of Vitoria Guimaraes last season.
Fixtures (kick-offs 1900 GMT unless stated)
Friday
Dijon v Marseille (1945 GMT)
Saturday
Bordeaux v Monaco (1600 GMT), Bastia v Metz, Lille v Montpellier, Nancy v Angers, Nantes v Caen, Toulouse v Lorient
Sunday
Lyon v Rennes (1400 GMT), Saint-Etienne v Guingamp (1600 GMT), Paris Saint-Germain v Nice (1945 GMT)

World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua fights Eric Molina on Saturday, but all the talk this week has been about who the Briton could fight next.
Joshua’s second defence of his IBF world crown might not be generating as much excitement and anticipation as his previous fights, but much is on the line.
Should he prevail, Joshua will be set to face former world champion Wladimir Klitschko in a 2017 mega-fight and he must therefore ensure nothing upsets those plans against American Molina.
“I will make Eric look like a novice,” said Joshua, who has knocked out all 17 of his professional opponents, at a press conference in Manchester on Thursday.
“It’s a breaking-down job. This is boxing, this is science. It’s about being clever, so I’m going to go later on in the rounds breaking him down.
“If I get past Eric, it’s only going to get tougher. I’m the guy that should beat Klitschko, so I have to make sure I perform like the guy who should beat Klitschko.”
Klitschko, who reigned for over nine years until he lost on points to Briton Tyson Fury a year ago, will be an interested observer when Joshua gets into the ring at the Manchester Arena.
The Ukrainian powerhouse, who turns 41 in March, has been lined up to meet Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London on April 29.
Molina, 34, is attempting to pull off a big shock and scoffed at Joshua’s promise to make him look like a beginner.
“You have to make me look like a novice,” Molina said to Joshua. “If you slip up once, you will be dancing. All of Britain will be very surprised.
“Joshua’s not even the best heavyweight in the division. (Deontay) Wilder is the hardest puncher in the division.”
It is Molina’s second world heavyweight title fight, after he gave WBC champion Wilder a scare early on before being knocked out in the ninth round last year.
That was the Texan’s third professional defeat, but Joshua is respectful of Molina’s power, with 19 of his 25 wins being stoppages.
“He’s looking for that one-shot knockout and anyone who is 17 or 18 stone (108 kilogrammes/238 pounds or 114kg/252lbs), that is possible,” said the 2012 Olympic gold medallist.
“He’s said he has spotted three or four weakness in me, but I’ve seen 10 or 13 weaknesses in him and it’s first come, first served.
“It’s first to the punch and I’m ready for a 12-round fight because he’s dangerous.”
Joshua, 27, has hardly put a foot wrong in his professional career, aside from one brief moment of concern against compatriot Dillian Whyte a year ago.
Molina was drafted in as a replacement opponent for Joshua less than six weeks ago after Klitschko opted to wait until next year to box again.
The Mexican-American made an inauspicious start to his career — he was knocked out in the first round of his professional debut in 2007 — but stopped two-weight world champion Tomasz Adamek in his last fight.
Molina has taken a break from his job of teaching disabled children, after attaining a masters degree in special education four years ago, and win or lose against Joshua, he plans on returning to the day job.
“He’s going to have the toughest fight of his career -? that’s a guarantee,” Molina said.
“This is the heavyweight division. What makes it so exciting is that any one punch can change the fight and I bring that to the table.”

TV star Sofia Vergara is facing a bizarre lawsuit brought on behalf of two frozen embryos she created with an ex-boyfriend, the subject of a year-long legal battle.
The embryos are listed as plaintiffs “Emma” and “Isabella” in papers filed with a Louisiana court, the New York Post reported. Louisiana is a pro-life state where embryos are given rights as people.
The surprise filing by a trust apparently established for the embryos comes as Vergara’s ex-fiancee Nick Loeb this week sought to end another lawsuit he had filed against her.
In that suit, the businessman had tried to gain custody of the two fertilized eggs he and Vergara created via in-vitro fertilization with the aim of bringing them to term.
According to the new lawsuit, not allowing the embryos — currently frozen at a California fertility clinic — to be born is depriving them of their inheritance.
The Colombian-born actress has said she wants to keep the embryos frozen indefinitely.
“A woman is entitled to bring a pregnancy to term even if the man objects,” Loeb wrote in April in a New York Times op-ed. “Shouldn’t a man who is willing to take on all parental responsibilities be similarly entitled to bring his embryos to term even if the woman objects?”
But the 42-year-old “Modern Family” star insisted last year that she’s “doing the right thing” by refusing to sign over custody of the embryos to Loeb.
“Can you blame me?” she said on the “Howard Stern Show.”
A child brought into the world needs “more than a mother, it needs a loving relationship of parents,” she added.
Loeb, 39, signed an agreement with Vergara — America’s top-earning TV star — in November 2013 before they proceeded with IVF, stipulating that nothing would be done with the embryos unless both agreed.
However, Loeb sued the actress for custody after their breakup, saying the agreement did not clearly state what would become of the embryos if he and Vergara were to split.
The latest lawsuit on behalf of the embryos is unusual and a “longshot,” legal experts told The Daily Beast, but had a “very real chance at some kind of success” thanks to Louisiana’s pro-life laws.

South Africa’s sevens team, the Blitzboks, handed the rugby-mad country just the boost they wanted by winning the season-opening Dubai leg of the Sevens World Series after a disastrous year for the Springbok XV.
Allister Coetzee saw the ‘Boks lose eight Tests in 2016, the most they had ever suffered in a calendar year, with the season yielding just four wins from 12 full internationals.
The season also featured a record home defeat by New Zealand and an embarrassing first-ever loss to Italy.
But the sevens team brought a breath of fresh air back to South Africa, last week beating Olympic champions Fiji 26-14 to claim the Dubai crown.
Now eyes will turn to Cape Town, where the Blitzboks will be defending champions and the two-day event starting Saturday is, encouragingly for South African rugby administrators, a sell-out.
“South Africa were determined and courageous, and made one or two tackles that other teams might not have made,” said Joel Stransky, a member of South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup-winning side, of their performance in Dubai.
“The Blitzboks had that real look of true grit about them in Dubai and they looked ‘properly up for it’.
“And for all of us South African rugby fans, after a disappointing 15s season, it is just the tonic we needed!”
Stransky added: “Our media is still very much filled with uncertainty around the Springboks and Allister Coetzee, the sentiment in the weekend newspapers was very negative so for the Blitzboks to come out and play so well in Dubai was inspiring to all South Africans and sports lovers.
“It was the lift that South African rugby needs at the moment and I think that will add to the whole fan experience of the Cape Town Sevens. Fans are tired of watching the Springboks lose ? they want to be upbeat, to be inspired and to support a winning team.”
Blitzbok coach Neil Powell was quick, however, to warn against complacency.
“We can’t come into this tournament and think we can just start where we left in Dubai,” said Powell, who was a player when South Africa last won the sevens series, in 2008-9.
“We need to start all over again. That will be the theme this week in our preparation, getting mentally prepared for Cape Town again. We have a really tough pool with USA, Australia and Russia so I think we are going to need a big mental shift.”
Fiji head up Pool B with France, Kenya and Japan.
“We quietly feel disappointed deep inside as we didn’t complete the job last week in Dubai in that final against South Africa so we are hungry just to go out there,” said Fiji’s Naca Cawanibuka.
“We will look at ourselves first and how we want to prepare and make sure that we put our best foot forward and be the best version of ourselves as we try and attack this last tournament and finish 2016 on a high note.”
After an impressive performance in round one, Simon Amor’s England top a tough Pool C which also features New Zealand, Argentina and Canada.
Pool D contains Wales, Scotland, Samoa and invitational team Uganda.

Reported Manchester United target Andrea Belotti could star when Torino host depleted city rivals Juventus who are looking to secure the spoils from a city derby attracting particular interest from Roma and AC Milan.
With 10 goals in 13 appearances in only his second season in Serie A, Belotti — who celebrates his goals by mimicking a rooster’s comb with an open hand to his forehead — has emerged as the most exciting home-grown striker in years.
So much so that Torino president Urban Cairo, amid reports of interest from United manager Jose Mourinho, added a 100m euros buyout clause when he tied the 22-year-old front man to a new deal until 2021 in midweek.
“I will repay the club’s faith in me by giving my everything in every training session and every game,” Belotti said as a way of thanks.
It should buy Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic time to ward off potential suitors although Belotti’s stock is sure to rise if he produces another trademark performance against a Juve side that has shown chinks in its armour of late.
Juventus make the short trip to the Stadio Olimpico with a four-point lead on both Roma and AC Milan although the cushion would have been more comfortable had the champions not suffered a stunning 3-1 defeat to Genoa a fortnight ago.
Massimiliano Allegri’s men have made amends, a 3-1 home win over Atalanta preceding a 2-0 Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb in midweek that secured top spot in Group H and a place in the last 16.
But injuries and stuttering form continue to compound Juve’s chances of pulling away from the chasing pack before Christmas.
Remarkably, the Old Lady were without the three-man ‘BBC’ defence of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini on Wednesday.
While Barzagli and Bonucci are out till the New Year, Chiellini is expected to return for Sunday to marshall a makeshift defence that will be under the orders of captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
Buffon, sporting a slick new moustache and goatee beard, was rested for the win over Zagreb but is expected to take the gloves back from Norbert Neto.
While Juve fans will be hoping for Paulo Dybala to start after he made his return from a six-week injury lay-off in the final 10 minutes on Wednesday, Allegri hinted the Argentine will start on the bench.
“He only has 15 minutes in his legs but he showed straight away that he’s on form,” said Allegri.
“But let’s see whether he’s fit enough to start against Torino.”
Thankfully for Allegri, fellow forward Gonzalo Higuain ended his six-week goal drought by hitting the opener on Wednesday, but the Argentine who hit a record 36 league goals for Napoli last season is not on top form.
Juventus won both fixtures last season, following their 2-1 win at home with a 4-1 romp at Torino, Belotti scoring the only goal for the hosts.
But Allegri will be mindful of the 2-1 defeat to Torino in April 2015 which ended the Granata’s 20-year wait to beat their richer, more powerful city rivals.
Serie A chiefs, meanwhile, couldn’t have planned a better bookend to this weekend’s action if they had tried.
Both Roma and AC Milan are four points behind Juve in second and third places and face each other at the Stadio Olimpico on Monday, owing to their respective action in the Europa League.
Elsewhere, Napoli, eight points in arrears, travel to Cagliari looking to make it three successive wins after following a 3-0 romp over Inter Milan with a 2-1 Champions League win over Benfica that secured top spot in Group B.
Fixtures
Saturday
Crotone v Pescara (1700 GMT), Sampdoria v Lazio (1945 GMT)
Sunday
Cagliari v Napoli (1130 GMT), Atalanta v Udinese (1400 GMT), Bologna v Empoli (1400 GMT), Palermo v Chievo (1400 GMT), Torino v Juventus (1400 GMT), Inter Milan v Genoa (1945 GMT)
Monday
Fiorentina v Sassuolo (1800 GMT), Roma v AC Milan (2000 GMT)

Real Madrid can set a club record by extending their unbeaten run to 35 games when Deportivo la Coruna visit the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.
Deportivo’s last visit to Real was Zinedine Zidane’s first match in charge back in January and the 5-0 thrashing of the Galicians was a sign of things to come in a dream debut year for the Frenchman as a senior coach.
Madrid haven’t tasted defeat since April, winning the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and opening up a six-point La Liga lead over Barcelona in the process.
“You have to congratulate the players,” insisted Zidane humbly after Madrid had to settle for qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League in second place behind Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
“They are the ones that are on the pitch, that have to fight and run.”
Los Blancos will be looking for the perfect end to their La Liga campaign for 2016 as they head for the Club World Cup in Japan on Sunday.
However, Deportivo have also been buoyed by a surprise 5-1 romp over high-flying Real Sociedad on Monday to register a first league win since early October and move out of the relegation zone in the process.
“I am always optimistic and I am going there with the hope of getting something from the game,” said Deportivo boss Gaizka Garitano.
“We are in the more desperate situation and we are not going to the Bernabeu just to make up the numbers.”
Madrid are at full strength bar the absence of Gareth Bale.
Toni Kroos and Alvaro Morata made their return from injury in the 2-2 with Dortmund in midweek and are likely to feature once more, whilst Mateo Kovacic could be recalled after being rested on Wednesday.
Barcelona can cut the gap to three points before Madrid kick-off with victory at rock bottom Osasuna earlier on Saturday.
After the blow of conceding a last minute equaliser to Madrid in last weekend’s El Clasico, Barca got back to winning ways with a morale boosting 4-0 thrashing of Borussia Moenchengladbach on Tuesday.
Crucially the returning Andres Iniesta has starred in his first two appearances after a six-week injury layoff over the past week.
With their captain restored, the Catalans looked like the Barca of old by registering a competition record 993 passes against the Germans in midweek.
“The most important thing is that the team continues to believe in what it does and how it does it,” said Iniesta.
“I am convinced we will get to the final months of the season in the hunt for all the trophies.”
Neymar is suspended so Arda Turan is expected to deputise alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in attack after netting a hat-trick against Moenchengladbach.
Sevilla were the one Spanish side not assured of their place in the Champions League last 16 before this week, but ground out a 0-0 draw at Lyon to progress.
However, struggles on the road have been a common theme for Jorge Sampaoli’s men as despite lying third in La Liga, seven points adrift of Real, they have won just four of their 12 away games this season.
The Europa League holders will be keen to make amends for a shock 2-1 defeat at Granada last weekend and maintain a two-point lead over Atletico Madrid when they travel to Celta Vigo on Sunday.
Atletico aren’t in action until Monday when they visit sixth-placed Villarreal in a crucial clash in the fight to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Fixtures (all times GMT)
Friday
Malaga v Granada (1945)
Saturday
Osasuna v Barcelona (1200), Real Sociedad v Valencia (1515), Las Palmas v Leganes (1730), Real Madrid v Deportivo la Coruna (1945)
Sunday
Eibar v Alaves (1100), Celta Vigo v Sevilla (1515), Espanyol v Sporting Gijon (1730), Real Betis v Athletic Bilbao (1945)
Monday
Villarreal v Atletico Madrid (1945)

Jokes about Maurizio Zamparini’s notoriously twitchy trigger finger abound, but the prospect of relegation for Palermo has switched the focus on the Serie A club owner’s penchant for sacking coaches.
Barely 15 games into the season Palermo are on their third coach after Zamparini appointed Eugenio Corini last week to replace Roberto De Zerbi, who succeeded Davide Ballardini only two weeks into the campaign.
Zamparini, a 75-year-old businessman from Udine, is so notorious in Italy that Twitter pranksters quipped this week he was to blame for the downfall of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who resigned following a referendum vote.
They posted a picture of a serious-looking Zamparini with the message: “It’s not true that Renzi resigned. Zamparini sacked him.”
For the man who was so unhappy with his team in 2003 he threatened to castrate the players and use their testicles as toppings in his salad, even sacking Renzi is beyond his reach.
But 13 years on from that threat, Palermo, a club that developed stars like Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Javier Pastore (Paris Saint Germain) and Paulo Dybala (Juventus), are no closer to lifting a trophy.
In 2011 a Palermo side led by Delio Rossi beat Parma and AC Milan on their way to the Italian Cup final at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, where an estimated 40,000-50,000 Sicilians travelled from all over Italy to see holders Inter Milan win 3-1.
Amazingly, their Cup run saw Zamparini sack Rossi following a 7-0 rout by Udinese in February, only to recall him a month later when his successor, Serse Cosmi, lost the Sicilian derby against Catania.
Months before then, Zamparini had even blasted Rossi for having “no balls” after a 1-1 draw with 10-man Bari.
Corini, hopefully, has read the small print in his contract.
By rough estimates he is the 36th appointment to be made since Zamparini took control in 2002, a tally which includes the coaches, such as Francesco Guidolin (four), Ballardini (three) and Giuseppe Iachini (two), who took the helm, were sacked and returned for more punishment.
Although Palermo registered a new club record of seven consecutive league defeats under De Zerbi, he was sacked following defeat on penalties to Serie B side La Spezia in the fourth round of the Italian Cup.
“I was forced to sack De Zerbi,” Zamparini told Naples-based Radio Kiss Kiss the day after La Spezia set up a juicy last 16 tie with Napoli.
“I’d sent him a message saying not to worry about the (upcoming) Fiorentina game, and to focus on rediscovering the team. Instead, he played the reserves.”
De Zerbi, according to reports, is now attempting to sue Zamparini for refusing to honour the pledge of a sizeable pay-off in the event of his sacking.
But Zamparini, who once labelled English clubs “pirates” for allegedly pillaging young players before they had a chance to sign professional contracts, retaliated in clinical fashion.
“I’m sure he did it to get sacked,” Zamparini said of De Zerbi’s team selection for Palermo’s doomed Cup tie.
“So I will seek termination of his contract for gross misconduct.”
Corini, a former Palermo captain who helped the Sicilians to the Serie B title in 2004, was hired thanks to him helping turn Chievo’s fortunes around in one of his first coaching spells, although Zamparini admitted only he and Ballardini were “on the market”.
The 46-year-old Corini was seconds away from beginning his spell in charge by ending Palermo’s streak of defeats, until Fiorentina striker Khouma Babacar headed a last-gasp goal to secure a 2-1 win on Monday.
Palermo host Chievo on Sunday, but on the day of his appointment Corini, unsurprisingly, admitted his six-month deal is purely performance-related.
“I have a contract until the end of the season, and I will only have an extension if we survive (relegation),” he said. “I wouldn?t have it any other way.”

Bottom faces top on Saturday when basement dwellers Ingolstadt host unbeaten Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig, who are chasing an eight straight win to keep Bayern Munich off the top.
RB Leipzig’s coach Ralph Hassenhuettl returns to Ingolstadt, who he left in May having taken them from the bottom of the second division to Germany’s top flight in his three seasons.
Ingolstadt, who have slipped down to 18th in the table after their 2-1 defeat at Werder Bremen, have yet to win a match at home this season.
Leipzig, meanwhile, have the best away record in the Bundesligawith five wins and two draws.
RB are the surprise package this season and have now been top of the table since Bayern’s 1-0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund a fortnight ago.
Timo Werner, the club’s top scorer with eight goals, has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons this week.
After being awarded a penalty just 19 seconds into last Saturday’s 2-1 win at home to Schalke, replays showed Werner dived.
Second-placed Bayern Munich host VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday in a repeat of the match which broke four Bundesliga records last season when Robert Lewandowski scored five goals in nine minutes.
Bayern’s Germany forward Thomas Mueller is without a Bundesliga goal is his 12 games so far, while Lewandowski has been regularly hitting the net.
The Poland hot-shot netted twice in last Friday’s 3-1 win at Mainz before drilling in the winning goal in Tuesday’s 1-0 home win against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Wolfsburg are struggling with just two wins this season to leave them just two points from the relegation zone and their Germany forwards Julian Draxler and Mario Gomez have failed to gel.
They have picked up just four league points since Valerien Ismael replaced Dieter Hecking as head coach in October.
Cologne host a Borussia Dortmund side buoyed by their 4-1 romp at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach last Saturday and Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Real Madrid.
Both Cologne and Dortmund are just outside the Bundesliga’s top five.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted twice to leave him as the league’s top scorer with 15 goals so far, while Cologne crashed to a 4-0 drubbing at Hoffenheim last weekend.
The match pits the league’s top strikers against each other with Anthony Modeste having hit 12 goals in 13 league games.
Both Aubameyang and Marco Reus are in form as the pair both scored at Real.
Andre Schubert is in danger of becoming the sixth Bundesliga coach fired this season and his Borussia Moenchengladbach badly need a win at Mainz on Sunday.
Gladbach are winless in their last eight games following Tuesday’s 4-0 trashing at Barcelona.
Schubert’s side are currently 13th, five points from the relegation places, and their last league win was in late September.
Director of sport Max Eberl says Gladbach’s next three Bundesliga games, against bottom-half clubs Mainz, Augsburg and Wolfsburg are crucial.
Fourth-placed Hoffenheim, who along with Leipzig are the league’s only unbeaten teams, are at Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday with both sides on 25 points.
Under Julian Nagelsmann, the youngest coach in Bundesliga history at 29, are one of the league’s surprise packages this season.
Frankfurt, fifth, are gaining momentum and are unbeaten in their last eight games, triggered by a 2-2 draw at home to Bayern and earned a 2-1 win over Dortmund a fortnight ago.
Fixtures (all times 1430 GMT unless stated)
E. Frankfurt v Hoffenheim (2030)
Saturday
Bayern v Wolfsburg, Cologne v Borussia Dortmund, Hamburg v Augsburg, Ingolstadt v RB Leipzig, Freiburg v Darmstadt, Hertha Berlin v Werder Bremen (1730)
Sunday
Borussia Moenchengladbach v Mainz, Schalke v Bayer Leverkusen (1630)

Manchester City forward Nolito admits he has been happy with Pep Guardiola?s rotation policy as he eyes a return to the team to face Leicester City.
Guardiola?s side face the defending champions at the King Power Stadium with the City manager forced to make at least one enforced change to his starting line-up.
Argentina striker Sergio Aguero, who was shown a red card for a reckless challenge on Chelsea?s David Luiz last time out, is set to miss four matches through suspension.
Nolito is eager to start ahead of striker Kelechi Iheanacho but revealed that even if he is left on the bench he will accept Guardiola?s decision.
“Coming to a team like this I knew how difficult it would be to play in such a competitive team, with very good players,” said Spain international Nolito.
“The manager is rotating — sometimes he plays one player, another time he?ll play another — and honestly, right now, I?m very happy.
“From a selfish standpoint, of course I would like to play in every game but in the end, all the Premier League and Champions League matches are demanding, very physical, and the coach is doing well to rotate the squad.
“The manager is the one who decides and I?ll be ready for him when he needs me.”
Guardiola remains optimistic that Raheem Sterling will be fit for Saturday’s trip to the East Midlands to face Claudio Ranieri?s side.
The England winger has missed City’s last two matches with a knee problem and Leroy Sane has deputised in the absence.
“He’s much better. He was not ready for the Champions League game against Celtic,” Guardiola said. “Hopefully he will be ready for Leicester.”
Leicester return to Premier League action on the back of Wednesday?s 5-0 humiliation in the Champions League at the hands of Porto.
The Foxes sit just two points outside the relegation zone and Ranieri is expected to revert to his regular domestic line-up after making 10 changes in Portugal and accusing his second-string side of shaming the club.
Fans applauded the players when they arrived back at the airport from Oporto but Leicester manager Ranieri was far from impressed.
“For me it was a shame, believe me,” said the Italian. “Our fans are happy when they see the players are fighting.
“They clapped us at the airport because they thought ‘we are top of the group’ but I was very sad because it was a shame, a big shame.
“Not for five goals, because last season we conceded five goals when we lost here 5-2 against Arsenal, but we created a lot of chances.
“I want players to play for the team, to be strong, to fight and to be competitive — I want no more. If you lose this how can you win?
“Not even the big players can win without fight. That is football.
“Last season we won because some big teams didn’t fight as well as us and now we want that back, not to win the title but to defend the title and not be in the relegation zone.
“I forgot from the beginning of the season what happened before but now it?s important that the players forgot what they did. It?s finished. This is a new era.”
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel could return to face his former club, although Tuesday’s trip to Bournemouth was a more likely return date.
The Denmark international has missed Leicester?s last six games with a fractured hand.

Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil will spearhead Arsenal’s attack against Stoke City on Saturday as their ongoing contract talks continue to dominate the club’s off-pitch agenda.
The decisive duo will both be out of contract in 2018 as things stand, prompting fears they could leave the club.
Arsene Wenger has vowed they will not be sold prior to the end of their contracts, but was unable to give fans any assurances about their futures at the Emirates Stadium.
“They have 18 months left on their contract and they are completely committed to do well as long as they are here,” said the Frenchman, whose side trail Premier League leaders Chelsea by three points.
“Beyond that, we’ll try to extend their contracts, but I cannot make that the subject in every press conference because it’s a normal part of every renewal when you renegotiate.
“The less you talk about it, the better it is.”
Sanchez, 27, and Ozil, 28, have been in sparkling form of late as Arsenal have climbed to second place in the league table and secured a place in the Champions League last 16 as group winners.
Wenger added: “These players have 18 months left. They will stay for 18 months and hopefully much longer.
“They’ve been hugely important. You can talk a lot, but the most important thing is what they do on the pitch.
“Their commitment is absolutely total. The first quality of a professional guy is to give 100 percent. It’s here and now, that’s what it means to be professional.”
Arsenal v Stoke has been regarded as a hostile fixture ever since Potters captain Ryan Shawcross broke the leg of Aaron Ramsey in 2010.
Wenger appeared to upset opposite number Mark Hughes when he described his side’s 0-0 draw at Stoke in January as “an old-fashioned Stoke battle”.
Addressing the Welshman’s reservations, which concerned Wenger’s comments about the physical nature of the game, the Arsenal manager said on Thursday: “What is wrong with an old-fashioned battle?
“When you have complete commitment, that makes the English Premier League special. In my mind it was not negative at all.”
Stoke head for north London in excellent form, having lost just once in their last nine games following a poor start to the season.
They have maintained their momentum despite a change in formation that has consigned close-season signing Joe Allen, their stand-out player of the season’s early weeks, to a place on the bench.
The Wales midfielder has paid a heavy price for being suspended, which moved Hughes to devise a 3-4-3 system in which Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic have licence to roam alongside centre-forward Jonathan Walters.
“You’re more free,” said Switzerland international Shaqiri of the new set-up. “You can stay more in the middle and you can go outside. I like it.
“I think at the moment the whole team is playing well and when you’re performing well and picking up results, you don’t need to change the system.
“When you have more freedom, you can change positions and I can link up with Marko. Also defensively we have a very compact team and that’s very important.”
Stoke have a dismal record at the Emirates Stadium, having lost all eight of their games there since winning promotion in 2008, but they will not lack confidence to take on Wenger’s title-chasing side.
“We are in a very good way to have a good season and we have to keep our run going,” Shaqiri said.
“This weekend we have a difficult game in London against Arsenal, but we go there to achieve something and we know the quality to win every game. We go there trying to take three points, of course.”

South Africa’s Chad le Clos set a 100m butterfly world record of 48.08sec on Thursday in winning gold at the Short Course Swimming World Championships in Windsor, Canada.
Le Clos led at the 50m mark and powered home to improve his own world record of 48.44, set at the previous edition of the championships at Doha in 2014.
American Tom Shields was second in 49.04 and Australian David Morgan third in 49.31.

A Robin Hood-like figure triggered the momentum that has taken South African side Mamelodi Sundowns to a maiden FIFA Club World Cup appearance in Japan this weekend.
The Pretoria club tackle host-nation representatives Kashima Antlers Sunday with a semi-final date against Colombian outfit Atletico Nacional at stake.
Sundowns secured a place at the annual competition for continental champions by beating Zamalek of Egypt to win the CAF Champions League a first time.
But the seeds for the African success were planted three decades ago when Zola Mahobe bought an unknown, unsuccessful club based in Pretoria township Mamelodi.
Although then a man of modest means, he was determined to shake up a South African football scene dominated by Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.
Suddenly, money was no object as he lured stars to Sundowns, rewarding them with above-average salaries and German sedans.
He rebelled against a trend of hiring white coaches by wooing former Pirates star Stanley ‘Screamer Tshabalala’ from an unfashionable club.
Sundowns became renowned for “shoeshine and piano” football, a possession-based style modelled on international giants Brazil.
Mahobe was rewarded for an investment running into millions of dollars with league and cup trophies until the source of his wealth was exposed.
With the help of his lover, Snowy Moshoeshoe, had been defrauding a major bank for several years to fund Sundowns before being caught.
Moshoeshoe was jailed while Mahobe fled to neighbouring Botswana, where he was arrested nearly a year later, brought back to South Africa and jailed.
Both were freed well before their sentences ended.
When Mahobe died three years ago, many South Africans likened him to Robin Hood, an English outlaw during the middle ages who robbed the rich and gave to the poor.
His contribution to the rise of Sundowns was acknowledged by club owner and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, a dollar billionaire.
“We will be eternally grateful to Zola,” he said, “because he laid the foundations for the developement and success of Sundowns.”
Motsepe, who bought the club in 2003, and a more recent arrival, coach Pitso Mosimane, are credited with taking Sundowns to the next level.
“We hired big-name coaches from all over the world, but it took a South African, Pitso, to bring us the CAF Champions League,” said Motsepe.
Sundowns boast the strongest squad among the 16 South African top-flight clubs and it has a strong international flavour.
Ugandan Dennis Onyango and Zambia 2012 Africa Cup of Nations winner Kennedy Mweene are among three goalkeepers in the 23-man Club World Cup squad.
The nine defenders include Ivorian Bangaly Soumahoro and Brazilian Ricardo Nascimento, and Liberian Anthony Laffor was among seven midfielders chosen.
Zimbabwean Khama Billiat and Colombian Leonardo Castro are two of the four strikers.
But it is a South African attacker, Percy Tau, who has drawn the most praise lately from the hard-to-please Mosimane.
“Percy has been unbelievable, he is growing from strength to strength. My main worry about him was a lack of goals and now he has scored three in three games.”
Tau began this year as a second-division footballer, but quickly established himself as a quick, skilful creator and taker of scoring opportunities when promoted.
The starting line-up against Kashima is likely to include nine second-leg starters against Zamalek, a match Sundowns lost 1-0 in October after building a three-goal advantage at home.
Then suspended centre-back Wayne Arendse should replace Soumahoro and Thapelo Morena is likely to get the nod at right-back over Asavela Mbekile.
Mosimane has dismissed media talk of Sundowns qualifying for the final against title favourites Real Madrid of Spain.
“Our aim is to finish third,” he stressed. “We set out to win every game, but there has to be an element of realism when setting goals.”
Mosimane expects Kashima to be a typical Japanese side — hard working with excellent technique.
“Japanese development programmes are much better than those in South Africa. They have invested a lot of money.
“We feel like students entering a new class — excited and eager to learn. We have nothing to lose, we aim to enjoy ourselves while giving our best.”

Antonio Conte’s Chelsea juggernaut rolls back into action against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday with the Premier League leaders chasing a ninth consecutive win.
Chelsea produced the most impressive display of their winning streak last weekend when they came from behind to win 3-1 at Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
They have not won nine successive league games within the same season since 2007 and ahead of West Brom’s visit, Marcos Alonso has urged his team-mates not to let their level drop.
“Winning game after game gives you confidence, but you have to keep working,” the Spanish wing-back told the Chelsea website.
“The results give you confidence to work in this way, though. We have got to use this momentum of the last eight league games and go on to have another good game against West Brom now.”
While most of Chelsea’s title rivals have been in European action this week, Conte’s side have once again had a full week to prepare for the visit of Tony Pulis’s side.
It is 32 years since West Brom last won at Chelsea, but they have drawn on two of their last three visits and have climbed to seventh in the table on the back of a four-game unbeaten run.
“(Chelsea) are on a great run of form,” West Brom manager Pulis told the club website.
“The manager’s come in and he’s changed things around and got the players playing the way they can. It’s a wonderful, wonderful squad of players. But we’ll go there and do our best.”
Guardiola’s City will look to kick their title challenge back into gear when they visit unravelling champions Leicester City on Saturday.
The ill-tempered defeat at Chelsea’s hands left a mark, with Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho picking up red cards that will keep them out until after Christmas.
City have slipped to fourth place in the table, four points below Chelsea, and although Leicester are toiling in 16th place, Pablo Zabaleta is taking nothing for granted.
“Always it’s a difficult place to go. Even if they are not doing great in the domestic competition, they are still a good team, very competitive,” said the City right-back.
“It is going to be a tough game. We need to win and get three points after the big defeat last weekend to stay in the fight for the title.”
While City have won their last three away matches in the league, they have won just four of their last 14 games in all competitions as Guardiola continues to search for a durable winning formula.
His problems pale in comparison, however, beside those of Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri, who saw a second-string side trounced 5-0 by Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday.
With seven defeats already, Leicester’s league form is as alarming as last season’s was astonishing and has left them just two points above the relegation zone.
Second-place Arsenal, three points behind Chelsea, can provisionally take over at the summit if they beat Stoke City by two goals or more at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Alexis Sanchez’s hat-trick fired Arsenal to a 5-1 win at West Ham United last weekend, which was followed by a superb 4-1 win at Basel in the Champions League, but manager Arsene Wenger feels there is more to come.
“I feel the team is on the way upwards,” he said.
“But we have as well to show that first of all we can improve, that we have the desire to improve as a team, and as well, that we can repeat the performances week in, week out.
“Stoke is another challenge for us that we can reset, refocus and continue our development and take the points.”
Like Chelsea, third-place Liverpool have had a week off to prepare for Sunday’s home game with West Ham.
Manchester United, in contrast, entertain Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday just two days after returning from a gruelling Europa League trip to play Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk.
Jose Mourinho’s side, currently sixth, trail fifth-place Spurs by six points and will have a mountain to climb in terms of Champions League qualification if they lose at Old Trafford.
Fixtures
Saturday (1500 GMT unless otherwise stated):
Arsenal v Stoke, Burnley v Bournemouth, Hull v Crystal Palace, Leicester v Man City (1730 GMT), Swansea v Sunderland, Watford v Everton (1230 GMT)
Sunday (1415 GMT unless otherwise stated):
Chelsea v West Brom (1200 GMT), Liverpool v West Ham (1630 GMT), Man United v Tottenham, Southampton v Middlesbrough

Syria’s army has halted its attacks in Aleppo to allow trapped civilians to be evacuated, Russia’s foreign minister said, after advancing regime forces cornered rebels in the city.
Immediately after the announcement, AFP correspondents in Aleppo said air strikes ceased and artillery fire was far less intense, but later reported that the army was continuing to shell two rebels districts, Kalasseh and al-Maadi.
The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights monitoring group also reported sporadic clashes with new raids and artillery fire late Thursday and said at least 18 civilians had been killed during the day in rebel zones by regime raids and artillery.
The situation on the ground seemed somewhat at odds with comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier Thursday after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the German city of Hamburg.
“I can tell you that today combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians,” Lavrov said. “There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees.”
In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Lavrov’s announcement was “an indication that something positive could happen”.
The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said after Lavrov spoke that talks to end the nearly six-year war should resume soon.
“Now is the time to actually look seriously at the possible renewal of political discussions,” he said after a closed-door meeting of the Security Council.
The General Assembly was to vote Friday on a draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid, although the British ambassador described the measure as “too little, too late”.
A senior State Department official said Lavrov and Kerry “agreed to continuing having discussions about establishing a framework for a ceasefire”.
There was no immediate reaction from Damascus.
Moscow is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and launched an air war in support of his forces last year, while Washington and other Western nations have supported rebel forces.
Russia this week suggested a deal was in the works for rebels to be allowed to withdraw from Aleppo to other opposition-held territory.
On the strength of his army’s latest gains in territory of east Aleppo held by the rebels, Assad said in a newspaper interview Thursday that victory for his troops would be a turning point in Syria’s five-year war.
Three weeks into a major offensive to retake all of Aleppo, government troops have captured about 85 percent of territory rebels controlled in the city’s east.
AFP correspondents in the city said rebel areas faced intense bombardment on Thursday before Lavrov’s announcement.
Cornered in a shrinking enclave in Aleppo’s southeast, the rebels have asked for a five-day ceasefire. Western countries have backed the call.
The UN renewed its call for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo, warning that as many as 500 sick and injured children desperately needed to be evacuated.
“There has to be a pause,” said Jan Egeland, head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria.
“At the moment, those who… try to escape are caught in crossfire, they are caught in shelling, (and) risk being hit by snipers.”
In his interview with Syrian daily Al-Watan, Assad predicted victory for his forces in Aleppo, though he admitted that would not end the country’s conflict entirely.
“It’s true that Aleppo will be a win for us,” Assad said.
“Let’s be realistic — it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria,” he said. “But it will be a huge step towards this end.”
Rebels seized control of large parts of Aleppo in 2012, dividing Syria’s former commercial hub into an opposition-held east and government-controlled west.
For years Aleppo was a key battleground and important rebel stronghold, but Assad’s forces have recently made a concerted push to retake the city.
In the last week, government forces steadily gained ground until on Wednesday — after a highly symbolic retreat from the Old City — the rebels called for the ceasefire to allow thousands of civilians to evacuate.
Assad’s government has said a truce is only possible after a full rebel withdrawal, and opposition fighters have rejected any talk of abandoning Aleppo.
On Thursday the army, backed by fighters from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, continued to advance, said the Britain-based Observatory.
All rebel areas had been under heavy bombardment, it said, with opposition forces returning fire with rockets into government-controlled west Aleppo.
Around 400 civilians have been killed in east Aleppo during the offensive, while rebel fire into the west has killed another 100 people, the Observatory has said.
The assault has prompted a mass exodus from east Aleppo where at least 80,000 people have fled their homes, according to the monitor.
On Thursday, hundreds of families, most of them from the Salhine district, arrived in the city’s southeastern suburb of Aziza.
“I feel reborn,” said Yasser, a 40-year-old father of four as he tugged at a cart carrying his ailing mother and stacked with luggage.
It is unclear how many civilians remain in rebel territory, but there were an estimated 250,000 in east Aleppo prior to the latest offensive.

Drug traffickers shot an Italian tourist in the head and killed him Thursday, after he and his companion strayed into a slum in Rio de Janeiro, police said.
Roberto Bardella, 52, and his cousin were traveling on motorcycles through South America and arrived in Brazil after visiting Argentina and Paraguay.
“They were in Rio as tourists, visiting the statue of Christ the Redeemer, and they consulted their GPS to find their way to the beach,” civil police spokesman Fabio Cardoso told reporters.
They took the wrong road and arrived in Morro dos Prazeres (Mountain of Pleasures), a favela in the center of Rio, he said.
“They were accosted by traffickers. The victim was wearing a camera-mounted helmet, which the traffickers thought meant he was a police officer recording the incident, so they shot the victim, who died,” Cardoso said.
The other tourist, whom police did not identify, was held captive by the traffickers for a couple of hours, then released.
Police are investigating the case.
Oil-rich Brazil’s economy is in its deepest recession for decades, in part due to the steep drop in oil prices. The economic crisis has wreaked havoc in health care and public safety.
Rio, Brazil’s second-biggest city, has endured an alarming rise in crime.

The UN General Assembly is set to vote Friday on a draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Syria and access for humanitarian aid, a measure one diplomat described as “too little, too late.”
Canada drafted the text, part of the 193-nation assembly’s attempt to break the deadlock over Syria at the Security Council.
Russia and China this week vetoed a draft Security Council resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in Aleppo, the Syrian city that is on the verge of falling to government forces.
It was the sixth time that Moscow, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has used its veto in the council to block action over Syria.
The General Assembly is expected to adopt non-binding text that demands a “complete end to all attacks on civilians” and the lifting of all sieges.
“Sadly, I suspect it will be too little too late,” British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Thursday.
The vote will “demonstrate that there is a moral majority” of countries that are “distressed that through a series of vetoes, the Security Council has failed to provide the unity necessary to change the situation in Syria.”
Russia dismissed the resolution, saying it would have no impact on the ground.
“To expect that it’s going to produce some kind of dramatic U-turn in the situation in Syria is unrealistic,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura briefed the Security Council on Thursday ahead of talks in Geneva on Saturday between the United States and Russia on a possible deal that would allow civilians and rebel fighters to leave Aleppo.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre expressed support for the Canada-led push for a ceasefire, saying “it is never too late to save lives, to assist populations in need, and to lay the groundwork for a political solution in Syria.”
“The fall of Aleppo will not resolve the crisis in Syria,” he added.
The General Assembly will meet from 10 am (1500 GMT) to consider the draft resolution.

Cristiano Ronaldo published his financial records on Thursday which showed the Real Madrid star declared income of more than 225 million euros in 2015 as he battled accusations of tax evasion.
An international consortium of media organisations claimed that a huge data leak involving 18 million documents showed the Portuguese skipper hid 150 million euros ($160 million) from image rights in the British Virgin Islands.
But the 31-year-old has released details of his income in 2015 which he had already passed on to the Spanish tax authorities.
The procedure, known as a ‘Model 720’ and which was apparently presented to tax chiefs in March, showed that Ronaldo earned 203.7 million euros outside of Spain and 23.5 million inside the country.
“This document confirms that Spain’s Tax Agency is knowledgeable of all of Cristiano Ronaldo?s assets and income. From now on, the player will not make any further statement on this subject,” said a statement released by his management company, Gestifute.
“As reported in recent days, the player has been aware of his tax obligations right away from the beginning of his professional career in all of the countries in which he has resided, and has not and has never had any issue with the tax authorities of any of those countries.
“This communication, which was not required by law, constitutes irrefutable proof that Cristiano Ronaldo and his representatives are in good faith and cooperate with the authorities in a spirit of transparency and compliance with legality.”
Earlier Thursday, Ronaldo seemingly resorting to a proverb to plead his innocence of any wrongdoing.
“You believe I am worried? He who owes nothing, fears nothing,” said the superstar after being approached by Portuguese TV station RTP to respond to the allegations after Real Madrid’s Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday evening.
On Wednesday, his club side also came out in his defence.
“Real Madrid demand the maximum respect for a player like Cristiano Ronaldo, whose behaviour has been exemplary during his entire time at our club,” Madrid said in a statement.

Former Chelsea player Gary Johnson said on Thursday he should receive more financial compensation from the club after being sexually abused by their former chief scout Eddie Heath.
It recently emerged Chelsea, the current Premier League leaders, paid Johnson 50,000 pounds ($63,850, 59,230 euros) in 2015 not to go public with his allegations against Heath, who died in the 1980s.
Chelsea waived the confidentiality clause in the agreement in order to publicly apologise to Johnson, but he said the money was “not enough for the pain and suffering I’ve had”.
He told BBC television: “It took away my childhood ?- I can never get that back.”
Johnson revealed he met three Chelsea directors on Wednesday and they apologised for the abuse to which he was subjected during his time at the club.
Asked if he felt he deserved more from Chelsea, he replied: “Yes. It would help me build a better life. I was pushed into a corner and told I had to sign it to get the money.”
Johnson is one of several former footballers to have spoken out about being abused by youth coaches during their formative years as players in a scandal that has rocked British sport.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it had opened a formal investigation into non-recent allegations involving clubs in the capital. It did not say which clubs were being probed.
Detective Chief Superintendent Ivan Balhatchet said all allegations would be handled “sensitively” and “very seriously”.
Twenty-one British police forces are investigating claims of sexual abuse in youth football, with hundreds of people reporting abuse.
England’s Football Association has also opened an investigation.
Later Thursday news website ‘The Independent’ obtained details of an FA-backed investigation into child protection measures in what was intended to be a four-year project in 2001 but prematurely terminated in 2003.
The report from the FA?s “Child Protection in Football Research Project 2002-06” written in 2004 said researchers were treated with suspicion by officials at football clubs, sometimes simply because they had not played the game.
“They (the researchers) were met by some traditionally robust masculine attitudes and failure to accept the relevance of CP (Child Protection) to that level of the game,” read the report.
“Gaining credibility and establishing (trust from clubs) were considerable challenges, especially where researchers were unable to present credentials as current or former football players.”
A problem that was highlighted — the researchers managed to hold 482 interviews with 189 young players aged 12-17, parents and guardians, referees, managers, coaches and welfare officers — was the inability to keep track of suspected paedophiles inside sport.
“Someone about whom there were suspicions or allegations could not be tracked from one sport to another,” observed the head of the research Professor Celia Brackenridge in one interim report.
“The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) struggled to adapt to such concern and, at the time of (our research) was not seen as a solution.”
Premier League champions Leicester City and Aston Villa have also been drawn into the affair after claims about Ted Langford, who worked as a scout for both clubs.
Langford, who has since died, was jailed in 2007 for sexually abusing four young players in the 1970s and 1980s.
A Leicester spokesman said: “We take the current matter very seriously.
“At present, however, we have no indication of any allegations made against or in relation to Leicester City Football Club. We will, of course, investigate fully in the event any further information comes to light.”
A spokesman from Villa said: “The club co-operated fully with the authorities during the investigation at that time (2007).”

Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu gave a rock star performance to lead after the men’s short programme on the opening day of the ISU Grand Prix of figure skating final in Marseille on Thursday.
Japanese star Hanyu — the three-time defending Grand Prix final champion — was impressive in style and execution with an error-free routine to Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy.
Hanyu opened with a quadruple jump followed by a quadruple-triple, soaring to 106.53 points — just four points short of the world record score he achieved a year ago.
“I have never connected to an audience like this since I was born, or since I started skating, but this programme feels like a concert, like it’s live. I want to be their rock star,” said Hanyu.
The 21-year-old leads Canada’s Patrick Chan going into Saturday’s free programme final in the elite six-skater field with Hanyu’s training partner, reigning two-time world champion Javier Fernandez of Spain, trailing in third.
Chan, 25, also nailed all his elements in his short programme to Dear Prudence and Black Bird by the Beatles.
The Olympic silver medallist and former three-time world champion achieved 99.76 points with Fernandez a further eight adrift after falling during his Flamenco routine.
“I just did my job, stay calm and stay relaxed,” said Chan.
“The quad toe didn?t feel perfect on the take-off and I had to fight for the landing of the triple toe but I didn?t panic and was able to keep my rhythm.”
Fernandez knows he will have to pull out a great performance on Saturday if he wants to finally turn his two silver medals to gold.
“You can’t always do a perfect job and today was not a good day. I have to find the mistakes and do a great programme the day after tomorrow.”
Japan’s Shoma Uno (86.82) is sitting fourth after a fall on his quad, just ahead of Americans Nathan Chen (85.30) and Adam Rippon (83.93).
In pairs, favourites Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada are sitting third after the two-time world champions fell on a throw triple axel during their short programme to Killer by Seal.
“It wasn?t the way I wanted to have my birthday go,” said Duhamel who turned 31 on Thursday as they earned 71.44 points — seven points behind Russian leaders Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (78.60).
Radford added: “It’s a high risk programme and there’s not a high reward.”
The Russians skated to a musical mixture of Glam Electro Swing, to lead Chinese newcomers Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao(75.34).
“We haven?t been skating together for a long time, so we still need to gel as a team,” said Zhang.
The elite competition continues on Friday with the pairs free programme final, as Evgenia Medvedeva opens her women’s title defence in a field that includes four Russians.
In ice dancing Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the 2010 Olympic champions, returning after two seasons off, open their bid for the only title missing from their collection.
World champion ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron will be carrying French hopes.

Thousands of Greek trade unionists demonstrated on Thursday against planned new cuts demanded by international creditors in a general strike that shut down several key sectors.
According to police, some 15,000 people took part in separate union protests in Athens and another 5,000 in Thessaloniki.
Civil servants, bank staff, merchant seamen, railway workers and state-employed doctors were among professionals taking part in the 24-hour stoppage against the measures, which are scheduled to be approved by lawmakers at the weekend.
The country’s international creditors — fellow EU states and the International Monetary Fund — want Greece to overhaul its labour legislation to make crippling strikes less likely while also facilitating layoffs.
Official data on Thursday showed persistently high unemployment figures at 23.1 percent in September, with an increase of some 60,500 jobs compared to a year earlier.
Unions say hidden unemployment is far higher.
A new budget containing around one billion euros ($1.07 billion) from extra taxation on items including cars, fixed telephone service, pay TV, fuel, tobacco, coffee and beer is to be approved by parliament early Sunday.
Public spending on salaries and pensions will also be cut by 5.7 billion euros next year.
Unions are also angry about plans to raise over 2.0 billion euros next year from privatisations, including 1.2 billion euros from the sale of regional airports.
“These (austerity) policies worsen our living standards every day,” said Evi, a Communist unionist who declined to give her surname.
Seeking to sweeten the pill, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced late Thursday new measures to help pensioners and the Greek islands in the frontline of Europe’s migrant influx.
In a televised message, Tsipras announced the reinstatement of a 13th-month annual payment on the lowest retirement pensions, a benefit which had previously been removed as part of austerity measures.
The government will also postpone the planned sales tax rise for the east Aegean islands, which currently hold more than 16,000 migrants and refugees, the prime minister added.
“The time has come for Europe to recognise that Greece is carrying a load for the whole of Europe, both with the refugee crisis and the economic crisis,” Tsipras said.
He stressed that the new measures would not breach a third major loan deal reached with the country’s EU and IMF creditors in 2013, as this year’s primary budget — not including debt repayments — had bettered the fiscal goals.
Already huge, Greece’s debt after the three consecutive bailouts is on course to reach a mammoth 315 billion euros, or around 180 percent of gross domestic output this year, according to the latest EU data.
Greece on Tuesday rejected pressure to extend its painful austerity programme beyond 2018 as part of a deal to bridge differences between the squabbling international creditors.

Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow vowed Thursday to set up a South Africa-style truth commission as he claimed the army’s support after his surprise election in the west African nation.
Barrow, whose shock victory this month ended the 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh, said the country’s chief of the defence staff had called to pledge the army’s backing.
“He said the security of this nation is assured by the armed forces,” said the 51-year-old estate agent. “He said he was loyal to President Yahya (Jammeh) because he was the elected president.
“He said now that I am elected in to office by the Gambian people, he will support me,” he added.
Barrow was elected as president of the smallest country in West Africa after he beat incumbent President Yahya Jammeh in the December 1 polls.
Asked if he will prosecute those accused of human rights violations over the last 22 years, Barrow said: “We will look at what was happening in the past.
A “Truth and Reconciliation Commission is very important here and we have seen it happened in South Africa. We will establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look at the past.”
The UN envoy to West Africa Mohamed Ibn Chambers said last week that the United Nations will help the incoming government to establish such a commission.
Barrow said he had not yet met the outgoing president, but said his officials were working on the arrangements.
“This transition issue is a new thing in Gambia and both teams (the ruling party and opposition) are not experienced on it,” he said, adding that he hoped to set a date for his inauguration “very soon.”
Latest official figures gave Barrow 43.29 percent of the votes in the presidential election, while Jammeh took 39.64 percent. The turnout was at 59 percent.
Meanwhile Thursday a Gambian appeal court granted bail to 11 political activists detained since April for holding rare protests, a judicial source said.
Their lawyer Antouman Gaye noted that they were members of the United Democratic Party (UDP), of which Barrow was the presidential candidate.
UDP founder and leader Ousainou Darboe, who was jailed in July for taking part in a protest, was freed on bail with 18 others on Monday, as part of their ongoing appeal against three-year sentences.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored his first Manchester United goal to set up a 2-0 win over Zorya Luhansk in Ukraine on Thursday and take Jose Mourinho’s side into the last 32 of the Europa League.
United required only a point to secure progress from Group A but Mkhitaryan’s 48th-minute strike and a late Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal separated the sides and took the Premier League club through in second place behind Fenerbahce, who won 1-0 at Feyenoord thanks to a Moussa Sow effort.
The game went ahead despite concerns about the state of the icy, rock-hard pitch at the Chornomorets Stadium in Odessa, almost 1,000 kilometres away from Luhansk in the conflict-torn east of the country.
After a goalless first half, United broke the deadlock three minutes into the second half as the Armenian Mkhitaryan burst forward from midfield through the middle of the Zorya defence before finishing past goalkeeper Igor Levchenko.
They wrapped up the victory two minutes from the end as a fine one-touch passing move ended with Paul Pogba sending Ibrahimovic away, the Swede running through and finishing coolly.
“I was waiting a long time for this goal. My next goal has to be at Old Trafford because I want to score at home,” Mkhitaryan, who previously played in Ukraine for Shakhtar Donetsk, told BT Sport.
“The first half was a little bit difficult because we couldn’t find the last pass but in the second half we created some space for the wingers and the strikers. The important thing was to win today and go through.”
Mourinho praised the playmaker, who endured a difficult start to his United career but is now starting to show his worth.
“He worked hard physically and tactically — the talent was there, we knew that when we bought him. Now he’s playing good — in the Premier League, Europa League and EFL Cup — and now the goal means a little more happiness for him, so I’m very pleased,” Mourinho said.
United will join Tottenham Hotspur, who drop out of the Champions League, in the last 32, but there was bitter disappointment for fellow Premier League club Southampton.
Claude Puel’s men knew a goalless draw or a win at home to Hapoel Beer-Sheva would see them advance from Group K but instead drew 1-1 with the Israelis and were eliminated.
The visitors went in front in the 79th minute, Yuval Shabtai pouncing on a poor pass by Oriol Romeu and setting up Maor Buzaglo to fire home.
Virgil van Dijk equalised with a deflected shot in stoppage time but they could not get a winner and Hapoel go through instead.
A brilliant late chip by Manuel Trigueros gave Villarreal a nervy 2-1 win over Steaua Bucharest that took the Spanish club into the last 32 from Group L behind the Turkish side Osmanlispor.
Fellow Spaniards Celta Vigo won 2-0 at Panathinaikos and qualify from Group G, while Fiorentina are through as winners of Group J after a 2-1 win over Qarabag in Azerbaijan secured by a 76th-minute goal from 19-year-old Federico Chiesa, son of ex-Italy striker Enrico, who was then sent off shortly after.
PAOK of Greece are also into next week’s draw for the first knockout round thanks to a 2-0 win against Slovan Liberec, while Gent joined Shakhtar Donetsk in advancing from Group H.
Kalifa Coulibaly’s stoppage-time strike clinched a 1-0 win over Konyaspor in Turkey and took the Belgians through at the expense of Braga, who lost 4-2 at home to Shakhtar.
AZ Alkmaar beat Zenit 3-2 in the Netherlands and join the Russians in progressing from Group D.
Dundalk had gone into their final game in the same group away to Maccabi Tel Aviv still in with a chance of going through but a 2-1 reverse in Israel ended the Irish champions’ hopes.
Romanian champions Astra drew 0-0 at home to Roma and go through with the Italians from Group E, while Sassuolo and Genk will try again in Group F on Friday after fog in Italy forced their encounter to be postponed.

A Bolivian aviation official alleged Thursday that her superiors pressured her to cover up a report she made about the flight plan of a plane that crashed killing 71 people, news media said.
The crash on November 28 wiped out most of the Chapecoense football team from Brazil, which was flying to Colombia to play in a big match.
Aeronautic official Celia Castedo told Bolivian newspaper El Deber she had noted in a report before the flight that the LaMia airline charter plane had only just enough fuel to make it to its destination.
The plane left Santa Cruz in Bolivia and crashed near its destination of Medellin, Colombia, after apparently running out of fuel, flight recordings published by media have indicated.
“I was subjected to harassment and pressure from my superiors… who ordered me to change the content of the report which hours earlier (before the flight) I had presented” to aviation authorities, the newspaper quoted Castedo as saying in a written statement.
“Based on a careful examination (of the flight plan), I had made five observations, one of the most important of which referred to the fuel economy of the flight, which happened to be equal to the flight time.”
This meant that the plane was filled with just enough fuel to complete the distance of the flight but had no extra fuel to keep it in the air in the event that its landing got delayed.
Castedo sent her statement from Brazil, where she has fled while Bolivian authorities investigate her and other officials over the crash.
Police on Thursday arrested Gustavo Vargas, son and namesake of the manager of LaMia who has also been detained.
Vargas junior has been identified as an official in Bolivia’s civil aviation authority DGAC and as being responsible for authorizing the operations of his father’s airline.

Metz were handed a partial stadium closure until further notice by the French league (LFP) on Thursday after firecrackers were thrown at Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes during a game last weekend.
The decision means the stand behind the goal at the Stade Saint-Symphorien, from where projectiles were thrown at Lopes, must remain completely closed until a final decision on eventual sanctions is made at a later date. Metz risk forfeiting the match.
Metz had anticipated the move earlier in the day by announcing that they would close the same part of the ground of their own accord “until further notice”.
The Ligue 1 clash against Lyon was abandoned in the 31st minute following the incidents, which came after Gauthier Hein had put Metz 1-0 up with a superb goal.
Portugal international Lopes was subsequently taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with “acoustic trauma”, although he was able to play in Lyon’s 0-0 Champions League draw with Sevilla on Wednesday.
“The incidents that took place last Saturday at the Stade Saint-Symphorien during the match against Lyon are inadmissable and proved that a red line had been crossed,” Metz president Bernard Serin said in a statement published on the club’s website.
“That is not what football is about and nor must it become that way. That is why I wished to take measures to avoid any chance of these events taking place again,” Serin said of the club’s own decision to close the stand behind the goal.
A 23-year-old man was still in custody on Thursday after being arrested on Wednesday in connection with the incidents. He has admitted throwing one of the firecrackers, the Metz public prosecutor said.

Drama spilled beyond movie plotlines and into real life Thursday at the opening of a Latin American film festival in Havana, where the authorities have excluded a movie touching on Cuba’s intolerance toward gays under Fidel Castro.
They barred “Santa et Andres,” 33-year-old Cuban Carlos Lechuga’s second full-length feature, from the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana due to a “question of principle,” Cuban film official Roberto Simth said.
“The film presents an image of the revolution that reduces it to an expression of intolerance and violence against culture and makes irresponsible use of our patriotic symbols and unacceptable references toward comrade Fidel,” Smith — director of the all-powerful Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) — said in a statement.
The former Cuban leader and revolutionary icon Fidel Castro died last month.
The movie’s fictitious plotline was inspired by the lives of Cuban poet Delfin Prats and other gay intellectuals such as Virgilio Pinera, who were banned from publishing and displaying their work on the island during a five-year period from 1971-1976.
The film’s exclusion provoked debate on social networks, where Smith and Culture Vice-Minister Fernando Rojas exchanged heated words with Lechuga and his supporters.
Lechuga, who defended his work calling himself a “patriot who lives and works in Cuba,” declined to speak to AFP until after the festival’s end.
The competition opened Thursday with the screening of “The Illustrious Citizen” (“El Cuidadano ilustre”) by Argentine directors Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn Damian Szifron, whose film will compete against 17 others for the Grand Coral first prize.
Invitees include the American directors Oliver Stone, who will present his latest film, “Snowden,” and Brian de Palma, organizers said.
Traditionally stigmatized in Cuba, homosexuality was fiercely repressed for many years under the communist regime, which interned gays in work camps in the 1960s and ostracized them in the 1970s.

Among the crop of septuagenarian star rockers, Neil Young stands out for the earnestness of his beliefs and the prolificity of his output.
For his 40th solo studio album, “Peace Trail,” Young returns to his folk roots, taking on a role as musical storyteller as he raises his voice for the environment and the rights of indigenous people.
“Peace Trail,” which comes out Friday, is the second release this year by the 71-year-old Canadian guitar and song-writing legend.
Earlier this year he put out “Earth,” a hard-charging live album on which Young turned up the volume and interspersed his eco-conscious songs with noises of bees, crickets and other creatures from the great outdoors.
“Peace Trail” is more mellow but starts off with a title track that could join the ranks of Young’s classic anthems, with a smooth electric guitar melody gliding across a Western-inspired drum rhythm.
Like on his most famous song, “Rockin’ in the Free World,” Young despairs at the plight of the world — but his tone this time is more wistful than prosecutorial.
“The world is full of changes / Sometimes all these changes make me sad / But I keep planting seeds ’til something new is growing,” he sings.
Belying the lyrical drive, Young is musically understated on much of “Peace Trail,” which he recorded with session musicians at legendary producer Rick Rubin’s Los Angeles-area studio.
Young holds off on the warbling extremes of his high-ranging voice, at times even appearing to employ Auto-tune software, and avoids the long orchestral passages that have often characterized his work.
After the rocking opening track, Young mostly strips back the sound. With his acoustic guitar, he unabashedly takes the mantle of a folk protest singer.
On “Indian Givers,” Young — a longtime advocate for indigenous people — rallies behind the Standing Rock Sioux fighting to block construction of a pipeline on the North Dakota plains out of concern for the safety of their water and sacred lands.
“Our brave sons and beautiful daughters / We’re all here together fighting poison waters,” Young sings.
Ever topical, Young also hits back at suspicions of immigrants in “Suicide Terrorist Hang Gliders,” a folk song with jolts of electric guitar.
He ends the album with “My New Robot,” a brief song that opens with signature Young harmonica before sudden computerized voices as he critiques the gadgetry that is the hallmark of consumer society.
Young performed much of “Peace Trail” in October when he was one of six legendary rock acts at the inaugural Desert Trip music festival in California.
Young — with a teepee on the edge of the stage in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux — marked a stark contrast with other artists at the festival who chose to please the crowds with their sing-along hits.
The move was not out of character for Young, who rivals the late Prince with the speed at which he pursues albums and ideas.
In the past four years, Young has also published two books, reunited with his band Crazy Horse and launched his own high-end music player, Pono.
“I can’t stop working, ’cause I like to work when nothing else is going on,” he sings on “Peace Trail.”
“It’s bad for the body / But it’s good for the soul.”

President-elect Donald Trump came under fire Thursday for picking a global warming skeptic as his new environment chief, ahead of a visit to the American Midwest that helped him win the White House.
The 70-year-old property tycoon, who has never previously held elective office, has spent the majority of his time since his November 8 defeat of Hillary Clinton sequestered in his New York headquarters building his cabinet.
His team says more than 50 percent of those positions have now been filled, with 43 days to go before the Republican will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, the oldest man ever inaugurated into the office.
He reportedly will nominate fast food executive Andy Puzder to be his labor secretary.
The transition team says his pace of appointments outstrips that of any modern US administration, but opponents hounded Trump for nominating an ally of the fossil fuel industry to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Trump’s choice of Oklahoma’s attorney general Scott Pruitt has outraged many Democrats and environmental experts who fear that he will reverse outgoing Democratic President Barack Obama’s efforts to combat climate change.
In announcing the nomination of Pruitt — who will need Senate approval — Trump complained that “for too long,” the EPA had spent “taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs.”
Pruitt “will reverse this trend and restore the EPA’s essential mission of keeping our air and our water clean and safe,” the president-elect said.
The EPA chief can wield strong influence on US actions to combat climate change: the agency both determines what international commitments the country is able to make, and implements them.
Opponents scoffed at Trump’s suggestion that Pruitt will be a safe steward of the environment, pointing out he has spent much of his time battling the very agency he is now tapped to lead.
“Scott Pruitt has spent the past several years fighting tooth and nail to help polluters erase or circumvent the critical environmental protections our nation has put in place,” said Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives.
“There is nothing good about this,” Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, told AFP.
“Pruitt is a known conspirator with the fossil fuel industry and I mean that in a literal sense,” he said, pointing to the Oklahoman’s 2014 efforts with oil companies to battle EPA regulations.
Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, described Pruitt as someone “on the outer extreme edge, and putting him in charge of EPA could really have devastating consequences.”
While campaigning, Trump said Obama’s environmental regulations were hamstringing US businesses and vowed to roll back regulations and slash corporate taxes in an effort to drive job creation and business growth.
But he does seem to be courting opinion from the other side of the political aisle, meeting this week with former Democratic vice president-turned-climate campaigner Al Gore and also reportedly with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is an active environmentalist.
While his cabinet nominations offer clues as to Trump’s projected policies, observers worldwide remain on tenterhooks over how exactly he will manage the climate, national security, trade, immigration and foreign policy.
All eyes remain fixed on his pending announcement of his candidate for secretary of state, with Exxon chief executive Rex Tillerson and former Ford boss Alan Mulally reportedly late additions being considered.
But Trump will take a break from cabinet interviews on Thursday when he heads to Ohio to meet the survivors and first responders of last week’s car-and-knife campus attack before headlining a victory rally in swing state Iowa.
Trump, who during the campaign called for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States, tweeted after the November 28 attack that the assailant, who migrated from Somalia, should not have been in the country.
Abdul Razak Ali Artan was shot and killed by police after driving into a crowd and then slashing several people with a knife. Officials said 11 people were treated for injuries.
Investigations into the motive are ongoing. Artan reportedly referred to Al-Qaeda teachings on Facebook. A jihadist-linked news agency called him a “soldier” of the so-called Islamic State group fighting in Iraq and Syria.
It will be Trump’s second visit to Ohio since winning the election, having kicked off his victory tour in Cincinnati last week. The Rust Belt state, won by Trump, voted for a Republican to take the White House for the first time since 2004.
From there, Trump will travel to Des Moines to headline a “thank you” rally with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, following similar previous events in Cincinnati and North Carolina.
Also in attendance will be Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, a long-time Trump supporter and long-time personal friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping who has been nominated to serve as ambassador to Beijing.

At least two people were killed in clashes between police and protesters from Cameroon’s English-speaking minority in the country’s northwest on Thursday, state television reported.
A group of youths were trying to block a meeting for the ruling People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) of President Paul Biya in the city of Bamenda before police shot at them, opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) spokesman Denis Nkemlemo said.
“At least two people are reported dead and several others injured,” CRTV said in its English language evening news.
The opposition put the death toll at four.
CRTV showed images of a barricade of burning tyres in the centre of Bamenda, the capital of the northwest region.
“There are at least four dead. We know their names. They were all shot dead,” said Nkemlemo.
“A police station was torched (by protesters). Police officers were arresting people in the town, including injured people. Atrocities were committed against the people,” he added.
A photo of a bloodied and lifeless body was doing the rounds on social media following the violent clashes, although there was no way of telling where or when it was taken.
It is the second time in just over two weeks that clashes between police and protesters have broken out.
SDF deputy head Joshua Osih claimed in late November that three people were killed in clashes following a strike called by local teachers.
The northwest region and the southwest are the two mainly English-speaking areas out of 10 that make up the mostly French-speaking Cameroon.
The anglophone minority, comprising around 20 percent of the country’s 22.5 million population, has long complained of discrimination.
Teachers, magistrates and lawyers have led protests denouncing “marginalisation” and an unfair distribution of wealth.
Some have been calling for independence while others favour a return to a federal system within Cameroon.
But on Tuesday, anglophone Prime Minister Philemon Yang rejected a return to federalism, a system operated from 1961, a year after Cameroon’s independence from France, to 1972, when the country’s first president Ahmadou Ahidjo proclaimed a united republic.
Cameroon was first colonised by Germany but French and British troops forced the Germans to leave in 1916 after World War I.
The country was then carved up into French and British administrative zones.
The French Cameroons gained independence in 1960 and a year later were joined by the British Cameroons to form a federal republic.

Liberia’s government has asked the United Nations to extend its peacekeeping mission in the west African country for another year, until the next president takes office.
“Liberia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Lewis Brown, on behalf of his Government, is proposing one year for the extension of the United Nation’s Mission in Liberia (UNMIL),” the president’s office said in a press release sent to AFP on Thursday.
Liberians will be going to the polls next year to elect a new president, as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ends her second and final term.
Government forces and rebel groups raped, maimed and massacred hundreds of thousands of people during two conflicts between 1989 and 2003.
UN peacekeepers, first deployed in October 2003, largely ensured the country’s security until the end of June when they handed over responsibilities to retrained domestic forces.
Only 1,800 of the UNMIL forces, which peaked at 15,000, remain ahead of a UN Security Council decision in December on whether to pull out its remaining personnel.
“The country has made substantial progress but there is still a long way to go,” Brown said in the government statement.
In September, UN assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, El Ghassim Wane, said that “peace remains fragile” in the African nation.

Terence Crawford puts his World Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association super lightweight titles on the line in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday against big-punching John Molina, who showed his mettle in June in an upset win over Ruslan Provodnikov.
Unbeaten Crawford, the Boxing Writers Association of America fighter of the year in 2014, has two victories already on his resume in 2016, taking his record to 29-0 (20 knockouts) with a fifth-round technical knockout of Henry Lundy in February and a unanimous decision over Viktor Postol in Las Vegas in July.
The 29-year-old will be a heavy favorite in front of his hometown fans against 33-year-old Molina, despite the Californian’s impressive win over former titlist Provodnikov that took his record to 29-6 with 23 knockouts.
“You’ve got to be careful with the type of guys that throw wild punches and come in with their head,” Crawford told USA Today. “He’s a strong puncher. He’s upset a lot of people and he’s hurt a lot of people.”
Nevertheless, Crawford is already envisioning a victory that he believes should earn him another fighter of the year nod.
“I did a number on Hank Lundy, the kind that nobody else was able to do,” Crawford told ESPN. “I unified the title against Postol, a guy everybody said was almost as good as I was. I am an undefeated champion and was fighting a guy (Postol) coming off a knockout win against (Lucas) Matthysse and I totally dominated him.
“Now I’m fighting another guy coming off an impressive win, a number one contender, and a win over him should convince people that I am fighter of the year.”

Ghana’s opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo told a cheering crowd on Thursday he was “confident” he’s won the presidential election, despite the official results not yet being released.
Speaking to a rowdy crowd of New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters gathered at his private residence, Akufo-Addo said he believed he had defeated long-time rival and incumbent John Mahama.
“We the NPP are quietly confident that we have won a famous and historic victory,” Akufo-Addo said, calling for his supporters to be patient and peaceful while the electoral agency tallies the results.
“It’s going to be an anxious time, I know, until the results are formally declared, but we have been through this before and we should be able to go through it again,” Akufo-Addo said.
“We will await the electoral commission to give us the formal, final details.
“This is a time we will have to remain very calm and very focussed — the eyes of the world are on us.”
The election had been blighted by sporadic outbursts of violence in a country otherwise known as a beacon of freedom and democracy in Africa.
Ghana closed most of its voting stations on Wednesday evening, but the Electoral Commission has been slow to release the results, with local media reporting that the NPP has secured the lead over Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) party.
The Electoral Commission said on Thursday evening that they had received preliminary results from 90 of out 275 constituencies, but only published the results for 25 of them.
“Please be patient,” commission head Charlotte Osei said at a press conference. “Accuracy is more important than speed.”
Both PeaceFM and CitiFM claimed Akufo-Addo was leading the vote count.
Election observers have called on the commission to publish the results faster in order to lay to rest suspicions that the vote may be rigged.
Akufo-Addo, 72, is likely making his final bid for the presidency after two previous failed attempts while Mahama, 58, is running for a second term of office.

Ghana’s opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo confidently boasted of impending victory as tensions mount in the country over delays in releasing the results of a nail-biting presidential election tainted by violence.
The high-stakes race between incumbent John Mahama and rival Akufo-Addo is seen as a litmus test of stability for one of Africa’s most secure democracies.
Speaking to a rowdy crowd of New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters gathered at his private residence, Akufo-Addo said he was “confident” he’d defeated Mahama despite the electoral agency not yet releasing the official results.
“We the NPP are quietly confident that we have won a famous and historic victory,” Akufo-Addo said, calling for his supporters to be patient and peaceful.
“It’s going to be an anxious time, I know, until the results are formally declared.”
In its latest update, the electoral agency said that they had received preliminary results from 90 of out 275 constituencies, but only published the results for 25 of them.
“Please be patient,” electoral commission head Charlotte Osei said at a press conference. “Accuracy is more important than speed.”
Following “possible instances of over-voting” the commission had previously said that the tallies would be subject to extra verification.
But after doing their own calculations of the publically posted constituency results, local media organisations reported that Akufo-Addo has taken the lead over Mahama.
PeaceFM says that Akufo-Addo is in the lead with 53.96 percent of the vote calculated from just over half of the 275 constituencies.
CitiFM also puts Akufo-Addo in the lead with 52.70 percent of the vote calculated from 104 constituencies.
In the early afternoon, NPP supporters armed with golf clubs were already gathering outside Akufo-Addo’s house, preparing for a face-off.
“We have won the election,” said 33-year-old Bismark Agyei. “They need to announce that.”
Internal polling results released by Akufo-Addo’s team heaped additional pressure on the commission.
After analysing “pink sheets” — carbon copies of the voter tallies at individual stations — the NPP reported that Akufo-Addo is winning with a lead of over one million votes.
NPP spokeswoman Oboshie Sai Cofie said it was clear the party had won.
“As more and more of the results come in, we’ll reach a point of no return,” Cofie said.
NDC deputy general secretary Koku Anyidohu dismissed the NPP claim as “propaganda”, adding that releasing the internal results was “illegal” and designed to “hoodwink” the press.
“We’re all allowed to do our pie charts and bar graphs, but they are playing you.”
Still, electoral observers are urging the commission to “speed up the process of announcing results”, said Christopher Fomunyoh, regional director for the US-based National Democratic Institute.
“Then it assures people that the process is working as planned,” Fomunyoh said.
Akufo-Addo had told his supporters that “vigilance is key” at the polls in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the 2012 vote — narrowly won by Mahama with 50.7 percent — that he contested unsuccessfully in the country’s Supreme Court.
“We wish to state emphatically that the NPP will not allow any person, persons or entity to subvert the will of the Ghanaian people and that all necessary steps will be taken to protect the vote,” party campaign chairman Peter Mac Manu said in a statement just after midnight.
After voting on Wednesday, Mahama voiced confidence the election would “consolidate that democracy further”.
There are seven candidates battling for the top job — including former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings — and if the smaller parties perform well and deny either frontrunner a majority, a run-off vote will be held later this month.
Charismatic Mahama, 58, is running for a second term. The leader of the ruling New Democratic Congress (NDC) party has urged voters to “stay the course”, promising to deliver more infrastructure projects.
Akufo-Addo, 72, is making his third and likely final bid for the highest office. He has blasted Ghana’s poor economic growth estimated at 3.3 percent in 2016 — the slowest rate in two decades — and outlined how to get the economy back on track.
Akufo-Addo, who said previously that he would accept the results even if he loses, added recently: “Those are hurdles we have to jump once we get there”.

The European Commission on Thursday offered Denmark continued partial access to Europol’s database even though the country voted against full membership of the police organisation, which fears new terror attacks across Europe.
Brussels’ offer to the NATO member state comes after Europol on December 2 warned Islamic State group militants could be on European soil, evolving their tactics to attack soft targets and using deadly car bombs.
“It’s not as good as if we were a full member, but it’s an agreement that could work,” Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters after meeting with other Danish party leaders.
EU member Denmark voted to keep its opt-out from the bloc’s justice rules in a referendum last year, meaning the country will need a separate agreement to access Europol information when new EU regulations come into force in May next year.
Under the draft agreement presented to lawmakers, Danish police will have indirect access to Europol’s information system and would have to go through a liaison officer to run searches.
It would also have to remain a member of the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone, prompting the eurosceptic Danish People’s Party — a key government ally in parliament — to say that it had to “discuss” the issue before taking a position.
Rasmussen, who campaigned for Denmark to lift some of its EU justice exemptions in the 2015 referendum, admitted that the new arrangement could become problematic in the future.
New technology could make it possible “for the individual policeman out in the car (in other countries) to search these databases directly”, putting Danish police at a disadvantage when they have to go through an intermediary, he said.
After Danish voters rejected the Maastricht Treaty in June 1992, Copenhagen was granted opt-out clauses on the euro, defence, and justice and home affairs.
These exemptions allowed the government to hold another referendum one year later, in which Danes finally said “yes”.
In the December 2015 referendum, voters rejected a proposal to lift some of the exemptions, stepping up the country’s participation in EU police and judicial cooperation.

Human rights standards worldwide are under “unprecedented pressure”, the UN said Thursday, warning that “the rhetoric of fascism” was becoming commonplace in parts of Europe and the United States.
Speaking ahead of the international Human Rights Day on December 10, UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein urged people around the globe to push back against a dangerous erosion of rights protections.
“2016 has been a disastrous year for human rights across the globe,” Zeid said in a statement, warning that “if the growing erosion of the carefully constructed system of human rights and rule of law continues to gather momentum, ultimately everyone will suffer.”
International human rights standards, he said, were “under unprecedented pressure” and risked “unravelling”.
Zeid pointed to conflicts, like the one raging in Syria, that have unleashed a massive refugee crisis, extremist movements that are subjecting people to “horrific violence”, climate change, discrimination and “yawning economic disparities”.
The failure of many leaders to effectively and honestly deal with such issues has pushed many to turn to “the siren voices exploiting fears, sowing disinformation and division, and making alluring promises they cannot fulfil,” he warned.
His comments follow a string of populist victories in Europe, and the stunning November election of Donald Trump as the next US president.
“In some parts of Europe, and in the United States, anti-foreigner rhetoric full of unbridled vitriol and hatred, is proliferating to a frightening degree, and is increasingly unchallenged,” Zeid warned.
“The rhetoric of fascism is no longer confined to a secret underworld of fascists, meeting in ill-lit clubs or on the ‘Deep Net’. It is becoming part of normal daily discourse,” he said.
Zeid, who is set to launch a campaign entitled “Stand up for someone’s rights today” on Saturday, urged everyone to “push back the violence and hatred which threaten our world.”
“At a time of enormous turmoil and rapid change, the values which uphold peace across the world are too important to be left to international institutions and governments alone,” he said.

The Syrian army has halted its attacks on Syria’s Aleppo to allow for the evacuation of civilians, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
“I can tell you that today, combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation underway to evacuate civilians,” he said in Hamburg, Germany, cited by Russian news agencies.
“There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees” travelling five kilometers (3 miles), added the Russian minister, attending a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the announcement was “an indication that something positive could happen”.
Lavrov meanwhile announced that US-Russia military and diplomatic discussions would take place in Geneva on Saturday “to end the work… to define the means of resolving the problems of east Aleppo”.
The discussions would notably study plans to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians who want to leave, according to the Russian minister.
Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry briefly talked Thursday in the sidelines of the OSCE meeting, but a US official said there was no progress or conclusions on Aleppo.
The two men had seen each other the previous evening in Hamburg, but were unable to make any progress on a plan for a cessation of fighting and evacuation of rebels and civilians in Aleppo.
Rebel fighters are on the verge of losing control of their last strongholds in the face of Syrian troops backed by Russia and Iran.
Lavrov’s announcement came after six western countries including the United States called for an immediate ceasefire in the face of the humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo, urging Russia and Iran to use their influence on the Syrian regime to secure a truce.

Britain’s Supreme Court will reveal early next year the result of the government’s appeal against a ruling that it cannot unilaterally trigger Brexit, the court said Thursday.
The 11 Supreme Court judges wrapped up four days of hearings with court president David Neuberger resolving to reach a prompt decision.
“We appreciate that this case should be resolved as quickly as possible, and we will do our best to achieve that,” he said.
It is the first time all 11 Supreme Court judges have convened to hear an appeal.
The High Court ruled last month that the government did not have the executive power alone to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, formally starting exit talks which could take two years.
The decision enraged Brexit supporters and some newspapers who accused judges of thwarting the will of the 52 percent who voted “Leave” in the June 23 referendum.
The vote for Britain to become the first country to leave the 28-nation bloc sent shockwaves across the world and emboldened populists in Europe and the United States.
“The ultimate question in this case concerns the process by which that result can lawfully be brought into effect,” said Neuberger.
“As we have heard, that question raises important constitutional issues and we will now take time to ensure the many arguments presented to us orally and in writing are given full and proper consideration.”
Attorney General Jeremy Wright, the government’s chief legal advisor, argued that the government had authority over foreign affairs, including the right to withdraw from treaties, under so-called “royal prerogative powers”.
But the claimants, led by investment fund manager Gina Miller, argue that parliament must be consulted before approving any changes to domestic laws and rights.
As the hearings were being held, British Prime Minister Theresa May secured a symbolic Brexit victory when MPs Wednesday agreed not to delay her plans to begin the EU exit talks by the end of March — although she had to promise to give them more details of her negotiating strategy.
The opposition Labour party’s original motion — supported by some from May’s Conservative Party — demanded the government publish its “plan” before triggering Article 50.
May fended off a rebellion with a last-minute amendment, accepting the Labour motion on condition that MPs support her timetable for triggering the Brexit talks.

President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday began consultations aimed at averting a political crisis in Italy triggered by the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Renzi formally resigned on Wednesday after losing a crucial referendum on constitutional changes on Sunday, bringing an end to the two years, 289 days reign of Italy’s youngest premier.
Mattarella will try to form a cross-party coalition caretaker government to avoid being forced to call early elections — those are currently scheduled for February 2018.
The president met Senate president Pietro Grasso, Chamber of Deputies president Laura Boldrini and former head of state Giorgio Napolitano in the first of 48 hours of consultations that began at 6pm (1700 GMT).
Mattarella will continue his task on Friday with the smallest parties in parliament, with 41-year-old Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) last to be questioned.
The president will then likely announce a decision on Monday.
Although Renzi had hinted in his resignation speech on Wednesday that he intends to lead his party into an early election battle, he spent Thursday celebrating his grandmother’s 86th birthday and competing with his children on PlayStation, as Mattarella was forced to work through the Feast of the Immaculate Conception public holiday.
“And hopefully … I will have more luck in the PlayStation battle with my sons than I have had here,” Renzi had quipped in a resignation speech peppered with jokes.
It is far from the end of his political career, though, as Renzi retains the leadership of his party, the biggest force on Italy’s centre-left.
He indicated that he intends to pursue his political career and a reformist agenda that won plaudits from the likes of US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angel Merkel.
Renzi received a boost on Thursday with a poll published by La Stampa daily, conducted a day after the referendum, giving the PD the backing of 32.5 percent of voters, ahead of the populist Five Star movement with 27 percent.
In addition, 57 percent of centre-left voters saw Renzi as the best leader available to the PD.
But there were also signs of knives being sharpened within the party after the referendum which Renzi’s critics see as having eroded the party’s base among the working class and young voters hardest hit by Italy’s economic problems.
Luigi Zanda, head of the PD group in the Senate, acknowledged that “there are tensions within the party” but said he expected the need for unity to prevail.
Renzi admitted to the party’s executive that he anticipated a “tough debate” over the lessons of the referendum and said he was open to proposals aimed at creating a broader coalition of the Italian left.
But that idea was shot down by veteran leftist Nichi Vendola.
The former governor of the southern region of Puglia said Renzi had burnt his bridges with progressive forces.
“If reformism means having a left elite do the work of the right, the result is inevitably catastrophic,” Vendola told La Repubblica.
Before handing back the keys to his Palazzo Chigi residence, Renzi insisted the PD was ready for an early election battle with Five Star, the far-right Northern League and Silvio Berlusconi’s fading Forza Italia.
“We are not afraid of anything or anybody,” Renzi said.
Five Star and the Northern League are both demanding an early election but analysts have said that is unlikely.
Italy’s entry into a period of political uncertainty has not created the kind of market turmoil some had predicted and a feared crisis in the banking sector has not materialised as a rescue plan for the most troubled lenders has begun to take shape.
Moody’s ratings agency has however downgraded its outlook for the country’s sovereign debt to negative from stable, saying the failure of the constitutional referendum slowed reform progress and left Italy more exposed to “unforeseen shocks”.

The International Criminal Court will hold a public hearing next April to probe whether South Africa failed its duty in refusing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the court said Thursday.
The announcement follows a dispute last year when Bashir attended an African Union summit in Johannesburg despite facing an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes and genocide.
The Hague-based court’s Pre-Trial Chamber is “convening a public hearing on April 7, 2017, for the purposes of a determination… on the compliance by South Africa with the Court’s request” to arrest and surrender Bashir, it said in a statement.
Judges invited submissions by the court’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, South Africa and the United Nations on the issue, it added.
Pretoria refused to arrest Bashir when he attended the continent-wide summit in mid-2015, claiming that he had immunity as the head of an AU member state.
South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute of the world war crimes court which wants Bashir arrested for alleged crimes related to the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
South Africa’s own Supreme Court of Appeal has accused President Jacob Zuma’s government of “disgraceful conduct” over Bashir’s visit and ruled that the failure to arrest the Sudanese leader was unlawful.
The row with the ICC saw Pretoria in October announce its withdrawal from the court, a major blow to the institution set up to try the world’s worst crimes.
The South African government at the same time also dropped a legal battle on the issue after facing a possible defeat in its highest Constitutional Court.
“Given that domestic proceedings in South Africa are now concluded, South Africa shall be heard about a possible finding of non-compliance” for failing to arrest Bashir, the ICC said.
Bashir has evaded arrest since his ICC indictment in 2009 for alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur conflict in which 300,000 people were killed and two million forced to flee their homes.

Sudanese security agents have arrested a prominent rights activist, Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
The 58-year-old was taken into custody on Wednesday at the University of Khartoum where he works as a professor of engineering, the rights watchdog said.
“He was arrested by National Intelligence and Security Service agents… and taken to an undisclosed location where he is at a grave risk of torture and other ill-treatment,” Amnesty said in a statement.
Ibrahim’s family members also confirmed to AFP that he had been arrested and that they had no information on his whereabouts.
“Mudawi’s arbitrary arrest underscores the government’s desperate attempts to extinguish the last embers of dissent in the country,” Amnesty’s deputy director for East Africa, Michelle Kagari, said in the statement.
In recent weeks, Sudanese security agents have arrested several opposition leaders and activists in an attempt to crush widespread protests against a government decision to raise fuel prices last month.
The authorities are determined to avoid any repetition of 2013 unrest that was sparked by a similar round of fuel subsidy cuts.
It was suppressed only by a deadly crackdown by security forces that drew international condemnation.
Rights groups say that crackdown left about 200 people dead, while the government put the death toll at less than 100.
Groups of protesters have staged sporadic demonstrations against the latest round of subsidy cuts, but anti-riot policemen have swiftly dispersed them.
Opposition groups and activists had called for a three-day “stay-at-home” strike in November against the rising cost of living and subsidy cuts. The call had met with a mixed response.
Ibrahim, who has worked extensively on human rights causes in Sudan, has been arrested several times before for his work.
His organisation the Sudan Social Development Organisation was shut down by the government in 2009.