Sports

LONDON — Diego Costa has turned into a pale imitation of the player who took the Premier League by storm last year and Chelsea must get him firing on all cylinders again to have any hope of salvaging their wretched season.

The 27-year-old striker could scarcely have believed his luck when he discovered last week that he had been recalled to Spain’s squad for the friendlies with England in Alicante on Friday and Belgium in Brussels four days later.

He has scored only three times in 15 appearances for his club this season and the swashbuckling, battering ram of a centre forward who notched 20 league goals for the champions last term appears but a distant memory.

Chelsea fans, already mystified by their team’s dramatic loss of form, are now wondering what has happened to Diego Costa.

Although the Londoners slumped to their third straight league defeat at Stoke City on Saturday, they produced a much-improved performance that suggested some key players are beginning to find form after a torrid start to the campaign.

Eden Hazard, the 2014-15 Premier League Player of the Year, again showed the tricky, ball-playing skills that tormented defences last season but more often than not, Chelsea’s attacks petered out when the ball went to Costa.

Former Newcastle United target man Alan Shearer, a lethal international striker for England in his prime, said the temperamental Costa could learn a lot from Leicester City’s red-hot marksman Jamie Vardy.

Vardy has netted in each of his last nine league appearances and will equal the 2003 record of former Manchester United and Netherlands striker Ruud van Nistelrooy if he scores in Leicester’s next game at Newcastle on November 21.

“Right now one [Vardy] looks full of energy while the other (Costa) is barely mobile,” said Shearer.

Lack of movement

“I studied Chelsea’s performance on Saturday and actually thought they played as well as they have done for some time. What frustrated me about Costa was the lack of trouble he gave Stoke’s back four.”

Shearer, who scored 30 goals in 63 matches for England, bemoaned Costa’s lack of movement.

“Costa is constantly coming towards the ball now whereas you look at Vardy and he is always looking to run in behind the back four,” he said.

“If you have Costa’s ability there is only one place you should be, up front, facing defenders and running on to through balls.”

Costa looks to be spending more time winding up opposition defenders than getting into the penalty box and if his barren run in front of goal continues, Chelsea may have little option but to seek a replacement in the January transfer window.

Jose Mourinho has received constant criticism for a remarkable slump in form that has seen Chelsea slump to fifth from bottom with 11 points from 12 league matches.

For someone who has shown little patience with managers in the past, owner Roman Abramovich appears keen to give Stamford Bridge hero Mourinho every chance to pull his team round.

The Portuguese will now be keeping his fingers crossed that Costa can get back on the goal trail with Spain over the next few days.

LONDON — The World Cup could be expanded by eight teams to 40 if Gianni Infantino is elected FIFA president.

Infantino, the face of European competition draws as UEFA’s general secretary, discussed his first plans to transform FIFA in an interview with The Associated Press after making a surprising late decision to enter the election.

European football scrambled to find a candidate as a substitute for Infantino’s boss, Michel Platini, after the UEFA president was provisionally suspended by FIFA.

Platini is at risk of a long ban once the ethics probe into a 2011 payment from FIFA has been completed, which would make him ineligible for the February 26 election to replace suspended president Sepp Blatter.

Infantino has worked in Platini’s shadow, implementing the president’s vision from Financial Fair Play for clubs to expanding the European Championship from 16 to 24 teams starting with next year’s tournament. If Infantino gets his way, the World Cup also could have to find space for an additional eight teams.

“I believe in expanding the World Cup based on the experience we had in Europe with the Euros,” Infantino said by telephone from the campaign trail in South America. “Look at qualifiers now where some teams who have never qualified did and some teams which have always qualified didn’t make it.

“So it created a completely new dynamic in the qualification. It created new enthusiasm. If you are serious about developing football it must involve more associations in the best football event in the world: The World Cup.”

It would be too soon to swell to 40 teams in Russia in 2018 given that qualifying has already started and it could be problematic for Qatar since the plan is to squeeze the 64 games into 28 days to cope with staging the tournament in November-December 2022 rather than the traditional June-July slot.

But the proposal could help Infantino collect votes from some of the smaller FIFA members outside Europe.

“I don’t have a European vision,” he said. “I have a vision for football.”

The 45-year-old Infantino, a lawyer who has been UEFA’s general secretary since 2009, was endorsed by the organisation’s executive committee to stand for FIFA president only hours before the candidate deadline on October 26.

“We made a draw and my name came out,” he joked.

Infantino does not hide that he never previously publicly expressed any desire to run the global game as it recovers from a corruption crisis which had seen Blatter announce plans to quit even before he was suspended along with Platini last month.

Infantino’s candidacy gave the impression of UEFA being dissatisfied with the other options: Asian football leader Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, HRH Prince Ali, former South African politician Tokyo Sexwale, Liberian federation president Musa Bility and former FIFA official Jerome Champagne.

“It’s not a question about other candidates, it’s a question about Europe being present and making its voice heard,” Infantino said. “When you have a function in football like mine with responsibilities you have to assume responsibility when times are difficult, to put yourself forward in order to try to change this and bring messages forward.”

Those messages are not just Platini’s rehashed with a different name on the manifesto, Infantino maintained.

AMMAN — Jordan play Malta in a friendly on Wednesday as part of their final training camp ahead of their match against Kyrgyzstan on November 17 in the return leg Group B qualifiers of the 2018 World Cup, doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup.

The squad is a on a high note after they scored two consecutive wins and beat Asian champs Australia 2-0 and Tajikistan 3-0 in the last two qualifiers. 

“We aim to come back home with positive results. We already have four wins and one draw. We need to maintain our lead and secure qualification to the next round,” Jordan’s head coach Paul Put said as the team regrouped after arriving in Turkey for the training camp.

Jordan now leads the group after beating Tajikistan 3-1, Bangladesh 4-0 and a disappointing 0-0 draw with Kyrgyzstan. 40 teams are playing home and away in a round-robin format in the current second qualifying round which runs until March 2016 

After the two wins and a 3-0 defeat of Iraq in a friendly, Jordan went up 17 spots to 82nd in the latest FIFA World Rankings this week — its biggest leap in a year.

Jordan had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when they lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time when they advanced to play then world’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. They lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers in 1985. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times in qualifiers since 1986.

In the Asian Cup, Jordan reached the Championship three times since first taking part in qualifiers in 1972. The pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August 2004. In 2011 and 2015, Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.

PARIS — A long year has taken its toll on some of the world’s best tennis players but the relentless Novak Djokovic gives no indication that he is about to slacken the pace, as he heads to the season-ending ATP World Tour finals in London.

The World No. 1 impressed in a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of second seed Andy Murray to clinch his fourth Paris Masters on Sunday, becoming the first man with four titles at Bercy and also the first to win six Masters titles in a season.

While Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal faltered in the third round and quarter-finals respectively a few days after playing the final in Basel, Djokovic cantered through the rounds on the banks of the River Seine, being tested only by Stan Wawrinka in the semis.

“I will continue to do what I’m doing so far. There is no reason for me to decrease the pace of the training, preparations and performances,” Djokovic told a news conference.

“It’s the last tournament of the year, a very big tournament where I have done very well in the past.”

Djokovic has won the last three editions of the season’s finale that features the year’s eight best players and Sunday’s performance suggested it will take an exceptional performance to topple him at the O2 Arena in London.

Yet the Serb insisted: “I try to take nothing for granted... the only way I’m managing to stay successful is by continuing to improve.

“I’m not trying to keep the status quo, because for me that’s a regression.”

Right now, all stars are aligned for Djokovic, a happy man and obviously a happy player who won three of the four Grand Slams, losing only in the French Open final.

“I’m a married man, and I’m a father, as well,” he said.

“I think I have a nice balance and serenity in private life that reflects on the professional life, and vice versa. I have this belief that the holistic approach will definitely get the best out of yourself.”

Djokovic’s relentless desire for tennis perfection is pushing him to a consistently brilliant level, one which proved far too high for Murray on Sunday.

With 10 titles in 2015, he is four ahead of Roger Federer. Djokovic now has won 26 Masters events altogether, two more than Federer and one behind leader Rafael Nadal.

“If you are going for the perfection, you might reach excellence,” the 10-time Grand Slam champion said after dispatching Murray in 1 hour, 33 minutes. “That’s the kind of mind set I have.”

The only major he did not win this year was the French Open, losing the final to Stan Wawrinka, and it remains the only big trophy missing in his fast-growing collection of 58 career titles.

Chasing success at Roland Garros, and the quest to win all four Grand Slams in one year — he has won three in a year twice — means his motivation level will remain undiminished in 2016.

“I take nothing for granted. I try to work on that all the time, because I know that is the only way I’m managing to stay successful,” said the 28-year-old Djokovic after playing in his 14th straight tournament final this year. “I’m not trying to keep the status quo, because for me then that’s a regression.”

In winning his third straight Paris Masters title, Djokovic clinched a fourth overall — surpassing his own coach Boris Becker’s tally to set another record — but wondered how much further he could go.

“I think in terms of physical and mental ability, I have reached my peak,” said Djokovic, who has reached finals in all but one tournament this year.

Djokovic extended his winning streak to 22 matches, and will be the favourite to win the season-ending ATP finals for the fourth straight time when that tournament starts in London on November 15.

“There is no reason for me to decrease the pace,” Djokovic said. “Hopefully I can finish off the season with another great win.”

Despite dropping only one set on the way to the final, the two-time Grand Slam champion Murray simply could not compete.

“It’s been an incredible year for him, well done,” Murray said. “I missed with my backhand a little bit today, left a few too many in the middle of the court and he was able to dictate a lot of the points from there.”

Serving for the match, Djokovic clenched his fist and yelled when Murray’s return landed out, giving him match point. When Murray’s aggressive two-handed backhand went wide, he turned and blew a kiss to Becker and other members of his team.

In their 30th career meeting, Djokovic improve to 21-9 against Murray, who beat the Serb in the 2013 Wimbledon final.

But since then, Djokovic has won 10 of their 11 encounters. His only loss during that spell was in August, when Murray beat him in the Rogers Cup final in Montreal.

“Since the beginning of last year my results against him and Roger [Federer] haven’t been good enough,” said Murray, who will attempt to lead Britain to the Davis Cup title against Belgium later this month. “I need to think about why that is and what I can do to turn it around.”

The second point of the match lasted 22 strokes, but Murray was rarely able to compete in the rallies after that.

Djokovic broke Murray at love in the third game, and the Briton had to save three break points in the fifth. Djokovic then held at love and broke again before serving out the set in 42 minutes.

Murray dropped his serve again to trail 2-1 in the second set but broke right back, only for Djokovic to get another break in the seventh game as he marched relentlessly toward another title.

NEW YORK — Carmelo Anthony scored 24 points and New York Knicks spoiled what might have been Kobe Bryant’s last game at Madison Square Garden, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 99-95 on Sunday.

Bryant finished with 18 points, far off the 30.7 per game he had been averaging here and fewer than half the 40 or more he managed on three occasions during a series of highlights in the arena.

The 37-year-old superstar, who hasn’t said if he will retire after this season, missed two shots and twice fouled Anthony during New York’s 11-0 run that turned a three-point deficit into a 98-90 lead.

Jose Calderon, Robin Lopez and Langston Galloway all scored 14 points for the Knicks, who snapped a three-game losing streak with their first home victory of the season.

Cavaliers 101, Pacers 97

LeBron James scored 29 points playing with a bruised quadriceps, and Cavaliers beat Pacers for their sixth straight win.

James took a knee to the leg Friday and said he would get round-the-clock treatment so he could play against Pacers. The treatment paid off as James hit seven free throws down the stretch and found Kevin Love for two key baskets in the final 27 seconds.

Love scored 22 points and had 19 rebounds for Cavaliers, who haven’t lost since the season opener against Chicago.

Paul George scored 32 points for Indiana, which went scoreless for nearly four minutes after taking a 90-88 lead.

Pistons 120, Trail Blazers 103

Andre Drummond had 29 points and 27 rebounds, Reggie Jackson scored a career-high 40 points and Detroit rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Portland.

Jackson had 26 points in the fourth quarter alone and Pistons outscored Blazers 41-11 in the final period.

It was Pistons’ first win in Portland since 2007 and snapped a six-game overall losing streak to Blazers.

Damian Lillard had 26 points and 11 rebounds and Blazers’ modest three-game winning streak was snapped. C.J. McCollum added 18 points.

Blazers led by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, but Detroit’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a 3-pointer that closed the gap to 98-92 with 7:18 left.

Drummond’s layup pulled Pistons within 98-96 and Jackson’s floater with 5:21 left tied it at 98. Jackson hit another to put Piston’s in front with 4:46 left, and they never trailed again.

Heat 96, Raptors 76

Chris Bosh scored 23 points, Hassan Whiteside added 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Heat rolled in the second half to beat Raptors.

Dwyane Wade scored 12 and Tyler Johnson added 10 for Miami, which outscored Raptors 30-16 in the third and then put the game away with an 18-3 run in the fourth.

Jonas Valanciunas scored 17 for Toronto.

Including play-offs, it was the 250th consecutive home sellout for Miami.

Thunder 124, Suns 103

Kevin Durant had 32 points and 11 rebounds, and Thunder beat Suns to snap a three-game losing streak.

Russell Westbrook had 21 points, 13 assists and six rebounds, and Enes Kanter had 21 points on 9-for-10 shooting for Thunder, who forced 23 turnovers and outrebounded Phoenix 52-33.

Eric Bledsoe had 28 points and 11 assists, Markieff Morris scored 19 points and T.J. Warren added 17 for Phoenix, which lost for the third time in four games.

SANTIAGO  — Electing a new president will not dig FIFA out of the worst crisis in its 111-year history, the head of South American football said on Saturday.

“I don’t think that any candidate or situation can change everything. This is about team work,” Juan Angel Napout, the president of CONMEBOL, said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “I believe that all the confederations have to unite and work together for one football — that’s called FIFA.”

Seven men are running to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA president in an election on February 26.

FIFA has been in turmoil since May, when American officials unsealed an indictment revealing decades of corruption linked to FIFA and its regional football bodies.

The indictments and arrests were followed days later by Blatter’s resignation. He has since been suspended from his post pending an investigation by FIFA’s Ethics Committee. Also suspended was Michel Platini, the president of UEFA, who was once seen as the favourite to succeed Blatter.

“The truth is that FIFA has no prestige,” Napout said, adding that he hoped its image could be changed by the confederations aiming for the common good.

“Recognising the mistakes made by all is very important. This is a key moment in the history of football.”

The seven candidates standing for FIFA president are: Platini, HRH Prince Ali, Gianni Infantino, Tokyo Sexwale, Musa Bility, Jerome Champagne and Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa.

The reputation of CONMEBOL has been just as badly tarnished as that of FIFA.

Two former presidents — Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay — were among football and sports marketing officials charged by authorities in the United States. Leoz is under house arrest in Paraguay, and Figueredo is in jail in Switzerland awaiting extradition to the US.

Since the scandal broke, CONMEBOL has carried out audits and collaborated with the investigation by US and Swiss authorities.

CONMEBOL and the North and Central America and the Caribbean governing body CONCACAF, also recently ended their relationships with marketing company Datisa, which has been accused by US prosecutors of agreeing to pay $110 million in bribes to South American football officials. The end of that deal helped get the Copa America Centenario back on track. The tournament will be played in the US in 2016.

The 10-member CONMEBOL has been supporting Platini in his campaign to become FIFA president. But Napout said the body would have to wait to see the result of the ethics investigation centered on Platini and Blatter before committing to a candidate.

Napout has met with Gianni Infantino, the general secretary of UEFA. Infantino is generally viewed as a stand-in for Platini.

LONDON — Athletics lurched deeper into crisis on Friday with the showcase sport of the Olympics scrapping its year-end gala after French officials began investigating the ruling body’s former president for corruption.

Elsewhere, track and field glamour nation Kenya was warned that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was serious about a possible four-year ban unless athletics officials stepped up anti-doping efforts.

A double Olympic champion also criticised the inaction of new International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe and suggested the sport’s doping scandal was at least as damaging as the ongoing corruption probe into football’s world governing body FIFA or the Lance Armstrong cycling controversy.

In addition, the IAAF governing body announced it had charged four sports officials with ethics violations for allegedly concealing the doping results of a Russian athlete.

The quartet are former IAAF consultant Papa Massata Diack, the son of ex-president Lamine, former All-Russia Athletic Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev, former Russian long-distance coach Alexei Melnikov and former director of the IAAF’s Anti-Doping Department Gabriel Dolle.

The announcement could not save the governing body’s year-end gala in Monaco, with officials on Friday cancelling the Nov. 28 black-tie event in Monaco, which honours the year’s best athletes, because of the sport’s doping scandal.

“Given the cloud that hangs over our association this is clearly not the time for the global athletics family to be gathering in celebration,” Coe said in a statement.

French authorities announced earlier this week that they had placed former IAAF president Lamine Diack under formal investigation on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.

The 82-year-old Senegalese was questioned by the office of France’s financial prosecutor for allegedly receiving over 1 million euros ($1.09 million) in bribes in 2011 to cover up positive doping tests by Russian athletes.

Diack’s family has dismissed what they called the “excessive and insignificant accusations”.

Thompson rebuke

He served as president from 1999 until August this year when he was succeeded by Briton Coe who ran on a platform to reform athletics and improve its integrity.

Days before he was elected, Coe had to deal with allegations that athletes had been escaping censure despite having abnormal blood levels.

Coe said at the time the allegations were “a declaration of war on my sport” but he has been silent on the latest scandal, prompting a stinging rebuke from former British team mate Daley Thompson.

“I don’t think anything much worse could happen to the sport than for the former president to have colluded with the Russian Federation over doping tests,” the 1980 and 1984 Olympic decathlon champion told Talksport radio.

“This to my mind is a 10 or 11 on the Lance Armstrong scale. This is much worse that what Sepp Blatter has been doing.

“This has not happened on Seb Coe’s watch but he needs to have a root and branch reform... maybe he needs to make a stand and say what he’s going to do about it.”

A leading Kenyan sports administrator added his voice to the perceived inaction in combating the doping problem with a warning that unless his country improved their anti-doping efforts they faced expulsion from competition, including next year’s Rio Olympics.

Dozens of Kenyan runners have been caught doping in the past few years, tarnishing the reputation of the east African nation famed for its middle and long-distance runners.

WADA and other officials have voiced frustration over the years that Athletics Kenya (AK) has not cracked down on doping despite frequent promises that it would.

“It is no longer just a threat,” chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), Kipchoge Keino, told reporters in Nairobi after returning from the United States where he met WADA officials.

“They think Kenya is sweeping doping issues under the carpet. Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya and Government must meet immediately to confront this issue or else we are in big trouble. Things are that bad.”

GENEVA — In a FIFA election now more open than expected, HRH Prince Ali has changed his strategy since Michel Platini was caught up in a corruption scandal.

Speaking with The Associated Press, Prince Ali struck a more cautious note than the fighting talk he directed at Platini before the one-time favourite was questioned in a Swiss criminal investigation over a $2 million payment from FIFA.

The prince declined to comment on his opponents, including sidestepping accusations linking Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa to human rights abuses of athletes in Bahrain.

He was, however, ready to talk about football.

Prince Ali said he wants the 2026 World Cup to have four more teams in a 36-nation lineup, and he wants the tournament to return to the CONCACAF region, 32 years after the United States hosted it.

Handling the stalled 2026 bidding is a priority for the next FIFA president with Canada, the United States and two-time host Mexico set to bid.

Adding an U-15 World Cup to FIFA’s tournament programme was also “a great idea and possible to do”, he said.

That proposal was made to the long-time Jordan football association president by a FIFA colleague among the 209 members who will vote in the February 26 election.

It seems likely — with FIFA leaders weakened and the governing body in turmoil — that voters have more freedom than in previous elections where intimidation and deals cut at confederation level were, according to many, typical.

“I have faith in everyone really voting for who they think is the best candidate, and I hope to be that person,” Prince Ali said. “Perhaps alone among the candidates I have support across the regions.”

When Prince Ali lost to Sepp Blatter in May, two days after the American and Swiss criminal investigations rocked FIFA in Zurich, leaders of the Asian Football Confederation did not support him.

An alliance of Europe and Asia then made Platini the election favourite until the payment from FIFA in 2011 came to light. Platini has since been suspended by the FIFA Ethics Committee and cannot formally campaign while his appeal and the full investigation are pending.

It is now a seven-man race as doubt about Platini led others to declare, including Asian confederation President Sheikh Salman and UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino.

“A lot of people have joined the race but I think that is healthy, it shows there is democracy,” Prince Ali told the AP in his first interview since the entry deadline passed last week.

It also made strategy more complex than targeting Platini and a culture of “back-room, under-the-table deals”, as the prince said when the former France great announced his campaign in July.

Prince Ali’s launch speech in Amman in September talked of his courage challenging Blatter when others “didn’t have the guts to run”.

However, his broad message is the same even if Blatter and Platini are not there to oppose him.

“I’m not going to accept to do any of the politicking,” said Prince Ali, adding that his expansion plan for the World Cup was for football reasons. “It is definitely not electioneering. It is based on results in the last World Cup and it is natural that there can be a logical growth.

“I’m doing this for football’s sake and football’s sake alone.”

AMMAN — As Jordan readies to play Malta in a friendly this week, the squad had its biggest leap in a year, going up 17 spots to 82nd in the latest FIFA World Rankings on the weekend.

The jump came after the national team scored two consecutive wins in Group B qualifiers of the 2018 World Cup, doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup. Jordan beat Asian champs Australia 2-0 and Tajikistan 3-0, after they beat Iraq in a friendly 3-0. The squad will next have training camp ahead of their match against Kyrgyzstan on November 17 in the return leg.

Forty teams are playing home and away in a round-robin format in the current second qualifying round which runs until March 2016. Jordan now leads the group after they earlier beat Tajikistan 3-1, scored a 4-0 win over lowly Bangladesh and were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw by Kyrgyzstan. 

Belgium took over the World top 10 after they went up two spots and lead Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Chile, Spain, Columbia, Brazil, England and Austria.

Jordan went up to 8th in Asia trailing Iran (43), South Korea (48), Japan (50), Australia (60), the UAE (67), Uzbekistan (71) and Saudi Arabia (80). 

Jordan had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when it lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time when it advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. It lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers in 1985. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times in qualifiers since 1986.

In the Asian Cup, Jordan reached the championship three times since first taking part in qualifiers in 1972: the pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August 2004. In 2011 Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.

MADRID — Chelsea and Roma scored late goals to earn crucial victories in the Champions League on Wednesday, improving their chances of advancing to the knockout stage.

Chelsea defeated Dynamo Kiev 2-1 in England thanks to an 83rd-minute free kick by Willian, while Miralem Pjanic’s 80th-minute penalty kick gave Roma a 3-2 home win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Zenit St. Petersburg secured its place in the round of 16 with a win at Lyon, while Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Porto and Olympiakos also won, staying on track to advance.

Arsenal remains in trouble and is on the brink of elimination after losing 5-1 to Bayern Munich in Germany.

Group E

Neymar and Luis Suarez continued their excellent scoring form to make up for the absence of Lionel Messi and help Barcelona move closer to the Round of 16 with an easy 3-0 win over BATE Borisov.

With Messi watching from the Camp Nou stands, Neymar converted a penalty on the half-hour mark, then set up Suarez’s strike in the 60th minute and scored his second goal in the 83rd minute after an assist by the Uruguayan striker.

Since Messi tore a left-knee ligament on September 26, Neymar and Suarez have combined for 17 of Barcelona’s 20 goals.

Barcelona leads the group with 10 points, five more than Roma, which moved into second place thanks to the late 3-2 win over Leverkusen, who stayed on four points, one more than BATE.

“The aim was to win and the victory gives us a great chance to seal our qualification,” Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta said.

Leverkusen had rallied from two goals down to draw level with Roma before captain Omer Toprak was shown a red card for pushing Mohamed Salah inside the area, prompting the penalty that Pjanic converted for the victory.

Group F

Thomas Mueller scored two goals as Bayern Munich dominated Arsenal in a 5-1 win in Bavaria, while Felipe Pardo scored both goals for Olympiakos as it rallied to beat 10-man Dinamo Zagreb 2-1.

Bayern and Olympiakos reached nine points, while Arsenal and Dinamo stayed with three each with two games remaining.

Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring for Bayern in the 10th minute, Mueller doubled the lead in the 29th minute and David Alaba made it 3-0 in the 44th minute. Arjen Robben scored with his first touch of the ball in the 55th minute, less than a minute after coming off the bench, and Mueller added his second in the 89th minute.

Olivier Giroud pulled one back for Arsenal in the 69th.

“It was a key match for us that we wanted to win,” Mueller said.

In Piraeus, substitute Pardo was the hero with two second-half goals to help Olympiakos beat Dinamo Zagreb, who lost Josip Pivaric with a second yellow card with 11 minutes remaining.

Group G

Willian produced a late winner as Chelsea fans put on a show of support for embattled manager Jose Mourinho, scoring from a free kick to earn a 2-1 victory over Dynamo Kiev.

A four-game winless run in all competitions had ratcheted the pressure on Mourinho, whose future at Stamford Bridge has appeared to be jeopardised.

“From the mental point of view it was important,” Mourinho said. “A reaction to a negative moment.”

Dynamo defender Aleksandar Dragovic sent a diving header into his own goal while trying to clear Diego Costa’s cross in the 39th minute, then atoned for his blunder by slamming the ball home in the 78th minute after goalkeeper Asmir Begovic flapped at a corner. Willian scored his fifth goal of the season direct from a free kick to ensure Chelsea rose to second in the group with seven points, two more than Dynamo. Porto, which moved closer to a place in the knockout stage after easing to a 3-1 victory at Maccabi Tel-Aviv, has 10 points.

Group H

Zenit St Petersburg maintained its perfect record in the Champions League and reached the knockout phase with a 2-0 win at Lyon.

Artem Dzyuba scored a brace from a couple of assists by Hulk as the Russian side produced its fourth win in as many matches for its best start ever in the competition.

Zenit secured its place in the last 16 with two games to spare, leading second-place Valencia by six points after the Spanish side lost 1-0 to Gent in the group’s other match. Gent is third with four points, while Lyon is last with one.

Lyon still has a chance to advance but it will need to win its last two matches and hope other results go its way.

Defender Sven Kums converted a 49th-minute penalty kick to give Gent the three points against Valencia at home.