Soccer Shorts:

A roundup of today's other soccer news in brief

Defending is the key, says Blanc

BORDEAUX will have to fix their defensive frailties if they are to overcome a two-goal deficit against Lyon in tonight’s second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Two defensive blunders and a penalty gave Lyon a 3-1 victory in the first leg last week.

“Even though well have to score (at least) two goals, the key will be to defend well,” the Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc said. “If we succeed in correcting those defensive mistakes, we can hope for something great on Wednesday. We have very little time to adjust.”

Before the first leg, Bordeaux led Ligue 1 and had the last unbeaten record in Europes top club competition. Now, the defending French champions’ season is taking an ugly turn. The team have lost three straight games for the first time this season. Marseille beat Bordeaux 3-1 in the League Cup final on March 27th before the Lyon loss in Europe. On Saturday, Bordeaux lost 2-1 to Nancy to surrender the lead in the French league to Lyon, who won 2-1 at Rennes.

Portsmouth close in on new owner

PORTSMOUTH could soon have a new owner after representatives of an investor interested in taking charge of the stricken club began the process of due diligence.

Rob Lloyd, the businessman fronting the bid for an unnamed colleague, arrived at the club yesterday morning with a lawyer to commence the study of their accounts. No exclusivity period has been entered into due to the additional financial commitment that would have entailed – a fee of £5,000 was required simply to gain access to the books.

Lloyd told Sky Sports News: “We decided not to go down the exclusivity route as we would have had to put another £1 million down initially, which nobody in their right mind would do. “We’ve now decided to go down the NDA – non-disclosure agreement – route.”

McDonald fined for bunking off

BURNLEY have fined their midfielder Kevin McDonald after he left Turf Moor without permission during Saturday’s defeat by Manchester City and watched the second half of their 6-1 drubbing in the pub.

The Scotland under-21 international yesterday issued a formal apology for his “disrespectful” behaviour against City having been punished by the manager, Brian Laws, for walking out of the stadium at half-time.

Torres highlights Alonso sale as cause of struggles

Fernando Torres has identified the sale of Liverpool's "engine", Xabi Alonso, as one of the principal reasons for the club's struggles this year. Torres also said the club's current team were not strong enough mentally to overcome a poor start. Yet despite his damning analysis he said Liverpool could recover with "a vengeance", with Rafael Benitez as manager, reports Andy Hunter.

In a frank assessment of a miserable season at Anfield, in which Champions League qualification is in jeopardy and when doubts have been raised over where Torres, Steven Gerrard and Benitez will be next term, the Liverpool striker blamed last summer's transfer strategy for much of the club's problems. In an interview with the Spanish sports magazine Don Balon, Torres cites the £30 million sale of Alonso to Real Madrid, Alvaro Arbeloa's £3.5 million move to the same club and Sami Hyypia's transfer to Bayer Leverkusen as causes of the club's failure. Guardian Service

Iranian girls out of Youth Olympics

THE Iranian girls soccer team have been kicked out of this years first Youth Olympics because of a Fifa ban on playing in Islamic head scarves.

Irans National Olympic Committee (NOC) had refused to let the team play at the August 14th-26th Games in Singapore without the hijab and they have been replaced by Thailand, according to the Asian Football Confederation.

“The Fifa executive committee had no choice but to take the decision that Iran will not be able to participate in the inaugural Youth Olympic Football Tournaments,” the AFC quoted a letter from Fifa’s general secretary to the Iran Football Federation as saying.

Soccer tournaments at the Olympics are organised by the world governing body, whose rules allow only the wearing of a shirt or jersey, shorts, socks and footwear to play the game. Some 3,500 athletes aged between 14 and 18 are expected to take part in 26 sports at the inaugural Youth Olympics.