Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has called for caution ahead of the Champions League last-16, second leg tie against Olympiakos on Wednesday. The Blues are favourites to progress after a 0-0 draw a fortnight ago.

But Lampard said: “I think they will be a danger to us at Chelsea. The game is difficult and it is not over yet.

Lampard was a substitute for the first leg at Olympiakos

“We didn’t score away so if we concede now we’ll put ourselves under pressure. They are strong on the counter, so maybe they’ll try to nick a goal.”

Lampard believes Chelsea did not make the most of the opportunities in Greece and does not want his team to pay the price for not scoring an away goal.

He added: “The 0-0 was a decent result but it was a great opportunity to go and get an away goal. We didn’t threaten as much as we could have done.

“It would have helped up to have scored an away goal but we didn’t get that, so we have to make sure that we are very concentrated at home.”

Manager Avram Grant says he is not worried about the prospect of losing - even though it could potentially cost him his job at Chelsea. (more…)

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CRAIG Parry finally won the Australian Open at the 24th attempt, carding a closing three-under-par 69 to finish 11-under at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.

Parry, boasting 12 titles on home soil among his 22 triumphs worldwide, had gone close to winning his national championship several times, including a play-off loss to John Morse at The Australian in 1990, and he had long stated his ambition to lift the Stonehaven Cup.

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The body of an American basketball player who was reported missing two weeks ago, was found in the middle of a dense thicket in the central state of Goias, police said on Monday.

Police spokesman Norton Luiz said by telephone that the body was that of Tony Harris, a former Washington State University basketball star who was under contract to Universo, a professional Brazilian basketball team based in Brasilia, the country’s capital.

“Thanks to an anonymous phone call, police found his body on Sunday slumped against a tree in an Army training ground and with the shoelace of one of his sneakers wrapped around his neck,” Luiz said. “We believe he may have committed suicide because it appears the body fell from one of the tree’s branches, although we are not ruling out homicide.”

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Croatia coach Slaven Bilic has given his backing to Steve McClaren ahead of Wednesday’s do-or-die Euro 2008 qualifier for the England manager.

McClaren is widely expected to lose his job if the English cannot take advantage of the lifeline handed to them by Israel’s win over Russia and take at least a point from the match at Wembley to reach the finals.

Croatia go into the game having already qualified for the tournament in Austria and Switzerland next summer, despite losing 2-0 to Macedonia on Saturday.

And Bilic believes that McClaren, who was appointed after the 2006 World Cup, deserves more time to show that he is the right man for the job.

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Top-ranked Roger Federer won his fourth Masters Cup title in five years on Sunday when he overwhelmed Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2 6-3 6-2 in Shanghai.

It was the third consecutive dominating performance by Federer, who won his 53rd career title — including eight this year — and ran his record against Ferrer to 8-0.

“It was a nice victory, especially proving it to myself and the world, that I can do it over and over again,” Federer said. “This is the year-end tournament that only the best can make it to. For me to win is a fantastic experience.”

Federer collected $1.2 million and a new car for the win, increasing his winnings this season to more than $10 million — a record for the ATP Tour.

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