SPORTSPORT 24 METROSPORT Thursday, October 22, 2009 D E s t . 1 8 6 6 MAGEE MID SEASON SALE 25 %OFF STARTS TODAY Dundrum Town Centre (beside Hamleys) 28 Wicklow Street Arnotts, Henry Street Certified Distribution August 31 to October 4, 2009: 60,395 Published by Fortunegreen Ltd, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Dublin 4 Printed by The Irish Times at Citywest in Dublin Editorial: (01) 637 5900 Advertising: (01) 637 5989 Classified: (01) 637 5979 Distribution: (01) 637 5901 Fans face Paris ticket scramble John Delaney has confirmed Ireland have been granted the minimum allocation of 8,500 tickets for next months World Cup play- off second leg against France at the Stade de France in Paris. But the FaI chief executive is confident they will garner more through official channels while he also expects many Irish fans to source tickets themselves. [The French Fa] have already given us close to 8,500 which they have to give us by right, said Delaney. Were collating the requests from fans who have sent us e-mails and by the website letting us know how many tickets they need to travel to the away match. Well see the demand, and keep asking for more tickets along the way. our fans are very innovative at getting tickets, we all know that. We want to get as many Irish fans as we can into the ground. The last time in France we had close to 25,000. Delaney still expects the green army to take Paris by storm, despite the recession and the Wednesday night kick-off. The last time was a Saturday and it was also better economic times, admitted Delaney. If there is increased orders from Irish fans well be making more representations to the French. all they have to do is increase the section. I dont know what the demand is in France, but there will be a lot of interest. Page 23 Players rally behind Benitez Pitch perfect MAnCHEsTEr United man- ager sir Alex Ferguson be- lieves his side are on the brink of qualification for the Cham- pions League knockout stages after a 1-0 victory away to CsKA Moscow. Despite playing on an artifi- cial pitch at the Luzhniki sta- dium, United maintained their 100 per cent winning record in Group B thanks to Antonio Va- lencias 86th-minute strike. With three games still re- maining, Ferguson hopes his side can now secure their pas- sage in the next game at home to the russians. Ferguson, whose side take on Liverpool in the Premier League on sunday, said: We had to have the patience to win, and we did that. The situation is [we have] nine points. Ive always maintained you need ten to qual- ify. We next have a home game against CsKA which we hope can take us to the next stage. In Group D, Chelsea made it three wins from three as salo- mon Kalou scored twice and Frank Lampard also hit the tar- get in a 4-0 victory at home to Atletico Madrid. High fives: Valencia celebrates with Michael Owen after his late winner against CSKA Moscow in Picture: Reuters Fergie hails United after victory in Moscow Match report: Page 22 By KeVin AitKen Page 21 Jennings to learn fate in appeal index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html