Sporting briefs

Eduardo: Croatia coach Slaven Bilic has named Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva in his 22-man squad for next week's friendly against Romania in Bucharest. Eduardo missed Croatia's run to the Euro 2008 quarter-finals with a severely broken leg and the 25-year-old is set to make his first start for Croatia for 12 months.

Arshavin: Russia forward Andrei Arshavin will be allowed to skip next week's national team's training camp, Russia coach Guus Hiddink said. Hiddink decided to give Arshavin, who joined Arsenal for a club record £15 million this week, more time to get acquainted with Premier League football.

Kezman: Paris St Germain coach Paul Le Guen hit out at Mateja Kezman after the Serb forward threw his shirt on the pitch when he was replaced during a French League Cup, semi-final 3-0 defeat against Bordeaux on Wednesday. "It is something that matters. It shows a lack of respect for the club. There will be a sanction," Le Guen said.

Germany: Germany will play friendlies with China and United Arab Emirates later this year, the Asian Football Confederation said yesterday. The three-times World Cup winners will play China on May 31 and face UAE on June 2.

Palmeiras: Vanderlei Luxemburgo's Palmeiras qualified for the group stage of the South American Libertadores Cup by winning 2-0 to Real Potosi in a match played at 4,000 metres above sea level. Cleiton Xavier and Keirrison scored in each half as the Brazilians shrugged off the difficulties of playing at one of the world's highest first division grounds.

De Ceglie: Defender Paolo De Ceglie will probably be unable to train for at least 45 days after fracturing a rib in Juventus's Italian Cup quarter-final win over Napoli in Turin on Wednesday. He will stay in hospital for five to seven days.

King's Cup: Semi-final, first leg - Barcelona vs Real Mallorca 2-0.

Cricket: Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan became the highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals when he claimed his 503rd victim yesterday. Muralitharan had India's Gautam Gambhir caught by wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara for 150 in his 10th and final over to move above Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram at the top of the list. The 36-year-old Muralitharan reached the milestone in his 328th one-day international. He is also test cricket's highest wicket-taker with 769 victims in 125 matches.

Doping: A US federal court on Wednesday unsealed drug test results and a recorded conversation about US baseball star Barry Bonds that prosecutors say is evidence the home run king took steroids and lied about it. Bonds was expected to plead not guilty last night to charges of making false statements to a grand jury and obstructing justice. His trial is set to start on March 2. A federal grand jury in 2007 charged Bonds with lying when he testified in the BALCO lab steroid case that he had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.

Rugby Union: Harry Ellis will start at scrumhalf for England against Italy tomorrow after Danny Care was ruled out with an ankle injury, the Rugby Football Union said yesterday. Care strained ligaments during training at England's snow-clad base on Tuesday. Ellis, who had originally been scheduled to play for the Saxons against Ireland A today, goes straight into the starting line-up with uncapped Ben Foden, of Northampton, remaining on the bench.

Golf: Former India skipper Ajay Jadeja missed the cut in his first event as a professional golfer, nine years after a ban ended his international cricket career. Jadeja, 38, was banned for five years in 2000 by the national board after a federal police probe into cricket match-fixing. He won a court case to briefly return to the domestic first class game. He made a promising start shooting one-under 69 in the first round but a second round 82 sent him tumbling out in the Players Championship in Kolkata.

In Gozo: GFA Division two - Għarb vs St Lawrence 1-1; Munxar vs Oratory 4-0.