AL AIN -- Yemen will be making their Asian Cup debut when they face three-times champions Iran on Monday and while the players are set to be thrust into the limelight like never before the team’s assistant coach is confident stage fright will not be an issue.

JOSH DONALDSON homered in his first two at-bats and Max Fried tossed 6 1/3 strong innings as the visiting Atlanta Braves breezed to an 11-5 rout of the Cleveland Indians on Sunday night.

The Raptors advanced to the second round of the playoffs yesterday, but it wasn’t a big deal to them. In fact, it looked much like the same old, same old; they claimed their fourth straight game to book a seat in the conference semifinals for the fourth consecutive year. Significantly, the manner in which they did so was nothing short of dominant; after seeing the Magic score 104 points in a close loss to open their 2019 postseason campaign, they stamped their class on both ends of the court to norm 107.8 while limiting their opponents to 89 the rest of the way.

When the Colts headed into the 2019 season, the last thing they figured on worrying about was the kicker position. It wasn’t simply that they had pressing concerns to address, not least among them the retirement of quarterback Andrew Luck. It was that they had Adam Vinatieri, the National Football League’s leading scorer of all time, to lean on. If he stands three digits clear of second-running Morten Andersen, it’s because he has been about as automatic as they come in terms of producing points.

Losing out on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in free agency was the first real sign the Knicks didn’t have as much pull off the court as they continued to think. There was no question of their lack of competitiveness on it; they headed into the offseason having missed the playoffs for the sixth straight year. Yet, their poor record and all the attendant problems it indicated notwithstanding, they felt they had the juice as first among equals in the National Basketball Association. Until, that is, the windfall that head honcho James Dolan so brazenly alluded to well before their 2018-19 campaign ended failed to materialize. And, amid their backpedaling, they finally admitted they didn’t have any clout, after all.

DUSSELDORF, Germany — Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen as he tormented the Germans to lead his side into the Europa League semi-finals on Monday.

BARCELONA — Barcelona have sacked coach Quique Setien and brought presidential elections forward to March 2021, the club said on Monday, three days after the Spanish side were hammered 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.

TORONTO RAPTORS coach Nick Nurse was named NBA Coach of the Year for the 2019-20 season on Saturday.

US Open champion Naomi Osaka, American soccer player Megan Rapinoe and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes were among the athletes named on the 2020 “Time 100” list of the most influential people in the world.

THREE weeks after an acrimonious exit at the US Open, world number one Novak Djokovic will resume his pursuit of an 18th Grand Slam title when he takes on Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the first round at the French Open on Tuesday.

GREG ZUERLEIN kicked a game-winning field goal from 34 yards out on the final play as Dallas defeated the visiting New York Giants 37-34 Sunday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in a game that was overshadowed by an ugly ankle injury suffered by Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.

CZECH Republic beats neighbors Slovakia 2-0 to pip Scotland for promotion to the top tier of the Nations League on Wednesday while Russia’s hopes ended with a 5-0 humiliation in Serbia as Hungary went up instead.