A round-up of other soccer stories in brief...

Bilic top of Garcia's list for Madrid

CROATIA COACH Slaven Bilic is the choice of Real Madrid presidential candidate Eduardo Garcia to replace Juande Ramos at the club if he wins next month’s election. “His greatest virtue is that he controls the dressingroom, generates a team spirit, and . . . likes his teams to play an attractive, attacking game,” Garcia said.

Garcia also stated that a deal was in place to bring Chelsea striker Didier Drogba to the Bernabeu, if he won the poll on June 14th..

St Ledger warns Sheffield Preston are in top form

PRESTON DEFENDER Sean St Ledger has warned Sheffield United his side are approaching peak form ahead of the first leg of their English League Championship play-off semi-final tonight (kick-off: 7.45; Sky Sports 1).

The Lancashire outfit, who have not played top-flight football since 1961, sneaked into the play-offs.

Their 2-1 home win over QPR, coupled with Cardiff’s 1-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, meant Preston leapfrogged the Bluebirds into sixth spot by virtue of having scored one more goal.

Reaching the promised land of the Premier League would complete a remarkable renaissance for a club revived since Alan Irvine quit his post as Everton assistant manager and took the helm at Deepdale in November 2007.

Highly-rated centre-back St Ledger (24), said: “We’ve won the last four on the trot and beaten some really good teams – and it always tends to be the team that comes late that goes up through the play-offs.

St Kieran's Power on the double

St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny 2 Carndonagh Community School 1

ST KIERAN’S College of Kilkenny claimed their first FAI Schools under-16 title yesterday after they came from behind to defeat Carndonagh Community School in the final at Oriel Park.

John Power scored twice for the victors after the Donegal school took the lead against the run of play through Ronan Doherty’s free-kick which deceived goalkeeper Craig Cummins.

Striker Power, the younger brother of Kilkenny hurler Richie, drew the Cats level in stoppage time of the first half when he poked the ball into the bottom corner and scored the winner nine minutes from the end after holding off two defenders and scoring from 10 yards. ST KIERAN’S COLLEGE: Craig Cummins; S Chappell, S Johnston, R Hayes, J Quan; L Hickey, T Kiely-Brennan, S Lowry (T O’Hanrahan 70), D McQuillan; M Drennan, J Power.

CARNDONAGH CS: M McLaughlin; M Shiels, P Doherty, C Burke, C Smith; R McLaughlin, C Keddy, R Doherty, J Coyle (B McLaughlin 50); D McDaid, S Doherty.

Back injury ends Clichy's season 

ARSENAL DEFENDER Gael Clichy has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a back injury, the club have confirmed.

The French full-back sustained the back problem during the Champions League quarter-final first leg at Villarreal on April 7th.

Now, following the club’s exit from the Champions League against Manchester United on Tuesday, Clichy’s season has officially been concluded and he will return for pre-season training in July.

Arsenal mananger Arsene Wenger told the club’s official website, www.arsenal.com: “It is finished [for Gael]. We would have put a little pressure on the recovery period had we gone to the Champions League final. But now we will not take a gamble.”

Brazilian club Flamengo have signed controversial striker Adriano. The 27-year-old returns to the Rio de Janeiro side, where he made his playing debut in 2000, a year before moving to Inter Milan. Adriano had his contract with Inter terminated last month.

Maldini rules out Italy return

AC MILAN’S Paolo Maldini (above) has rejected the chance to make a farewell appearance for Italy in their friendly with Northern Ireland next month.

The 40-year-old, who retires at the end of the season, had expressed interest in adding to his Italian record of 126 caps but said he would not play the June 6th match. “No, I won’t play a farewell game with the national team but I thank the federation for showing willingness,” Maldini said. “I prefer to leave football in an official game.”

Donetsk to face Bremen in Uefa final

Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Dynamo Kiev1 (Shakhtar Donetsk win 3-2 on agg)

SHAKHTAR DONETSK reached their first European final after defeating Ukraine rivals Dynamo Kiev on aggregate in their Uefa Cup semi-final second leg match last night.

After a 1-1 draw in the first leg last week Shakhtar went in front, Rodrigues Jadson steering in from 20 yards. But Dynamo equalised in the 47th minute when Guinea striker Ismael Bangoura side-footed in.

Shakhtar won it in the 89th minute when Junior Ilsinho coolly slotted into the far corner. They will play Werder Bremen in the final in Istanbul on Wednesday May 20th.

Hamburg 2

Werder Bremen 3

(Agg 3-3; Bremen win on away goals)

Werder Bremen fought back from a goal down to beat German rivals Hamburg 3-2 in a thrilling match and will face Shakhtar Donetsk in the Uefa Cup final on May 20th.

Hamburg won last week’s first leg 1-0 and Ivica Olic gave them a flying start to the second when he scored in the 13th minute. But Juventus target Diego equalised soon afterwards for Bremen and Peruvian striker Claudio Pizarro made it 2-1 in the 66th before Frank Baumann stooped to head their third in the 83rd minute. Olic then made it 3-3 on aggregate but Bremen advanced on the away goals rule.