Manchester City, making a long-awaited return to the competition, and former European champions Red Star Belgrade got off to flying starts in the UEFA Cup with 5-0 victories in Thursday's qualifiers.
Torpedo Moscow also made their mark in the line-up of 37 games when they were another side to hit five in the first-leg of the qualifying round.
Nikola Zigic scored a hat-trick in the Serbia and Montenegro side's thrashing of Nistru Otaci of Moldova. Nemanja Vidic and Branko Boskovic wrapped up the win for Red Star, who won the European Cup in 1991.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Manchester City, so long in the shadow of local rivals United, were playing their first European match for 24 years when they crushed Welsh part-timers TNS Llansantffraid in the first competitive match at their new City of Manchester Stadium.
England midfielder Trevor Sinclair opened the scoring after 14 minutes and Shaun Wright-Phillips, Chinese defender Sun Jihai, David Sommeil and striker Nicolas Anelka provided the other four goals, all in the second half.
City, who won the Cup Winners Cup in 1970, last played in Europe in the 1978-79 season, when they lost to eventual winners Borussia Moenchengladbach in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
The English premier league side qualified for this season's competition via the Fair Play league after finishing ninth last season.
Steaua Bucharest, European champions in 1986, were held to a 1-1 draw at Neman Grodno in Belarus. The Romanians looked to be heading for defeat when Dmitry Dolya put the home side ahead on 70 minutes before Daniel Oprita got a last-gasp equalizer.
Torpedo Moscow crushed mostly amateur San Marino side Domagnano 5-0 in a game which was also notable for the debut of astro-turf in European club competition.
RC Lens, who finished above Bayern Munich in a Champions League group that also contained Deportivo Coruna AC Milan last season, started well in their UEFA Cup campaign with a 3-0 win over Torpedo Kutaisi of Georgia.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite