Print

Mail

wiki links

Blackburn secures draw

Blackburn's Paul Dickov, right, holds off Birmingham City's Robbie Savage at Ewood Park in Blackburn, Sunday. PHOTO: EPA

Blackburn recovered from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Birmingham in the Premier League on Sunday, but stayed bottom of the standings.

Matt Jansen scored the opener for Blackburn at Ewood Park in the fourth minute off a Paul Dickov cross.

Birmingham took a 3-1 halftime lead through goals from Darren Anderton in the 17th, Robbie Savage in the 38th and former Blackburn player David Dunn in injury time. Birmingham had only scored eight goals in 12 previous league matches.

Blackburn pulled a goal back in the 57th through Steven Reid and drew level six minutes later. Paul Gallagher, who replaced Jansen at halftime, helped the ball over the line after lead up work from Dickov.

"I'm a little frustrated because I know we can play better," Blackburn manager Mark Hughes said. "Possibly a draw was a fair result after the way we defended in the first half."

Birmingham moved up one place to 14th, while Blackburn is bottom on goal difference from West Bromwich Albion.

Hughes was confident the club would get out of the relegation zone.

Chelsea leads the league with 33 points, with Arsenal on 31 and Everton 29 after 13 matches.

Saturday, Chelsea blew a two goal lead and was held 2-2 by Bolton and Arsenal unexpectedly dropped two points in a 1-1 tie with struggling West Brom.

Damien Duff scored after only 37 seconds at Stamford Bridge and Portuguese midfielder Cardoso Tiago added a second for the Blues.

Kevin Davies replied when Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech missed a Gary Speed free kick. Tunisian international Radhi Jaidi captured a point for Bolton with an equalizer three minutes from the end.

Third place Everton moved closer to Arsenal with a 1-0 beating of Fulham with Duncan Ferguson scoring the only goal.

Manchester United cruised to a 2-0 victory over Charlton with long overdue strikes by Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes to move up to fifth.

In other results, Newcastle won 2-0 at Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough beat Liverpool 2-0 and Manchester City won 3-1 at Portsmouth.

Norwich won its first game of the season with a 2-1 win over Southampton.

Brazilian forward Julio Baptista scored his sixth goal of the season Sunday to help give Sevilla a 1-0 victory over Espanyol and third place in the Spanish league.

Baptista later missed a chance to add another goal when his penalty was saved.

Sevilla won for the first time in four games, while Espanyol missed a chance to move into second place.

"Sevilla played a magnificent match. We created lots of chances, which meant we left space and yet Espanyol didn't have a single opportunity to score," Sevilla coach Joaquin Caparros said.

FC Barcelona leads the league with 29 points, seven ahead of Real Madrid. Sevilla has 21, one more than Espanyol. Valencia, Atletico, Levante and Deportivo La Coruna all have 19.

Mallorca beat Zaragoza for its first victory in 10 league matches and move out of last place.

Wolfsburg fell out of the Bundesliga lead for the first time in a month Sunday, losing 3-1 to Hamburg SV despite a goal by Thomas Brdaric after only 19 seconds -- the fastest goal this season.

Brdaric tapped in from short distance after three quick passes following the opening whistle caught Hamburg unprepared.

But Hamburg recoved with goals by Daniel van Buyten, Sergei Barbarez and Bernardo Romeo for its fourth victory in six matches since Thomas Doll replaced Klaus Toppmoeller as coach last month.

Combined with Bayern Munich's 3-1 victory over Kaiserslautern, Wolfsburg fell to second place, two points behind Bayern, after its fourth straight loss away from home.

PSV Eindhoven beat Vitesse Arnhem 2-0 to maintain a five-point lead atop the Dutch Eredivisie Sunday, earning its 10th-straight shutout in a game that was suspended 15 minutes for unruly fan behavior.

Referee Ruud Bossen cleared the field midway through the second half after he had red-carded Vitesse defender Michael Dingsdag, and Vitesse fans began chanting insults at Bossen.

Eindhoven remained the only unbeaten team in the Dutch first division, improving to 35 points through 13 rounds. Eindhoven has not allowed a goal in league play since a 2-2 draw against NAC Breda on Aug. 28.

AZ Alkmaar remained in second place after its 3-0 victory over RKC Waalwijk on Saturday, while Norwegian striker Erik Nevland scored twice in FC Gronigen's 2-1 upset of Feyenoord on Sunday that dropped the Rotterdam club nine points off the lead in third place.

Simao Sabrosa scored twice in the first 22 minutes and Benfica played to a 3-3 draw against Rio Ave on Sunday, pulling even on points with FC Porto atop the Portuguese first division.

Porto, which lost 1-0 to Boavista on Saturday, remained ahead on tiebreakers.

Sporting played to a 2-2 draw against Beira-Mar.

A 16-year-old Turkish soccer fan was stabbed to death Sunday during a fight between Besiktas fans at halftime of the team's match against Rizespor, reports said.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the brawl at the Inonu Stadium, which the Anatolia news agency said occurred between two groups of Besiktas at halftime, when Rizespor was leading 1-0. The match ended 2-2.

Cihat Aktas was stabbed in the chest and abdomen during the fight and died at a local hospital, the Anatolia said.

At the end of the match, police barricaded the exits near where the incident occurred and detained one suspect, the Anatolia news agency said.

In April 2000, two English soccer fans were killed in street clashes in downtown Istanbul before Leeds played Galatasaray in a UEFA Cup semifinal. Turkey's government has pledged to crack down on soccer violence.
This story has been viewed 2660 times.