Ivan Helguera scored to lead Real Madrid over Juventus 1-0 in the Champions League knockout round on Tuesday as Europe's elite club competition resumed in freezing conditions after a two-month break.
Helguera scored in the 31st minute off an inswinging David Beckham free kick as the nine-time champion claimed the advantage ahead of the return leg in Turin in two weeks.
PHOTO: AP
German and English clubs split their two head-to-head encounters. Claudio Pizzaro scored in each half as Bayern Munich trounced Arsenal 3-1, while Liverpool beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 with goals from Luis Garcia, John Arne Riise and Dietmar Hamann.
PSV Eindhoven beat last season's runner-up Monaco 1-0.
At the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid also twice hit the post as coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo made his Champions League lead debut with a victory. Luxemburgo, Madrid's third coach this season, took charge of the team in December.
"We played a good game. We would have liked a second goal. The opponent was very good, very strong defensively," Madrid midfielder Zinedine Zidane said.
Both sides sustained injuries. Michel Salgado limped off for Madrid in the ninth minute with a knee injury after a collision with Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved, who was carried off 26 minutes later after a colliding heads with Salgado's replacement, Raul Bravo.
The match, a replay of the 1998 Champions League final, was attended by Spain's King Juan Carlos and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
In Munich, Pizarro scored in the fourth and 58th minutes, while Hasan Salihamidzic added another in the 51st. A late Arsenal goal from Kolo Toure gave the London club some hope of advancing to the quarterfinals.
The match was billed as a fight between Germany's top two goalkeepers -- current No. 1 Oliver Kahn of Bayern Munich, and his rival Jens Lehmann at Arsenal.
Four-time champion Liverpool coped with the absence of influential midfielder Steven Gerrard with a 3-1 win at Anfield.
Franca scored in injury time for Leverkusen, which hasn't won in England in six attempts.
"Shame about the end, but the problem is when you are winning 3-0 in the last minute and you concede a goal, it's a pity, but other than that it's good," Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said.
Spanish league leader FC Barcelona hosts English front-runner Chelsea today as Manchester United faces AC Milan.
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
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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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB