Didier Drogba and Mateja Kezman scored in extra time Sunday, and Chelsea won the League Cup with a 3-2 win over Liverpool.
Drogba poked the ball in from close-range in the 16th minute of extra time from a Glen Johnson throw-in. Kezman added a second goal five minutes later, awkwardly tapping the ball over the line from a Eidur Gudjohnsen cross.
Liverpool pulled a goal back in the 23rd minute of extra time through Antonio Nunez, who headed the ball over Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech in a goalmouth scramble.
PHOTO: AP
Liverpool had gone ahead after just 43 seconds when John Arne Riise scored. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard then scored an own-goal in the 78th to push the game into extra time.
It was the first trophy for Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, who took over the club at the beginning of the season.
Mourinho wasn't there to see the winner -- he was sent off after Gerrard's goal for appearing to incite the crowd. Mourinho put his finger to his mouth as if to tell Liverpool fans behind him to keep quiet. He was then escorted down the tunnel by a match official and watched the rest of the match on television.
It was Chelsea's first trophy since the 2002 FA Cup.
Kieron Dyer scored Newcastle's winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Bolton, while Middlesbrough scrambled to a 2-2 draw against Charlton in the Premier League.
Newcastle, which jumped into 11th place with its fourth victory in 10 days, took the lead in the 35th minute when Lee Bowyer headed in after a one-two with Stephen Carr.
Stelios Giannakopoulos equalized with a volley six minutes later, but Dyer smashed a rebound from Alan Shearer off Bolton defender Bruno N'Gotty and into the roof of the net in the 68th minute.
Bolton stayed in seventh place with the loss.
At Middlesbrough, teenager Danny Graham scored in the 86th minute, four minutes after being sent on as a substitute.
Charlton went ahead through Matt Holland in the 14th, with Chris Riggott leveling in the 74th. Charlton went ahead again in the 80th through Shaun Bartlett before Graham's leveler.
Middlesbrough stayed sixth and Charlton stayed ninth.
Craig Bellamy scored his first Celtic goal as the Hoops advanced to the Scottish Cup semifinals with a 5-0 defeat of lower league Clyde.
Bellamy scored in his second match for Celtic since his loan move from Blackburn last month. Stanislav Varga netted twice, Alan Thompson added a penalty and Stilian Petrov also scored for Celtic.
Celtic lost 2-0 to Rangers last week to fall six points off the Scottish Premier League lead.
"It was good to get a win because we lost against our biggest rivals last week and it means we are through to the next round," Varga said.
Celtic beat Dunfermline 3-1 to win last year's Scottish Cup final.
In the other quarterfinals, Dundee United beat Aberdeen 4-1 off two goals from James Grady and one each from Alan Archibald and Stevie Crawford. Aberdeen scored from Richie Byrne.
Hearts also advanced to the semifinals for the first time in seven years with a 2-1 win over Livingston. Lee Miller and Jamie McAllister gave Hearts a 2-0 halftime lead, with Craig Easton scoring for Livingston.
The semifinals are played April 9-10, with the final on May 28.
Sevilla climbed into third place with a 2-2 draw against visiting Racing Santander.
Brazil forward Julio Baptista gave Sevilla the lead in the 15th minute with his 12th goal of the season, but Santander equalized in the 41st through striker David Aganzo.
Sevilla's Uruguayan substitute Dario Silva nodded home from close range in the 79th, but the visitors drew level again five minutes later courtesy of Uruguayan forward Mario Regueiro's header.
Sevilla will be displaced later Sunday if crosstown rival Real Betis beats defending champion Valencia, where Antonio Lopez will make his debut after replacing the fired Claudio Ranieri.
Also Sunday, Zaragoza downed Villarreal 1-0, Osasuna slumped to a 6-1 defeat against visiting Malaga and Atletico Madrid edged Real Sociedad 1-0.
FC Barcelona, which drew 1-1 with last-place Numancia on Saturday, leads the league with 58 points, followed by Real Madrid with 50. Madrid lost to Deportivo La Coruna 2-0.
Sevilla is next with 42 points, one more than Real Betis and Espanyol.
Atletico downed Real Sociedad and rose to eighth place thanks to midfielder Antonio Lopez's sweeping shot from the edge of the area in the 26th minute.
Sociedad's Brazilian defender Adriano Rossato was ejected for a foul on striker Fernando Torres in injury time.
Athletic Bilbao's game with Getafe was postponed until March 23 because Bilbao was playing its rearranged UEFA Cup second leg with Austria Vienna on Sunday. Austria Vienna won 2-1 and advanced to the last 16.
Schalke kept up the pressure on Bayern Munich by escaping with a 1-0 victory over Hannover on a goal by Mike Hanke.
Stuttgart rallied with a late penalty to earn a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen in the other Sunday match.
Schalke, which survived a late barrage by Hannover in the last few minutes, is equal with Bayern on 47 points but stayed in second on goal difference. Leverkusen and Stuttgart remained fifth and sixth, respectively, with 39 points each.
On Saturday, Sebastian Deisler scored to give Bayern Munich a 1-0 win over Freiburg and keep his team atop the standings.
In other top matches, defending champion Werder Bremen confirmed its third place by crushing struggling Bochum 4-0, and 10-man Hertha Berlin defeated Hamburger SV 4-1 to move into fourth. Bremen has 43 points and Berlin 39, but a better goal difference than either Leverkusen or Stuttgart.
In Gelsenkirchen, Hannover played good defense until the 65th minute, when Schalke earned a free kick.
Lincoln crossed a high ball to the far post, where defender Mladen Krstajic headed back across the goal to Hanke, who had no problem slotting home from close range.
But Hannover didn't give up and was unlucky not to equalize late in the game when Dariusz Zuraw hit the post with a powerful header.
In Leverkusen, Dimitar Berbatov scored in the 80th minute for the hosts, his 12th goal of the season. Cacau replied for Stuttgart by converting a penalty in the 89th.
Jefferson Farfan scored two goals and set up another for Park Ji-sung to lead PSV Eindhoven over SC Heerenveen 3-0.
With the top four teams in the league all winning, PSV leads with 58 points. AZ Alkmaar, which came back to beat Willem II Tilburg 3-1, is second with 54 points, followed by Ajax with 50.
Ajax escaped with a 2-1 win at Roda JC Kerkrade. The team was coached by assistant Ruud Krol, who took over after Ronald Koeman quit Friday after being eliminated from the UEFA Cup.
Fourth-place Feyenoord had some difficulty in overcoming second-to-bottom RBC Roosendaal 3-0. League-leading scorer Dirk Kuyt netted his 21st goal in 23 matches and Salomon Kalou and Shinji Ono added late goals to put a deceptive gloss on the result.
Feyenoord erected high nets behind both goals after fans threw fireworks and cigarette lighters at Sporting Lisbon's goalkeeper during Thursday's UEFA Cup loss.
Defending champion AC Milan ended Inter Milan's 25-match unbeaten streak and possibly its derby rival's title hopes in a 1-0 victory at San Siro stadium.
Brazilian Kaka deflected a drive by teammate Ivan Gattuso off a corner kick in the 74th minute to give AC Milan a prestigious win and first place in the Serie A standings, in a tie with Juventus.
Juventus downed Siena 3-0 at Stadio Delle Alpi to compile 57 points in the table.
In a perfect balance of power, AC Milan equaled Juventus' points, the record of 17-6-3, and the goals differential as well.
Inter's first loss this season after 26 rounds left it 14 points behind the leading duo, in fourth place.
Italian premier and AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi was in the stands to support his team which controlled almost with ease Inter's offensive outbursts.
"There was little thrill and less than impressive play," Berlusconi said. "I believe a draw could have been the fair result."
Inter tried hard in the closing minutes to seek an equalizer when Christian Vieri, Obafemi Martins and Adriano were thrown together up front, but AC Milan's defense based on Alessandro Nesta and veterans Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, withstood the pressure.
Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti praised his defense, which also impressed in last Wednesday's 1-0 win in the Champions League match at Manchester United.
"It was a balanced match, with defenses of both sides prevailing," Ancelotti said. "Ours was especially good."
Laurent Batlle's goal helped Marseille draw 1-1 at home with last-placed Istres but miss a chance to close the gap on first division leader Lyon.
The point moved Marseille above Lille into second spot with 48 points, but eight points behind Lyon, which was chasing a record-equaling fourth straight title.
Senegalese striker Moussa N'Diaye gave Istres a shock lead in the 48th minute, but Batlles leveled in the 56th.
Lille stumbled to 0-0 against visiting Rennes, the team with the worst away record in the top flight. Coach Claude Puel's side has 47 points.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later