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Liverpool, Sao Paulo in club final

Liverpool's Steven Gerrard, right, fires the ball past Deportivo Saprissa's Gabriel Badilla to score during the FIFA World Club Championship semifinal in Yokohama, Japan, yesterday. Liverpool won 3-0 and will meet Brazil's Sao Paulo in the final on Sunday. PHOTO: AP

Liverpool eased past Costa Rica's Deportivo Saprissa 3-0 in Yokohama yesterday to set up a final with Brazil's Sao Paulo in FIFA's Club World Championship.

Peter Crouch scored twice and captain Steven Gerrard was also on target as the European champions set a new club record of 11 successive clean sheets in all competitions.

Liverpool take on South American champions Sao Paulo in Sunday's final in Yokohama.

Liverpool took control of the game in only the second minute when Crouch applied a clinical finish after being set up by John Arne Riise.

Gerrard added a second in the 32nd minute, volleying another Riise delivery superbly past Saprissa goalkeeper Jose Porras from 20 meters.

Crouch pounced on a defensive error to slide home his second of the game in the 58th minute to underline Liverpool's complete dominance in front of a 44,000 crowd.

Liverpool's shut-out of Saprissa surpassed the mark of 10 clean sheets set by Kenny Dalglish's title winners of 1987-1988.

Japan has proved a happy hunting ground for Sao Paulo, who won the World Club Cup -- the tournament's forerunner, involving the champions of Europe and South America -- in 1992 and 1993.

UEFA Cup

Russian UEFA Cup titleholders CSKA Moscow were left without their crown on Wednesday after finishing bottom of their group and with no entry to the last 32 of the competition.

What was worse was that the first-ever Russian winners of a Eur-opean title had to sit helplessly by as they did not have a match as unheralded Dutch side Heerenveen got the result they required by beating already-qualified Levski Sofia 2-1.

French outfit Marseille had also already qualified but they disposed of Dinamo Bucharest 2-1 and that result left the Romanians out in the cold in fourth place.

Bolton ensured they stayed in the hunt on their maiden campaign in Europe by drawing 1-1 at home to Spanish side Sevilla.

Bolton opened the scoring as substitute Bruno N'Gotty got them off the mark in the 65th minute, the veteran French central defender -- a winner of the now defunct Cup Winners Cup with Paris Saint Germain in 1996 -- shooting home from Khalilou Fadiga's corner.

It took the Spanish visitors just nine minutes to square the match as Claro Adriano Correia fired home from just inside the penalty area, beating Walker easily.

Roma made sure there would be no humiliating first round exit for them as they scored three times in the opening 50 minutes against FC Basel of Switzerland.

Rodrigo Tadei opened the hosts' account in the 14th minute, then Italian glamor boy Francesco Totti made it 2-0 before half-time and former Monaco marksman Shabani Nonda made it 3-0 after the break.

Premier League

Wayne Rooney scored twice and Rio Ferdinand grabbed his first goal for Manchester United in a 4-0 rout of Wigan Athletic which pushed the Old Trafford club up to second in the Premier League on Wednesday.

Knocked out of the Champions League a week ago and held to a 1-1 home draw by Everton last Sunday, United made the early running against Wigan.

In the night's other game, West Ham United beat Everton 2-1 at Goodison Park.

The victory by Manchester United, which took their tally to 34 points from 16 games, helped Alex Ferguson's men leapfrog Liverpool into second place, nine points behind leaders Chelsea.

Promoted Wigan, on 25 points, dropped one place to eighth.

At Goodison, James Beattie gave Everton a ninth-minute lead before West Ham hit back through David Weir (own goal) and Bobby Zamora.

West Ham rose to seventh in the table while Everton stayed 15th.

Keane signs for Celtic

Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has signed for Celtic until June 2007, the Scottish club said yesterday.

The 34-year-old Irish midfielder left United last month after 12 years at Old Trafford.

According to newspaper reports Keane will earn ?40,000 (US$70,940) a week at Celtic, the club he has supported all his life, and can make his debut against Hearts on Jan. 1.

The former Nottingham Forest player was linked with a number of other clubs including Real Madrid, Bolton Wanderers and Everton.
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