Liverpool won their second straight away game in the Champions League, beating PSV Eindhoven 3-0 on Tuesday in their quarter-final first leg match.
Bayern Munich twice came back with goals from Daniel Van Buyten to hold six-time European Cup champion AC Milan to a 2-2 draw, giving the German team two away goals heading into next Wednesday's second leg.
Steven Gerrard, John Arne Riise and Peter Crouch scored for Liverpool.
``We know we are closer [to the semi-finals] now, but in football you need to play every game and really focus and concentrate,'' Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said.
Gerrard jumped over the back of teammate Dirk Kuyt in the 27th minute to head in a cross from Steve Finnan. Kuyt had looked as if he was going for a shot, but he ducked in time for Gerrard to knock the ball past PSV goalkeeper Gomes.
Riise made it 2-0 in the 49th, controlling a poor clearance from Timmy Simons with his chest in the center of the field and then sending a long-range shot past the diving Gomes.
Finnan set up Crouch for the third goal in the 63rd, crossing into the center for the tall England forward to head in. Crouch scored three goals against Arsenal on Saturday in the Premier League in his return from injury.
``We have no chance now,'' PSV coach Ronald Koeman said. ``If I can make my players believe we can still go through I don't belong on this planet.''
Jefferson Farfan, PSV's leading scorer with 17 goals this season, came off at half-time and was replaced by China defender Sun Xiang.
PSV, the 1988 European Cup champion, have not won a match since defender Alex injured his hamstring on March 11 against Excelsior Rotterdam.
``It is painful,'' Simons said. ``I think their players were more disciplined and we made plenty of mistakes.''
Gerrard's goal was his 15th in the European Cup, making him Liverpool's all-time leader in the competition. The Liverpool captain has scored 19 goals in all European competition, trailing only Ian Rush and Michael Owen.
Liverpool also started with an away win in the previous round, beating last year's champions FC Barcelona 2-1. The English team then advanced to the quarter-finals on away goals despite a 1-0 loss at home in the second leg.
Van Buyten first equalized for Bayern in the 78th minute, scoring from close range after picking up a loose ball. He scored his second goal in the third minute of injury time with a volley.
``We deserved the draw given the way we fought until the very end,'' Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said.
Andrea Pirlo gave Milan the lead in the 40th by looping a header over Bayern goalkeeper Michael Rensing.
Rensing, who was making only his second Champions League appearance, started in place of regular goalkeeper Oliver Kahn. The Bayern captain was banned from Tuesday's game for improper conduct after throwing his urine sample during a doping test after his team's win over Real Madrid in the previous round.
``Milan were definitely the better team in the first half and Rensing was truly excellent,'' Hitzfeld said.
Kaka again put Milan ahead in the 84th from the penalty spot after Lucio had seemingly brought down the Brazil playmaker.
``The team deserved to win for what it did,'' Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said. ``Bayern has a better chance of qualifying now but I think we were the better team. We need to regroup.''
Replays clearly showed that Lucio cleared the ball correctly, however, and Kaka scored after vehement arguments from Bayern.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed