All eyes in Spain will be on Real Betis today to see if the southern club can defy their status as relegation candidates and stop Real Madrid all but wrapping up the title by Easter.
Real smashed seven goals past Valladolid last weekend to march eight points clear of a jaded-looking Barcelona, who must wait a few more days before they can welcome back talismanic striker Samuel Eto'o from injury.
A week ago, questions were briefly being asked of Real after their limp showing at Almeria culminated in a third league defeat of the campaign, but the Valladolid canter proved an emphatic response by Bernd Schuster's men.
Barca's draw with Sevilla, Betis' city neighbors, was the Catalan club's sixth of the season and without African Cup of Nations star Eto'o during the past month they have lacked a killer touch.
The club said on Thursday the Cameroon hotshot may be fit for next week's Champions League match at Celtic despite suffering a thigh twinge in Sunday's Nations Cup final defeat to Egypt.
Barcelona also have problems with Ronaldinho, who has struggled for form, while French striker Thierry Henry has likewise been out of sorts.
Henry insisted on Thursday he was only following the orders of coach Frank Rijkaard in playing wide much of the time.
"The coach tells me to play on the flank and I do," said the former Arsenal star.
Weekend rivals Zaragoza, 10th in the table, have every incentive to land the three points as a win would take them to the fringes of the European places.
If Real and Barca are already out on their own in the title race, Villarreal and Atletico Madrid will be out to pull up the trapdoor beneath them to hold onto the other two Champions League berths.
Villarreal, currently six points behind Barca but one ahead of Atletico, must get past sixth-placed Racing Santander today, while Atletico's task appears the easier one as they host struggling Athletic Bilbao.
Elsewhere, Espanyol could break into the top four if they beat seventh-placed Sevilla at home today, while, in other games, Valencia will bid to build on a win at Valladolid which ended a miserable league run of nine games without a victory.
That success was welcome relief for Dutch coach Ronald Koeman, who has only been in the job three months.
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
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
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