Barcelona’s chances of winning the Spanish title looked doomed on Saturday after a 0-0 draw in the local derby with Espanyol.
“We haven’t thrown in the towel but we need to win the next matches and I’m going to motivate them to win the next game,” Barca coach Frank Rijkaard said.
Despite dominating the game for long periods, the Spanish giants failed to find the net in their Camp Nou stadium thanks to a combination of poor finishing and solid defending from Espanyol.
“It’s a disappointment because we had chances, we didn’t score but we also had some bad luck,” Rijkaard said.
Real Madrid now have an eight-point advantage over Barca at the top and a game in hand.
The 30-time Spanish champions could have this season’s league title wrapped up by the time Barca visit the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on May 7.
Barcelona had a purple patch in the middle of the first half but Xavi Hernandez, Gianluca Zambrotta and Samuel Eto’o couldn’t convert good opportunities. Even the introduction of the often-inspirational Lionel Messi at half-time failed to break the deadlock.
Barca pressed hard for almost the entire second half but were unable to break down a resilient Espanyol, marshalled by their in-form keeper Carlos Kameni.
Espanyol, for their part, ended a four-game losing streak.
Atletico Madrid put together one of their worst home performances of the season on Saturday when they went down 3-1 to Real Betis.
Jose Mari Romero’ thunderbolt from the edge of the area after 14 minutes was only parried by Atletico goalkeeper Leo Franco and Juande Prados was in the right place at the right time to open the scoring for Betis.
Atletico equalized 11 minutes later thanks to a screaming shot from 25m out from Kun Aguero.
However, Betis clinched their third consecutive away win thanks to second-half goals from Xisco Munoz and Jesus Capitan.
Sevilla’s chances of returning to the Champions League took a hit when they slumped to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Almeria.
Dani Alves headed the ball into his own net midway through the first half to give Almeria the lead.
Things went from bad to worse after the break with Alvaro Negredo getting two goals and Juanma Ortiz another, before Fredi Kanoute got a consolation strike for Sevilla.
At the other end of the table, two goals from Ricardo Oliveira helped Real Zaragoza beat fellow strugglers Recreativo Huelva 3-0.
The result means that Zaragoza and Recreativo swap places with the former climbing out of the relegation zone and the latter slipping into the bottom three.
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
Defender Steph Catley says her UEFA Women’s Champions League title win with Arsenal last week will act as motivation to secure continental glory with Australia when the country hosts the Women’s Asian Cup next year. Catley and compatriots Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross were part of the Arsenal squad that defeated Barcelona in Lisbon on Sunday last week, before flying to Melbourne to feature in the Matildas’ 2-0 win over Argentina on Friday. The game was the first in a two-match series against the South Americans as the Australians continue preparations for the continental championship in March next year, when they would
RSS