CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Chelsea, Inter and Barcelona won to stay on course for the knockout stages though 2005 winners Liverpool only drew at Atletico Madrid in a subdued night of Champions League action on Wednesday.
Following Tuesday’s 36-goal spree, only Barcelona’s 5-0 thrashing of Basel was notable in the goal-scoring stakes.
Chelsea’s 1-0 home victory over AS Roma kept them well on course at the top of Group A, while Inter thanked Brazilian Adriano for their 1-0 win over Cypriots Anorthosis Famagusta leaving them as pacesetters in Group B. Barcelona top Group C.
Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari believed his side were in good form before the return match against AS Roma next month.
“Roma need to pressure us to try to win more than they did today, maybe there we will have more space to play,” Scolari said. “We only have one more Champions League game at home so this was a very important victory.”
England skipper John Terry, who got the 77th minute goal, added: “They made it very difficult for us the whole game but thankfully we got the goal and picked up three points.”
Teen sensation Bojan Krkic scored twice as Barcelona cruised past Basel to keep their 100 percent record.
Goals from star Argentinian striker Lionel Messi, Sergi Busquets, two from Krkic and a fifth from Xavi Hernandez brought Barcelona up to an impressive 10 goals from their three victories.
Italian champions Inter were made to battle all the way by a spirited Anorthosis at the San Siro.
Adriano scored the winner late on in the first half to put Inter in control of the group with seven points from three games.
The Cypriots are still in a position to qualify for the knock-out stages after Panathinaikos and Werder Bremen drew 2-2 in Greece.
Liverpool’s Robbie Keane, yet to score in the Premiership, had put the visitors ahead in the 14th minute for his second Champions League goal at Atletico’s Vicente Calderon stadium.
An 83rd minute goal by Simao was a blow for Liverpool although both they and Atletico have seven points at the top of Group D.
Marseille coach Eric Gerets suffered a nightmare return to former club PSV Eindhoven as the Dutch beat the French club 2-0 to keep their slim Champions League hopes alive.
A double from Danny Koevermans kept Gerets’s side at the bottom of the pool all but ending Marseille’s chances of progressing any further.
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