A hat-trick by Real Madrid’s iconic striker Raul was not enough to save them from exiting the Spanish Cup on Tuesday despite a 4-3 second leg victory over third division Real Union.
Eneko Romo’s last-minute goal stunned Madrid in one of the greatest upsets in the competition’s history as the Basque club progressed thanks to the away goal rule having beaten Real 3-2 in the first leg in Irun.
The 17-times Cup winners made a lethargic start and were soon behind after striker Abasolo was left unmarked to fire past goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.
PHOTO: EPA
Raul equalized with a looping header before the break and scored again just after the restart.
He tapped in from Javier Saviola’s pass a minute after Salcedo had sprinted clear to put Union back in front 2-1.
Madrid substitute Alberto Bueno swept in a glorious 25m shot to level the tie on aggregate and Raul looked to have sealed the win when he completed his hat-trick, his cross sailing past everyone and into the net with four minutes to go.
But Madrid’s were caught out at the end when Romo struck.
The Spanish giants will be asking questions of their defense which was largely a first choice one save the absence of goalkeeper Iker Casillas — who was replaced by Jerzy Dudek — with Italy World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro leading the line.
Their recent habit of conceding a lot of goals at home — eight in their last three matches — left their German coach Bernd Schuster non-plussed.
“I have no idea,” said Schuster, who guided them to the title last season, in answer to the leaking of goals.
“I am not worried [about the amount of goals] but I understand that other people might well be and have doubts about my work,” he said. “That would be logical seeing what has happened.”
However, Schuster said that his side had not merited going out.
“We have gone out because of one goal. It is not that they dominated us, that is actually what is worrying,” the German said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier