AC Milan’s veteran Italian striker Filippo Inzaghi grabbed his 65th career European goal to dent Portsmouth’s UEFA Cup ambitions in a 2-2 draw on Thursday as Manchester City and Tottenham eased to victory.
Portsmouth, in their first season of European soccer, were cruising at 2-0 in their Group E clash at Fratton Park after goals from Younes Kaboul and Kanu.
But substitute Ronaldinho pulled one back with a fabulous free-kick in the 84th minute before poacher Inzaghi struck in the second minute of injury time to put Milan, who now have seven points, into the knockout stages.
PHOTO: AFP
“We are struggling to put teams to bed, but they have some excellent players and if you switch off, they punish you,” Portsmouth boss Tony Adams said.
Manchester City made it two wins out of two in Group A with an assured 2-0 victory over Germany’s Schalke 04 in Gelksenkirchen, which followed their opening 3-2 victory against FC Twente.
Paris St Germain’s 2-2 draw with Racing Santander in the same pool meant Mark Hughes’ City are assured of a place in the next round.
PHOTO: AP
City took the lead on the half-hour mark when Daniel Sturridge’s cross was sidefooted home by Zimbabwean striker Benjani Mwaruwari to stun the majority of the 60,000-strong crowd.
In-form midfielder Stephen Ireland tucked away the second in the 65th minute.
The result follows City’s convincing 3-0 victory at home to Arsenal at the weekend, and Hughes feels his side are in fine fettle ahead of tomorrow’s derby meeting with Manchester United.
“It’s been a great week,” he said. “It started off very well, beating Arsenal, and we’ve carried on with a great performance here and that leads us very nicely into a certain game at the weekend.”
Tottenham enjoyed a 1-0 win at Dutch side NEC Nijmegen with Jamie O’Hara’s 14th-minute header proving the clincher after Fraizer Campbell had hit the bar.
Harry Redknapp’s side now have six points from three Group D games, which should be enough to see through.
“The pitch wasn’t particularly good,” Redknapp said. “It was difficult to really pass the ball but we were strong and solid and I never felt in any danger. Six points is job done.”
In Group H, CSKA Moscow beat Lech Poznan of Poland 2-1 to make sure of their place in the knockout stages.
Alan Dzagoev and Yuri Zhirkov’s first-half goals secured CSKA’s third successive win with Semir Stilic hitting a late consolation for the Poles.
In Group G, French side St Etienne also reached the last 32 after a 1-1 draw with Bruges, but the match was overshadowed by fighting between the two sets of fans in the Belgian city.
The top three teams in each of the eight groups go through to the knockout stage where they will be joined by the eight third-place finishers from the opening round of the Champions League.
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