An early goal for Gonzalo Higuain was enough to give Real Madrid a 1-0 victory over Valencia on Saturday and the first win for Juande Ramos as coach.
Real bounced back from the 2-0 defeat in the El Clasico against Barcelona last weekend to score after just three minutes, with Higuain firing home after good work from Arjen Robben.
“It was very important that we won, we had three points in our hand and if we had only managed a draw in the end it would have been a big problem,” Ramos said.
PHOTO: AFP
In fact, Robben was the key player in the early stages of the match and a constant threat to Valencia, setting up Rafael van de Vaart who hit the post and then he himself saw a shot cleared off the line after he had rounded the keeper.
Valencia, though, gradually came back into the contest and Iker Casillas made a series of stops from David Villa.
In the second half, Real were hanging on, with Casillas parrying a Ruben Baraja strike on to a post, but the pressure eased mid-way through the half following the expulsion of Carlos Marchena for his second yellow card. Real had chances to add to their lead, but Higuain and Juan Guti in particular missed excellent chances.
In Saturday’s late game, Atletico Madrid moved to second spot in the table, eight points behind leaders Barcelona, thanks to a 3-2 victory at Espanyol with the help of two goals from Maxi Rodriguez.
Atletico earned victory in Barcelona, but the home side will have considered themselves unlucky. The visitors went ahead after seven minutes when a Paulo Assuncao shot was blocked and the rebound fell to Maxi Rodriguez who finished clinically.
After a spell of Atletico dominance Espanyol began to press them back, but lacked a finishing edge until the 58th minute when a fine pass from Nicolas Pareja set up Sergio Sanchez to fire home. The pace and skill posed by Maxi and Sergio Aguero were a constant danger for the Espanyol back line and, having missed a couple of excellent chances, Aguero finally found the back of the net with a scrappy goal.
There was still time for two late goals in injury-time, with an excellent Maxi goal followed by a consolation from Valdo Lopes.
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