■GREECE
Greens beat PAOK 4-1
Panathinaikos beat PAOK 4-1 in the league playoffs for European competition on Sunday, moving closer to a place in the Champions League qualifiers. Giorgos Karagounis, Brazilian defender Gabriel, Dimitris Salpingidis and Antonis Petropoulos scored for Panathinaikos, while Ilias Anastasakos notched PAOK’s consolation goal. The win, combined with a 0-0 draw for AEK at Larissa, brought Panathinaikos closer to winning the four-team playoffs and gaining a berth in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League. Two other teams will play in the second-tier Europa League. After five rounds, Panathinaikos leads with 15 points, followed by AEK with 12, PAOK with six and Larissa with one.
■BELGIUM
Liege retain title
Standard Liege retained the title on Sunday with a 1-0 win over Anderlecht in a playoff decider that guaranteed them a spot in the group phase of next season’s Champions League. Liege’s Axel Witsel scored a decisive penalty five minutes before halftime after Anderlecht’s Victor Bernardez was adjudged to have brought down Dieumerci Mbokani. The two teams finished the season level on 77 points last weekend to force a playoff as the title cannot be won on goal difference. Thursday’s first leg at Anderlecht ended 1-1. Liege dethroned Brussels-based Anderlecht last term to claim their first Belgian first division crown in 25 years. They have now taken their overall tally to 10. Anderlecht will go into the third qualifying round of the competition. Third-placed Club Bruges and Ghent, who came fourth, will play in the Europa League along with cup winners Racing Genk.
■DENMARK
Copenhagen win No. 7
FC Copenhagen won their seventh title on Sunday following a 1-0 victory at Esbjerg with one game remaining in the premiership season. Copenhagen won thanks to a late first-half penalty by Brazilian Cesar Santin that took them to 73 points. Runners-up Brondby lost 1-0 at Aarhus to stay on 68 points before the final round of matches next week. Copenhagen will enter next season’s Champions League qualification second round. The win completed Copenhagen’s second double in five years after they won the Danish Cup final on Thursday, 1-0 against Aalborg.
■EGYPT
‘Red Devils’ take title
An early Flavio Amado goal gave Al-Ahly a 1-0 victory over Ismailia Sunday in the championship play-off. It was the fifth consecutive title for the Cairo “Red Devils” and a fitting farewell to Portuguese coach Manuel Jose, who takes charge of next year’s African Nations Cup hosts Angola next month. Ironically, the goal was created and executed by Angolans with diminutive Flavio rising above “minder” Moatassem Salem to steer a Felisberto “Gilberto” Amaral free kick past goalkeeper Mohamed Sobhi.
■BRAZIL
Clash leaves 30 injured
A clash between fans before a league match left about 30 people injured and 158 were detained. Authorities said fans used bricks, stones and pieces of wood in the brief confrontation before the scoreless draw between Palmeiras and Sao Paulo at Palestra Italia stadium on Sunday. Police officer Adelino Sobrinho said that about 400 fans participated in the violence, which was organized by fans from both teams in online communities. All injuries were minor and most of those detained were released after they were questioned.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later