A stoppage-time own goal by Gerard Pique denied Barcelona the spoils in a 1-1 draw at Osasuna on Saturday as the champions saw their lead over Real Madrid cut to a single point.
Barca looked poised to win in Pamplona after Seydou Keita followed up his hat-trick against Real Zaragoza last weekend with a 73rd-minute strike, but with seconds left former Manchester United man Pique diverted a cross into his own net.
Barcelona now face a trip to Russia to take on Rubin Kazan in Wednesday’s Champions League match and will need no warning about a potential slip-up, having lost 2-1 to the Russians at Camp Nou in their last European match.
On the domestic front unbeaten Barca stay top, though, 10-men Real closed in with a 2-0 home win over Getafe courtesy of a brace from Gonzalo Higuain.
Sevilla stayed in touch with the leading duo by winning 2-0 at Xerez.
Recently-capped Spanish international Alvaro Negredo and Brazil striker Luis Fabiano were on target as Sevilla closed to within four points of Barca.
Elsewhere, new Atletico Madrid coach Quique Sanchez Flores got off to a losing start on his league bow falling 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao.
Highly rated Javi Martinez, 21, scored on 19 minutes to keep Atletico fourth from bottom and dent confidence further ahead of Tuesday’s vital Champions League home match against Chelsea.
It is a crunch week for Atletico, who need to beat Chelsea to have any chance of qualifying for the knockout phase and then prepare for a derby against Real Madrid at the Vicente Calderon.
Osasuna were the last team to beat Barcelona in the league, winning 1-0 at Camp Nou on the penultimate weekend of last season, and they stole a draw at the death when Pique haplessly put the ball past Valdes for a painful own goal.
Barca now turn their attention to the Champions League, while Real must focus on a testing Champions League trip to AC Milan tomorrow and then another derby against Atletico.
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
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Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
TECH ISSUES: Before Sinner’s match against Diallo the lights went out at the courts, and during it the electronic line-calling system partly failed and an alarm sounded Jannik Sinner on Monday ignored technical issues interruptions and a blaring alarm to defeat Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) on a day of distractions at the Cincinnati Open. The top-seeded defending champion got down to business against the 35th-ranked Canadian, who was plagued by eight first-set double faults and 49 unforced errors in the match as he faced the best in the world. Sinner recovered smoothly from an early break down and had his hands full on his way into the fourth round, sending over an ace on match point after saving a set point in the tiebreaker. Play was stopped briefly with
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