■CHILE
Fluminense, Liga in semis
Fluminense striker Fred scored the lone goal to give the Brazilian side a 1-0 win over Universidad de Chile and a semi-finals berth in the Copa Sudamericana on Thursday. Ecuadorean club Liga de Quito also advanced to the final four with a 2-1 win at home over Velez Sarsfield of Argentina in the day’s other quarter-final. Fluminense will face Cerro Porteno of Paraguay and Liga will play Uruguayan club River Plate. Fluminense secured the win when Fred rose above his marker to head home Maicon’s cross in the 60th minute. At Quito, reigning Argentine league champions Velez Sarsfield took the lead over Liga through a Hernan Lopez goal in the 43rd minute. Liga came back strongly in the second period. Enrique Vera flicked a free-kick in off the post to equalize in the 69th minute and Carlos Espinola scored the winner in the 76th minute.
■SCOTLAND
Rangers charged by UEFA
Glasgow Rangers were on Thursday charged with the improper conduct of their supporters following disturbances during Wednesday’s Champions League match against Unirea Urziceni in Bucharest. The UEFA charge follows scuffles that occurred at halftime of the match which ended 1-1, with supporters shown on TV destroying seats while police used tear gas to quell the trouble. UEFA’s control and disciplinary body will deal with the case on Thursday. “As far as we can establish at the moment, it seems there were a number of Rangers supporters who came late into the stadium and we need to find out why,” a UEFA spokesman told the BBC. “Then there was an issue about where they were going to sit, as apparently there were banners already placed there, which resulted in the request to remove some banners, which seems to have ended in a clash between stewards and some supporters.”
■SPAIN
Ronaldo out for two weeks
Real Madrid’s Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo will be out of action for at least another two weeks, the club said on Thursday after a doctor in Amsterdam examined his injured ankle. It said new tests by his former doctor, Cornelius Nicolas van Dijk, “confirmed the diagnosis given by the medical team of Real Madrid obtained after MRI and CT scans” on Tuesday. Ronaldo will be unavailable to play for Portugal in their World Cup qualifying matches against Bosnia.
■URUGUAY
Lodeiro gets the call
Nacional’s exciting young midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro was named on Thursday in a 26-man Uruguay squad for the World Cup playoff against Costa Rica. The uncapped 20-year-old, who has helped Nacional to the top of the Uruguayan Apertura championship, is among six home-based players coach Oscar Washington Tabarez have added to the list of exiles he named last week. Tabarez has dropped three of those exiles, defender Carlos Valdez, midfielder Jorge Martinez and forward Edinson Cavani, for the two-legged playoff in San Jose next Saturday and in Montevideo four days later.
■SLOVENIA
Kek sticks to same squad
Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek decided to stick with an unchanged squad on Thursday for the World Cup playoff against Russia. Kek’s 21-man squad contained no surprises, with backup goalkeeper Aleksander Seliga the only addition from the previous qualifiers. Slovenia finished second in qualifying Group 3 and are trying to reach their second World Cup.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite