Villarreal rallied for a 2-2 draw at Hercules on Monday, but missed a chance to go top of the Spanish league for the first time in club history.
Nelson Valdez and Joan Capdevila exchanged goals before David Trezeguet put Hercules 2-1 ahead in the 41st minute. The French striker was sent off just three minutes later for protesting.
Villarreal took advantage in the 63rd to equalize through Borja Valero, who was then sent off with nine minutes to play following a reckless challenge on Royston Drenthe.
Photo: Reuters
Mateo Musacchio lashed out, catching Drenthe in the face with his arm, to see the visitors reduced to nine men a minute later.
Real Madrid lead the table with 17 points after seven rounds, while Villarreal, Barcelona and Valencia all have 16 points and Atletico Madrid are next with 13. Hercules have eight points in 10th.
Hercules again showed they are not to be taken lightly, having already beaten Barcelona and Sevilla this season, and on-loan Real Madrid forward Drenthe created the bulk of the host’s chances with a standout performance.
Photo: AFP
However, it was Villarreal striker Nilmar who nearly opened the scoring at the Jose Rico Perez stadium in the 19th minute, only to be denied by the woodwork.
Valdez notched his third goal of the season in the 26th as Drenthe used some trickery on a free kick before finding the Paraguay striker alone inside the area to shoot past Diego Lopez.
Villarreal answered three minutes later after a good buildup as Angel Lopez’s centering pass skipped through the area to find Capdevila alone at the far post for an easy finish.
Trezeguet then latched on to Drenthe’s centering pass as it bobbled in the area before firing into the roof of net. The veteran striker had little time to celebrate his fourth goal as he was also shown a second yellow card.
Goalkeeper Juan Calatayud got a hand up to deny Nilmar in the 49th before Villarreal finally drew level when Valera beat the offside trap to break free on the right and blast a shot across goal.
Despite being a man down, Hercules had the better chances as Drenthe raced clear on the left in the 71st, but Lopez got a slight touch to his shot to deflect it away.
Santi Cazorla nearly curled into the top corner in the 77th, just before Hercules defender Noe Pamarot missed a great chance with a header in the frantic finish.
Villarreal were soon down to nine men and struggled to contain Drenthe, with goalkeeper Diego Lopez needing to dive to his left to keep the Dutch player’s swerving free kick out of the bottom corner in the 90th minute.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier