Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal insisted his weakened side deserved their 3-2 win over Romanian minnows CFR Cluj to record their third straight Champions League win.
Bayern are now on the verge of the Round of 16 with a perfect nine points after Tuesday’s win as striker Mario Gomez scored his fifth goal in three games.
The hosts were missing a host of stars including Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Breno, Diego Contento, Mark van Bommel, Miroslav Klose plus David Alaba and the lack of star-quality showed.
“We haven’t had much luck this season, but we had a fair bit of it today,” van Gaal said. “It is always difficult if the opponent plays with ten men behind the ball. The midfield played very well and controlled the game.”
“We shouldn’t have conceded the second goal, but we deserved to win,” he said.
BASEL 3, ROMA 1
AFP, ROME
Swiss underdogs FC Basel stunned AS Roma 3-1 in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Tuesday to grab a Champions League lifeline.
Alexander Frei had given the visitors the lead before Marco Borriello equalized, but Samuel Inkoom restored the visitors’ advantage a minute before the break, while substitute Cabral put the cherry on the cake in stoppage time.
The Swiss team, who had lost their first two games, are now level on points with Roma and Romanians CFR Cluj with runaway leaders Bayern Munich seemingly home and dry on a maximum nine points.
It was the first time Basel had ever avoided defeat in Italy and the first time Roma had failed to beat Swiss opposition at home.
It was a further blow in a difficult season for Roma who were in the Serie A relegation zone before last weekend and they were roundly jeered at the final whistle.
Roma coach Claudio Ranieri laid into his team.
“In the first half we were too far apart, not very determined, we didn’t even make one foul, we didn’t win the ball back and I’m also asking why,” he said.
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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
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