Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 both warmed up in poor fashion for crunch Champions League clashes tomorrow as they were both beaten at home in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Werder Bremen are at home to Dutch side FC Twente in Group A, but they were beaten 3-2 at home by Nuremberg. Likewise, Schalke are at Hapoel Tel Aviv in Group B, but they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Bayer Leverkusen — die Konigs-blauen’s sixth defeat in 10 games.
Bremen need to beat the Dutch titleholders at home tomorrow at the Weserstadion to keep their dreams of the round-of-16 alive and close the gap behind Group A leaders Inter and second-placed Tottenham Hotspur, but they squandered a possible chance to go third and slumped to their fourth defeat of the season.
“After the early opening goal, we suddenly stopped being as threatening and dangerous,” Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said. “In the second half, we just made it too easy for our opponents.”
Bremen took an early lead when Hugo Almeida was left unmarked at the far post and Germany winger Marko Marin found him with an accurate cross, the Portugal striker heading home after just five minutes.
However, Nuremberg fought back when midfielder Ilkay Guendogan scored just before halftime, then fellow midfielder Mehmet Ekici put the guests ahead on 47 minutes.
Nuremberg had numerous chances to extend their lead and scored their third goal when Guen-dogan scored his third goal in two games, drilling in his shot on 73 minutes to compound Bremen’s misery.
Werder’s Claudio Pizarro pulled back a consolation goal in the 92nd minute, but it failed to save Bremen’s blushes.
Later on Saturday, Schalke also prepared for their trip to Israel by slumping to their sixth defeat as they lost 1-0 at home to Leverkusen.
The defeat keeps them second from bottom, while Leverkusen go third after midfielder Sidney Sam hit the winner in the 65th minute.
“This has been a difficult start,” Schalke’s Spanish striker Raul said. “We are lacking a good performance in the Bundesliga. We had our chances, but we are not scoring enough goals. That would have given us security and confidence, but instead we are afraid.”
Eintracht Frankfurt went fourth after their 3-1 win at St Pauli.
Veteran Greece striker Theofanis Gekas scored twice to take him onto nine goals and become the league’s top scorer after 10 games.
VfL Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko also netted twice in his side’s 2-0 win over VfB Stuttgart, while Hamburg SV were upset 3-2 at Cologne as Milivoje Novakovic scored a hat-trick.
Also on Saturday, Kasierslautern beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-0 at the Fritz Walter Stadion.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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