Liverpool ensured it was an unhappy return for former manager Gerard Houllier with a comfortable 3-0 Premier League win over Aston Villa at Anfield on Monday.
David Ngog and Ryan Babel’s first-half strikes and a tidy Maxi Rodriguez goal sealed victory for Roy Hodgson’s side and lifted them to eighth in the league table. Villa stayed 16th.
The match was a first competitive return to Anfield for Frenchman Houllier who left Liverpool in 2004 after six years as manager having won five trophies in 2001. It was not to be a memorable one, though, as Liverpool raced into an early lead with two quickfire goals.
The first came from a corner on 14 minutes when Ngog dived on to a Martin Skrtel header to beat goalkeeper Brad Friedel from close range and the hosts were two up minutes later.
Babel, replacing the absent Fernando Torres whose wife had just gone into labor, latched on to a Lucas through ball on the edge of the box before swiveling to finish sweetly from an angle.
Liverpool, also without injured defender Jamie Carragher and captain Steven Gerrard, added a third 10 minutes after the break when Rodriguez calmly swept home an incisive counterattack.
The defeat prolonged a poor spell for Villa who have won just once in 10 league matches and hardly created a clear-cut goalscoring chance at Anfield.
Defenders Glen Johnson and Sotirios Kyrgiakos went close to stretching Liverpool’s lead, the latter having a header cleared off the line.
Houllier, who has also managed France and Ligue 1 sides Paris Saint Germain and Olympique Lyon, was appointed Villa boss in September.
NAPOLI V PALERMO
REUTERS, MILAN, ITALY
Christian Maggio netted five minutes into stoppage time to give fourth-placed Napoli a 1-0 win over Palermo on Monday in the final Serie A match for almost two weeks unless a players’ strike is avoided.
Hosts Napoli, who moved level on points with Juventus in third, went close through former Palermo striker Edinson Cavani and finally made the breakthrough when the Uruguayan set up Maggio for almost the last kick of the match.
The game was billed as a battle of the South Americans between Cavani and Palermo teammate Javier Pastore and his fellow Argentine Ezequiel Lavezzi of Napoli, who went off injured, but in the end an Italian settled matters.
Serie A players are due to strike this weekend in a dispute with the league over a new collective contract, with the union refusing to agree to plans to force unwanted soccer players to train away from the first team squad or accept a transfer.
The soccer federation were to hold the latest in a series of talks yesterday in a bid to stop the unpopular strike, which several players have said is not a good idea given Italy’s economic plight and the large wages soccer players receive.
Media and angry fans have also said the industrial action would be an own goal for the players’ union, who have left the door open for a possible late compromise.
DEPORTIVO V HERCULES
AP, A CORUNA, SPAIN
Nouioui Lassad’s second-half goal saw a defensive Deportivo La Coruna squeak out a 1-0 victory over Hercules in Spain on Monday.
Neither club created many --clear-cut chances at El Riazor stadium, but the Galicians finally broke through in the 73rd-minute through striker Lassad. Hercules rarely even tested the Deportivo goal.
Deportivo improved to 17 points, while Hercules stayed on 15 points.
Barcelona leads the league table with 37 points after 14 rounds.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB