Schalke 04 secured first place in Champions League Group B when goals by winger Jose Manuel Jurado and defender Benedikt Howedes gave them a 2-1 win over a tame Benfica on Tuesday.
Benfica were disappointing throughout, but Lyon’s late equalizer in the 2-2 draw against Hapoel Tel Aviv in the night’s other Group B game meant the Portuguese champions finished third and grabbed a Europa League place.
The German team scored with their first real chance of the game when Ivan Rakitic’s cross was chested down by Raul for his fellow Spaniard Jurado to fire in on 19 minutes, with a static Benfica defence caught ball-watching.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Schalke doubled their lead in the 81st minute when Howedes beat an offside trap after a corner to finish coolly from near the penalty spot before Luisao headed in a consolation goal for the hosts.
Lacking aggression going forward, Benfica’s sole clear chance in the first half was a fierce long-distance effort by midfielder Carlos Martins that went just wide.
The Lisbon club have failed to repeat last season’s impressive performances and the fans, already unhappy that the side are eight points adrift of Porto in the domestic league, made their point by booing the team during parts of the game.
Even without putting their foot on the gas, Schalke looked dangerous, with Rakitic and Jurado lively on the flanks and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, combining well with Raul to make the Portuguese side look vulnerable.
Benfica introduced Argentine duo Pablo Aimar and Nicolas Gaitan at halftime but Schalke continued to control the match and came close in the 54th minute when Peer Kluge beat Fabio Coentrao in the box only to send his scuffed effort wide.
The Portuguese team slowly started to threaten and created two chances in quick succession around the 65th minute, with Javi Garcia sending a first-time shot wide and Oscar Cardozo forcing Manuel Neuer to block a powerful drive moments later.
LYON V HAPOEL
AFP, PARIS
Hapoel Tel-Aviv narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Europa League after a thrilling 2-2 draw with French giants Lyon, who leveled five minutes from time to save face against the plucky Israeli side.
Lyon coach Claude Puel has only held on to his job thanks to the European exploits of his team, which had already qualified for the last 16 knockout phase of the competition before Tuesday’s home encounter.
However, the look on club president Jean-Michel Aulas’ face when Eran Zahavi gave Hapoel a 2-1 lead in the 69th minute with a superbly taken overhead kick suggested Puel’s troubles may not be over yet.
Lyon signaled their intentions from the outset and Bafetembi Gomis headed home in the 14th minute, only to be ruled off-side.
However, Hapoel were not in France to make up the numbers and the lively Toto Tamuz pounced on a loose ball and let loose a cannon of a shot that Lyon keeper Hugo Lloris did well to parry.
Moments later, Lyon spurned a great chance to open the scoring when Gomis unselfishly squared for Jean II Makoun while under pressure, however, Vincent Enyeama produced a fine save to stop the Cameroonian midfielder’s shot.
At the other end, Hapoel had the head of Gil Vermut to thank for blocking a goal-bound header from Cris after the Lyon defender rose to meet Miralem Pjanic’s cross.
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