A brace by Sergio Aguero led Atletico Madrid to a 2-0 victory over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday to put them back on track in the hunt for a European place following rivals Villarreal’s shock 1-0 defeat by nine-man Getafe.
Atletico were always in charge against a Deportivo side that has stuttered especially away from home.
It was Aguero’s night as he first won a penalty after being upended by ’keeper Daniel Aranzubia although Diego Forlan missed the follow-up spot-kick.
But Aguero then found the back of the net with a jinking run and shot, before adding to it 10 minutes before halftime. Atletico are now sixth in the table but are still seven points adrift of Villarreal who crashed 1-0 at Getafe. Juan Albin fired home in the dying minutes.
Daniel Diaz had already been dismissed and Albin was given a second yellow card for taking his shirt off when celebrating his goal.
Despite the red cards, Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido still felt the referee cost them the game.
“There were too many stoppages which favored Getafe as they organized their game to counter-attack. We needed there to be fluidity in the match,” he said.
Lowly Almeria produced an inspired performance to beat Sevilla 3-1.
Sevilla looked tense as they started the game on the back of three straight defeats and their mood did not improve when Frederic Kanoute missed a penalty.
Almeria scored with their first real chance at the start of the second half when a Vargas header just crept over the line.
A thunderbolt by Pablo Piatti increased the advantage and although Kanoute pulled a goal back, Piatti made certain of the points in injury time.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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