Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba enjoyed a winning return to international soccer against Mali on Tuesday in his first match since last year’s World Cup.
The Chelsea forward helped to create Didier Ya Konan’s first international goal, which secured a 1-0 victory in the friendly in Valence, France.
Drogba chested down a long ball into the path of Lille striker Gervinho, whose cross from the right was slammed high into the net by Ya Konan after three minutes.
Photo: Reuters
Africa’s top-ranked team, Ghana, beat Togo 4-1 in a friendly in Antwerp, Belgium, giving Serbian coach Goran Stevanovic a winning start in the job.
Striker Dominic Adiyiah gave Ghana a 1-0 lead at halftime and after Togo equalized with a penalty three minutes into the second half, Jonathan Mensah, an own goal from Togo defender Akpakpo, and a late strike from Samuel Inkoom sealed the win.
Tuesday also marked the start of two friendly tournaments each featuring four European countries.
Photo: AFP
Darron Gibson, Damien Duff and Keith Fahey scored in the second half to give Ireland a 3-0 victory over Wales in a competition featuring the British Isles nations — minus England. It was Gary Speed’s first match in charge of Wales since being hired in December.
Scotland was to play Northern Ireland yesterday and the trophy will be decided by further matches in May.
In the Cyprus tournament, the hosts lost 2-0 to Sweden and Ukraine beat Romania 4-2 in a penalty shootout on the east Mediterranean island.
Tobias Hysen put Sweden in front in the 26th when he headed in a curling Martin Olsson cross at Nicosia’s GSP stadium. An unmarked Markus Berg added the second on the stroke of halftime when he latched onto a through ball from Pontus Wernblom from 10m.
In Paralimni, two saves by veteran goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy in the shootout secured the victory for Euro 2012 co-hosts Ukraine after the match ended 2-2.
Yaroslav Rakitskiy and Artem Milevskiy had given Ukraine a 2-0 lead, but Romania drew level before halftime thanks to goals from striker Dan Alexa.
Yesterday, Sweden and Ukraine were to met in Nicosia and Cyprus was to take on Romania in Paralimni.
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