Bayer Leverkusen scored twice late in the game to overcome a stubborn VfB Stuttgart 4-2 on Sunday and regain second place in the Bundesliga.
Stefan Reinartz, with a header, and Stefan Kiessling, with his second goal of the game, scored in the last 10 minutes to finish off Stuttgart, who had twice battled back from behind.
“After our [midweek Europa League] game in Kharkiv where it was freezing, we had problems finding our game today, but our difference today was we had choices on the bench, a luxury I did not have last season,” Leverkusen coach Jupp Heynckes said, hinting at Michael Ballack’s contribution after he came on in the 65th minute.
Champions League competitors Schalke 04 suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat at the hands of bottom of the table Borussia Moenchengladbach, who notched their first home win of the season on coach Lucien Favre’s debut to move level on 19 points with Stuttgart.
Peer Kluge gave the visitors a second-minute lead, but ’Gladbach, who looked transformed under Swiss coach Favre, leveled through Marco Reus, before Cameroonian Mohamadou Idrissou, out of favor until recently, headed in the winner in the 23rd minute to leave Schalke languishing in mid-table.
Leverkusen grabbed an early lead through Kiessling, before Martin Harnik leveled in the 16th minute.
The hosts regained control of the game just before halftime when Stuttgart’s shaky defense, which has let them down so often this season, left Gonzalo Castro unmarked to head in after goalkeeper Sven Ulreich had initially saved his shot.
Serb Zdravko Kuzmanovic came to the rescue, firing in an unstoppable shot from 25m seven minutes after the restart to equalize yet again for the visitors, who also saw Cacau rattle the woodwork just past the hour.
Another lapse in concentration allowed Reinartz to rise above the Stuttgart defenders and head Leverkusen back into the lead in the 81st minute, before Kiessling made sure of all three points after a fine effort by Sidney Sam.
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