Valencia boosted their Champions League hopes with a clinical 2-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao who dominated the encounter on Sunday.
The visitors anticipated a rough ride at the San Mames, which has been a fortress for Athletic this season, and that’s how it turned out when Fernando Llorente gave the hosts the lead.
Athletic looked comfortably in control, and Pablo Hernandez and David Lopez had further chances, before Llorente hit the post.
However, against the run of play, a fine move saw Joaquin Sanchez cross for Juan Mata to equalize and then while Athletic were still reeling, Tino Costa struck a powerful shot which Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz couldn’t hold and Jonas Goncalves scored for Valencia.
A stoppage-time strike from substitute Nilmar Honorato earned Villarreal a 2-2 draw against Racing Santander and avoided their third defeat in four games.
Ariel Gerardo put Racing ahead after just three minutes and while Villarreal pushed forward, they lacked a cutting edge. The home side had the better chances, before Marco Ruben equalized midway through the second half. Just two minutes later, though, substitute Giovani Dos Santos appeared to have given Racing all three points until Nilmar pounced in the dying moments.
Levante came out 2-1 winners in their relegation battle with Osasuna and have opened up a three-point cushion over the bottom three.
Osasuna have failed to win away in over a year, but they did go ahead from their first real opening when Walter Pandiani headed home a Masoud Soleimani cross, but they were in front for just three minutes as Sergio Ballesteros slotted in a loose ball in the area. After the restart, a poor back-pass was picked up by Felipe Caicedo and he made most no mistake in front of goal.
Hercules wasted a hatfull of chances as they could only draw 0-0 with Getafe.
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