Real Madrid continued their 12-year dominance of neighbors Atletico Madrid with a narrow 2-1 win at the Vicente Calderon on Saturday to close to within five points of Spanish league leaders Barcelona.
French international Karim Benzema scored his seventh league goal in four matches to open the scoring on 11 minutes, before German international Mesut Ozil added a second just after the half-hour mark.
It was Real’s fourth defeat of Atletico this season, after two wins in the King’s Cup and another in the league.
Photo: AFP
Argentine Sergio Aguero pulled a goal back late on for Atletico, but a stellar display from Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas ensured another defeat for their city rivals, who have not beaten Real since 1999.
The latest derby win capped a fine week for Real, who defeated Lyon 3-0 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Earlier, Bojan Krkic marked his 100th Barcelona league appearance with a goal in a nervy 2-1 home win over Getafe.
The 20-year-old made it two goals in as many games with a 49th-minute strike to celebrate his landmark, as he became the third youngest player in league history to reach a century of league appearances.
Brazilian Dani Alves had opened the scoring on 16 minutes with a thunderous volley from distance before Bojan netted.
It extended Barcelona’s run of home wins to 12 consecutive games, although they had to survive an agonizing last few minutes after Manu del Moral pulled a goal back in the 87th minute.
“We wanted to go into the international break with at least the five-point gap [over Real],” Alves said. “We have to kill off games. They almost scored at the end and we felt the pressure in the final minutes.”
Real were under pressure to respond and shrugged off some heavy legs to inflict yet another defeat on derby rivals Atletico.
Benzema got Real off to a flying start on 11 minutes, running on to a pass from Sami Khedira, before flicking the ball in with the outside of his boot.
It was Benzema’s 10th league goal of the campaign, with seven of them coming in the last four matches.
Atletico had looked out of sorts, but going behind brought the best out of them and the hosts forced a string of saves from Casillas.
The Real goalkeeper denied Diego Godin and then produced two fine saves to deny Aguero on 21 and 23 minutes. Real rode their luck and extended their lead on 32 minutes through Ozil, although goalkeeper David de Gea will feel he should have done better.
German World Cup star Ozil chipped a shot toward goal and the highly rated de Gea got a hand to it, but could not push it over as it looped into the net.
An action-packed first half came to an end with Real somehow 2-0 up and Atletico continued where they left off after the interval.
The overworked Casillas was called into action again on 54 minutes to foil the frustrated Aguero for the third time.
Aguero broke the offside trap and bore down on Casillas, but Spain’s World Cup-winning captain blocked his low shot with an outstretched hand.
Cristiano Ronaldo was substituted on 72 minutes to the sound of insults from the Atletico fans and the Portuguese attacker responded by cupping his ears to the home supporters.
Aguero pulled a goal back in the 86th minute as he curled a shot into the corner to finally beat Casillas and set up a tense final few minutes.
In Saturday’s other match, Mallorca beat Real Zaragoza 1-0.
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