Hannover 96 cruised past hosts Freiburg 3-1 on Thursday to jump back into third spot in the Bundesliga and give their Champions League hopes a boost three games before the end of their season.
The victory lifted Hannover to 57 points, two above fourth-placed Bayern Munich, who could reclaim the third spot with a win at Eintracht Frankfurt today.
Both teams are battling for a third place finish that leads to the Champions League qualifying rounds.
Photo: AFP
Hannover have now secured at least a Europa League berth, the first time they have grabbed a European spot in 19 years.
“We played a near perfect first half,” Hannover coach Mirko Slomka said. “We fought on in the second half, although the goal we conceded made us a bit nervous.”
Hannover allowed the hosts more space early in the first half, waiting for their chance to break.
They finally pounced in the 24th minute when Mohammed Abdellaoue was sent through by Jan Schlaudraff, with the Norwegian slotting in from the left for his 10th goal of the season.
Schlaudraff then turned scorer, chasing down a smooth Altin Lala pass to round goalkeeper Oliver Baumann seven minutes later -before Konstantin Rausch’s diving header after a fine run down the right and pinpoint cross by Manuel Schmiedebach sealed their win early in the second half.
Jan Rosenthal cut the deficit in the 79th minute for Freiburg.
Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund, eight points clear, could be crowned champions today if they beat last-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach and Bayern Leverkusen, in second place, fail to win against Hoffenheim.
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