Stoke City and Fulham marched into the Europa League play-offs on Thursday, where they were joined by Hearts who brought a little relief to Scottish soccer after Rangers’ disappointing midweek Champions League exit.
Ryan Shotton scored Stoke’s only goal in injury time to beat Hajduk Split 1-0 for a 2-0 aggregate win over the Croatian side.
Stoke had already marked their first European tie in 37 years last week with a 1-0 win at the Britannia Stadium in the first leg.
Photo: Reuters
Fulham, last year’s runners-up, saw off RNK Split of Croatia 2-0 at Craven Cottage after a 0-0 stalemate in the first leg.
Andrew Johnson’s header was the only goal of the first half before captain Danny Murphy added the second from the penalty spot after the interval to secure their place in the next round, where they will be joined by London rivals Tottenham.
New Hearts manager Paulo Sergio, who replaced Jim Jefferies two days ago, oversaw a 4-1 win over Hungary’s Paks at Tynecastle for a 5-2 aggregate.
Ryan Stevenson score twice in 12 first-half minutes before Andrew Driver added the third after 50 minutes with Rudi Skacel putting away the fourth.
Hearts were joining fellow Scottish sides Rangers and Celtic in yesterday’s playoff draw.
Elsewhere, Italy’s Palermo drew 1-1 at Swiss side Thun, but went out on the away goals rule after last week’s 2-2 draw.
Pablo Gonzalez gave the Italians a 49th minute lead but Dario Lezcano leveled 15 minutes later to put the Swiss through to the playoffs.
Atletico Madrid, the Europa League champions last year, took a 2-1 lead to Norway’s Stromsgodset and secured a 2-0 second-leg win with Adrian Lopez and Jose Antonio Reyes on target.
In Romania, Jordanian-born Taher Bawab scored for the second successive leg as his Gaz Metan Medias side drew 1-1 with Germany’s Mainz before he scored again in the penalty shootout after the tie ended 2-2 on aggregate.
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