Bayern Munich warmed up for their trip to Villarreal in the Champions League with a 7-0 win over Freiburg on Saturday in the German league, as striker Mario Gomez and midfielder Franck Ribery shone.
Germany striker Gomez, last season’s top scorer in the Bundesliga, scored four goals — including a second-half hat-trick — to take his tally to eight in the league after just five games.
Ribery netted twice in the first half as part of an eye-catching display, with the Frenchman showing great footwork, especially for his first goal when he left two defenders standing.
Photo: Reuters
Bayern replacement Nils Petersen profited from the Munich midfield’s complete control when he scored the seventh just before the final whistle.
Munich are at Villarreal on Wednesday in Group A of the Champions League and are in impressive form.
The rout leaves Bayern top of the league and with just over a month gone of the new season, they already have a goal difference of 15. Regardless of results elsewhere they will finish the weekend as Bundesliga leaders.
Werder Bremen went second in the table after ex-Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro scored both goals in their 2-0 win at home to Hamburg in the north German derby on Saturday night.
Defending champions Borussia Dortmund suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at home to Hertha Berlin, as they prepare for tomorrow’s visit of Premier League side Arsenal in Europe’s premier club competition.
This was Dortmund’s second defeat in four league games and leaves Jurgen Klopp’s side 10th in the table and puts Berlin seventh.
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
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