Anderlecht kept up their 100 percent record in the Europa League with a 2-0 win at Sturm Graz, while Udinese struck late to sink Atletico Madrid by the same score in Thursday’s top match.
Anderlecht sprung to life midway through the second half when Guillaume Gillet’s opening goal was quickly followed by a red card for Sturm’s Thomas Burgstaller.
Matias Suarez then grabbed his fifth goal of the competition to keep the twice European Cup Winners’ Cup holders and former UEFA Cup winners top of Group L with nine points from three games.
Photo: Reuters
Group C leaders PSV Eindhoven, who won 1-0 at Hapoel Tel Aviv, and Group D leaders Sporting of Portugal, who beat Vaslui 2-0, are the only other sides with maximum points after three games.
Mehdi Benatia gave Udinese an 89th-minute lead against Atletico despite mishitting his close-range shot and Floro Flores fired in from Emmanuel Badu’s pass in the fourth minute of stoppage-time to take the Italian side top of Group I.
Former European champions Steaua Bucharest had two players sent off as they lost 5-0 at Maccabi Haifa in Group J, with leaders Schalke 04 winning by the same score at AEK Larnaca.
Group G leaders Metalist Kharkiv won 4-1 at Malmo, despite playing more than half the game with 10 men. Argentine Jonathan Cristaldo was hero and villain for the Ukrainians as he scored their first goal, but was sent off five minutes later.
Fernando Llorente converted two penalties in six minutes to give Athletic Bilbao a 2-2 home draw with Salzburg after the Group F leaders had trailed 2-0.
Twice UEFA Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur beat visitors Rubin Kazan 1-0 thanks to a sizzling free-kick from their Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko to take control of Group A.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite