Juan Mata’s last-minute winner saw Chelsea strengthen their bid for Champions League soccer next season as they beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Victory saw Chelsea, who could qualify for the Champions League by winning this season’s edition — they face champions Barcelona in the semi-finals — move above Newcastle United and left them just two points behind fourth-placed Arsenal.
Only the top three teams in the Premier League are guaranteed places in the Champions League proper, with the fourth-placed side set for a qualifying round.
Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic volleyed home in the 62nd minute and the goal stood despite furious Wigan protests that he was offside.
Wigan, who remained in the bottom three, equalized when Mohamed Diame struck eight minutes from time.
However, Chelsea grabbed a late winner when, after Fernando Torres’s volley hit the post, the ball struck Mata on the chest and trickled in.
Furious Wigan manager Roberto Martinez said: “The linesman had a disgusting performance. Today, my players were robbed and they now have a disgusting feeling they don’t deserve.”
League Cup winners and FA Cup semi-finalists Liverpool saw a run of three straight league defeats end with a 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa.
Brazilian goalkeeper Alexander Doni, making his Liverpool debut in the absence of the suspended Pepe Reina, flapped at a 10th minute cross from former Reds defender Stephen Warnock and Chris Herd turned in the loose ball.
However, Luis Suarez, who had seen a header hit the post, equalized eight minutes from time when he nodded in from close range.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was unhappy with the performance of referee Michael Oliver, who twice denied the Reds a penalty and later booked Uruguay striker Suarez for diving.
Suarez went down under a challenge from Alan Hutton, who appeared to make contact, while after the break the ball hit Eric Lichaj’s hand as Liverpool’s Dirk Kuyt tried to go past him.
West Bromwich Albion ensured Blackburn Rovers remained in the bottom three with a 3-0 win at the Hawthorns.
Martin Olsson’s own-goal gave the Baggies a seventh-minute lead before Marc-Antoine Fortune’s 69th minute close-range shot made the game safe.
Liam Ridgewell added a third five minutes from time.
Mid-table Fulham left the Bolton Wanderers looking over their shoulders at the drop zone with a 3-0 win that featured two first-half goals from Clint Dempsey before Mahmadou Diarra’s first goal for the Cottagers, 10 minutes from time, put the result beyond doubt.
Elsewhere, Everton and Norwich City shared the spoils in a 2-2 draw.
Bottom of the table Wolverhampton Wanderers were all but relegated after a 2-1 defeat away to Stoke City in Saturday’s late kick off — their sixth straight loss and third match in a row where they’d been beaten after taking the lead.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later