BUNDESLIGA
Bayern draw with Dortmund
Leaders Bayern Munich and champions Borussia Dortmund drew their much-hyped Bundesliga clash 1-1 on Saturday to leave the Bavarians eight points clear at the top. Bayern took the lead against the run of play with a fine 67th-minute shot from Toni Kroos and seven minutes later Mario Goetze slotted in the equalizer for the visitors from a Marco Reus corner. Dortmund had keeper Roman Weidenfeller to thank for a string of superb saves in the closing stages. Bayern, who ended a five-game losing streak against Dortmund, have 38 points, 11 ahead of the champions, who remain third. Defender Holger Badstuber tore cruciate ligaments in his right knee and will be sidelined for Bayern for several months.
SERIE A
Juventus thump Torino 3-0
Two second-half goals from Claudio Marchisio and a Sebastian Giovinco strike gave Juventus a 3-0 victory in the Turin derby on Saturday, with Torino reduced to 10 men for most of the game following Kamil Glik’s red card. The win extended Juve’s lead at the top of Serie A to five points over second-placed SSC Napoli, who were to host Delfino Pescara 1936 yesterday. Glik was given a straight red in the 36th minute for a reckless challenge on Emanuele Giaccherini. Five minutes later Juventus were awarded a penalty after Migjen Basha handled in the area, though equally it could have been given for his upending of Paul Pogba moments later. Andrea Pirlo missed the spot kick, sending it high over Jean-Francois Gillet’s bar. The visitors eventually conceded in the 57th minute when Turin native Marchisio got on the end of a fine Giovinco cross, beating Gillet with a header for his second league goal this season. Giovinco made it two in the 67th when he shrugged off Danilo D’Ambrosio and directed a neat, angled shot past Gillet. The Belgian keeper pulled off a fine save to again deny Pogba, before saving with his feet from substitute Nicklas Bendtner. Marchisio wrapped things up six minutes from time, burying Mirko Vucinic’s intricate pass with a low, powerful drive.
LIGUE 1
Lyon edge Montpellier
Olympique Lyonnais underlined their title credentials as they beat defending champions Montpellier Herault 1-0 on Saturday to provisionally move five points clear at the top of Ligue 1, with Bafetimbi Gomis notching his 10th goal of the campaign. Fresh off his first Ligue 1 hat-trick in Wednesday’s 4-1 rout of title-rivals Olympique de Marseille, Gomis scored the game’s only goal on 26 minutes to hand Remi Garde’s side a seventh home win of the season. Victory for Lyon lifted them onto 31 points, five ahead of the chasing trio of AS Saint-Etienne, Paris-Saint Germain and Marseille, while Montpellier remained in 12th on 17 points.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Carroll out for eight weeks
West Ham United striker Andy Carroll will be sidelined for up to eight weeks after suffering a knee injury, West Ham manager Sam Allardyce confirmed on Saturday. Carroll, on a season-long loan with the Hammers from Liverpool, sustained the injury in the second half of Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at Manchester United and was absent from the squad for Saturday’s London derby against Chelsea. England international Carroll has endured a difficult time at Upton Park, scoring just once in 10 games for Allardyce’s side and missing a month of action at the start of the campaign due to a hamstring injury.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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