Paris Saint-Germain earned under- fire coach Carlo Ancelotti a stay of execution on Tuesday as they put their recent run of poor form behind them to beat FC Porto 2-1 in the Champions League.
The big-spending French side were more than helped by a goalkeeping blunder by Porto’s Helton as they moved into the the knockout phase as winners of of Group A.
PSG have slipped to fourth in the league table after a dismal domestic run that has left Ancelotti in danger of losing his job, but finally got the stroke of luck the Italian was looking for with a 61st minute winner that Porto goalkeeper Helton will have nightmares about.
Photo: Reuters
Argentine striker Ezequiel Lavezzi, signed from Napoli this season, found a yard of space inside the box, but his shot was tame and soft yet somehow slipped under the Brazilian’s body much to the delight of the fanatic Parc des Princes faithful. Porto launched a late comeback and had a gilt-edged chance on 69 minutes when Colombian marksman Jackson Martinez almost scored his second of the match when he broke behind the defense only for PSG’s Italian goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu to bravely dive at his feet and preserve the home advantage.
That was as close as Porto got as the capital side locked up their back line and smothered the midfield and Porto, the 2004 champions, ran out of imagination towards the end.
“This result will give us a lot of confidence and we’ve finished top of the group so we’re very happy and we’re going to enjoy this victory,” PSG midfielder Blaise Matuidi said.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier