Valencia moved toward a place in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals and a possible meeting with Real Madrid when Dani Parejo and substitute Roberto Soldado struck in a 2-0 win at CA Osasuna in their round-of-16, first-leg match on Tuesday.
Parejo curled a free-kick past goalkeeper Asier Riesgo two minutes after the break and Soldado scored in the fourth minute of stoppage-time to give the 2008 winners the upper hand ahead of next week’s second leg in Valencia.
The victory at the Estadio Reyno de Navarra in Pamplona made it two wins out of two for Valencia’s new coach Ernesto Valverde, both against Osasuna, who they also beat 1-0 in La Liga at the same venue in his debut on Saturday.
Photo: EPA
Valverde replaced Mauricio Pellegrino, sacked despite leading Valencia into the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League after they made an erratic start to their La Liga campaign.
Copa del Rey holders Barcelona were due to play their round-of-16, first-leg match at second-tier Cordoba yesterday, before holders Real Madrid visited RC Celta de Vigo and Atletico Madrid hosted city rivals Getafe.
Barca’s World Player of the Year Lionel Messi was in the squad for the trip to Andalusia and if the Argentine played he would have the chance to extend his record goals tally of 86 for a calendar year.
Barca and Real are on course to meet in the semi-finals, while Sevilla face a possible semi-final against Atletico, who they beat in the 2009-2010 final.
Sevilla were also due to play yesterday at RCD Mallorca.
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
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