GERMANY
Braunschweig seal return
Former champions Eintracht Braunschweig returned to the Bundesliga after a 28-year absence after a 1-0 win at Inglostadt 04 on Friday secured a top-two finish in the second tier with three games left. Braunschweig, Bundesliga champions in 1967 and relegated in 1985, join Hertha BSC Berlin in winning automatic promotion. “It is an amazing day,” Braunschweig coach Torsten Lieberknecht told reporters as celebrations kicked off with a beer shower on the pitch. Braunschweig have 65 points, one fewer than Hertha. Third-placed Kaiserslautern, on 52, have four games to play.
GERMANY
Furth in need of home win
Bottom side SpVgg Greuther Furth are just one game away from an unwanted Bundesliga record after their 3-2 defeat to Hanover 96 on Friday left them on the verge of becoming the first team to fail to win any home matches in a league season. Furth face SC Freiburg at their Trolli Arena stadium on May 11 in their last bid to pick up their first German league win at home on their debut season in the Bundesliga. Serbian striker Nikola Djurdjic scored both Furth goals, including an 83rd-minute equalizer after midfielder Andre Hoffmann and Norway’s Mohammed Abdellaoue had put Hanover ahead. However, Hanover midfielder Sergio da Silva Pinto broke Furth hearts with an 87th-minute winner. Furth have won just three matches this season — all away. The Franconians are almost sure to be relegated and are eight points from safety with three games left.
SPAIN
Osasuna dent Rayo hopes
Rayo Vallecano de Madrid’s hopes of qualifying for Europe next season suffered a setback when they were held 2-2 at home by La Liga strugglers CA Osasuna on Friday. The result left the Madrid-based club eighth on 46 points, two behind seventh-placed Real Betis Balompie, who host RC Deportivo La Coruna tomorrow. The teams in fifth and sixth position qualify automatically for the Europa League. Pamplona-based Osasuna are 15th on 33 points, five above the relegation zone. Andrija Delibasic headed Vallecano in front in the seventh minute but the home side quickly fell behind after poor defending allowed Raoul Loe to equalize before Alejandro Arribas made it 2-1 in the 13th minute. Captain Piti scored Vallecano’s second, and his 15th in the league this season, in the 57th minute and although his team dominated possession they were unable to find a winner. Leaders Barcelona needed a win at Athletic Bilbao yesterday to secure a fourth title in five years, providing second-placed Real Madrid lost at Atletico Madrid in the Madrid derby.
ENGLAND
Fans eye Old Trafford bid
A Manchester United supporters group has made an application to be given the opportunity to buy Old Trafford should the stadium ever be put up for sale. The club’s owners, the Glazer family, are not looking to sell the team’s world-famous home, where they have played since 1910. However, that has not stopped the Manchester United Supporters Trust submitting a nomination to the local council for the ground to be registered as an “Asset of Community Value.” If the application is accepted, the group would be given the opportunity to buy the stadium should the Glazers decide to sell. While the notion seems far-fetched, there have been instances in the past where clubs have lost control of their stadiums and therefore the right to make money from them. Trafford Council has eight weeks to make a decision, leaving potential for the Glazers to appeal.
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