Real Betis Balompie suffered a setback in their bid to qualify for Europe when they had to come from a goal down to rescue a 1-1 draw at home to La Liga strugglers RC Deportivo de La Coruna on Monday.
Depor forward Riki galloped through to open the scoring in the seventh minute at Betis’ Estadio Benito Villamarin in Seville, before Jorge Molina leveled for the home side four minutes after halftime.
The result left Betis in seventh on 49 points, four adrift of sixth-placed Valencia, while Depor are 17th, one above the relegation places.
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The fifth and sixth-placed teams automatically qualify for the Europa League, Europe’s second-tier club competition.
Betis last took part in continental competition in 2005-2006 when they finished third in their UEFA Champions League group behind English sides Liverpool and Chelsea.
They are one of many Spanish clubs to have suffered severe financial problems after years of living beyond their means and were relegated in 2008-2009, before winning promotion back to the top flight two years later.
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Depor have fallen on hard times since their league triumph in 1999-2000 and a thrilling run to the last four of the Champions League four years later.
The Galician club were relegated for the first time in two decades at the end of the 2010-2011 season, but they came straight back up by winning the second division last season.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB