Tottenham Hotspur closed in on a place in the UEFA Europa League knockout stages with a 2-0 win away to Moldovan champions Sheriff on Thursday.
It was a hard-earned win for Andre Villas-Boas’ side, with Sheriff applying plenty of pressure, but ultimately the Premier League team’s class shone through.
Villas-Boas made wholesale changes to the team that had beaten Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday, but the visitors needed just 12 minutes to open the scoring.
Photo: AFP
On their first attack, captain for the night Jan Vertonghen headed home Christian Eriksen’s cross to settle Tottenham down in the tricky tie in Transnistria, a territory that claims independence from Moldova itself.
A Sheriff side with a heavy African and Brazilian influence might have drawn level moments later, but Vlad Chiriches made a stunning last-gasp clearance to stop Luvannor Henrique from scoring after rounding Hugo Lloris.
The hosts then had a goal disallowed, but they remained very much in the contest until Jermain Defoe made sure of the win in the 75th minute with a deflected strike that saw him equal Martin Chivers’ record of 22 European goals for Spurs.
“It was a great moment. I was delighted to see it go in because I didn’t really have that many chances,” Defoe said of his landmark goal. “It was an important win and it was always going to be difficult. They’re a good side, really organized, and didn’t give us a lot of space.”
The north London club have the maximum nine points from three games in Group K and lead the section by five points from Anzhi Makhachkala, the Russians who beat Tromso IL 1-0.
Elsewhere, there was frustration for another Premier League side as Swansea City were held to a 1-1 draw by Russian side Kuban Krasnodar in south Wales.
It looked like a beautifully crafted Michu goal midway through the second half would be enough to give Michael Laudrup’s men a third win in as many games in Group A, especially as they had not conceded a goal in the section, while their opponents had not scored, but the visitors won a penalty in stoppage-time when Senegalese substitute Ibrahima Balde was brought down by goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel. French former Liverpool forward Djibril Cisse stepped up to net the spot-kick.
“It’s massively disappointing to be honest,” Swansea captain Neil Taylor said. “We weren’t at our best. Fair play to them, they gave it everything, but that at the end is a sucker punch.”
“I think overall it’s a fair result, but of course when you’re 1-0 up in injury-time... yeah, that’s a little frustrating, but I have to say that watching the game overall a draw was a fair result,” Laudrup said.
Last season’s English League Cup winners remain a point clear at the top of the group from Valencia, who romped to a 5-1 home win against Saint Gallen 1879 of Switzerland, with Fede Cartabia scoring twice.
Like Swansea, Wigan Athletic drew at home against Russian opponents, although the FA Cup holders came from behind to hold Rubin Kazan 1-1, with Nick Powell canceling out Aleksandr Prudnikov’s opener.
Meanwhile, Serie A side ACF Fiorentina followed up their stunning weekend win against Juventus by keeping up their perfect start in Group E, Spanish winger Joaquin setting them on their way to a 3-0 victory against Romanians CS Pandurii Targu Jiu in Florence.
Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany made it three wins out of three in Group F by beating Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 and there was a much-needed win for Olympique Lyonnais, who beat Croatian side HNK Rijeka 1-0 in Group I after a run of just one win in 12 games in all competitions.
Clement Grenier scored the only goal of the game in the second half to put Lyon are level on five points with Real Betis Balompie, who won 1-0 at home to Vitoria SC of Guimaraes, Portugal.
Betis’ city rivals Sevilla, who won the UEFA Cup in successive seasons in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007, needed a late equalizer to draw 1-1 with Slovan Liberec of the Czech Republic in Group H.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
Playing soccer and competing for trophies is the best way that many transplanted Hong Kongers and Macanese have found to stay in touch, and to interact with Taiwanese society, said officials at the Taiwan-Hong Kong-Macau Football Friendship Cup, which was held on April 13. Twelve clubs, mostly of players and coaches originally from Hong Kong and Macau, took part in the tournament in New Taipei City. The event is sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council. Participating teams were from the wider Taipei area, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas. They divided into two