Four days after affirming their European credentials by toppling Manchester City, Barcelona slumped to a stinging 3-1 loss at Real Sociedad on Saturday to relinquish their provisional lead in La Liga to Real Madrid, who brushed aside Elche 3-0 at home.
Gareth Bale scored a blistering long-range strike to help Real bag the three points that Barca were unable to match with a win as they were overrun by Sociedad’s dynamic attack led by forwards Antoine Griezmann and Carlos Vela.
Barcelona’s defeat confirmed the change in course in the league title race over the past two months, leaving Real in command and waiting to see if Atletico Madrid can keep up after their clash against CA Osasuna yesterday. After starting the season with 13 wins and a draw, Barcelona have dropped points in four of their past seven Liga games.
Barcelona coach Gerard Martino shuffled his lineup from Tuesday’s Champions League victory at City and tried to reinforce his defense by playing with two holding midfielders in Sergio Busquets and Alex Song.
However, the move backfired when Song scored an own-goal in the 32nd minute in the first of several defensive lapses that doomed them.
Lionel Messi equalized in the 36th, only for Griezmann to restore the hosts’ advantage after an error by defender Marc Bartra in the 54th, before setting up David Zurutuza in the 59th.
The loss left Barcelona three points behind their archrivals, marking the first time they have trailed the Madrid side this season. The last time Barcelona lost a game by more than one goal was in May last year, when they were routed a 3-0 defeat by Bayern Munich.
In other Liga action on Saturday, RC Celta de Vigo fought back to salvage a 1-1 draw at home against 10-man Getafe to leave the visitors winless in the past 10 rounds, while Malaga drew 0-0 at UD Almeria.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later