England striker Daniel Sturridge scored for the eighth consecutive Premier League match to keep Liverpool right in the thick of the title race with a thrilling 4-3 home win over Swansea City on Sunday.
Fourth-placed Liverpool are four points behind leaders Chelsea and six points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, who are fifth after suffering a surprise 1-0 defeat at struggling Norwich City.
Robert Snodgrass eased the pressure on manager Chris Hughton with a second-half goal, hurting Tottenham’s bid to qualify for next season’s Champions League in the process.
Photo: Reuters
In the day’s other game, Newcastle United ended a three-match losing streak when Loic Remy’s stoppage-time effort sealed a 1-0 home win over Aston Villa.
Sturridge, who matched former Manchester United forward Ruud van Nistelrooy’s feat of scoring in eight straight Premier League matches, netted in the third minute at Anfield.
Jordan Henderson quickly made it 2-0 before Liverpool old boy Jonjo Shelvey and Wilfried Bony drew Swansea level by the 27th minute.
Sturridge was on target again before the break, only for Bony to equalize once more from the penalty spot.
Henderson clinched the points for Liverpool 16 minutes from time, giving his side 56 points with 11 matches to go.
Liverpool opened their account when Raheem Sterling took advantage of an Angel Rangel error to send an inch-perfect pass to Sturridge and he skipped past goalkeeper Michel Vorm to score.
After a period of Swansea dominance, Liverpool doubled their advantage through Henderson, who curled a delightful shot into the top corner.
Rodgers’s team may have been expected to push on, but 12th-placed Swansea are a tougher nut to crack under new manager Garry Monk and they hit back through Shelvey with a well-taken shot from the edge of the box.
The visitors were level after 27 minutes when Ivorian Bony glanced home a free-kick, via Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel, before the hosts regained the lead, with Sturridge’s 16th league goal of the season having been set up by strike partner Luis Suarez.
Swansea were level soon after the restart, Bony grabbing his second from the penalty spot after being pushed by Skrtel.
Suarez, who has not scored in his past four league matches, was unable to find the target after a sublime ball from captain Steven Gerrard, but Henderson netted on the rebound to keep Liverpool on course for a first Champions League appearance since 2009-2010.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite