Real Sociedad’s hopes of returning to the Champions League next season took a hit on Monday after they fell 3-2 at home to relegation-threatened Rayo Vallecano de Madrid in La Liga.
The result saw Sociedad slip eight points behind fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao, who hold the final qualifying place for Europe’s top-tier event, and put Rayo tantalizingly close to salvation after Ruben Rochina smashed a rising shot while on the run into goal to score the 67th-minute winner.
Rayo are tied on 26 points with fellow relegation battlers UD Almeria and Real Valladolid, and eight points ahead of bottom club Real Betis Balompie, but the Madrid side sit second-from-bottom on goal-difference.
Photo: EPA
On Monday at the Estadio Anoeta, Sociedad held the lead twice, once in the opening instances through Inigo Martinez and then through Ruben Pardo after the restart, but on both occasions the visitors equalized within minutes — thanks to Joaquin Larrivey and Alberto Bueno respectively.
Despite Sociedad’s constant pressing over the final 15 minutes, the Basque club could not string together a decent effort on goal and Carlos Vela was guilty of wasting a clear opportunity at the close.
“This game has given us life, it could be a fundamental result,” Rayo coach Paco Jemez said.
Photo: EPA
Elsewhere, 10-man Malaga also enhanced their hopes of surviving the drop with a 2-0 win away to CA Osasuna, who are now just three points clear of relegation on 29.
Samuel Garcia Sanchez gave the visitors the lead a quarter of the way in before his side were reduced by one when Jesus Gamez was shown a second yellow card in the 52nd.
However, it made no difference, as Nordin Amrabat doubled the Andalucians’ lead in the 66th and Malaga hung on thanks to stellar goalkeeping by Willy Caballero.
Malaga joined Elche and Osasuna on 29 points with the victory.
Real Madrid lead the standings with 67 points, three more than nearest rivals Atletico Madrid, while Barcelona are third on 63 points and Athletic occupying fourth with 51.
Also on Monday, Getafe, who are one point away from the relegation zone on 27, fired coach Luis Garcia and replaced him with former player Cosmin Contra of Romania.
The Madrid side have not won in the league for 12 games since November last year, leaving them uncomfortably close to demotion in 15th place, and the final straw for the club’s board came on Saturday as they were beaten 2-0 away to basement dwellers Betis.
“It is a sad day. From the bottom of my heart I hope that Getafe continue for another year in La Liga as they are now,” Garcia told a press conference.
“In my 113 games in charge we have fulfilled our objectives apart from in the last 12. The first two years were good. In the Cup [Copa del Rey] we have eliminated bigger teams and there have been great moments like when we beat Real Madrid and Barcelona. This bad run has been the worst moment,” he said.
Getafe said the 38-year-old Contra, who played for the club between 2005 and 2010, will take charge for the final 11 games of the season and a further two seasons thereafter.
His only previous top-flight managerial experience has come in Romania with Petrolul Ploiesti.
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