Granada salvaged a 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad on Monday, earning a valuable point in their bid to avoid being relegated from La Liga.
Granada striker Odion Ighalo turned to flick a weak shot beyond Sociedad goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to score the 93rd-minute equalizer that moved the Andalucian club three points above the relegation zone.
“Staying up [in the top flight] is still a possibility,” Ighalo told Spanish broadcaster Cuatro after scoring from what TV replays showed may have been an offside position.
Photo: EPA
“We’re going to fight right until the end,” the Nigerian added.
El Grana were reduced to 10 men in the 54th minute at the Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastian when midfielder Recio was shown a second yellow card for protesting, but just three minutes, the field was leveled when Sociedad defender Mikel Gonzalez was also expelled after a hard challenge earned him a straight red card.
Erreala went ahead in the 77th minute when Carlos Vela squeezed a cross inside the near post, but Ighalo’s late dramatics meant that the Basque club must wait another round before their place in next season’s Europa League is secured.
Photo: EPA
Sixth-placed Sociedad have a five-point advantage over Villarreal for the league’s last European place and are two points behind Sevilla.
Granada have 38 points to sit in 15th place, two ahead of UD Almeria and Getafe tied on 36. CA Osasuna are one point further adrift in 18th — the final drop spot.
Atletico Madrid lead the league on 88 points, with second-placed Barcelona on 85. Real Madrid are third with 83 points, but have a game in hand over Atletico and Barca.
Los Blancos can close the gap by beating Real Valladolid today.
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