Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic all moved to the brink of the UEFA Europa League round-of-32 on Thursday, while Dynamo Moscow, Legia Warsaw, Red Bull Salzburg and ACF Fiorentina ensured their passage to the knockout rounds.
Everton eased past LOSC Lille Metropole 3-0 at Goodison Park to stay top of Group H with eight points after goals from Leon Osman, Phil Jagielka and a thunderous drive from Steven Naismith.
Rivals VfL Wolfsburg also stayed in contention in the group with a 5-1 thumping of Krasnodar, with former Arsenal misfit Nicklas Bendtner scoring twice in the last two minutes.
Photo: Reuters
“One of our biggest assets is that everyone works hard for each other and when we lose the ball we work hard to get it get it back,” Scotland international Naismith said. “That was very evident in the first half and I think that was where we won the game.”
After a taxing week for some of their English Premier League rivals in the UEFA Champions League, Spurs survived a poor second-half display to run out 2-1 winners at Greek side Asteras Tripolis.
Andros Townsend’s penalty and Harry Kane’s quick second goal set the north Londoners up nicely, but Asteras pulled one back via a last-minute penalty after Federico Fazio’s red card.
Photo: EPA
There may have been no repeat of Spurs’ 5-1 rout in which Kane got a hat-trick and Erik Lamela produced his “rabona” goal against the Greeks in London last month, but in the end it was job done to stretch Tottenham’s unbeaten run in the competition to four matches.
Spurs are level with Besiktas on eight points in Group C and on their way to the knockout stages with two games remaining.
“We came to get the three points, the result is good and I am happy,” Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino said.
Celtic’s Group D 1-1 draw against Astra Giurgiu in Romania was played out in thick fog.
The Scottish champions were fired into the lead by Stefan Johansen, only for Brazilian substitute William Amorim to level with a brilliant curling shot to beat Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon.
While a win would have seen them safely through to the next round, the draw left them second on eight points, two adrift of Salzburg, 5-2 winners at GNK Dinamo Zagreb.
Jonatan Soriano scored a hat-trick for the Austrian side, who are safely into the knockout stages.
Dynamo Moscow went through from Group E thanks to a 1-0 win at GD Estoril Praia, with Kevin Kuranyi scoring the crucial goal just three minutes after coming off the bench.
Legia Warsaw beat Metalist Kharkiv 2-1 in the Polish capital to also make the round-of-32 with a fourth win in Group L.
Manuel Pasqual scored two minutes from time as Fiorentina drew 1-1 with PAOK in Florence to secure qualification in Group K.
Fellow Italians Inter were held 1-1 at AS Saint-Etienne, but they still lead Group F.
Italy’s last Champions League winners in 2009-2010 took the lead through Brazilian Dodo, only for Moustapha Bayal Sall to equalize for the former French greats in the second half.
SSC Napoli are level on points in Group I with AC Sparta Prague after a 3-0 win over BSC Young Boys, with Netherlands international Jonathan de Guzman scoring a hat-trick.
Defending champions Sevilla top Group G after a 3-1 home win over Royal Standard de Liege.
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