Barcelona added a Copa del Rey title to their La Liga crown on Saturday, while Paris Saint-Germain strolled to an incredible French quadruple, Arsenal retained the FA Cup in England and VfL Wolfsburg surprised Borussia Dortmund in Germany on a weekend of cup finals across Europe.
At the Camp Nou, a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona sealed a Spanish double for the Catalan side for the first time since 2009 as they swept aside Athletic Bilbao 3-1 to win the Copa de Rey for the 27th time.
The Argentine genius found the back of the net on both sides of a 36th-minute Neymar goal, who found himself at the end of a selfless pass from Luis Suarez.
Photo: AFP
There’s only one game left — the UEFA Champions League final against Juventus on Saturday — for Barcelona to repeat their historic 2009 season when they claimed an incredible quadruple, claiming La Liga, Copa del Rey, Champions League and Club World Cup titles.
“I’m very happy after all we’ve managed to achieve and I congratulate the team,” Barcelona forward Neymar said. “Physically we felt good, we always controlled the game and we have to continue like that until the end.”
“Leo [Messi] is spectacular, he is an ace. For me he is the best player in the world and it is an honor to be part of this team, with players of such quality,” he added.
Photo: AFP
On the possibility of a third trophy with the Champions League looming, he said: “We have to stay calm. We’ve obtained the double, but there remains a week and 90 minutes to play.”
In the Stade de France, a lone strike from Edinson Cavani clinched the first domestic quadruple in French soccer history.
PSG, who already successfully defended their Ligue 1 title, and won the Coupe de la Ligue as well as the Trophee des Champions, struggled against second-tier AJ Auxerre, but the Uruguyan delivered on a silver platter the Coupe de France, the only domestic title missing from Paris’ cabinet since they were taken over by their big-spending Qatari owners in 2011.
Photo: Reuters
At Wembley in London, Arsenal made history by winning the FA Cup for a record 12th time, retaining their trophy in majestic style as they demolished Aston Villa 4-0.
A swashbuckling display saw Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez, Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud put their name on the score sheet as the Gunners bagged their second trophy in 12 months with the biggest margin of victory in an FA Cup final since 1994.
In Berlin, Dortmund’s plans to send Jurgen Klopp off in style after seven years in charge were spoiled by Wolfsburg, who beat the 2013 Champions League finalists 3-1 in the DFB Pokal final thanks to goals from Luiz Gustavo, Kevin de Bruyne and Bas Dost.
Photo: EPA
The defeat means Dortmund must now go through the qualifying rounds for the UEFA Europa League having missed the chance to claim a direct entry had they won the final.
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