Zenit St Petersburg beat Lokomotiv Moscow on penalties to win the season-opening Russian Super Cup on Sunday.
Italian defender Domenico Criscito scored the decisive penalty for last season’s league champions Zenit to win 4-2 on penalties following an even match, which ended 1-1 after extra-time.
Lokomotiv took the lead in the 28th minute through Baye Oumar Niasse’s low, accurate shot.
Photo: EPA
His teammate Dmitry Tarasov lost the ball in a tackle, but stretched to block Luis Neto’s clearance, knocking the ball into the path of the Senegal striker, who applied a calm finish.
Zenit dominated the second half, but missed a series of chances and failed to level the score until the 83rd minute, when fullback Igor Smolnikov headed in at the far post after Axel Witsel headed on Hulk’s free-kick.
In the last minutes of extra-time, Witsel could have won the match for Zenit, but the Belgian skewed his shot wide from close range.
It was a third Super Cup title for Zenit, who last won the curtain-raising competition in 2011.
Three years before Russia hosts the World Cup, the 2015-2016 season begins with domestic soccer in turmoil and clubs unsure of how many foreign players they will be allowed to field.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on July 1 giving the government the right to limit the number of foreign players playing for Russian clubs in team sports, including soccer.
Putin said that the measure would help to give young Russian players more chance to develop, while stopping clubs from wasting money on overpaid foreign stars.
The government wants to impose a limit for this season, but has yet to announce what the limit will be. The resulting uncertainty is hampering clubs’ dealings in the transfer market.
The Russian Premier League season starts on Friday when nine-time champions Spartak Moscow host FC Ufa.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB