ITALY
Alessandria stun Spezia
A dramatic late brace from Riccardo Bocalon kept US Alessandria’s Coppa Italia dream alive on Monday after a 2-1 win over Spezia set up a semi-final with AC Milan. Milan became the first team into the last four of the competition with a 2-1 win over Serie A strugglers Carpi last week. Alessendria, who play in Italy’s third division, had knocked out top-flight sides US Citta di Palermo and Genoa to set up a quarter-final with Spezia, who had ended AS Roma’s run. Serie B outfit Spezia looked to be on their way to the semis after holding on to the lead from a 20th-minute penalty by former SSC Napoli and Torino forward Emanuele Calaio, but they were stunned in a nine-minute spell at the end of the encounter when Bocalon came off the bench to level seven minutes from time when he sprung the offside trap to beat Leandro Chichizol. In the second minute of stoppage-time, Bocalon then swept home a cross to secure the dramatic win.
SPAIN
Eibar thrash Granada
Two goals each by Borja Baston and Sergi Enrich helped Sociedad Deportiva Eibar down Granada 5-1 in La Liga on Monday. Takashi Inui opened the scoring for Eibar after he raced into the penalty area and connected with Sergio “Keko” Gontan’s looping cross to beat goalkeeper Andres Fernandez in the 35th minute. Three minutes later, Keko supplied another assist for Enrich to put past Fernandez for Eibar’s second. Youssef El-Arabi pulled one back for Granada in the 65th minute, but two minutes later Enrich put the match beyond doubt when he added Eibar’s third. Baston got his first goal in the 74th minute and added another five minutes later.
AFRICA
Chikatara nets hat-trick
Second-half substitute Chisom Chikatara inspired Nigeria to a crushing 4-1 win over Niger in their CHAN 2016 opener at Kigali’s Nyamirambo Stadium on Monday. The Abia Warriors star grabbed a hat-trick late in the second half to give Nigeria bragging rights over their West African neighbors. Earlier, debutants Guinea twice came from behind to earn a deserved 2-2 draw with Tunisia, in a match in which two strikers grabbed a brace. Tunisia drew first blood through Ahmed Akaichi in the 33rd minute, but seven minutes later Alseny Camara Agogo punished a sloppy Tunisia defense. Tunisia reclaimed the lead in the 51st minute when Akaichi scored his second on the counterattack, but Agogo came back to level after 83 minutes.
ENGLAND
Hornets sign Amrabat
Watford have signed Morocco winger Nordin Amrabat from Spanish side Malaga, the Premier League club announced on Monday. Amrabat, 28, agreed a three-and-a-half-year contract with the Hornets. “He has the qualities of the players we like,” Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores said. “He can play at No. 10; he holds the ball, he can turn quickly with the strength of a striker and escape the defensive line. He can also play as a winger because he has that pace and velocity.”
ENGLAND
Canaries swoop for Klose
Norwich City made their fourth signing of the transfer window as the club swooped for VfL Wolfsburg defender Timm Klose on Monday. Switzerland centerback Klose agreed a three-and-half-year contract with the Canaries. Matt Jarvis, Ivo Pinto and Ben Godfrey have already moved to Carrow Road this month as Alex Neil continues to bolster his squad for the fight against relegation.
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