SPAIN
RCD Espanyol gifted a point
A late defensive blunder saw 10-man Granada gift RCD Espanyol a 1-1 draw in La Liga on Monday. Granada were reduced to 10 men after 28 minutes when David Barral was sent off for a second yellow card when he raised his hand to Espanyol striker Gerard Moreno’s face. Granada went ahead in the 40th minute when Ruben Rochina pounced on a cross by Isaac Success that came back off a defender. Granada hung on until the 82nd minute when defender Miguel Lopes put the ball past his own goalkeeper, Andres Fernandez, who was caught out of position. The point moved Granada to 17th place, one spot above Getafe in the relegation zone on goal-difference, with Espanyol in 14th.
ENGLAND
Watford draw Palace in Cup
Watford’s reward for knocking out FA Cup holders Arsenal is a semi-final date with Crystal Palace, while Everton are to take on Manchester United or West Ham United in the other tie at Wembley Stadium in London. After handing Arsenal their first FA Cup defeat since February 2013 with a surprise 2-1 victory in the quarter-finals at the Emirates Stadium, Monday’s semi-final draw pitted Watford against fellow Premier League side Palace. The Hornets, bidding to reach the final for the first time since losing to Everton in the 1983-1984 showpiece, won 2-1 at Palace last month, but lost at home to the Eagles in September last year. Palace, who put aside their poor league form to beat second-tier Reading in the quarter-finals, have not made the final since 1989-1990 and it is their first semi-final appearance for 21 years. The clash is a repeat of the 2013 Championship playoff final at Wembley, which Palace won with a Kevin Phillips penalty. In the other semi-final, Everton, who handed Chelsea a 2-0 defeat on Saturday, await the winner of a replay between troubled Manchester United and in-form West Ham United at Upton Park in London.
GERMANY
Bayern mull Goetze’s future
Bayern Munich director of sport Matthias Sammer says the Bavarian giants will decide upon the future of Germany’s World Cup hero Mario Goetze at the club once the season finishes. “We’ll analyze the situation in the summer. We also need to see what the player wants,” Sammer told Kicker magazine. Goetze is a hero in soccer-mad Germany after his extra-time winning goal in the 2014 FIFA World Cup final, but he has played just eight league games this season after missing five months with a groin injury. When asked about his future after the league match against Werder Bremen on Saturday, Goezte simply said he was just happy to be playing again. “After so long out, I am just happy to be playing again. The important thing is to physically be in good shape,” he told Sky, before admitting he is still only “80 percent” fit. “When I decide about my future, it will depend on many factors,” he later told ZDF.
FRANCE
Bordeaux fire coach Sagnol
Willy Sagnol’s contract as Girondins de Bordeaux coach has been terminated by mutual consent. The Ligue 1 side said on Monday the former France and Bayern Munich fullback, who was handed a three-year deal in 2014, would be replaced by former France and Bordeaux goalkeeper Ulrich Rame. “This mutual decision, effective immediately, is justified by the club’s worrying sporting situation,” the team said in a statement. Bordeaux are 14th, only five points above the relegation zone with eight games left, after finishing sixth last season.
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