Levante UD fought back to beat RCD Espanyol 2-1 at home on Friday to boost their hopes of avoiding relegation from the Spanish league.
Hernan Perez gave the visitors the lead in the seventh minute after controlling Victor Sanchez’s pass.
Giuseppe Rossi equalized for Levante in the 23rd when his free-kick, which was intended for a teammate, slipped through the defense and into the net.
Defender Carl Medjani completed the comeback when he volleyed in Joan Verdu’s free-kick in the 66th.
Levante provisionally rose out of last place and within two points of safety before the rest of the round’s matches. There will be five matches left after this round.
Espanyol was left in 15th after a second-consecutive defeat.
Leaders Barcelona host Valencia today, looking to end a three-game winless skid in the league after also exiting the Champions League.
Atletico Madrid, who ousted Barcelona from Europe’s top-tier tournament this week, trail the Catalan club by three points in the league before hosting Granada today.
Third-place Real Madrid were four points off the pace before yesterday’s match at Getafe.
BUNDESLIGA
AP, FRANKFURT, Germany
Last-place Hannover 96 gave themselves a glimmer of hope by beating Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0 in the Bundesliga on Friday.
Moenchengladbach’s hopes of securing a place in the Champions League next season were dented as they dropped to fifth provisionally.
Waldemar Anton and Artur Sobiech scored in the second half as Hannover earned their first home win after seven matches and gave interim coach Daniel Stendel his first three points. Stendel has a draw and a win in two matches.
However, Hannover remain at least nine points away from safety, with four matches remaining. The club could have been relegated this weekend with a loss.
Anton volleyed in a cross from Noah-Joel Sarenren-Bazee in the 49th and Sobiech completed the win by tapping in a rebound from the post from Kenan Karaman’s shot in the 60th.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later