SERIE A
Sousa’s woes continue
Embattled ACF Fiorentina coach Paulo Sousa’s woes continued after the misfiring Viola were held to a scoreless stalemate at home to Atalanta BC yesterday. Fiorentina were among the early season challengers to champions Juventus last season, but with only three points from their last four Serie A outings the Florence-based club are well below mid-table position. Fiorentina have a game in hand, but are in 13th spot, 12 points behind leaders and champions Juventus, who have a five-point lead on second-placed AS Roma. Injury to Slovenian international Josip Ilicic meant Sousa drafted in Khouma Babacar for a rare start at a sun-drenched Artemio Franchi stadium. However, despite creating a series of chances throughout, Nikola Kalinic notably coming closest for the hosts in both halves, the perfect playing conditions failed to inspire the hosts against a decidedly defensive Atalanta.
LA LIGA
Messi scores on return
Lionel Messi scored within three minutes of returning to action for the first time in more than three weeks to help fire La Liga champions Barcelona to a resounding 4-0 home win over RC Deportivo de La Coruna on Saturday. Brazilian midfielder Rafinha put Barca ahead in the 21st minute with the help of lax goalkeeping from Deportivo’s German Lux and slid in the second in the 35th after the stopper failed to hold Gerard Pique’s header. Luis Suarez combined with Neymar to stretch Barca’s lead two minutes before the break and substitute Messi latched on to a through ball from the Brazilian to stroke the ball high into the net in the 58th.
LIGUE 1
Cavani steers PSG to win
Top scorer Edinson Cavani netted his ninth goal of the Ligue 1 season as Paris Saint-Germain geared up for next week’s Champions League match with a 2-1 win at bottom club AS Nancy-Lorraine on Saturday. PSG got off to a brilliant start before letting Nancy back into the contest. The French champions moved up to second with 19 points from nine matches, four behind leaders OGC Nice who beat Olympique Lyonnais 2-0 on Friday. They lead third-placed AS Monaco, who slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Toulouse on Friday, on goal difference. PSG went ahead in the 13th minute when forward Lucas scored with a long-range free-kick. It took the visitors five minutes to double the tally when Cavani intercepted a poor header toward Ndy Assembe and easily beat the keeper. Nancy’s Alou scored in the 55th minute with a header into the top corner from Benoit Pedretti’s free-kick.
BUNDESLIGA
Embolo breaks ankle
Schalke 04 are expected to be without teenage striker Breel Embolo for the rest of the year after the Swiss international broke his left ankle on Saturday. The 19-year-old was stretchered off after 25 minutes of Schalke’s 1-1 draw at Augsburg, which lifted them out of the Bundesliga’s relegation places into 15th. Embolo was taken to hospital where X-rays revealed the injury suffered in a clumsy tackle from Augsburg defender Konstantinos Stafylidis, who was booked. “We wish Breel Embolo all the best and a speedy recovery,” Augsburg coach Dirk Schuster said. “Stafylidis got himself into a stupid situation.” This is the latest blow to Schalke’s new head coach Markus Weinzierl, who set a new club record after they lost their first five games of the season. “Very unfortunate news. Breel Embolo will be out for some time with a broken ankle,” Schalke tweeted on the club’s official account.
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