Youngster Niklas Dorsch scored on his debut on Saturday, as a second-string Bayern Munich side cruised to a 4-1 victory over future coach Niko Kovac and Eintracht Frankfurt, while Cologne were relegated in dramatic fashion after a 3-2 defeat by SC Freiburg.
With all eyes on tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid and with the Bundesliga title wrapped up, Bayern rested several key players, giving first-team debuts to the 20-year-old Dorsch, as well as teenagers Meritan Shabani and Franck Evina.
Bayern are to face Frankfurt and Kovac again in next month’s German Cup final in Berlin.
Photo: EPA
“We played very efficiently, which is something we didn’t manage to do against Real Madrid last Wednesday,” Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said.
Nils Petersen scored a goal in each half to give Freiburg a comfortable lead, before a dramatic late comeback from Cologne.
Leonardo Bittencourt netted two goals in five minutes to give the visitors hope, but a late strike from Lucas Hoeler sealed Cologne’s relegation.
“Hoeler’s goal was the cherry on the cake of a completely awful season,” Cologne goalkeeper Timo Horn said. “We feel totally empty.”
Meanwhile, fellow strugglers Hamburg SV fueled hopes of a miraculous escape with a 3-1 win in VfL Wolfsburg.
Bobby Wood fired Hamburg ahead from the penalty spot on 43 minutes, ending his 247-day goal drought.
Lewis Holtby doubled the lead moments later, nodding Tatsuya Ito’s cross into the far corner. Josip Brekalo pulled a goal back for Wolfsburg 12 minutes from time, but Luca Waldschmidt secured victory in stoppage time for Hamburg.
Hamburg’s third win in four games puts them just two points adrift of safety, as they bid to avoid a first relegation in their history.
“It’s great that the boys are playing so bravely,” Hamburg coach Christian Titz said. “We still need another win in Frankfurt next week, which won’t be easy.”
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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