LA LIGA
Sevilla extend streak
Wissam Ben Yedder kept 10-man Sevilla unbeaten in eight La Liga games when he scored in stoppage-time to snatch a 1-1 draw against CD Leganes on Sunday. With dense fog at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque in Madrid, Ben Yedder slipped behind his marker and met Roque Mesa’s short cross at the far post where the forward nodded the ball off the turf and into the corner of the net. The draw left Pablo Machin’s Sevilla in third place and five points behind leaders Barcelona as the league starts its two-week winter break. “It was tough for us after they scored first, but we leave with a draw,” Ben Yedder said. “It is an important point.” Leganes had gone ahead when Mikel Vesga headed in a cross by Allan Nyom in the fifth minute. Sevilla were playing without top-scorer Pablo Sarabia and midfielder Ever Banega, both serving one-game suspensions for accumulating five yellow cards. They then lost Franco Vazquez when he was given a direct red card at halftime for arguing with the referee. Jesus Navas also had to be substituted during the break because of a muscle injury in his right leg. “This team showed it has spirit and courage,” Machin said. “We knew how to overcome the sending off and the problem with Jesus. I am sure [Vazquez] thought that he was right, but it doesn’t justify losing your temper and getting sent off.” In Sunday’s other games, Valencia beat Sociedad Deportiva Huesca 2-1 and Rayo Vallecano de Madrid defeated Levante UD 2-1.
LIGUE 1
Amiens, Bordeaux draw
Midfielder Eddy Gnahore scored late on as struggling Amiens SC secured a 1-1 draw against Girondins de Bordeaux in Ligue 1 on Sunday. Seven of the 17 league goals Amiens have scored this season have been in the final 20 minutes. Gnahore’s equalizer in the 87th minute came after the Bordeaux defense was caught out as a cross sailed over the penalty area. Gnahore kept his eye on the ball and broke into the box to score with a confident finish. It was his fourth goal of the season, making him the club’s top scorer heading into the winter break. Bordeaux took the lead after 23 minutes through Nigerian striker Samuel Kalu.
BUNDESLIGA
Gerhardt hits late winner
Yannick Gerhardt scored late to clinch a 3-2 win for VfL Wolfsburg against Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday. Gerhardt’s 89th-minute winner lifted Wolfsburg to fifth place, three points behind RB Leipzig in the final Champions League spot and one point ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt. Augsburg made the better start, but Wolfsburg gradually gained control and Josuha Guilavogui scored after the visitors’ second corner. US defender John Brooks headed the ball on and the French midfielder prodded it home from close range. Brazilian defender William scored before the break after Augsburg missed several chances to clear. Rani Khedira dragged Augsburg back into the game when he scored minutes after the restart and Sergio Cordova equalized at about the hour mark. However, Gerhardt’s late strike proved too much for the home side. “You can see that we’re perhaps still a bit too naive,” Augsburg manager Manuel Baum said. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim drew 1-1 with visiting FSV Mainz in Sunday’s late game.
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