SOCCER
Liverpool beat Southampton
Liverpool defeated Southampton 4-0 in the Premier League on Saturday, moving a scarcely believable 22 points clear at the top of the table, the biggest advantage any team have had at the end of a day in English top-flight history. Winning the league, for the first time in 30 years, is surely a given. With 13 games remaining. Juergen Klopp’s team need only one more win to secure Champions League qualification for next season. A maximum of seven more wins are required to clinch the league title. Elsewhere, Manchester United drew 0-0 against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United beat Crystal Palace 1-0, Chelsea and Leicester City drew 2-2, West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion drew 3-3, AFC Bournemouth won 2-1 against Aston Villa, Everton beat Watford 3-2 and Norwich City drew 0-0 with Newcastle United.
SOCCER
PSG coach slams Neymar
Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel said that Neymar’s lavish birthday celebrations were a “distraction” at a key time in the season after the Brazilian helped the Ligue 1 leaders to a 5-0 win against Montpellier HSC on Saturday. Neymar, with his hair dyed pink, shook off an injury scare and raged with the match officials while Pablo Sarabia, Angel di Maria, Kylian Mbappe and Layvin Kurzawa scored along with a Daniel Congre own-goal. The Brazilian yesterday was to host a lavish party for his 28th birthday at a Parisian nightclub, despite a game scheduled for tomorrow. “It’s a distraction, that’s clear,” Tuchel said. “I always want to protect my players and if there are difficult things to talk about I prefer to say them internally.” Elsewhere, AS Monaco lost 3-1 to Nimes Olympique, Lille OSC a 2-1 victory against RC Strasbourg Alsace, Amiens and Toulouse drew 0-0, Stade de Reims beat Angers SCO 4-1 and Dijon defeated Stade Brestois 3-0.
SOCCER
Haaland adds to tally
Erling Braut Haaland said that he needs to get fitter, despite making it seven goals in three games for Borussia Dortmund with another double in Saturday’s 5-0 Bundesliga thrashing of Union Berlin. The 19-year-old Haaland scored either side of halftime. However, the Norwegian said he must still regain fitness after a knee injury last month restricted his training. Elsewhere, Bayern Munich beat Mainz 3-1, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1, Fortuna Dusseldorf and Eintracht Frankfurt drew 1-1, Augsburg defeated Werder Bremen 2-1 and RB Leipzig drew with Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-2.
CRICKET
India sweep as NZ fold
India wrapped up their Twenty20 series against New Zealand 5-0 in Mount Maunganui yesterday as the hosts once again threw away a strong position, falling eight runs short of a consolation win. India made 163-3 batting first, with K.L. Rahul scoring 45 and Rohit Sharma making 60 before retiring hurt. New Zealand lost three wickets in the power play, but half centuries from Tim Seifert (50) and Ross Taylor (53) left them needing 51 runs with eight overs remaining. However, as they did in the previous two matches, they failed to finish the job, with six wickets falling for only 37 runs in the final stages. Jasprit Bumrah (3-12) was the pick of the bowlers for India.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite