Argentina's Hernan Crespo headed an 88th minute winner to give Chelsea a 2-1 victory at Middles-brough, while Juan Pablo Angel equalized in Aston Villa's 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers in the premier league on Sunday.
Colombian Angel, however, had a penalty saved four minutes from time by Bolton's Finnish goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.
Chelsea, determined to make amends for their midweek home defeat by Besiktas of Turkey in the Champions League, stayed third in the standings.
The London club are one point behind leaders Arsenal and level with Manchester United, who both won on Saturday, and also have a game in hand.
Villa and Bolton are 13th and 15th respectively, both with eight points from eight games and 12 adrift of Arsenal.
Crespo scored his third goal in five games for Chelsea in English and European competition, rising to nod home from a tight angle after Damien Duff's cross to the far post.
The Argentine made up for a bad miss 11 minutes earlier when he robbed Boro captain Colin Cooper but shot straight at Mark Schwarzer, hitting the advancing keeper squarely in the face.
Man-of-the-match Duff also set up Chelsea's opening goal in the 17th minute for Iceland's Eidur Gudjohnsen, who fired a low shot inside Schwarzer's right hand post from the Ireland international's defense-splitting pass.
Chelsea had other first half chances when central defender John Terry headed Frank Lampard's free kick against the bar and Schwarzer had to dive sharply to his left to turn away Jesper Gronkjaer's shot.
Middlesbrough equalized through Szilard Nemeth virtually from the restart.
At Villa Park, Bolton took the lead 53 seconds into the second half when midfielder Kevin Nolan shot inside the far post from a headed pass by Kevin Davies, beating Dutch substitute keeper Stefan Postma who had yet to touch the ball after replacing injured Thomas Sorensen at the interval.
Angel equalized with his fourth league goal of the season when he shot from the edge of the box into the top right corner after the ball was laid off by midfielder Lee Hendrie.
Villa's Lloyd Samuel later hit the post with a volley from a corner before the penalty was awarded against Bolton's Spanish defender Ivan Campo for a foul on Angel.
Jaaskelainen dived to his left to push away the Colombian's spot kick.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Kite-surfing fabrics, car tires and shortened shoelaces helped Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Adidas crack the two-hour marathon barrier. When Sawe on Sunday shattered one of athletics’ most elusive barriers in storming to victory at the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds, it did not come from just physiology and grit, but from design choices drawn from far beyond the course. Sawe debuted Adidas’ lightest-ever racing shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. “It starts with the mentality of the athlete, the coach, and the team behind the product, which is: What can we do better? What is the 1 percent
RSS