Borussia Dortmund wasted two penalties and conceded a late goal in a stormy match Friday to kick off the second half of the Bundesliga season with a 1-0 loss at home to Schalke.
Both teams finished the match with 10 players.
PHOTO: AFP
Substitute Ebbe Sand ended a long scoring slump to notch the winner in the 89th minute for his first goal of the season. The Danish striker used a fast Schalke counterattack to break free and chip the ball over the advancing Dortmund goalkeeper Guillaume Warmuz.
Dortmund wasted an unjustified penalty after eight minutes. German international Torsten Frings took a dive over the advancing Schalke goalkeeper Frank Rost's outstretched hand but Dortmund was awarded the penalty. Striker Jan Koller took it but shot straight at Rost.
The home team, playing before a capacity crowd of 83,000 on a cold evening, got into more trouble when star midfielder Tomas Rosicky was sent off for a hard tackle from behind two minutes before halftime.
Minutes earlier, Rosicky had earned a yellow card for another dive in the Schalke penalty area.
Rosicky has been the target of transfer speculation. Dortmund needs to raise cash and the talented Czech international has been linked with Chelsea, but his move is not expected before the end of the season.
With Schalke dominating the match and squandering scores of chances, Dortmund suddenly got another opportunity from the spot when Thomas Klaesener handled the ball in front of the Schalke goal in the 73rd.
Klaesener was also sent off, while Frings took the penalty shot this time. He sent a low ball to the left and Rost dived to palm it away.
"I didn't have much luck before in stopping penalties but today I stopped two," Rost said.
French league
French first division leader Monaco took a 1-1 draw Friday with Paris Saint-Germain, which lost a chance to inch its way closer to the top.
At the start of the 22nd round, Monaco has 48 points. PSG holds the third slot with 40 points.
Monaco's Sebastien Squillaci opened the score with a header in the 26nd minute. Gabriel Heinze of PSG matched the goal in the 31st minute.
On Saturday, defending champion Lyon, which is second in the standings with 41 points, has a chance to leave PSG further behind when it plays Toulouse. In other matches, Sochaux vs. Marseille and Auxerre vs. Bordeaux.
Scottish premier league
It just gets worse for Partick Thistle.
Mired in last place in the Scottish Premier League with 16 losses from 21 games, Thistle now face up to Dutch twin brothers Ronald and Frank de Boer.
The twins have joined up again, this time at Scottish club Rangers.
Frank de Boer joined Ronald at Rangers from Galatasaray earlier this week and will make his debut on Sunday against Thistle.
"He has got leadership qualities, a sackful of winner's medals and Dutch caps," Rangers manager Alex McLeish said.
"He is technically an excellent player and I think he is also a great competitor."
De Boer has not played since December and moved to Scotland in a bid for more playing time to make the Dutch team for the Euro 2004 finals.
"We have looked at Frank in training this week and he has worked very hard," McLeish said. "We put the players through the mill and he has coped well with that.
"He doesn't seem to have lost much fitness despite not playing since December."
The de Boer brothers have also played together at Ajax and Barcelona. Ronald de Boer, a striker, joined Rangers in August 2000.
Rangers are eleven points behind Celtic, but shouldn't have too much trouble beating Partick Sunday.
Partick has only nine points from 21 games and have conceded almost as many goals, 42, as Rangers have won points.
"Partick have been unlucky in recent games," McLeish said. "We have had them watched and the reports back say they have been battling very hard."
Defender David Lilley is set to make his debut for Killie after moving from Partick Thistle and hopes he's not too busy.
"It's the best Celtic side I've seen for a number of years. They're relentless," Lilley said.
"Maybe the fact that they're now 11 points clear and they're not neck and neck with Rangers will help us."
In other Saturday matches -- Dundee United vs. Dunfermline, Hibernian vs. Dundee, Livingston vs. Hearts and Motherwell vs. Aberdeen.
Italian league
Giacinto Facchetti, a former captain-defender of Inter Milan, on Friday was named to succeed Massimo Moratti as president of the soccer powerhouse.
Facchetti's appointment by the Milan club's board had been recommended by Moratti, who stays on as team owner and financier.
Moratti, an oil industrialist who invested millions of dollars in the so-far vain attempt to win for his team an Italian league title, quit as club president on Jan. 19, the day after Inter was upset at home by lowly Empoli in a Serie A match.
The loss, the third in four league matches, touched off bitter protests by the fans as Inter slipped out of contention for the title.
While naming Facchetti, the club board also appointed five new board members to replace Moratti, some of his relatives and industrialist Marco Tronchetti Provera who stepped down the day Moratti resigned.
Tronchetti Provera is the chairman of Inter's top sponsor -- the Pirelli tire group.
English premier league
Leeds United was Friday given another week to find enough money to stop the club from going into financial administration, the last step before bankruptcy.
Leeds had been given until close of business Friday to produce evidence they could raise 5 million pounds (US$9 million).
Thursday, the players agreed to a pay deferral of 25 percent, worth around £2.5 million (US$4.5 million) and the club was forwarded £1.5 million (US$2.7 million) owed by Manchester United for the transfer of Rio Ferdinand.
Leeds United, Champions League semifinalists just three seasons ago, is £82 million (US$148 million) in debt.
Leeds said in a statement that it had met the "financial and other convenants" required to extend the "standstill" agreement until Feb. 6.
UEFA
Djibril Cisse's hopes of helping France defend its title at Euro 2004 all but ended on Friday when UEFA upheld a five-match ban on the striker.
UEFA's disciplinary body rejected Cisse's appeal against the ban, imposed for aggressive behavior during an international under-21 match against Portugal in November. The ban only applies to competitive matches with France, not friendlies or club games, which means the Auxerre player is ineligible to play for Les Bleus at the European championship unless it reaches the final.
Cisse, who is the French league's top scorer this season with 15 goals, will be sorely missed by the national side.
France coach Jacques Santini said he was unhappy with the UEFA panel's decision.
"This sanction was totally disproportionate when it was first imposed," he said in a statement. "It remains so, given the particular circumstances of this match.''
Santini said he had yet to decide on Cisse's possible participation in Euro 2004.
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