Valencia and FC Barcelona pulled ahead in Spanish league on Sunday with easy wins, while Arsenal stretched its unbeaten streak to 47 in England and Juventus suffered its first setback in Italy.
Defending champion Valencia got goals from Vicente Rodriguez and Stefano Fiore to beat Racing Santander 2-0. Vicente scored first from a direct free kick that ricocheted off the crossbar, and Fiore tapped in the second after a precise pass from Vicente.
PHOTO: EPA
Barcelona kept pace by downing Mallorca 3-1. Samuel Eto'o scored two, one from the penalty spot, and Henrik Larsson added the other.
Both Valencia and Barcelona have 13 points from five matches.
Defending English Premier League champion Arsenal got a rare goal from Ashley Cole to beat Manchester City 1-0.
Cole collected a deflected pass from Jose Antonio Reyes to score for the first time in more than two years. Arsenal has beaten City in each their last 11 meetings.
Serie A leader Juventus was held to a 1-1 draw by newcomer Palermo, losing its perfect record in the fourth round.
Defender Cristian Zaccardo gave the Sicilian team the lead, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted the equalizer with his third goal of the season off a rebound.
Spain
Real Madrid suffered another setback in the Spanish league, losing to Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on goals from Ismael Urzaiz and Santiago Ezquerro. Madrid captain Raul Gonzalez pulled one back for the losing team.
Crosstown rival Atletico Madrid jumped into a tie for third place by nipping Villarreal 1-0. Salvador "Salva" Ballesta netted the match-winner.
Valencia and Barcelona are followed by Atletico, Espanyol and others with 10 points.
England
Chelsea stayed in second place in the Premier League after beating Middlesbrough 1-0, while surprising Everton continued to impress by nipping host Portsmouth 1-0.
Didier Drogba scored a late goal to give Chelsea maximum points. Tim Cahill was the hero for Everton.
Manchester United also won, moving up to fifth place by defeating Tottenham 1-0 on Ruud van Nistelrooy's penalty.
Arsenal leads the league with 19 points, two more than Chelsea and three more than Everton. Bolton and Manchester United each have 12 points.
Italy
Lazio missed a chance to join Juventus at the top of the Serie A standings, blowing a one-goal lead in a 2-1 loss to defending champion AC Milan.
AS Roma, which fell to nine-man Bologna 3-1, lost coach Rudi Voeller. The former Germany coach quit after the match, his second loss in four games.
Juventus has 10 points from four matches at the top of the league standings, followed by Lecce and Messina with eight each.
Germany
Surprising VfL Wolfsburg stayed at the top of the Bundesliga after beating Kaiserslautern 2-1 on Diego Klimowicz's 90th-minute match-winner.
Stuttgart throttled Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 to stay in second place, while defending champion Werder Bremen got a hat trick from Miroslav Klose to help it beat VfL Bochum 4-1.
Bayern Munich also won, topping SC Freiburg 3-1.
Wolfsburg has 15 points from six matches, followed by Stuttgart with 14, Bremen with 12 and Bayern with 11.
Netherlands
Yannis Anastasiou scored a late winner as Ajax edged Roda JC Kerkrade 1-0. PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord both strolled to 4-0 victories.
PSV got two goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and one each from Theo Lucius and Jefferson Farfan in beating Heerenveen.
PSV leads the league with 16 points, with Ajax second with 14 points and Feyenoord third with 13.
Scotland
Henri Camara scored twice as defending Scottish champion Celtic beat Dunfermline 3-0, while Rangers topped Dundee 2-0 to move into second place.
Stanislav Varga also scored for Celtic, while Nacho Novo scored both goals for Rangers against his old club.
Also, Kilmarnock's Kris Boyd hit all five of his team's goals in a 5-2 victory over Dundee United to tie a Premier League record.
France
Monaco stayed one point clear in the French league after holding three-time defending champion Lyon to a 0-0 draw.
Lille, which trounced Metz 4-0, jumped into second place, ahead of Lyon on goal difference. Matt Mossilou scored twice for Lille while Milenko Acimovic and Johan Audel added the others.
Monaco is top with 17 points from eight matches, while Lille and Lyon each have 16 points.
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
DOMINATION: McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took the first two spots as Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen followed them Australian Oscar Piastri yesterday roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris. George Russell finished third for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton fifth and sixth respectively. Piastri’s win denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren unbeaten in two races so far this year. “Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said
TO FINAL FOUR: France had 22 chances and scored two goals, while Croatia could not manage a single shot on target in 120 minutes. Les Bleus won 5-4 on penalties France on Sunday overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the UEFA Nations League Final Four by eliminating Croatia 5-4 on penalties after a 2-0 victory in their quarter-final second leg at the Stade de France. Dayot Upamecano scored the winning spot kick in a nail-biting shootout in which France keeper Mike Maignan made two saves, sending Les Bleus into the semi-finals against Spain. Michael Olise opened the scoring and Ousmane Dembele doubled their lead 10 minutes from time to send the tie into extra time after their 2-0 loss in Split, Croatia, on Thursday. France had a total of
Armand Duplantis will be among the reigning Olympic champions adding star power to the world indoor championships this weekend when the Chinese city of Nanjing hosts the first major global athletics meet since the Paris Games last year. The three-day event was originally slated for 2020 and faced multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Nanjing’s Sports Training Center would finally welcome more than 570 athletes for the start of the showpiece today. One of the main attractions would be pole vaulter “Mondo” Duplantis, who soared 6.27m to break the world record for a staggering 11th time in Clermont-Ferrand last
RSS