Eidur Gudjohnsen scored a hat-trick as Chelsea beat Blackburn 4-0 in the Premier League on Saturday to close the gap to league-leading Arsenal to two points.
The Iceland striker scored two goals in two minutes in the first half, then scored a 51st minute penalty to notch up his first professional hat-trick. Damien Duff scored the fourth in the 74th.
PHOTO: AFP
In driving rain at Stamford Bridge, Gudjohnsen scored his first in the 37th minute volleying a Joe Cole cross past Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel. A minute later, Gudjohnsen sent another right-footed shot past Friedel.
PHOTO: AP
Gudjohnsen scored his third when he was adjudged to have been brought down in the penalty area by Craig Short and sent Friedel the wrong way on the resulting penalty kick.
Chelsea brought on summer signing Arjen Robben as a second-half substitute. It was the first competitive appearance for Chelsea by the Dutch striker after three months out with a knee injury.
For Everton, life without Wayne Rooney continues to go smoothly.
Everton had taken a 2-0 lead through Kevin Kilbane and Marcus Bent but Norwich rallied in the second half to level with goals from Leon McKenzie and Damien Francis.
Duncan Ferguson headed the 73rd-minute winner to leave Premier League newcomer Norwich as the only club without a win this season.
Everton sold England striker Rooney to Manchester United in the offseason, but manager David Moyes said that had brought the rest of the players closer together.
"I think we have a good team, they are well organized and have a desire to play for each other," Moyes said.
Crystal Palace jumped from last place to 15th with its win over fellow promoted club West Brom, with Andy Johnson scoring two and Fitz Hall adding another.
Tottenham held a minute's silence and wore black armbands during its match against Bolton in honor of former manager Bill Nicholson, who died Saturday aged 85. Nicholson managed Tottenham in its glory days of the 1960s and 1970s.
Bolton took the lead after 11 minutes, with Radhi Jaidi heading in a Gary Speed free-kick. Tottenham leveled five minutes before the break when Robbie Keane latched on to a Frederic Kanoute flick. Henrik Pedersen restored Bolton's lead in the 75th minute.
At Villa Park, Lee Hendrie and Noberto Solano scored against Fulham to give Aston Villa its first win in six matches.
Scott Severin scored in the 89th minute to give Aberdeen a 2-1 win over Motherwell and help secure third place in the Scottish Premier League.
Aberdeen has 19 points, only one point behind second-placed Rangers, after the win. League leader and defending champion Celtic has 20 points.
Kevin McBride gave Motherwell the lead with a 29th-minute penalty, while Derek Adams leveled for the Dons in the 67th.
"We go to play the champions on Wednesday and then Rangers at the weekend but we'll go into these matches with confidence," Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood said.
"To take 19 points from 10 games is a great return, especially when you consider where we came from. The next third is going to be very hard, but we've shown we are a good side and can keep it going."
Dunfermline won its first away match with a 2-1 victory over Dundee off a Iain Anderson header.
Liam Fox scored a late equalizer to give 10-man Inverness Caledonian Thistle a 2-2 draw with Kilmarnock. Stuart McCaffrey was sent off with 40 minutes still to play and Killie 2-1 ahead.
Michael Owen scored his first Spanish league goal to lead Real Madrid over defending champion Valencia 1-0.
Owen, who scored the match-winner in the seventh minute, got his first Madrid goal on Tuesday in the Champions League.
The win at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was Madrid's first in four league matches and lifted it into seventh place ahead of Sunday's games. On the other side, it was Valencia's third defeat in the last seven days, including a 5-1 home thrashing by Inter Milan in the Champions League.
FC Barcelona leads the standings with 19 points, five more than Valencia and Sevilla. Atletico Madrid, Levante, Osasuna, Real Madrid and Zaragoza all have 13 points, while Deportivo is ninth with 12. Malaga is 10th with a point less.
Owen's early goal decided a hard-fought match between the teams which have each won the championship twice in the last four seasons.
The former Liverpool striker held off right back Curro Torres to race onto a through ball by Raul Gonzalez and then lifted the ball with the outside of his right foot into the roof of the net.
Owen's strike appeared to give Madrid confidence as it surged forward in search of a second goal before the interval but couldn't press home its advantage.
Valencia improved slightly with Claudio Ranieri's halftime introduction of Italy's Stefano Fiore and Argentina's Pablo Aimar but only twice came close to scoring, Iker Casillas thwarting midfielder David Albelda in the 57th minute and Aimar just before time.
Owen left the field to an ovation from the crowd when he was replaced in the 59th minute by Santiago Solari.
Andres D'Alessandro directed VfL Wolfsburg over Bochum 3-0 on Saturday to put the unheralded side back into first place.
Bayern Munich, depleted by injuries, was saved by late goals in a 2-0 win over Rostock with the latest comeback of oft-injured Mehmet Scholl -- who had a hand in both goals.
Stuttgart (6-2-0) has 20 points and could pass Wolfsburg again with a win or draw Sunday against Freiburg.
Wolfsburg, a club owned by carmaker Volkswagen, doesn't rate itself as a Bundesliga title contender despite a 7-0-2 mark and 21 points. But on Saturday the squad performed like a top side.
Behind the pinpoint passing of playmaker D'Alessandro, regarded as a big talent in the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg overran Bochum with a spirited performance in front of 21,000 delighted fans in its new stadium.
"When everybody does what they should, we're a good team," coach Erik Gerets said. "Not a great one, but a darned good one."
Pablo Thiam's header opened the scoring in the 27th minute, D'Alessandro's pass was finished by countryman Diego Klimowicz in the 40th and the playmaker then scored two minutes later.
Bochum, which started the year in the UEFA Cup, is now winless in six matches.
Bayern headed into the match against Rostock with two straight losses for the first time this season, an alarming six points behind front-runner Stuttgart and with just 17 healthy players.
"If we lose this match we are in a crisis," club president Franz Beckenbauer said.
After wasting several chances in an all-out attack, Bayern appeared headed to a draw against the relegation threatened squad, although Rostock was shorthanded after a 37th-minute ejection.
But in the 82nd minute, Scholl's corner was headed in by France defender Willy Sagnol. Three minutes later, the former Germany player made a solo run down the right side, appeared ready to cross and instead unleashed a powerful shot that flew inside the near post.
Werder Bremen, another team riddled by injuries, snapped a two-match league losing streak and moved up to fourth, a slot behind Bayern.
With 38,500 attending at Weserstadion, the defending champions riddled Nuremberg's defense with its combinations.
The best was produced in the 18th minute when Johan Micoud and Germany player Miroslav Klose beat the visitors with a passback that the Frenchman sidefooted in for the second goal.
Ivan Klasnic, Christian Schulz and Fabian Ernst rang up the other scores for Bremen.
US international Steve Cherundolo's first Bundesliga goal helped Hannover move to sixth in the table behind the club's third straight win.
Cherundolo's header in the 35th minute produced the second goal in the 2-0 victory. In the second half, the American was forced out of the match with a injury.
Alessandro Del Piero scored two goals within an eight-minute span and set up another by Mauro German Camoranesi to help powerhouse Juventus beat lowly Siena 3-0 and increase its lead in the Serie A.
The 29-year-old Italy forward, much criticized for a disappointing start mostly due to an inflamed tendon, scored the opening goal in the 52nd minute, added another in the 60th and kicked a curling free kick in the 63rd to Camoranesi, who headed home La Juve's third goal.
Juventus' sixth win in seven matches lifted the unbeaten Turin team to 19 points, six clear of defending champion AC Milan, which plays crosstown rival Inter Milan in a crucial Milanese "Derby" on Sunday.
Inter has 10 points going into today's seventh round of Italy's top league.
Ten-man Cagliari, inspired by former Chelsea star Gianfranco Zola, held Atalanta to a 2-2 draw, preventing the Bergamo team from clinching its first victory of the season.
At the same time, Cagliari missed a chance to win its first away from home.
Zola, who joined the Sardinian team last year after seven seasons in the Premier League, fed Mauro Esposito for a 13th-minute goal that evened a quick goal by Atalanta forward Giampaolo Pazzini.
A free kick by Zola in the 29th led to Cagliari's second goal by defender Simone Loria in a melee.
Riccardo Montolivo netted his first Serie A goal with a low shot in the 40th to lift the home team to 2-2.
Zola was replaced early in the second half to make room for a midfielder after Massimo Brambilla received his second yellow card in the 50th and was ejected, leaving Cagliari one player down.
Atalanta attacked throughout the second half and nearly scored in the closing minutes with Carmine Gautieri and Croat striker Igor Budan.
Gautieri failed to control the ball in the 81st, after beating Greece goalkeeper Fanis Katergiannakis.
A joint blunder by Katergiannakis and defender Alessandro Agostini helped Pazzini's opening goal after two minutes.
The draw gave Cagliari 10 points in the standings, in a sixth-place tie with Inter Milan. Atalanta (0-4-3) was left struggling in the bottom places with four points.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
RSS