Robbie Fowler scored his fourth goal in five matches to help Liverpool beat Blackburn 1-0 on Sunday in the English Premier League.
Liverpool won its seventh straight match and dented Blackburn's hopes of overtaking Tottenham for fourth place and the final Champions League spot.
Earlier, Milan Baros scored twice to give Aston Villa a 3-1 win over local rival Birmingham.
PHOTO: AP
Fowler scored in the 29th minute at Ewood Park when Fernando Morientes kept the ball in play and passed to his striking partner, who then side-footed past Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel.
Blackburn players complained that the goal should have been disallowed because Djibril Cisse was offside, but the referee said he did not interfere with play.
"The ball's thrown in, and he makes movement towards the ball -- so in my view he is interfering with play," Blackburn manager Mark Hughes said. "The law is very unclear, and it's very difficult to hold a defensive line."
PHOTO: AP
Cisse had a one-on-one chance in first-half injury time, but Friedel pushed his shot over the bar.
Fowler's goalscoring form should help him extend his contract at the end of the season. The former England international rejoined Liverpool in January from Manchester City.
"People keep on asking me, but I'm as much in the dark as everyone else -- and all I can do is score goals," Fowler said. "I've not finished that many games. But it's the manager's prerogative -- he's got a decision to make, and if he doesn't think I'm fit enough it's up to him."
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said he hasn't decided if Fowler would stay.
"If he continues scoring goals it will be easy," Benitez said. "He's working hard because he loves Liverpool. He knows my ideas and he will continue working.''
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard missed the match with a hamstring injury, while striker Peter Crouch was rested.
Liverpool is in third place with 73 points, three behind second-place Manchester United, which has played a game less. Blackburn is sixth with 54 points, seven points behind fourth-place Tottenham and three points behind Arsenal.
Baros scored in the 10th and 78th minutes at Villa Park, with Gary Cahill adding a goal in between. Birmingham made it 1-1 when Chris Sutton scored in the 25th.
Aston Villa is in 16th place with 39 points, while Birmingham remains in the relegation zone along with West Brom. Last-place Sunderland was relegated on Saturday.
"We've got four games left and we aren't going to give up the ghost," Birmingham manager Steve Bruce said. "We have given ourselves a fighting chance with the way we performed in the previous three games and the lads gave everything today as well."
Birmingham central defender Matthew Upson was injured in the warmup, possibly rupturing his Achilles tendon, and midfielder David Dunn limped off with a calf injury in the first half.
Chelsea, which leads the league with 85 points, can win its second straight Premier League title on Monday if it beats Everton and Manchester United fails to win at Tottenham.
Also Monday, it's: Charlton versus Portsmouth; Middlesbrough versus West Ham; Sunderland versus Newcastle; and West Brom versus Bolton.
Celtic was presented with the Scottish Premier League championship trophy after it drew 1-1 with Hibernian.
Hibernian took the lead through Steven Fletcher in the 35th minute, with Maciej Zurawski leveling for Celtic in the 76th.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan was happy with his team's form.
"We were fantastic," Strachan said. "It's just football that people like to watch and that's the most chances we've made against Hibs this year."
Celtic clinched its fourth Scottish league title in six seasons and 40th overall on April 5, but the match against Hibs was its first at home since then.
"We never dreamed of this," Strachan said. "I thought we could win the championship, but not this early."
Celtic has 86 points, followed by Hearts with 68 and Rangers with 63. The team that finishes second earns a Champions League qualifying spot next season. Hibernian is fourth.
Real Madrid missed its chance to keep pace with Valencia, dropping to third place after a 1-1 draw with Getafe.
Julio Baptista gave Madrid the lead with a goal in the 61st minute, but Manuel Tena equalized in the 83rd.
Madrid now has 60 points, two behind Valencia. FC Barcelona leads the league with 73 points.
Julio Baptista had three more chances to score for Madrid, hitting the crossbar in the 12th minute, forcing Getafe defender Ruben Pulido to make a tough save in the 27th and missing after a free kick from substitute David Beckham in injury time.
Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas kept his team in the match with several saves, including two in the 24th.
Valencia easily beat Copa del Rey champion Espanyol 4-0, getting goals from David Villa, Roberto Ayala, Miguel Angel "Mista" Ferrer and Ruben Baraja.
Valencia scored its first goal in the 39th minute when Villa converted from the penalty spot after defender Moises Hurtado held him in the penalty area.
In the 60th, Espanyol midfielder Eduardo Acosta was ejected for a second yellow card after a tackle on Valencia defender Amedeo Carboni.
Ayala headed in a free kick by Villa seven minutes later and Mista scored his first goal in nearly a year in the 70th minute. Baraja scored from a corner in the 86th.
In other matches, it was: Real Betis 0, Celta Vigo 2; Zaragoza 1, Cadiz 2; Osasuna 1, Malaga 1; and Atletico Madrid 1, Athletic Bilbao 0.
Robert Vittek scored two more goals, helping FC Nuremberg pull out a 3-2 win over FC Kaiserslautern.
The Slovakian, without a goal before the winter break, has 13 goals in 14 matches and once-relegation threatened Nuremberg has climbed to ninth place with its fifth straight home win.
Kaiserslautern, a four-time German champion, is three points away from 15th place and escaping relegation. The club will also have to overcome a minus-24 goal difference.
Jon Dahl Tomasson scored in the 82nd minute to give Stuttgart a 3-3 draw against Hannover 96. Seventh-place Stuttgart is four points from a UEFA Cup berth.
Hannover led 3-1 before Stuttgart charged back starting with Thomas Hitzlsperger's first goal this season.
Stuttgart now has a league high 16 draws, with Hannover right behind at 15.
Ajax secured a spot in the playoffs for next season's Champions League by beating RKC Waalwijk 4-2.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored two goals and Johnny Heitinga and Nourdin Boukhari added the others for Ajax, which finished in fourth place with 60 points.
Dutch league champion PSV Eindhoven, which beat NAC Breda 6-2, is guaranteed of one spot in Europe's top club competition, while the next four teams go into a playoff for the other.
AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord and FC Groningen are also in the playoffs. AZ beat SC Heerenveen 4-2, Feyenoord topped RBC Roosendaal 2-0 and Groningen was held to a 1-1 draw by FC Twente.
Two of the losing three teams will play in the UEFA Cup next season, while the third faces the winner of another playoff for the final UEFA Cup spot.
PSV won the league with 84 points -- 10 ahead of second-place AZ. Feyenoord was third with 71 points, followed by Ajax with 60 and Groningen with 56.
At the bottom, RBC Roosendaal has been relegated, while Willem II and NAC Breda will meet six lower division teams in the playoffs.
Second division champion Excelsior Rotterdam has already secured promotion.
Also, it was: Vitesse Arnhem 1, NEC Nijmegen 1; Roda JC 2, Heracles Almelo 1; ADO The Hague 0, Sparta Rotterdam 2; and FC Utrecht 1, Willem II 4.
Brazilian striker Fred scored his 10th goal of the league season and Lyon celebrated its fifth straight title with a 1-0 win at Paris Saint-Germain.
Fred scored the only goal at Parc des Princes in the 23rd minute when he headed in a corner from Brazil midfielder Juninho.
The win improved Lyon to 78 points from 34 matches, giving coach Gerard Houllier's team a 17-point lead over second-place Bordeaux, which conceded the title when it lost 3-2 at Lille on Saturday.
Lyon is the only French team ever to have won five consecutive titles, eclipsing the four straight won by Saint-Etienne and Marseille.
PSG remained in eighth place and likely will need to win the French Cup to qualify for the UEFA Cup.
Also Sunday, Rennes lost 2-1 at Nice to end its 11-game winning streak, including nine straight in the league.
Olympiakos Piraeus won its ninth Greek league title in 10 years and 34th overall despite a 2-1 loss to Larissa, claiming the crown when Iraklis beat Panathinaikos 1-0.
The results left Olympiakos with 69 points, six ahead of AEK and eight in front of Panathinaikos with two games remaining. Olympiakos would still claim the title if AEK, which beat OFI Crete 2-0 on Sunday, won its last two games and tied it on points, having won the season series between the two clubs.
The title was Olympiakos' second straight and gave it 15 more than its next closest rival, Panathinaikos, which won last won the league in 2004.
AEK's victory moved it past Panathinaikos into second place. It will have a chance to beat Olympiakos in the Greek Cup final in May.
In Athens, AEK squandered three chances before Costas Katsouranis scored in the seventh minute. AEK continued to dominate and doubled its lead in the 34th with a right-foot drive by Nikos Lymberopoulos.
In other games Sunday, it was: PAOK 3, Levadiakos 1; Akratitos 1, Apollon 3; Atromitos 1, Panionios 3 and Kallithea 2, Xanthi 1.
English champion Chelsea will turn over its state-of-the-art training complex to help prepare China for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, newspapers reported Monday.
Chelsea CEO Peter Kenyon extended the offer in meetings last week with Chinese soccer association officials in Beijing, the newspaper Titan Sports reported.
"What we're looking for is a broader cooperation with China and a bigger space in the market," Kenyon was quoted as saying. "We don't want to copy other clubs who just come to China to play a few commercial matches, then take the money and leave."
Accepting the offer, Yang Yimin, the Chinese association's vice president, said Chelsea's play had become a "blueprint" for China's coaching staff.
"We would really love it if [Chelsea manager] Jose Mourinho could find some time to come to China after the season ends and give a class to our coaches," Titan quoted Yang as saying.
China badly needs some new ideas. Since qualifying for its first World Cup finals in 2002, the men's side has been a consistent loser, bouncing out of the first round of World Cup qualifying in 2004.
China is currently ranked 71st in the world, one notch above tiny Kuwait.
No details of the timing or financial terms of the agreement were available. Spokesmen for the Chinese association could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
RSS