CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Atletico Madrid, Liverpool and Inter Milan reached into the Champions League second round on Wednesday night, while 10-man Chelsea and minnows Anorthosis Famagusta must wait and see.
Steven Gerrard’s goal shot Liverpool through in a 1-0 home victory over Marseille, Atletico beat PSV Eindhoven 2-1, while Inter Milan still went through after losing at home to complete 13-pieces of the 16-team knockout stage jigsaw.
PHOTO: AFP
Anorthosis must be kicking themselves after throwing away a 2-0 lead at home to Werder Bremen, drawing 2-2, and Panathinaikos shocked Inter Milan 1-0 in Italy in Group B.
Group A is wide open after Chelsea drew 1-1 at Bordeaux with Nicolas Anelka on the scoresheet and Frank Lampard suspended for their final match at home to Romanians Cluj after a second yellow card.
Roma won 3-1 at Cluj, and will host Bordeaux in their final match.
Barcelona topped Group C with a 5-2 victory at Sporting Lisbon as Spain got a Grand Slam of all four clubs — Real Madrid and Villarreal are the others — through to the next phase.
Atletico fans had to celebrate goals from Simao and Maxi Rodriguez outside their Vicente Calderon stadium after UEFA punished the club for disturbances and reported racist remarks by its fans during the group match against Marseille on Oct. 1.
As for Anorthosis Famagusta, they threw away vital points as they let slip a two-goal lead at home to eliminated Werder Bremen to leave their hopes of further progress hanging by a thread.
A Diego penalty and Hugo Almeida’s last-gasp volley canceled out goals from Nikos Nikolaou and Savio and Temuri Ketsbaia’s surprise package now need a result in Athens against Panathiniakos to reach the knockout phase. Rank outsiders Anorthosis slid down to third place on six points — one behind the Greeks, who bagged their win at the San Siro courtesy of Josu Sarriegi’s second-half strike.
“We are disappointed because we led 2-0 but couldn’t hold on. We made mistakes and at this level you get punished for mistakes,” Anorthosis manager Temuri Ketsbaia said.
Anorthosis can only dream of enjoying the multimillion budget of English big-spenders Chelsea — but Luis Felipe Scolari’s men are in the same boat with one match to go after they also let slip a lead to push qualification down to the wire and the last match.
Nicolas Anelka’s cool finish on the hour looked set to claim full points but Alou Diarra headed the equalizer seven minutes from time and then Chelsea had England star Frank Lampard sent off for a second yellow card in the closing stages.
Manager Luiz Felipe Scolari was annoyed for the first goal conceded under his reign from a corner.
“If you look at the first 45 minutes and the final result, it is normal but I am not satisfied that they scored from a corner which is the first one since I’m the coach,” Scolari grumbled.
“If we can’t beat Cluj at home, I might as well go back to Brazil,” the 60-year-old Brazilian said.
In the other Anglo-French contest, Gerrard’s first half header from Xabi Alonso’s cross saw off Marseille — but the French club now face potential disciplinary action from UEFA after missiles were thrown in the England midfielder’s direction from the away end.
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez praised Gerrard’s cool handling of the situation.
“Steven was very professional. It is something that the UEFA delegate will take note of,” said Benitez, who took charge of his 66th European match to eclipse Bill Shankly’s record while a 39th victory on the European stage saw him draw level with Bob Paisley on that count.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
RSS