■FRANCE
Marseille extend lead
Two deflected efforts by Mamadou Niang helped Olympique Marseille draw 2-2 with Toulouse to extend their Ligue 1 lead to three points on Saturday. The league’s top scorer Andre-Pierre Gignac took his tally this season to 21 goals by twice putting visitors Toulouse ahead after the interval. Marseille have 68 points with four games left, three ahead of second-placed Girondins Bordeaux. Olympique Lyon’s hopes of an eighth successive crown all but vanished when a double strike by Johan Audel led Valenciennes to a 2-0 home win over the champions. “It is over for the title,” Lyon defender Cris told Foot Plus channel. “We were rubbish today.” Third-placed Lyon have 61 points while Toulouse are fifth on 58. Caen climbed to 16th with a 3-1 home victory over Le Mans while St Etienne slipped to second from bottom after a 0-0 draw with Nancy.
■PORTUGAL
Sporting slip up
Sporting could only draw 0-0 against Academica on Saturday to give FC Porto an opportunity to take a big step toward their fourth straight title. Sporting are three points behind Porto, who lead with 60 points. Benfica’s third place was under threat following a 3-1 defeat at fourth-place Nacional. Nene and Ruben Micael put Nacional 2-0 up by the 64th minute before Jose Antonio Reyes replied for Benfica four minutes later. But Miguel Fidalgo ended it with an injury-time goal that lifted Nacional to 49 points, only three back of Benfica.
■AFRICA
Al Ahli suffer shock exit
Holders Al Ahli of Egypt were knocked out of the African Champions League on Saturday, beaten on away goals by Nigerians Kano Pillars. Nigeria’s other representatives, Heartland FC, overcame last year’s runners-up Coton Sport of Cameroon in another upset. Al Ahli were expected to advance after a 1-1 away draw in the first leg of their third round tie but a 2-2 result in the return match in Cairo put paid to their hopes. Coton Sport, trailing 2-1 from the first leg against Heartland, went out after a 1-1 draw in Garoua.
■LIBERTADORES CUP
LA lined up for matches
Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles is shaping up as a possible venue for Libertadores Cup matches involving Mexican clubs that have been jeopardized by fears over swine flu, La Opinion newspaper reported on Saturday. The Spanish-language Los Angeles paper said the matches of Chivas Guadalajara v Sao Paulo (Brazil) and San Luis v Nacional (Uruguay) appeared to be headed for the US. Brazilian firm Traffic Sports, the Libertadores Cup rights holder, had reached agreement with the clubs to hold a double-header at the Los Angeles venue. Traffic also offered Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, to the South American Confederation (CONMEBOL), but the Coliseum was deemed a better option because of its greater seating capacity (some 92,000) and because of the large Mexican population in Los Angeles.
■GREECE
Olympiakos win Cup thriller
Olympiakos Piraeus won the Greek Cup final on Saturday 15-14 on penalty kicks over AEK Athens after the match ended 4-4 after extra time. It means Olympiakos secured a league and Cup double after winning the league title last month. The match, one of the most exciting in Greek Cup history, was forced to a penalty shootout after midfielder Scocco Ignacio Martin’s second goal leveled the scores for AEK at 4-4 in the 107th minute.
■ICE HOCKEY
Russia win their group
Russia unleashed its power-play strength to beat the US 4-1 in the second round of the World Championship on Saturday. The US took an early lead, but paid for too many penalties as Russia rallied to make it 3-1 at the end of the first period. Russia got another power-play goal early in the second and the US never looked close to a comeback in the teams’ first meeting at the Worlds in five years. Defending champions Russia secured a spot in the quarter-finals as a top seed, having won Group E with a game to spare. The US can still seal a No. 2 seeding in the last eight by beating hosts Switzerland today. Belarus upset Finland in a shootout after a 1-1 tie in Zurich and will advance from Group F if unbeaten Canada beat last-place Norway. Latvia and the Czech Republic are on the brink of knockout play after dominating wins. Latvia routed France 7-1 in Bern and the Czechs handed Slovakia an 8-0 thrashing in Zurich.
■FOOTBALL
Roof breaks coach’s back
Dallas Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis broke his back and 11 more were injured when winds just shy of tornado strength ripped through the roof of the team’s indoor practice facility on Saturday. The storm hit while 27 rookie players were going through workouts. There were about 70 people in the facility, counting coaches, other team personnel and media, officials said. Ten of the injured were taken by emergency vehicles, while two others went to hospitals on their own. Former coach Dan Reeves, DeCamillis’ father-in-law, said the first-year Dallas assistant has a couple of broken vertebrae in his lower back.
■HORSE RACING
Borel pulls off shock win
Mine That Bird at 50-1 turned a sloppy Churchill Downs track into his personal playground by winning the 135th Kentucky Derby on Saturday in the second-biggest upset in America’s most celebrated race. Calvin Borel guided the unheralded Kentucky-bred gelding along the rail in a dramatic stretch run to win the US$2 million race by six-and-three-quarter lengths over Pioneerof the Nile. Borel flew past 12 horses by using a move similar to the one he applied aboard Street Sense to win the 2007 Derby. “It was a Street Sense move,” Borel said. “I learnt by Street Sense, being so patient with these three-year-olds. They can only go so fast and so far. So I sat back and had a good trip and when I hollered at him, he just went on.”
■CYCLING
Kreuziger eyes victory
Czech Roman Kreuziger is poised to win the Tour de Romandie after victory in the 157.5km fourth and penultimate stage from Estavayer-le-Lac to Sainte Croix on Saturday. Kreuziger, runner-up in the race last year, surged to the front with 15km to go on the last of four climbs along with Estonian Rein Taaramae and Russian Vladimir Karpets, who he now leads by 18 seconds in the overall standings. The Czech then produced the decisive burst with 2km left to cross the finish line ahead of Taaramae and Karpets.
■BOXING
Soto defends his title
Mexico’s Humberto Soto defended his World Boxing Council super featherweight title on Saturday with a ninth-round stoppage of Canadian challenger Benoit Gaudet. Soto improved to 48-7 with two drawn with his 31st stoppage within the distance, keeping the crown after referee Jay Nady stopped the fight after 2 minutes, 25 seconds of the ninth round. Gaudet fell to 20-2, his 11-fight win streak snapped.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
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