■GERMANY
St Pauli, Hannover stunned
Newly promoted St Pauli slumped to a surprise 1-0 defeat against amateurs Chemnitzer in the German Cup first round on Saturday. St Pauli were joined later in the day by fellow Bundesliga club Hannover 96, who lost 5-4 on penalties to regional league club Elversberg after a 0-0 draw at the end of extra-time. A small group of disappointed Hannover fans caused trouble outside the stadium, before police moved in to break them up. All the other Bundesliga clubs avoided any unpleasant surprises in the tricky one-legged ties to advance to the second round. Chemnitzer, who play in the northern regional league, grabbed a fifth-minute lead through Andreas Richter and managed to fight off waves of attacks to clinch a memorable victory. Last season’s finalists, Werder Bremen, had little trouble ousting third division Rot Weiss Ahlen 4-0 in what may have been midfielder Mesut Ozil’s last game, with Real Madrid negotiating to sign the gifted Germany playmaker. Peruvian Claudio Pizarro fired them into the lead in the 28th minute, before Hugo Almeida and Tim Borowski made sure of their second-round spot with two goals after the interval. Marko Marin added a fourth eight minutes from time. Bayer Leverkusen crushed amateurs FK Pirmasens 11-1, with Patrick Helmes netting a hat-trick.
■NETHERLANDS
PSV score six and go top
Swede Ola Toivonen hit a hat-trick to fire PSV Eindhoven to a 6-0 win over 10-man Graafschap Doetinchem in the Dutch league on Saturday. Ajax came from behind to beat Vitesse Arnhem 4-2 for their first win this season, but champions Twente Enschede were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Heerenveen, their second in a row. PSV top the standings with six points from two games, two ahead of Ajax. Balazs Dzsudzsak converted a fifth-minute penalty to put PSV ahead after Purrell Frankel was sent off and Toivonen hit his first minutes before the interval to double the lead. After the break, the Swedish striker added two more to lift his tally to five in two matches. Late goals by Nordin Amrabat and Ibrahim Afellay completed the rout.
■ENGLAND
RBS set to take over Reds
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is preparing to take over Liverpool as the search for a buyer looks increasingly likely to end in failure, a newspaper reported yesterday. Negotiations last week, including those with Chinese sports tycoon Kenny Huang and Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi, proved fruitless, the Sunday Times said. None of the buyers were able to prove they had the money, the paper said, citing sources close to the talks. If a new owner cannot be found, the Premier League club’s main lender RBS — which is 83 percent owned by the British taxpayer following a huge bailout during the financial crisis — may have to take it over. Liverpool owes the bank £237 million (US$370 million) which must be repaid by Oct. 6 or a penalty fee of £60 million will be due.
■ENGLAND
Lions roar to top of table
Promoted Millwall roared to the top of the Championship with a 4-0 thrashing of Hull City on Saturday. The south London outfit demolished Bristol City 3-0 last weekend and they went one better with a four-goal haul against the Tigers. Steve Morison underlined his growing reputation as he opened the scoring in the 14th minute. Hull fell 2-0 down in the 29th minute when Kevin Lisbie headed in. Morison struck again in the 52nd minute and Liam Trotter completed the rout in the 60th minute.
‘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
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