Lille substitute Benoit Pedretti equalized four minutes after coming on to salvage a 1-1 home draw for the lackluster French champions against plucky promoted side Evian on Saturday.
The 12th-placed visitors had taken a shock fourth-minute lead when Tunisian Saber Khalifa struck after the home defense was caught out by an unthreatening-looking through ball.
Lille struggled to assert their authority, but finally broke through just after the hour, when midfielder Pedretti netted with a superb 35m free kick.
The draw left the stuttering northeast club in third spot after 13 games, five adrift of leaders Paris St Germain, who were to visit Girondins Bordeaux on yesterday.
Coach Rudi Garcia has complained about an unfair fixture list having played derby rivals Valenciennes (0-0) last Sunday and lost 2-1 against Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday before facing Evian in Saturday’s only Ligue 1 game.
His side looked lethargic at times, with Englishman Joe Cole, employed in the hole rather than his usual position on the wing, having an effort ruled out for offside, but otherwise struggling to shine.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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