PORTUGAL
‘Students’ stun Sporting
Surprise-package Academica earned a shock 1-0 win over Sporting in Sunday’s Portuguese Cup final, snatching the trophy thanks to an early goal by winger Marinho. Coimbra-based Academica, nicknamed “the students,” had won the Cup only once before, in its very first edition in 1939. The defeat dealt a severe blow to Sporting and coach Ricardo Sa Pinto, who end the season trophyless. Marinho, the shortest player on the pitch, wrote his name in Academica’s history books when he sneaked behind Sporting’s defense and headed home after only four minutes. Sporting were slow and often clumsy in their buildup play, and they succumbed to Academica’s focused and well-organized tactics. The Lisbon club missed their best chance to equalize in the second half when Dutch striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel failed to beat goalkeeper Ricardo when through on goal.
ITALY
Torino, Pescara promoted
Torino will be back in Serie A next season following an absence of three years after beating Modena 2-0 on Sunday. The result assured Torino of promotion as they cannot be caught by Hellas Verona or US Sassuolo Calcio heading into the final round of matches at the weekend. Delfino Pescara 1936 joined Torino in the top flight after a 19-year wait, following a 3-1 win at Sampdoria. They are two points behind Torino. Nnamdi Oduamadi and Giuseppe De Feudis scored a goal in each half for Torino at a sold-out Stadio Olimpico. A brace from Gianluca Caprari, either side of Ciro Immobile’s goal, handed Pescara victory in Genoa. Zdenek Zeman’s young, attacking team has scored 89 goals this season — 36 more than any other team in the division. Verona and Sassuolo were joined in the promotion playoffs by Vicenza Calcio and Sampdoria.
AUSTRIA
Salzburg complete double
Red Bull Salzburg completed the Austrian double on Sunday with an embarrassingly one-sided 3-0 win over holders SV Ried in the Austrian Cup final. Salzburg, who wrapped up the Austrian Bundesliga the previous week, needed only 15 minutes to take a 2-0 lead with a penalty converted by Brazilian forward Leonardo and a Frank Schiemer header. There was no way back for Ried after that, despite the backing of most of the fans in a disappointing 16,000 crowd at the Ernest Happel-Stadion. Stefan Hierlaender added a third in stoppage-time. Ten players were booked in a niggly, bad-tempered encounter as Salzburg won the Cup for the fifth time. Salzburg have dominated Austrian soccer since the club was taken over by the Red Bull energy drinks company in 2005, winning the league four times in the past six seasons, although it was their first Cup win in that time.
MEXICO
Santos Laguna claim title
Daniel Luduena and Oribe Peralta scored either side of halftime as Santos Laguna beat Monterrey 2-1 to claim the Mexican title on Sunday. Santos won the two-legged finals series 3-2 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw the previous week in Monterrey. The playoff decided the second half of Mexico’s split season, the Clausura. The first-half title — the Apertura — was won by Tigres UANL. Luduena opened the scoring in the sixth minute and Oribe Peralta extended the lead in the 65th. Aldo de Nigris pulled one back for Monterrey in the 79th minute. The title is Santos Laguna’s fourth since the club was founded in 1983 and they extracted some revenge after Monterrey defeated them 4-3 on aggregate in last month’s CONCACAF Champions League final.
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
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
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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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