Derby County took control of their Championship play-off semi-final against Brighton and Hove Albion as an own-goal from goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak secured a 2-1 win in the first leg on Thursday.
Steve McClaren’s team fell behind to Jesse Lingard’s early strike at the Amex Stadium, but top scorer Chris Martin leveled from the penalty spot for his 24th goal of the season.
And in first half stoppage-time Martin saw his shot hit the crossbar and bounce in off the back of former Manchester United star Kuszczak to ensure Derby take a slender lead back home for the decisive second leg at their iPro Stadium set for tomorrow.
County, who last played in the Premier League six years ago, went into the tie having finished 13 points ahead of Brighton and had beaten them twice already this season.
Brighton left it to the final minute of the final day of the second tier season to snatch sixth place from Reading, and it was the hosts who drew first blood.
In the 17th minute Andrea Orlandi and Will Buckley combined to send Inigo Calderon charging to the byline and the Spaniard’s cut-back was turned in at the second attempt by on loan Manchester United forward Lingard.
Derby drew level just before the half-hour when Craig Forsyth jinked into the area, only to be halted by a clattering foul by former England defender Matt Upson.
Martin stepped forward and capitalized on Upson’s misjudgement with a cool finish from the penalty spot.
The Rams went ahead seconds before the interval when Johnny Russell played the ball to Martin, who crashed his shot against the woodwork and in off the luckless Kuszczak.
Brighton came agonizingly close to an equalizer after the break, but Leonardo Ulloa’s volley was superbly tipped onto the crossbar by Lee Grant to ensure the Rams are within touching distance of reaching the final at Wembley.
The first leg of the other Championship playoff semi-final, between Wigan Athletic and Queens Park Rangers, was scheduled to be played at the DW Stadium in Wigan yesterday.
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
RSS