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.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS