Real Sociedad on Tuesday climbed to fourth in La Liga with a 2-1 win at Sociedad Deportiva Eibar — the first Spanish match played without fans as part of measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Following a decision by the Spanish National Sports Council earlier in the day, La Liga said that the next two rounds of fixtures would be played in empty stadiums, starting with Tuesday’s Basque derby.
The match had originally been scheduled to take place last month, but was postponed because of poor air quality in the region following fires at a landfill.
Photo: EPA-EFE / La Liga
Played in near silence apart from the sounds of the players and staff shouting, Mikel Oyarzabal fired home his eighth goal of the campaign from the penalty spot after 16 minutes to put Real Sociedad ahead.
Fabian Orellana had a chance to level with a penalty at the other end after Igor Zubeldia handled in his own area, but Alex Remiro kept out his effort.
Willian Jose added the second goal after 75 minutes following good work by winger Portu to seal the visitors’ victory and take Real Sociedad above Getafe and Atletico Madrid, with 46 points from 27 games.
Eibar, 16th and two points clear of the relegation zone, were hampered by their lack of fans and only managed a late consolation when Joseba Zaldua handled in the area and Charles slammed in the game’s third penalty.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS