Real Madrid are almost certain to win La Liga after a routine 2-0 win over Alaves on Friday put them within touching distance of the title.
With suspended skipper Sergio Ramos sitting in the stands, Karim Benzema took over the armband and then penalty duties, firing in from the spot before teeing up Marco Asensio to add a second at the Alfredo di Stefano Stadium.
After restoring their four-point advantage at the top of the table, the pressure was back on Barcelona, who were to play Real Valladolid yesterday, with that game to begin after press time last night.
Photo: AFP
“We still don’t know what is going to happen,” Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane said. “La Liga is very hard and we have three finals still to go.”
“We have to stay focused,” Raphael Varane said.
After sacking their coach Asier Garitano last week following five consecutive defeats, Alaves never looked likely to cause an upset. The loss in Juan Ramon Lopez Muniz’s first game in charge left them hovering above the relegation zone, only three points ahead of RCD Mallorca, who have hope after their win over Levante UD on Thursday.
Photo: EFE
Zidane will be relieved all the same, particularly as he had to do without a string of key players. Ramos and Dani Carvajal were banned, while Marcelo was injured, taking out three of Madrid’s regular back four.
Elsewhere, Granada pulled themselves into contention for a European spot by beating Real Sociedad 3-2 away, snatching all three points with a late goal after throwing away a two-goal lead.
Additional reporting by Reuters
PREMIER LEAGUE
Jack Charlton, a central defender who played alongside his brother, Bobby, in England’s World Cup-winning side in 1966 before coaching Ireland, has died.
He was 85.
Nicknamed “Big Jack” and celebrated for his earthy “beer and cigarettes” image, Jack Charlton was Footballer of the Year in England in 1967. He spent all his club career at Leeds from 1952 to 1973, tying the club’s all-time record of 773 appearances. He won every domestic honor, including the league title in 1969.
Jack Charlton died at home on Friday in his native Northumberland in northeast England surrounded by his family.
“As well as a friend to many, he was a much-adored husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather,” the family said in a statement yesterday. “We cannot express how proud we are of the extraordinary life he led and the pleasure he brought to so many people in different countries and from all walks of life.”
“He was a thoroughly honest, kind, funny and genuine man who always had time for people. His loss will leave a huge hole in all our lives, but we are thankful for a lifetime of happy memories.”
Premier League games this weekend — including yesterday’s Norwich City-West Ham United and Watford-Newcastle United matches — are to be preceded by a minute’s silence as a tribute to Jack Charlton and players will wear black armbands.
In the two games to finish before press time last night, West Ham won 4-0 and Watford triumphed 2-1.
FIFA
Video Assistant Referees (VAR) must not show the “wrong idea of solidarity” by appearing to protect officials who make mistakes on the pitch, FIFA Referees’ Committee chairman Pierluigi Collina said on Friday.
Speaking at the World Football Summit, Collina said it was import for on-field referees to use pitchside monitors during games to review decisions.
“Another thing to be considered [is] a sort of wrong idea of solidarity,” Collina said. “If you belong to a team, you always try to protect your teammates. If your teammate made a mistake, you try to find everything to say ‘no, no, no, he was correct.’”
“It’s a sort of friendship, I’d say. Referees must understand the solidarity and friendship that they want to show is to tell their colleague: ‘Be careful, you might have made a mistake. It’s better that you have another chance watching the incident on a monitor, you have assessed probably wrongly,’ so that finally you can avoid a mistake,” he said.
Collina said that wrong decisions taken in important games can “really kill a referee’s career.”
“VAR is a very important safety net,” he said.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier