Juergen Klopp again fumed at a “dangerous” schedule as Liverpool had two goals disallowed and conceded two penalties in a 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion, while Manchester City clicked back into gear with a 5-0 thrashing of Burnley.
Liverpool edged back to the top of the Premier League table, a point ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, but were left frustrated by Pascal Gross’ stoppage-time penalty which salvaged a point for Brighton.
Klopp had voiced his displeasure all week at facing a lunchtime kickoff just three days after a Champions League defeat to Atalanta BC.
Photo: AFP
Already hit by a huge list of injuries, the Reds suffered another setback when James Milner had to be replaced with a hamstring problem in the second half.
“Congratulations,” Klopp said sarcastically to a television reporter for BT Sport. “You work for them yeah? Hamstring, surprise.”
“I’ve not had a go at the broadcaster, I just say how it is. After Wednesday, Saturday 12:30 is really dangerous for the players,” he added.
Klopp named Neco Williams and Nathaniel Phillips in a makeshift back four and Brighton took advantage when Williams wiped out Aaron Connolly for Brighton’s first spot-kick, but Neal Maupay sent it wide.
Mohamed Salah was then denied an opener by video-assistant referee (VAR) for offside, but the Egyptian teed up Diogo Jota to keep his flying start to life at Liverpool going with a fine finish on the hour mark.
Sadio Mane had a second for the visitors ruled out for offside before another VAR review went against Liverpool when Andy Robertson was adjudged to have kicked Danny Welbeck trying to clear.
This time Gross took responsibility from the spot and sent Alisson Becker the wrong way.
City shrugged off their problems in front of goal by hitting five past Burnley for the fourth consecutive clash between the two at the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s men had scored just seven goals in their previous seven league games, but Riyad Mahrez’s early double opened the floodgates.
Benjamin Mendy made it 3-0 before halftime and Ferran Torres had his first Premier League goal before Mahrez completed the scoring and his hat-trick.
Victory propelled City to within six points of Liverpool at the top of the table with a game in hand.
“It’s important for us to score goals and keep going,” said Guardiola, who will hope a favorable run of fixtures over the next month can haul his side back into the title race.
Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti was reduced to tears before his side’s 1-0 loss to Leeds United as respects were paid to Maradona before all Premier League games this weekend with a minute’s applause.
An enthralling 90 minutes followed at Goodison Park with chances aplenty for both sides, but just one goal, scored by Raphinha 11 minutes from time.
West Bromwich Albion claimed their first win back in the top-flight as Connor Gallagher’s strike earned a 1-0 win over Sheffield United.
Victory took Slaven Bilic’s men out of the bottom three, while the Blades remain rooted to the foot of the table with just one point from 10 games.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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