■NETHERLANDS
Arsenal rally to beat Ajax
Arsenal rallied from 2-0 down to defeat hosts Ajax 3-2 on the opening day of the Amsterdam four-team tournament on Friday. Inter Milan, under new coach Jose Mourinho, drew 0-0 with Sevilla in the day’s other game. Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice for Arsenal and also laid on a goal for Dane Nicklas Bendtner. Coach Arsene Wenger started with his strongest possible team but the Londoners fell behind in the 33rd minute when a headed clearance from Kolo Toure was snapped up by Luis Suarez, who netted with a fierce volley. Suarez then set up Ajax’s second goal for the unmarked Klaas Jan Huntelaar two minutes later. But Arsenal turned the tide with a three-goal blitz in 15 second-half minutes.
■GERMANY
Hertha struggle to advance
Hertha Berlin struggled to overcome fourth-division Eintracht Trier 3-1 in Frankfurt on Friday to reach the second round of the German Cup, and Bochum needed a penalty shootout to edge Preussen Muenster, another fourth-division club. Marko Pantelic gave Berlin an early lead in the eighth minute, but Trier equalized before halftime. Fabian Lustenberger and Patrick Ebert scored after the break to secure the victory for Berlin, which missed a half-dozen starters for various reasons. Bochum was held to a goalless draw in extra time and won the penalty shootout 6-5 to advance.
■FRANCE
Players in violent bust-up
Nantes midfielder Djamel Abdoun was knocked unconscious after being kicked in the head by team-mate Stefan Babovic during a violent dressing-room bust-up on Friday. The players are to receive stiff penalties, said the French first division team’s technical director, Christian Lariepe, without giving further details. Algerian-born Abdoun, 22, started his career at Paris St Germain and was briefly loaned out to Manchester City last year, while Babovic, 21, has been capped by Serbia.
■ENGLAND
Liverpool beat Lazio 1-0
Liverpool, without injured captain Steven Gerrard, beat Lazio 1-0 at Anfield on Friday in a friendly warm-up for next week’s Champions League match with Xabi Alonso in fine form. Liverpool travel to Belgians Standard Liege for the first leg of the third qualifying round on Wednesday and thigh-strain victim Gerrard at this point looks unlikely to feature. Liverpool fans chanted Alonso’s name constantly during the match and the Spaniard responded with a fine all-action display of passing and running. Liverpool were crisp and assertive with Alonso pulling the strings in front of a 43,062 crowd. They made it eight pre-season games unbeaten, the winner coming in injury-time when Andriy Voronin volleyed home from Jay Spearing’s pass.
■GERMANY
Jens Lehmann steps down
Germany’s veteran goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is handing in his international gloves after 10 years’ service, the German soccer federation (DFB) said on Friday. The 38-year-old Lehmann was the oldest player at Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria when Germany lost to Spain in the June 29 final. The keeper, who quit Arsenal at the end of last season to join Stuttgart, decided to step down after a discussion with Germany’s national coach Joachim Low and goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke. Lehmann explained he wanted to give a chance for another keeper to prove himself in time for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen yesterday exited at the BWF World Tour Finals in China, losing in the semi-finals to China’s world No. 1 Shi Yuqi. Shi, who was named the BWF Men’s Singles Player of the Year, had a 9-4 record against Chou going into the match. He extended that record to 9-5 with a 21-14, 21-18 victory. Chou advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals on Friday by upsetting top-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a must-win match at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. The 16-21, 21-18, 21-15 victory saw Chou secure his second semi-finals appearance at the tournament, despite his relatively older
India’s chess star Gukesh Dommaraju returned to a hero’s welcome in his home city yesterday after becoming the youngest world champion aged only 18. Hundreds of fans crowded the arrivals area of Chennai International Airport, cheering alongside banks of television cameras as Gukesh made his way out of the airport after victory in taking the World Chess Championship title. “It means a lot to bring back the trophy to India,” Gukesh told reporters, with garlands of flowers draped around his neck, brandishing the glittering trophy in his hand. “I can see the support and what it means to India, I
Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest chess world champion on Thursday after beating the defending champion Ding Liren of China in the final match of their series in Singapore. Dommaraju, 18, secured 7.5 points against 6.5 of his Chinese rival in the contest, surpassing the achievement of Russia’s Garry Kasparov, who won the title at the age of 22. The Indian teen prodigy has long been considered a rising star in the chess world after he became a chess grandmaster at 12. He had entered the match as the youngest-ever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier
China yesterday jailed former English Premier League star and China men’s national coach Li Tie for 20 years for bribery, snaring one of the country’s greatest soccer figures in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption in sport. Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged an unrelenting campaign against deep-seated official corruption since coming to power more than a decade ago. Anti-graft authorities took aim at the sport industry in 2022 and have announced a string of convictions for former soccer administrators this week. In the highest-profile case to date, a court in Hubei Province yesterday said that Li had been sentenced to “fixed-term imprisonment
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