A late header from Hoffenheim’s striker Wellington sealed a 1-1 draw at bottom club Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday to keep his side top of the Bundesliga.
Hoffenheim were facing a shock defeat thanks to a first-half goal from Alexander Baumjohann but Wellington’s 89th minute goal saved their blushes.
There was disappointment for Hamburg as Martin Jol’s side allowed a 2-0 lead to slip to a dramatic 3-2 defeat at Karlsruhe dropping them to third. Hamburg were coasting at 2-0 after 48 minutes thanks to goals by Jose Paolo Guerrero and Collin Benjamin. But two goals from Karlsruhe in four minutes early in the second-half leveled the scores until striker Sebastian Freis headed his second goal in injury time to give his side three points to go 15th in the table.
Both sides had been reduced to ten-men when first Hamburg’s Mladen Petric was shown a straight red for a dangerous tackle on 76 minutes before Karlsruhe’s Marco Engelhardt was shown his second yellow on 82 minutes.
Stuttgart are up to sixth after an impressive 4-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen with Mario Gomez scoring either side of half-time.
Leverkusen were reduced to ten men when Arturo Vidal hauled down Gomez on 48 minutes with just the goalkeeper to beat and was shown a straight red.
Cologne and Eintracht Frankfurt are both still in mid-table after their 2-2 draw. Wolfsburg move up to seventh after their 2-0 win at home to VfL Bochum.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
FINAL WEEK LOOMS: PSG rose to 22nd place to set up another tense challenge against 24th-placed Stuttgart, while Man City require victory against Club Brugge Manchester City are on the brink of a humiliating UEFA Champions League exit after a stunning loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, while Real Madrid is no longer at risk after routing Salzburg. Man City blew a two-goal lead in a high-stakes clash of super-wealthy underachievers that PSG won 4-2 in Paris, who could still be eliminated alongside the English champions after the final round of games next week. Only the top 24 in the 36-team standings are to advance. Man City, the 2023 champions, are in 25th place, but could squeeze into the knockout playoffs round by beating Club Brugge. “We will
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
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