■GREECE
Greens beat PAOK 4-1
Panathinaikos beat PAOK 4-1 in the league playoffs for European competition on Sunday, moving closer to a place in the Champions League qualifiers. Giorgos Karagounis, Brazilian defender Gabriel, Dimitris Salpingidis and Antonis Petropoulos scored for Panathinaikos, while Ilias Anastasakos notched PAOK’s consolation goal. The win, combined with a 0-0 draw for AEK at Larissa, brought Panathinaikos closer to winning the four-team playoffs and gaining a berth in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League. Two other teams will play in the second-tier Europa League. After five rounds, Panathinaikos leads with 15 points, followed by AEK with 12, PAOK with six and Larissa with one.
■BELGIUM
Liege retain title
Standard Liege retained the title on Sunday with a 1-0 win over Anderlecht in a playoff decider that guaranteed them a spot in the group phase of next season’s Champions League. Liege’s Axel Witsel scored a decisive penalty five minutes before halftime after Anderlecht’s Victor Bernardez was adjudged to have brought down Dieumerci Mbokani. The two teams finished the season level on 77 points last weekend to force a playoff as the title cannot be won on goal difference. Thursday’s first leg at Anderlecht ended 1-1. Liege dethroned Brussels-based Anderlecht last term to claim their first Belgian first division crown in 25 years. They have now taken their overall tally to 10. Anderlecht will go into the third qualifying round of the competition. Third-placed Club Bruges and Ghent, who came fourth, will play in the Europa League along with cup winners Racing Genk.
■DENMARK
Copenhagen win No. 7
FC Copenhagen won their seventh title on Sunday following a 1-0 victory at Esbjerg with one game remaining in the premiership season. Copenhagen won thanks to a late first-half penalty by Brazilian Cesar Santin that took them to 73 points. Runners-up Brondby lost 1-0 at Aarhus to stay on 68 points before the final round of matches next week. Copenhagen will enter next season’s Champions League qualification second round. The win completed Copenhagen’s second double in five years after they won the Danish Cup final on Thursday, 1-0 against Aalborg.
■EGYPT
‘Red Devils’ take title
An early Flavio Amado goal gave Al-Ahly a 1-0 victory over Ismailia Sunday in the championship play-off. It was the fifth consecutive title for the Cairo “Red Devils” and a fitting farewell to Portuguese coach Manuel Jose, who takes charge of next year’s African Nations Cup hosts Angola next month. Ironically, the goal was created and executed by Angolans with diminutive Flavio rising above “minder” Moatassem Salem to steer a Felisberto “Gilberto” Amaral free kick past goalkeeper Mohamed Sobhi.
■BRAZIL
Clash leaves 30 injured
A clash between fans before a league match left about 30 people injured and 158 were detained. Authorities said fans used bricks, stones and pieces of wood in the brief confrontation before the scoreless draw between Palmeiras and Sao Paulo at Palestra Italia stadium on Sunday. Police officer Adelino Sobrinho said that about 400 fans participated in the violence, which was organized by fans from both teams in online communities. All injuries were minor and most of those detained were released after they were questioned.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
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