UEFA Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk thrashed Club Bruges 4-1 away on Thursday when top-level soccer began experimenting with five-man refereeing teams in the opening Europa League group stage games.
Midfielders Oleksiy Gai, Willian and Darijo Srna put the Ukrainians 3-0 up at halftime in one of 24 matches played with additional assistant referees (AAR) beside each goal to spot fouls and dives in the box.
Karel Geraerts pulled one back for the home side just past the hour before Konstantyn Kravchenko’s goal wrapped up an emphatic Group J win for Shakhtar in the remodelled UEFA Cup.
If the experiment with AARs is successful they are likely to be introduced into the game at large within a season or two.
Basel enjoyed a surprise 2-0 win over visiting AS Roma to spoil coach Claudio Ranieri’s first European match since he replaced Luciano Spalletti two weeks ago after their poor start in Serie A.
Winger Carlitos capitalized on a defensive mix-up early in the Group E match and Federico Almerares struck three minutes from time to wrap up victory for the Swiss.
“It was an ugly defeat,” former Juventus and Chelsea boss Ranieri told Mediaset television.
“We were not very solid and I saw too few touches of the ball. We have to try to be less beautiful but more concrete. The lads have to learn to react and concentrate for 90 minutes,” he said.
Galatasaray, the 2000 UEFA Cup winners, got off to a flying start in Group F thanks to a 3-1 win over Panathinaikos in Athens, with the Turkish club’s coach Frank Rijkaard getting the better of Henk Ten Cate, once his assistant at Barcelona.
Panathinaikos’ city rivals AEK Athens went down heavily too, losing 4-0 at Everton in Group I.
Defenders Joseph Yobo and Sylvain Distin got the final touch to corners and Steven Pienaar drove home from 25m before Jo sealed the win for the English outfit with a simple finish.
Four times European champions Ajax were held to a goalless draw in Amsterdam by Romania’s FC Timisoara in Group A.
Celtic, who have also been European champions, paid the price for sitting on the first-half lead Greek striker Georgios Samaras earned them at Hapoel Tel Aviv in Group C.
Serbian midfielder Nemanja Vucicevic and forward Maaran Lala found the net in the last 15 minutes to earn the Israelis a 2-1 win after Samaras had to come off in the second half having hurt himself falling into one of the dugouts.
Hamburg SV’s hopes of reaching the final at their home stadium in May were dented when they were thrashed 3-0 at Rapid Vienna in the other match in the group.
Athletic Bilbao thumped Austria Vienna 3-0 and last year’s UEFA Cup finalists Werder Bremen won 3-2 at Nacional Madeira in Group L.
Roma’s city rivals Lazio handed a 2-1 victory to Salzburg in Group G through a pair of terrible defensive muddles late on after spurning a series of good chances when 1-0 up.
Genoa prevented it from being a washout for Italian clubs by beating Czechs Slavia Prague 2-0 in Group B.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Donovan Mitchell on Wednesday scored 26 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs with a hard-fought 112-107 victory over the Miami Heat. A seesaw battle in Cleveland saw the Heat threaten to end the Cavs’ 11-game unbeaten streak after opening up a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but the Cavs clawed back the deficit in the closing minutes to seal their 12th straight victory and a place in the post-season. The Cavaliers improved to 52-10, maintaining their stranglehold on the Eastern Conference with 20 games of the regular season remaining. Mitchell was one of six Cleveland
VALUABLE POINT: Relegation-threatened Valencia snatched a thrilling 3-3 draw at CA Osasuna thanks to a remarkable backheel volley by Umar Sadiq Barcelona on Sunday secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Real Sociedad to move back top of La Liga. Aritz Elustondo’s early red card gave Hansi Flick’s side a comfortable afternoon, with Gerard Martin, Marc Casado, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski on the score sheet. Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to temporarily knock the Catalans from their perch, while Real Madrid, third, lost at Real Betis Balompie. Flick was able to rotate his side a little ahead of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 visit to face SL Benfica tomorrow and still move one point above Atletico. “There were a lot of things that
Steve Smith yesterday announced his retirement from one-day international (ODI) cricket after captaining Australia to a semi-final exit at the ICC Champions Trophy, bringing down the curtain on a career in the format that included two ICC World Cup wins. The 35-year-old batsman, who was his team’s top scorer with 73 as Australia lost to India by four wickets in Dubai on Tuesday, said he would still be available for selection for T20 internationals and Test matches. “It has been a great ride and I have loved every minute of it,” Smith said in a Cricket Australia statement. “There have been so
RSS