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.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS