■CHILE
Fluminense, Liga in semis
Fluminense striker Fred scored the lone goal to give the Brazilian side a 1-0 win over Universidad de Chile and a semi-finals berth in the Copa Sudamericana on Thursday. Ecuadorean club Liga de Quito also advanced to the final four with a 2-1 win at home over Velez Sarsfield of Argentina in the day’s other quarter-final. Fluminense will face Cerro Porteno of Paraguay and Liga will play Uruguayan club River Plate. Fluminense secured the win when Fred rose above his marker to head home Maicon’s cross in the 60th minute. At Quito, reigning Argentine league champions Velez Sarsfield took the lead over Liga through a Hernan Lopez goal in the 43rd minute. Liga came back strongly in the second period. Enrique Vera flicked a free-kick in off the post to equalize in the 69th minute and Carlos Espinola scored the winner in the 76th minute.
■SCOTLAND
Rangers charged by UEFA
Glasgow Rangers were on Thursday charged with the improper conduct of their supporters following disturbances during Wednesday’s Champions League match against Unirea Urziceni in Bucharest. The UEFA charge follows scuffles that occurred at halftime of the match which ended 1-1, with supporters shown on TV destroying seats while police used tear gas to quell the trouble. UEFA’s control and disciplinary body will deal with the case on Thursday. “As far as we can establish at the moment, it seems there were a number of Rangers supporters who came late into the stadium and we need to find out why,” a UEFA spokesman told the BBC. “Then there was an issue about where they were going to sit, as apparently there were banners already placed there, which resulted in the request to remove some banners, which seems to have ended in a clash between stewards and some supporters.”
■SPAIN
Ronaldo out for two weeks
Real Madrid’s Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo will be out of action for at least another two weeks, the club said on Thursday after a doctor in Amsterdam examined his injured ankle. It said new tests by his former doctor, Cornelius Nicolas van Dijk, “confirmed the diagnosis given by the medical team of Real Madrid obtained after MRI and CT scans” on Tuesday. Ronaldo will be unavailable to play for Portugal in their World Cup qualifying matches against Bosnia.
■URUGUAY
Lodeiro gets the call
Nacional’s exciting young midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro was named on Thursday in a 26-man Uruguay squad for the World Cup playoff against Costa Rica. The uncapped 20-year-old, who has helped Nacional to the top of the Uruguayan Apertura championship, is among six home-based players coach Oscar Washington Tabarez have added to the list of exiles he named last week. Tabarez has dropped three of those exiles, defender Carlos Valdez, midfielder Jorge Martinez and forward Edinson Cavani, for the two-legged playoff in San Jose next Saturday and in Montevideo four days later.
■SLOVENIA
Kek sticks to same squad
Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek decided to stick with an unchanged squad on Thursday for the World Cup playoff against Russia. Kek’s 21-man squad contained no surprises, with backup goalkeeper Aleksander Seliga the only addition from the previous qualifiers. Slovenia finished second in qualifying Group 3 and are trying to reach their second World Cup.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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