■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.
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
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