■PORTUGAL
Porto rally for a point
FC Porto rallied for a 1-1 draw against lower-table Pacos Ferreira on Saturday, while Sporting held off Nacional for a 3-2 victory. Radamel Falcao’s goal in the 86th minute saw the defending champions earn a point after Maykon picked his spot to put the visitors ahead three minutes earlier. Porto, who don’t lead the league at the halfway point for the first time in eight years, improved to 33 points to sit three back of joint leaders Benfica and Braga. Sporting extended their season-best run to four straight wins in all competitions despite Ruben Micael’s 24th-minute score putting the visitors ahead at the Alvalade Stadium. Miguel Veloso started the rally a minute later, then Liedson put the hosts ahead with his left foot in the 60th minute. The Portugal striker added a second in the 72nd minute after meeting Veloso’s cross inside the area. Nacional scored through Edgar in the 82nd minute, but Sporting held on to move three points clear of Nacional and into fourth with 27 points. Also, Andres Castro’s 51st-minute goal gave Olhanense their second victory of the season, a 1-0 win over Naval. Meanwhile, Tiago Targino’s 87th-minute goal saw Guimaraes earn a draw against bottom-of-the-table Setubal.
■NETHERLANDS
PSV cruise to cup win
PSV Eindhoven, unbeaten in all competitions this season, cruised to a 3-1 win at Heerenveen in the Dutch Cup fourth round on Saturday. Hungarian Balazs Dzsudzsak opened the scoring with a 16m shot after the Heerenveen defense failed to clear the ball in the 26th minute. Ibrahim Afellay then set up Danko Lazovic for the second goal midway through the second half. A superb lob from Gerald Sibon pulled one back for Heerenveen, but in stoppage-time Nordin Amrabat restored the two-goal lead for PSV, who are second in the Dutch league. PSV now host Feyenoord, who handed the Eindhoven team their last defeat in March, in the quarter-finals on Jan. 27.
■SCOTLAND
Rangers go nine clear
Rangers moved nine points clear of Celtic in the Scottish Premier League title race on Saturday after beating Hamilton 1-0 as their Glasgow rivals were held 1-1 at home by bottom-placed Falkirk. Nacho Novo scored the winner as an under-strength Rangers moved closer to a second straight title. Rangers manager Walter Smith had to select several youngsters as substitutes because of first-team regulars being unavailable. With the usual strike partnership of Kenny Miller and Kris Boyd unavailable through suspension and injury respectively, Novo was deployed alongside Kyle Lafferty. Carl Finnigan gave Falkirk a 19th-minute lead after a slip by Darren O’Dea and Celtic struggled, before Georgios Samaras leveled with an individual goal five minutes before the break. Dundee United moved past Hibernian into third after a 1-0 win over the Edinburgh side at a rainy Tannadice. Also on Saturday, Motherwell beat Kilmarnock 3-0 and Michael Stewart’s first-half penalty gave Hearts a 1-0 victory over St Mirren.
■GREECE
Ten-man PAOK beat Asteras
Substitute Vassilis Koutsianikoulis gave 10-man PAOK a 1-0 win over Asteras in the Greek league on Saturday. Koutsianikoulis scored on a counterattack in the 54th minute after receiving a pass from Vladan Ivic as PAOK retained third place in the standings with 37 points, seven less than leaders Panathinaikos. PAOK’s Vieirinha was sent off in the 20th minute. Also on Saturday it was Iraklis 1, AEK Athens 1 and Xanthi 1, Ergotelis 0.
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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