■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.
BUMRAH WATCH: Captain Jasprit Bumrah left the SCG for scans for back spasms and although he returned to the ground, there was no word on if he would play Rishabh Pant’s blistering counterattack yesterday capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India, with 15 wickets falling and the star bowler of the series leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort. Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining. “Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.” Australia were bowled out for
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek yesterday beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to take Poland into the final of the mixed-teams United Cup with victory over Kazakhstan. Last year’s runners-up face the US today for the title in Sydney after they beat the Czech Republic in the other semi-final. “This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after seeing off Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie. It was a statement of intent from the world number two with the first major of the year to start on Jan. 12. “It is perfect preparation for the
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Jiang Xinyu of China yesterday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, while Naomi Osaka retired from the women’s singles final with an abdominal injury. Second seeds Wu and Jiang defeated Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US 6-3, 6-4 on ASB Tennis Centre’s Stadium Court in 1 hour, 5 minutes. The WTA 250 victory was 25-year-old Wu’s second WTA Tour title, after winning the 2023 Hua Hin Championships in Thailand with Taiwanese partner Chan Hao-ching. Later that year, Wu and Taiwan’s Hsu Yu-hsiou won the mixed doubles gold at the World
SHORT-HANDED: Reigning champions the Boston Celtics were without stars Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis, but they still downed the Timberwolves Oklahoma City on Thursday stretched the NBA’s best winning streak to 13 games with a home victory, while reigning champions the Boston Celtics held on for a last-shot triumph at Minnesota. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had game highs of 29 points and eight assists to spark the Thunder over the Los Angeles Clippers 116-98, improving the Western Conference leaders to 28-5. The Thunder’s winning streak is the longest since the team relocated from Seattle after the 2007-2008 season. “It’s just being present, going day by day, working on ourselves, and I think we’re doing a good job on that,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, who added 11
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