LIGUE 1
Fans delay game
AS Saint-Etienne stayed winless and last in Ligue 1, but salvaged a point against visiting Angers with a late fightback in a match delayed for an hour by protests from angry home fans. After mid-table Angers proved the fans’ point by grabbing a two-goal lead, Saint-Etienne fought back with Mickael Nade scoring a late equalizer. He made the final score 2-2 five minutes into added time, or 65 minutes after the final whistle was originally scheduled to blow. The match had been held back by a pitch invasion during the player warm-up. Home supporters unfurled banners, let off a barrage of rockets and smoke bombs and ran onto the field, damaging the goals. The banners attacked coach Claude Puel, club leadership and the players. “We’ve had enough talk, you’re making us crack,” one visible through the smoke said. “Puel resign,” “management resign” and “we want a team worthy of its fans” the fans chanted.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Arsenal raise performance
Arsenal on Friday delivered their best performance of the season to beat Aston Villa 3-1 in the Premier League. Arsenal were completely dominant for most of the game and built a 3-0 lead before Jacob Ramsey pulled a late goal back for Villa, who then pressured for the final 10 minutes without coming closer. Thomas Partey opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with his first Arsenal goal before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doubled the lead just before halftime, converting the rebound after seeing his penalty saved. Midfielder Emile Smith Rowe capped an impressive display by adding the third in the 56th minute on a quick counterattack.
SERIE A
Torino hold off Genoa
Torino on Friday held off a late comeback from Genoa to see out a 3-2 victory in Serie A for their first win in more than a month. Antonio Sanabria and Tommaso Pobega gave Torino a 2-0 advantage at the break before Mattia Destro pulled one back for Genoa. Josip Brekalo then restored Torino’s two-goal advantage, but Felipe Caicedo quickly responded for Genoa to set up a tense final 10 minutes. Elsewhere, Antonio Candreva scored one goal and contributed to another with a free-kick that resulted in an own-goal as UC Sampdoria beat Spezia 2-1 to move up to 13th.
LA LIGA
Montoro denies Osasuna
A stunning 90th-minute goal from far outside the area by Granada substitute Angel Montoro on Friday denied 10-man CA Osasuna the chance to move to the top of La Liga. Montoro’s long-range lob over the head of goalkeeper Sergio Herrera snatched a 1-1 draw for a Granada side who had been outplayed at El Sadar Stadium, despite having an extra man for the final 15 minutes.
BUNDESLIGA
Mainz end winless run
FSV Mainz 05 on Friday scored three goals in the opening 30 minutes to beat Augsburg 4-1 and end a four-game winless run in the Bundesliga. Mainz forward Jonathan Burkardt scored two goals and set up one more against Augsburg, who have not won an away league game since February.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier