SOCCER
San Marino end victory wait
San Marino, the world’s worst team according to the FIFA rankings, made history on Thursday by beating Liechtenstein 1-0 in the UEFA Nations League to claim their first-ever competitive win. The tiny country of about 30,000 people, surrounded by Italy, came into the match at their San Marino Stadium looking for a first win of any sort since beating Liechtenstein in a friendly in 2004. Liechtenstein had a goal disallowed for a tight offside in the first half before San Marino pounced on a defensive error to grab the winner in the 53rd minute through Nicko Sensoli. Aged 19, he had not been born when the team who sit 210th and last in the world rankings last won a game The whipping boys of international football had been building up to this having claimed draws in friendly matches against Seychelles, Saint Lucia, and Saint Kitts and Nevis over the past two years. They are in the three-team Group 1 of the bottom tier League D in the UEFA Nations League, with Gibraltar their other opponents.
RUGBY
Fiji into Pacific semis
Fiji booked their place in the Pacific Nations Cup semi-finals yesterday after holding off Tonga to claim a convincing 50-19 win in Nuku’alofa. The visitors finished as Group A winners and would play either Japan or the United States in Tokyo on Saturday next week.
Samoa also went through to the semis as Group A runners-up, which would also be played in the Japanese capital. Almost 100 years to the day since Fiji and Tonga first met in a Test match, Fiji rushed out to an early lead with three tries in the opening 11 minutes. However, a yellow card for Fiji’s Adrea Cocagi — later upgraded to a 20-minute red — turned the tide midway through the first half as Tonga scored three tries to draw level.
Fiji dug in and their quality showed in the second half, eventually running out comfortable winners.
CYCLING
Berrade wins stage 18
Spaniard Urko Berrade soloed to victory on Thursday at the 18th stage of the Vuelta a Espana in the Basque Country as Australia’s Ben O’Connor held the overall race leader’s red jersey with three days to go.
Berrade, 26, gave his Kern Pharma team their third stage win of this year’s race, powering over the line in his home region four seconds ahead of Swiss Mauro Schmid. Another Kern Pharma rider Pau Miquel crossed the line in third.
In a group of pursuers far from the race lead, O’Connor, riding for the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team, held his five-second advantage on Slovenian three-time champion Primoz Roglic. Berrade was part of a first peloton of about 40 riders who took off early in the medium mountain stage more than 179.5km from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Maeztu. The rider from Pamplona proved strongest in the closing stages, sealing his first victory to add to teammate Pablo Castrillo’s two stage wins. “For our small team, this Vuelta was very important. It’s a dream what’s happening to us,” said Berrade of his delight at winning “the stage closest to home, with all my family watching me, friends.” Today is to feature another decisive mountain top finish before the final time trial in Madrid tomorrow.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
VALUABLE POINT: Relegation-threatened Valencia snatched a thrilling 3-3 draw at CA Osasuna thanks to a remarkable backheel volley by Umar Sadiq Barcelona on Sunday secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Real Sociedad to move back top of La Liga. Aritz Elustondo’s early red card gave Hansi Flick’s side a comfortable afternoon, with Gerard Martin, Marc Casado, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski on the score sheet. Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to temporarily knock the Catalans from their perch, while Real Madrid, third, lost at Real Betis Balompie. Flick was able to rotate his side a little ahead of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 visit to face SL Benfica tomorrow and still move one point above Atletico. “There were a lot of things that
Donovan Mitchell on Wednesday scored 26 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs with a hard-fought 112-107 victory over the Miami Heat. A seesaw battle in Cleveland saw the Heat threaten to end the Cavs’ 11-game unbeaten streak after opening up a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but the Cavs clawed back the deficit in the closing minutes to seal their 12th straight victory and a place in the post-season. The Cavaliers improved to 52-10, maintaining their stranglehold on the Eastern Conference with 20 games of the regular season remaining. Mitchell was one of six Cleveland
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
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