Vitor Roque on Friday scored on his home debut as Real Betis Balompie left it late to overcome newly promoted CD Leganes 2-0 in La Liga.
Betis had never lost in four previous home encounters with Leganes and although they were on top for most of the match, they had to wait until the last quarter to secure all three points.
Moroccan winger Abde Ezzalzouli finally broke the deadlock with 16 minutes remaining when he turned home a cutback from Hector Bellerin.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Substitute Roque made sure of the win four minutes from time. The 19-year-old Brazilian, who joined on loan from Barcelona, was on hand to bundle the loose ball home when Juan Soriano parried Ezzalzouli’s curling shot.
“I never imagined I’d score on my home debut,” Roque said. “Not in my wildest dreams did I expect to start this way.”
The result left Betis in ninth place before the rest of the weekend’s games, two points above Leganes.
LIGUE 1
AP
AS Saint-Etienne on Friday finally got some points on the board four games into the Ligue 1 season with a surprise 1-0 win over high-flying OSC Lille.
The 10-time French champions started on the bottom of Ligue 1 with no points and no goals from their first three games, but led Lille after just six minutes and stayed in front.
Visiting Lille had most of the possession and most of the shots on goal, but the home side survived to lift themselves off the bottom of the 18-team table and into 15th place.
BUNDESLIGA
AP, BERLIN
Heidenheim’s dream rise to the top of the Bundesliga came to an abrupt halt on Friday after losing against Borussia Dortmund 4-2.
Heidenheim were the surprise league leaders after two wins in their first two games, but they were overcome by a home side who had Karim Adeyemi in fine form.
The win took Borussia ahead of their opponents and into first place in the Bundesliga ahead of the rest of the weekend’s games.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
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