Barcelona and Inter on Wednesday won again in the UEFA Champions League, although both former title holders are looking up in the standings toward upstart newcomer Stade Brestois 29.
Aston Villa started the week atop the 36-team table, but their winning run ended after a bizarre penalty was awarded when defender Tyrone Mings picked up the ball in the area during their game against Club Brugge, resulting in a 1-0 loss that sent the Premier League club plummeting to eighth place.
Barcelona’s blistering scoring form continued in a 5-2 win against Red Star Belgrade — a seventh straight win since the start of last month at a rate of four goals per game.
Photo: Reuters
Robert Lewandowski scored twice and has 21 this season.
Inter stifled Arsenal in a 1-0 win at San Siro sealed by Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty in first-half stoppage-time.
Inter are unbeaten on 10 points and in fifth place, one below Brest, who won 2-1 against Sparta Prague.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The French debutants look sure to advance to the knockout phase starting in February next year.
Atalanta BC won 2-0 against VfB Stuttgart to stay unbeaten on eight points, while Salzburg got their first goals and points in a 3-1 win against Feyenoord.
Shakhtar Donetsk playmaker Heorhiy Sudakov had a fine assist and an even better goal in a 2-1 win for the Ukrainian champions against Young Boys.
Photo: AFP
Shakhtar’s No. 10 showed why he is expected to be the club’s next big-money sale.
Liverpool, who on Tuesday routed Bayer 04 Leverkusen 4-0, lead the standings at the midway point of the eight-round program.
Liverpool are the only team with four straight wins, while five teams have four losses. They are Leipzig, Sturm Graz, Young Boys, Red Star and Slovan Bratislava.
Two Italian teams — Inter and Atalanta — have yet to concede a goal in four games. Another Italian side, Bologna, are the only team with no goals scored.
Villa had led the standings in the new league-phase format after three straight wins without conceding a goal — and it took a bizarre incident before goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was eventually beaten.
Mings was punished for picking up the ball when Martinez seemed to restart play with a goal-kick passed forward to his teammate.
Mings walked a couple steps to gather the ball with his left hand and returned to place it in the box.
“It’s the biggest mistake I witnessed in my career,” Villa coach Unai Emery said. “It has only happened one time in all my life. Today.”
Brugge captain Hans Vanaken placed the 52nd-minute spot-kick to Martinez’s left as the FIFA World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper dived to his right.
OFFENSE SHINES: First baseman Pan Chie-kai hit a solo homer in the fifth inning as all 10 batters Taiwan used contributed at least one hit toward their team total of 14 One day after their first shutout loss at the WBSC Premier12, Taiwan yesterday bounced back with a commanding 8-2 victory over the US, keeping their hopes for a spot in tomorrow’s final alive. The win in the Super Round marked Taiwan’s first triumph over the US at a top-tier international baseball tournament since 2003. Their previous win over the US was at the 2003 Baseball World Cup, with only one win in the previous 10 matchups since 1999. Yesterday’s game was tightly contested through the first six innings, with the margin never exceeding two runs. However, the tide turned in the top of
Taiwan last night defeated Cuba 2-0 in their World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 Group B game at the Taipei Dome and finished the group second. At the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, South Korea yesterday defeated Australia 5-2, while Japan last night won 11-3 against the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome to advance to the Super Round. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champions and Group B winners Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the
Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome last night to advance to the Super Round of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 tournament. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champion and Group B winner Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the off. After taking a walk to first base, Taiwan’s Chen Chieh- hsien (陳傑憲) then stole second before Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) drew a walk to first in the top of the first inning. Chen then
TWO-NIL LOSS: Taiwan’s best chance to score came at the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Venezuela’s Liarvis Breto got out of the jam Taiwan yesterday suffered a shutout 2-0 loss to Venezuela in the opening game of the WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome. Taiwan had seven hits, one more than Venezuela’s six, but catcher Carlos Perez’s two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning delivered the only runs scored by both teams and secured victory for Venezuela. Taiwan’s best chance came at the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and only one out. However, Venezuela reliever Liarvis Breto struck out Chen Chen-wei before reliever Pedro Garcia finished the inning by allowing an infield flyball by Lin
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