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.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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