PREMIER LEAGUE
Chelsea defeat Spurs 2-1
Chelsea on Saturday retained top spot in the Premier League after goals from Pedro and Victor Moses earned them a comeback 2-1 win over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea looked disjointed for most of the first half and in the 11th minute, Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen whipped the ball home from just outside the area after a defense-splitting run from Dele Alli. Just before halftime, Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic slipped the ball to Pedro, who executed a neat turn and curled a magnificent shot past Hugo Lloris. After that, Chelsea looked rejuvenated and Tottenham, knocked out of the Champions League midweek, were beaten by a 51st-minute goal from Moses, whose bullet shot rebounded off Lloris and Jan Vertonghen on its way in to give Chelsea a seventh straight win.
LIGUE 1
Monaco rout Marseille 4-0
AS Monaco on Saturday kept up their outstanding recent form as Valere Germain scored twice in a 4-0 win over Olympique de Marseille in the Mediterranean principality. Bordeaux made it six league games without defeat as Guinea forward Francois Kamano scored two late goals to secure a 3-2 win at home to Dijon FCO. They are behind En Avant de Guingamp in fifth on goal difference, with the Bretons coming from behind to draw 1-1 at Stade Malherbe Caen thanks to Nill De Pauw’s late equalizer. Bottom club Lorient threw away a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 at Metz, while Montpellier Herault’s meeting with Nancy ended goalless, as did the encounter between Nantes and manager-less Lille OSC.
LA LIGA
Ronaldo leads Real to win
Cristiano Ronaldo on Saturday struck twice as Real Madrid were thankful for a late missed penalty from Duje Cop to open up a seven-point lead over Barcelona with a 2-1 win over Real Sporting de Gijon. Sevilla leapfrogged Barcelona into second with a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Valencia. Earlier, Malaga and RCD Espanyol moved into the top half of the table with victories over RC Deportivo la Coruna and CD Leganes respectively.
BUNDESLIGA
Bayern beat Leverkusen 2-1
With Uli Hoeness back in charge, Bayern Munich on Saturday bounced back from two straight defeats to beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 at home and keep pace with Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig, who defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-1. Neither Hamburg SV nor Werder Bremen will be happy after sharing the points in the northern derby, drawing 2-2. Borussia Moenchengladbach’s patchy form continued after letting a lead slip against unbeaten TSG 1899 Hoffenheim to draw 1-1. VfL Wolfsburg rode their luck early against Ingolstadt 04 in a 1-1 tie, with Moritz Hartmann hitting the post and then having a penalty saved by Diego Benaglio. Elsewhere, Cologne were held to a scoreless draw at home by Augsburg.
SERIE A
Milan demolish Empoli 4-1
AC Milan on Saturday motored into second place in Serie A with an emphatic 4-1 win at Empoli. Gianluca Lapadula, taking advantage of the absence through injury of Colombia striker Carlos Bacca, bagged a brace, while Spaniard Suso also hit the target. An own-goal from Andrea Costa completed the rout. In Saturday’s other game, Joe Hart’s Torino thanked a double inside three first-half minutes from Spanish forward Falque for a 2-1 win over AC Chievo Verona.
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