Page 1924 - Sports

Espanyol upset Real Madrid 1-0

Gerard Moreno's goal in stoppage time gave hosts Espanyol a 1-0 victory here over Real Madrid, whose La Liga woes continue.

Girona defeat Celta 1-0

Girona defeated Celta Vigo 1-0 here to extend their home winning streak to five and climb to seventh place in La Liga.

Martinez hat-trick fires Racing to win over Cruzeiro

Argentina under-20 striker Lautaro Martinez scored a hat-trick as Racing Club beat Brazil's Cruzeiro 4-2 on the opening night of the Copa Libertadores group stage.

Mercedes F1 beat Real Madrid, NBA champs as Team of the Year

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team won the 2018 Laureus World Sports Team of the Year award here, besting Real Madrid and the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

Bayern's Coman sidelined for several weeks

Bayern Munich will have to do without their midfielder Kingsley Coman in the coming few weeks, the runaway Bundesliga leaders confirmed in an official statement via the club's official homepage.

Nadal withdraws from Acapulco tennis tourney

Spanish tennis icon Rafael Nadal has announced that the hip injury he suffered last month at the Australian Open is once again plaguing him, thus forcing him to withdraw from the Mexican Open in Acapulco.

Prannoy not happy with BWF's proposed rule changes

Indian ace shuttler H S Prannoy is not happy with the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) proposal to tweak the scoring system and reduce on-court coaching, saying such changes will not achieve the aim of increasing commercial value of the sport. The BWF Council has proposed that on-court coaching, which is allowed at the 11-point lemon break and at the end of every game in a match, be reduced. The proposal also suggests "reduce time being taken between points" and "reduce warm-up time" and "racket testing" -- all aimed at increasing the commercial value of the sport and enhance the quality of its broadcast product. The plan will require endorsement at the BWF's Annual General Meeting in Bangkok in May to be implemented in international badminton. World No. 11 Prannoy said: "Badminton is an extremely fast sport and if you don't have enough break, you have hardly time to breath, you can't swipe sweat, you can't go out or have water, I mean all the rules are against the players. "There ..

Nadal pulls out of Mexican Open

World number two Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the Mexican Open following a right hip injury.The sixteen-time grand slam champion was slated to face fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the opening round of the tournament on Wednesday.The same injury also forced Nadal to withdraw from the Australian Open."Tough one, of course. Yesterday in the last practice I felt something... I went to the hospital this morning to check it, to do an MRI and I still have some liquid there, so I need to keep doing tests to know what exactly is going on," Nadal was quoted, as saying by ATP.He added, "The spot is really similar to Australia, so I need to be sure about what's going on the next couple of days, and then we're going to work hard to try to recover as soon as possible."Nadal has not played a match since retiring from a match in Melbourne on January 23.

Aussies set to challenge Proteas: Nathan Lyon

Ahead of the four-match Test series against South Africa, Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon believes that his side is in a "better place" since the last time they lost 2-1 to Proteas in 2016."The whole side is in a better place. There's been a big change since the last time South Africa were in Australia," Sport24 quoted Lyon as saying.In 2016, Proteas toured Australia to play three Test matches. They won the first two Tests before the Aussies won in the final day-night game in Adelaide."You have to give them credit. They totally outplayed us in our own conditions. That didn't go down well with myself or the whole side," Lyon said.The 30-year-old added, "We've spoken about coming over here and have really enjoyed coming over here in the last couple of series. We are not going to take that for granted. We are not coming here thinking that we are going to get an automatic success," said the spinner.Showing confidence in his side, Lyon said that the players are performing exceptionally .

Smashing Santner gives New Zealand hope in England ODI

Mitchell Santner scored his maiden limited overs half-century as the Black Caps' tail wagged against a rampant England in the second one-day international today. Santner's unbeaten 63 off 52 balls helped New Zealand set a modest but potentially defendable target of 224 after they lost the toss and were put in to bat at Mount Maunganui. In-form opener Martin Guptill also scored 50 but runs were hard to come by as England stifled New Zealand's batting with a superb display in the field. The Black Caps were all out for 223 with two balls remaining as Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali took two wickets apiece. England pulled off a string of sharply taken catches and ran out four batsman, ensuring that every chance their bowlers created resulted in a wicket. The highlight for the Black Caps was a late 69-run partnership between Lockie Ferguson and Santner -- who hit a match-winning 45 in the opening match. New Zealand never recovered from an early double blow by Woakes, who dismissed ..

Sultan Azlan Shah Cup: India to face Argentina in opener

The 18-member Indian men's hockey team led by the experienced midfielder Sardar Singh has left for the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2018. The team will begin their campaign on March 3 against 2016 Olympic champion Argentina.Speaking about the team's preparations for the tournament, Captain Sardar Singh expressed confidence about their prospects in the prestigious annual event which will see World No.1 Australia, World No.2 Argentina, England, Ireland, hosts Malaysia in the fray."It will be a good competition and Sultan Azlan Shah Cup has for long been a tournament that sets the pace for the rest of the calendar year and doing well here will be important for us. We have had a grueling camp in SAI, Bengaluru where the focus was on taking our attack and defensive skills to the next level," stated the 31-year-old midfielder ahead of the team's departure.In the previous edition, India had finished third after beating New Zealand 4-0 while Great Britain won the title after beating Australia ..

Neymar out 'at least six weeks' and to miss Real clash

Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar faces "at least six weeks" out with a fractured bone in his foot and will miss next week's return leg of the Champions League last-16 tie against Real Madrid, his father said. "PSG know that they will not be able to count on Neymar for the upcoming matches: his treatment will last six to eight weeks, whether there is an operation or not," Neymar senior told ESPN Brasil. The Brazilian star suffered the injury, as well as a twisted ankle, in an innocuous looking incident towards the end of Sunday's 3-0 league victory over bitter rivals Marseille. PSG coach Unai Emery said earlier on Tuesday that "no decision" had been made regarding an operation, denying an earlier report in the Brazilian press that the world's most expensive player would go under the knife to repair the cracked bone in his right foot. Brazilian newspaper Globo Esporte had claimed a decision had been reached for Neymar to undergo surgery, and that the 26-year-old would be sidelined ...

Nadal cuts short comeback after injury flares up

World number two Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Mexican Open, cutting short his comeback from an injury when his ailing right hip flared up again. "My goal and hope was to play in this tournament. Unfortunately, in my last training session yesterday, I felt a sharp pain in my leg again," the 31-year-old Spanish star said hours before what was to have been his opening match of the ATP Tour event in Acapulco. Nadal, favoured to win the tournament and champion here in 2005 and 2013, had been due to face fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. "I took all the appropriate steps to arrive at the tournament in form. I went to Cozumel first, to adapt (to the climate)," he told reporters. "But yesterday, in my last training session before the tournament, during one movement I felt a sharp pain again in the same area where I had the problem in Australia." Nadal limped out of the quarter-finals at the Australian Open on January 23. He has since lost his number one ranking to Roger Federer. Nadal said ..

Spanish soccer legend Quini dead

Spanish soccer great Quini, who led La Liga in scoring a record five times, has died in Gijon. He was 68.

Brazilian team doctor in Paris to assess Neymar

Brazil's national team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar has travelled to France to assess the foot injury suffered by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) forward Neymar Jr, a football official said.

Senior Asian Wrestling Ch'ship: 55 kg. Greco Roman Wrestler won Bronze Medal

Indian Greco Roman Style Wrestler Rajender Kumar won Bronze Medal in 55 kg weight category in 2018 Senior Asian Wrestling Championship being held at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.In repechage round, he defeated Tajikistan Wrestler Khasan Sufiev by 8-0 points.In final bout of Bronze Medal, he defeated Uzbek Wrestler Javokhir Mirakhmedov by 3-3 points and secured Bronze Medal for India.

N. Korean athletes to participate in South Paralympics

North Korea will next week send athletes to South Korea to participate in PyeongChang Paralympics scheduled to take place in March, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Tuesday.Pyongyang offered to send a 20-member delegation, including six athletes, next Wednesday via a land route, Yonhap news agency cited a joint statement reached after working-level talks on North Korea's participation in the March 9-18 games at PyeongChang, Gangneung, and Jeongseon.The communist nation will dispatch a four-member delegation of officials from its Paralympic Committee, the statement said.It would mark North Korea's first participation in the Winter Paralympics.The move comes after Pyongyang participated in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics that ended on Sunday amid a mood for rapprochement between the two Koreas.North Korea sent a nearly 500-member delegation to the February 9-25 Olympics.At last month's inter-Korean talks, North Korea said it would send a 150-member delegation of athletes, musicians .

Delhi knock out Mumbai from ISL

Delhi Dynamos continued to surprise everyone as they slayed Mumbai City FC 5-1 in an Indian Super League match that saw both teams being reduced to 10 men at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday.

2002 NatWest series: Kaif called 'bus driver' by ex England team captain

Former cricketer Mohammad Kaif on Tuesday recalled the 2002 NatWest Series and revealed that he was called 'bus driver' by former England cricket team captain Nasser Hussain at the final of the tournament..Kaif disclosed this after a fan tossed him the question about the same during a question and answer session on Twitter."@MohammadKaif Hi kaif, what you and Yuvi were talking during Natwest Final? Was their any sledging from English players ?#AskKaif," a fan asked."Yes, Nasser Hussain actually called me a Bus driver :) was good to take them for a ride!" Kaif replied.It was in 2002 when India was playing against England at the Lord's in the final of the 50-over NatWest Trophy.Batting first, England raced away and ended on 325/5, which was considered at that time an impossible chase.Indian cricketer Saurav Ganguly and Virendra Sehwag started the chase well.But with the departure of Ganguly, the team lost the wickets at very fast pace and the victory of the Indian team seemed ...

Dynamos end Mumbai's Play-offs hopes with 5-1 win

Delhi Dynamos fired in four goals in the last 20 minutes to end Mumbai City FC's hopes of making it to the Indian Super League (ISL) Play-offs as they routed the visitors 5-1, here today. Nandhakumar Sekar (5'), Matias Mirabaje (73'), Manuel Arana (81'), Kalu Uche (84') and Lallianzuala Chhangte (90+1') scored for the home side while Everton Santos (49') got the sole goal for Mumbai on the night as their playoff hopes were dealt a cruel end. With this defeat Mumbai are seventh with 23 points from 17 matches and with just one match left to be played, they can reach a maximum of 26 points. Fourth-placed Jamshedpur FC already have 26 points, and since they play FC Goa (24 points) in their last league match, one of the team will have more points than Mumbai. This was Delhis second successive victory after the incredible 4-3 comeback against defending champions ATK and they have now remained unbeaten in their last five matches, winning three of them. Had Delhi started in a similar fashion,