Page 995 - Sports
Gremio beat River Plate in Copa Libertadores
Gremio achieved a valuable 1-0 win over River Plate at the El Monumental Stadium here in the first leg of the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores football tournament, thanks to defender Michel, who headed home the only goal of the match.
Malaysia hold India at Asian Champions Trophy
Defending champions India were held to a goalless draw by Malaysia in a fast-paced round robin encounter of the Hero Asian Champions Trophy 2018 here.
Supreme Court says only Euro VI compliant vehicles to be sold from April 2020
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court said on Wednesday that only vehicles that meet the Euro VI fuel standards would be allowed to be sold in the country starting in April 2020.
All eyes on Biles at world gymnastics in Qatar
More than 500 gymnasts descend on Qatar this week for the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, but most eyes will be on the sport's biggest star, the USA's Simone Biles. The quadruple Olympic gold medallist will make her return to frontline international competition after taking a year off following her triumphant showing in Rio in 2016. Her self-enforced absence from the sport -- she returned to competition in July -- has only served to increase expectation for the 10-day championships, the first ever to be held in the Middle East. Biles, 21, will become the first woman in history to win four world all-around titles if she takes gold in that discipline in Doha. Her main competition is likely to come from teenage compatriot Morgan Hurd, the 2017 champion. Biles could also take gold in the vault, floor exercise and beam competitions. She is a member of an exceptionally strong US team looking for its fourth consecutive straight world title, but their preparations have been anything
Bayern made to work for 2-0 win over AEK
Bayern Munich exploited a brief lapse in AEK Athens' determined defense to score twice in two minutes for a 2-0 win in the Champions League, easing pressure on the Bundesliga champions and coach Niko Kovac. Shaking off a mistake-prone first half, Javi Martinez and Robert Lewandowski struck in the 61st and 63rd minutes at the Olympic Stadium for Bayern's second victory in Group E, as AEK suffered its third defeat. "We knew the goals would come. We pressed, tired them out and it worked," Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said. "After their two goals, their morale suffered and we went on to win. ... We're in a better position but we're still making mistakes." Bayern stayed on the attack for most of the night but center-backs Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Vasilis Lambropoulos stopped them from creating chances. While keeping AEK's back line busy, Arjen Robben had produced little threat until his shot helped break the deadlock. It struck a wall of defenders, and Martinez slotted in the ...
AP source: FIFA proposes annual Club World Cup
A person with knowledge of the talks tells The Associated Press FIFA President Gianni Infantino is doubling down on his Club World Cup plans with a proposal for an annual tournament despite European soccer's resistance to any competition that challenges the supremacy of the Champions League. The revised proposal amends an initial plan to play a 24-team Club World Cup every four years. The new format will be discussed at the FIFA Council meeting in Rwanda on Friday, the person said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were confidential. UEFA has stymied Infantino's attempts since March to gain approval for the new FIFA competitions, which will have USD 25 billion of income guaranteed by an international consortium including Japan's SoftBank.
Rampant Arsenal face Lisbon test, Chelsea sweat on Hazard
Amid a packed schedule Arsenal take a 10-match winning streak to Sporting Lisbon as their quest to win the Europa League continues Thursday, when city rivals Chelsea, possibly without the influential Eden Hazard, host BATE Borisov of Belarus. After sealing an impressive 10th straight victory at home to Leicester in the Premier League on Monday, Unai Emery's outfit are the team to watch in Group E. Arsenal and Sporting sit on six points apiece after two games, with Azerbaijan's Qarabag and fellow strugglers Vorskla of Ukraine still pointless. Sporting are fifth in Portugal's top flight, four points off the top with former Manchester United star Nani having scored three goals from seven league outings. If Arsenal needed more reason to believe in their chances of going all the way, they need not look far. As coach of Sevilla in 2013-2016, Emery led the Spaniards to three consecutive Europa League titles. "We are beginning to play with heart," Emery said after Monday's come-from-behind ..
Champions League 'dream' awaits Monaco coach Henry
Newly-appointed Monaco coach Thierry Henry has no intention of sulking over the Ligue 1 side's poor domestic form as he seeks a "dream" Champions League date with Club Brugge Wednesday. Former Arsenal and France star Henry kicked off his fledgling coaching career with a 2-1 away defeat to Strasbourg at the weekend, a result that left the struggling Principality side second from bottom of the French league table. Monaco fans will be hoping it won't be more of the same on Wednesday, when they face the Belgians away looking to claim their first points of the group stages. Henry, a Champions League winner with Barcelona in 2009, believes it could be just the tonic to get Monaco, beaten finalists in 2004, back on track. "People might ask if this match is coming at the right time for me, given our position in the table," Henry said in Bruges on Tuesday. "But they say the same about the teams leading the table, they say the Champions League can't be won by teams fighting for the (domestic) ..
Madrid hand Lopetegui respite with nervy win over Plzen
It might not be enough to save Julen Lopetegui but Real Madrid's 2-1 Champions League win over Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday stopped the rot and restored some belief. Barcelona are next at Camp Nou and even without the injured Lionel Messi, Madrid are unlikely to find them as generous if handed the sort of golden chances Plzen were presented with at the Santiago Bernabeu. But after five games without a win, and three defeats in a row, victory was all-important, and Madrid secured it with a goal in each half from Karim Benzema and Marcelo. It could have been more comfortable and when Patrik Hrosovsky pulled one back for Plzen with 12 minutes left, a nervy finale ensued. When it was over, there were disgruntled whistles from the home fans. Lopetegui's side held on, however, to reassert themselves in Group G, where the reigning champions now sit level on six points with Roma. Whether he is still in charge for the return fixture in the Czech Republic next month remains to be seen. Florentino .
Asian Hockey Champions Trophy: India hold Malaysia to goalless draw
The Indian men's hockey team were held to a goalless draw by Malaysia in the fast-paced encounter of the ongoing Asian Champions Trophy here at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Tuesday.Both India and Asian Games silver-medallists Malaysia now have 10 points each from four outings in the preliminary round-robin league, with India topping the standings on basis of a superior goal difference.The Indian team got off to a nervy start as they wasted several scoring opportunities early in the match. They had a spate of chances early in the contest, only for Hardik Singh to fritter away a scoring opportunity, Harmanpreet Singh's penalty corner flick being blocked by the Malaysian goalkeeper and Mandeep Singh failing to get a touch on long diagonal balls twice in the first quarter.Malaysia created one opening on a counter-attack but mostly fell back to defend their goal against the Indian strikers.In the second half, the Indian strikers were not allowed space to enter the circle until the ..
Juventus too good for Man Utd on Ronaldo's return
Cristiano Ronaldo emerged victorious again on his second return to Old Trafford, but this time did not get on the scoresheet as Juventus outclassed Manchester United to win 1-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday. Instead Ronaldo played a supporting role by helping set up Paulo Dybala's winner on 17 minutes as the Italian champions opened up a five-point lead over United at the top of Group H. Jose Mourinho's men were handed a break before kick-off as Valencia's 1-1 draw away to Young Boys means United still hold a two-point lead over the Spaniards, but a fourth defeat of the season will see speculation over Mourinho's future increase once more. But for a series of excellent saves from David de Gea, the margin of defeat could have been far greater too as any momentum United gained from fightbacks against Newcastle and Chelsea in recent weeks in the Premier League faded away against one of the favourites to win the Champions League. Ronaldo was given a hero's welcome on his previous ...
Silvas star as City cruise past Shakhtar
Manchester City found their Champions League mojo as David Silva and Bernardo Silva both scored in a comfortable 3-0 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk in Kharkiv on Tuesday. Pep Guardiola's men have now won back-to-back matches in Europe after a shock opening loss to Lyon, and lead the French side by one point at the top of Group F. The English champions could potentially secure a last-16 spot if they beat Shakhtar in the return match at the Etihad in a fortnight's time as they bid for a maiden Champions League triumph. David Silva put City ahead on the half-hour mark, before Aymeric Laporte doubled the advantage and Bernardo Silva scored just two minutes after coming off the bench. Guardiola was able to give Kevin De Bruyne his first start of the season after the midfielder returned as a substitute against Burnley on Saturday following a two-month lay-off with a knee injury. City, the bookmakers' favourites for the European crown this term, started far better than in the two previous ...
Vizag ODI: India look to continue dominance against Windies
India will look to strengthen their position when they take on West Indies in the second ODI of the ongoing five-match series here at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.Having crushed the visiting side by eight wickets in the opening ODI of the ongoing series, the Virat Kohli-led side will be riding high on confidence. The team is expected to continue their dominant performance in the upcoming match as well.West Indies' mammoth total of 322 runs in the first match did not look to be much of a task for the Indian side as captain Kohli and hitman Rohit Sharma stitched a huge 246-run stand to guide their side to a comfortable win in the end.Indian bowling department, however, disappointed on the day as they failed to restrict the Caribbean side within 300 runs despite scalping some early wickets.Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who was not included in the playing eleven for the last match, is likely to make a return following a not-so-impressive performance of pacer Khaleel Ahmed.West ...
More than 20 injured in Rome escalator collapse
More than 20 people, mainly Russian football fans, were injured Tuesday when an escalator in a metro station in central Rome collapsed, firefighters said. Most of those hurt, one seriously, suffered leg injuries after getting entangled in the escalator's mangled mechanics, Italian media added. A video of the drama shows the descending escalator at Repubblica station suddenly and dramatically pick up speed with dozens of people on it, many screaming as they piled on top of one another at the foot of the moving stairway. Media reports said witnesses spoke of football fans, seemingly drunk, jumping and dancing on the escalator just before its collapse, but supporters denied this ever happened. "In any event, we are here to understand what happened and to offer our support to the wounded and their families," Rome mayor Virginia Raggi told journalists at the scene. Some of the victims were seen wrapped in blankets and some wore neck braces as they were taken away from the scene on ...
Sindhu cruises into French Open second round
Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stormed into the second round of the women's singles event at French Open crushing American Beiwen Zhang in straight games.The world no. 3 Sindhu disposed of unseeded Zhang 21-17, 21-18 in a match that lasted 34 minutes. Interestingly, Sindhu had lost the opening round of the Denmark Open at the hands of the same opponent, last week.The 23-year-old will now face Japan's Sayaka Sato in the next round of the French Open.Although the Olympic medalist got off to a winning start, it was curtains for Indian men's doubles pair of Arjun M.R. and Shlok Ramachandran as they lost 14-21, 17-21 to Chinese pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yunchen in the opening round.
Sindhu in second round of French Open
Ace India shuttler P.V. Sindhu entered the second round of ongoing French Open after thrashing Beiwen Zhang in straight games here on Tuesday.
India fail to break Malaysia's citadel, settle for goalless draw
Defending champions India missed chances galore to be held to a goalless draw by old nemesis Malaysia in their penultimate round robin match but they still managed to progress to the semi-finals of the Asian Champions Trophy, here on Tuesday. Unbeaten so far in the tournament, India still lead the points table with 10 points from five matches. Malaysia have the same number of points but they are behind India on goal difference. India enjoy a goal difference of 22 against Malaysia's seven. It was a golden chance for India to avenge their 6-7 sudden death loss at the hands of Malaysia in the semi-finals of the Asian Games and Harendra Singh's men looked in the mood but missed chances ruined their day. India had earlier thrashed hosts Oman 11-0 before outclassing arch-rivals Pakistan 3-1. In their last match, India mauled reigning Asian Games gold medalist Japan 9-0. With an unbeaten record so far in the tournament, India and Malaysia have already secured their places in the semi-finals .
PKL: U Mumba thrash Telugu Titans 41-20
U Mumba rode on raider Siddhart Desai's fantastic show to brush aside Telugu Titans 41-20 in an inter-zonal challenge match of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) here on Tuesday.
No special treatment for Pakistan: India U-19 football coach
India U-19 football team coach Alex Ambrose said that there will not be any special treatment for Pakistan ahead of the team's Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 qualifier match to be held in Chonburi, Thailand on October 24.When quizzed on how he feels about playing against arch-rivals Pakistan, he said, "I don't want to go into the emotions of playing a big rival. It may only make us lose focus on what our real objective is. All we want from our first game is three points."Ambrose further said he expects to emerge victorious and is upbeat about making it to the next round. "We have to build on the hard work that we have put in so far to achieve the desired results. Most important of all, we need to stay in the right frame of mind," he added.He revealed that the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) U-18 tournament helped the team in gelling well. "We got four international games which were competitive. The experience is bound to rub off on the girls. The game against Nepal, ...
USA's Adeline in the race for fourth World C'ship gold
After a three-year hiatus, three-time world champion Adeline Gray of United States of America (USA) managed to make it to the finals in the 76 kg category at the World Championships being held in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday.The 27-year-old handed a 3-1 drubbing to her Canadian opponent and Olympic champion Erica Wiebe in the semifinals.Erica took the lead, courtesy a clock point, but gray staged a resounding comeback through double leg late in the first period to score a takedown and grab at the break.In the second essay, Erica added a point off the shot clock to hold off Wiebe. Gray will take on reigning world champion Yasemin Adar of Turkey on Wednesday in the gold-medal match.Two other Canadians also stormed into the semifinals, namely Danielle Lappage and Justina Di Stasio.Lappage, a former junior world champion, steamrolled to an emphatic11-0 victory over Iryna Netreba of Azerbaijan in the 65 kg semifinals. In the first period, she scored off the shot clock and with a takedown ..