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MADRID: Atletico Madrid stayed in control of La Liga's title race by beating struggling Huesca 2-0 at home on Thursday (Apr 22) with goals in each half by Angel Correa and Yannick Carrasco. Correa scored for the third time in two games to give Atletico the lead shortly before halftime, the Argentine dancing through the Huesca defence and getting the help of a deflection to take his shot into the net. Huesca had won two of their last three matches and stayed in

LEICESTER, England: Red-hot striker Kelechi Iheanacho scored an 11th goal in his last eight games in all competitions as Leicester City poured more misery on woeful West Bromwich Albion with an emphatic 3-0 Premier League win at the King Power Stadium on Thursday. Jamie Vardy and Jonny Evans were also on target for the home side, who stayed third on 59 points from 32 games, four clear of fourth-placed Chelsea and West Ham United and on course for Champions League qualification. Second-bottom West

BARCELONA: Lionel Messi scored twice as Barcelona crushed Getafe 5-2 on Thursday (Apr 22) to stay in the hunt for the La Liga title. Messi gave Barca an early lead with the help of a pin-point pass from Sergio Busquets but Getafe pulled level with an own goal by Clement Lenglet. The visitors then conceded a calamitous own goal when Sofian Chakla's backpass deceived keeper David Soria and trickled over the line. Messi extended Barca's lead before halftime, hitting the post then following

PARIS: Football's most powerful clubs faced mounting calls for reprisals over the European Super League fiasco on Thursday (Apr 22), although UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said next week's Champions League semi-finals were unlikely to be affected. Super League chief Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid, had insisted Wednesday the rebel competition was merely "on standby" despite nine teams pulling out. Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea withdrew on Tuesday, followed by Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan 24

LONDON: Manchester United fans breached security at their club's training ground on Thursday (Apr 22) as they protested against the Glazer family for the owners' role in the failed European Super League plot. United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was forced to speak to around 20 supporters after they blocked both entrances to the Carrington headquarters. The protestors unfurled banners that read "51% MUFC 20", "We decide when you play" and "Glazer out". The 51 per cent is a reference to fans holding the

Devdutt Padikkal managed to overshadow none other than the great Virat Kohli with an elegant hundred in Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)'s successful 178-run chase against Rajasthan Royals (RR), in a virtual cakewalk of an IPL contest at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 22. It hardly happens that someone as brilliant as Kohli, plays a second fiddle, allowing the talented left-hander use his sinewy wrists to caress the balls to all parts of the ground during a mind-blowing maiden IPL century, an

LONDON: Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli became on Thursday the first batsman to score 6,000 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL). India skipper Kohli reached the milestone in 196 matches and leads the list ahead of Chennai's Suresh Raina (5,448 runs), Delhi's Shikhar Dhawan (5,428), Hyderabad's David Warner (5,384) and Mumbai's Rohit Sharma (5,368). Kohli's unbeaten knock of 72 was eclipsed by 20-year-old Devdutt Padikkal, who smashed 101 off 52 balls in a 10-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals to become the

TOKYO: A police officer helping with Japan's Olympic Torch relay has become the first participant in the event to be diagnosed with COVID-19, organisers said on Thursday (Apr 22). A man in his 30s tested positive for the virus after working on the relay in Kagawa prefecture on Japan's southern island of Shikoku, Tokyo 2020 said in a statement. The officer was guiding traffic in the town of Naoshima on Saturday and came down with a fever on Sunday, the Asahi Newspaper reported,

MANCHESTER, England: The European Super League collapsed on Wednesday (Apr 21) as eight of the 12 founding members from England, Italy and Spain abandoned the breakaway project under massive pressure from fans, politicians, soccer officials and even the British royals. Founder and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli told Reuters he was reluctantly calling time on the new league after six English clubs withdrew on Tuesday, with Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid following suit and AC Milan indicating they would too. "The voices and the

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Eoin Morgan has been fined Rs 12 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during his side's IPL 2021 match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which KKR lost by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. As this was KKR's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences Morgan got away with a Rs 12 lakh fine. "Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan has been fined after his team maintained

Sunrisers Hyderabad finally got off the mark in the 2021 Indian Premier League, at the fourth time of asking, as they earned an emphatic nine-wicket win over Punjab Kings to leapfrog their opponents at the foot of the table. Having bowled out Kings for 120 on a helpful, slow Chennai surface, Sunrisers then chased down their target with just over an over to spare, Jonny Bairstow contributing an unbeaten 63 from 56 balls. Having lost all three of their opening games in the

Frenchwoman Stephanie Frappart will become the first female official to be involved in European Championship matches after UEFA confirmed the list of referees for this year's tournament. In the past two years, Frappart became the first female to referee a men's Champions League match, a French Ligue 1 game and a men's World Cup qualifier. Frappart was not named among the 18 referees to take charge of the 51 Euro 2020 games but she will be involved as a support match official, working

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis said he plans to return to the court Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks as long as he feels ready the day of the game. The Lakers listed Davis as questionable for the contest. Davis has missed two-plus months of the season with a calf injury that he described to reporters Wednesday as a "ripping" feeling when he aggravated it Feb. 14 against the Denver Nuggets. Earlier in the week, Lakers coach Frank Vogel hinted that Davis' return

STUTTGART, Germany: World number one Ashleigh Barty wasted no time on Wednesday (Apr 21) booking her place in the quarter-finals of the WTA clay-court tournament in Stuttgart. The top seed needed just 24 minutes to wrap up the first set against Germany's Laura Siegemund before claiming a 6-0, 7-5 second-round win. "It was good to play on a new surface, the court was quite quick compared to what I am used to," said Barty, who hit six aces in an impressive opening display.

MADRID: A first-half double from Karim Benzema helped Real Madrid cruise to a 3-0 victory away to Cadiz on Wednesday (Apr 21) that moved them top of La Liga. The Frenchman's brace came either side of a maiden senior league goal for defender Alvaro Odriozola, as Real moved onto 70 points, level with city rivals Atletico Madrid, who have a game in hand, but top due to their better head-to-head record. "We started the game really well, robbing the ball high, that was

PARIS: Striker Mauro Icardi scored a hat-trick as Paris St Germain eased into the French Cup semi-finals with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Angers and AS Monaco joined them with a 2-0 win over 10-man Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday (Apr 21). Icardi’s early strike for PSG was followed by an own goal from Angers defender Vincent Manceau and a simple headed third from Neymar in the second half, before the Argentine striker added two more. The defending champions, who have appeared in the

BIRMINGHAM, England: Manchester City recovered from conceding a very early goal to win 2-1 at Aston Villa on Wednesday (Apr 21) and move a step closer to the Premier League title after a game in which both sides finished with 10 men. City, who are 11 points ahead of Manchester United with five games left, were caught napping early when Villa took a quick free kick. A pass from Ollie Watkins found John McGinn and he rifled the ball home with 20 seconds

Judd Trump says even reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan knows he is the number one player in the world. Trump's first-round win over Liam Highfield at the World Championship means he will remain top of the rankings at the start of next season. But had Trump lost, world number two and top seed O'Sullivan could have replaced him by retaining the title. "I have done enough over the past couple of seasons to be world number one," said Trump. "Even if I wasn't

Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer says the club "apologise unreservedly for the unrest" caused by the proposed European Super League. The rare public comment from the American came after Liverpool owner John W Henry apologised to supporters. United, Liverpool and four other Premier League sides withdrew from the ESL on Tuesday after a backlash. "We failed to show enough respect for its deep-rooted traditions," Glazer said in an open letter to fans. The 50-year-old admitted efforts "in seeking to create a more stable

Spanish top seed Rafael Nadal survived a scare before fighting back to beat Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka in the second round of the Barcelona Open. Nadal, who has not lost on clay to an opponent ranked outside the world's top 100 since 2004, won 3-6 6-2 6-4 against 111th-ranked Ivashka. British number one Dan Evans was unable to continue his excellent form on clay, losing to France's Corentin Moutet in a spiky second-round match. Evans, seeded 16th, lost 6-4 5-7 6-3. The pair