MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015 SPORTS Liverpool sack Rodgers after poor start

LONDON: Liverpool sacked manager Brendan Rodgers over the last 16 months, but high-profile signings such gives us the best opportunity to deliver it,” Liverpool’s EPL results/standings yesterday following a year of disappointing results that as Lazar Markovic, Dejan Lovren and Mario Balotelli management added. culminated in a poor start to the current season. failed to pay off, while Suarez and Gerrard have both “The search for a new manager is under way and we Arsenal 3 (Sanchez 6, 19, Ozil 7) Manchester United 0; Everton 1 The announcement came just hours after Liverpool left along with Raheem Sterling. hope to make an appointment in a decisive and timely (Lukaku 45+1) Liverpool 1 (Ings 41); Swansea 2 (Ayew 16, Kane 31- had held Everton to a 1-1 draw in the Merseyside derby manner.” Former coach Juergen og) Tottenham 2 (Eriksen 27, 65). at Goodison Park with another unconvincing perform- Klopp and former Real Madrid manager , English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, ance. both currently out of work, have been linked with the won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Rodgers, 42, took Liverpool to the brink of the Liverpool job in recent weeks. Speaking before news of Man City 8 6 0 2 19 7 18 Premier League title in 2014, but they finished sixth last his dismissal had broken, Rodgers said: “I don’t feel any season and are currently 10th in the table with 12 pressure. I can honestly say that. There is pressure to sell Arsenal 8 5 1 2 13 7 16 points from eight games. newspapers and make stories and I understand and Man Utd 8 5 1 2 12 8 16 “We would like to place on record our sincere thanks respect that. “People will want to put pressure on for dif- Crystal Palace 8 5 0 3 11 7 15 to Brendan Rodgers for the significant contribution he ferent reasons. I don’t feel it, I don’t want it, but any- Leicester 8 4 3 1 17 15 15 has made to the club and express our gratitude for his thing externally, there is no drama.” West Ham 8 4 2 2 17 11 14 hard work and commitment,” Liverpool’s American own- Rodgers’ position came under scrutiny at the end of ers Fenway Sports Group (FSG) said in a statement. last season, after Liverpool were humiliated 6-1 at Stoke Everton 8 3 4 1 12 8 13 “All of us have experienced some wonderful City on the final day in Gerrard’s last game before join- Tottenham 8 3 4 1 11 7 13 moments with Brendan as manager and we are confi- ing the Los Angeles Galaxy. FSG came out in support of Southampton 8 3 3 2 13 10 12 dent he will enjoy a long career in the game. the Northern Irishman, who formerly worked alongside Liverpool 8 3 3 2 8 10 12 “Although this has been a difficult decision, we Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, but obliged him to make Swansea 8 2 4 2 10 10 10 believe it provides us with the best opportunity for suc- changes to his back-room staff. Watford 8 2 4 2 6 7 10 cess on the pitch.” Rodgers arrived from Swansea City in Assistant manager Colin Pascoe and first-team coach 2012 with a reputation for expansive football and built a Mike Marsh both left the club, with Sean O’Driscoll and Norwich 8 2 3 3 12 14 9 team around Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and captain former Liverpool midfielder Gary McAllister joining the Stoke 8 2 3 3 8 10 9 Steven Gerrard that captivated neutrals by making a back-room staff. Rodgers spent around pounds 80 mil- Bournemouth 8 2 2 4 10 12 8 thrilling tilt at the league title in 2014. lion during the close season, much of it recouped from Chelsea 8 2 2 4 12 17 8 But after a costly slip by Gerrard in a 2-0 defeat by the sale of Sterling to City for f49 million, but Liverpool West Brom 8 2 2 4 6 11 8 Chelsea, Liverpool lost out to Manchester City and have struggled. Aston Villa 8 1 1 6 8 13 4 Rodgers’ subsequent attempts to re-shape his squad Brendan Rodgers They have won only one of their last nine games proved unsuccessful. He spent around pounds 192 mil- “Ambition and winning are at the heart of what we inside pounds 90 minutes and needed penalties to beat Sunderland 8 0 3 5 8 18 3 lion ($291.4 million, 259.7 million euros) on new players want to bring to Liverpool and we believe this change fourth-tier Carlisle United in the League Cup.—AFP Newcastle 8 0 3 5 6 17 3

German League results/standings

Schalke 04 0 Cologne 3 (Modeste 45, Gerhardt 79, Zoller 84); Bayern Munich 5 (Mueller 26, 35-pen, Lewandowski 46, 58, Goetze 66) Borussia Dortmund 1 (Aubameyang 36); Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Bellarabi 39) Augsburg 1 (Leno 12-og).

Played Friday Darmstadt 2 (Heller 27, Sailer 57) Mainz 05 3 (Bell 15, Malli 24, De Blasis 64).

Played Saturday Bor. Moenchengladbach 2 (Nordtvelt 76, Traore 79) VfL Wolfsburg 0; Hanover 96 1 (Sane 56) Werder Bremen 0; Hertha Berlin 3 (Kalou 17, Ibisevic 77, 79) Hamburg 0; Hoffenheim 2 (Volland 33-pen, 77) VfB Stuttgart 2 (Kliment 64, Werner 90); Ingolstadt 2 (Gross 78, Lex 84) Eintracht Frankfurt 0.

German table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Bayern Munich 880028424 SV Darmstadt 8242101210 Dortmund 8521221117 Hamburg 831481310 Schalke 04 851210816 Eintr. Frankfurt 823313119 Hertha Berlin 842211814 M’gladbach 830511159 Cologne 8422131214 Werder Bremen 82157137 Ingolstadt 84226614 Hoffenheim 813410146 Leverkusen 84138913 Augsburg 81258135 Mainz 05 8404121112 Hanover 81257165 Wolfsburg 8332101012 VfB Stuttgart 811611194 Lewandowski nets again as Bayern go seven clear

BERLIN: Robert Lewandowski claimed his Bayern have now beaten both last sea- 12th goal in his last four games as son’s runners-up Wolfsburg and Dortmund Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich by the same heavy scoreline in recent trounced second-placed Borussia weeks and are peerless in Germany. Dortmund 5-1 to go seven points clear yes- “We weren’t as clinical as they were in terday. the final third,” said Tuchel. “The goals from The Polish hot-shot netted Bayern’s third the long balls were just too easy for them.” and fourth goals at Munich’s Allianz Arena Fresh from their disappointing 2-1 mid- after Thomas Mueller’s double, including a week defeat at Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen first-half penalty, before Mario Goetze drew 1-1 at home to Ausgburg despite a GENOA: Sampdoria’s Roberto Soriano (left) and Inter ’s Gary Medel go for the ball during a soccer match. —AP grabbed Bayern’s fifth to compound his for- calamitous own-goal from Bayer goalkeep- mer club’s misery. er Bernd Leno that was cancelled out by “It’s a big win. It’s good to have a seven- Karim Bellarabi’s equaiser. point advantage and also to have won in Earlier, third-placed Schalke crashed to the way we did,” said Mueller. “But we have their first defeat in seven games with a 3-0 Inter back on top to keep going and keep collecting points loss at home to Cologne, who took their after the international break.” chance to climb to fifth. Having sent Bundelsiga records tum- Cologne’s French striker Anthony MILAN: Ivan Perisic’s maiden goal for in bling by scoring five in just nine minutes in Modeste claimed his sixth goal in eight a 1-1 draw at Sampdoria sent the Nerazzurri back Italian League results/standings the 5-1 thrashing of Wolfsburg less than a matches before the visitors ran riot in the on top of Serie A yesterday, as Roma continued fortnight ago, Lewandowski has scored final ten minutes with goals by Yannick their early season push with a convincing 4-2 win Empoli 1 (Maccarone 88) Sassuolo 0; Udinese 1 (Di Natale 47) Genoa 1 (Perroti 76-pen); Sampdoria 1 (Muriel 51) Inter Milan 1 (Perisic 75); Palermo 2 (Gilardino 58, Gonzalez 90+1) Roma 4 (Pjanic 2, Florenzi 14, Gervinho 28, 90+2). each game since, including a hat-trick in Gerhardt and Simon Voller. away to Palermo. Elsewhere, champions Juventus the 5-0 Champions League rout of Dinamo On Saturday, Borussia outclassed Bologna 3-1 to earn their first home win Playing later Zagreb. Moenchengladbach continued their rise up of a stuttering campaign, while Keita Balde and Filip Lazio v Frosinone, Juventus v Bologna (both 1600), Fiorentina v Atalanta, AC Milan v Napoli (both 1845) Lewandowski is the Bundelsiga’s top the table and bounced back from their Djordjevic struck in the 80th and 94th minutes to scorer with 12 goals with Gabon striker midweek Champions League defeat seal a 2-0 win for Lazio over promoted Frosinone. Played Saturday Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang just behind against Manchester City with a 2-0 win over With five opening wins, ’s Inter Carpi 2 (Padelli 55-og, Matos 72) Torino 1 (Lopez 75-pen) Chievo 1 (Castro 83) Verona 1 (Pisano 70) side had been the early season pacesetters-until a him with 10 in eight matches. Dortmund Wolfsburg. Italian Serie A table ahead of yesterday’s late games (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): suffered their first defeat in 15 games Goals by Norway midfielder Haavard 4-1 humbling by Fiorentina last week sent La Viola on top thanks to superior goal difference. under new coach . Nordtvelt and French-born Guinean winger Inter Milan 7 5 1 1 8 6 16 Udinese 7 2 1 4 7 10 7 The Nerazzzurri’s title ambitions were kept in The gap between the chasing pack and Ibrahima Traore left Gladbach 13th while Fiorentina 6 5 0 1 11 4 15 Genoa 7 2 1 4 4 7 7 check for the second successive week and Bayern already looks ominous with Pep Wolfsburg dropped to ninth. Roma 7 4 2 1 17 9 14 Empoli 7 2 1 4 7 11 7 Sampdoria were unlucky not to take all three points Torino 7 4 1 2 12 8 13 Juventus 6 1 2 3 6 7 5 Guardiola’s Bavarians hunting an unprece- It was Gladbach’s third straight league after missing a host of chances in a dominant first Chievo 7 3 3 1 11 5 12 Carpi 7 1 2 4 8 16 5 dented fourth straight league title. win under caretaker coach Andre Schubert half. But Mancini claimed a draw was the fair result. Sassuolo 7 3 3 1 9 7 12 Verona 7 0 4 3 6 10 4 “We struggled in the first 15 minutes, following Lucien Favre’s sudden resigna- “Sampdoria are a quality side, especially if you Lazio 6 4 0 2 8 11 12 Frosinone 6 1 1 4 4 8 4 but our third goal made the difference,” tion. give them space, and they put us in trouble espe- Sampdoria 7 3 2 2 13 10 11 Bologna 6 1 0 5 3 9 3 said Guardiola. “We are very happy as we Hertha Berlin went fourth with a 3-0 cially with their counter-attacks in the opening half,” Atalanta 6 3 2 1 8 5 11 Top two qualify automatically for the Champions have beaten one of the best teams in home win over Hamburg as Salomon Kalou Napoli 6 2 3 1 12 7 9 League, third goes into the play-offs. Fourth and fifth he said. “But we came back into it in the second half AC Milan 6 3 0 3 8 9 9 carry Europa League places. The bottom three sides are Europe.” gave the hosts a first-half lead, then Vedad and, on the whole, a draw was the fair result.” Palermo 7 2 1 4 9 12 7 relegated. Bayern stepped up a gear when Mueller Ibisevic netted twice in as many minutes. In a hotly-contested encounter at the Luigi controlled Jerome Boateng’s long ball and Germany international winger Kevin Ferraris stadium, Inter were heading for their sec- settled the game earlier. “We played a great game minutes later with a clinical, close-range strike and beat Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Burki Volland scored twice for Hoffenheim in ond successive defeat after Luis Muriel slid in at the and created a lot of chances, but we conceded a Gervinho confirmed his recent return to form with a on 26 minutes. Dortmund conceded a their 2-2 draw at VfB Stuttgart, who went back post to meet Pedro Pereira’s inswinging cross and beat goalkeeper Samir Handanovic in the 51t crazy goal that took two points off us,” said the for- superb curling drive on 28 minutes to put the penalty when Henrikh Mkhitaryan fouled bottom despite Pirmin Schwegler scoring mer Italy goalkeeper. “We should have doubled our match beyond reach. Palermo reduced arrears Thiago in the area and Mueller drilled their 90th-minute equaliser. minute. It ended the hosts’ long wait for a goal after a succession of earlier misses by Eder, Muriel and lead after Muriel’s opener and that would have set- twice, through Alberto Gilardino on the hour and home the spot-kick on 35 minutes to dou- Hanover won their first match of the tled it.” Fellow scudetto hopefuls Roma moved up to Gonzalez on the stroke of full time. ble the hosts’ lead. The visitors fought back season as they defeated Werder Bremen 1- Joaquin Correa, who produced an absolute howler when he somehow skewed the ball wide of an provisional third place, two points behind Inter, But Gervinho put the result beyond all doubt on 36 minutes when Aubameyang swept 0 thanks to the only goal on 56 minutes with a comprehensive 4-2 win away to Palermo. with his second of the game barely a minute later to home Gonzalo Castro’s superb cross, but it through French-born Senegalese interna- empty net only a yard from the goal-line. Those misses proved costly when Sampdoria’s Days after a humbling 3-2 defeat to Champions hand Roma their fourth win in seven games. was all Bayern from then on. tional Salif Sane. defence went walkabout in the 75th minute and League group opponents BATE Borisov, Roma trav- Garcia hailed his side’s efforts. “Hats off to the Lewandowski made it 3-1 on 46 minutes Bavaria’s Ingolstadt, who are in their Perisic stuck out his right leg at the back post to elled to Sicily hoping to make amends albeit with- lads because it’s never easy winning away from when he finished off his half-chance after debut Bundesliga season, defeated beat Emiliano Viviano. out Edin Dzeko and Francesco Totti, who are both home. I just hope we don’t have to score four goals another superb long ball from Boateng. Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 with late goals from Inter’s first draw of the season sent them top of sidelined with injury for the next three weeks. every time we want to win,” said the Frenchman. The floodgates opened when Pascal Gross and Stefan Lex to take sixth the pile with a one-point lead on Fiorentina, However any fears the Giallorossi would suffer Juventus were stunned after five minutes when Lewandowski slotted home Goetze’s great spot. On Friday, Mainz are eighth after although Paulo Sousa’s men will go two points clear another slip-up were dispelled after just two min- Anthony Mounier pounced for Bologna. But Alvaro cross on 58 minutes, then Goetze then hit evening their record at four wins and four if they beat Atalanta later Sunday. utes when Miralem Pjanic latched on to Alessandro Morata, who helped orchestrate Juve’s Champions the back of the net from 12 metres out on defeats in a thrilling 3-2 victory at promot- Samp coach Walter Zenga applauded his side’s Florenzi’s through ball to beat Stefano Sorrentino League win over Sevilla in midweeek, headed the 66 minutes. ed Darmstadt, who are 10th. —AFP display but lamented the misses that could have from close range. Florenzi doubled Roma’s lead 12 champions level on 33 minutes.—AFP Roberto Carlos plays but fails to inspire Delhi team

GOA: Former Brazil and Real Madrid star He came onto the pitch immediately after stints with Turkish sides Sivasspor and 1997 and 1999 and won the Champions names in the second edition of the Roberto Carlos returned to the football halftime with Delhi already having con- Akhisar Belediyespor. Carlos is the sec- League three times with Real Madrid. league. The ISL, which got underway pitch after three years away but failed to ceded both goals. Carlos, who showed a ond-highest capped Brazilian player and Frenchman Nicolas Anelka has a similar Saturday with a colorful opening ceremo- inspire Delhi Dynamos as it lost 2-0 at glimpse of his past with a firm shot scored 11 goals in 125 appearances. The double role with the Mumbai City fran- ny in the southern city of Chennai, has Goa yesterday in their Indian Super toward goal during injury time, briefly marauding defender was a member of chise while Portugese player Helder put the game in the domestic spotlight League match. The 42-year-old Carlos is held a similar player-manager role at the the World Cup squads which reached the Postiga (Atletico de Kolkata), Romanian with several semi-retired stars from the oldest player in the franchise-based Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala in 2012. final in 1998 and won in 2002. He also Adrian Muti (Pune City) and Brazilian around the world but India is ranked a league and is doubling up as manager. His managerial experience includes helped Brazil win the Copa America in Lucio (Goa) are among the other top low 167th.—AP