SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2013 SPORTS Cala hero and villain in win over Villarreal BARCELONA: Sevilla defender Cala scored Real Madrid are five points adrift and face a once and was later sent-off as his side Valencia side in crisis after sacking coach made up for a shock King’s Cup defeat with Miroslav Djukic this week. Villarreal had a 2-1 victory over Villarreal in La Liga yester- their sights on the Champions League day. The Andalusian side crashed out of the places as they sought to get back on track cup at the hands of lower league Racing after their defeat away to Barcelona last Santander on Wednesday but they showed week. the intensity they were missing in that The home side had more of the ball but defeat as Cala headed them in front mid- they were up against a battling Sevilla side way through the first half. Carlos Bacca slot- who took the lead when Cala headed an ted home after the break before Cala con- Ivan Rakitic ball back across goal and into ceded a penalty late on and was red card- the net. Villarreal struggled to deal with ed. Jeremy Perbet scored with the spot-kick crosses and were fortunate not to concede but Sevilla held on to claim a third succes- on the hour mark with Bacca heading sive away win. They sit in seventh place in against the crossbar. They were not so for- La Liga with 26 points, two places and two tunate on 71 minutes, however, when points behind Villarreal. Mateo Musacchio missed a ball from Atletico Madrid can spend the night Rakitic, allowing Bacca to finish clinically. three points clear at the top of the table if Four minutes before fulltime Cala conced- they beat Levante, with Barcelona in action ed a penalty and was dismissed for a bla- away to Getafe today. Atletico have a 100 tant foul on Jaume Costa. Perbet struck percent home record this season and are home the spot-kick but it was too little too level with the Catalan side on 43 points. late. —Reuters DORTMUND: Dortmund’s Sebastian Kehl lies on the pitch after challenging for the ball with Berlin’s Hajime Hosogai of Japan dur- ing the German first division Bundesliga soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Hetha BSC Berlin yesterday. —AP Bayern’s rivals slump to shock defeats VILLAREAL: Villarreal’s Paraguayan midfielder Hernan Perez (right) falls as he Agony for title-chasing Leverkusen and Dortmund vies with Sevilla’s defender Fernando Navarro (left) and Sevilla’s midfielder Vicente Iborra de la Fuente during the Spanish league football match Villarreal BERLIN: Bayern Munich’s main rivals tuted the clearly distressed Sarr for failed to dent the European champi- the start of the second-half, moving CF vs Sevilla FC at El Madrigal stadium yesterday. Sevilla won 2-1. —AFP ons’ seven-point lead in the left-back Kevin Grosskreutz into cen- Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen tre-back, but his side failed to grab a and Borussia Dortmund both suffer- precious equaliser despite seven min- Atletico finish third ing shock defeats yesterday. On the utes of added time. final German league weekend of Dortmund stay third but will drop to 2013 before the winter break, Bayern fourth if Borussia Moenchengladbach at Club World Cup were absent in Morocco for the Club pick up at least a point at home to VfL World Cup final. Leverkusen and Wolfsburg today. Yesterday evening, MARRAKECH: Atletico Mineiro scored the continental champions’ tournament Dortmund’s defeats means Pep Nuremberg, the only team in a major moments after Ronaldinho’s sending off just before the break. Muriqui canceled Guardiola’s Bayern can go ten points European league without a win so far to rebound from a surprising semifinal out Diego Tardelli’s early opener before clear if they beat VfB Stuttgart in their this season, are bidding to finish 2013 loss and beat Guangzhou Evergrande 3-2 the Chinese champions took the lead over catch-up fixture on January 29. with a maiden victory to move off the to finish third at the Club World Cup yes- the Brazilian side from Dario Conca’s 15th- Second-placed Leverkusen fell to a bottom of the table when they host terday. Substitute Luan scored the win- minute penalty. The match was coach late goal at strugglers Werder Bremen, Schalke. Eintracht Braunschweig went ning goal on the stroke of stoppage time, Cuca’s last in charge of Copa Libertadores whose Argentinian right-back Santiago above Nuremberg with a 1-0 win over two minutes after Ronaldinho was red- champion Atletico, which lost to Raja Garcia stabbed his shot home to give Hoffenheim while Freiburg extended carded for an ugly two-legged stamp. Casablanca in the semifinals. Later yester- Bremen a first win in six games. Hanover 96’s appalling away record to Ronaldinho curled home a free kick from day, Raja played heavy favorite Bayern Borussia Dortmund’s poor league form eight consecutive defeats with a 2-1 20 meters (yards) for his second goal of Munich in the final. —AP continued with a 2-1 defeat loss to win to help the hosts in their bid to Hertha Berlin, their third straight home escape the bottom three. defeat, which threatens to see them Swiss striker Admir Mehmedi finish the weekend outside the auto- scored two first-half goals to leave matic Champions League places. Hanover with just one win in their last Despite reaching the knock-out stages nine games as Freiburg broke their in Europe as group winners, Dortmund five-match losing streak before have picked up just four points in their Hanover scored an equaliser through last six league games. Leonardo Bittencourt. Japan striker Borussia took an early lead at Shinji Okazaki hit a late winner after home to Hertha Berlin when captain Mainz 05 had scored two goals in Sebastian Kehl put through a superb three minutes to bounce back from ball for Marco Reus to chase and with conceding an early goal for a 3-2 win his first touch, the Germany winger at ten-man Hamburg. put his shot past 18-year-old Hertha Hamburg’s Turkey midfielder goalkeeper Marius Gersbeck, who Hakan Calhanoglu gave the hosts the was making his Bundesliga debut.But lead with 21 minutes gone before Hertha got back on level terms when Okazaki hit Mainz’s first on 47 min- striker Adrian Ramos hit his 11th goal utes before Germany’s Nicolai Mueller of the season after Hertha’s Sami grabbed their second three minutes Allagui pounced on a mistake to put later. Netherlands midfielder Rafael in a cross for the Colombia forward to van der Vaart looked to have save convert on 23 minutes. Hamburg’s blushes with an equalizer Tunisia forward Allagui then gave 11 minutes from time as the hosts fin- Hertha the lead by pouncing on a ished with ten men after Venezualan mistake by Dortmund’s 18-year-old midfielder Tomas Rincon was sent off centre-back Marian Sarr, rounding late on after being shown a second BREMEN: Bremen’s head coach Robin Dutt celebrates after the Dortmund goalkeeper Roman yellow card. But with 94 minutes on MARRAKESH: China Guangzhou Evergrande’s forward Gao Lin (center) fights German first division Bundesliga football match Werder Weidenfeller and firing into an empty the clock Okazaki grabbed his second for the ball against Brazil Atletico Mineiro’s defender Rever during their 2013 Bremen vs Bayer Leverkusen in Bremen yesterday. Bremen net on the stroke of half-time. of the game for a win to lift Mainz to FIFA Club World Cup football match for the third place in the Moroccan city of won 1-0. —AFP Borussia coach Jurgen Klopp substi- ninth.—AFP Marrakesh yesterday. —AFP 5 players banned for life for match-fixing Chelsea must ‘hurry up and KUALA LUMPUR: Five players and three loss to Sime Darby in May. adapt’ to Mourinho’s style team officials from a Malaysian lower He was the first player to be charged league soccer club have been handed life under the unsporting behavior law by the bans after being found guilty of match-fix- FAM after he was adjudged to have acted LONDON: Spain striker Fernando Torres has Champions League and FA Cup double in 2012 “I’ve been lucky enough to win almost every- ing, local media reported. The eight who unprofessionally by ‘giving’ the ball to an urged his Chelsea team mates to “hurry up” and scoring a dazzling solo goal in last season’s thing and I still have time to win the Premier represented Kuala Lumpur were also fined opponent. Banners with the words ‘Bookie and adapt to the style of play demanded by Europa League final victory over Benfica in League, something I’ve never won. “I’m quite 20,000 Malaysian Ringgit ($6,100) by the detected’ were seen at the match which manager Jose Mourinho. The 2012 European Amsterdam. Torres though has also gone happy with my work contribution to the team Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was investigated by local police. Malaysia, champions occupy third place in the Premier through several goal droughts during his time but not about my goals. I should have scored who will hold a disciplinary hearing on like much of Southeast Asia, has fought a League and appear genuine contenders to win at Stamford Bridge and the barren run he and more and I have to look at myself but it doesn’t Friday for seven more players from the long battle with match-fixing in sport with the title as they prepare for Monday’s trip to fellow strikers Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba matter who scores the goals, it’s about the club, the Malaysia Star reported.