Established 1961 15 Sports Thursday, December 14, 2017 Chelsea give coach Conte cheer, Burnley go fourth Captain Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas dropped to the bench HUDDERSFIELD: Chelsea responded perfectly to head visitors thought they had made the breakthrough in the coach Antonio Conte’s claim their Premier League title sixth minute, but Pedro was just offside as he ran clear hopes are over with a convincing 3-1 win at to slot in Willian’s pass through the middle. Huddersfield Town on Tuesday. Tiemoue Bakayoko But Chelsea made their superiority count as they opened the scoring midway through the first half with a took the lead midway through the first half. Goalkeeper deft clipped finish, offering an answer to supporters Jonas Lossl slipped as he cleared the ball and Victor who have criticised him for a series of poor perform- Moses’s header was touched on stylishly by Hazard to ances following his July move from Monaco. Willian. Willian headed in a second goal shortly before half- time and Pedro made it three to leave Chelsea level on MCARTHUR WINNER points with second- He fed a pass left for place Manchester Bakayoko to chip over United, who host the advancing goalkeep- Bournemouth. Upwardly er, despite Chris Lowe’s mobile Burnley are one attempt to clear off the place below Chelsea in Third Chelsea goal line. The champions got fourth after edging their second goal with Stoke City 1-0, while took less than just over two minutes to Crystal Palace hauled go to half-time. themselves off the foot five minutes Stand-in captain of the table with two late Cesar Azpilicueta’s long goals in a dramatic 2-1 diagonal pass from inside defeat of Watford. his own half found Conte, who has cut an Marcos Alonso in space increasingly grumpy figure this season, said after on the left and he had time to cross for Willian to Chelsea’s surprise 1-0 defeat at West Ham United that bounce in a header at the far post. his side had no chance of catching leaders Manchester A third Chelsea goal took less than five minutes of City in the title race. the second half to arrive and again it came from an The Italian has complained lately of a demanding Alonso cross. HUDDERSFIELD: Huddersfield Town’s Belgian striker Laurent Depoitre (2L) heads the ball to score past Chelsea’s fixture schedule, player fatigue and and a lack of Willian held off Mathias Jorgensen and teed up Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois during the English Premier League football match between Huddersfield investment in the squad by the club’s board. For his Pedro to hammer into the top-right corner from 18 Town and Chelsea at the John Smith’s stadium in Huddersfield, northern England. — AFP side’s fourth game of nine in a packed December, Conte yards. Huddersfield claimed a stoppage-time consola- was without his 10-goal top scorer Alvaro Morata tion when Laurent Depoitre glanced a header into the because of a bad back, with Eden Hazard deployed as a net from fellow substitute Florent Hadergjonaj’s left- Moor. The modest Lancashire club climb above zone. Daryl Janmaat put Watford in front in the third false nine in front of Willian and Pedro. wing cross. Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, all of whom minute, but after Tom Cleverley was sent off, Bakary Captain Gary Cahill and playmaker Cesc Fabregas Burnley provisionally climbed to the dizzy heights of are in action. There was an extraordinary finale at Sako bundled in an 89th-minute equaliser and Wilfried dropped to the bench, while wing-back Davide fourth place after Ashley Barnes drilled home in the Selhurst Park, where Palace scored twice in the dying Zaha teed up James McArthur for a stoppage-time Zappacosta was omitted from the squad altogether. The 89th minute to snatch a gritty win over Stoke at Turf stages to beat Watford and leap out of the relegation winner. — AFP Bayern maintain iron-grip as Kuwaiti team Leipzig falter ready for BERLIN: RB Leipzig risk falling off the pace in the 23rd Gulf Cup pack chasing run-away Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich with their coach Ralph Hasenhuettl admitting his side is flagging. “We’re running close to empty KUWAIT: A number of Kuwaiti footballers said that and you can see the team is torturing itself,” said the national team was ready to take part in the 23rd Hasenhuettl after his team scraped a 1-1 draw on Gulf Cup to be held in Kuwait between December 22 Tuesday to just hold onto second place in the table. and January 5. In remarks to KUNA yesterday, the footballers affirmed they would do their best to enter- The Austrian’s youthful squad have struggled to tain the Kuwaiti fans and perform well during the meet the demands of having to play virtually every competition. Despite the suspension of Kuwaiti sports three days in recent weeks, but now have just one activities for two years, the players vow to offer their game left before the Bundesliga breaks for winter. best during the prestigious competition, Kuwaiti foot- Last week’s 2-1 home defeat against Besiktas meant baller Fahad Al-Enezi said. The 23rd Gulf Cup of they bowed out of the Champions League in the group Nations will have eight countries participating includ- stages and will face Napoli in the last 32 of the Europa ing Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, League in February. “It is especially difficult for our Yemen, and Kuwait. younger players. In this three-day rhythm, which goes The Gulf Cup kicked off in Bahrain in 1970. and on and on, you lose your power at some point,” admit- Kuwait won the tournament for ten times, while Saudi ted midfielder Kevin Kampl. Leipzig are at risk of Arabia, Qatar, and Iraq won it three times each. Oman being caught by their league chasing rivals. They have has one title. — KUNA taken only five points in as many games while Bayern have tightened their iron-grip on first place by winning seven of their last eight Bundesliga games. Jupp Heynckes’ Bavarians could open a ten-point gap if they beat bottom side Cologne and third- placed Schalke fail to beat Augsburg yesterday. Palace still have Leipzig are currently on 28 points, but Schalke, Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia a mountain to Moenchengladbach are all within three points behind. In Wolfsburg on Tuesday, Leipzig struggled to get back on level terms after Paul Verhaegh slotted climb: Hodgson an early penalty for the hosts. Hasenhuettl’s side finally got the break when Marcel Halstenburg LONDON: Crystal Palace escaped the Premier League equalised on 52 minutes. However in the closing relegation zone for the first time this season with a last- stages, goalkeeper Peter Gulasci pulled of a string gasp 2-1 home win over Watford on Tuesday but still have of saves as Divock Origi, on loan from Liverpool, a mountain to climb to avoid relegation, according to man- nearly restored Wolfsburg’s lead. Leipzig then had ager Roy Hodgson. defender Dayot Upamecano sent off in injury time Trailing to Daryl Janmaat’s third-minute goal Palace for a second yellow card and the French teenager is looked set for a damaging defeat that would have left them WOLFSBURG: Leipzig’s Danish forward Yussuf Poulsen (R) vies with Wolfsburg’s US defender John Anthony suspended for Sunday’s visit of Hertha Berlin in bottom, but Bakary Sako scored a fortunate equaliser after Brooks (L) during the German first division Bundesliga football match between VfL Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig on Leipzig’s final Bundesliga game of 2017. “Against, 89 minutes before Wilfried Zaha set up James McArthur Tuesday. —AFP Hertha, we want to show some of our old strength for a stoppage-time winner. again,” said Kampl. — AFP The victory, Palace’s third of the season after they lost their opening seven games without scoring, moved them up to 17th place with 14 points, one more than West Bromwich Albion and West Ham United, and two above coach, who led his native Italy to glory at China’s hopes all but gone despite basement side Swansea City. Halilhodzic the 2006 World Cup, has not been lost renewed interest and investment in the That trio all have tough games on Wednesday so there on Halilhodzic. sport thanks to President Xi Jinping’s is every chance Palace will stay out of the bottom three. “He’s preparing for 2022 and all the support. Hodgson, whose side wasted a chance to beat urges China to players trust Lippi a lot,” the former Six points from six games under the Bournemouth on Saturday when Christian Benteke had a Algeria coach told reporters. “He’s the 69-year-old, however, saw China nar- stoppage-time penalty saved when he was not even sup- trust ‘best best coach in the world. He has won rowly lose out to Syria for a place in a posed to have taken it, has been around too long to start everything, every title he wanted. He has regional playoff against Australia. But counting his chickens though. chosen a team that is growing up and is with huge sums of money flowing into “We got a late winner against Stoke as well and had coach’ Lippi very promising for the future. the game to lure the likes of Lippi to the disappointment on Saturday, so we’ve gone through the “Results don’t come in a few months, country, hopes are high the nation can full range of emotions,” the 70-year-old said.