Barcelona, Madrid win as Liga title race nears climax

 BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona and Real Madrid maintained their neck-and-neck title race in the Spanish league on Saturday (Sunday in Manila), when both teams won to stay level on points at the top.

Luis Suarez scored twice and Lionel Messi set up another goal to give Barcelona a 3-0 victory at crosstown rival Espanyol, while Real Madrid needed a late strike by Marcelo after Cristiano Ronaldo had missed a penalty to secure a 2-1 win over Valencia at home.

"We had to bring out our fighting spirit and show who we are," Marcelo said. "We want to win every match we have left. Our goal is to go game by game."

The victories left Barcelona ahead of Madrid on the head-to-head record thanks to its win in the Spanish capital two rounds ago. Madrid, however, has four matches left compared to Barcelona's three and can ensure it lifts its first Liga title since 2012 if it wins all of them.

 "We will have to win all our games to keep the pressure on," Suarez said.


While Barcelona can rest ahead of the next round, Madrid must now prepare for its Champions League semifinal against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

Atletico primed its attack for the upcoming European derby by rolling to a 5-0 victory at Las Palmas.

ESPANYOL 0, BARCELONA 3

Espanyol defended well until the 50th minute when Suarez pounced on an ill-advised back pass by Jose Jurado that left him space to size up Diego Lopez before stabbing a shot past the goalkeeper.

Messi, who had scored a brace of goals in the last three league matches, set up Ivan Rakitic in the 76th before Suarez got another gift from Espanyol's Aaron Martin. The defender flubbed a clearance, leaving Suarez to round Lopez and complete his double.

Jurado's night to forget started with him missing an excellent opportunity to give Espanyol the lead just three minutes in when he was alone but sent his shot trickling wide.

"Our intensity, desire and ambition gave us the three points," Suarez said after ending his five-match scoring drought on the way to taking his league tally to 26 goals on the season.

REAL MADRID 2, VALENCIA 1

Ronaldo put Madrid ahead in the 27th when Valencia's markers lost track of the Portugal forward, leaving him alone to nod in Dani Carvajal's cross.

Ronaldo then had an excellent chance to add to his 20 league goals this season in the 57th after a questionable penalty when Luka Modric fell after contact with Dani Parejo.

But Valencia's penalty-stopping expert Diego Alves smothered his strike, taking his tally to six saved spot kicks in the season and 26 saves in 53 penalties since playing in the Spanish league. Three of those saves have come against Ronaldo.

Parejo made Marcelo's late goal necessary for Madrid when the Valencia midfielder leveled in the 82nd by bending a free kick up and over the wall.

Facing a damaging setback to Madrid's title hopes, Marcelo cut back to open a firing angle through a packed area before scoring the dramatic winner with just six minutes remaining.

"I would like to have ensured the win before, but we know that we can score in any moment and through any player," Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. "Today it was one of our defenders."

LAS PALMAS 0, ATLETICO MADRID 5

Kevin Gameiro struck twice and Saul Niguez added another goal for Atletico before 20 minutes were up. Substitutes Thomas Partey and Fernando Torres rounded off the demolition for Diego Simeone's side.

The win left Atletico in third place — three points ahead of Sevilla, which plays at Malaga on Monday.

The only downside was a left-leg injury to defender Jose Gimenez, leaving him in doubt for Tuesday's match when Atletico will try to avenge losses in the Champions League final to Madrid in 2014 and 2016.

REAL SOCIEDAD 2, GRANADA 1

Granada became the second team to be relegated — after last-placed Osasuna — following a fifth straight defeat, including three under new coach Tony Adams.

LEVANTE PROMOTED

Levante earned promotion to the top flight after a 1-0 win over Oviedo.

Levante, which was relegated last season, ensured its return with six rounds left in the second division.

source: philstar.com

Messi’s hat trick, Suarez’ double put Barca on top of La Liga

Barcelona moved to the top of La Liga for the first time since early November as Lionel Messi struck his 32nd hat-trick for the club in a 6-1 thrashing of 10-man Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.

Champions Atletico Madrid remain seven points off the top, though, after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Valencia at the Vicente Calderon.

Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday handed Barca the chance to overtake the European champions and Luis Suarez wasted no time in taking advantage as he slotted home his sixth goal in as many games.

Gerard Pique doubled the hosts’ advantage just after half-time before Messi added a third from the penalty spot at the second attempt thanks to a reprieve from the referee after his initial effort was saved by Cristian Alvarez and Tito had been sent-off for a second bookable offence.

There was no controversy over the Argentine’s final two goals, though, as he moved level with Cristiano Ronaldo on 30 league goals for the season.

Both sides ended with 10 men when Dani Alves was shown a straight red card for bringing down Alberto Bueno inside the area and Bueno converted from the spot.

However, Barca had the final word when Suarez slammed home his second of the afternoon from Messi’s through ball.

“The objective is to be the leader when the season ends,” said Barca boss Luis Enrique.

“I have always said the big teams will lose throughout the course of the season and it will continue to happen, therefore we have to be very careful.”

Suarez has found his scoring touch in recent weeks after a slow start to life at the Camp Nou and was razor sharp in front of goal just six minutes in as he rolled his defender before flicking the ball past Alvarez with the outside of his right foot.

Impossible task

Enrique’s men had to wait until after the break to make the game safe as Jordi Alba’s header from Xavi’s corner came back off the post and Pique was on hand to force the ball over the line.

Rayo’s task became impossible seven minutes later when Suarez was pulled down by Tito inside the area and the defender was shown a second yellow card.

Messi’s yips from the penalty spot continued as, after missing five of his last 10 for club and country, Alvarez comfortably saved his first effort.

However, referee Jesus Gil Manzano ruled there had been encroachment by Rayo players and gave Messi a second opportunity which he didn’t pass up.

The four-time World Player of the Year was in the right place to slot home his second moments later after Alvarez had made a fine save to deny Suarez.

And Messi completed a 12-minute hat-trick with a lovely feint to leave Alvarez on the floor before rolling the ball into an empty net.

The action continued in the final quarter as Manzano levelled up the numbers by sending off Alves for a foul on Bueno inside the box nine minutes from time and the former Real Madrid midfielder converted from the spot.

However, it was Suarez who rounded off the scoring in style in stoppage time when he latched on to Messi’s neat pass to round Alvarez and turn the ball home from a narrow angle.

Any chance of a title challenge to the big two has faded after the spoils were shared in the battle between third and fourth at the Calderon.

Spanish international Koke fired Atletico into the lead on his return to the starting line-up from a hamstring injury just after the half hour mark.

Tiago then missed a great chance to make it 2-0 after the break when he smashed the ball against the bar from barely three yards out.

And that miss was to prove vital as Miguel Angel Moya misjudged Dani Parejo’s free-kick from the right and when the ball rebounded off the bar, Shkodran Mustafi was on hand to head home the rebound.

Elsewhere, Villarreal bounced back from their Copa del Rey elimination at the hands of Barcelona in midweek with a 4-1 win over Celta Vigo.

David Moyes’s Real Sociedad also continued their march away from the relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Espanyol.

source: interaksyon.com

Steven Gerrard told Barcelona-bound Luis Suarez he was ‘too good for Arsenal’

LONDON – Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has revealed he told former teammate Luis Suarez he was “too good” to join Arsenal when the north London club came calling for him last year.

Arsenal tabled a £40,000,001 ($67.5 million, 50.4 million euros) bid for Suarez a year ago in the mistaken belief it would trigger a release clause in his contract.

The Uruguayan went on to score 31 goals as Liverpool narrowly missed out on the Premier League title and although he has since joined Barcelona, Gerrard was relieved not to see him move to Arsenal.

“Last summer, when Luis was out in the cold, I told him, ‘Don’t go to Arsenal,’” Gerrard told the Thursday editions of several British newspapers. “With all due respect to them, I told him he was too good for Arsenal.”

Barcelona paid £75 million to secure Suarez’s services, despite the fact he is currently serving a four-month ban after biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup in Brazil.

While Gerrard was loath to see the back of a player who he has described as the most talented he has ever played with, he understood the 27-year-old’s reasons for heading to Catalonia.

“Luis’s dream, from the first day he came to us, was to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona,” said the 34-year-old.

“I said, ‘If you score 30 goals for us and win the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) Player of the Year and FWA (Football Writers’ Association) Footballer of the Year (awards), they will come back for you.’

“I thought for his own sake, and to get our fans’ respect, he had to give us at least one more year.”

Gerrard added: “You can’t begrudge him his dream, leaving for Barca. But I’d have been disappointed if he had left for Arsenal.”

source: interaksyon.com

Luis Suarez, Uruguay push England on verge of early exit

SAO PAULO – Luis Suarez scored twice as Uruguay sent England spinning towards their earliest World Cup exit in 56 years on Thursday with a 2-1 victory.

Liverpool striker Suarez grabbed the second of two opportunistic goals in the 85th minute of a tense Group D battle in Sao Paulo after Wayne Rooney had looked to have rescued a point for England with a 75th-minute equaliser.

The defeat leaves England, beaten 2-1 by Italy in their opening match, needing a miracle if they are to reach the second round of a World Cup, something they have not failed to do since 1958.

“We are more then disappointed, we’re devastated,” England manager Roy Hodgson said after the loss, describing his side’s chances of remaining in the tournament as “unbelievably slim.”

“To be sure of continuing we needed a result today, a draw or a victory, and we didn’t get it,” he added.

Suarez — named English football’s player of the year after a superb season for Liverpool — had been a doubt for the World Cup after undergoing knee surgery in May.

However the 27-year-old returned to haunt an England side containing five of his Liverpool team-mates.

“Yes, I dreamed of this,” Suarez said. “It was something I imagined many times, but I had to calm myself down.”

With both teams knowing that a defeat would likely prove fatal to their chances of progressing to the last 16, the game started cautiously.

But England’s inability to retain possession looked likely to gift Uruguay an opening, and so it proved.

Loose play from England captain Steven Gerrard saw Uruguay break swiftly, with Nicolas Lodeiro releasing Edinson Cavani down the left.

The Paris Saint-Germain striker delayed his cross to perfection, leaving Suarez, who had ghosted clear of Phil Jagielka, to head back past wrong-footed England goalkeeper Joe Hart.

With England struggling to break Uruguay down for much of the second half, Suarez’s opener looked to be enough.

But 15 minutes from time Rooney tapped in his 40th international goal, and his first at a World Cup, after a low Glen Johnson cross to reignite their challenge.

England had looked the likelier to score thereafter, but five minutes from time the ball broke to Suarez off Gerrard and the striker raced clear.

The Liverpool man glanced up and then unleashed a ferocious shot into the roof of the net.

Uruguay’s victory leaves England needing Italy to beat both Costa Rica on Friday and the Uruguayans next Tuesday.

England would then need to beat Costa Rica in their final game to have any chance of qualifying on goal difference.

Colombia on course

Earlier Thursday, Colombia maintained South America’s strong start to the tournament with a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast, which saw them guaranteed a place in the last 16 from Group C.

A day after Chile eliminated defending champions Spain, Colombia produced another fine attacking display to down the powerful Ivorians in a free-flowing contest at Brasilia’s National Stadium.

Second-half goals from Monaco starlet James Rodriguez and Juan Quintero fired Colombia into the lead before Roma striker Gervinho pulled one back for the Ivorians to set up a tense finish.

Colombia, making their first appearance at the World Cup since 1998, sealed their second round berth later Thursday after Japan and Greece played out a dour 0-0 draw in Natal.

The result means Japan and Greece must win their final matches against Colombia and Ivory Coast respectively to have any chance of going through.

Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni was unhappy at his side’s inability to make Greece pay following the dismissal of their captain Konstantinos Katsouranis on 38 minutes.

“We’re not happy at this stage of the tournament. We pushed hard to win the game. We do have one match to play, but right now I’m not happy at all,” Zaccheroni said.

“We had a lot of possession, had a lot of chances, and we didn’t capitalise on them.”

source: interaksyon.com