Sports

Fran Perez, Oscar Valentin and Nobel Mendy fired Rayo Vallecano to a 3-0 win over an understrength Atletico Madrid on Sunday in a LaLiga match overshadowed by protests against Rayo owner Raul Martin Presa. With Atletico’s focus on Wednesday’s Champions League knockout playoff at Club Brugge, Diego Simeone selected a weakened side and paid the price, with Perez and Valentin ...

Arsenal scored all their goals in the opening 27 minutes of Sunday’s 4-0 FA Cup fourth-round win over League One Wigan Athletic, while Leeds United needed penalties and Wolverhampton Wanderers endured a mud bath on a good day for top-flight sides. Any hopes of a Wigan upset in North London were swiftly ended as Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli both ...

Talking to Khelajog on Sunday, the newly elected Member of Parliament Ishraque Hossain threw his full support for the return of senior all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan to the Bangladesh cricket team, and also hailed the former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, calling them ‘national assets’, despite their controversial political past. When he was asked whether his stance had changed regarding ...

Tom Banton, who carried England to victory in the T20 World Cup against Scotland on Saturday in Kolkata, finally came of age as an international batsman after a stop-start career. His place had been under threat from Ben Duckett after he scored only two against both Nepal and the West Indies in his first World Cup. But coach Brendon “Baz” ...

India and Pakistan will clash in the Twenty20 World Cup in Colombo on Sunday, still feeling the aftershocks of a tumultuous fortnight in which Pakistan’s boycott threat – later reversed – nearly blew a hole in the tournament’s marquee fixture. With bilateral cricket a casualty of their fraught relations, emotions run high whenever the bitter neighbors lock horns in multi-team ...

Atletico Madrid tore Barcelona apart with four first-half goals to secure a 4-0 victory on Thursday in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final, leaving the holders staring at a near impossible task in the return match. Diego Simeone’s side needed only 45 minutes at home to seize control of the tie, capitalising on a calamitous early error ...

Tottenham Hotspur’s French winger Wilson Odobert has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear, the Premier League club said on Thursday, after the 21-year-old was forced off during Tuesday’s 2-1 loss at home to Newcastle United. Spurs, who sacked manager Thomas Frank on Wednesday amid an eight-game run without a league win, said Odobert will have surgery. British media reported that ...

Virgil van Dijk lifted Liverpool back into the race to qualify for the Champions League as the defender sealed a 1-0 win at Sunderland on Wednesday. Sixth-placed Liverpool’s second win in their last eight league games moved them within two points of fifth-placed Chelsea and three behind fourth-placed Manchester United. Draws for United and Chelsea on Tuesday opened the door ...

New coach, same problem for Chelsea. Liam Rosenior looked on course to oversee Chelsea’s fifth straight Premier League win since his arrival before a depleted Leeds United battled from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. The failure to hold on to all three points means Chelsea have now dropped 17 from winning positions this season, 15 ...

Newcastle United plunged Thomas Frank’s future as Tottenham Hotspur boss into serious peril by winning 2-1 in north London on Tuesday to inflict another damaging home defeat on the Dane. Jacob Ramsey’s winner secured just a third away league win of the season for the Magpies to ease the pressure that had been rising on their boss Eddie Howe. Spurs ...