To get things worse, they had captain Steven Gerrard sent off in the first-half for a reckless challenge on Michael Carrick. Gerrard got a square red and leave miss Liverpool`s next three games, including the Merseyside derby.
FA Cup holders Chelsea got their defence underway with a 7-0 home win against Ipswich.
The surprises of the 1st round were Sunderland losing 2-1 at home to Notts County, West Brom losing 1-0 at Reading, Blackpool losing 2-0 at Southampton and Newcastle losing 3-1 at Stevenage, while Brighton beat Portsmouth 3-1 and Burton Albion caused a jar by beating Middlesbrough 2-1.
Premier League sides Arsenal, Manchester City, Stoke and Wolves were forced into replays by Leeds, Leicester, Cardiff and Doncaster, respectively. The Fourth Round draw was made on Sunday and is available on this site.
In Scotland, Celtic made it done to the Fifth Round of the Scottish Cup by taking 2-0 at Berwick Rangers. The eye-catching result of the cycle was Ross County drawing 0-0 at Dundee United. Rangers play Kilmarnock at Ibrox on Monday (7:30pm).
In Spain, Barcelona secured a twelfth-successive La Liga victory when winning 4-0 at Deportivo. David Villa and Lionel Messi were once again among the goals.
Real Madrid remain two points can then in 2nd place following a 4-2 home win against Villareal. A Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick earned him the man-of-the-match award, although it was good to see Kaka score on his fall from a lengthy spell on the sidelines following knee surgery.
In Italy, Serie A leaders AC Milan needed a ninetieth-minute equaliser from Ibrahimovic to make a charge in a 4-4 home run with Udinese. They are now four points clear at the top of the table from Napoli, who beat Juventus 3-0, all of their goals coming from Cavani.
Lazio, who lost 2-1 at home to Lecce are now third, followed by Roma, who lost 2-1 at Sampdoria, despite leading 1-0 at half-time.
In Germany, Borussia Dortmund are ten points clear in the Bundesliga, although there were no weekend fixtures.
In the Asia Cup, the opening game saw Japan draw 1-1 with Jordan.
In horseracing, Tony McCoy again stole the headlines by taking the Welsh National at Chepstow on the Jonjo O`Neill-trained Synchronised. In doing so, the remarkable McCoy made it a full house of `Nationals`, having now won the English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh versions of the race.
Other weekend stars included Marsh Warbler, who beat pre-race Triumph Hurdle first and second-favourites Sam Winner and Smad Place in the Rate 1 Future Champions Finale Hurdle at Chepstow on Saturday.
He is now around 12/1 for the `Victory` at the Cheltenham Festival, with his two vanquished rivals available at 12/1 and 16/1, respectively.
At Sandown on Saturday, Nicky Henderson`s Minella Class was telling in taking the Mark 1 32RED Hurdle and is now 14/1 for the Supreme Novices` Hurdle and 12/1 for the Neptune Investment Management Hurdle.
The winning trainer revealed on Saturday that his Hennessy Gold Cup runner-up, Burton Port, would escape the relief of the season owing to minor injury.
On the same Sandown card, the Alan King-trained Mille Chief comfortably carried top-weight to triumph in the card`s finale and, in doing so, earned a citation of 33/1 for the Champion Hurdle.
In Ireland, on Saturday Tillahow just got the best of Fearless Falcon in the card`s Form 3 Juvenile Hurdle but is even available at 33/1 for the Triumph Hurdle.
On Sunday, Willie Mullins trained the beginning two home in the feature race at Leopardstown, the MCR Hurdle, with Final Approach, who is owned by the race sponsors managing director Douglas Taylor, beating Call The Police. The winning rider was Paul Townend.
In the Mark 2 Tote Pick Six Killiney Novice Chase, the Dessie Hughes-trained Magnanimity upset the 4/9 favourite Jessies Dream, although the testing going was granted as a cause for the favourite`s defeat. Jessies Dream is now available at 16/1 for the RSA Chase at Cheltenham.
Hughes went on to bring a repeat on the board in the next race when Rare Bob, who was racing in blinkers for the start time, won the Leopardstown Handicap Chase from Jessica Harrington`s Got Attitude. The victory had the trainer thinking of a possible tilt at the Aintree Grand National.
In the last race on the card, the bumper, the Dermot Weld-trained Waaheb ran out an impressive four-length winner and earned a cite of 12/1 for the Cheltenham Festival bumper.
In American Football, the NFL Wild Card Play-Off shock was Seattle Seahawks beating the reigning Super Bowl champions New Orleans Saints 41-36.
The New York Jets also progressed to the divisional round by beating Indianapolis Colts 17-16.
In Golf, Louis Oosthuizen won a three-way play-off against Chris Wood and Manuel Quiros to bring the Africa Open, while Europe beat Asia 9-7 in the Royal Trophy 2011.
In Rugby Union, there were weekend Aviva Premiership wins for Saracens, Bath, Gloucester, Harlequins and Leicester, while Newcastle and Sale drew 19-19 on Friday evening. In the Magners League, there were victories for Llanelli Scarlets, Munster, Cardiff, Leinster and Ulster.
In Snooker, the Masters tournament got underway on Sunday and began with a 6-4 defeat of reigning champion Mark Selby by Mark King.
In Tennis, the USA beat Belgium 2-1 in the last of the Hopman Cup; Roger Federer beat defending champion Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-4 in the last of the Qatar Open; Robin Soderling beat Andy Roddick 6-3, 7-5 to win the Brisbane International; and Stanislas Wawrinka beat Xavier Malisse 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to bring the Chennai Open. The Sydney International got underway on Sunday.
In Cricket, India beat South Africa by 21 runs in Sunday`s International Twenty20 match. The game marked the terminal one in international cricket for South Africa`s Makhaya Ntini.
Aged 33, Ntini took 656 wickets in 101 Test Matches and 173 wickets in One Day Internationals and earned global respect for his achievements.
In Boxing, Beibut Shumenov beat late stand-in William Joppy to keep his WBA/IBA light-heavyweight titles in Kazakhstan on Saturday. The sport, though, was appalled to see that former British champion Gary Mason had been killed after being hit by a van while cycling on Thursday morning.
Mason lost only once in a 38-fight career, when he fought legendary future world champion Lennox Lewis in a British heavyweight title fight in London in 1991.
A retina injury caused him to bed early from the play but, following a while in Rugby League, he went on to get heavily involved in boxing coaching, inner-city projects and charity work, his irrepressible personality proving a large root of aspiration to many people and, also, to himself during the hard times he encountered. He died aged just 48.
Finally, Nasser Al-Attiyah won stage seven of the Dakar Rally, although Carlos Sainz still leads the field; Mo Farah won the Edinburgh Cross Country race; Trina Gulliver won the BDO Women`s World Darts Championship for the 9th time in the final ten years, and Martin Adams landed his third Men`s BDO World Championship Final when beating Dean Winstanley in Sunday`s final.
Tweet Subscribe to Will Reilly's posts
No comments:
Post a Comment