• Written by: admin
• Comments: N/A
• Views: 713

Borussia Dortmund 1-0 FC Cologne

Borussia Dortmund added three more points to their all but insurmountable lead at the top of the Bundesliga with victory over Cologne on Friday night.

Robert Lewandowski scored the only goal of a game Dortmund dominated a minute before the break to take his side 15 points clear of Bayer Leverkusen.

That gap could well be back to 12 on Saturday evening, but with only nine games of the season left the title appears destined for the Westfalenstadion.

The hosts were on the front foot from the off, Neven Subotic testing Michael Rensing with a 10th-minute free-kick before Christian Eichner cleared Lucas Barrios’ shot off the line.

Rensing kept his side in the contest again just before the half-hour mark, brilliantly saving Felipe Santana’s header from a Nuri Sahin corner.

But the former Bayern Munich keeper was beaten in the 44th minute as Lewandowski took a pass from Sahin and sent a left-footed shot into the bottom corner from 12 yards.

Cologne had their first sight of goal in the 56th minute as Milivoje Novakovic fired wide of the post.

That was as close as they came, however, with Dortmund threatening to extend their lead in the closing stages.

Paraguay striker Barrios crashed a close-range shot off the bar in the 79th minute and, six minutes later, Sahin repeated the trick, this time with an excellent strike from distance.

But those near misses did not prove costly as Jurgen Klopp’s side took another step towards the league title.

Credit: http://soccernet.espn.go.com

• Written by: admin
• Comments: N/A
• Views: 148

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho has survived a knife attack in a Spanish airport which left his bodyguard with a 4cm stab wound.

Mourinho was moving through the La Coruna airport and signing autographs for Real fans last Friday when a man armed with a knife approached.

One of the Mourinho’s minders thought he had been punched by the attacker as they moved through the crowd before discovering a wound near his armpit when they boarded the team bus.

Mourinho was only told about the full extent of the incident on Friday, a week after it happened. Police are investigating the attack using security camera footage from the airport.

El Periodico reported: “Mourinho stopped to sign autographs in arrivals, where a large number of Madrid fans were waiting for the team. The bodyguard was near the manager and noticed he had been stabbed in the armpit. Mourinho was very worried by the incident.”

The club said it suspects the attack was intended for Mourinho. It will arrange increased security around its coach while police look into the matter.

Credit: http://soccernet.espn.go.com

• Written by: admin
• Comments: N/A
• Views: 250

Harry Redknapp believes Tottenham and Manchester City are set for another duel for a Champions League berth – and that Kolo Toure’s absence could turn the race for fourth in his favour.

Spurs boss Redknapp is convinced Chelsea will push their way back into the Premier League top four, leaving Tottenham and City to compete for the fourth and final place in next season’s Champions League, just as they did last year.

Redknapp’s men narrowly won that race last season and he is more confident of repeating the feat now that key City defender Toure has been suspended following a failed drugs test, with Redknapp saying: “They’ll certainly miss him.”

“I don’t know what he’s supposed to have done,” he said. “I wouldn’t know one drug from another, to be honest with you, or what drugs he’s supposed to have taken. If this sort of thing happens at the club and it’s an important player, it can have an effect on the team, for sure. You don’t know how it’ll affect them but they’ll certainly miss him.”

Toure was suspended from playing on Thursday after testing positive for a “specified substance” – thought to be his wife’s slimming pills – in the A sample of a recent drugs test. Both Toure and City have maintained their silence on the matter but the Daily Mail quoted Toure’s minder Valer Gourizro as saying “‘he takes responsibility but believes he’s done nothing wrong”.

One option open to the centre-back is to request his B-sample, taken at the same time as the first one, to be tested too. Should that come back positive, Toure, 29, would then get the opportunity to go before a personal hearing. If past doping cases in English football are anything to go by, Toure may have to wait until at least the end of the season before the hearing takes place.

Roberto Mancini’s side once looked destined to fight for the title, but their recent poor form has left them two points ahead of Chelsea and three ahead of Redknapp’s team having played one more match than both. Redknapp is convinced that Carlo Ancelotti’s side are certain of a top-four position and thinks Tottenham and City are set to fight it out for fourth in a repeat of last year’s contest between the two, which Spurs won.

“I’ve got a feeling it’ll be between us and Man City,” Redknapp said. “I don’t see Chelsea not being in the top four. I felt before the Liverpool game, which they lost, that they could still win the league. If they had beaten Liverpool that day they would have been in a very strong position. They are a very strong outfit.”

Spurs were level on points with City at this time last year before they won eight of their remaining 11 matches – one of which came at Eastlands – to pip the north-west club to fourth. City have since spent around £150million on acquiring new players to beef up their squad for their domestic and Europa League campaigns.

Spurs have parted with a fraction of City’s expenditure but have still managed to make it into the last 16 of the Champions League and remain serious contenders for a top-four place. That, Redknapp believes, is proof his squad is good enough to cope with what could be a hectic run-in if they beat Milan next week to reach the quarter-finals.

He said: “For us to be where we are in the league and to have had such a great season in the Champions League is a fantastic achievement so it hasn’t affected us at all – we have managed to fight on both fronts and have done great.”

The Spurs boss also believes that after this year’s lavish expenditure, there is a lot more pressure on Mancini to claim fourth.

“If they don’t make top four it wouldn’t go down well I’m sure,” he said.

Spurs will leapfrog Chelsea back into fourth if they beat Wolves at Molineux on Sunday as the champions do not play their match against Blackpool until the following day. Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale are both likely to miss Sunday’s match with their respective calf and back injuries, but Redknapp hopes to have the stars fit for Wednesday’s showdown.

“I’m hoping Gareth will be fit for Milan,” Redknapp said. “He feels okay. He has just got to push himself through it now. We’d love him back. We’ll wait and see. Rafa is the same. He will not be fit for Sunday, but there is a chance he will be fit for Milan.”

Credit :http//soccernet.espn.go.com