Real reserves thrash Granada, Barca’s ‘MSN’ hit 100-goal mark
MADRID: Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez scored twice as a much-changed Real Madrid moved to within three victories of winning La Liga with a 4-0 demolition of Tony Adams’s already-relegated Granada.
Earlier, Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez were all on target to take their combined tally for the season to 102 as Barcelona kept pace at the top with a 4-1 win over Villarreal.
Barca remain top thanks to their superior head-to-head record with the two locked on 84 points, but Real have three games remaining to the Catalans’ two.
Real coach Zinedine Zidane continued his rotation policy of recent weeks with nine changes from the side that beat Atletico Madrid 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday as hat-trick hero Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of the squad entirely.
SHARAPOVA ADVANCES MADRID: Maria Sharapova set up a mouth-watering second-round clash with Eugenie Bouchard at the Madrid Open after battling back from a set down to beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 on Sunday.
Bouchard called the Russian “a cheater” last week and suggested she should have been banned for life -- rather than 15 months -- after testing positive for meldonium at the 2015 Australian Open.
DEVENDER FOR WORLDS NEWDELHI: Devender Singh of Services joined world junior champion Neeraj Chopra by becoming the second Indian to meet the javelin qualifying mark for the August world athletics championships on Sunday. Devender won the Indian Grand Prix first leg with a throw of 84.57m, meeting the qualifying mark of 83m.
AIZAWL WIN 3-2
CUTTACK: L Ralte struck twice as recently crowned I-League Champions Aizawl FC erased a two goal deficit to register a 3-2 win over Chennai City FC on the opening day of the Federation Cup at the Barabati Stadium. Goals by Charles de Souza (13’) and Edwin Sydney (39’) in the first half left the Aizawl reeling but an inspired second half performance including strikes from Al-Amna (53’) and L. Ralte (62’, 81’) led the I League Champions to win. Churchill Brothers held East Bengal to a 1-1 draw in the opening match of the Federation Cup football tournament here on Sunday. Wedson Anselme put East Bengal in the lead in the 65th minute while Ansumana Kromah (80th minute) found the equaliser for Churchill Brothers in the Group A match at the Barabati Stadium.