Silva, De Bruyne key City’s 5-0 rout of Palace
MANCHESTER, England: Manchester City playmakers David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne orchestrated a 5-0 win over Crystal Palace in the English Premier League on Saturday, as Pep Guardiola’s team rediscovered its attacking potency at Etihad Stadium to cement a top-four place.
Running an open game from central midfield, Silva and De Bruyne both scored and played a part in another goal curled home sweetly by Vincent Kompany. Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi, again from a free kick by De Bruyne, added late goals as Palace was swept aside, leaving the visitors still to definitely secure their top-flight status for another season.
City climbed to third place, above Liverpool on goal difference, and opened up a four-point gap to fifth-placed Manchester United, which plays at Arsenal on Sunday. Another season in the Champions League is looking increasingly likely for City with games left against Leicester and West Bromwich Albion at home and away to Watford.
Despite being without injured top scorer Sergio Aguero, City recorded its biggest league win under Guardiola, having often struggled to put away teams at home because of wayward finishing and sloppy defending.
“We wanted to set up this chain of homes games right,” Kompany said. “It couldn’t have gone any better. But we need to repeat those performances in the next two games at home.”
Palace manager Sam Allardyce chose to field a four-man defense made up entirely of full backs, chiefly because of injuries to Mamadou Sakho, James Tomkins and Scott Dann but also in an attempt to combat City’s young, dynamic front three of Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus and Sterling.
It was breached inside two minutes, through Silva, and somehow avoided conceding a second goal until early in the second half when City cut loose.
“We deserved to get punished like we did,” Allardyce said. “Our strength has been our defensive unit and it was in tatters by the end. “We didn’t have to make them produce their extraordinary talent today,” Allardyce said of City. “We gifted DEAD SEA, Jordan: Starting the event as the firm favorite, Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah was in devastating form to completely dominate the FIA Jordan Rally in his new Autotekrun Ford Fiesta R5 Evo 2. The 12-time regional rally champion won all the special stages for the second successive year and reached the finish at the Dead Sea on Saturday with a winning margin of 16min 09.3sec.
It was the perfect result for the Qatari and French navigator Matthieu Baumel after their retirement in round one in February and keeps the Qatari in the hunt for a 13th title, despite the fact that he still trails Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thefiri by seven points in the unofficial championship standings. The victory was Al-Attiyah’s 64th in MERC history; Baumel has now taken 13 as a codriver.
“The car was fantastic, no issues at all and I was able to control my pace and take no risks,” said Al-Attiyah. “The future of this championship is important to me and Jordan as a rally is one of the strongest anywhere with its organization and important to a great many people. It has a proud tradition and deserves a strong future.”
The all-Jordanian crew of Marouf Abu Samra and navigator Malik Hariri returned to the Jordan Rally for the first time since 2014 and settled in superbly, despite only running a brief pre-event test on the old Turki stage. They produced an impressive career-best performance to seal second posi- them all five goals.”
Everything City did went through Silva, who passed a late fitness test to return after missing the recent draws against Man United and Middlesbrough. His creativity and vision was sorely missed by City in those games, and Palace didn’t know how to deal with him here.
Silva was given a standing ovation when he was substituted in the 67th min- tion and victory in MERC 2.
Abu Samra’s feat marked the first time in 36 years that a Jordanian driver had finished second in the Jordan Rally – the late Nabil Dirani completed the event behind Lebanon’s Michel Saleh at the wheel of a Renault 17 Gordini in 1981.
Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thefiri began the event in strong contention for both the MERC and MERC 2 titles and third overall did the Mitsubishi Lancer driver’s chances no harm at all. He now leads the MERC 2 ute, the damage to Palace done by then.
Silva gleefully swept home his opening goal after Martin Kelly, a right back playing at center back, failed to adequately head clear a short cross from Sterling. It was Silva’s 50th goal for the club.
City dominated possession and pounded the Palace goal — Sane was thwarted three times by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey — but still gave its opponent Championship outright by an unofficial 21 points and heads to Cyprus as the outright MERC leader.
Khaled and Emad Juma closed the gap on the Kuwaiti over the closing stages on Friday afternoon, after overcoming an exhaustrelated fire, but a broken turbocharger for two and a half stages through Saturday morning’s loop cost the Jordanians any chance of snatching a podium finish. They eventually retired with mechanical problems on the second run through Shuna. JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, Spain: Dani Pedrosa took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday, ahead of defending MotoGP champion Marc Marquez.
Pedrosa’s late flying lap of 1 minute, 38.249 seconds edged his Honda teammate’s best effort by 0.049 at the 4.4 kilometer (2.7-mile) Circuito de Jerez. space at the other end, with Willy Caballero saving well from Christian Benteke’s downward header late in the first half.
It got messy for Palace after halftime, from the moment De Bruyne collected Silva’s pass and cut the ball back for Kompany to lash in a curling shot from 15 meters in the 49th.
De Bruyne ran onto Gabriel Jesus’ lay-
Saudi Rakan Al-Rashed used the Rally 2 ruling to regain fifth place after clutch woes and he and Finnish co-driver Jarkko Kalliolepo moved up to fourth at the in his Mahara Racing-run Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX before retiring on the road section to the final stage with fuel pump issues.
Jordan’s Ihab Al-Shorafa and Asem Aref rounded off the FIA finishers in fourth and fifth places after Kuwait’s Essam Al-Nejadi and Salem Al-Thefiri retired their Mitsubishis with mechanical issues after SS13.
Ahmad Shaban rolled out of the 2nd National Rally in the unlucky 13th Jordan River stage and was unable to challenge the eventual runaway winner Salamah Al-Gammaz. The Jordanian reached the finish 13min 04.3sec clear of the father and son crew of former Arabic teacher Ziad Miqdad and his son Hassan. Nasser Khanfar and Burhan Abu Gura were third.
Cars were flagged over the finish podium by Princess Ayah Al-Feisal, the daughter of Prince Feisal Al-Hussein, chairman of Jordan Motorsport.
The event ran thanks to a huge national effort supported by the Jordanian government and its security and safety services.
It was also supported by the private sector with the Hilton Dead Sea Resort & Spa, Dead Sea Touristic & Real Estate Investment (Samarah), Vestel, CCI – Creative Concepts Industries, Radio Hala and Bliss FM all playing a key part.
The third round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship takes place in Cyprus June 16-18.
Cal Crutchlow will start Sunday’s race from third, followed by Maverick Vinales, who has won two of three races this season for Yamaha.
Points leader Valentino Rossi starts from seventh, just ahead of Jorge Lorenzo on his Ducati.
Rossi leads teammate Vinales by six points after recording two second places and one thirdplaced finish so far. off to curl in a shot from the edge of the area that squirmed past Hennessey in the 59th, Sterling drilled in left-footed from substitute Pablo Zabaleta’s nod-down in the 82nd, and De Bruyne curled in a free kick for Otamendi to head past Hennessey in injury time.
Palace is six points ahead of third-tolast Swansea, having played a game extra.
It was Pedrosa’s 29th career pole in the top category, but his first since Malaysia in 2015.
“I am very happy because last year was very difficult for me,” Pedrosa said. “Getting a spot on the front line of the starting grid was my goal.”
Spaniards swept poles in all three categories, including track records in the two lower classes.