Chelsea adds to EPL lead, tops Leicester
Visiting Chelsea easily coped without top-scorer Diego Costa, sweeping aside fading champion Leicester, 3-0, yesterday, to go seven points in front in the English Premier League standings.
Marcos Alonso scored twice and Pedro Rodriguez headed in the third as Chelsea put its title bid back on track after a 13-match winning run ended at Tottenham in the previous game.
Elsewhere, Lionel Messi didn’t need a free kick this time, scoring from close range to help Barcelona rout Las Palmas, 5-0, and move within two points of Spanish league leader Real Madrid.
Luis Suarez added two goals and Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal also scored as Barcelona easily won at Camp Nou in its pursuit of Madrid, which plays at third-place Sevilla today. Madrid will remain with a game in hand after this weekend’s matches.
In Serie A, Mauro Icardi came to Inter Milan’s rescue yet again as the league’s top goalscorer helped the host Nerazzurri come from behind to beat Chievo Verona, 3-1.
Icardi scored the equalizer in the 69th minute, volleying in Antonio Candreva’s stunning cross from the right.
Icardi’s 15th goal in 20 league matches moved him two clear of Roma forward Edin Dzeko and Torino’s Andrea Belotti in the goalscoring charts. … American criminal investigators are continuing to pursue soccer corruption, according to outgoing Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who initiated the prosecution of fraudulent FIFA executives.
Lynch attracted global attention by jolting the world’s most popular sport, launching sprawling criminal cases that burst into view with early morning arrests in May 2015 at a luxury hotel in Zurich ahead of the FIFA presidential election. …
The LA Galaxy traded defender A.J. DeLaGarza to the Houston Dynamo for $175,000 in allocation money.
Colleges: Clemson celebrates
Around 70,000 smiling, cheering football fans turned out for the biggest party Clemson coach Dabo
Swinney has thrown yet at Death Valley to celebrate the school’s first national championship in 35 years.
Last year, more than 30,000 people showed up for Swinney’s pizza party when Clemson was picked for its first College Football Playoff berth after the 2015 season. This gathering topped that, with all but the highest rows filled at the 80,000-seat Memorial Stadium.
Swinney closed the 90-minute ceremony, thanking all who supported and believed in him since his rise from interim coach to national champion. His team won the title with a 35-31 victory over defending national champ Alabama last week when Deshaun Watson connected with Hunter Renfrow on a 2-yard TD pass with one second left. …
Former UConn head coach Bob Diaco was named the new defensive coordinator at Nebraska.
UConn fired Diaco last month after three straight losing seasons.
Baseball: Iannetta to Arizona
A person with knowledge of the situation tells The Associated Press that the Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to a $1.5 million, one-year contract with catcher Chris Iannetta.