Atletico Madrid stay third with 1-0 win over Real Sociedad
MADRID: Atletico Madrid took another step toward securing a spot in the Champions League next season by defeating Real Sociedad 1-0 for its fifth win in a row in the Spanish league.
Filipe Luis scored for the second straight match and Atletico opened up a threepoint gap on fourth-place Sevilla, which plays Barcelona at the Camp Nou today.
Atletico is now 10 points in front of fifth-place Villarreal, the first team out of the qualification zone for the Champions League.
The third-placed team automatically qualifies to the competition next year, while the fourth-place club has to go through a playoff.
Real Sociedad dropped from fifth to seventh in the standings. It could have reduced its gap to Atletico to six points had it won at the Vicente Calderon Stadium. Real Sociedad hasn't won in four straight matches.
Atletico was in control from the start and Luis found the net from close range in the 28th minute after a quick exchange of passes with Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres.
Luis had also scored in the team's 2-0 victory at Malaga over the weekend.
The Brazilian left back had not yet scored this season. Real Sociedad improved in the second half but it was Atletico which had most of the scoring chances, including great ones with Torres and Angel Correa.
Atletico has won eight of its last 10 league matches and is enjoying its best run of the season. Diego Simeone's defense has been working well again, conceding only once in the last five league games.
Atletico overtook Sevilla for third place last weekend after having dropped to as low as sixth in the standings earlier in the competition.
Leader Real Madrid plays at Leganes today to defend its two-point lead over Barcelona. Madrid still has a game in hand.
Aritz Aduriz scored twice in the first half to move Athletic closer to a Europa League spot. KUCHING: India Open champion PV Sindhu lost 21-18, 19-21, 17-21 to world No. 13 Chen Yufei in the first round of the Malaysia Open on Wednesday. This was only Sindhu's second loss in 14 matches this year. Saina Nehwal also exited the tournament after losing 21-19, 13-21, 15-21 to world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi in the first round.
Chen put in an impressive performance against the more experienced Sindhu. Fresh off a title-winning run at the India Open last week, Sindhu opened up an 18-12 lead in the first game but Chen fought back to narrow the deficit. The Chinese player won the second game despite trailing 2-6 in the initial exchanges. Chen led through most of the third game and closed out the hard-fought match in one hour and eight minutes.
Saina, who lost in the quarterfinals of the India Open last week, has not progressed beyond the last eight at a Superseries event since her title-winning run at the Australian Open in 2016. Her match against Yamaguchi lasted 56 minutes.
Earlier, Ajay Jayaram advanced to the second round after a comfortable 21-11, 21-8 win over China's Qiao Bin. The match lasted 31 minutes.
Jayaram raced away to a 4-0 lead in the first minute of the match and led throughout the first game.
He was untroubled in the second game as well. Jayaram will face fourth-seed Viktor Axelsen in the second round.
He had lost to Axelsen in straight games at the India Open last week.
The Indian men's doubles challenge came to an end as Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost 21-18, 18-21, 17-21 to Chinese Taipei's Kuan Hao Liao and Chia Pin Lu in the first round in 47 minutes. BERLIN: Hoffenheim ended Bayern Munich's five-game winning streak after Andrej Kramaric scored the only goal of the game and Borussia Dortmund eased past Hamburger SV 3-0 in the 27th round of Bundesliga football action.
It was Hoffenheim who stopped Bayern Munich's run by reaping their first victory in 18 encounters between the two sides on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.
Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann's men staged a faultless performance against the German giants and dictated the pace in the first half.
Kramaric almost opened the scoring eight minutes into the game before Bayern goalkeeper Sven Ulreich was on guard to deny Nadiem Amiri his side's best chance following a one-on-one in the ninth minute. As the match progressed, Bayern seemed to gain more and more control, but it was the hosts who broke the deadlock as Andrej Kramaric hammered home Mats Hummels' clearance from 18 meters in the 21st minute.
The Bundesliga front-runners remained unimpressed and kept it bowling, while Hoffenheim remained dangerous on the counterattack. Kerem Demirbay should have doubled the lead but Ulreich defused the effort from close range in the 41st minute. SHILLONG: Leading the goalscoring chart with nine strikes this I-league season, Shillong Lajong FC star striker Aser Dipanda Dicka on Wednesday said he is hungry for more to ensure that his club end the season on a positive note.
“There are five matches left and I want to score as many goals as possible. It's not just about being the top scorer.
What matters the most is that the club finish the league in a good position,” Dicka said before departing for Pune to play their next match against Shivajians, his former club.
“I was not fully fit in the first three matches. My scoring rhythm started in the home matches and then I started to score in almost every match,” said the 28-year-old striker from Cameroon.