Man City nears Premier League title
LONDON: Manchester City put itself on course to win its first English championship since 1968 by beating host Newcastle 2-0 yesterday behind two goals by Yaya Toure.
Manchester United defeated Swansea 2-0 on first-half goals by Paul Scholes and Ashley Young. The win pulled the defending champions even on points with Manchester City, but with a significantly inferior goal difference.
City almost certainly will win the Premier League if it defeats struggling Queens Park Rangers in its final match next weekend. United is at Sunderland next Sunday.
“It’s not finished,” Toure said. “We have one game left and we have to be careful as QPR are fighting to stay in the Premier League. We have to continue to work hard and believe. This is brilliant for us, though.”
Toure exchanged passes with Sergio Aguero on the edge of the penalty area in the 70th minute before curling a rightfooted shot past diving goalkeeper Tim Krul. The Ivory Coast midfielder scored again with a minute left as City exploited space left by Newcastle as it tried to even the score. The result damaged Newcastle’s hopes of finishing fourth and qualifying for the Champions League. Fourth-place Tottenham drew 1-1 draw against Aston Villa. US star Clint Dempsey scored his 50th Premier League goal to help Fulham down Sunderland 2-1. This was Dempsey’s 17th Premier League goal this season and 23rd overall.
Djibril Cisse scored in the 89th minute to give QPR a 1-0 win over Stoke and move his team two points clear of the relegation zone.
Bolton missed the chance to climb out of the bottom three when it squandered a 2-0 lead and drew 2-2 with West Bromwich Albion. Relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers drew 0-0 with Everton. In Milan, Udinese is in position to claim Italy’s last Champions League place after it beat nine-man Genoa 2-0 and rival Napoli lost by the same score at Bologna in Serie A.
Antonio di Natale and Antonio Floro Flores scored for Udinese, which played more than 50 minutes with a two-man advantage after Juraj Kucka and Rodrigo Palacio were dismissed for Genoa.
Napoli is three points behind thirdplace Udinese after goals from Alessandro Diamanti and substitute Matteo Rubin.
Fourth-place Lazio has an outside chance of reaching Europe’s elite after beating Atalanta 2-0 to close within two points of Udinese. In Amsterdam, Feyenoord earned a Champions League berth after downing SC Heerenveen 3-1 in the final round of the Dutch league. Otman Bakkal, Sekou Cisse and Elvis Manu scored as Feyenoord finished second and one spot in front of PSV Eindhoven, which beat last-place Excelsior Rotterdam 3-1.
That defeat relegated Excelsior. Heerenveen and PSV will play in the Europa league next season.