Man City stays atop EPL; Liverpool wins
Manchester City responded to the challenge laid down by title rival Liverpool by winning at Burnley 2-0 in the English Premier League on Saturday to stay in first place heading into the seismic meeting of the top two next weekend.
Kevin De Bruyne and
Ilkay Gundogan scored first-half goals at Turf Moor to keep City in a one-point lead over Liverpool with eight games remaining.
Liverpool beat Watford by the same scoreline a few hours earlier, but City had no problems matching its title rival, delivering a composed display and ultimately a customary win over next-to-last Burnley.
Elsewhere: James Ward-Prowse has David Beckham in his sights. The Southampton midfielder produced more free kick magic to earn his team a 1-1 draw at Leeds in the English Premier League and halt its fourgame losing run. Only Beckham, with 18, has scored more direct free kick goals in Premier League history than WardProwse, who has moved on to 13 . ... Christian Eriksen can’t stop scoring since his return to competitive soccer. The Denmark international’s latest goal was his first for Brentford in a stunning 4-1 win in the English Premier League against a Chelsea team beset by unrelenting takeover talk . ... Martin Terrier became the joint top scorer in the French league as Rennes salvaged a 1-1 draw at Nice to move into second place. Nice broke the deadlock with
Youcef Atal’s outrageous cross from the outside of the boot that Andy Delort
headed into the bottom corner in the 67th minute. ... This time, Robert Lewandowski failed to score. It didn’t matter as others did for Bayern Munich to stretch its Bundesliga lead to nine points with a 4-1 win in Freiburg. Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, Kingsley Coman and Marcel Sabitzer
got the goals as Bayern put the pressure on secondplaced Borussia Dortmund, which hosted fourth-placed Leipzig later. Six rounds remain after this weekend . ... Lazio boosted its bid for a European spot and put its derby nightmare behind it after a comfortable 2-1 win over Sassuolo in Serie A. Manuel Lazzari and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored to send Lazio to fifth, a point above Atalanta and Roma, who play on Sunday.
ETC.
College swimming: Two-time Olympic medalist Lea Maurer was named head coach of Southern California’s men’s and women’s swimming teams Friday, making her the first woman to lead both programs. Maurer had served as interim head coach after Jeremy Kipp was placed on administrative leave by the university last fall amid allegations of abusive behavior toward athletes. He resigned in March. Competing under her maiden name of Loveless, she won a gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay and a bronze in the 100 backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.