Sheriff stuns Madrid in Champions’ League

The start to life in the Champions League couldn’t be going much better for Moldovan club Sheriff.

Sébastien Thill scored a 90th-minute winner as the newcomers stunned Real Madrid 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Tuesday.

Thill netted with a powerful shot into the top corner from the edge of the area to give Sheriff its second consecutive victory. It leads Group D with six points, three more than Madrid and five more than both Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan, which drew 0-0 in Ukraine in the other group match.

Sheriff beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 in its opener at home, while Madrid won 1-0 at Inter.

Sheriff is the first club from the Moldovan league to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League, although it is based in the breakaway region of Transnistria, a self-proclaimed independent nation which isn’t recognized by any United Nations member state.

The club founded just over two decades ago is funded by the Sheriff company, which runs large parts of the economy in Transnistria and has strong political ties.

Sheriff players celebrated loudly after the final whistle as many Madrid fans jeered their team after its second consecutive setback at the Bernabéu.

Madrid had won five in a row in all competitions before being held by Villarreal to a scoreless home draw in the Spanish league last weekend. The Spanish powerhouse has won only five of its last 13 European games at home.

College football

TCU COACH UPSET OVER FLAG PLANT » TCU coach Gary Patterson said assistant Jerry Kill sustained a concussion when he got knocked down during a postgame scuffle after a home loss to SMU over the weekend and accused his opponent of plotting a provacative flag planting at midfield. Patterson insisted Tuesday that Kill would not have been knocked down had Mustangs players not been trying to plant their school flag. “He got hit twice ... I cannot substantiate that it was a SMU or TCU person, but it did happen. If we wouldn’t have had the flags, it wouldn’t have happened,” Patterson said during his weekly news conference. Patterson said he believed SMU planned the flag planting, a claim strongly denied by SMU athletic director Rick Hart. Kill, the former Minnesota head coach who was the best man in his wedding, had a two-inch knot and scrapes on the back of his head, Patterson said. In his postgame remarks after the 42-34 loss on Saturday, Patterson initially indicated he believed Kill was hit with a helmet by an SMU player. He said Tuesday that he couldn’t substantiate if that happened. Hart, however, said there was no evidence after a thorough review of available video of anyone from SMU being involved with Kill getting hurt. “I have spoken with TCU Athletics Director Jeremiah Donati and we agree that there is no evidence to support Coach Patterson’s initial claims. To that end, I was assured any insinuation that this occurred would be ‘walked back’ by Coach Patterson during today’s press conference,” Hart said.