World Sports News in Brief

United outclass Watford to stay in top-four hunt

Manchester United kept alive their hopes of finishing in the Premier League’s top four after goals from Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood secured a 3-0 home win over Watford on Sunday.

Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester United v Watford - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - February 23, 2020  Manchester United's Mason Greenwood scores their third goal. (Photo: Action Images via Reuters)
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester United v Watford - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - February 23, 2020 Manchester United's Mason Greenwood scores their third goal. (Photo: Action Images via Reuters)

Portugal midfielder Fernandes scored his first goal for United with a 42nd-minute penalty before Martial and Greenwood netted fine individual efforts to lift them two places up to fifth on 41 points from 27 games.

* Patrick Reed outlasted fellow American Bryson DeChambeau for a one-stroke victory at the WGC-Mexico Championship on Sunday. Reed took the lead with a tap-in birdie at the 16th hole and went further ahead with another birdie at the 17th at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City. Though he bogeyed the last after a wild drive, his cushion proved enough, with a four-under-par 67 sealing the deal.

* Norway's Viktor Hovland rammed home a 25-foot birdie at the final hole to clinch his first victory on PGA Tour at the Puerto Rico Open on Sunday. Hovland finished at 20-under-par 268, one shot ahead of American Josh Teater, who had missed a 15-foot birdie at the last.

* Paris St Germain extended their Ligue 1 lead to 13 points with a 4-3 home victory against Girondins de Bordeaux on Sunday but the French champions were again exposed at the back and had Neymar sent off. A Marquinhos double, Edinson Cavani's 200th PSG goal and a goal by Kylian Mbappe put the capital side on 65 points from 26 games but they lost captain Thiago Silva to a muscle injury and Neymar picked up a straight red card for a late challenge in stoppage time.

* AS Roma notched up their first home league win for more than two months when they hammered Lecce 4-0 in Serie A on Sunday, helped by an inspirational performance from Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The match was one of only two played in Serie A on Sunday due to the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy. Four others were called off, including third-placed Inter Milan's game at home to Sampdoria.

* Real Madrid's plan to give Brazilian Rodrygo Goes some extra playing time in the reserves backfired badly after the forward was sent off on Sunday following an overzealous celebration and is now suspended from next week's 'Clasico' against Barcelona. Meanwhile, forward Eden Hazard is set for another lengthy spell on the sidelines after the club confirmed the Belgian had broken his ankle in Saturday's 1-0 La Liga defeat at Levante.

* Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice to earn Arsenal a 3-2 Premier League win over Everton on Sunday, extending the Gunners' unbeaten start to 2020 and moving them back into the battle for European places. The win lifts Mikel Arteta's Arsenal side up to ninth place in the league with 37 points, while Everton remain without a victory at the Gunners in 24 years and a point adrift in 11th.

* Diogo Jota struck twice as Wolverhampton Wanderers pushed Norwich City deeper towards the drop with a 3-0 win over the Premier League's bottom club at Molineux on Sunday. Norwich remained bottom on 18 points, seven points behind 17th-placed Aston Villa. Wolves are eighth on 39 points.

* Goals from Moussa Diaby and Nadiem Amiri gave Bayer Leverkusen a 2-0 victory over Augsburg on Sunday and kept them in contention for a Champions League spot following their sixth win in the last seven league games. Following their fifth straight win in all competitions, Leverkusen are fifth on 43 points, level with Borussia Moenchengladbach who are fourth. The top four teams qualify for the Champions League.

* Serie A leading scorer Ciro Immobile grabbed his 27th league goal of the season as irrepressible Lazio won 3-2 at Genoa on Sunday to stay on the tail of leaders Juventus. Lazio, on 59 points from 25 games, stayed one point behind the Turin side as they equalled their points tally for the whole of last season, when they finished eighth, and extended their unbeaten run to 20 league games, including 16 wins.

* Britain's Jamie Chadwick earned her first points towards a Formula One superlicence on Sunday after finishing fourth overall in the Asian F3 series at the Buriram circuit in Thailand. The 21-year-old W Series champion and Asian F3 race winner secured 10 points towards the 40 needed over a three-year period to be able to compete in Formula One. The all-female W Series will also offer licence points this year, after an inaugural season without any in 2019, and the 2020 champion set to gain 15.

* Defending champion and second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3 6-4 on Sunday to win the Marseille Open for the second time in a row. The victory made Tsitsipas the first man to win back-to-back trophies at the tournament since Sweden's Thomas Enqvist in 1997-98.

* Chilean Cristian Garin secured his first ATP 500 tournament victory on Sunday by beating Italy's Gianluca Mager 7-6 (3), 7-5 in the final of the Rio Open. It was Garin's second ATP tour victory in less than a month and the fourth of his career. Each of his previous titles had come in the lower-tier ATP 250 category.

Reuters, Xinhua