World Sports News in Brief

Man Utd beat Spurs, West Ham maintain top-four charge

Manchester United underlined their ‘comeback kings’ tag by recovering from a first-half deficit to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 on Sunday (Apr 11) and cement their place in the Premier League’s top four.

Soccer Football - Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - April 11, 2021 Manchester United's Fred celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates. (Photo: Pool via Reuters)
Soccer Football - Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - April 11, 2021 Manchester United's Fred celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates. (Photo: Pool via Reuters)

Victory ‘narrowed’ Manchester City’s lead to 11 points but more importantly for United they are nine points above fifth-placed Chelsea with seven games remaining.

* West Ham maintained their audacious assault on a Champions League berth with a 3-2 home win over third-placed Leicester City, having taken a 3-0 lead for the third successive game. Tottenham are six points behind West Ham with their top-four hopes now fading fast.

* Sheffield United’s 3-0 home defeat by Arsenal left them on the cusp of relegation. They are 18 points behind the safety zone with seven games remaining.

* Newcastle United took a massive step towards ensuring their survival as they came from a goal down to beat Burnley 2-1 on Sunday – a result that put them six points above third-from-bottom Fulham, having also played a game less.

* Athletics Australia said they will not send athletes to next month's World Athletics Relay Championships in Poland due to the COVID-19 situation. The top eight placed nations at the May 1 to May 2 World Athletics Relays in Silesia qualify for Tokyo if they have not already qualified through the 2019 World Championships in Doha.

* Hideki Matsuyama became the first Japanese man to win a major golf championship on Sunday, holding his nerve down the stretch to capture the 85th Masters after a dramatic final round. Matsuyama settled for bogey but closed with par at 17 and a bogey at 18 to fire a one-over-par 73 and finish 72 holes on 10-under 278.

* Atalanta climbed back into the top four in Serie A as Josip Ilicic's second-half penalty earned his side a thrilling 3-2 victory at Fiorentina on Sunday. They are now on 61 points, one behind Juventus in third and two clear of Napoli in fifth.

* Double Olympic champion Helen Glover moved closer to becoming the first British mother to row at a Games on Sunday when she won women's pair gold at the European championships in her first competition for nearly five years. The 34-year-old, a winner in the Italian lakeside city of Varese with Polly Swann, has had three children since the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics and is aiming for a comeback at the Tokyo Games in July.

* Borja Mayoral's first-half strike earned AS Roma a 1-0 win over Bologna on Sunday, ensuring Paulo Fonseca's side kept in touch with the top four in Serie A. The result kept seventh-placed Roma five points adrift of Napoli in fourth after 30 games played, while Bologna stayed 11th on 34 points.

* Monaco stayed in contention in the Ligue 1 title race as they beat Dijon 3-0 at home, handing the bottom club a record defeat on Sunday. Stevan Jovetic and Wissam Ben Yedder, twice, found the back of the net after the break to put third-placed Monaco on 65 points with six games left, one behind Paris St Germain and four adrift of leaders Lille.

* Flamengo won the Brazilian Supercup on Sunday, beating Palmeiras 6-5 in a gripping penalty shoot-out after the two sides drew 2-2 over 90 minutes.

* World number three Rafa Nadal says he is fully fit and confident about his preparations as he begins his claycourt season at the Monte Carlo Masters, with one eye on the pursuit of a 14th French Open crown. The Spaniard has not played a competitive match since his Australian Open quarter-final loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas, having skipped a series of tournaments due to a back injury sustained in Melbourne.

* Valencia clawed their way back from two goals down in the second half to earn a 2-2 draw at home to Real Sociedad in La Liga on Sunday. Real Sociedad are fifth in the standings on 47 points, while Valencia are 13th on 34.

* Fabio Jakobsen returned to racing more than eight months after suffering horrific injuries at the Tour of Poland, as he completed the opening stage of the Tour of Turkey on Sunday. The 24-year-old Dutchman finished in 147st place, 10 seconds behind the main bunch, but the Deceuninck-Quick Step rider was simply happy to be back in the peloton.

* Colombia striker Radamel Falcao sustained a serious head injury during training with Galatasaray, the Turkish club said in a statement on Sunday. Falcao, 35, clashed heads with a team mate during Sunday's session and was taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a facial bone fracture and underwent surgery.

* Suat Serdar celebrated his 24th birthday by scoring his first Bundesliga goal of the season as basement side Schalke 04 snapped a 12-game winless run to beat Augsburg 1-0 at the Veltins Arena on Sunday. Leandro Barreiro's stunning stoppage-time winner earned Mainz 05 crucial three points in the relegation battle as they came from behind in the second half to beat Cologne 3-2 at the Rhein Energie stadium.

* Juventus eased to a 3-1 victory over Genoa on Sunday to keep alive their faint hopes of making it 10 successive Serie A titles this season. Third-placed Juventus moved onto 62 points after 30 matches, one behind AC Milan and 12 adrift of leaders Inter Milan.

* Real Madrid winger Lucas Vazquez is set to miss the rest of the season after straining knee ligaments during the 2-1 win over Barcelona, his club said on Sunday. Vazquez, who has played at right back for most of the campaign in the absence of the injured Dani Carvajal, was involved in a heavy challenge with Barcelona's Sergio Busquets on Saturday and was substituted.

* Mercedes' Stoffel Vandoorne won the second Formula E race of the weekend in Rome on Sunday with Britain's Sam Bird staying top of the electric championship's standings despite failing to score for Jaguar. Belgian Vandoorne, who crashed out of the previous day's e-prix in the EUR district of the Italian capital, beat Mahindra Racing's Alexander Sims by 0.666 of a second in what he described as "redemption".

* A rare goal from full-back Matteo Darmian earned Inter Milan a 1-0 victory over Cagliari on Sunday, as Antonio Conte's side closed in on their first Serie A title in 11 years. Inter moved 11 points clear of AC Milan in second with eight games to play while Cagliari remained languishing down in 18th place, five points from safety.

* Melbourne Victory forward Kyra Cooney-Cross scored directly from a corner in the final minute of extra time to help her team beat Sydney FC in the W-League Grand Final on Sunday and be crowned champions of Australia for the second time.

Reuters