Associated Press Sports
updated 3:35 p.m. ET April 7, 2012
LONDON (AP) - Clint Dempsey scored twice as Fulham ended Bolton's recent revival with a 3-0 victory at the Reebok Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday.
The American striker opened the scoring with a 30-yard free kick in the 25th minute and headed a second in the 45th to extend the London side's advantage.
Dempsey's double took him to 15 Premier League goals this season, surpassing Louis Saha's club record of 13 set in 2004. Mahamadou Diarra netted Fulham's third late in the second half.
Dempsey has 21 goals overall this season.
He is fifth in the Premier League in scoring, trailing only Arsenal's Robin van Persie, Arsenal (26), Manchester United's Wayne Rooney (21), Manchester City's Sergio Aguero (17) and Newcastle's Demba Ba (16).
Also Saturday, Tottenham's top-four status was weakened by a 0-0 draw at Sunderland as Chelsea moved closer to the Champions League places by clinching a 2-1 victory over Wigan in stoppage time.
Chelsea is two points behind fourth-place Arsenal and three adrift of Tottenham.
---
BERLIN (AP) - Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich warmed up for the likely Bundesliga decider with victories on Saturday, as the defending champion won 3-1 at Wolfsburg while Bayern beat Augsburg 2-1 at home.
Robert Lewandowski and Ilkay Guendogan put Dortmund 2-0 up only for Mario Mandzukic's goal to leave the result in doubt until Lewandowski sealed the win in the last minute.
Dortmund would equal the Bundesliga record of 24 games unbeaten and take a giant step toward defending its title if it avoids defeat on Wednesday.
In Munich, Mario Gomez scored the league's fastest goal with his 24th of the season 24 seconds into the game and the Bayern striker extended his league-leading tally on the hour after Koo Ja-Cheol equalized for Augsburg.
Bayern also has a Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid and the German Cup final against Dortmund to look forward to.
Elsewhere, Cologne fought back to earn a 1-1 draw with Werder Bremen, Stuttgart came from behind to beat Mainz 4-1, Freiburg drew 2-2 with Nuremberg, and Kaiserslautern seems doomed after losing 2-1 at home to Hoffenheim.
Hertha Berlin earned a hard-fought 0-0 draw at fourth-place Borussia Moenchengladbach in the late game, but remains second last, two points behind Cologne.
---
ROME (AP) - Surging Juventus replaced AC Milan at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win at Palermo on Saturday after the defending champion concluded a difficult week with a 2-1 loss at home to Fiorentina.
With seven rounds remaining, Juventus moved one point ahead of Milan. Juve also holds the tiebreaker over Milan with a win and a draw in their head-to-heads.
Juventus dominated but couldn't find the target until Leonardo Bonucci headed in from a corner in the 56th minute. Fabio Quagliarella doubled the lead in the 69th with a shot from the top of the area after collecting a short pass from Alessandro Matri.
Having also reached the Italian Cup final, Juventus remained undefeated in all competitions. The Turin club has looked especially sharp in its last four matches - all victories - outscoring the competition 12-0.
Milan conceded a 90th-minute goal from Fiorentina striker Amauri to extend its struggles after being eliminated from Europe by Barcelona four days ago.
Milan took the lead with a penalty from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 31st at the San Siro but Stevan Jovetic equalized in the 47th after taking advantage of a Milan defensive lapse.
Amauri then finished off an exchange with Jovetic for his first goal since transferring from Juventus in January.
It was the fourth consecutive match in all competitions without a win for Milan, which drew 1-1 with Catania last weekend between a draw and a loss in its two-leg Champions League fixture with Barcelona.
Elsewhere, Inter Milan drew 2-2 with 10-man Cagliari in its second match under new manager Andrea Stramaccioni.
---
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) - Celtic clinched the Scottish Premier League title in style on Saturday, thrashing Kilmarnock 6-0 to reclaim the championship from fierce rival Rangers with a month of the season remaining.
Neil Lennon's side needed a point at Rugby Park to claim a first title since 2008 and 43rd overall. A double from Charlie Mulgrew and other first-half goals by Glenn Loovens and Gary Hooper ensured celebrations could start before halftime.
Late strikes by Joe Ledley and Hooper added gloss to an easy win.
"It's the best day of my professional life," Celtic manager Neil Lennon said. "It's been a long time coming. It's been two years in the waiting. I'm so proud of them. They deserve it.
"We have been the best team in Scotland by a long way and we have finished it in the right way."
Celtic's players donned T-shirts that read, "This is just the beginning" as they walked a lap of honor.
Celtic's passage to the title was cleared by second-place Rangers being docked 10 points in February for going into administration - a form of bankruptcy protection.
Celtic holds an 18-point lead after Rangers beat St. Mirren 3-1.
---
PARIS (AP) - Montpellier beat relegation battlers Sochaux 2-1 to move provisionally three points clear at the top of the French league and keep the pressure on title rival Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday.
Midfielder Younes Belhanda gave Montpellier an early lead and, after Modibo Maiga equalized for the visitors with his third goal in three games, striker Souleymane Camara scored the winner early in the second half.
Montpellier also opened up a seven-point gap on third-place Lille after the defending champion, which has played one game more, lost 3-1 at Brest.
---
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Rayo Vallecano routed Osasuna 6-0 to put an emphatic end to its three-game losing streak on Saturday in the Spanish league.
Midfielder Jose Movilla opened for the hosts before Miguel "Michu" Perez netted a brace to take his goal tally to 15 for the season.
Diego Castro made it 4-0 in the 36th, and Emiliano Armenteros and Roberto "Tito" Triguero added two more goals in the second half.
Also, Getafe beat last-place Sporting Gijon 2-0, while Carlos Vela scored a double to give Real Sociedad a 2-2 draw at Espanyol.
Barcelona visits Zaragoza later before Real Betis plays Villarreal.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
advertisement
More newsGetty ImagesDempsey delivers for Fulham
??Roundup: Clint Dempsey scored twice as Fulham ended Bolton's recent revival with a 3-0 victory at the Reebok Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday.
macular degeneration whitney houston funeral judi dench alicia keys bobby brown leaves funeral donnie mcclurkin whitney houston funeral live stream
No comments:
Post a Comment