Int Football - Around the world in 80 goals

Eurosport - Mon, 06 Oct 16:36:00 2008

Catch up with all the action from planet football, as we travel the globe in search of goals and gossip.

Bruno Alves - 0

Portugal

A free-kick from defender Bruno Alves gave Porto a 2-1 win at Sporting and sent them top of the Portuguese Premier League.

Porto have 11 points from five matches with Estrela Amadora, who beat Trofense 1-0 at home, and Nacional Nadeira, who drew 1-1 at Academica, sharing second spot one point behind.

The reigning champions went ahead when a shot from midfielder Raul Meireles hit opponent Miguel Veloso and fell into the path of Argentine striker Lisandro Lopez, who scored his first league goal of the season.

Sporting, who suffered their second successive league defeat, equalised when captain Joao Moutinho was fouled in the box by Argentine Tomas Costa after 28 minutes. Moutinho calmly sent goalkeeper Nuno the wrong way with the penalty.

Porto grabbed the three points when Alves hit a 30-metre free-kick over the defensive wall after 31 minutes.

Serbia

League leaders Partizan Belgrade went 13 points clear of bitter city rivals Red Star after they beat them 2-0 in a pulsating derby to stretch their perfect start to seven matches.

Senegalese striker Lamine Diarra fired the champions ahead in the 56th minute and Brazilian midfielder Antonello Juca sealed the win in the final minute after both sides had a player sent off for dissent.

Partizan are at the top with 21 points, second-placed Vojvodina have 15 after their 1-0 home win over Napredak Krusevac while Red Star slipped three places to seventh in the 12-team first division.

Diarra missed a good chance for Partizan early on but the visitors were fortunate to be on level terms at halftime after the woodwork and two excellent saves by goalkeeper Mladen Bozovic denied Red Star the lead.

Partizan piled on the pressure after the break and Diarra latched onto a defence-splitting pass by Portuguese midfielder Almani Moreira to slide the ball past Sasa Stamenkovic.

Red Star defender Ibrahima Gueye and Moreira were shown red cards nine minutes later after exchanging blows and Nenad Milijas then hit the post for the home side with a superbly struck free-kick.

Red Star threw caution to the wind in the closing stages and substitute Milos Bogunovic took full advantage when he raced clear and delivered a perfect low cross for Juca to sweep home.

Holland

Fourth-placed Heerenveen thrashed Ajax Amsterdam 5-2 while Groningen stayed top on 13 points after a 3-0 home win over ADO Den Haag kept them a point ahead of PSV Eindhoven and NAC Breda.

Serbia's Danko Lazovic struck twice in PSV's 3-0 victory over Graafschap Doetinchem and Matthew Amoah scored twice to take his tally for the season to eight in Breda's 4-2 win at bottom side FC Volcendam.

Feyenoord's league woes continued after a 2-0 home defeat against NEC Nijmegen which left them 14th with four points, their worst league start since 1989.

Greece

Olympiakos Piraeus scored twice in the space of three second- half minutes to secure a 2-0 win over AEK Athens which puts them clear at the top of the Greek Super League.

Goals from substitute Darko Kovacevic and Diogo maintained the champions' unbeaten start to the season with a total of 13 points from five games, two clear of PAOK Salonika who were held to a goalless draw by Ergotelis.

Larissa and Xanthi share third spot with ten points while Panathinaikos, who have a game in hand, are a point further back after beating Levadiakos 2-0.

Argentina

Independiente coach Claudio Borghi quit in the dressing-room just minutes after his side lost their third consecutive game, a 1-0 loss to Huracan in the Argentine championship.

Boca Juniors lost their second successive home game, going down 2-1 to Estudiantes, and champions River Plate completed their seventh game without a win as they were held 0-0 at Gimnasia-La Plata.

San Lorenzo, 1-0 winners at Velez Sarsfield, lead the standings on 22 points from nine games.

Borghi became the fourth coaching victim of the Apertura championship when he walked out on the Red Devils, who historically are one of Argentina's great clubs but now routinely find themselves stuck in mid-table.

He was in charge for 17 games and had suffered only one defeat before the string of three losses.

"I apologise for letting people down," he said. "We've lost three games in a row and there are many parts of the world where that is not allowed, including Argentina."

Leandro Diaz scored the only goal from a bicycle kick, leaving Independiente 15th in the 20-team table on 10 points.

Boca, who face arch-rivals River in their next game, dropped to sixth on 14 points despite going ahead with a looping header from Lucas Viatri in the 33rd minute.

Estudiantes turned the tables as Boca goalkeeper Javier Garcia, brought in after first-choice Mauricio Caranta asked not to play following a run of poor form, misjudged two long-range shots in four minutes.

Diego Galvan collected the ball, cut inside and scored from 30 metres in the 62nd minute before Leandro Benitez took advantage of a badly-placed defensive wall to score from a free kick.

As the Boca players waited for the team bus to leave the ground afterwards, they faced protests from an angry group of around 100 fans who chanted: "You have to beat River".

River coach Diego Simeone was exasperated after his team missed a string of second-half chances against Gimnasia, who were playing their first game under new coach Leonardo Madelon after Guillermo Sangueletti quit on Monday.

"We weren't ruthless at the decisive moments and it's left a bitter taste," said Simeone, whose team are 18th on eight points.

"It troubles me, it hurts, but it's a reality."

Peru

The match between defending champions Deportivo San Martin and Universitario descended into chaos as the hosts, reduced to nine men after having two sent off, attempted to hold out for a point.

As Universitario pressed for a late winner, their officials complained that the home team's ball boys were deliberately deflating the spare balls to hold up play.

The San Martin bench reacted, prompting a brawl in which a number of officials traded blows and Univeristario players also joined in, holding up play for five minutes.

San Martin, who lead the championship's second stage by two points from Sporting Cristal, went ahead with a controversial first-half penalty converted by Jose Luis Diaz but had Wilmer Carrillo and Pedro Garcia sent off for violent play in the second half,

Carlos Galvan headed Univeristario level eight minutes from time as the game ended 1-1.

Table-propping Sport Boys, whose players on Friday received part of the five months' wages they said they were owed, were held 2-2 by Atletico Minero when Alejandro Fajardo scored in the 87th minute.

A group of angry Sport Boys fans managed to get onto the field at the end and tried to attack goalkeeper Michael Sotillo, who was caught off his line, before police intervened.

Sport Boys players did not train for most of last week because they said they could not afford taxi fares or buy petrol to get to practice. The team have four points from 14 games.

Chile

Argentine striker Lucas Barrios scored in each half to give Colo Colo a 2-0 win over arch-rivals Universidad de Chile in the Santiago derby despite having defender Luis Mena sent off in the 61st minute.

Universided de Chile's unhappy afternoon was complete when Marcelo Salas had a late penalty saved by Cristian Munoz.

Universidad Catolica gave new coach Mario Lepe an impressive start by winning 5-3 away to Universidad de Concepcion.

Lepe replaced Fernando Carvallo, who quit last week. O'Higgins won for the first time in eight outings when they came from 3-1 behind to beat champions Everton 4-3.

Colombia

Champions Boyaca Chico continued their dismal run when they lost 1-0 at Deportes Tolima, where Jorge Perlaza scored the only goal.

Boyaca, winners of the Apertura tournament in the first half of the year, are 17th in the 18-team table with 11 points from 12 games.

The weekend's nine games produced a respectable tally of 27 goals, a big improvement in a tournament which had previously averaged a paltry 2.1 goals per game.

Paraguay

Guarani thumped Cerro Porteno 3-0 to go level on points with champions Libertad at the top of the Clausura championship.

Midfielder Jonathan Fabbro converted a 13th-minute penalty and completed the scoring in the 68th minute to take his tally in the competition to nine goals while Javier Gonzalez completed the scoring in between.

Bolivian international Lorgio Alvarez gave Libertad a 1-0 win over Silvio Pettirossi.

Uruguay

Nacional twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Defensor Sporting and go one point clear at the top of the Apertura championship.

Diego de Souza scored both goals for Defensor while Nacional replied with a Pablo Gaglianone own goal and an 85th minute striker from Alexander Medina.

Danubio, previously level on points with Nacional, slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home to Racing.

Venezuela

Promoted Zulia went top of the 2008/09 championship's first stage with a 2-2 draw at Estudiantes de Merida, ahead of Deportivo Italia on goal difference.

Italia's game at home to Estrella Roja was called off early in the second half because of torrential rain with the visitors leading 1-0.

Champions Deportivo Tachira came from two goals down to win 4-2 at Deportivo Anzoategui.

Reuters

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  1. Internation football with no news from the CAF champions league? you must be kiding, right?

    From Lionking, on Mon 6 Oct 4:43PM
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