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SPORTS A21
Wednesday 27 January 2016
French Roundup: English Roundup:
Lille tops Bordeaux
5-1 to reach French Liverpool beats Stoke; reaches League Cup final
League Cup final
STEVE DOUGLAS Liverpool’s players celebrate after winning the English League Cup semifinal second leg soccer
PARIS (AP) — Lille thrashed AP Sports Writer match between Liverpool and Stoke City at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Tuesday, Jan.
Bordeaux 5-1 to reach the LIVERPOOL, England (AP) 26, 2016.
French League Cup final — Liverpool beat Stoke 6-5
on Tuesday. on penalties to reach the (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Lille will meet either Cup English League Cup final
holder Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, with Joe Allen Borussia Dortmund there in style under Mark Hughes back Mamadou Sakho,
or Toulouse. scoring the decisive spot the all-German Champions to make it more pleasing and the forward crossed
Striker Yassine Benzia kick in the second leg. League final in 2013, won on the eye, but this was for Arnautovic — arriving
opened the scoring with a Stoke won the match 1-0 by Bayern Munich. the Stoke of the Tony Pulis from an offside position —
slightly deflected shot, and after extra time through Liverpool beat Norwich 5-4 years. to sweep home a low finish.
hit a volley just wide as Lille Marko Arnautovic’s first- in a Premier League classic The switch paid off. Klopp sent on Christian
totally controlled the first half goal, and the semifi- on Saturday but its incon- Crouch was a constant Benteke to replace cap-
30 minutes, during which it nal finished 1-1 on aggre- sistency under Klopp resur- menace and Liverpool’s tain Jordan Henderson ear-
also had a goal disallowed gate. faced here. ball-playing midfielders ly in the second half to give
for offside. Both sides missed one of Stoke signaled its intent to were harried into basic mis- Liverpool more presence
Bordeaux midfielder Clem- their first five penalties to make the game scrappy — takes. The distribution from up front but it made little
ent Chantome equalized, take the shootout to sud- and life uncomfortable for both sides was very poor. difference, and Stoke con-
but Lille scored twice in den death. Stoke defend- Liverpool — by starting with Arnautovic’s goal was out tinued to look more dan-
quick succession before er Marc Muniesa saw his tall striker Peter Crouch and of keeping with what went gerous, especially when
the break to take control. effort saved by Simon Mi- a hard-working fellow front- on previously in the first half. Arnautovic got the ball,
A superb instinctive fin- gnolet, and Allen convert- man in Jon Walters. The Bojan Krkic was played and from set-pieces using
ish from midfielder Eric ed high in the right corner team has refined its playing in behind isolated center Crouch’s height.q
Bautheac and a fine fin- before being mobbed by
ish from substitute Sofiane teammates.The final is at
Boufal three minutes into Wembley Stadium on Feb.
injury time capped a re- 28. Stoke won at Anfield
sounding win, and ended after 90 minutes for the first
Bordeaux’s 11-match un- time since 1959 but the vic-
beaten run. tory proved in vain for the
PSG, which is unbeaten in midlands club, which was
domestic competition this looking to reach its third fi-
season, hosts Toulouse on nal in this competition.
Wednesday. Instead, Liverpool — the
“This will do the team a lot most successful team in
of good,” said Lille mid- League Cup history — will
fielder Florent Balmont, re- look to add to its eight ti-
ferring to the side’s precari- tles, with the possibility of
ous position of 14th in the an all-Merseyside final like
league. in 1984. Liverpool man-
Bordeaux equalized fol- ager Juergen Klopp will
lowing a defensive error be back at Wembley for
from center half Adama the first time since he led
Soumaoro. He tried a drag-
back inside his own penal- Italian Roundup:
ty area and got tackled by
Chantome, who drilled the Balotelli penalty helps AC Milan to win in Cup semis
ball into the corner.
Lille missed a chance short- TURIN, Italy (AP) — Mario spot shortly before halftime the goalkeeper to beat. It’s the first time a third-divi-
ly after when midfielder Balotelli converted a first- after Luca Antonelli was Milan substitute M’Baye sion club has reached the
Rony Lopes shot too close half penalty and AC Milan fouled inside the area as Niang, who replaced Ba- last four since Bari 32 years
to goalkeeper Jerome Prior beat third-division Alessan- he slalomed between de- lotelli midway through the ago. Alessandria eliminat-
after going clean through. dria 1-0 in the opening leg fenders. second half, hit the post ed Serie A clubs Palermo
But there was another of the Italian Cup semifinals As usual, Balotelli did not near the end. and Genoa.
defensive mishap just be- on Tuesday. celebrate. The match was at Turin’s Juventus hosts Inter Milan
fore halftime as Bordeaux Getting his first start after A few minutes earlier, Stadio Olimpico because in the other semifinal on
center-half Lamine Sane several months out with Balotelli wasted a great the stadium in Alessandria, Wednesday.
scored an own goal when an injured pelvis, Balotelli chance after being set up outside Turin, wasn’t big The return legs are sched-
trying to tackle Lopes.q calmly scored from the by Keisuke Honda with only enough. uled for March 1, 2 or 3.q
