LONDON (AP) ― Manchester City grabbed the lead in the Premier League with a controversial 2-0 victory at Newcastle on Sunday, and Liverpool stayed in contention with a 5-3 win at Stoke.
Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo scored in City’s 10th consecutive win over the Magpies. City also extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to 15 games.
But the result did not reflect the intensity of a game dominated by referee Mike Jones’ decision to wave off Cheikh Tiote’s apparent equalizer, ruling Yoan Gouffran interfered with play in an offside position.
Negredo secured City’s win in added time.
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Liverpool’s Luis Suarez (center) scores against Stoke on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
Luis Suarez scored twice for Liverpool and Steven Gerrard converted a disputed penalty.
City won its third straight away game to climb one point above Chelsea in the standings ahead of Arsenal’s match at Aston Villa on Monday. If the Gunners win, they will move back on top of the standings. Liverpool stands fourth, five points behind the leaders.
Italy
Juventus rallied for a 4-1 win at Cagliari and maintained its eight-point advantage over second-place Roma, which got a stunning goal by Alessandro Florenzi during a 4-0 victory over 10-man Genoa 4-0 in Serie A.
Napoli beat Hellas Verona 3-0 to keep the pressure on the top two, and AC Milan had another disappointing night when teenage forward Domenico Berardi scored four times to help relegation-threatened Sassuolo rally for a 4-3 victory.
Stephan Lichtsteiner set up two goals and scored the fourth for Juventus. Fernando Llorente netted twice, and substitute Claudio Marchisio scored Juventus’ other goal.
Mauricio Pinilla gave Cagliari the lead.
It is the first time Juventus has won 11 consecutive league games and Antonio Conte’s team is firmly on course for a third successive title.
Roma broke the deadlock in the 26th minute when Francesco Totti’s free kick was deflected up into the air. Florenzi kept his eye on the descending ball before sending it into the bottom right corner with a fantastic overhead kick.
Spain
With Cristiano Ronaldo missing his scoring touch, Real Madrid needed a goal from defender Pepe in the second half to secure a 1-0 victory at Espanyol on Sunday.
Left unmarked, Pepe headed in Luka Modric’s corner kick in the 55th minute.
Ronaldo leads the league with 20 goals and is a candidate to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or on Monday as the world player of the year. But the Portugal forward wasted two clear scoring chances and was denied by goalkeeper Kiko Casilla on another three occasions.
Third-place Madrid made the most of Saturday’s scoreless draw between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, which left them level at the top of the standings at the league’s halfway mark. Madrid is now three points behind.
