Levante stay top with another win in Spain

MADRID (AP) ― Levante extended their surprising stay atop the Spanish league standings by rallying to beat Real Sociedad 3-2 on Wednesday on a stoppage-time goal by Ruben Suarez.

Sociedad took the lead on Daniel Estrada’s early opener before Levante’s Nano Rivas and Valdo Lopes each scored in a 5-minute span.

Sociedad appeared to have gotten a point when Inigo Martinez equalized in the 86th, but Suarez rifled a free kick from 40 meters into the right corner of the goal 3 minutes into injury time.

The Spanish minnow’s seventh straight win lifted it two points ahead of Barcelona, which had taken the overnight lead after beating Granada 1-0 on Tuesday.

Second-place Real Madrid is four points behind and plays Villarreal later, while Sporting Gijon is at Mallorca.

England

LONDON (AP) ― Manchester City kept up their free-scoring form by thrashing Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-2 in the League Cup, while Chelsea and Blackburn scored late winners in extra time to advance to the quarterfinals.

Buoyant after routing Manchester United 6-1 to take a five-point lead in the Premier League, City rallied with three goals in a 4-minute span just before halftime after conceding an early goal at Molineux.

Adam Johnson and Samir Nasri started the comeback, with Edin Dzeko adding a double on either side of an own goal by goalkeeper Dorus de Vries at Molineux.

“Them getting the early goal lifted everyone,” said Johnson. “The first 20 minutes were shaky but once we got the ball down and passing and moving and the second goal, it was virtually over.”

Substitute Daniel Sturridge scored Chelsea’s winner with 4 minutes left in extra time as the London club beat Everton 2-1 in a match that saw both teams finish with 10 men.

Salomon Kalou made up for Nicolas Anelka’s missed penalty in the 16th by putting Chelsea ahead before the visitors had goalkeeper Ross Turnbull sent off in the 58th for bringing down Louis Saha.

Petr Cech, Turnbull’s replacement, saved the resulting penalty by Leighton Baines but Saha took the game into extra time with a near-post header in the 83rd.

Royston Drenthe was dismissed for Everton in a frenetic extra 30 minutes before Sturridge slammed home a rebound after Florent Malouda’s shot was parried out.

Gael Givet was Blackburn’s match-winner in the last minute of extra time as Newcastle were beaten 4-3 in their first defeat of the season, while Liverpool rallied to beat Stoke 2-1 thanks to a second-half brace by Uruguay striker Luis Suarez.

Scotland

GLASGOW (AP) ― Celtic staged a second-half rally to beat Hibernian 4-1 and advance into the semifinals of the Scottish League Cup on Wednesday.

An own goal by Sweden center back Daniel Majstorovic left Celtic trailing after five minutes but a double from James Forrest and further strikes by Anthony Stokes and Gary Hooper eased the Glasgow club through to the last four.

Hibs finished the quarterfinal at Easter Road with 10 men after Ivan Sproule’s late sending-off for a second yellow card.

Premier League team Kilmarnock and second-tier sides Falkirk ― who eliminated Scottish champions Rangers ― and Ayr reached the last four on Tuesday.

Italy

ROME (AP) ― Antonio Nocerino scored a hat trick to lead AC Milan to a 4-1 win over Parma on Wednesday, moving the defending champions within two points of the Italian league lead.

Nocerino, who joined Milan from Palermo in the final minutes of the offseason transfer window, scored in the 30th, 32nd and 90th minutes at the San Siro.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic added another for the Rossoneri in the 73rd and Sebastian Giovinco pulled one back for Parma in the 78th to match Udinese’s Antonio Di Natale for the league scoring lead with his sixth goal.

Juventus, which beat Fiorentina 2-1 Tuesday, leads with 16 points, followed by Udinese and Lazio with 15 each. Milan and Napoli are next with 14 points apiece.

“Now it’s important to get back top again,” said Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri. “This is an important result for continuity.”

Napoli beat Udinese 2-0 and Lazio was held to a 1-1 draw at home by Catania.

Inter Milan’s struggles continued with a 1-1 draw at Atalanta, with Inter goalkeeper Julio Cesar exiting at halftime because of a left thigh problem; and Juraj Kucka scored an 89th-minute winner as Genoa beat Roma 2-1.

Germany

FRANKFURT (AP) ― Bayern Munich routed second-division Ingolstadt 6-0 to ease into the third round of the German Cup despite using mostly reserve players.

Nils Petersen scored twice as Bayern netted five goals in the second half.

Title holder Schalke got late goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Joel Matip to win 2-0 at second-division Karlsruhe.

Mainz won 1-0 in extra time at Hannover, in the only match pitting two top division teams against each other. Hannover beat Bayern in the Bundesliga on Sunday.

Second-division Duisburg lost 2-0 at fourth-tier Holstein Kiel to get knocked out after reaching the final last season.