City rivals clash
BELGRADE – Rad Belgrade’s match against visiting city rivals Partizan was marred by racist incidents and a player brawl on Sunday when Serbia’s top flight resumed after a two-month winter break.
Partizan’s Brazilian midfielder Everton Luiz was subjected to monkey chants from Rad fans throughout the match and made an obscene gesture after the final whistle, prompting the home team’s players to confront him. A full scale brawl broke out before staff from both sides eventually managed to separate the players.
Wrong anthem
HOCHFILZEN, Austria – Russian biathletes sang the correct version of their national anthem without any musical accompaniment after the wrong version was played out at a medal ceremony on Saturday. Aleksei Volkov, Maksim Tsvetkov, Anton Babikov, and Anton Shipulin were left, alongside a Russian TV commentator, to sing the correct version, which is the old Soviet anthem music with new lyrics introduced by president Vladimir Putin in 2000. The Soviet anthem was replaced with a new one by then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1991.
Roma, Napoli win
ROME) – Roma ran out 4-1 winners at home to Torino and Napoli eased to a comfortable 3-1 victory at Chievo on Sunday to keep their faint title hopes alive and maintain some pressure on Serie A leaders Juventus.
In Bologna, Gabriel Barbosa ? the Brazilian striker nicknamed Gabigol ? came off the bench to score his first Serie A goal as lethargic Inter Milan snatched a late 1-0 victory to reclaim fourth place in the standings. Roma’s win keeps them second on 56 points, seven behind Juve and two clear of Napoli, who bounced back from their Champions League defeat by Real Madrid and extended their undefeated league streak to 14 games with the Chievo win.
Leipzig victory
BERLIN – RB Leipzig scored once in each half to beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1 on Sunday and bounce back from two straight league losses as they cut Bayern Munich’s lead at the top of the Bundesliga to five points. Emil Forsberg and Timo Werner combined well with each other to score once each and snap Gladbach’s three-game winning run.
The win lifted the promoted club to 45 points in second place, with Bayern, who drew 1-1 at Hertha Berlin on Saturday, on 50.
Sri Lanka wins series
VICTORIA – All-rounder Asela Gunaratne struck a superb 84 off 46 balls to inspire Sri Lanka to a dramatic two-wicket victory over Australia in the second Twenty20 International in South Geelong, Victoria on Sunday. The touring side needed 48 runs off the last three overs to clinch the series and Gunaratne, who smashed five sixes and six fours, led them home. Australia got off to a flying start, hitting 60 runs in the first six overs, and although medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekara took four wickets, Moises Henriques made an unbeaten 56 off 37 balls to lift the hosts to a decent total of 173.
