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LA PLATA, Argentina (AP)—Brazil was held to a 0-0 draw by Venezuela in the Copa America on Sunday, making a similar lackluster start as host nation and fellow co-favorite Argentina two days earlier.

Venezuela, usually regarded as the weakest team in the South American confederation, packed the midfield in the Group B match to snuff out Brazil’s attack. The five-time World Cup winners seldom played like an organized team, relying on the individual talents of stars Neymar, Robinho and Alexandre Pato.

“We were unable to finish and lost many good opportunities,” Neymar said. “Now we’ll have to work to improve and win.”

Brazil striker Marta, right, c…
AFP - Jul 4, 7:32 am EDT

Brazil coach Mano Menezes put it more clearly: “It was a bad result. Surprises no longer exist in football … our attack was lacking, particularly in the second half.”

Players on both teams wore gloves, trying to fight off the near-freezing temperatures of the Argentine winter.

Argentina drew 1-1 with Bolivia on Friday in the tournament opener. Brazil has defeated Argentina in the last two finals and the two teams are widely expected to meet again in the July 24 final.

Just like Argentina, Brazil seldom looked like a real team. Venezuela worked harder than its opponent, keeping Brazil’s chances to a minimum and relying on an impressive goalkeeping performance from Renny Vega.

“It’s an important achievement,” Venezuela midfielder Franklin Lucena said. “We played good football and we are convinced we can do important things.”

With Venezuela seemingly content to play for the draw, Brazil had several chances early in the match.

Brazil’s best opportunity came when a sprawling Vega dived to stop a shot from the wing by Pato in the 32nd minute.

Referee Raul Orozco waved away shouts for a penalty in the 39th when Venezuela defender Oswaldo Vizcarrondo, sliding just in front of the goal mouth, blocked a shot from Robinho with his shoulder.

Brazil’s 19-year-old star, Neymar, seldom looked dangerous although he did have a blistering attempt in the 13th minute that was stopped by Vega. He then shot just wide of the far post in the 44th.

“If we had scored in the first half, the results would have been very different,” Thiago Silva said. “We will certainly play better the next time.”

The second half followed a similar pattern with Brazil mounting a few attacks, always looking for a stunning individual effort to win the match.

Brazil plays its second group match on Saturday against Paraguay. Venezuela plays Ecuador the same day.

Eight of the 12 teams qualify for the second round, which means the early draws are unlikely to keep Brazil and Argentina out of the knockout stage.

Lineups:

Brazil: Julio Cesar, Dani Alves, Lucio, Thiago Silva, Andre Santos, Lucas Leiva, Ramires (Elano, 75), Ganso, Robinho (Fred, 64), Alexandre Pato (Lucas, 75), Neymar.

Venezuela: Renny Vega, Roberto Rosales, Oswaldo Vizcarriondo, Grenddy Perozo, Gabriel Cichero, Tomas Rincon, Franklin Lucena, Cesar Gonzalez (Giacomo Di Giorgi, 86), Juan Arango, Nicolas Miku Fedor (Giancarlo Maldonado, 78), Jose Salomon Rondon (Alejandro Moreno, 63).

Agences de presses

Labels: America, Brazil, draws, Venezuela

LYON, France (AP)—Striker Bafetimbi Gomis scored a late equalizer Tuesday as Lyon drew 1-1 with Real Madrid in the first leg of their last-16 meeting in the Champions League, denying the Spanish team its first win against the former French champions.

Brazilian defender Cris headed on a free kick and Gomis clipped the ball past goalkeeper Iker Casillas in the 83rd minute. Karim Benzema scored for Madrid against his former club in the 65th, a minute after coming off the bench.

Lyon eliminated Madrid from the same stage of the competition last season and is unbeaten against Madrid in seven meetings.

“Of course I’m hopeful, everything is open. Lyon is a good team. They have good players, a good coach and experience in Europe, so the second match will be a hard one,” Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said through a translator. “I feel like I’ve taken part in a real Champions League game, a tough, hard-fought match with few chances. At one stage we were closer to scoring a second goal than Lyon was to equalizing.”

Lyon coach Claude Puel was satisfied with his team’s performance, but thinks they should have been more clinical.

“The satisfaction is having stood up to them and still being in with a chance for the second leg,” Puel said. “We still have the chance to qualify and that’s the most important thing. We will need to be more clinical in the second leg. We had chances in the first half where we could have done better.”

Mourinho thought Madrid should have been awarded a penalty early in the second half when Lyon playmaker Yoann Gourcuff appeared to block the ball with his arm while defending a free kick, although he actually seemed to be turning away.

“I’m 50 meters away and I can see it, but the referee doesn’t spot it from five meters,” Mourinho said. “I hope it isn’t decisive for Real Madrid, but if it is how do you justify it?”

Benzema looked set to end Lyon’s impressive unbeaten record against the nine-time European champion when he cut inside the penalty area with his first touch, weaved past three defenders and calmly beat goalie Hugo Lloris.

“I couldn’t celebrate (my goal),” said Benzema, who scored 43 league goals for Lyon. “Lyon was my team, I grew up here and it’s thanks to Lyon that I am at Real Madrid today.”

Benzema has come back into form following a difficult start to the season where Mourinho criticized his lack of goals. He scored France’s winning goal in a recent friendly against Brazil, and also scored last weekend in the Spanish league.

“Karim did very well when he came on, he scored an important goal for us,” Mourinho said. “He’s improved a lot, he can challenge for a starting place in the Madrid team.”

Lyon had the better of a physical first half, but Mourinho’s players stepped up a gear after the break.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck the post with a free kick in the 49th and Sergio Ramos headed against the crossbar a minute later.

Emmanuel Adebayor started instead of Benzema, and Gomis led Lyon’s line as both teams started with a lone center forward.

Mourinho preferred Adebayor’s ability to play with his back to goal and his added physical presence, but his lack of movement made him easy to mark and Madrid’s attack looked predictable until Benzema came on.

He got a warm reception from his former fans, but they were soon stunned into silence.

Benzema picked up the ball, span quickly, glided past two defenders, dropped his shoulder to shoot before taking it round another and picking his spot for the game-winner.

The match had started frenetically in front of 40,000 fans at Stade Gerland.

Brazilian winger Michel Bastos sprinted down the right in the fourth minute and tried to shoot from an awkward angle, rather than pulling the ball back to the unmarked Gourcuff near the penalty spot.

Top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo almost broke through in the 14th minute, but German referee Wolfgang Stark whistled for a push on Cris.

Although Madrid right back Sergio Ramos picked up an early yellow card for hacking down Cesar Delgado as he sprinted down the left, Lyon were the far more physical team in a tense first half.

Both teams seemed scared of conceding, and there was little attacking invention in the first half.

With 30 minutes played, Mourinho pulled a note pad out of his pocket and flicked the pages over quickly, as if he were looking for a secret formula he had overlooked on how to penetrate Lyon’s organized midfield.

A minute later, Ronaldo almost provided the breakthrough with a well struck free kick that Lloris pushed away near his right post.

Bastos was involved in Lyon’s best move of the half, as he led a counterattack up the field after Lyon had cleared a corner in the 35th.

Gomis collected the ball near the halfway line, span and flicked it to Bastos who rushed past the Madrid bench with Mourinho screaming for his defenders to drop back.

Bastos then clipped a teasing cross over to Gourcuff, forcing goalie Iker Casillas to come for the ball. He flapped at it and dropped it at the feet of Gomis, but the former France striker was off balance and whacked it over from 12 yards (meters) out.

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Labels: draws, Gomis, levels, Madrid

BARCELONA, Spain (AP)—Villarreal was held to a 1-1 draw by last-place Malaga in the Spanish league on Sunday.

Marco Ruben put Villarreal ahead in the 36th mnute, tapping in a deflection of a shot by teammate Giuseppe Rossi. Malaga’s Sebastian Fernandez finished off a counterattack led by Jose Rondon to split the points in the 82nd.

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With the draw, Villarreal remained in fourth place, two points behind provincial rival Valencia.

Also, Javad Nekounam scored twice in Osasuna’s 4-0 win over Espanyol on coach Jose Luis Mendilibar’s debut.

The Iran Midfielder put the hosts ahead in the 14th minute, heading in a corner delivered by countryman Masoud Soleimani, and added the second from the penalty spot in the 55th after Espanyol’s Aldo Duscher had handled in the area.

Manuel “Lolo” Ortiz made it 3-0 in the 80th, and Fernando Soriano capped the victory in the 88th.

Osasuna moved out of the drop zone with the win, while sixth-place Espanyol has lost its last four games.

Deportivo La Coruna goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia scored in injury time to give his team a 1-1 draw at Almeria, and Racing Santander beat Getafe 1-0.

Almeria looked set to convert Pablo Piatti’s 49th-minute opener into three points, but Aranzubia charged forward to head home a corner right on the final whistle in the 95th.

In Madrid, Pablo Pinillos scored the 88th-minute winner for Racing Santander from the penalty spot after Getafe defender Ivan Marcano was sent off for pulling down Giovani Dos Santos with only the keeper to beat.

Later, Barcelona looks to extend its lead over Real Madrid to five points with the visit of Athletic Bilbao to Camp Nou stadium, while Sevilla tries for its first win in four weeks as its hosts Hercules.

Agences de presses

Labels: draws, Malaga, Spain, Villarreal

PRAGUE (AP)—Liverpool was close to reaching the round of 16 of the Europa League by drawing with Sparta Prague 0-0 on Thursday.

The result left Liverpool a clear favorite for the second leg of the round of 32 match at Anfield in a week.

Players of Liverpool and Spart…
AP - Feb 17, 4:19 pm EST

Sparta played its first competitive match since Dec 15 due to the Czech Republic’s winter break, and looked more dangerous, especially in the first half.

Liverpool, badly missing its injured star playmaker and captain Steven Gerrard, had to wait for a decent chance until the 70th minute when right back Glen Johnson, one of the team’s most active players, fooled a couple of Sparta defenders before his curling shot went just wide.

“It was a difficult game,” Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish said. “We rather were more defensive.

“As a manager that was fantastic,” added Dalglish, who was managing Liverpool in Europe for the first time.

He said the team’s performance was influenced by the fact he missed a number of players, including Daniel Agger and Christian Poulsen while Fabio Aurelio had to be replaced by Joe Cole due to an injury in the 37th minute.

Dalglish said it would be “a different game” next week and didn’t ruled out Gerard, Agger and Aurelio could be available.

As a positive sign, Dalglish hailed Cole’s return after a knee problem.

“We have to be patient,” he said. “Joe’s a valuable asset for us.”

Unmarked Sparta midfielder Leony Kweuke came close to earning a win for Sparta but his low drive from inside the area was saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina.

“It was not easy for us because we didn’t play for more than two months,” Sparta coach Josef Chovanec said. “We were trying to do our maximum.

“We may have had better chances but it was defense that dominated the game.”

Early in the second half, Kweuke’s header again went wide. Long-range attempts by Marek Matejovsky and Kamil Vacek then just missed the target.

Sparta’s first decent chance came in the 18th with Manuel Pamic breaking into the area after being released by Abena Biholong and his left-footer forced a diving save by Reina. Pamic blasting the ball over the bar in the 35th.

At that stage, Liverpool’s only answer came through lone striker David Ngog, who had a shot blocked and a header missing the goal a minute before halftime.

The match was briefly suspended about 15 minutes before the end when Sparta fans let off a smoke bomb.

Agences de presses

Labels: draws, Europa, league, Liverpool, Sparta

LONDON (AP)—Three-time winner Liverpool was fortunate to leave Sparta Prague with a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 match, but fellow former champions Ajax, FC Porto and CSKA Moscow emerged with away wins on Thursday.

Kenny Dalglish’s first European match in charge of the Reds was a dull affair which Sparta shaded, with Leonard Kweuke and Kamil Vacek coming close for the hosts in the second half.

Ajax, the winner of Europe’s second-tier competition in 1992 when it was called the UEFA Cup, thrashed Anderlecht 3-0 with goals by Toby Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen and Mounir El Hamdaoui.

Czech striker Tomas Necid scored the winner for 2005 champion CSKA Moscow in a 1-0 victory at PAOK Salonika, and 2003 winner FC Porto beat Sevilla 2-1 thanks to Fredy Guarin’s late strike.

Villarreal held on for 0-0 at 10-man Napoli but Zenit St. Petersburg, the 2008 champion which was the only team to win all six of its group-stage matches, lost 2-1 at Young Boys.

The second-leg matches in the competition’s first knockout round are spread out over next week.

Dalglish’s first stint as Liverpool manager was from 1985 to 1991, when the English giant was banned from European competition following a deadly riot in the 1985 European Cup final against Juventus at Heysel Stadium.

The 59-year-old Scot was hired for a second stint at the Reds last month and has sparked an upturn in fortunes, but the team’s performance in Prague was reminiscent of those under his predecessor, the beleaguered Roy Hodgson.

The competition winners in 1973, ’76 and 2001 were second best against a side playing its first competitive fixture in two months, due to the Czech Republic’s winter break. A draw makes Liverpool favorite to go through, however.

“I’m still undefeated in Europe,” said Dalglish. “It wasn’t a classic but 0-0 was a fair result and I’m happy with that.”

Alderweireld scored the opener against the team from the country of his birth, heading home a corner in the 33rd minute, and then provided the assist for Denmark youngster Eriksen’s goal in the 60th.

Marcin Wasilewski missed a penalty for Belgian leaders Anderlecht, which won the competition in 1983, before El Hamdaoui wrapped up victory by beating the offside trap and sweeping in a finish in the 69th.

Porto, the unbeaten leader of the Portuguese league, breezed through its group by winning five and drawing one of its six matches, and took the lead in Seville through Rolando in the 58th.

Frederic Kanoute equalized for two-time winner Sevilla in the 65th but Colombia striker Guarin popped up with the winning goal with five minutes remaining, taking advantage of a defensive mix-up to roll the ball home.

Serie A topscorer Edinson Cavani had a goal disallowed for offside and was denied twice by Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Lopez as Napoli, the only Italian team left in Europe’s second-tier club competition, was held at San Paolo Stadium. Salvatore Aronica was sent off for Napoli in the last minute.

“We found out the level we need to play in the competition,” Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri said. “Considering who we were playing, this isn’t a bad result.”

Zenit, one of four Russian teams in the last 32, also had a player red-carded—Vladimir Bystrov in the 69th, when the score was 1-1 against Young Boys.

Emmanuel Mayuka took advantage of the Swiss side’s numerical superiority by grabbing the winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Spartak Moscow rallied from 2-0 down at halftime to beat Basel 3-2 away, with Jano Ananidze completing the turnaround two minutes into injury time.

French league leader Lille’s 2-2 home draw with PSV Eindhoven was marred by pre-match violence in the city center, with French TV reporting that 30 away fans were arrested as a result of clashes with police.

Peguy Luyindula’s last-minute strike salvaged Paris Saint-Germain, second in France’s Ligue 1, a 2-2 draw at BATE Borisov.

Elsewhere, Benfica rallied to beat Stuttgart 2-1, former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko was one of Dynamo Kiev’s scorers in its 4-1 thrashing of Besiktas, late strikes by Luuk de Jong and Peter Wisgerhof earned Dutch champion FC Twente a 2-0 win in subzero temperatures at Rubin Kazan and Artjoms Rudnevs netted the winner for Polish side Lech Poznan in a 1-0 home victory over Braga.

Agences de presses

Labels: draws, Europa, league, Liverpool