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| October 23, 2005 | Sunday | Ramzan 18, 1426 |
European Soccer: Manchester United held by Spurs: Bayern Munich back on top
LONDON, Oct 22: Manchester United and Tottenham failed to close the gap on Chelsea at the top of the table after a 1-1 stalemate at Old Trafford that leaves the champions eight points clear ahead of Sunday’s match against bottom-of-the-table Everton.
Fulham paid tribute to their most capped player Johnny Haynes, who died in midweek, with a 2-0 win over European champions Liverpool.
And Arsenal continued their 100 percent home record with a 1-0 win over Manchester City at Highbury thanks to a Robert Pires penalty.
United got off to a dream start with Mikael Silvestre giving the hosts a seventh-minute lead after a mistake from the otherwise unflappable Paul Robinson.
The England goalkeeper spilled a Ruud van Nistelrooy header from a Paul Scholes corner and the French centre back stabbed home the rebound.
United were rampant in the early part of the game and Alan Smith brought a smart save from his former Leeds United team-mate with a left foot volley before Robinson also denied John O’Shea.
Tottenham were offering little up front but on the stroke of half-time, Jermain Defoe served warning to United’s back-line, latching on to a Mido flick to fire in a bobbling shot that Edwin van der Sar did well to turn over the bar.
The north Londoners came out firing on all cylinders after the break and Jermaine Jenas fired them level on 72 minutes, scoring from a free-kick that left van der Sar rooted to the spot.
Michael Carrick almost scored with another free kick in the last 10 minutes but was denied by the crossbar.
England manager Sven Goran Erikson will have regretted his decision to spend the afternoon at Craven Cottage where Jamie Carragher was the only Englishman to start the game.
And it was a Liberian-born Dutch youth international who broke the deadlock on the half hour after he was set up by a Dane.
Collins John fired home from the middle of the penalty area after Claus Jensen’s pass to fire some life into what had been a low-key affair.
Tony Warner produced a series of sensational saves to keep the Fulham goal intact before Luis Boa Morte’s injury time second sealed the win and left the European champions still languishing in the bottom half of the table.
Arsenal captain Thierry Henry was presented with a silver cannon by legend Ian Wright before kick-off against Manchester City to commemorate his record scoring feat.
Henry reached 187 Arsenal goals in midweek at Sparta Prague to break Wright’s previous record of 186 goals for the Gunners.
The French talisman provided the one moment of inspiration in an insipid match as he raced on to a Kolo Toure through ball and beat City keeper David James to the ball before being brought down.
Pires slotted home the 61st-minute spot-kick to score Arsenal’s 500th Premiership goal at Highbury.
But Pires turned from hero to clown when trying to tee up Henry with a second penalty after David Sommeil brought down Dennis Bergkamp.
The Frenchman tried to roll the penalty to his left but fluffed his pass - which would have been illegal anyway - and referee Mike Riley completed his misery by awarding City a free-kick.
Wigan’s dream start to Premiership life continued with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa at Villa Park to lift them to third.
Aaron Hughes put the ball into his own net from a Henri Camara cross in the first half.
Villa poured forward in hope of salvaging something but Wigan clinched all three points with a clinical counter-attack, working the ball from Leighton Baines and Jimmy Bullard to Alan Mahon who rifled the ball home.
Blackburn moved up to ninth in the table after a 2-0 victory over struggling Birmingham at Ewood Park.
It was built up as a battle of former Manchester United team-mates as Mark Hughes and Steve Bruce locked horns at managerial level.
Paul Dickov’s penalty shortly after half time and a Craig Belamy second on his return from injury as a substitute was enough to ensure three points for Hughes’ men.
Results:
Arsenal 1 Manchester City 0
Aston Villa 0 Wigan Athletic 2
Blackburn Rovers 2 Birmingham City 0
Fulham 2 Liverpool 0
Manchester United 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Sunday fixtures (GMT): Newcastle United v Sunderland (1230) Bolton Wanderers v West Bromwich Albion (1400) West Ham United v Middlesbrough (1400) Everton v Chelsea (1500)
Bayern crush Duisburg
BERLIN, Oct 22: Bayern Munich crushed MSV Duisburg 4-0 on Saturday to storm back on top of the Bundesliga just one week after the defending champions relinquished first place to Werder Bremen, who were held to a 0-0 draw at Hanover.
Brazil winger Ze Roberto scored a spectacular back-heel goal while Germany captain Michael Ballack and Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz each headed in crosses before Claudio Pizarro made it 4-0 to keep Bayern unbeaten in the new Allianz Arena. Bayern, in fine form after their 2-1 Champions League win over Juventus on Tuesday, had little trouble with Duisburg, who are in 17th place with just six points in 10 matches.
Bayern had slipped behind Bremen on goal difference last week after their 1-1 draw at third place Schalke 04. Schalke were held to a 0-0 draw at VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday. Bayern lead with 25 points ahead of Bremen at 23 and Schalke with 20. #
Results:
Nuremberg 2 Arminia Bielefeld 3
Bayern Munich 4 MSV Duisburg 0
Borussia M’dbach 4 Kaiserslautern 1
Eintracht Frankfurt 6 Cologne 3
Hanover 96 0 Werder Bremen 0
Hertha Berlin 3 Mainz 1
VfL Wolfsburg 0 Schalke 04 0
Scottish Premier League results
Aberdeen 0 Hibernian 1
Falkirk 1 Dundee Utd 3
Hearts 2 Dunfermline 0
Livingston 1 Inverness 1
Rangers 2 Motherwell 0
—Agencies
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