Sunday, 28 April 2013

Football news in brief

• Barcelona made to wait for title by Athletic Bilbao
• Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund take it easy

Barcelona have title celebrations put on hold

Barcelona must wait at least another week to wrap up the La Liga title after they conceded a late goal in a 2-2 draw at Athletic Bilbao.

Bilbao took a surprise 27th-minute lead when Markel Susaeta finished from close range. Barcelona were well below their best until Lionel Messi, who has missed three La Liga games with a hamstring strain, came off the bench on the hour.

The World Player of the Year brilliantly weaved his way past four defenders to equalise in the 67th minute and Alexis Sanchez, who earlier struck the post, made it 2-1 two minutes later. But Bilbao's Ander Herrera pounced on a loose ball to shoot just inside the post in the 90th minute and deny Barcelona the win.

Real Madrid did their bit to delay Barcelona by beating city rivals Atletico Madrid 2-1. Radamel Falcao put Atletico ahead after four minutes but Real equalised when defender Juanfran Torres deflected Angel Di Maria's free-kick into his own net.

Di Maria grabbed the winner from a pass by Karim Benzema in the 63rd minute. Reuters/AP

Easy for Germans

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund both rested a host of first-team players ahead of next week's Champions League semi-final second legs, but still claimed Bundesliga victories today.

Champions Bayern won 1-0 at home to Freiburg thanks to Xherdan Shaqiri's 35th-minute effort.

The Bavarians rested the likes of Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thomas Muller. Dortmund left, among others, Robert Lewandowski on the bench until the 69th minute ahead of their trip to Real Madrid, but still won 2-1 at Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Nuri Sahin opened the scoring after 20 minutes and Jakub Blaszczykowski made it two in the 70th minute, one minute after coming on.

Adam Bodzek got a consolation for the hosts two minutes from time. . PA

King arrested after crash

Birmgingham City striker Marlon King has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving after a three-car smash which left a man with serious injuries.

King, 33, was released on police bail last night pending further inquiries into the crash in Winthorpe, near Newark, Nottinghamshire.

A 35-year-old man was airlifted to Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre from the scene of the crash on the Lincoln-bound carriageway of the A46/A17 interchange.PA

Rangers director leaves

Rangers have confirmed that their commercial director, Imran Ahmad, has left the club amid an investigation into claims that messages posted on a fans' forum were linked to Ahmad's official Rangers email account. The comments allegedly included criticism of manager Ally McCoist.PA


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