Sunday, December 18, 2011

Chelsea slips, Dempsey scores

Daniel Sturridge

updated 3:16 p.m. ET Dec. 17, 2011

LONDON - Chelsea missed a chance to put pressure on the two Manchester clubs at the top of the Premier League on Saturday, yielding a goal with two minutes left in a 1-1 draw at relegation-threatened Wigan.

Chelsea looked on course for a fourth straight Premier League victory when Daniel Sturridge scored his eighth goal of the season in the 59th minute. But Wigan dominated the second half and Jordi Gomez tapped in from close range after a mistake by Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.

The result left Chelsea with 32 points from 16 matches, four behind second-place Manchester United and six behind longtime leader City.

Defending champion United could take first place for the first time since mid-October if it wins at Queens Park Rangers on Sunday and Manchester City loses to visiting Arsenal. Sunderland is at fourth-place Tottenham and Liverpool is at Aston Villa in Sunday's other matches.

The draw left Wigan in the relegation zone with Blackburn and Bolton, which remained anchored to the bottom of the league after a 2-0 loss at Fulham

Two weeks after becoming the most prolific American scorer in England's top division, Clint Dempsey scored his 38th Premier League goal to get Fulham rolling. He scored his fifth league goal this season and eighth overall with a 32nd-minute header from Bryan Ruiz's cross. Costa Rica forward Ruiz chipped over goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen to make it 2-0 two minutes later.

Last-place Bolton has only nine points from 16 games. That's one fewer than Blackburn, which lost 2-1 to visiting West Bromwich Albion. Peter Odemwingie scored West Brom's winning goal with a minute left.

Wolverhampton is one place and one point above the relegation zone after giving up two second-half goals in a 2-1 loss against Stoke. Stoke is three points behind Newcastle, which spent three months in the top four but is now without a win in five matches after drawing 0-0 with visiting Swansea.

In the League Championship, American defender Daniel Potts made his debut for West Ham in a 1-0 home draw against Barnsley. A member of the U.S. Under-20 team, Potts is captain of the Hammers' Under-18 team and signed a 2 1-2-year professional contract on Friday. He overcame leukemia two years ago.

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BERLIN (AP) ? Defending champion Borussia Dortmund will go into the Bundesliga's four-week winter break three points behind leader Bayern Munich after beating last-place Freiburg 4-1.

Robert Lewandowski scored the first of his two goals in the seventh minute. Jan Rosenthal tied it in the 34th but Ilkay Guendogan restored the visitors' lead in the 44th, before Kevin Grosskreutz added another goal in the 59th and then crossed for Lewandowski to complete the scoring in the 70th.

On Friday, Bayern clinched the unofficial title of "winter champion" with a 3-0 win over Cologne on Friday.

Raul Gonzalez scored a hat-trick to help Schalke rout Werder Bremen 5-0, with Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Klaas Jan Huntelaar also scoring to complete a miserable evening for Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese on his 30th birthday. Schalke and Dortmund have 34 points.

Relegation-threatened Nuremberg ended Bayer Leverkusen's six-game unbeaten run in the league with a 3-0 win, Wolfsburg beat Stuttgart 1-0, Hamburger SV drew 1-1 with Augsburg and Roman Hubnik scored in injury time to rescue a 1-1 draw for Hertha Berlin at Hoffenheim.

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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Getafe rallied past Mallorca 2-1 on two goals by Abdel Barrada for its first road victory of the Spanish league season.

Barrada offset Ivan Ramis' opening goal when his shot deflected off a defender before landing in the back of the net in the 28th minute. In the 44th, he tapped Nicolas "Miku" Fedor's cross into an empty net.

Sergio Garcia's 84th-minute winner gave Espanyol a 2-1 victory at Sporting Gijon.

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MILAN (AP) ? Chievo got back to winning ways in the Italian league with goals from Cyril Thereau and Gennaro Sardo in a 2-0 victory over Cagliari.

Thereau gave Chievo the lead in the 35th minute and Sardo struck shortly before the 60th, giving Chievo its first win in four matches.

Chievo moves into the top half of the standings ahead of the rest of the weekend games and is seven points off the relegation zone. Cagliari is one point behind.

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GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) ? Carlos Bocanegra scored to help first-place Rangers defeat visiting Inverness 2-1 in the Scottish Premier League.

Bocanegra, one of three Americans starting for the defending champions, put Rangers ahead in the 55th minute with a close-range shot. Andrew Shinnie evened the scores 12 minutes later. Shinnie had a goal ruled out for offside before substitute Kyle Lafferty scored in the 87th minute.

Americans Maurice Edu and Alejandro Bedoya also started for Rangers.

Rangers have 48 points to 41 for Celtic, which plays at St. Johnstone on Sunday.

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Sebastian Leto scored once in each half and set up a goal by Jean-Alain Boumsong to lead Panathinaikos to a 3-1 victory over visiting Asteras in the Greek league.

Fernando Usero scored a late goal for Asteras.

Panathinaikos overtook AEK for second place and is a point behind defending champion Olympiakos, which has played one more game. Olympiakos hosts Giannena and AEK plays at Atromitos on Sunday.

Ergotelis won 1-0 at Levadiakos and Xanthi beat visiting Panionios by the same score.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Chelsea slips, Dempsey scores

Euro Roundup: Chelsea missed a chance to put pressure on the two Manchester clubs at the top of the Premier League on Saturday, yielding a goal with two minutes left in a 1-1 draw at relegation-threatened Wigan.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45708628/ns/sports-soccer/

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