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/ 2 November 2005
Real Madrid and Lyon reached the knockout stage of the Champions League with victories on Tuesday. Real Betis pulled off the shock of the night, upsetting English champions Chelsea 1-0. It was Chelsea’s first lost in the competition and only their second in 16 games overall this season.
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/ 13 October 2005
The World Cup is almost set. France, Serbia-Montenegro and Sweden joined the field on Wednesday, meaning 27 of the 32 berths are decided for next year’s month-long tournament in Germany. France, the 1998 World Cup champions, defeated Cyprus 4-0 to win European group four.
Chelsea kept their Premier League record perfect with an emphatic 4-1 victory over Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday on goals from Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Joe Cole and Geremi. Also on Sunday, it was: Manchester City 2, Everton 0; Wigan 2, Bolton 1; Arsenal 1, Birmingham 0; and Aston Villa 2, Middlesbrough 3.
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/ 29 September 2005
Five major manufacturers in formula one met on Wednesday and said they are going ahead with plans for a breakaway series beginning in 2008. BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Renault, Toyota and Honda met seven of the 10 formula-one teams: BAR, McLaren, Minardi, Renault, Sauber, Toyota and Williams.
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/ 28 September 2005
Ronaldinho scored a hat-trick to confirm Barcelona as one of the favourites to win this year’s Champions League, beating Italy’s Udinese 4-1 on Tuesday. Other former European champions Juventus, Bayern Munich and Manchester United also won in the second round of Europe’s top club competition.
Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over Hungarian champion Debrecen in a Champions League qualifier on Tuesday put Malcolm Glazer’s club in a commanding position to reach the main stage of Europe’s number-one club tournament.
Two years without a league championship. Not a single trophy last season. A contentious American takeover and a turbulent preseason. The aura surrounding Manchester United isn’t what it used to be. Alex Ferguson’s team finished in third place last season — 18 points behind Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.
It’s the never-ending season. Summer used to mean a three-month break in European soccer. Now the hiatus is down to a few weeks. League seasons already have resumed in France and Scotland, the German season starts on Friday and the English Premier League begins on August 13.
Narain Karthikeyan has Fernando Alonso as his role model. It’s not a bad choice. Alonso is the formula-one season leader after five races. Karthikeyan finished three laps behind Alonso on Sunday, far out of the points. But he finished, which is like winning for drivers on some of the also-ran teams.
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/ 1 February 2005
Formula-one chief executive Bernie Ecclestone had his moment last month, persuading Ferrari to break from the other nine teams and sign a long-term deal to stay with his series. By getting Ferrari to commit until 2012, Ecclestone hopes to head off an aggressive bid from rival GPWC.