Soccer Sports News & Betting

Results in the 21st round of the Bundesliga, the German first-division football league (home teams listed first).

Friday’s Game

Schalke 1, Borussia Dortmund 1

Saturday’s Games

Energie Cottbus vs. Werder Bremen

Borussia Moenchengladbach vs. Hannover

Karlsruhe vs. Eintracht Frankfurt

Wolfsburg vs. Hertha Berlin

Stuttgart vs. Hoffenheim

Bayern Munich vs. Cologne

Arminia Bielefeld vs. Bochum

Sunday’s Game

Bayer Leverkusen vs. Hamburger SV

Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni will miss Saturday’s Bundesliga match against Cologne because of an Achilles’ tendon injury.

“The risk is too high, looking ahead at the match in Lisbon,” Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann said Friday after the final practice before the match. Bayern travels to Sporting Lisbon next week in the Champions League.

Toni’s strike partner Miroslav Klose has been troubled by a sore ankle but is expected to play.

Klinsmann declined to say whether backup striker Lukas Podolski will get a chance to play against his former - and also future - club. Podolski is leaving Bayern at the end of the season to join Cologne.

Landon Donovan, the Los Angeles Galaxy forward who is on loan at Bayern, could also get a chance.

John Carew recovered a 1-1 draw for Aston Villa against CSKA Moscow in their UEFA Cup last-32 match on Wednesday.

But Vagner Love’s 14th-minute opener ensured CSKA has the away-goal advantage going into next week’s return leg in the Russian capital.

“Nothing is resolved yet,” CSKA coach Zico said. “The next game we will be in better condition and more ready to play another game after the break.”

CSKA had not played a competitive match since December and looked rusty in the early exchanges.

A misdirected pass by Evgeni Aldonin allowed Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor to go on a pacy run, but Milos Krasic intervened on the edge of the penalty area to prevent him advancing.

Aldonin brought down Stiliyan Petrov 25 meters (yards) out, but Ashley Young’s free kick lacked pace and curled straight into the arms of CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.

Love stunned the home fans by giving CSKA the lead. After playing a neat one-two with Yury Zhirkov, he sped past the Villa defenders before slotting in his ninth goal in seven UEFA Cup matches this season.

Carew could have leveled before halftime, but headed Ashley Young’s cross over the bar. Craig Gardner missed chances after the break.

“We were not surprised by the way Villa played,” Zico said. “It was very seldom they had the ball on the ground making passes. They get Ashley Young to put the ball into the box a lot.”

Alexei Berezutski could have doubled CSKA’s lead after 67 minutes when he found himself with only goalkeeper Brad Guzan to beat, but he pushed his shot wide.

It proved a costly miss because Villa was back on level terms inside two minutes.

Gardner chased down a cross from Young which flew across the box, and turned it back to Norwegian striker Carew, who found the net with a first-time drive.

“We have still got a chance although obviously it will be really hard in Moscow,” Villa manager Martin O’Neill said. “They have an away goal so we have to score to have a chance but it is not impossible.

“They showed they are a dangerous counterattacking side but so are we as our record has shown this season. They are a very good side who won their group in a canter and have already qualified for the Champions League.”

Defending champion Zenit St Petersburg faces a tough passage into the last 16 of the UEFA Cup after Stuttgart snatched a crucial away goal as the Russian club clinched a 2-1 win on Wednesday.

AC Milan conceded a late equalizer at Werder Bremen to take a 1-1 draw back to San Siro next week.

With Europe’s second-tier competition resuming after a two-month break, there were more comfortable first-leg victories for Hamburg, Aalborg, St. Etienne, Paris Saint-Germain and Braga in the round of 32.

Also among the 11 matches, Aston Villa recovered a 1-1 draw against Werder Bremen as Dynamo Kiev held Valencia by the same score.

Zenit, in action for the first time since Andrei Arshavin joined Arsenal, was ahead after just two minutes when new signing Szabolcs Huszti scored from a rebound.

But Stuttgart’s Mario Gomez picked up a loose ball in the 15th and moved down the right flank to score an equalizer from the edge of the box.

Zenit struggled before Anatoly Timoshchuk fired the winner from just outside the box in first-half stoppage time but dominated after the interval only to waste numerous scoring opportunities on a grassless frozen field at Petrovskiy Stadium.

“Though it was our first game in the season, we played a good game, especially in the second half,” Zenit coach Dick Advocaat said.

Filippo Inzaghi put Milan in front in the 36th, slotting home after Per Mertesacker blocked his initial header.

But with six minutes to go, Hugo Almeida headed down to Diego, who controlled the ball with his chest and put the ball in with his left foot.

AC Milan’s on-loan midfielder David Beckham came off the bench in the 89th for Ronaldinho but couldn’t spark a late victory.

John Carew recovered a draw for Aston Villa, but Vagner Love’s 14th-minute opener ensured CSKA has the away-goal advantage going into next week’s return leg in Moscow.

David Silva gave Valencia an early lead, scoring off Juan Mata’s right cross eight minutes in against Dynamo Kiev.

But before being sent off, Kiev striker Artem Milevskiy fired the ball across the penalty area, where it struck Raul Albiol and deflected past Valencia goalkeeper Cesar to earn the home side a draw.

Denys Oliynuyk headed in Oleksandr Rikun’s cross to give Metalist Kharkiv a 1-0 win over host Sampdoria.

Piotr Trochowski, Alex Silva and Ivica Olic all found the net as Hamburg defeated NEC Nijmegen 3-0, PSG will take a commanding lead into the second-leg tie against Wolfsburg thanks to Guillaume Hoarau’s late double, while Bordeaux and Galatasaray played out a 0-0 draw in France.

A French fan was stabbed and slightly injured in clashes between supporters of Olympiakos and Saint-Etienne before the teams drew 0-0 in Greece.

The man was hospitalized with two stab wounds to the thigh. Three other French fans required first aid after being hit with bottles and sticks.

Anders Due struck twice as Aalborg netted three second-half goals against Deportivo La Coruna. Michael Jakobsen wrapped up the 3-0 victory for the Danish side.

Braga won by the same score to virtually seal its progression over Standard Liege.

Results Wednesday in English football (home teams listed first).

Premier League

Manchester United 3, Fulham 0

League Championship

Derby 4, Blackpool 1

Ipswich 2, Nottingham Forest 1

League champions from China and South Korea, and the holder of Japan’s league cup, will join the Los Angeles Galaxy in the Pan-Pacific football championship for two doubleheaders starting Wednesday.

South Korea’s Suwon Bluewings will face China’s Shandong Luneng in Wednesday’s first game, followed by the match between the Galaxy and Japan’s Oita Trinita.

The losers will meet in Sunday’s third-place game, with the winners playing later for the championship.

Shandong won the Chinese Super League for the second time in three seasons last year. Suwon took the K-League title under coach Cha Bum-kun, the South Korean national team’s all-time leading scorer with 55 goals.

Oita Trinita earned the J-League Cup last year, when forward Daiki Takamatsu was the competition’s most valuable player.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the players to test themselves against quality competition,” said Galaxy midfielder Eddie Lewis, who played in two World Cups for the United States.

“It’s a great break from the preseason,” Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. “This is a great opportunity to see where we are, to look at some players and simply to gauge the kind of progress we’ve made.”

Shandong has had difficulties since arriving on Feb. 6. The Chinese champions lost a preseason game to Seattle Sounders FC 2-0.

“We are not fully prepared right now,” Shandong coach Ljubisa Tumbacovic said through an interpreter. “A lot of our starters are sidelined by injuries. Also, there are some logistical problems and it just kept raining.”

One of Shandong’s starters, defender Jiao Zhe, will miss the tournament with an injured left knee.

The tournament was first held last year in Hawaii, when the Galaxy’s David Beckham was the star attraction who drew record crowds for soccer in the islands. The Galaxy finished third. Gamba Osaka of Japan’s J-League won the title.

Beckham and teammate Landon Donovan are on loan to European clubs and won’t be playing.

Eduardo da Silva scored twice in his return to Arsenal after a nearly one-year layoff caused by a broken leg, leading the Gunners over Cardiff 4-0 Monday night and into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Eduardo scored in the 20th minute with a header off a cross from Carlos Vela, then beat goalkeeper Tom Heaton with a penalty kick in the 60th after he was brought down by Gavin Rae.

After the first goal, Eduardo ran toward a corner, fell to his knees and smiled before being teammates enveloped him. Arsenal fans erupted into celebrations and sang Eduardo’s name.

“Of course everybody is happy for him but I believe it was a good team performance, dynamic, convincing, mobile, with the kind of game we love to play,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “Eduardo played a big part in that and everybody is, of course, pleased for him tonight.”

The 25-year-old forward’s left fibula was broken and ankle dislocated during a tackle by Birmingham’s Martin Taylor last Feb. 23. Eduardo played his first official game after that last Wednesday, setting up the go-ahead goal for Croatia in a 2-1 exhibition win over Romania.

In the fourth-round replay, Arsenal also got goals from Nicklas Bendtner in the 33rd minute and Robin van Persie in the 88th. Van Persie entered in the 67th for Eduardo, who left with a slightly strained hamstring.

The Gunners host Burnley in the fifth round on March 7 or 8, with the winner meeting Sheffield United or Hull in the sixth round.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney could return after five weeks out with a hamstring injury for his team’s Premier League match against Fulham on Wednesday.

Although the defending champions have won seven straight matches in all competitions since Rooney limped out of the 1-0 win over Wigan on Jan. 17, his return would boost a team seeking to win its game in hand to go five points clear of second-place Liverpool.

United has managed to score just one goal in three of its four league games with Rooney on the sidelines. The only time it bettered a 1-0 score was against last-place West Bromwich Albion, when it won 5-0.

“Wayne should be ready for Saturday’s game against Blackburn, we’re quite confident of that,” United manager Alex Ferguson told the club’s MUTV channel. “He may have a slight chance of being fit for the bench on Wednesday.”

Rooney, who also missed England’s 2-0 friendly loss to Spain last week, has scored nine goals for United this season, including the first-minute winner against Wigan.

United has won its past seven meetings with Fulham, scoring 20 goals in the process.

Norway’s shocking win over Germany has the Nordic country’s football fans celebrating the second coming of “Drillo” on Thursday.

More than 10 years after Egil “Drillo” Olsen stepped down as the most successful national football coach in Norwegian history, the 66-year-old Olsen stepped back in as interim coach.

After two practices, some pep talks, a new style and a few changes in the squad, Olsen led his team to a 1-0 win over the second-ranked Germans in a friendly Wednesday. It was Norway’s first win against Germany in nearly 73 years, when the Norwegians beat the Germans in front of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

“It’s now official,” crowed Norway’s largest newspaper Verdens Gang, “Drillo is a miracle man.”

“Good old Drillo magic,” agreed the nation’s No. 2 tabloid, Dagbladet.

Less than a month ago, Olsen agreed to take over the 59th-ranked team for three games. Aage Hareide had resigned as coach in December after he failed to win a match last season, leaving Norway at the bottom of its World Cup qualifying group.

Olsen was already a national hero for leading the team to the 1994 and 1998 World Cups - the country’s first appearances in the tournament since 1938. During his 1990-98 tenure, he also turned the Nordic country into an unlikely football power, reaching as high as No. 2 in the FIFA rankings in the 1990s.

The near worshipful fervor surrounding his return raises images of Norse gods like Odin and Thor having to make room for “Drillo the Footballer.”

Fans and players demand that Olsen be given a contract through the 2010 World Cup, or longer - even life.

“Give him a contract that says the next national team coach can take over when Drillo passes away,” said Jan Aage Fjoertoft, a former national team player.

Current star John Carew agreed that Olsen should have a long contract because “it is not by chance that Norway went and beat Germany in his comeback game.”

Although Olsen said the win might increase odds of him staying on through the World Cup, he downplayed talk of miracles and magic. He pointed out that the game was just a friendly against a “halfway motivated” German team.

“It isn’t magic,” Olsen said. “It’s about distances, angles, first-line defenders and working capacity.”

The Norwegian news media couldn’t disagree more.

“Give a permanent job to the miracle substitute,” the Aftenposten newspaper said.

Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear will undergo triple heart bypass surgery on Friday and will be away from the Premier League club for at least two months.

The 62-year Kinnear was hospitalized Saturday, complaining of high blood pressure ahead of the team’s 3-2 win at West Bromwich Albion.

Kinnear suffered a mild heart attack in March 1999 during his time as Wimbledon manager and later stood down from the post because of ill-health. He went on to manage Luton and Nottingham Forest, but then spent four years out of the game.

“I’ve really appreciated all the get well messages I’ve received from people over the last week and I’d like to thank everyone who has been in touch,” Kinnear said Thursday in a statement.

Newcastle said Kinnear will need to rest for “a period of at least eight weeks.” Chris Hughton and Colin Calderwood will continue to take charge of team.

“I am sure the whole football community will join Newcastle United in wishing Joe a speedy recovery,” managing director Derek Llambias said.

The former Tottenham and Ireland defender was appointed as interim manager at Newcastle in September 2008 in the wake of Kevin Keegan’s resignation and admitted his earlier efforts to return to the game had been hampered by concerns over his health.

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley extended Kinnear’s initial rolling monthly contract to the end of the season. A two-year deal has been offered, but Kinnear is apparently delaying signing it until Newcastle’s Premier League status is secured.

He has been charged by the Football Association three times - he admitted one, a second was found “not proved” and the third is pending.