Balotelli: Police are investigating potentially racist tweets towards Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli after the Italian used the social media site to poke fun at Manchester United following their 5-3 loss at Leicester City yesterday. The often outspoken Balotelli, long the subject of racist abuse in Italy, wrote “Man Utd LOL” (laughing out loud) – prompting a deluge of negative replies with some Twitter users using the term “monkey”.
Violence: Ten Lokomotiv Plovdiv fans have been detained for violence before the team’s domestic league match against Beroe Stara Zagora on Saturday, Bulgarian police said yesterday. Police in the southern city of Plovdiv said in a statement that Lokomotiv supporters clashed with riot police outside the stadium in Plovdiv’s district of Lauta, throwing stones and other objects at them. A police officer has been injured when trying to restore order and taken to hospital, they said. Beroe won the game 3-0.
Guangzhou: Substitute Yu Hanchao struck a 95th minute header to give Chinese champions Guan-gzhou Evergrande a 2-1 comeback win over Shanghai Shenxin on Saturday. Yu darted to the near post to meet Brazilian midfielder Rene Junior’s inswinging cross from the left and seal their sixth consecutive league win, maintaining their six-point advantage at the top of the table with five games to go.
Wolfsburg: Wolfsburg bounced straight back from their 4-1 European humbling at the hands of Everton on Thursday by beating Bayer Leverkusen by the same score yesterday. Wolfsburg took early control of the Bundesliga match as Leverkusen defender Giulio Donati was sent off after just seven minutes for conceding a penalty, which Ricardo Rodriguez slotted home. Leverkusen equalised through Josip Drmic, but Wolfsburg’s numerical advantage eventually told and Vieirinha, Rodriguez and Aaron Hunt netted to secure the Wolves victory.
Monaco: Monaco finally found something to cheer about in Ligue 1 when Nabil Dirar’s goal earned them a 1-0 home win against En Avant Guingamp yesterday. Substitute Dirar, who came on for the injured Anthony Martial early on, struck seven minutes from the interval to lift his team to 15th in the standings on seven points.