Olympiakos: Olympiakos bettered their previous record start to a league season set 48 years ago when they swept Ergotelis aside 3-0 yesterday. The Greek champions showed they can do without injured top striker Kostas Mitroglou as they stormed nine points clear of second-placed PAOK Salonika at the top of the table. Goals from on-loan Arsenal midfielder Joel Campbell, Nigerian forward Michael Olaitan and Argentine midfielder Alejandro Dominguez gave Olympiakos their 12th win from 13 matches, eclipsing their record start to a season in 1965.
Cassano: Parma striker Antonio Cassano yesterday underwent surgery on his nose after suffering an injury during Saturday’s Serie A match against Bologna. The Italy striker, who netted his 100th league goal during 1-1 draw, suffered the injury after he accidentally collided with his team-mate Nicola Sansone midway through the second half. Cassano managed to complete the match but underwent surgery to reduce the fracture.
Flitcroft: Barnsley have sacked manager David Flitcroft after their home defeat to Birmingham sent them sliding to the bottom of the Championship. The Reds have won only twice in 17 league games this season and a 10th defeat, 3-0 at the hands of Birmingham, was one too many for the Oakwell board.
Hannover: Hannover ended a seven-match winless run in the Bundesliga with a 2-0 home victory over 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt. Mame Biram Diouf opened the scoring for Hannover after 24 minutes and things got worse for the visitors when Martin Lanig was sent off for receiving a second yellow card 12 minutes into the second half. Szabolcs Huszti then sealed the win 22 minutes from time.
Farias: Venezuela manager Cesar Farias resigned on Saturday after his failure to secure a first-ever World Cup qualification for the nation who missed out on next year’s finals. “Sadly, we couldn’t achieve our main goal to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil,” the 40-year-old said. “That hurts us deeply because if we had achieved that we’d have given enormous joy to a nation sub-merged in a difficult situation.”