Osieck sacked: Asian champions Urawa Reds ditched German coach Holger Osieck yesterday, just two games into the new J-League season. The 59-year-old guided Japan's best-supported side to the Asian Champions League title last season but was fired 24 hours after Urawa were beaten 2-0 at home by Nagoya Grampus Eight. Osieck's dismissal followed an emergency meeting by Urawa officials, still smarting from the team's failure to defend their J-League title in 2007. Assistant coach Gert Engels, 50, will take over as manager.

Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen jumped ahead of slumping Werder Bremen into third place behind Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich and Hamburg with a 4-1 home victory against Nuremberg yesterday. Bremen started the weekend in second but squandered their chance to capitalise on Bayern's shock 2-0 defeat at Energie Cottbus on Saturday. Bremen were beaten 1-0 at home by Wolfsburg, their third league defeat in the last four matches. Bayern lead the table with 50 points.

Russian league: Zenit St Petersburg began the defence of their Russian premier league title with a tepid 0-0 home draw against last year's runners-up Spartak Moscow yesterday. Chances were few and far between for Zenit and Spartak in their first match of the league season at St Petersburg's Petrovsky stadium with both sides looking sluggish and short of ideas. Striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, who scored both Zenit goals in their 2-0 win over Marseille in the UEFA Cup four days ago, had the best chance but missed with a close-range header in the second half.

Barca held: Barcelona were held to a 2-2 draw at Almeria in the Primera Liga yesterday as they failed to make the most of leaders Real Madrid's 1-0 defeat away to Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday. Bojan Krkic and Samuel Eto'o put Barca on course to cut Real's lead to five points, but after they had Gabriel Milito sent off late on, Almeria grabbed an 85th-minute equaliser through Kalu Uche.

Wenger: Arsene Wenger said Arsenal are not about to throw in the towel yet. The Gunners were replaced at the top of the table by Manchester United on Saturday after they could only manage a point at home against Middlesbrough. Wenger said: "I feel the players gave everything, but there was a little fraction less of belief. There was a big disappointment in the dressing room. It was like a defeat. But, I feel the team fights, we came back again against Boro and this team will fight until the end."

Ligue 1: Bordeaux vs Strasbourg 3-0; Lens vs Marseille 3-3.

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