LONDON – Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0 to move within four points of Manchester United in the Premier League standings on Sunday, and Tottenham beat Aston Villa 2-1 to climb into 11th place, its highest of the season.

Michael Essien scored Chelseas 18th minute winner at Stamford Bridge with his second goal in two games as the Blues made it four league victories in a row since temporary coach Guus Hiddink replaced Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Manchester Uniteds surprise 4-1 loss at home to Liverpool on Saturday has given the chasing teams hope of catching the Red Devils. Both Chelsea and Liverpool are four points behind the defending champion, which has a game in hand.

The door is a little bit open, Hiddink said. It gives them a blow and now all depends on their calmness. Lets see how they react in the coming games, but they have a lot of experience. We have to keep winning.

Jermaine Jenas and Darren Bent fired goals past Brad Friedel, Villas American goalkeeper. John Carew replied in the 85th, but Spurs hung on for the victory, giving it 33 points from 21 games since Harry Redknapp replaced the fired Juande Ramos. Back then Tottenham was last with two points and now is up to halfway, six points above the relegation zone.

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FRANKFURT – Hamburger SV beat Energie Cottbus 2-0 to remain four points behind Bundesliga leader Hertha Berlin.

Goals by Ivica Olic and Piotr Trochowski in the first half gives Hamburg 45 points, the same as defending champion Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg.

In Sundays other game, Werder Bremen defeated Stuttgart 4-0 after two goals by Markus Rosenberg to notch its first victory in the second half of the season.

Hertha stayed four points clear with a 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.

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GLASGOW, Scotland – Darren ODea and Aiden McGeady scored extra time goals to guide Celtic to a 2-0 victory over traditional rival Rangers in the Scottish League Cup final.

After 90 minutes of goalless football at Hampden Park, ODea gave Celtic the lead in the first minute of extra time. McGeady added the second from the penalty spot in the 120th minute after he had been tripped by Kirk Broadfoot, who was ejected.

It was the first time in 20 years that Celtic had beaten Rangers in a final, the last time being in the more prestigious Scottish Cup in 1989. Celtic now has 14 League Cup titles to Rangers record 25.

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AMSTERDAM – Maarten Martens netted the only goal and AZ Alkmaar beat FC Utrecht 1-0 to set a club record of 25th straight games without defeat and maintain an 11-point lead over FC Twente.

Third-place Ajax, which is 14 points behind, beat De Graafschap 3-0, Luis Suarez scoring twice including a penalty.

Posted on March 16th, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Soccer news