Translated material
Barça is collapsing
Chronicle of sporting events
Football. Spanish Championship . 23rd round. “Sevilla” – “Atletico” – 3:1, “Valencia” – “Barcelona” – 2:1, “Deportivo” – “Levante” – 0:0, “Athletic” – “Getafe” -- 2:0, "Osasuna" -- "Celta" -- 0:1, "Espanyol" -- "Mallorca" -- 3:1, "Recreativo" -- "Real Sociedad" -- 1:0, " Racing" - "Gimnastic" - 4:1, "Real" - "Betis" - 0:0, "Zaragoza" - "Villarreal" - 1:0. The leaders are: Barcelona, Sevilla - 46 points each, Real Madrid, Valencia - 42 each.The Catalan Barcelona were defeated by Valencia at the Mestalla stadium. The “bats” still felt sorry for the championship leaders - Rijkaard’s team deserved defeat, but Ronaldinho’s goal in the second added minute created the illusion of an equal fight.
Thanks to this defeat of Barcelona, Sevilla caught up with the Catalans, in which there was no place for the Russian Alexander Kerzhakov. Celta also won. Spartak's UEFA Cup rival broke its winless streak, which had lasted since November 19 last year. Moreover, Celta won the game playing in the minority, and even away.
Italian Championship. 24th round. "Livorno" - "Messina" - 2:1, "Regina" - "Atalanta" - 1:1, "Palermo" - "Chievo" - 1:1, "Parma" - "Sampdoria" -- 0:1, Lazio -- Torino -- 2:0, Catania -- Fiorentina -- 0:1, Ascoli -- Udinese -- 2:2, Inter "- "Cagliari" - 1:0, "Empoli" - "Roma" - 1:0, "Siena" - "Milan" - 3:4. The leaders are: Inter - 63 points, Roma - 49, Palermo - 43.
Ronaldo made his first start for Milan and became the hero of the match, scoring two goals against Siena. However, the “red-blacks” managed to get the victory only in the third added minute thanks to Ambrosini, who came on as a substitute.
French Championship. 25th round. Monaco - Lens - 0:0, Marseille - Nantes - 0:0, Sochaux - Le Mans - 2:0, Troyes - Bordeaux " - 1:0, "Valenciennes" - "Nice" - 0:1, "Lorient" - "Toulouse" - 0:1, "Sedan" - "Auxerre", "Nancy" - " PSG - 0:3, Saint-Etienne - Rennes - 1:3, Lille - Lyon - 1:2. The leaders are: Lyon - 57 points, Lens - 44, Lille, Sochaux - 39 each.
Ivanchuk defeated Topalov
At the “Morelia-Linares” super tournament, the first round of which is held in Mexico, the grandmasters have not yet sparkled with results. The second round turned out to be a twin of the first. This time the only effective game was the Ivanchuk-Topalov duel. It is known that for a Ukrainian grandmaster there are no authorities, especially when you receive such a dope as an invitation to a super tournament at the last moment. If in the first round Vasily did everything to crack the protective redoubts of Peter Leko, but was content with a draw with a perpetual check, this time he left no chance for the ex-world champion. Finding himself in a vice, the Bulgarian tried to pay off with a pawn, and finally blundered a piece. After Levon Aronian, having sacrificed a piece, tried to intimidate leader Magnus Carlsen with an attack, the “baby” (as chess players lovingly call the young Norwegian) landed his opponent with a counter attack of a pawn and, it seemed, had a real chance to strengthen the leadership. But, having repelled the attack, in time trouble he overlooked the pawn sacrifice, and the matter ended in a draw with a perpetual check. Peter Leko was unable to do anything against the French defense of Alexander Morozevich. So far, the game of Viswanathan Anand, who weakly played the Spanish game against Peter Svidler with white, looks ponderous. The Russian grandmaster sacrificed a pawn for the initiative, forcing Anand to save himself in the endgame with the help of opposite-colored bishops. After the second round, Ivanchuk and Carlsen are in the lead - 1.5 points each, then Anand, Aronian, Leko and Svidler - one each, Morozevich and Topalov have half a point each.
At the same time, the traditional Aeroflot Open tournament in Moscow crossed its equator. The hero of the fifth round was the Russian Stanislav Novikov, who beat Evgeniy Tomashevsky with black and became the sole leader with 4.5 points. Among the closest pursuers are the laureates of the last Russian championship Evgeny Alekseev and Dmitry Yakovenko. There are four rounds ahead. Oleg STETSKO
Ovechkin has no luck in Pittsburgh
Hockey. NHL. Regular season. "Pittsburgh" -- "Washington" -- 3:2 -- Malkin "P" (1+0), Gonchar "P" (0+2), Semin "V" (1+0) , "Rangers" -- “Chicago” – 2:1, “St. Louis” – “Minnesota” – 5:3, “Vancouver” – “Colorado” – 5:4, “Dallas” – “San Jose” - - 5:2 - Zubov "D" (0+2) , "Columbus" - "Montreal" - 2:3 - Zherdev "K" (1+0), Svitov "K" (0+1) , Fedorov “K” (0+1) , “Anaheim” - “Los Angeles” - 3:4 (bullet).
For the second time this month, Washington is losing on the Pittsburgh court, and the capital’s leader, Alexander Ovechkin, cannot score a single point in the Penguins’ camp using the “goal plus pass” system. After Ovechkin's 13-game scoring streak was broken in early February, he only scored a goal and an assist in the next seven games. In the third period, Alexander Semin did not take the penalty awarded for a violation of Pittsburgh defender Rob Scuderi. However, 45 seconds before the final siren, the Russian still scored his goal.
Vancouver won its fourth victory in a row, all by one goal. The Canucks became the sole leader of the Northwest Division, two points ahead of another Canadian club, Calgary. San Jose, which had not scored in the previous two matches, broke its goalless streak in the 191st minute and thereby set a new club anti-record. Vladimir ILYIN