- Associated Press - Sunday, May 13, 2012

LONDON (AP) - Bolton was relegated to the League Championship on the final day of the English Premier League season, wasting a late lead in a 2-2 tie at Stoke.

Bolton had been in the top division since 2001-02 and would have remained with a win but finished with 37 points, one behind Queens Park Rangers, which gave up two stoppage-time goals and lost 3-2 at Manchester City, which won the title.

Jonathan Walters put Stoke ahead in the 12th minute, but Bolton went ahead on goals by Mark Davies in the 39th and Kevin Davies in the 45th, Walters tied the score in the 77th with a penalty kick after goalkeeper Adam Bogdan fouled Peter Crouch.

A stoppage-time header by Tim Ream, Bolton’s American defender, was saved by Stoke goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.

Bolton gets dropped along with Wolverhampton and Blackburn. Reading and Southampton will be promoted along with the winner of the May 19 playoff between West Ham and Blackpool.

Arsenal finished third, clinching a Champions League qualification for a 15th straight season with a 3-2 win at West Bromwich Albion as Laurent Koscielny scored a tiebreaking goal in the 54th minute.

Tottenham was a point back in fourth after Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe scored for a 2-0 win over Fulham. Spurs will be qualifying for next season’s Champions League if Chelsea loses to Bayern Munich in this season’s final next Saturday. If Chelsea, wins, it will claim the berth as defending champion.

Newcastle finished fifth after losing 3-1 at Everton and will be in the Europa League along with Liverpool, the League Cup winner, and Chelsea or Tottenham.

___

MILAN (AP) _ AC Milan’s Filippo Inzaghi and Juventus’ Alessandro del Piero scored in their Serie A farewells, helping their teams to victories on the final day of the Italian league season.

The 38-year-old Inzaghi scored his first goal since November 2010, breaking a tie in the 82nd minute to give AC Milan a 2-1 win over visiting Novara.

“I don’t know what to think,” said Inzaghi, who is retiring. “When I was injured at Turin, I thought I wouldn’t play again, then today I played my 300th game, in front of my fans and scored a goal in my trademark style. Everything still hasn’t sunk in. … Maybe the fact that others are leaving saved me because otherwise I don’t know how I would have reacted if I was on my own.”

On an emotional day at San Siro, AC Milan bid farewell to Inzaghi along with Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso and Mark van Bommel, who are all leaving the club. Inzaghi finished his club career with 288 goals in 620 appearances in all competitions, including 126 in 300 games for Milan.

“I hope that there are other champions that play with their hearts like us because these are great men and it’s not so easy to find people like them,” Inzaghi said. `

Del Piero, 37, scored in the 28th minute, his 289th goal for the club, to put Juventus ahead 2-0 en route to a 3-1 win over Atalanta. Juventus already had clinched its 28th league title and at 23-0-15 joined AC Milan in 1991-92 as the only unbeaten Serie A champions.

Del Piero could play in one more game, when Juventus plays Napoli next Sunday in the Italian Cup final.

“I had tears in my eyes several times,” said Del Piero, who hasn’t decided whether to play elsewhere next season. “Everything was very moving. The bond with people goes above everything and I will always carry that with pride. I am happy and proud of all this. In certain aspects it is an incredibly beautiful day. There’s a bit of sadness but it’s right that way. I celebrated with the fans, with my teammates, doing what I like most, that’s winning.”

Udinese secured a spot in the Champions League qualifying for the second year in a row, winning 2-0 at Catania. Lazio, Napoli and Inter Milan will play in the Europa League.

Lecce lost 1-0 at Chievo Verona and was relegated to Serie B along with Cesena and Novara. Roma won 3-2 at Cesena in coach Luis Enrique’s last match.

___

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) _ Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 60th goal of the season and Real Madrid capped its dominant league season with a 4-1 win over visiting Mallorca to finish with a Spanish record 100 points.

Ronaldo opened the scoring in the ninth minute with his 46th league goal, Karim Benzema scored four minutes later and Mesut Oezil added two goals in the second half.

Raul Tamudo scored in stoppage time to give Rayo Vallecano a 1-0 win over Granada that lifted his team out of the relegation zone. Villarreal and Sporting Gijon were relegated to the second division along with Racing Santander.

Malaga beat Sporting Gijon 1-0 through Jose Rondon’s header to finish fourth and earn a berth in Champions League qualifying. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia got the automatic berths.

Levante beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to qualify for the Europa League for the first time. It joins defending Europa League champion Atletico Madrid and Bilbao, which plays Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final on May 25.

___

PARIS (AP) _ Karim Ait Fana scored off a pass from Olivier Giroud on a counterattack in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time to give Montpellier a 1-0 win over defending champion Lille that maintained a three-point lead over Paris Saint-Germain in the French league with one game left.

Montpellier can win its first league title next weekend when it plays at Auxerre and PSG is at Lorient.

PSG kept its slim title hopes alive by routing Rennes 3-0 behind Nene’s hat trick.

Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.

Please read our comment policy before commenting.

Click to Read More and View Comments

Click to Hide