IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Soccer

Materazzi apologizes

MILAN: Inter Milan defender Marco Materazzi has apologized for taking and missing a penalty in Sunday's 2-2 draw at home to Siena.

The Serie A leader would have won the title with a victory but is now just one point ahead of second-placed AS Roma with one round of matches left next weekend. Inter visits relegation-threatened Parma and Roma travels to struggling Catania.

With regular penalty taker Zlatan Ibrahimovic out with a knee injury, Materazzi argued with teammate and main striker Julio Cruz over who should take the 78th-minute spot kick, which was easily saved by Siena keeper Alex Manninger.

"I'm sorry, I should have let Julio take it and I've apologized to him. Now we need to pick ourselves up and think about Parma, it will be like a final," the Italy center-back told Sky.

Inter coach Roberto Mancini, whose side had an 11-point lead in February, was not amused.

Eriksson awaits decision

MIDDLESBROUGH: Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson on Sunday urged club owner Thaksin Shinawatra to make a speedy decision on his future.

The Swede is widely expected to be dismissed and an 8-1 thrashing by Middlesbrough in City's final game of the season will not have helped his chances of a reprieve from the sack.

"To live with uncertainty is never good for anyone and I hope very soon that will no longer be the case, within hours.

"I expect to speak to people - or they speak to me - from the owner's side, people in the club who work daily within the club."

Atletico earns berth

MADRID: Atletico Madrid secured a place in the Champions League qualifiers on Sunday after a goal from Diego Forlan earned it a 1-0 win over Deportivo Coruna and ensured it could finish no lower than fourth in the table.

The Uruguayan striker grabbed the winner when he fired a first-time shot under the keeper at the near post after Maxi Rodriguez had cut the ball back from the byline on the stroke of halftime.

Champions Real Madrid were held to a 2-2 draw at Real Zaragoza, which dropped into the relegation zone after fellow strugglers, Osasuna and Recreativo Huelva both managed to notch up priceless victories.

Baseball

Cubs share top spot

CHICAGO: The Chicago Cubs rallied to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 and move into a first-place tie in the National League Central Division on Sunday.

Daryle Ward's two-run, pinch-hit double with the bases loaded in the eighth inning completed the Cubs' three-game sweep of the West Division leaders.

The hit came off Tony Pena's first pitch with Ward drilling the ball to right-center field.

Ward used a special pink bat, as did a number of other Major League players on Mother's Day to raise money for breast cancer. Ward's grandmother is a breast cancer survivor.

Table tennis

HK duo gets second chance

LONDON: Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium qualified for his sixth Olympics on Sunday and Hong Kong's Lin Ling and Tie Yana also earned their places in Beijing after earlier being ruled ineligible to compete at the Games.

Saive, 38, had been deprived of automatic qualification when a recount of rankings results put him one place behind Joergen Persson of Sweden, who was the final automatic qualifier.

Lin and Tie were ruled ineligible for Beijing by the sport's ruling federation over a passport issue, despite being in the world's top 20, but were allowed to enter the qualifier after the International Olympic Committee decided they were eligible.

(China Daily 05/13/2008 page24)