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Monday November 6, 2017

ON the day Lionel Messi played his 600th match for Barcelona, Paco Alcacer got the job done for the Spanish league leaders, scor-ing in each half to beat Sevilla 2-1 on Saturday.

Barcelona’s 10th win in 11 matches kept the Catalan club four points in front of Valencia, which defeated Leganes for its seventh straight league victory.

Messi attracted a little extra attention by becoming the third Barcelona player to reach the 600-match milestone, behind captain Andres Iniesta (643) and Xavi Hernandez (767).

Meanwhile, Alcacer, who hadn’t been getting much play-ing time, scored the winner by redirecting a right-side cross by Ivan Rakitic on a rainy night at Camp Nou.

“We have to take advantage of the chances we get as a starter,” Alcacer said. “I got my chance.”

He opened the scoring from inside the area after a long pass by Luis Suarez from near the midfi eld line in the fi rst half.

Alcacer had scored only once in fi ve games this season.

“I hope they will help give him more confi dence,” Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said.

Guido Pizarro equalized for fi fth-place Sevilla early in the second half with a fi rm header that bounced in front of the goal.

Messi, who made his club debut in 2004, had an aver-age night by his standards. He

LIVERPOOL won at West Ham 4-1 and it was no coincidence Sadio Mane was playing in the English Premier League on Saturday.

The result marked the fi rst time Liverpool recorded back-to-back league victories since August.

Mane, who was restored to the Liverpool starting lineup by Juergen Klopp after miss-ing fi ve games with a hamstring injury, set up both of Mohamed Salah’s goals. Joel Matip and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also found the net.

“(Playing) Sadio Mane from the beginning after his injury, after yesterday his second ses-sion with the team. I never did it before,” Klopp said. “Sadio is a naturally fi t player, a little machine.”

The victory lifted Liverpool to level on points with top-fi ve sides Chelsea and Arsenal, which face tough challenges against Manchester United and City, respectively, the next day.

West Ham started brightly and wasted a chance to take the lead early when Andre Ayew struck the post after Manuel Lanzini’s pass defl ected into his path.

Liverpool’s opener came when West Ham was least expecting it. The home side was looking to score as it took a corner but the ball was in the net at the other end just 13 seconds later.

Salah fl icked a clearance into Mane’s path, releasing the Sen-egal winger into space before he returned the ball to Salah on the edge of the penalty area to fi nish calmly past goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Less than three minutes later the lead was doubled. Matip tapped into an empty net after Hart initially prevented an own goal with a fi ne save.

West Ham got back into the game 10 minutes after the break. Ayew this time crossed to Lan-zini at the back post, and Lanzini controlled the ball expertly on his chest before poking a smart fi nish past Simon Mignolet.

However, hope for West Ham lasted just 55 seconds.

Liverpool’s two-goal lead was restored as Oxlade-Chamberlain squeezed a shot past Hart, after the keeper kept out his initial effort. (SD-Agencies)

KEVIN DURANT scored 25 points, Stephen Curry had 22 points and 11 assists, and the Golden State Warriors routed the Denver Nuggets 127-108 on Saturday night.

Draymond Green had 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and Klay Thompson scored 15 points for Golden State, which has won three straight and six of its last seven.

Will Barton had 21 points and eight rebounds and Emmanuel Mudiay scored 15 points for Denver, which lost the second game of a home back-to-back. No Nuggets starter scored in double fi gures.

The Warriors (7-3) blitzed the

Nuggets with a dominant third quarter. Denver had owned the quarter its previous four games, outscoring opponents 146-78, but the Warriors turned the tables, outscoring the Nuggets 43-21 in the third.

It was the most points Denver has allowed in a quarter this season, and it couldn’t match the Warriors’ offense. The Nuggets made nine shots and committed seven turnovers. Golden State was 16 of 23 from the fi eld and hit 6 of 11 3-pointers. The War-riors outscored the Nuggets 27-6 during a stretch where it turned a fi ve-point lead into an 87-61 advantage halfway through the quarter. (SD-Agencies)

Alcacer shines in Messi’s 600th game

had a goal called off for offside, and was uncommonly issued a yellow card in injury time.

Third-place Atletico Madrid, eight points off the lead, needed an injury-time goal to earn a win at Deportivo La Coruna 1-0.

Defending champion Real Madrid, 11 points behind Bar-celona in fourth place, hosts Las Palmas the next day.

Atletico Madrid avoided another poor result with a hard-fought win against Deportivo thanks to Thomas Partey’s late free kick.

Atletico’s second win in nine matches ended a streak of three consecutive 1-1 draws in the league and Copa del Rey.

“We knew how to suffer,” said Partey, who also scored Tuesday in the draw with Qarabag in the Champions League. “In the end we deserved these three points. This win will give us a boost.”

The victory at Riazor Stadium moved Atletico to four points behind Valencia.

It was the sixth loss for Deport-ivo, which stayed in 16th place.

Valencia’s attack keeps impressing, having outscored

opponents 28-8 in its run of eight straight wins in all com-petitions.

“We are not getting too excited, we know it’s diffi cult to maintain this,” Valencia coach Marcelino Garcia said.

Dani Parejo scored the fi rst against Leganes from a free kick, Rodrigo added a header in the second, and Santi Mina converted a late penalty.

Leganes, in its second season in the fi rst division, had won three of its last fi ve league games. It is eighth in the standings.

(SD-Agencies)

GEORGES ST-PIERRE (GSP) made a victorious return to the Ultimate Fighting Cham-pionship, ending his four-year exile from mixed martial arts by winning the organization’s middleweight title with a dra-matic submission victory over Michael Bisping at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday.

Many had wondered whether the Canadian could resume his prior dominance after such a long layoff, especially with moving up to middleweight from his more natural division of welterweight.

No problem.The decisive moment of an

entertaining and hard-fought contest came towards the end of the third round, when St-Pierre popped Bisping with a stout left hand and sent him to the canvas.

Bisping tried to fi ght him off on the fl oor but could not get himself out of trouble. St-Pierre eventually got his back and locked in a rear naked choke and the fi ght was ended by the referee after Bisping refused to tap and fell unconscious.

“This is my dream come true, guys,” St-Pierre, widely regarded as the best fi ghter in UFC history, said, after receiving a rapturous reception following his long layoff.

GSP takes UFC middleweight title

There were times when St-Pierre looked a little gassed but there is also a reason why he has now recorded 13 con-secutive wins. The Canadian claimed in the build-up that he would come back better than ever, and perhaps he has. He worked extensively with famed boxing coach Freddie Roach ahead of the fi ght and it was his boxing that got the job done, that powerful left hand setting up the fi nish that followed.

“You’ve got to give it up to Georges,” Bisping said. “He was the better man. No excuses.”

There is now some intrigue as to what happens next. Robert Whittaker is the interim champ at middleweight and the UFC has interest in pairing him with St-Pierre to unify the title at a pay-per-view in Australia in 2018.

(SD-Agencies)

Liverpool wins at West Ham

Georges St-Pierre (top) fi ghts Michael Bisping during UFC 217 at Madison Square Garden in New York on Satur-day. SD-Agencies

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah celebrates scoring their fi rst goal with Sadio Mane (R) at London Stadium on Saturday.

SD-Agencies

Durant leads Warriors past Nuggets

Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (L) defends against Denver Nuggets guard Will Barton in the second quarter at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Saturday.

SD-Agencies

Barcelona’s Paco Alcacer (2nd L) scores their fi rst goal against Sevilla at Camp Nou in Barcelona on Saturday. SD-Agencies