Chelsea win to boost Champions League chances

Olivier Giroud scored with virtually the last touch of the first half as Chelsea consolidated third place in the Premier League and moved four points above Leicester City and Manchester United in the battle for a top-four finish.

* Australia’s soccer top flight has moved its playoffs and championship-deciding “Grand Final” back a week as part of a schedule rejig amid a spike in COVID-19 infections, Football Federation Australia said on Wednesday. The A-League’s regular season, which resumes on Friday after a four-month hiatus, will finish on Aug. 19 with the semi-finals scheduled to start three days later and the Grand Final on Aug. 30, the FFA said in a statement.

* Benfica kept their slim hopes of winning the Portuguese title alive as a first-half goal from midfielder Chiquinho and a late second from substitute Haris Seferovic gave them a hard-fought 2-0 home win over Vitoria de Guimaraes on Tuesday. The victory leaves Benfica on 71 points after 32 games, five behind leaders Porto. Having beaten Benfica twice this season, Porto will secure their 29th league title if they can manage at least a draw with Sporting on Wednesday.

* Atalanta’s Croatian midfielder Mario Pasalic scored a hat-trick as they thrashed relegation-threatened Brescia 6-2 on Tuesday to climb to second place in Serie A, six points behind leaders Juventus and two ahead of Inter Milan and Lazio.

* Wigan Athletic recorded their biggest ever league victory as they beat Hull City 8-0 in the Championship on Tuesday, hitting seven past their beleaguered opponents in the first half. The result also matched the biggest ever Championship victory — Bournemouth’s 8-0 win over Birmingham City in 2014.

* Ararat-Armenia, a Yerevan-based club who were founded three years ago, won their second consecutive Armenian league title after beating closest rivals Noah 2-0 on Tuesday, the final day of the season. Ararat finished top with 52 points and will play in the Champions League’s qualifying rounds next season. Second-placed Noah on 48 and Alashkert on 47 will play in the Europa League’s preliminary rounds.

* Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso is fit for the opening race of the 2020 MotoGP season in Jerez on July 19 just weeks after having surgery on a damaged left collarbone, his team said on Tuesday. The 34-year-old sustained the injury in a crash last month while competing in a motocross race at Faenza in northern Italy after which he underwent an operation in Modena.

* The PGA Tour’s International Tours on Tuesday announced a new U.S.-based, eight-tournament series that will start next month in Georgia amid the COVID-19 outbreak with sponsor exemptions into the top circuit on the line. The first seven events of the series, designed for golfers who compete on developmental tours, will be 54-hole stroke-play tournaments played in the Southeastern United States. The series-ending Oct. 26-30 tournament, a 72-hole event, will be held at a site to be determined.

* Wesley Sneijder is considering following in the footsteps of his former Netherlands team mate Arjen Robben and returning to playing football next season, Dutch media reported on Tuesday. The 36-year-old Sneijder will start training later this month at amateur team DOS Holland Stichtse Boys in Utrecht, which could be the prelude to joining home town club FC Utrecht.

* Gheorghe Multescu was appointed coach of Dinamo Bucharest on Tuesday, starting his fourth spell at the cash-strapped Romanian club and his 39th managerial job. Former Dinamo midfielder Multescu, 68, has been coaching since 1985, leading more than a dozen Romanian teams as well as clubs in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

* Newcastle United could be without captain Jamaal Lascelles for their Premier League game at Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday due to a knock, manager Steve Bruce said on Tuesday. Centre back Lascelles sustained a leg problem in the 2-1 defeat by Watford on Saturday, having returned to the side after missing the game against Manchester City.

* Britain’s Sam Bird, the only driver to have won a Formula E race in every year of the all-electric series, is joining the Jaguar team for season seven that is due to start in Chile next January. Jaguar announced on Tuesday that the 33-year-old, a former Mercedes Formula One reserve driver who is currently racing for Envision Virgin, will become New Zealander Mitch Evans’s team mate.