Madrid  - Barcelona suffered their second league defeat of the season on Saturday 2-1 at home to lowly Espanyol, for whom ex-Barca star Ivan de la Pena was the two-goal hero.

At the same time, Real Madrid were scoring their ninth straight win by thrashing hapless Betis 6-1, with all the goals coming in a breathless first half.

These results bring the Liga race back to life because second-place Real are now just seven points behind Barca, who held a 12-point lead two weeks ago.

Munich - Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness refused to comment Saturday on re

Zurich - There were over 200,000 applications for 2010 World Cup tickets in the first 24 hours since tickets went on sale via FIFA's online ticket portal, football's ruling body revealed Saturday.

Applications from 128 countries for 216,975 tickets had been received via the website, excluding the hard paper applications handed in by residents of host nation South Africa at the country's First National Bank (FNB), a sponsor of the tournament.

Frankfurt - German football authorities have launched an

Sydney, Feb 21 : Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin on Saturday said he had waited for 10 years to play for the country, and now the time has come to show some cricketing skills on the international level.

"I had waited ten years to play for Australia, and now time has come to do something on international level," Haddin said.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Haddin, who had broken his finger just before his Test debut, as saying that Test cricket is about playing more than cricket and it also tests the fitness of player as well.