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36 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 18 JANUARY 2015 Sport FOOTBALL Football Results & Fixtures BOV Premier League Tarxien Rainbows - Mosta ................ 1-1 Valletta - Zebbug Rangers ................ 2-0 Sliema Wanderers - Naxxar Lions ..... 0-0 Qormi - Pieta' Hotspurs .................... 1-0 Today National Stadium 14:00 Hibernians - Balzan 16:00 Floriana - Birkirkara England - Premier League Aston Villa - Liverpool...................... 0-2 Burnley - Crystal Palace ................... 2-3 Leicester City - Stoke City ................. 0-1 Queens Park Rangers - Man. United.. 0-2 Swansea City - Chelsea .................... 0-5 Tottenham Hotspur - Sunderland ..... 2-1 Newcastle United - Southampton ..... 1-2 Today 14:30 West Ham United - Hull City 17:00 Manchester City - Arsenal Tomorrow 21:00 Everton - West Bromwich Albion Italy - Serie A Empoli - Inter .................................. 0-0 Palermo - Roma .............................. 1-1 Today 12:30 Lazio - SSC Napoli 15:00 AC Milan - Atalanta 15:00 Cesena - Torino 15:00 ChievoVerona - Fiorentina 15:00 Genoa - Sassuolo 15:00 Parma - Sampdoria 15:00 Udinese - Cagliari 20:45 Juventus - Hellas Verona Spain - Liga BBVA Cordoba - Elbar ............................... 1-1 Real Sociedad - Rayo Vallecano ....... 0-1 Valencia - Almeria ........................... 3-2 Villareal - Athletic Bilbao ................. 2-0 Espanyol - Celta Vigo ....................... Late Today 12:00 Getafe - Real Madrid 17:00 Atletico Madrid - Granada 19:00 Deportivo La Coruna - Barcelona 21:00 Elche - Levante 21:00 Sevilla - Malaga Chelsea extend lead at the top, Man United back to winning ways PREMIER League Round-up: Chelsea extend lead at the top, Man United back to winning ways Chelsea moved temporarily five points ahead of league rivals Manchester Cit y after a cruising victory in Wales, while Manches- ter United returned to winning ways against QPR. It took Chelsea just 48 seconds to open the score and after half an hour Oscar had already scored twice with Diego Costa getting another. French forward Gomis led the Swansea forward line, but all was made difficult as soon as Chelsea went ahead and took complete control of the match. Manchester United needed substitute Marouane Fellaini and James Wilson to hand them a win over QPR to keep the pressure on Manager Harry Redknapp. Burnley saw a two goal lead van- ish in a 3-2 defeat to Crystal Pal- ace, while Fabio Borini scored one of the goals for Liverpool in a 2-0 win over Aston Villa. Elsewhere at the Stadium of Light, the attention was on Sun- derland new signing Jermain De- foe but he failed to turn up for what was an anticipated tough clash against Tottenham. Spurs won through a late goal from Eriksen in a 2-1 win. Jan Ver- tonghen had opened the score early on for Spurs before Sebas- tian Larsson drew Sunderland level. It was a quiet affair at the Kind Power Stadium, but it was more gloom for bottom club Leices- ter as they lost again, this time against Stoke Cit y. Bojan scored the only goal for the Potters. Diego Costa celebrates the first of his goals Napoli and Lazio meet in weekend's big clash as fight for third place heats up BOV GFA Players of the Month NAPOLI travel to the Olimpico this weekend to face Lazio with the hope of jumping their hosts to third place. One point currently separates the two sides, who sit in third and fourth respectively with a second highest goal scoring tally this sea- son. Lazio go into this game high in confidence after an excellent performance against Roma in last weekend's big Italian derby. They are unbeaten in their last six matches however conceding rela- tively easy goals in their games. On the other hand Napoli have won just two of their last seven, including draws against sides on the lower end of the table, together with controversial defeats against both AC Milan and Juventus. Napoli defeated Lazio three times last season, with Argentine Gonzalo Higuain scoring six goals in those matches, including a hat trick in a 4-2 victory at home last year in April. Again for this match, the Argen- tine forward will be Lazio's biggest danger alongside Jose Callejon who has scored nine goals so far, and both should be starting up front when the two teams meet. Lazio are expected to name a set- tled side from that which drew 2-2 against Roma last weekend; how- ever they will be without in form Brazilian Felipe Anderson after picking up a knee injury which is likely to keep him out for at least three weeks. In other matches including the other big teams, Juventus host Hellas Verona and will be look- ing to defeat them in the space of a few days after a commanding win in the Coppa Italia a few days ago. Juventus remain top of the league by three points following their win over Napoli last Sunday, and coach Massimiliano Allegri will be ex- pecting another three points to consolidate top spot and keep the pressure on rivals Roma. Milan face Atalanta with both teams experiencing similarly dis- appointing draws in their last out- ings. Despite a positive perform- ance, Milan could not go beyond a 1-1 draw against Torino, having had to play a large part of the game with a player down after a sending off to Mattia De Sciglio. VICTORIA Hotspurs' Ferdinando Apap and Xewkija Tigers' Dan- iel Bogdanovic are the BOV GFA Players of the Month for Novem- ber and December respectively. Defender Ferdinando Apap was selected as the BOV GFA Player of the Month for November fol- lowing his input in Victoria Hot- spurs' performances. Apap scored a goal each in his team's 4-0 vic- tory over Sannat Lions and 2-0 against SK Victoria Wanderers. His position in defence did not hinder him from scoring a brace against Zebbug Rovers in the pre- liminary round of the BOV GFA Cup as well as an important goal in Victoria's victory over Malta side Zebbug Rangers to qualif y for the fourth round of the FA Trophy. Xewkija's midfielder Daniel Bogdanovic landed the award for December scoring no fewer than five goals during the month, which included a hat-trick in Xewkija's 7-0 victory over St Law- rence Spurs FC. He also found the net in the 4-0 win over SK Vic- toria Wanderers as well as a very important goal in the tight 3-2 victory over Victoria Hotspurs in the quarter final of the BOV GFA Cup. Horace Laudi, BOV Regional Manager for Gozo presented the BOV GFA Player of the Month tro- phies to Apap and Bogdanovic. Apap chose the Arka Foundation and Bogdanovic chose the Gozo Committee of Puttinu Cares to benefit from the donation related to these awards. Daniel Bogdanovic and Ferdinando Apap receiving their award from Horace Laudi, BOV Regional Manager for Gozo