By STUART CONDIE
updated 5:58 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2011
LONDON - The death of Wales manager Scott Speed cast a shadow over the English Premier League games on Sunday.
Liverpool and Manchester City observed a moment of silence before their 1-1 draw at Anfield hours after news broke that Speed had been found dead at age 42. Asked to do the same, the fans at Swansea's 0-0 draw with Aston Villa instead opted for an impromptu minute's applause and chanted Speed's name.
Villa goalkeeper Shay Given was in tears thinking of his former Newcastle teammate, while Wales striker Craig Bellamy was so upset he was left off Liverpool's squad.
"It is a devastating loss for football and my heart goes out to Gary Speed's family," Villa manager Alex McLeish said. "We would have understood if Swansea had wanted to cancel the game. We would certainly have agreed with that."
Four members of Speed's Wales squad were involved at Swansea's Liberty Stadium in south Wales. Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Joe Allen started for the home side and James Collins lined up for Villa.
"We decided from our end that we wanted to play as a mark of respect for Gary because he was a great man of football," Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers said. "It is just so sad. He had been doing a fantastic job for Wales, and it's a sad day for football."
The game at Anfield was more eventful as Liverpool did old rival Manchester United a favor by becoming only the second team this season to stop unbeaten City from winning in the Premier League.
Vincent Kompany put City ahead in the 31st minute when he glanced a header into the top corner from David Silva's corner kick, but Joleon Lescott's outstretched leg deflected Charlie Adam's shot past goalkeeper Joe Hart for an own goal that tied it just two minutes later.
Mario Balotelli received the third red card of his City career, but Hart made a couple of strong stops to keep the game tied. Silva could have won it for 10-man City but his shot was blocked on the line by one of a trio of covering defenders.
With 11 wins and two draws from 13 games, City leads defending champion United by five points.
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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Real Sociedad defender Inigo Martinez converted a spectacular last-minute shot from inside his own half on Sunday to give his team a 3-2 win at Real Betis in the Spanish league.
The game looked to be headed for a draw but Martinez pushed forward and caught Betis goalkeeper Casto Espinosa off his line with a perfectly placed left-footed lob from near halfway out on the left.
"The ending to the game was just cruel," said Betis coach Pepe Mel, whose team has lost eight of the last nine matches after a strong start to the season.
Martinez scored a similar goal from the halfway line in a 2-1 loss to Athletic Bilbao earlier this season.
The game in Seville came alive following a scoreless first half. Antoine Griezmann missed a penalty kick for Sociedad before visiting Basque went in front on Imanol Agirretxe's 56th-minute header and Carlos Vela's goal in the 76th.
Substitute forward Jonathan Pereira pulled Betis level with goals in the 81st and 85th before Martinez's dramatic winner.
Sociedad ended an eight-game winless run and provisionally moved out of the relegation zone.
Also Sunday, Levante routed Sporting Gijon 4-0 to end a three-game losing streak in the Spanish league.
Levante stayed in fourth place, one point behind Valencia, with the first victory since its memorable start to the season took it to the top of the league for the first time in its history.
"No one can doubt this team," Levante coach Juan Ignacio Martinez said. "The important thing is that we have already earned 26 points at this stage of the season."
Also, 10-man Mallorca beat Racing Santander 2-1 for its first win since Joaquin Caparros replaced Michael Laudrup as coach, while Osasuna also played a man down for the final 15 minutes and held on for a 2-1 win at Espanyol. Granada beat Athletic Bilbao 1-0, and Sevilla edged Zaragoza 1-0.
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BERLIN (AP) ? Bayern Munich wasted a chance to go top of the Bundesliga after losing at Mainz 3-2 on Sunday.
Andreas Ivanschitz, Marco Caligiuri and Niko Bungert scored for the home side, with Daniel van Buyten scoring twice for Bayern. The Bayern defender almost completed a hat trick in injury time but fired wide from close range.
Bayern slipped to third after its second straight loss, one point behind defending champion Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund beat Bayern last weekend and leads Borussia Moenchengladbach on goal difference.
Ivanschitz opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Nicolai Mueller split the Bayern defense with a perfect ball for the Austrian, who slotted it in from a narrow angle.
Van Buyten equalized in the 56th with a header shortly before Caligiuri scored from about 30 yards away to put Mainz back ahead.
Defender Bungert thought sealed the win with a header from a corner in the 74th but Van Buyten ensured a tight finish when he scored again five minutes later.
Also Sunday, Naldo's powerful free kick helped Werder Bremen move back up to fourth with a 2-0 win over Stuttgart.
Brazilian defender Naldo unleashed a shot from the edge of the penalty area into the top right corner in the 67th, as Bremen coped without the injured Claudio Pizarro to bounce back from last week's 5-0 loss at Moenchengladbach.
Aaron Hunt broke the deadlock 10 minutes earlier with a shot through goalkeeper Sven Ulreich's legs.
"Many players weren't at their normal levels today," Stuttgart coach Bruno Labbadia said. "We just weren't as consistent as we were in previous weeks."
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MILAN (AP) ? Inter Milan needed a last-minute goal from Luc Castaignos to beat 10-man Siena 1-0 on Sunday and move further away from the Serie A relegation zone.
Inter's second straight league win lifted it to 15th in the standings, four points off the bottom three.
Inter leapfrogs Fiorentina, which lost 2-0 at Palermo on goals from Fabrizio Miccoli and Josip Ilicic. Fiorentina had Cesare Natali sent off in the final minutes after he picked up a second yellow card for dissent.
Also Sunday, Adrian Mutu had two goals to lead Cesena a 2-0 win over Genoa, and Cagliari drew 1-1 with Bologna. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his 100th Serie A goal to help AC Milan crush Chievo 4-0 and keep the pressure on Serie A leader Juventus.
Inter is 11 points behind Juventus, which also has a game in hand, but coach Claudio Ranieri has not given up hope of making up lost ground.
"I don't know if now we're back in it," Ranieri said. "I said this game was important because they're all finals for us. We have to always look to win. It will be very difficult but that's our aim."
Inter had few chances during a tight match at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Thiago Motta found Castaignos in the middle of the area and the Dutch youngster managed to squeeze a shot in between two Siena defenders for his first goal in Inter colors.
Siena striker Franco Brienza was sent off seconds after the goal for dissent.
Cesena also managed to record a second consecutive victory. Genoa missed several chances to take the lead.
Cesena moves into 19th in the standings and now has a point more than Lecce, which takes over bottom spot. And Fiorentina is closer to being sucked into a relegation battle.
Miccoli beat the offside trap in the 22nd minute to give the home side the lead. The Palermo captain timed his run to perfection as he raced onto Ilicic's through ball before slotting home for his fourth goal this season.
Miccoli was taken off the field on a stretcher at the end of the first half after complaining of a right knee problem.
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PARIS (AP) ? Paris St Germain surrendered the lead to Montpellier in the French league on Sunday as Marseille bounced back from two straight losses to beat its big-spending rival 3-0.
Marseille was under pressure after losing to Montpellier last weekend and to Greek side Olympiakos in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Lyon routed Auxerre 3-0. Argentine striker Lisandro Lopez headed home a cross from Michel Bastos in the 20th minute before beating the offside trap in the 69th to slip the ball past goalkeeper Olivier Sorin.
Bastos sealed the win with a chip in the 88th.
Also Sunday, Arnold Mvuemba converted a penalty in the 63rd to give Lorient a 1-0 win over Nice.
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AMSTERDAM (AP) ? Miralem Sulejmani scored twice as Ajax beat NEC Nijmegen 3-0 to move fourth in the Dutch league on Sunday.
Newcomer Davy Klaassen also scored as Ajax ended its two-game winless streak.
John Guidetti and Jerson Cabral scored in the last 15 minutes to give Feyenoord a 2-1 comeback win over RKC Waalwijk.
Also Sunday, Leen van Steensel scored in the first minute in Excelsior Rotterdam's 1-1 draw against ADO The Hague. Jens Toornstra replied with a second half goal for ADO.
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GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) ? Defending champion Rangers lost for the first time this season, 1-0 at Kilmarnock, cutting its Scottish Premier League lead cut to four points.
Manuel Pascali headed the only goal with 10 minutes remaining as Kilmarnock recorded a home win over Rangers for the first time since 1994.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsSpeed's death casts pall
The death of Wales manager Scott Speed cast a shadow over the English Premier League games on Sunday.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45455742/ns/sports-soccer/
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