Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra met on the field for the first time since Suarez completed an eight-game ban for racially abusing the Manchester United defender in Saturday’s Premier League clash between United and Liverpool.
Two goals from Wayne Rooney in the first five minutes of the second half helped United to a 2-1 win, but it was the scorer of Liverpool’s consolation, Suarez, who received the most attention after he refused to shake the hand of Evra in the pre-match ceremony.
Players from both sides clashed at half-time when intervention from the police was required and on the full-time whistle Evra celebrated with an over-exuberant celebration in front of the Liverpool fans, yards from Suarez.
The win saw United overtake Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table but a second-half goal from Joleon Lescott was enough for United’s city rivals to reclaim the top spot with a 1-0 win away at Aston Villa.
The home side offered very little going forward until the last moments of the match when Joe Hart was called upon for the first time in the match, pulling off an excellent reflex save from Darren Bent.
Mick McCarthy has been sacked as manager of Wolves after his side fell into the relegation zone with an embarrassing 5-1 home defeat to West Brom in the Black Country derby. Blackburn profited from the defeat, climbing out of the relegation zone on goal difference after a 3-2 win over QPR. Wigan beat Bolton 2-1, leaving just two points separating the bottom five.
Chelsea manager Andre Vilas-Boas described his side’s 2-0 defeat at Everton as “one of our worst displays – if not the worst”. Steven Pienaar and Denis Starcqualursi scored for the Toffees.
Thierry Henry signed off from his second stint at Arsenal with an injury-time winner at Sunderland. In his final game for the Gunners before returning to MLS side New York Red Bulls, Henry added to Aaron Ramsey’s equaliser to help Arsenal move into fourth place.
Wales and England top the Six Nations tables after two matches, beating Scotland and Italy respectively. After a tight first half, two tries from Leigh Halfpenny followed Alex Cuthbert’s opener to help Wales to a 27-13 win over Scotland at the Millennium Stadium. Greig Laidlaw scored for Scotland in the 62nd minute but were not able to threaten Wales’ 14 point lead in the final 20 minutes.
After a shoddy first half performance England came from behind to register a 19-15 win against Italy in Rome. Two tries from the home side in the final three minutes of the first half gave them a 12-6 lead at half time after two Chris Farrell penalties had given England the lead.
Charlie Hodgson followed up a charge down for the second week running to score England’s only try in the 51st minute and Farrell converted. Another Farrell penalty gave England the lead three minutes later and he scored again on 65 minutes to give England a four-point lead which they held on to close out a tense match.
The match between France and Ireland at the Stade de France was called off at the eleventh hour due to a frozen pitch.
Zambia won the African Cup of Nations, dashing the hopes of pre-tournament favourites and perennial underachievers the Ivory Coast after a long penalty shootout.
Didier Drogba missed a spot-kick in normal time and after neither side could find a goal the match went to penalties, where players from both sides converted 14 kicks before the Ivory Coast’s Kolo Toure Rainford Kabala of Zambia both missed. Gervinho missed again for the Ivory Coast, allowing Stoppila Sunzu the opportunity to score the winning kick.
In the Super League, Huddersfield thumped newly-promoted Widnes 66-6, with four of his side’s twelve tries coming from Leroy Cudjoe including one pitch-long run.
St. Helen’s join them at the top of the Super League table after they came back from 10-4 down at half time to beat Salford 38-10 on Friday night. Wigan beat Leeds 20-6 and Warrington thrashed London Broncos 50-1.
Dan Evans won a deciding rubber for Great Britain’s Davis Cup team in a tense five-set match against Slovakia’s Martin Klizan. Evans had won the first two sets 6-1 6-1 but his opponent his back to force Evans to go the distance but the Brit triumphed 6-1 6-1 4-6 3-6 6-3 to win against an opponent ranked 156 places higher in the world rankings.
Phil Mickelson won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, shot an eight-under par 64 to come back from six shots behind while Tiger Woods bogeyed the final three holes to fade dramatically.
