Huddersfield and Watford fought out a 0-0 stalemate at the John Smith’s Stadium on a damp and drizzly day in West Yorkshire.
In a game short of clear-cut opportunities, Yaser Asprilla and Matty Pearson came closest for either side, on an otherwise comfortable afternoon for both goalkeepers.
The draw extends Watford’s unbeaten league run to four, with Huddersfield earning their first clean sheet at home since mid-September.
Ken Sema almost unknowingly put Watford ahead after four minutes, getting his head- or rather his face – to a wicked deflected cross into the centre. The early half-chance whistled wide.
Huddersfield had the first meaningful effort of the game in the 27 the minute when Pearson’s left-footed shot was held by Dan Bachmann in the Hornets’ goal.
Sorba Thomas called Bachmann back into the action six minutes later, with the Watford shot-stopper getting down well to his left to deny the opener.
The visitors remained resilient, and Edo Kayembe’s whipped attempt asked questions of Huddersfield’s Lee Nicholls, resulting in Watford’s best effort of the half.
Less than a minute into the second period, the increasingly threatening Asprilla struck low and hard at goal, from a tight angle. A smart stop from Nicholls tipped the ball around the post.
As the heavens opened, Valerien Ishamel’s side injected a minor impetus into the game.
Jamal Lewis and Jeremy Ngakia both had promising shots blocked by the sturdy Town defence, including one by Michael Helik.
On 64 minutes, the John Smith’s Stadium began to wake up as Ben Wiles’ speculative attempt sailed over. Watford rushed up the other end and Jamal Lewis’ low shot kept Nicholls busy.
Hornets sub Imran Louza looked lively when turning from 25 yards out, but fired high and wide on 70 minutes.
With 13 minutes left on the clock, Mileta Rajovic rose well inside the Huddersfield penalty area, but could not quite connect with Ryan Andrews’ clipped cross.
In added time, Town almost snatched the winner with substitute Mattie Pollock drifting in behind, but unable to pick out a blue and white shirt in the middle.
Watford pressed for a dramatic winner, and if not for Josh Ruffle’s heroics, they may have found it. The Town sub flicking the ball away from underneath the crossbar.
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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