SPORTS

 

Real Madrid extended their unbeaten run to 36 games by beating Club America 2-0 to reach the Fifa Club World Cup final.

 

Karim Benzema gave the European champions the lead with a clipped finish after a Toni Kroos pass.
Cristiano Ronaldo sealed the win - and a place in Sunday's final against Kashima Antlers - by drilling a second in added time amid some confusion.
Referee Enrique Caceres briefly asked for a video assistant consultation before allowing the goal to stand.
This year's Club World Cup is the first tournament to use video assistant referees. A pitchside monitor is available to referees to review decisions.
However, Caceres did not view the incident on the monitor before restarting the game and awarding the goal.

In the other semi-final, referee Viktor Kassai stopped the game after being alerted to an incident by his assistant, then viewed footage on a monitor and gave a penalty to Kashima Antlers in their win over Atletico Nacional.
The Club World Cup features champion club sides from each of Fifa's six continental confederations.
Before Real Madrid's match began, there was a minute's silence at the Yokohama Stadium, in tribute to the victims of the air crash on 28 November that killed 71 people, including 19 players and staff of Brazilian team Chapecoense.
Ronaldo, who won the Ballon d'Or for a fourth time earlier in the week, had hit the post with a glancing header from Lucas Vazquez's cross before Benzema scored.
The Portuguese then had a shot blocked and headed wide before scoring.

Chelsea go six points clear with win over Sunderland.

 

Chelsea moved six points clear at the top of the Premier League as Cesc Fabregas' first-half goal beat a stubborn Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Fabregas steered into the far corner from the edge of the box as the Blues recorded a 10th consecutive league victory.
Sunderland keeper Jordan Pickford saved from former Black Cat Marcos Alonso and Willian to prevent Chelsea from winning by a bigger margin.
The hosts, who had set up to try to nullify their opponent's attacking strength, had few chances although they could have snatched a point in injury time but Thibaut Courtois superbly denied Patrick van Aanholt.
It was a hard-fought and important win for Chelsea after Arsenal slipped up against Everton on Tuesday and means Antonio Conte's side will be top of the table at Christmas.

• Relive Sunderland's game with Chelsea
• Reaction from all of Wednesday's Premier League games
• Bradley Lowery: Boy with cancer is Sunderland mascot
• Conte: My players deserve this 
•  

Can Chelsea cope without key players?

A key element of Chelsea's run of recent victories has been consistency with Conte having named an unchanged side in eight of the nine games prior to the trip to Sunderland.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp had recently suggested that Chelsea's good run could falter when either Eden Hazard or Diego Costa picked up an injury, and Wednesday's game provided an opportunity to see whether that would be the case.
Hazard did not travel after picking up a knock in Chelsea's 1-0 win over West Brom at the weekend, so he was replaced by Willian. Conte also took the opportunity to rest Nemanja Matic as Fabregas made his first start since 3 December.

Ballon d'Or 2016 live updates and rankings as Cristiano Ronaldo wins for the fourth time.

 

The Real Madrid forward beat Lionel Messi to the award after winning last year's Champions League and Euro 2016 while Leicester stars Riyad Mahrez finished seventh and eighth in the vote respectively.

The award, now separated from Fifa and back with France Football magazine, is voted by nearly 200 top journalists around the world.
No one else has won the award, in either of its guises, since Kaka in 2007, and it seems unthinkable that anyone else on the 30-man shortlist - which includes Leicester City's Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez and Manchester United's world-record signing Paul Pogba - will do so tonight.