Yokohama, Japan
Ronaldo took a pass from Karim Benzema in the 98th minute and calmly fired under Kashima goalkeeper Hitoshi Sogahata to make it 3-2. The Portuguese star then sealed the win seven minutes later with a left-footed shot to the roof of the net.
Benzema scored Madrid’s first goal in the ninth minute of the final, pouncing on a rebound off Luka Modric’s volley that was palmed away by Sogahata. Gaku Shibasaki equalized in the final minute of the first half and put his team ahead seven minutes after the break.
La Villa, Italy
The overall World Cup leader from Austria increased his first-leg lead and finished 0.71 seconds ahead of France’s Mathieu Faivre and 1.10 in front of Italy’s Florian Eisath.
Olympic champion Ted Ligety slid off course shortly into his first run. The American has been unable to train properly lately due to severe back pain.
Italian great Tomba captured his wins on the Gran Risa course in 1987, ‘90, ‘91 and ‘94.
Val D’Isere, France
The defending World Cup overall champion had failed to finish Friday’s Alpine combined race and Saturday’s downhill, dropping valuable points in her quest to close the gap on current World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States.
But Gut made no mistake this time, powering down the Oreillier-Killy course to beat Liechtenstein skier Tina Weirather by .13 seconds and Italian Elena Curtoni by more than one second. It was only Curtoni’s second career podium.
Weirather was .47 seconds up on Gut but then lost time in the difficult middle section. It was her 28th career podium.
Gut’s other wins this season were in super-G in Lake Louise and giant slalom in Soelden. The Swiss is now five points behind Shiffrin heading into Tuesday’s GS in the nearby Alpine resort of Courchevel. Shiffrin skipped the three speed events here in Val d’Isere, but returns for Courchevel.
Italian Nadia Fanchini was fourth, just like in Saturday’s downhill, and Frenchwoman Tessa Worley placed fifth for a career best result in super-G.
It was another good day for Italian racers after they placed four in the top six in downhill.
But it could have even better as Sofia Goggia missed out on a seventh podium of the season. She was leading Gut after the first two time splits, but then lost her balance and went out.
Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia finished a disappointing seventh behind Austrian Stephanie Venier.
Stuhec won the Alpine combined and the downhill to take her season’s tally to four wins, but this time finished 1.75 seconds adrift of Gut.
American Laurenne Ross, who missed the downhill with flu, was off form and finished 14th.