体坛英语新闻：Everton beats West Brom, stays in hunt for Europe

BEIJING, March 1 -- Everton scored a goal in each half Saturday to beat West Bromwich Albion 2-0 in the English Premier League and keep up its efforts to qualify for European competition.

    Australia midfielder Tim Cahill put the Toffees ahead in the 36th minute at Goodison Park, Liverpool, and substitute Louis Saha rounded off the scoring 20 minutes from the end with his first goal since Nov. 8.

    The win moved sixth-place Everton to 44 points from 27 matches and kept West Brom bottom of the standings with 22.

    Cahill had already had a goal ruled out because of a handball when he headed in a cross from about eight meters, with goalkeeper Scott Carson missing the ball with his attempted punch.

    Saha, who had been on the field for nine minutes, then turned on the edge of the area and put a low shot into the bottom corner.

    Arsenal was a point ahead of Everton in fifth place ahead of its meeting with Fulham later in the day, when third-place Chelsea hosted Wigan and Liverpool was at Middlesbrough seeking to close the gap on leader Manchester United.

    United was not in league action because it was meeting Tottenham Hotspur in today's League Cup final at Wembley.

    In Germany, FC Cologne was unable to build on its surprising victory over Bayern Munich last week in playing to a 1-1 draw at home against Arminia Bielefeld in the Bundesliga on Friday.

    Both goals fell in the first half as Petit's score on the quarter-hour mark was matched by Christopher Katongo two minutes before the break.

    Cologne beat Bayern 2-1 last weekend and Friday's draw gave Christoph Daum's team 29 points after 22 rounds for 10th place.

    "We wanted to win this game but Bielefeld played really tough and in the end I think we have to be satisfied with the point," Daum said.

    Bielefeld earned a valuable point on the road for 20 points, two points above the drop zone.

    Cologne grabbed the lead after 15 minutes on a fine header from near the post by captain Petit.

    The host was unable to capitalize on a couple of other chances before Bielefeld pushed forward looking for the equalizer.

    Bielefeld knotted the score in the 43rd after a mistake in defense. Miso Brecko's back pass to Cologne goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon bounced off Pedro Geromel and Katongo struck the loose ball into the right corner from 22 meters.

    Bielefeld was happy with the point and focused on its defense though Cologne had the better chances the rest of the way.