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A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Fri Apr 27 2012 - 01:00

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Twitter users break world record during Chelsea game

Chelsea broke Barcelona’s hearts at the Camp Nou on Tuesday and Twitter users broke the world record for the number of tweets published per second while watching the Champions League meeting.

Twitter revealed the semi-final, second-leg match broke the tweets-per-second record for a sporting event.

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Twitter said activity during the encounter – which saw 10-man Chelsea progress to the final – peaked at a staggering 13,684 messages per second.

That figure eclipsed the previous record for a sporting event: the 12,233 tweets per second during the climax of February’s Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.

Fans flocked to the site during the game which saw New York win 21-17 after scoring a touchdown with less than a minute remaining.

The Super Bowl saw a total of 13.7 million tweets, but a Twitter spokesman said the company didn’t calculate the number of messages sent during Tuesday’s match in Spain.

Madrid and Bilbao to meet in final

Adrian Lopez scored with a volley to earn Atletico Madrid a 1-0 win at Valencia which eased them into the final 5-2 on aggregate last night. Atletico, who won the first leg 4-2, survived a first-half siege but the hosts were unable to score.

Athletic Bilbao beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1 in the other semi-final for a 4-3 aggregate win. Markel Susaeta put the home side ahead in the 17th minute. Ricky van Wolfswinkel levelled in the 44th and Ibai Gomez made it 2-1 in first-half added time. Striker Fernando Llorente volleyed the crucial strike in the 88th minute.

Prandelli happy with Cassano

Italy manager Cesare Prandelli has declared himself satisfied with the progress made by Antonio Cassano after visiting a Milan training session involving the striker, who suffered a stroke last year and underwent heart surgery, reports Emmet Malone.

Although not reckoned to be fully fit, Cassano has recently returned to action for Milan and Prandelli is confident the striker will be available for the Euro 2012 finals, where Italy will play Ireland. Prandelli said: “I was interested in coming here so I could see his motivation. I’m satisfied with today’s contact.”