Diego Forlan celebrated his 100th appearance for Uruguay in style, setting up one goal then scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory over Nigeria on Thursday to move his team within sight of the Confederations Cup semifinals.

Forlan's decisive goal came in the 51st minute with a sweetly-struck left-footed drive, when he finished off a swift counterattack that involved all three of the South American champion's forwards, starting with Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

Lebanon coach Theo Buecker says he is leaving the national team after it failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and is taking over at Saudi club side Al-Ettifaq.

Buecker, who has coached Lebanon since 2011, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he has signed a one-year contract with the Dammam-based club.

Lionel Messi and his father were ordered by a Spanish court on Thursday to appear for questioning in September as part of an investigation into tax fraud allegations.

A court in the Mediterranean coastal town of Gava near Barcelona accepted a state prosecutor's complaint alleging that Messi and father Jorge defrauded the Spanish tax office of 4 million euros ($5.3 million).

Fans eager to see football superstar David Beckham stormed a police cordon Thursday in a stampede at a Shanghai university that injured seven people including five security personnel.

Three police officers, two university security guards and two students — including a Japanese student — were injured, Shanghai police said on its official microblog.

The executive director of Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb, Zdravko Mamic, has been charged with inciting violence and ethnic hatred following remarks he made against en ethnic Serb government minister, prosecutors said here on Thursday.

Considered the most powerful man in Croatian football, Mamic was indicted "for publicly inciting hatred against the education and sports minister ... and all ethnic Serbs," in his comments to a local radio station, a Zagreb prosecutors statement said.

Neymar made the difference for Brazil again on Wednesday, scoring in the ninth minute and setting up Jo's injury-time goal to give the hosts a 2-0 win over Mexico and a spot in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup.

The Brazilian striker scored his second goal of the tournament with a left-footed volley from just inside the penalty box after Mexican defenders failed to clear a cross, then slipped past two defenders at once to set up Jo for an easy goal in the final move of the game.

The hearing to determine whether Mercedes and Pirelli broke Formula One rules by holding in-season tire tests has opened in Paris.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) convened the international tribunal hearing to determine whether Mercedes gained a competitive advantage from the testing session in Barcelona last month.

The confetti has been swept away, the hangovers from the street parties have been slept off, and now that the Asian teams for the 2014 World Cup have been decided, observers are fretting over slipping standards and how the sides will be able to compete with powerful rivals in Brazil.

Australia, Iran and South Korea all sealed qualification for Brazil this week but in less than convincing fashion. They completed the four automatic qualifying berths from Asia. Japan had earlier sealed its place in much more impressive style and looks like the only realistic Asian threat to the big teams in Brazil.

On a hot and humid tropical evening, Italy sweated out a 4-3 victory over Japan.

And by their own account, the Azzurri were fortunate to come out on top.

Liverpool took a huge financial hit on Andy Carroll on Wednesday by selling the towering England striker to fellow Premier League side West Ham, ending his disappointing two-and-a-half-year spell at Anfield.

Carroll joined Liverpool from Newcastle on deadline day in January 2011 for a staggering 35 million pounds (then $56 million), making him Britain's most expensive footballer, but he struggled under the weight of expectation and didn't fit into the club's style of play.