Eric Dier became the first Tottenham Hotspur player to discover Jose Mourinho's ruthless streak as the Portuguese manager's decision to haul off the midfielder after half an hour ultimately proved a masterstroke in Tuesday's 4-2 win over Olympiakos.

Mourinho's first home game in charge after replacing Mauricio Pochettino was turning ugly as the Greek side led 2-0 inside 20 minutes of the Champions League Group B game.

But two-time UCL winner Mourinho acted decisively, sacrificing Dier's defensive shield, and sent on Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen who, just as on Saturday in Mourinho's debut win over West Ham United, had been left on the bench.

It took a while for the tactical switch to work but Dele Alli levelled on the stroke of half-time and the second half saw Tottenham run riot with Harry Kane scoring twice either side of a thumping effort by Serge Aurier.

Tottenham, Champions League runners-up in June under Pochettino, have qualified for the last 16 and in Mourinho's first two games in charge they have scored seven goals and conceded four, perhaps confounding those who said he would bring boring football to north London.

While the Dier-for-Eriksen swap worked a treat, Mourinho said it had been the hardest part of his evening.

"The most difficult moment for me was not the goals but the change I had to make," the 56-year-old, whose tactical acumen has earned him silverware at every club he has managed, told reporters postmatch.

"It hurt the player but also hurt me. It was not easy for the player or me.

"But it's important the player understood and I was fortunate that it was a very intelligent boy who understood it was about the team not the performance. I apologised to Eric and made it clear I didn't do it to hurt him.

"Christian gave us what we needed at that time."

Mourinho, sacked by Manchester United last season after his reign there turned sour, has been charm personified since swapping punditry for the Tottenham job.

As well as praising his players' response to adversity on Tuesday, and the fans, he also waxed lyrical about a ball boy, whose sharp thinking allowed Serge Aurier to take a quick throw-in that ultimately led to Harry Kane's 50th-minute equaliser.

"To do that you have to be a very good ball boy," Mourinho said with a straight face. "I was, between 10 and 16 years old a very good ball boy and he was a very good ball boy.

"He was reading the game and wasn't looking at the stands. I wanted to invite him to the dressing room to celebrate with the players but he had disappeared."

Tottenham's performance rather summed up their season. They were caught cold and were lucky that a defensive howler allowed Alli to reduce the arrears before the interval.

In the second half, with Eriksen providing the ammunition for Kane, Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura, Tottenham were ruthless.

With a home game against Bournemouth this weekend, Mourinho has every chance of starting with three straight wins.

"Next game at home I expect the boys to start without ghosts, open and confident" he said.

LONDON -- It took less than 20 minutes for the mask to slip.

After Ruben Semedo crept in behind Toby Alderweireld to score Olympiakos's second goal, Jose Mourinho turned to glare at the Tottenham Hotspur bench with a look that said, "Can you believe this?"

Then he was off, marching down the touchline, furiously clapping his hands together and animatedly urging his sleepwalking players to pick their heads up. Returning to his technical area, he ordered Tanguy Ndombele to warm up. In the 29th minute, he made his first change, sending on Christian Eriksen in place of Eric Dier. He cradled Dier's head briefly as the England international reached the touchline, and revealed afterward that he had apologised to the 25-year-old, but this felt like No More Mr. Nice Guy.

The night would end with Spurs' fans celebrating a 4-2 victory that swept last season's beaten finalists into the Champions League knockout phase for the third season running. But having been on a charm offensive ever since his appointment as the successor to Mauricio Pochettino last Wednesday, this was also the night when Mourinho showed his teeth for the first time.

If the two late goals that Spurs had conceded in last weekend's 3-2 victory at West Ham United had been easy to brush off -- footnotes buried beneath the joy and relief of a first Premier League away win in 10 months -- the first 45 minutes of Tuesday's Group B encounter at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium laid bare the depths of the malaise that the new manager must somehow attempt to dissipate.

Danny Rose, brought in for the injured Ben Davies in the only change to the starting XI that had taken to the field at London Stadium, could scarcely have done less to advance his case for a first-team place. The England left-back was at fault for both of Olympiakos' goals, gifting the ball to Youssef El Arabi for the visitors' sixth-minute opener and then falling asleep at the near post as Georgios Masouras' corner from the left was flicked on by Guilherme for Semedo to touch in the second.

Not that he was alone in fluffing his lines. Passes went astray at a rate that will have maddened Mourinho, who could at one point be seen urgently imploring Davinson Sanchez to calm down after the centre-back's crossfield pass toward Rose skidded off the turf for a throw-in. At that point, Olympiakos were everything that their opponents were not -- organised, energetic, tough in the tackle and slick in possession -- and with half-time approaching, their boisterous travelling fans would have been dreaming of a first Champions League victory in 13 attempts.

Had it not been for a calamitous mistake by Yassine Meriah in first-half stoppage time, they might yet have got there. As if afflicted by the contagion of sloppiness that seemed to be swirling around the stadium, the Tunisian centre-back completely miscued his attempt to clear Serge Aurier's low cross and Dele Alli accepted the gift to tap in his first Champions League goal since his match-winning brace against Real Madrid in November 2017.

In a reverse of September's 2-2 draw in Piraeus, this time it was Spurs' turn to come back from 2-0 down, and they duly equalised early in the second half when Aurier's quick throw-in -- abetted by a quick-thinking ball boy -- freed Lucas Moura, who scuttled to the byline before cutting the ball back for Harry Kane to level the score. There was a sense of inevitability about the four-minute salvo in which Spurs scored the two goals that carried them to victory, with Aurier slamming in a sweet half-volley after Alli's cross had been helped on by Son Heung-Min before Eriksen's free kick was headed in by Kane.

Mourinho wore a pensive look at full-time, biting his lip as the television cameras zoomed in on him as if to make it plain that were no grounds here for getting carried away. He had risked putting another player's nose out of joint 16 minutes into the second half when, with the score still 2-2, he had sent Moussa Sissoko on in place of Lucas. The Brazilian did not look best pleased.

Mourinho was at pains not to rebuke his players for their slipshod first half, explaining that many were still "tired" after their exertions during the international break, but if he is mindful that the problems that cost Pochettino his job will not evaporate overnight, he also made it clear that he will expect better against Bournemouth on Saturday.

"The next game at home, I expect the boys to start without ghosts," he said. "To start immediately open and confident to play. Because the players are very, very, very good players. So we have to play better than we did in the first half. We have to play better."

Having already shown signs of improvement in the final few matches of the Pochettino era, Alli has been a standout figure in both of Mourinho's first two games. The manager had spoken before the game of wanting to renew the "empathy" between players and fans, and there was a strong moment of solidarity when Alli made way for Ndombele in the 82nd minute, with the crowd standing to salute the 23-year-old midfielder as he slowly made his way around the perimeter of the pitch towards the bench.

Along with Aurier and the inevitable Kane and Son, Alli is emerging as a key man in the early stages of Mourinho's rebuilding job. But after this first show of power, there can be no doubting who is in charge.

Heavyweight world titleholder Deontay Wilder's one-punch, seventh-round knockout of Luis "King Kong" Ortiz in their rematch on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas officially set up perhaps the biggest fight in boxing.

The rematch between Wilder and lineal champion Tyson Fury was signed months ago, but with two interim fights apiece for each man to get through, nothing was official until Wilder got through his 10th title defense safely.

Now the fight is on for Feb. 22, most likely at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, both sides told ESPN on Tuesday. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, Fury's co-promoter with Frank Warren, said the fight will be a joint pay-per-view between ESPN, with whom Top Rank has an exclusive deal, and Fox, which has a deal with Premier Boxing Champions, where Wilder fights.

"We're going to have an announcement before Christmas, but the fight is happening Feb. 22. You can go to sleep on that," Arum said.

Arum said that next week he and Wilder's managers, Shelly Finkel and Al Haymon, who runs PBC, will meet to go over all of the logistics, including finalizing the site deal.

"It will all get worked out in early December as far as the site, but the 22nd is the date," Finkel said. "The site is not 100 percent set, but I'm not concerned about getting the site done. We'll meet about that and about when to make the official announcement, when to have a press conference. These are things that still need to get done."

Arum said he expects the fight to be held at the MGM Grand, which hosted Wilder-Ortiz as well as Fury's fight with Tom Schwarz on June 15. The casino was also the host hotel for Fury's bout with Otto Wallin, which took place on Sept. 14 at the MGM-owned T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

"There is no reason to believe the MGM won't do what they always do to attract a big fight because obviously this is the biggest fight, and no question the MGM loves to have the big fights," Arum said. "There's nothing written in stone, so Shelly is totally correct that the site is not 100 percent done, but all things being equal and the MGM does what they generally do, the fight will be at the MGM."

Arum said Feb. 22 was selected because it was an ideal date for the most promotion and marketing by ESPN and Fox.

"Everybody involved factored in that, it was the big date they could get the most bang and publicity for the event," Arum said. "The college football season is over, the NFL season is over, the playoffs haven't started yet in the NBA, and March Madness is a month away."

He said both networks will promote the fight heavily during their marquee sports telecasts, including the college football playoffs on ESPN and the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl on Fox.

Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs), 34, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs), 31, of England, first met in December 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. They turned in a memorable fight in which Fury outboxed Wilder for long stretches, but Wilder scored two knockdowns -- one in the ninth round and a huge one in the 12th round that Fury somehow survived. The fight was ruled a split draw, with the judges scoring it 115-111 for Wilder, 114-112 for Fury and 113-113.

When they finally agreed to terms for a rematch -- a third fight is part of the deal -- each man was to have two interim fights. Fury got through his with a second-round wipeout of Schwarz and an unexpectedly grueling decision win over Wallin in which Fury suffered a horrendous cut over his eye. Wilder smoked mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale in the first round on May 18 and drilled Ortiz after struggling for the first six rounds on Saturday.

Ohio State just got a promotion.

The Buckeyes have officially unseated LSU as the No. 1 team in the country this week, which means if the No. 2 Tigers can't reclaim that spot over the next two games, they will likely be facing No. 3 Clemson in a College Football Playoff semifinal.

Tigers vs. Tigers, anyone?

The move came after Ohio State beat now-No. 10 Penn State 28-17 at home on Saturday, earning its third win against a CFP Top 25 team this season. LSU, meanwhile, easily beat a 2-9 Arkansas team 56-20. The Buckeyes entered the Penn State game ranked No. 1 in the country in scoring margin at 41.7 points per game, but won by 11 points on Saturday -- their smallest margin of victory this season. It was a season-defining win that clinched the Big Ten's East division and guaranteed the Buckeyes a spot in the Big Ten championship game.

Ohio State will face the winner of Saturday's game between No. 8 Minnesota and No. 12 Wisconsin (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC), which has two losses. It's unlikely the top two spots would change after Week 14, as Ohio State ends the regular season against No. 13 Michigan in Ann Arbor, while LSU is at home against an unranked Texas A&M team.

LSU can still finish in the top spot, though, as it can punctuate its season with a win over the committee's No. 4 team Georgia in the SEC championship game. That would be a better win than anything on Ohio State's resume, but it's only part of the final discussion.

No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 Alabama held onto their positions, but No. 6 Utah moved up and is still capable of jumping into the top four over the next two rankings. If Utah beats Colorado on Saturday to clinch the Pac-12 South, it will now face No. 14 Oregon, which sank eight spots after an awful loss at Arizona State on Saturday. If the two-loss Ducks win the Pac-12, it would likely eliminate the entire conference. If Utah wins convincingly, though, it would have a shot at finishing in the top four.

At No. 18, Memphis is still leading the Group of 5 race, just ahead of No. 19 Cincinnati, but the two face each other on Friday. At No. 24 is Virginia Tech, which finally gave the ACC a second ranked team to help determine the Capital One Orange Bowl.

Here's what the bracket would look like if the playoff were today:

No. 1 Ohio State would face No. 4 Georgia in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. The selection committee makes sure the No. 1 seed is not at a geographic disadvantage, which it would be if it faced Georgia in nearby Atlanta, so No. 2 LSU will face No. 3 Clemson in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

Because the Big Ten champion, in this case Ohio State, is in a semifinal, the league's next-highest ranked team, No. 8 Minnesota, would then go to the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual, where it would face No. 6 Utah, because the Rose Bowl is also guaranteed the Pac-12 champion if it's not in a semifinal.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl, which is guaranteed an SEC team against a Big 12 team, would take No. 5 Alabama against No. 7 Oklahoma, as they are both the highest-ranked teams available from each conference.

The Capital One Orange Bowl is guaranteed the ACC champion, but since No. 3 Clemson is in a semifinal, it would take the next highest-ranked ACC team, which is No. 24 Virginia Tech. The Orange Bowl can choose the ACC's opponent from the Big Ten, SEC or Notre Dame, and No. 10 Penn State is the highest-available option.

The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic would feature No. 9 Baylor against No. 18 Memphis, which is guaranteed a spot as the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion.

(All games can be seen on ESPN and the ESPN App)

Saturday, Dec. 28
Noon ET: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: No. 9 Baylor vs. No. 18 Memphis (AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas)

4 or 8 p.m. ET: College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: No. 2 LSU vs. No. 3 Clemson (Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)

4 or 8 p.m. ET: College Football Playoff Semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl: No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 4 Georgia (State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona)

Monday, Dec. 30
8 p.m. ET: Capital One Orange Bowl: No. 10 Penn State vs. No. 24 Virginia Tech (Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida)

Wednesday, Jan. 1
5 p.m. ET: Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual: No. 6 Utah vs. No. 8 Minnesota (Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California)

8:45 p.m. ET: Allstate Sugar Bowl: No. 5 Alabama vs. No. 7 Oklahoma (Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans)

Ohio State leaped LSU as the No. 1 team in this week's edition of the College Football Playoff rankings after downing Penn State on Saturday. The Buckeyes return to the top spot, where they debuted in the season's first edition of the CFP rankings before dropping to No. 2 the last two weeks.

The rest of the top five remained unchanged, with No. 2 LSU followed by Clemson at No. 3, Georgia at No. 4 and Alabama rounding out the top 5.

Oregon (9-2) fell from No. 6 to No. 14 after an upset loss at Arizona State on Saturday night. Utah moved up one into the No. 6 spot, followed by Oklahoma at 7, Minnesota at 8, Baylor at 9 and Penn State rounding out the top 10.

LSU, which had been the top team in the past two rankings, dropped a spot by no fault of its own. The Tigers improved to 11-0 with an emphatic 56-20 win over Arkansas. But the committee determined that Ohio State's 28-17 win over a Penn State team that was ranked No. 6 at the time with a 9-1 record, was enough to bump the undefeated Buckeyes up to the top spot.

CFP Selection Committee Chair Rob Mullens said Ohio State's defense makes it the more complete team.

"Ohio State's been a complete team and that win over Penn State was their third win against teams that we currently have ranked in the top 19," Mullens said. "Ohio State's been really good on both sides of the ball.

"They're obviously both very good on the offensive side. And this week the committee felt that that win over Penn State again solidified that Ohio State's a little better on the defensive side of the ball."

Clemson, like Ohio State and LSU, remains undefeated after having the weekend off.

Georgia's offense struggled but the Bulldogs persevered to improved to 10-1 with a 19-13 win over Texas A&M. Alabama, in its first game since losing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to season-ending hip surgery, rolled in a 66-3 win over Western Carolina. New starter Mac Jones completed 10-of-12 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns.

The fifth and penultimate reveal of the CFP rankings is set for Dec. 3. The final rankings, which will reveal the New Year's Six teams and set the field for the College Football Playoff, is Dec. 8.

With games against ranked conference rivals on Saturday, Ohio State and Alabama will be perhaps the most tested top-five teams in the regular season's final games before conference championships. The Buckeyes visit No. 13 Michigan, and the Tide travel to No. 15 Auburn for the annual "Iron Bowl."

LSU hosts Texas A&M on Saturday, Clemson visits South Carolina and Georgia plays at Georgia Tech.

Minnesota, which hosts No. 12 Wisconsin on Saturday, has an outside shot at the CFP with a win. The Gophers would play Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and the Allstate Playoff Predictor gives them a 48% chance to reach the playoff with a win in that scenario.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr says he has never seen anything quite like the injury situation his team is dealing with, while noting that he has been calling the healthy remaining players on the roster the "Elite Eight" as they continue to play under adverse circumstances.

"We could have used Draymond Green and D'Angelo Russell for sure," Kerr said with a bit of a chuckle after Tuesday's film session, in the wake of a 100-97 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night. "And Kevon Looney would have been very helpful. Jacob Evans would have helped. You need bodies in the NBA, especially to get through the long haul. And playing eight guys, as long as I've been doing this, 30, 31 years in the league, it seems like maybe once or twice a year you have eight guys. Maybe, because of crazy circumstances.

"So for us to be doing this almost routinely now is -- I've never seen it. So it's a testament to the group, the 'Elite Eight,' that I like to call them. The Elite Eight's doing a hell of a job hanging in there."

Rookies Jordan Poole and Ky Bowman are two of just three players who have appeared in all 18 games for Golden State, along with Glenn Robinson III; Eric Paschall, Marquese Chriss and Omari Spellman have each appeared in 17, and Alec Burks and Willie Cauley-Stein in 15 each.

The Warriors, who come into Wednesday's game against the Chicago Bulls with a league-worst 3-15 record, continue to deal with a litany of injuries.

Star guard Stephen Curry broke his hand Oct. 30 and is out for at least three months. All-Star swingman Klay Thompson continues to rehab a left ACL injury and his status for the season remains unclear. Looney has been out since playing 10 minutes in a season-opening loss to the LA Clippers because of a nerve condition. Veteran leader Green has missed nine games already because of a finger injury and then a heel injury.

Rookie Alen Smailagic has not played all season because of an ankle injury. Evans has been out since Oct. 28 because of an adductor injury. Russell has been out since Nov. 15 after spraining his thumb and will be sidelined at least another week.

Guard Damion Lee has been out since suffering a non-displaced fracture in his right hand in a Nov. 11 loss to the Utah Jazz.

Despite the setbacks, Kerr has tried to remain positive with his young team. While it has been tough to watch the injuries and losses pile up, Kerr remains outwardly optimistic, even after the group blew a 10-point lead in the final three minutes of regulation in Monday's loss to the Thunder.

"I think it's important to keep accentuating the positives," Kerr said. "We've gotten a lot better the last few weeks. And [it's] not easy playing with eight guys. The effort was there and the defensive consistency has improved dramatically. The offensive execution for the most part during the game was purposeful. We took care of the ball, we moved the ball. Fourth quarter when the pressure came we didn't execute, but that's kind of the next step for this young group. So that's what we're aiming to improve upon as a group. The players, but also the coaches. We have to do our part to put them in the best position to succeed.

"So it's kind of one step at a time, and having said all that, I've been doing this for a long time in one capacity or another, and I see a lot of really positive things from this team. We're going to get some people back, we've been hampered by a lot of injuries, but we get [Russell] back, we get [Looney] back, we get [Green] back, what the young guys have done, what they've helped to build in the early part of the season foundationally -- we're going to start winning some games. We just got to keep doing what we're doing."

What makes things even more difficult for the Warriors is that they don't have a lot of roster flexibility because of moves that were made over the summer after star forward Kevin Durant decided to sign with the Brooklyn Nets in free agency.

"We're literally unable to add an extra guy because we're hard-capped by the [Russell] sign-and-trade," Kerr explained. "So right now there's actually nothing we can do about it. ... We want to maintain our flexibility because remember, one of our eight guys, our starting point guard, is on a two-way and he's quickly using up his days, and one of our injured players is another, and so it doesn't make sense to burn through the final few hundred thousand dollars we can spend with that."

The good news for the Warriors is that Green took some shots after Tuesday's film session and is questionable for Wednesday's game, while Looney is expected to return at some point during the Warriors' upcoming five-game road trip after returning to practice Sunday. It has been a rough start to the season for an organization that has gone to five consecutive NBA Finals, but Kerr remains steadfast in his belief that better days are ahead.

"We didn't eliminate Steph from the picture until his injury, so we spent all of training camp doing a lot of the things that we did last year," Kerr said. "And then once Steph got hurt we had to revamp everything. So we've been doing a lot of stuff on the fly, but over the last couple weeks it feels like the group has jelled. Hopefully that will start showing up more in terms of wins instead of losses."

Two-time All-Star catcher Stephen Vogt has agreed to a one-year deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks, sources tell ESPN's Jeff Passan

The deal includes a vesting option for a second season. Financial terms weren't immediately available.

Vogt, 35, spent this past season with the Giants, hitting .263 with 10 home runs and 40 RBIs in 99 games.

Carson Kelly saw the majority of action behind the plate for Arizona last season, hitting .245 with 18 home runs and 47 RBIs in 111 games.

HOUSTON -- Catcher Dustin Garneau agreed to a one-year contract with the Houston Astros, with whom he figures to compete for a backup role.

Robinson Chirinos and Martín Maldonado became free agents from the American League champions, so the addition of Garneau likely will not be the final catching move. Garneau, 32, hit .244 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 35 games this year for the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics, who claimed him off waivers on Aug. 3.

Garneau is a .207 hitter in parts of five seasons at the major league level. He has eight home runs and 38 RBIs in his career.

TOPEKA, Kan. – The Western Conference 2020 SCCA U.S. Majors Tour competition calendar has been released.

Six different venues will host Western Conference events this year for a total of 12 races. The season again opens in Southern California in January and travels up the Pacific Coast over five months to finish in Washington.

Half of the six events will be three-day weekends. Two events on the Western Conference schedule are Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour series dates, with those events being at Buttonwillow Raceway Park and Portland Int’l Raceway. Competitors should be aware, however, that the annual Buttonwillow Raceway Park event has been moved up from April to February.

As always, the calendar below is subject to change, but the current 2020 U.S. Majors Tour Western Conference schedule is comprised of the following:

– Jan. 24-26: Auto Club Speedway; Fontana, Calif.

– Feb. 21-23: Buttonwillow Raceway Park; Buttonwillow, Calif.

– March 21-22: Willow Springs Raceway; Rosamond, Calif.

– April 3-5: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca; Salinas, Calif.

– May 16-17: Portland International Raceway; Portland, Ore.

– May 23-24: Pacific Raceways; Kent, Wash.