second-half minutes to secure the points for Hull.Cardiff City forward Rickie Lambert, who has played with Southampton and Liverpool during his career, sees this as a tight fixture.Its going to be a great

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Katie Ledecky is racing herself in the 400-meter freestyle.Yulia Efimova and the U.S. mens relay team are just glad to have a shot at a medal.Coming back after anchoring the Americans to a relay silver on the opening day of swimming, Ledecky nearly broke her own world record in the preliminaries Sunday, setting herself up as the overwhelming favorite to capture her first gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.Ledecky posted a time of 3 minutes, 58.71 seconds, actually backing off a bit on the closing lap to conserve energy for the late-night final. She just missed her mark of 3:58.37 set in 2014.No one is even close to Ledecky. The next-fastest qualifier was Britains Jazz Carlin, who was more than 4 seconds behind.Thats the easiest its felt to go under 4 minutes, Ledecky said, barely breathing hard. So that bodes well for tonight.Efimova heard a smattering of boos at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium after winning her heat, having only been cleared to compete days before the games.Revelations of a state-sponsored doping system in her native Russia led to Efimova being banned from Rio because of a previous 16-month suspension for doping, not to mention another positive test this year for the now-banned substance meldonium. That result was placed on hold while world anti-doping officials conduct further studies on the drug.After appealing their penalties, Efimova and up to six other Russian swimmers were quietly approved to compete in Rio. She posted the second-fastest time in the preliminaries at 1:05.79, just one-hundredth of a second behind American Lilly King.Stopping briefly in the mixed zone, the reigning world champion answered a single question from The Associated Press.Well, I dont know what to say, Efimova said, smiling and shrugging her shoulders. I mean, I was crazy the last half-year and just dont understand whats going on and everything. Im just happy to be here and Im ready to race.When pressed on criticism from rival swimmers and coaches, she smiled and walked away.Meanwhile, the Americans made up for a debacle at last years world championships by easily qualifying for the final of the mens 4x100 freestyle relay.The team of Jimmy Feigen, Ryan Held, Blake Pieroni and Anthony Ervin posted the second-fastest time in the prelims at 3:12.38.Russia was the top qualifier at 3:12.04, setting up what figures to be a thrilling, four-country fight for the gold medal. Australia and defending Olympic champion France are also in the mix after qualifying third and fourth.Now, the real fun begins as the countries break out their big guns for the evening final. The U.S. figures to come back with Nathan Adrian, Caeleb Dressel and 18-time gold medalist Michael Phelps, who could be joined by Ervin after the 35-year-old posted the fastest individual time in the prelims (47.65).Australia rested up Cameron McEvoy, France has Florent Manaudou in reserve, while Russia can turn to Vladimir Morozov -- another of the doping-tainted swimmers given last-minute approval to compete in Rio.The U.S. didnt even qualify for the final of the 4x100 free relay last year at the worlds in Kazan, an embarrassing setback for the worlds most dominant swimming nation.Thats ancient history, man, Ervin said.Assuming Phelps joins the relay for the final, as hes done at the last three Olympics, hell have a good shot to add to his already staggering haul of 18 golds and 22 medals overall.In other preliminaries, Kathleen Baker of the U.S. was fastest in the womens 100 backstroke, Chinas Sun Yang led the way in the mens 200 freestyle and Camille Lacourt of France set the pace in the mens 100 back.---Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 . 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Liverpool are returning from the international break in some unfamiliar territory as Jurgen Klopps side enters Saturdays clash with Southampton at St. Marys Stadium on top of the Premier League table with 26 points.The Reds also will try to run their unbeaten stretch to an impressive 13 games over all competitions.Liverpools lone defeat came in an uncharacteristic 2-0 slip to Burnley in which they held nearly 80 percent of possession, yet failed to get one past keeper Tom Heaton.The Reds (8-2-1) have already collected away wins against Chelsea and Arsenal, and managed draws versus Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur away from home. With Chelsea, Manchester City and the Gunners all within two points, the fixtures in December and January will go a long way toward deciding if Liverpool can widen their lead at the top.Beginning with this fixture, the Reds have a stretch of winnable matches against the likes of Sunderland, Bournemouth, West Ham, Middlesbrough, Everton, Stoke City and a home date with Man City on New Years Eve.If they want to remain at the summit by the turn of the year, Klopps boys will have to continue to churn out stellar performances similar to the way they dismantled Watford, 6-1, at Anfield prior to the break.Liverpools feared midfield core of Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane have been the stars of the show thus far. They did plenty of damage against the struggling Hornets as Mane hit for a brace to go with goals from Firmino and Coutinho.Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum also scored during the rout.Liverpool have seemingly been the talk of the league, but the Klopp insists he does not listen to the noise coming from outside the walls of the clubs Melwood training ground.Of course, its better that they think something like this, than they say thank God its Liverpool at the weekend, so quite an easy game, Klopp told Goal.com. But in the end its not a big value for us, what other teams think about us -- its good and its posiitive but not too important.ddddddddddddThe main thing is that we actually think about ourselves: Yeah, we are quite a good team. We have big expectations on ourselves and Im not pessimistic, Im really optimistic, but I dont like to make these positive assessments all the time and say we are really good -- my God, how good are we?The Reds could be missing one of those midfield cogs as Lallanas status for Saturday is not yet known after he limped off the pitch in midweek during Englands 2-2 draw with Spain in a friendly.Southampton find themselves in decent position upon returning from the international break in 10th place. Claude Puels Saints (3-4-4) are aiming to snap a three-match winless run following a 2-1 defeat to Hull City at KCOM Stadium prior to the international hiatus.Charlie Austin converted a penalty after six minutes to stake the visitors to an early lead, but Robert Snodgrass and Michael Dawson struck in the span of two second-half minutes to secure the points for Hull.Cardiff City forward Rickie Lambert, who has played with Southampton and Liverpool during his career, sees this as a tight fixture.Its going to be a great game and a hard one to call, he told Premier League Productions. Liverpools unbelievable going forward at the moment but I think Southampton are one of the strongest teams defensively and as a team, going forward and defending, Southampton are a very, very good team.Southampton have conceded 12 league goals and are allowing a league-low 9.4 shots per contest. Theyll need to find a way to contain Liverpools attacking power if they hope to get a result.Each of the past eight matches in this fixture have seen a winner, with Southampton winning five and Liverpool winning three. Southampton collected four points against Liverpool last season, including a 3-2 home win in March. The sides drew 1-1 at Anfield in October. ' ' '