Guy Lacombe’s resurgent Monaco side threw a spanner into Paris Saint-Germain’s drive for league honors this season with a dramatic 2-0 win in the Principality on Sunday.
South Korean Park Chu-young opened the scoring with a fine solo effort in the 85th minute and Brazilian midfield partner Nene added a second barely three minutes later as PSG went into meltdown and finished the match a man down.
After a lively first half both sides failed to produce the same fireworks and it took until the 68th minute for a sniff of a goal to emerge.
PHOTO: AFP
Peguy Luyindula sprung a counter-attack and carried the ball deep into Monaco territory where defender Cedric Mongongu’s superb tackle dispossessed the PSG forward.
Barely seven minutes later the match was temporarily halted by the referee following the throwing of flares on to the pitch by fans, resuming a few minutes later and going on to become even more dramatic.
Park, launching a threatening counter-attack unleashed a low angled drive that beat Gregpry Coupet in the PSG goal.
Luyindula missed a great chance to level a minute later when his header from Christophe Jallet’s cross just shaved Stephane Ruffier’s goalpost.
But Monaco virtually ended the match in the 88th minute when Alejandro Alonso set up Nene who beat Coupet with a great left-footed long range strike.
Bordeaux, on 13 points, lead Lyon on goal difference after their 1-0 win over Grenoble on Saturday.
Earlier on Sunday struggling Auxerre grabbed their first win of the new campaign thanks a 2-0 home win against Nice.
Rennes beat Saint Etienne 1-0 to secure sixth place in the league, leaving Alain Perrin’s side, with only one win from five games, second from bottom above Grenoble.
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Polish partner Jan Zielinski on Saturday survived a tough 90-minute round-of-16 match to advance to the mixed doubles quarter-finals of the US Open and stay in contention for a third Grand Slam title, while Jannik Sinner stormed into the last 16 as fellow world No. 1 Iga Swiatek stayed on course for a second New York triumph. Seventh seeds and Australian Open winners Hsieh and Zielinksi took 1 hour, 29 minutes to beat Mexico’s Giuliana Olmos and Santiago Gonzalez 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 10-6. Hsieh, 38, and Zielinski, 27, are eyeing their third Grand Slam title this year, after
HOMETOWN HERO: The Taichung Sports Bureau said it would award Lin NT$600,000 plus a NT$50,000 appearance award for her performance in Paris Taiwan’s Lin Tzu-yu and Tian Shiau-wen late on Saturday won the silver medal in the table tennis women’s doubles WD20 class at the Paris Paralympics, winning Taiwan’s second medal of this year’s games. The top-seeded duo missed the gold, losing to Australia’s Lei Li Na and Yang Qian in the 29-minute final in South Paris Arena 4. Lin and Tian struggled to adjust early in the match, losing the first two games 7-11 and 6-11. Although they fought back to win the third game 11-3 and took the lead in the fourth game, they were unable to take advantage of their game point