Cesc Fabregas scored a late winner from the penalty spot as AS Monaco came from two goals down to stun reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain 3-2 in Ligue 1 on Friday.
Kylian Mbappe had netted a first-half brace, including a penalty, against his former side, taking him to 99 goals for PSG and leaving his team seemingly on course for a ninth consecutive league win.
However, German international Kevin Volland struck twice for Monaco after the break and Fabregas converted in the 84th minute after Abdou Diallo had been sent off for conceding the penalty.
Photo: Reuters
PSG remain clear at the top of Ligue 1, but the result is a major setback for Thomas Tuchel’s team before a crucial Champions League tie against RB Leipzig on Wednesday.
“I am more surprised than I am angry,” said Tuchel, who was also disappointed to see further first-half goals for Mbappe and Moise Kean disallowed. “I saw two totally different halves. First of all we completely controlled the game ... and then the second half was completely different. I can only say it is our responsibility.”
Niko Kovac’s Monaco climbed to second on the table, four points behind PSG, but Lille OSC can reclaim second spot and move to within two points of the leaders if they beat Lorient today.
Photo: AFP
“If you come back from two down to win 3-2, it is for sure something special, but I don’t want to glorify it too much,” Kovac said. “We cannot stop and say everything is done. It was a big victory, but nothing more.”
Elsewhere, Stade Rennais warmed up for their Champions League rematch against Chelsea in the worst possible fashion, going down to a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Girondins de Bordeaux.
French international Hatem Ben Arfa scored the only goal of the game against his old club, collecting a Samuel Kalu pass and firing in low on his left foot from the edge of the box after 36 minutes.
Ben Arfa played in the Rennes side who won the Coupe de France last year before departing for a short-lived spell in Spain with Valladolid and signing for Bordeaux last month.
Despite seeing teenage France midfield sensation Eduardo Camavinga make his return from injury, Rennes have now won just once in nine games, a run that includes the first three group games of their debut Champions League campaign.
Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin has signed for the Golden State Warriors’ G League affiliate, Santa Cruz Warriors, ahead of the 2020-2021 season, the team said on Saturday. Lin spent the 2019-2020 season with the Chinese Basketball Association’s Beijing Ducks and guided them to the semi-finals, before they lost to eventual champions Guangdong Southern Tigers. He left the team in September. The 32-year-old began his NBA career with the Warriors in 2010 before joining the New York Knicks, where his strong performance in the 2011-2012 season gave rise to the term “Linsanity.” Lin also had spells with the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets,
‘NEED TO WIN’: World No. 292 Anastasia Gasanova said she was ‘really surprised’ after recording her first victory over a top 100 player in defeating Karolina Pliskova Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday endured a grueling schedule at the Abu Dhabi WTA Women’s Tennis Open, losing a tight three-set second-round singles match, before bouncing back to edge a nail-biter and advance to the quarter-finals of the doubles. After her shock defeat of eighth seed Marketa Vondrousova in the first round on Thursday, Hsieh fell to a 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 defeat to world No. 99 Marta Kostyuk in 2 hours, 14 minutes. The Taiwanese world No. 67 converted six of eight break points, but could only save six of 14 as the 18-year-old Ukrainian edged her first encounter on the
VIRUS RISK: India’s Saina Nehwal tested positive for COVID-19 at the Yonex Thailand Open, while three other players were being retested after receiving conflicting results Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday returned to international competition after an eight-month break with a victory at the Yonex Thailand Open in Bangkok. Twenty-six-year-old Tai, 26, the top-seeded player at the tournament, met 18-year-old Thai player Benyapa Aimsaard in the opening round and narrowly won 21-18, 26-24. Her previous tournament was the Yonex All England Open in March last year, where she won the women’s singles title, before the BWF World Tour was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Benyapa was a last-minute replacement after another Thai player pulled out of the event. It was a rollercoaster match for Tai.
NO FAIRY TALE: Non-league Marine tried to bridge the biggest gap between opponents in FA Cup history, but the part-timers fell to a 5-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur Leeds United on Sunday suffered a humiliating FA Cup exit against Crawley Town as the League Two side swept to a stunning 3-0 win, while eighth-tier Marine’s hopes of causing the competition’s greatest shock were crushed in a 5-0 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur. After the spiking COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with matches across the third round on Friday and Saturday, the FA Cup was back on more familiar ground on Sunday as Leeds became the competition’s latest big name to be knocked out by feisty underdogs. While Marine’s romantic adventure was cut short by a Carlos Vinicius hat-trick, and Chelsea and Manchester