Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday helped Paris Saint-Germain move to the top of Group F in the UEFA Champions League with a 3-0 victory over AC Milan, while Newcastle United slumped to their first defeat, 1-0 against Borussia Dortmund.
Erling Haaland was back on the scoresheet as Manchester City won 3-1 away against BSC Young Boys, while Celtic drew 2-2 in Glasgow against Atletico Madrid.
Goals from Mbappe, Randal Kolo Muani and Lee Kang-in in Paris against Milan sent PSG top of their closely contested group with six points.
Photo: AFP
The deadlock was broken just after the half-hour mark when Mbappe received the ball from Warren Zaire-Emery, unbalanced Fikayo Tomori and then wrong-footed compatriot Mike Maignan with a smart, low finish.
Ousmane Dembele thought he had doubled the hosts’ advantage on 50 minutes only for a video check to disallow it for a foul in the buildup.
Kolo Muani, the third member of PSG’s French front three, did double the lead three minutes later with a close-range tap-in before Lee struck.
Photo: AP
“We are very proud of our performance,” Kolo Muani told Canal+. “Winning these games gives everyone confidence.”
Newcastle suffered a home defeat by Borussia Dortmund, which saw the German team move above them into second place on head-to-head.
It was a tight encounter with Dortmund edging it thanks to a first-half goal from Felix Nmecha.
Photo: AFP
Nmecha gave Borussia a deserved lead on the stroke of halftime with a well-controlled finish following excellent defensive and then creative work by Nico Schlotterbeck.
Newcastle nearly claimed a point in the closing stages of the match when Callum Wilson’s header struck the crossbar, before a Anthony Gordon chance was deflected on to the woodwork.
“With the first half, we deserved to win, and the second half we protected the win,” Dortmund coach Edin Terzic told TNT Sports.
Manchester City made it three from three to top Group G, with Manuel Akanji’s goal and a Haaland brace seeing off Young Boys in Switzerland.
Man City endured a frustrating first period on a plastic pitch in Bern, with Young Boys goalkeeper Anthony Racioppi producing several fine saves.
Immediately after halftime a stunning save from the Swiss goalkeeper saw the ball rebound off the crossbar and fall straight to Akanji.
The hosts stunned the Champions League holders on 52 minutes when Meschack Elia broke clear of the defense and lobbed a finish over the advancing Ederson.
However, hopes of an upset were extinguished when Haaland broke his five-game goal drought in the competition with a penalty in the 67th minute.
After a Julian Alvarez goal was disallowed, the Norwegian striker produced a fine finish to round off a 3-1 win.
“I am sorry, but this guy will score goals all his life, with the chances he is an incredible threat,” City coach Pep Guardiola said of Haaland.
In Germany, RB Leipzig created a five-point buffer for themselves in Group G’s second position with a 3-1 win against Red Star Belgrade, thanks to David Raum, a second-half stunner from starlet Xavi Simons and Dani Olmo.
The points were shared between Celtic and Atletico in a lively draw, which saw the hosts pick up their first point of the campaign.
Celtic took the lead early when Kyogo Furuhashi lifted the ball beyond Jan Oblak in the fourth minute, completing a fine team move.
On 23 minutes, Joe Hart tipped an Antoine Griezmann penalty onto the post only for it to rebound perfectly to the Frenchman, who made no mistake second time round.
The hosts sprang back immediately when a 27th-minute cross fell at the back stick to Luis Palma, who hammered the ball back across the unsighted Oblak.
Alvaro Morata got Atletico back into the tie on 53 minutes when he sent a perfectly judged header back across Hart and into the net.
Rodrigo de Paul picked up a late second yellow card, but the hosts were unable to turn their numerical advantage into a winner.
Feyenoord moved into top spot in Group E following a 3-1 victory against SS Lazio in the pool’s early game.
A Santiago Gimenez brace and first goal for summer signing Ramiz Zerrouki saw the Dutch side home, despite a late penalty converted by Pedro for Lazio, who dropped into third.
Barcelona saw out a win at home 2-1 against Shakhtar Donetsk thanks to first-half strikes from Ferran Torres and Fermin Lopez, making it three from three for the Group H leaders.
Porto came from behind in Belgium to beat Royal Antwerp 4-1, with all their goals coming in the second half courtesy of an Evanilson hat-trick and Stephen Eustaquio.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS