Viktor Gyokeres on Tuesday scored a hat-trick as Ruben Amorim’s Sporting Lisbon stunned Manchester City with a 4-1 win in the UEFA Champions League, while Liverpool trounced Xabi Alonso’s Bayer 04 Leverkusen and AC Milan beat holders Real Madrid in Spain.
Sporting stole the show with their performance in Lisbon, but the Portuguese champions had to come from behind after Phil Foden put City ahead early on.
Amorim was hoping to sign off from the Champions League in style as Sporting coach before he joins Manchester United on Monday next week, and Gyokeres then took center stage.
Photo: AFP
The Swedish striker equalized seven minutes before half-time, holding off Champions League debutant Jahmai Simpson-Pusey as he ran through to finish.
Sporting then went ahead 19 seconds into the second half as Maximiliano Araujo finished off a fine move, and shortly after that Gyokeres converted a penalty following a foul by Josko Gvardiol.
City could have pulled one back, but Erling Haaland hit the bar from the spot. Gyokeres showed Haaland how to do it as he scored his second spot-kick to complete a hat-trick, condemning City to their heaviest losing margin in Europe since a 3-0 loss to Liverpool in April 2018.
Gyokeres has 23 goals in 17 games in all competitions this season and would surely be the next star to leave Sporting for a bigger club elsewhere following Amorim’s departure.
“It was written that it had to be like that I think; there is no other explanation,” Amorim, at Sporting since 2020, said of a famous victory. “I think everyone who has been here in the last four years deserved this. It was a special night.”
Bernardo Silva said that City are in a “dark place” after the shock humiliation, but Pep Guardiola vowed to solve his spluttering side’s problems.
For only the second time in the Guardiola era, City had suffered three consecutive losses in a single season.
It was a painful return to Portugal for Lisbon-born Silva, who conceded City are mired in a damaging slump.
“It’s disappointing because we’re a bit in a dark place right now. Everything looks to be going in the wrong way,” he said. “Even when we are playing well we don’t score our chances and we concede too easily. We need to get better very quickly otherwise it will be very difficult to come back from these losses.”
City’s first defeat in four games in this season’s Champions League should not be fatal to their European ambitions, but Guardiola cannot fail to be alarmed by the way his injury-riddled defense was run ragged.
“We had a fantastic first half, now we are struggling to score. We create and concede when the opponents don’t do much,” Guardiola said. “At 2-1 down, many things can happen. Emotionally we were not stable enough and in this competition you have to be stable.”
City have seven points at the halfway stage in the new-look Champions League, while Sporting are second on 10 points, behind only Liverpool, who are the sole team with the maximum 12 points.
Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick as the Anfield club secured a statement 4-0 win over Leverkusen on the night Alonso returned to Merseyside, with all the goals coming in the second half, while Real Madrid suffered their second loss in four games in the competition this season as they went down 3-1 at home to Milan.
AS Monaco are third in the standings with 10 points following a 1-0 victory at Bologna and Borussia Dortmund are fourth on nine points after Donyell Malen’s 85th-minute goal gave them a 1-0 win at home to Sturm Graz.
Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty allowed Juventus to come from behind and draw 1-1 at Lille OSC, while Celtic have seven points after a 3-1 win against RB Leipzig/
PSV Eindhoven crushed Girona 4-0 and Dinamo Zagreb beat Slovan Bratislava 4-1.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
AGING WELL: Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, 22, was sent packing after being dispatched by world No. 97, Laura Siegemund, the second-oldest player in the draw at 36 Novak Djokovic yesterday created a slice of Grand Slam history on his way into the Australian Open third round, but last year’s women’s finalist Zheng Qinwen was knocked out in the biggest shock so far. Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, in-form Coco Gauff, two-time Melbourne winner Naomi Osaka and a rampant Carlos Alcaraz were all victors on a rainy day four. Play was suspended on the outside courts for a couple of hours in the early evening because of the wet weather. That led to the rescheduling of a women’s doubles match between wild-cards Tsao Chia-yi of Taiwan and Thailand’s Peangtarn Plipuech and 11th
RSS