Manchester City’s crisis continued with a 2-0 defeat away to Juventus in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, while Pep Guardiola’s old club Barcelona beat Borussia Dortmund to clinch a spot in the knockout stage of Europe’s elite club competition.
Arsenal, AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Lille, Feyenoord and Stuttgart were also victorious, but City’s latest loss in a miserable run is likely to dominate the headlines.
Last year’s European champions succumbed in Turin as Dusan Vlahovic put Juventus ahead early in the second half when goalkeeper Ederson was unable to keep out his header.
Photo: Reuters
Ilkay Gundogan was denied an equalizer by a fine Michele Di Gregorio save, before Weston McKennie made it 2-0 with a fine acrobatic finish in the 75th minute.
The result leaves Juventus on 11 points with two games left, a tally that is expected to be enough to guarantee them at least a place in the knockout phase playoffs.
Meanwhile, City have now won just once in 10 in all competitions, with seven defeats in that time.
With just eight points, they sit 22nd in the standings, in which the top 24 advance to the knockouts. Their next game would be crucial, as they travel to a Paris Saint-Germain side who sit a point beneath Guardiola’s men.
“We have to get points, we’ll go to Paris to try and do that and the same goes for the final match at home [to Club Brugge],” Guardiola told Amazon Prime in Italy.
Barcelona are second in the standings with 15 points, behind only Liverpool, after beating Dortmund 3-2 in a thriller in Germany, with Ferran Torres their hero.
Raphinha fired Barca ahead with his 17th goal of the season, early in a remarkable second half.
Serhou Guirassy equalized with a penalty on the hour mark, but substitute Torres put Barca back in front on 75 minutes, converting the loose ball after Fermin Lopez’s shot was saved.
Guirassy scored again for a quick equaliser, only for Torres to strike once more and win the game for Barca with five minutes left.
Barcelona’s tally leaves them, like Liverpool, ideally placed to finish in the top eight, which means direct progress to the last- 16 without having to go through the playoffs.
Arsenal are third in the standings on 13 points after easing to a 3-0 win over Monaco in London.
Bukayo Saka scored twice, putting the Gunners ahead in the first half and making it 2-0 on 78 minutes as the hosts pounced on disastrous Monaco defending.
Saka then turned provider for the late third, with substitute Kai Havertz credited with the final touch.
Mikel Arteta’s team are one of six sides on 13 points, with Lille also on that tally after edging Sturm Graz 3-2 in France thanks to a fine late winner from Hakon Haraldsson.
Lille were 2-0 up through Osame Sahraoui and Mitchel Bakker, only for goals by Otar Kiteishvili and Mika Biereth to bring the Austrian champions back level.
However, Icelandic midfielder Haraldsson secured Lille’s fourth win of the campaign.
Atletico eased to a 3-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava, with Antoine Griezmann scoring twice after Julian Alvarez had opened the scoring with an excellent strike.
David Strelec pulled one back for the Slovaks, who are one of three teams already eliminated having lost six games out of six. The others are RB Leipzig and Young Boys.
Milan defeated Red Star Belgrade 2-1 at San Siro with Tammy Abraham grabbing the winner three minutes from time.
Rafael Leao had put Milan ahead only for Nemanja Radonjic to equalize for the Serbian side, who have lost five of their six games and are surely heading out.
Benfica edged closer to a playoff spot with a 0-0 draw at home to Bologna of Italy, who have scored just one goal in six games and will go no further.
Feyenoord stayed on course to go through after beating Sparta Prague 4-2 in Rotterdam, with Gernot Trauner, Igor Paixao, Anis Hadj Moussa and Santiago Gimenez netting their goals.
Stuttgart kept alive their hopes of progress by coming from behind to beat Young Boys 5-1.
Lukasz Lakomy put Young Boys ahead but Angelo Stiller levelled before Enzo Millot, Chris Fuehrich, Josha Vagnoman and Yannik Keitel all scored in the second half.
The next round of Champions League games is scheduled for Jan. 21 and 22, with the league phase concluding the following week.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS