Sports
Benfica sink Barcelona 3-0 to bottom of Group E, Bayern win 5-0
Barcelona have suffered a second defeat in two games and from now on can’t afford any more slip-ups if they are to progress from Champions League Group E. Ronald Koeman’s former club, Benfica, took an early lead and although the Catalans had a host of opportunities to get back into the game, the Portuguese side were eventually able to build on that lead in the second half.
The result leaves Barça bottom of the group for the time being, but there’s a lot more football to be played, beginning with back-to-back games with Dynamo Kyiv on October 20 and November 2.
Buoyed by an infectious atmosphere inside the Stadium of Light, the home side flew at Barça and Darwin Nuñez fired them into the lead after just two minutes. A finely crafted and finished goal by the Uruguayan, but anything but the start that Barça needed.
The blaugrana response was immediate. For all the remainder of the first half the big plays were all in the direction of the Portuguese goal and it is difficult to fathom how not one of them ended with the ball in the back of the net.
Frenkie de Jong, on the night of his 100th appearance for the club, set up his compatriot and namesake Luuk twice to no avail. Frenkie had a couple of pops of his own and there were fine chances for Pedri and Memphis too, but Barça were still trailing at the break.
That wasn’t for lack of chances, but none of them had hit the target, and sadly that statistic wasn’t going to change after the break.
Other than the goal, Benfica may have battled hard and well to keep the Catalans at bay, but they’d created very little threat of their own. They found new verve in the second half and the closest of a number of chances in quick succession came when Nuñez caught Ter Stegen well off his line and ended up hitting the post.
That had been a let-off, but on 68 minutes Benfica did stretch their lead. Barça had lacking their tight shape of the first half and an unmarked Rafa Silva was able to convert the rebound after a previous effort had been cleared.
And there was further woe ten minutes later when Sergiño Dest handled in the area and Darwin Nuñez poked the penalty home. Benfica had only scored once in their last six meetings with Barça, but tonight they had three.
Meanwhile, for Barça it was the first time they had lost their first two games of a European campaign since losing twice to FC Porto in 1972.
To rub salt into the wounds, Barça played the final minutes with ten men after Eric Garcia was red-carded, but by that stage the game was already looking like a lost cause.
Bayern win
In the other game in Group E, Bayern Munich thrashed Dynamo 5-0, with Lewandowski scoring twice in the first half, and Gnarby, Sane and Choupo-Moting adding three more in the second. The result leaves the Germans flying high with six points, Benfica have four, Dynamo one and Barça none.
Sports
UCL: Füllkrug gives Dortmund 1-0 first-leg win over PSG
UCL: Füllkrug gives Dortmund 1-0 first-leg win over PSG
Jadon Sancho put in a performance of a lifetime as Borussia Dortmund’s Niclas Füllkrug fired in a first-half goal to seal a 1-0 victory over visitors Paris St Germain in a compelling Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday.
Nico Schlotterbeck floated a pass into Füllkrug’s path and the Germany forward controlled the ball with a perfect first touch before drilling a low shot past keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 36th minute.
PSG, fresh from being crowned Ligue 1 champions and desperate to win their first-ever Champions League trophy, found it hard going against a disciplined German defence, especially in the first half with forward Kylian Mbappe largely neutralised.
With the return leg in Paris next Tuesday, the winner of the tie will face either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, who drew 2-2 in their first leg in Germany, in the final at Wembley on June 1.
“It was a well-deserved win, a good team performance,” said Dortmund coach Edin Terzic. “We could have scored more goals, but so could they.”
“That’s why the result is OK from my point of view. We ran a lot, but that’s necessary in a game like this.”
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“You have to earn your way to Wembley. All we need now is a draw in the second leg, but we also want to win next week.”
The win also confirmed Germany will get a fifth qualifying spot for next season’s Champions League, with Dortmund being the main beneficiaries at the moment, sitting in fifth place in the Bundesliga with three games left to play.
Dortmund went close just before halftime with Marcel Sabitzer but Donnaruma blocked his shot. The French side improved after the break and went agonisingly close to an equaliser in the 52nd minute with Mbappe curling a shot onto the far post and then Achraf Hakimi also hitting the woodwork on the rebound.
Four minutes later Fabian Ruiz saw his stooping header sail wide after being left completely unmarked in the box before Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel kept out Ousmane Dembele’s close range effort in the 71st.
Dortmund, winners in 1997 and looking to reach their first final since 2013, soaked up the pressure as PSG’s Vitinha narrowly missed the target 10 minutes later.
The German team defeated Spanish opposition, Atletico Madrid 5-4 on aggregate to reach the semis and would hope to do so to get pass PSG in Paris.
UCL: Füllkrug gives Dortmund 1-0 first-leg win over PSG
Sports
UCL: Vinicius scores double as Real Madrid hold Bayern Munich in semi-final showdown
UCL: Vinicius scores double as Real Madrid hold Bayern Munich in semi-final showdown
In Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg, Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior scored double, including an 83rd-minute equalizing penalty, to secure a 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich.
Vinicius gave Real the lead after 24 minutes, but Bayern took control of the game in four second-half minutes, with Leroy Sane scoring and Harry Kane converting a penalty.
Kim Min-jae practices judo. shoved Rodrygo in the box with eight minutes remaining, and Vinicius stepped up, drowning out a chorus of shouts and whistles to blast home.
The draw puts Madrid in the driving seat ahead of next week’s return leg at the Santiago Bernabeu. Bayern, who dominated large parts of the match, will still have hopes of making it to Wembley’s final in June.
Before the match, the Bayern fans unveiled a giant banner depicting Franz Beckenbauer which spanned all the way from the grass to the rafters. It was a fitting tribute on a night featuring the most-played fixture in European Cup history.
Famed for their composure on the biggest of stages in this competition, the 14-time winners struggled early, Bayern dominating possession and field position while spurred on by a ferocious home crowd.
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Sane had a chance after just 40 seconds and another minutes later, while Kane chipped a shot from halfway just over the bar as the leggy visitors struggled to cope.
Madrid’s continued success in this competition, including in their quarter-final win over Manchester City, has been built on absorbing pressure before striking.
The visitors repeated the trick for the opener, breaking Bayern’s dominance in ruthlessly simple fashion while showing the hosts how easy scoring goals can be.
Toni Kroos collected the ball from a corner and drilled a defence-splitting pass along the ground which found Vinicius galloping in acres of space on the penalty arc.
Without a Bayern player in range, Vinicius calmly slotted the opener past a helpless Manuel Neuer, changing the complexion of the match completely.
Bayern, who have six European Cups of their own, were not awed and continued to push but could not break through; their best chance of the remainder of the half came through a free kick, with Kane finding a huge gap in the wall but blasting wide.
With Real seemingly in cruise control, Bayern grabbed hold of the match early in the second-half, scoring twice in four minutes.
Eric Dier found Sane down the right flank. The Germany winger, who had missed several chances in the first half, dribbled into the box before unleashing an unstoppable rocket at the near post, his first goal for Bayern in any competition since October.
The hosts’ next attack came down the left, with the ever dangerous Jamal Musiala felled by Lucas Vazquez in the box. Referee Clement Turpin pointed straight to the spot and Kane had no hesitation either, sending Andriy Lunin the wrong way to take the lead.
With Bayern in control, Real went on the counter and it was Kim’s turn to give away a clumsy penalty, with Vinicius confidently slotting in the equaliser.
UCL: Vinicius scores double as Real Madrid hold Bayern Munich in semi-final showdown
(AFP)
Sports
Finidi George appointed Super Eagles head coach
Finidi George appointed Super Eagles head coach
The Nigeria Football Federation has appointed Finidi George as the new head coach of the Super Eagles.
Finidi’s appointment was announced on Monday as obtained via the official website of the NFF.
George had served as assistant to former coach Jose Peseiro for 20 months before assuming interim leadership of the senior national team in March this year.
The statement read in part, “The Board of Nigeria Football Federation on Monday approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Committee to appoint former ace winger Finidi George as Head Coach of the Senior Men National Football Team, Super Eagles.”
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