Ten-man Bayern Munich moved into the German Cup quarter-finals with a 2-0 victory at Augsburg on Tuesday to end the year on a high, but they had Franck Ribery sent off early in the second half for slapping an opponent.
Fellow Champions League competitors Schalke 04 slumped out of the competition, suffering a 2-1 defeat by visiting FSV Mainz 05, and Bundesliga side Fortuna Duesseldorf were stunned 2-0 by third-tier Kickers Offenbach.
Bayern, who also lead the Bundesliga at the start of the winter break, grabbed the lead against the run of play with striker Mario Gomez tapping in from close range.
Photo: EPA
However, things took a turn for the worse at the start of the second half when Ribery slapped South Korea’s Koo Ja-cheol and received a straight red card.
In an entertaining second half both sides missed several good chances, with Mario Mandzukic, who has failed to score since the return of Gomez in November, twice coming close for Bayern.
Xherdan Shaqiri, who had earlier hit the crossbar, settled the visitors’ nerves five minutes from time, slotting in after good play from Mandzukic and Thomas Mueller.
With new Schalke coach Jens Keller, who replaced Huub Stevens on Sunday, making his debut, the hosts showed few signs of recovery after losing four and winning none of their last six league games.
Schalke, who topped their Champions League group to book a spot in the next round of Europe’s premier competition, allowed the visitors to take a 30th-minute lead when Marco Caligiuri drilled in from 16m.
After a string of missed chances, Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar drew them level, but their joy was short-lived as Nicolai Mueller controlled a Jan Kirchhoff cross to fire in the winner seven minutes from time.
Schalke’s Christian Fuchs rattled the bar late in the game, but could not prevent last year’s Cup winners’ exit and their sixth straight game in all competitions without a win.
“The team was insecure in the first half and you could see it,” Keller said. “I liked how we played in the second, but still we are hugely disappointed.”
SC Freiburg also advanced with a 1-0 victory over third-tier Karlsruhe SC, but the shock of the night was Kickers Offenbach’s surprise 2-0 victory over Fortuna Duesseldorf.
The 2025 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr Universe Chinese Taipei competition began yesterday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, with more than 150 athletes showcasing their physiques. It is the first time in 16 years that the IFBB has held a competition in Taiwan, the last being the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. The professional bodybuilding contest is bringing together athletes from Taiwan and 16 other countries, including Malaysia, Japan, the US, France and Mexico. IFBB Chinese Taipei president Hsu An-chin said in an interview yesterday that the event came to Taiwan thanks to his lobbying efforts at last
Top seeds Alexander Zverev of Germany and American Coco Gauff on Tuesday advanced to the third round of the Canadian Open after both players were pushed hard by their opponents. World No. 3 Zverev, playing in his first match since his first-round loss at Wimbledon, was far from his best, but emerged with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 win over Adam Walton under the lights in Toronto. Momentum shifted firmly in Zverev’s favor when he won a 52-shot rally in the first set tiebreak and he sealed the win on a double fault by the Australian in the second set. “It was a very
Cycling great Marianne Vos won the opening stage of the women’s Tour de France with a brilliant late attack on Saturday. The 38-year-old Dutchwoman overtook her Visma–Lease a Bike teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prevot approaching the line, and then held off Mauritian rider Kim Le Court in the closing meters of a grueling uphill finish. Ferrand-Prevot looked set to win the stage, but the Frenchwoman attacked too early from 600m and could not withstand the late surge from Vos, who punched the air with her left fist as she crossed the line. Moments later, Vos hugged an exhausted-looking Ferrand-Prevot, the Paris-Roubaix winner. “I didn’t know if
TAIWANESE EXITS: Fellow Australian Christopher O’Connell joined Tristan Schoolkate as a winner following his 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Tseng Hsin-chun Australian qualifier Tristan Schoolkate on Monday dispatched rising Brazilian talent Joao Fonseca 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 at the ATP Toronto Masters, ensuring a breakthrough into the world top 100. The 24-year-old from Perth moved to 98th in the ongoing live rankings as he claimed his biggest career victory by knocking out the ATP NextGen champion from November last year. Schoolkate, son of a tennis coach, won his first match over a top-50 opponent on his sixth attempt as he ousted the world No. 49 teenager from Brazil. The qualifier played a quarter-final this month in Los Cabos and won through qualifying for his
RSS