Paris Saint-Germain bounced back from their first loss this season by outclassing last-placed Sochaux-Montbeliard 5-0 on Saturday to provisionally extend their Ligue 1 lead to four points.
PSG capitalized on Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s fifth assist this season to open the scoring as captain Thiago Silva volleyed home a cross from the Swedish striker in the 14th minute.
PSG could have reached the interval with a bigger lead, but Sochaux centerback Carlao blocked close-range efforts from Blaise Matuidi in the fourth and Thiago Motta in the 21st.
Photo: AFP
Winger Ezequiel Lavezzi tapped in a short pass from Motta in the 47th, Edinson Cavani beat Sochaux goalkeeper Pierrick Cros in the 62nd and Ibrahimovic sealed the win with a powerful free-kick in the 86th and a close-range effort in stoppage-time.
“He sets an example to our young players,” PSG coach Laurent Blanc said about Ibrahimovic. “The whole team is energized when it sees Zlatan wanting to win, score and give the final ball.”
Olympique de Marseille manager Elie Baup was dismissed on Saturday after the 2010 champions lost 1-0 to Nantes the day before. Baup was replaced by sporting director Jose Anigo, who will be in charge until the winter break.
Photo: AFP
Elsewhere in Ligue 1, Stade de Reims beat OGC Nice 1-0 with a goal in stoppage-time from Gaetan Charbonnier to climb to sixth place and hand Nice a seventh straight loss.
Lorient earned a fourth consecutive win by defeating Stade Rennais 2-0.
Rennes were down to 10 men by the fifth minute when centerback Sylvain Armand was sent off for fouling Vincent Aboubakar. Lorient midfielder Yann Jouffre converted the subsequent penalty and scored with a low strike in the 87th.
En Avant de Guingamp midfielder Younousse Sankhare scored the equalizer in the 71st to salvage a 1-1 draw with lowly Valenciennes after Tongo Hamed Doumbia put the hosts ahead with a header in the 17th.
Saturday’s other match between AS Saint-Etienne and Evian Thonon Gaillard was postponed because of a frozen pitch.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with