Mario Balotelli and Younes Belhanda were sent off in the dying seconds as Ligue 1 leaders OGC Nice stumbled into the winter break with a 0-0 draw at Girondins de Bordeaux, allowing AS Monaco to trim the gap at the top to two points.
Paris Saint-Germain eased the pressure on coach Unai Emery by beating Lorient 5-0.
Bordeaux had suffered three successive defeats — conceding eight goals in their previous two outings — and a frustrating evening for Nice ended disastrously with Balotelli and Belhanda dismissed for off-the-ball incidents.
Photo: AP
“I look foward to seeing the images. We’ll see if it’s a foul,” said Favre, after Balotelli was given his marching orders for lashing out at Bordeaux defender Igor Lewczuk. “In the end, I was disappointed after these two red cards because that’s going to be a few matches [suspended].”
Radamel Falcao scored a penalty in a 2-1 win over Stade Malherbe Caen as Monaco rebounded from their defeat at home to Olympique Lyonnais at the weekend.
The Colombian striker won and converted a spot kick shortly after halftime for his 11th goal of the season, before Tiemoue Bakayoko scored for the second game running at the Stade Louis II.
Photo: Reuters
Herve Bazile grabbed a consolation for Caen in stoppage-time.
“We’re very happy with what we’ve done during the first part of the season,” Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim said. “It’s the 10th match in a row where we’ve been playing every three days. There was a bit of tiredness and fatigue, but we have 42 points. It’s only the second time in club history [at the halfway stage].”
Edinson Cavani struck his league-best 18th goal this season as reigning champions PSG snapped a three-game winless run with a five-goal demolition of bottom side Lorient at the Parc des Princes.
Emery had challenged his players to finish the year on a high after a series of disappointing results and Belgium international Thomas Meunier opened the scoring with a superb 25th-minute lob.
Lorient centerback Zargo Toure turned a cross from Lucas into his own net for PSG’s second just before the break, before PSG captain Thiago Silva headed in a third minutes after the restart.
Cavani tucked away a penalty after he was brought down in the penalty area, with Brazil international Lucas racing onto a fine Marco Verratti pass to seal a resounding victory.
“It was important to win today,” said Emery, with PSG heading into the break trailing Nice by five points as they chase a fifth consecutive title. “We’ve dropped some important points along the way. We must lose fewer of them in the future. During the second half of the season we’re going to improve to reduce the gap.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but