A group of RB Leipzig stars has been slammed as “decadent” by a senior Bundesliga figure for bringing a celebrity barber over from England to give haircuts before their shock defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt last weekend.
Ralf Rangnick, head of sport and development soccer for the club’s chief sponsors Red Bull, was left fuming after star hairdresser Sheldon Edwards was flown over by members of the squad to give haircuts at the team hotel in Frankfurt before Saturday’s 2-0 defeat.
Second-half goals by Almamy Toure and Filip Kostic in Frankfurt saw Leipzig lose for the first time since October last year.
Rangnick has ripped into the group of nine players — which German daily Bild reported included regulars Yussuf Poulsen, Christopher Nkunku and Patrik Schick — for the “decadent” prematch haircut.
“I would have bet 100,000 euros [US$110,012] that our players would not have had a star hairdresser flown in from England to have their hair done in a hotel,” Rangnick told reporters on Tuesday. “I would have lost that 100,000 euro bet. The 2-0 defeat was annoying enough, the hairdresser story leaves me stunned. That is decadent.”
Leipzig sports director Markus Kroesche told Bild that the issue of the celebrity haircuts had been addressed internally.
COPA ITALIA
AC Milan are to meet Juventus in the Coppa Italia semi-finals after beating Torino 4-2 in an enthralling encounter on Tuesday to continue their Zlatan Ibrahimovic-inspired revival.
Extra-time goals from substitutes Hakan Calhanoglu and Ibrahimovic sealed passage into the last four for a Milan side who have been reawakened by the return of the Swede last month.
They will be relishing the tie with the Italian champions, who thumped AS Roma 3-0 in their quarter-final last week.
The superstar striker’s second goal since returning to Milan came on a night that the club honored Milan fan Kobe Bryant — who spent much of his childhood in Italy — with the message “Legends never die” on the San Siro big screens.
COUPE DE FRANCE
Fourth-tier ASM Belfort on Tuesday made it through to the Coupe de France quarter-finals after knocking out Ligue 1 outfit Montpellier Herault in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, while holders Stade Rennais edged a nine-goal thriller with top-flight Angers SCO 5-4.
Montpellier are sixth in the French top division, but failed to find the net and missed two spot-kicks in an emotional shoot-out.
A red card for Montpellier goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli for making a save well outside the penalty area left substitute goalkeeper Dimitry Bertaud to face defeat against lowly opposition.
At the Stade Raymond Kopa, Brittany side Rennes were 3-1 ahead going into the final half an hour against regional rivals Angers, who struck twice in the last five minutes through Sada Thioub and Stephane Bahoken to take the match into extra-time.
However, the side who beat Paris Saint-Germain on penalties at the Stade de France in last year’s final emerged the winners when Jeremy Gelin fired home a long-range volley to make it 5-4.
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah on Tuesday said that he would leave the English club at the end of the Premier League season, marking an earlier-than-planned departure for one of the club’s greatest-ever scorers and soccer’s biggest names. The 33-year-old Egypt forward, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, “reached an agreement” to quit the team a year before his contract was due to expire, the Premier League champions said. Salah’s form has dipped in his ninth year at Anfield, to such an extent that he was dropped for a stretch of games late last year — leading to the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
There were some big games to be played yesterday in the NBA, with the Atlanta Hawks to play the Detroit Pistons in a matchup pitting a Hawks team who are rolling against a Pistons team trying to lock up the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder were to play the Boston Celtics, a showdown featuring the two most recent champions, while the Houston Rockets faced the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game that could factor mightily into Western Conference seeding. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards were to play the Utah Jazz, with the Wizards on a 16-game slide visiting against a team
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