■ FRANCE
Bordeaux leapfrog Toulouse
Yoann Gourcuff scored one goal and set up another on Saturday to lead Bordeaux to a 2-1 victory that snapped Toulouse’s four-match winning streak in Ligue 1. The France playmaker skipped past defenders Mauro Cetto and Mohamed Fofana with a clever back-heel move, before scoring from close range in the 29th minute. David Bellion doubled the lead for Bordeaux in the 40th minute after receiving Gourcuff’s headed pass and dribbling past Cetto to unleash a diagonal strike. Etienne Capoue pulled a goal back for Toulouse in injury time, taking advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper Mathieu Valverde. Bordeaux leapfrogged Toulouse into second place on goal difference, with 17 points after nine rounds. Also on Saturday, it was Caen 2, Grenoble 2; Monaco 1, Nice 2; Paris Saint-Germain 3, Lorient 2; Nantes 1, Saint-Etienne 0; Sochaux 1, Le Havre 1; and Lyon 2, Lille 2.
■ NETHERLANDS
NAC Breda beat PSV, go top
NAC Breda beat defending champions PSV Eindhoven 2-1 on Saturday to go top of the Dutch league. PSV captain Timmy Simons scored an own-goal to put NAC in front in the 14th minute and Ghana forward Matthew Amoah doubled the advantage with his league-leading ninth goal of the season in the 87th minute. PSV, who host Marseille in the Champions League on Wednesday, scored through Ibrahim Afellay in the 90th minute. NAC have 15 points after six rounds. FC Groningen, who lost 1-0 to Ajax to end their five-game winning streak, dropped to second with 13 points. PSV stayed third with 12 points. Ajax have 10 points. In Amsterdam, Jan Vertonghen set up Oleguer for the game’s only goal in the 37th minute. Also on Saturday, Boldizsar Bodor and Sekou Cisse scored to help Roja JC to a 2-2 home draw with SC Heerenveen. Christian Grindheim and Arnar Smarason scored in the 38th minute and 87th minute for Heerenveen. Marko Arnautovic and Eljero Elia scored in FC Twente’s 2-0 win over Heracles Almelo.
■ ARGENTINA
San Lorenzo win again
San Lorenzo won their sixth match in a row on Saturday when they beat promoted San Martin-Tucuman 1-0 to stay top of the Argentine Apertura championship. Forward Andres Silvera scored the winner in the 25th minute after a mistake by defender Juan Monge, who had been close to giving the visitors the lead three minutes earlier. San Lorenzo, whose coach Miguel Angel Russo is among the favorites to take over the Argentina national team following Alfio Basile’s resignation on Thursday, have 25 points from 10 games. Tigre stayed five points behind in second place with a 3-0 win over Lanus, Martin Morel scoring twice after Leonel Altobelli had put them ahead. Independiente gave Miguel Angel Santoro a winning start to his sixth stint in charge by winning 2-1 at Colon, with two first-half goals from Leonel Nunez.
■ AFRICA
Al Ahli, Coton Sport in final
Egypt’s Al Ahli will meet Coton Sport of Cameroon in the African Champions League final after both sides won their semi-final, second-leg matches on Saturday. A 26th minute goal from Angola international Flavio, from a trademark cross by compatriot Gilberto, handed Al Ahli a 1-0 win over Enyimba in Cairo after a goalless first leg. Ahli are only the second team to reach four successive African Champions League finals. Coton Sport will play in their first Champions League final after a 4-0 win over Dynamos of Zimbabwe in Garoua, Cameroon. Coton Sport are the first side from Cameroon to reach the final since 1980.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
Italy crashed to a 3-0 loss away to Norway, as the four-time FIFA World Cup champions made a disastrous start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday, while Belgium had to settle for a draw in North Macedonia. Alexander Sorloth, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland all scored in the first half in pouring rain in Oslo as Norway made it a night to forget for Italy, who missed out on the past two World Cups. “I have no explanation. Our supporters don’t deserve this kind of match. We need to do some soul-searching. It’s unacceptable,” Italy captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi
‘STILL’: In front of a packed New Jersey arena attended by Donald Trump and Mike Tyson, UFC 316 delivered high drama as Merab Dvalishvili retained his title Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili scored a second-round submission win over Sean O’Malley to retain his bantamweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 316 on Saturday, with Kayla Harrison also winning by submission in the co-main event, tapping out Juliana Pena to claim the women’s bantamweight crown. In front of a packed crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which included US President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson, Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing, although not aesthetically pleasing, unanimous decision. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and shouted
Manchester City on Monday completed the signing of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported ￡31 million (US$41.8 million). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract and will be available for the FIFA Club World Cup, which begins later this week. Ait-Nouri is expected to be just one of a trio of new City faces for that tournament with deals close to completion for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Olympique Lyonnais playmaker Rayan Cherki. After missing out on a major trophy in the recently completed season for the first time since 2016-2017, City are hoping
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