■FRANCE
Lyon stumble at home
Lyon’s chances of an eighth successive French league title suffered another blow on Friday when they were held to a 0-0 draw by fellow championship hopefuls Paris Saint-Germain. The draw left Lyon in third place, three points behind leaders Marseille who have a game in hand with just four matches left to play. The champions’ home form is beginning to turn into their Achilles heel in the title race as they have now won just three of their last 12 matches at the Stade Gerland. They also face a tough run-in to the campaign, with trips to Marseille and Toulouse still to come. Paris Saint-Germain had their best opportunity when top scorer Guillaume Hoarau was denied by Hugo Lloris in the Lyon goal in the 58th minute, but Lyon could have won six minutes from time when Karim Benzema’s shot come back off the post.
■GERMANY
Hertha move up to second
Hertha Berlin won 1-0 at Hoffenheim to revive their Bundesliga title hopes on Friday as they moved up to second place, just two points behind VfL Wolfsburg with five matches left. Hoffenheim, without a win since late January, dominated the match, but Hertha struck against the run of play five minutes before the break when Marko Pantelic fed Patrick Ebert on the right and the midfielder slotted past goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand. Hoffenheim kept coming and hit the bar through substitute Boubacar Sanogo in the 77th minute, but mostly ran into a solid Berlin backline, with defender Josip Simunic in commanding form.
■ENGLAND
Wembley pitch to be relaid
The pitch at the new Wembley Stadium is to be dug up and replaced in the wake of damning criticism from Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, the Football Association confirmed on Friday. Wenger branded the surface “a disaster” after Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-final defeat by Chelsea, while Ferguson claimed his selection for Manchester United’s penalty shoot-out defeat to Everton 24 hours later had been influenced by fears the likes of Wayne Rooney could be injured on the “spongy and dead” turf. The new pitch is to be laid in time for the FA Trophy final clash between Stevenage Borough and York City on May 9.
■SPAIN
Pepe handed 10-match ban
The disciplinary committee of the Spanish soccer federation announced on Friday evening a suspension of 10 matches for Real Madrid defender Pepe, for his part in the incidents at the end of Tuesday’s stormy clash with Getafe. The Portugal international pushed over Getafe’s Francisco Casquero for a late penalty, then kicked the veteran midfielder twice whilst he was on the ground and hit Getafe forward Juan Albin. On the other hand, the committee canceled out the yellow card shown to Real striker Gonzalo Higuain for diving in the penalty area.
■ENGLAND
Semi-final to be replayed
England’s World Cup semi-final with Germany is going to a replay — 19 years after a tear-filled, penalty shootout defeat. Former coach Bobby Robson is reuniting his England team from the 1990 World Cup to raise money for his cancer charity on July 26 at St James’ Park in Newcastle. “Hopefully, this time we’ll get the result we want against Germany,” Robson said on Friday. “We had a good group of players that year; very talented, very tough and ambitious. We got better as the tournament progressed, more accomplished and the fact we lost on penalties and not in open play tells its story.” Paul Gascoigne is expected to play.
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
GUNNING FOR A WIN: The victory sending Arsenal to the final for the first time in six years was cathartic for a team who had lost their previous four semi-finals Arsenal on Tuesday reached the League Cup final for the first time in eight years as Kai Havertz sealed a 1-0 win against Chelsea in the semi-final second leg. Mikel Arteta’s side had put themselves in pole position in the first leg and Havertz came off the bench to finish the 4-2 aggregate victory in the closing moments at the Emirates Stadium. It was a cathartic triumph for the Gunners, who had lost their previous four semi-finals in last year’s UEFA Champions League and League Cup, the 2022 League Cup and the 2021 UEFA Europa League. In their first final for six years,
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
France head coach Fabien Galthie on Thursday lauded his team’s attacking performance after their dazzling 36-14 victory over Ireland in their Six Nations opener. A brace of tries from Louis Bielley-Biarrey and one from mercurial flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert helped France storm into a 29-0 lead before taking their foot off the gas and allowing Ireland back into the match, before winger Theo Attissogbe put some gloss on the victory late on. “In an attacking sense, with the ball, the team played with great accuracy,” Galthie said. “It was one of the most accurate attacking performances in a long time, despite the weather
RSS