Newcastle United’s red-hot striker Papiss Cisse struck twice to earn a smash-and-grab 2-0 win at Swansea City in the Premier League on Friday that lifted his side above Chelsea into fifth place.
The Senegal international, fast becoming one of the best signings of the season after arriving from Bundesliga strugglers SC Freiburg in January, scored in each half to give Alan Pardew’s team 56 points from 32 matches.
“He was our best player today. Of all our flair players, he was the one who was really on his game,” Pardew told Sky Sports. “We are lucky to have him and he deserved to be named man of the match.”
Photo: AFP
“As a team we were flat today, some of our flair players lacked a bit of energy, but we have a lot of discipline and camaraderie in this group,” he added.
Cisse opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he picked up an excellent pass from Yohan Cabaye and fired a low shot past Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm.
Swansea controlled possession with their slick-passing style, but could not find a way past Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul.
Cisse went close to a second goal in the 65th minute when he sent a fierce low drive whistling past Vorm’s right-hand post.
The Senegalese then put the game beyond Swansea with a delightful strike four minutes later.
Cisse received the ball from Cabaye in an awkward position 15m out, but he showed great dexterity to get it out from under his feet and deliver a pinpoint chip that sailed over Vorm into the net.
It was his sixth goal in his last three league appearances and his ninth in eight matches for Newcastle, who have now reeled off four consecutive league victories.
Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers was frustrated his team failed to make the most of their dominant display.
“I thought we totally outplayed Newcastle and the only thing we couldn’t do was put the ball in the net and find that little bit of quality in the final third of the pitch,” Rodgers said.
“They were two outstanding finishes by Cisse, real quality. It stuns you a bit when you dominate a game like that, but that’s football sometimes,” he said.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
LIVERPOOL WIN: The 50th Champions League goal by Mohamed Salah helped the leaders of the Premier League to keep their perfect record intact Real Madrid’s big stars on Tuesday turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant’s faltering UEFA Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win against Serie A leaders Atalanta BC. However, Madrid still had to ride their luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage-time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid’s third win in the competition’s revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. “It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
RSS