Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne saw Manchester City home against Sevilla in dramatic style in Wednesday’s Champions League action as Paris Saint-Germain held 10-time titleholders Real Madrid to a goalless draw.
De Bruyne’s injury time contribution earned City a 2-1 home win against Spain’s Europa League champions to improve their chances of escaping from Group D and into the last 16.
An open affair at the Etihad Stadium was heading for a draw after Adil Rami’s own goal canceled out Yevhen Konoplyanka’s 30th-minute opener for Sevilla, only for De Bruyne to gather a pass from Yaya Toure and slam home with his left foot seconds into stoppage time.
Manuel Pellegrini’s men moved up to second, one point behind Juventus, the Serie A giants held to a 0-0 stalemate by Borussia Moenchengladbach in Turin.
Manchester United, who host City in the Premier League on Sunday, faced a tricky assignment away to CSKA Moscow, their French starlet Anthony Martial firmly leaving his imprint on the encounter.
The 19-year-old was called for handball, which led to CSKA taking the lead on 15 minutes, Seydou Doumbia slamming in the rebound after United keeper David de Gea had parried Roman Eremenko’s penalty onto the post.
However, the French teenager atoned for his mistake with a fine header after the hour for his first goal in the competition and fifth since his high-profile move from Monaco in August.
Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg top the pool on six points after defeating PSV Eindhoven 2-0, with United and CSKA on four and the Dutch champions bringing up the rear on three.
Ronaldo, the Brazilian 2002 World Cup winner, was in the stands at Parc des Princes to watch the headline tie between PSG and Real.
However, despite both clubs deploying their all-time top scorers, the game ended goalless, Real legend Cristiano Ronaldo coming as close as anyone to breaking the deadlock in the French capital with a second-half volley that whistled wide.
Both sides remain unbeaten this season and are yet to concede after three games as they sit locked together on seven points at the top of Group A.
Malmo won 1-0 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk, but Paris and Madrid are each four points clear of the Swedes and will have an opportunity to clinch qualification for the last 16 when they meet again in Spain in two weeks.
In Group C, Diego Simeone’s runners-up last year Atletico Madrid eased past Astana 4-0 to get their European campaign back on track after a shock defeat to Benfica last time out.
Galatasaray’s 2-1 win over Benfica in the other game in the group means Atletico draw level with Benfica at the top on six points, two points clear of the Turkish champions.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For