Memphis Depay scored a hat-trick, including two penalties, as Champions League semi-finalists Olympique Lyonnais began the new Ligue 1 season with a 4-1 victory over Dijon FCO on Friday.
Dutch forward Depay bagged his first Ligue 1 goals since December last year, having missed the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened second half of last season after rupturing knee ligaments just before Christmas.
“I’m really happy to have scored three goals tonight. It wasn’t my best match personally. We needed to win and that’s what we did,” Depay said.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a strange feeling going from one season to another very quickly,” he added, with the game coming just nine days after Lyon’s 3-0 loss to Bayern Munich in Lisbon.
Lyon sporting director Juninho has said there would be departures before the end of the transfer window on Oct. 5, as the club heads into its first season without European soccer since 1996-1997.
Depay, along with Houssem Aouar and Moussa Dembele, have repeatedly been linked with moves, but the 26-year-old insisted he is concentrating on helping Lyon make a run at ending Paris Saint-Germain’s dominance.
Photo: AFP
“I’m focused on OL. I can dream of big clubs, but I’m looking to do my best here,” said Depay, who does not believe the lighter schedule this season is necessarily a plus. “I don’t think not playing in Europe is an advantage because when you play in Europe you get better.”
Lyon, who finished a poor seventh last term, were without midfielder Aouar for their opening game of the new campaign after he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day, and the home side fell behind to a first Dijon goal for Aurelien Scheidler.
Depay, the Lyon captain, equalized from the penalty spot after Ahmad Ngouyamsa barged Maxwel Cornet over as Rudi Garcia’s side turned the game in their favor with three goals in the space of six minutes just before halftime at the Groupama Stadium.
Photo: AFP
The former Manchester United winger spun past his defender on the corner of the box and fizzed in a dangerous low cross that caused Dijon’s Wesley Lautoa to poke into his own net and give Lyon the lead.
Seconds after the subsequent restart Depay struck again, Karl Toko Ekambi’s deflected ball finding its way to the Dutchman, who displayed great poise and skill to volley beyond Alfred Gomis.
Senegal goalkeeper Gomis produced a magnificent save to deny Depay his hat-trick on the hour as Lyon continued to attack freely.
England youth international Jonathan Panzo, who won the Under-17 World Cup alongside Phil Foden in 2017, came on for his Dijon debut in the second half two days after the defender’s arrival on a three-year deal from AS Monaco.
The Chelsea academy graduate promptly conceded another penalty after a video review, as he was adjudged to have clipped the heels of Leo Dubois.
Depay again converted by blasting home via the underside of the crossbar to seal his hat-trick on a memorable return to top-flight action.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier