Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game.
AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate.
Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively.
Photo: Reuters
“In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward Santiago Gimenez, who scored one of the competition’s fastest goals against his former team, Feyenoord, in the first minute.
Hernandez was sent off for a dive in the 51st when Milan was dominating after Gimenez’s opener had leveled the tie. Feyenoord had won the first leg of the playoff 1-0 last week.
However, Milan’s defense looked anything but assured after referee Szymon Marciniak showed Hernandez another yellow card for his dive. The France defender had earned his first before the break for lashing out at a Feyenoord player after a foul on teammate Joao Felix.
Photo: AFP
Hugo Bueno crossed for Julian Carranza to head Feyenoord level on the night in the 73rd, enough to put the Dutch team into the next phase.
“We’re very disappointed. We started well and scored straight away. It seemed like Feyenoord couldn’t hurt us,” Gimenez said of the game’s pivotal moment. “Today it happened to Theo, but it can happen to anyone, this is soccer. We have the utmost respect for Theo. We will give him all our support.”
Feyenoord’s Givairo Read was shown a red card following another melee after the final whistle.
Photo: AFP
Feyenoord would play either Inter or Arsenal in the round of 16.
Alphonso Davies scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time for Bayern to reach the last 16 with a 1-1 draw against Celtic.
Davies, a substitute, bundled the ball over the line after Leon Goretzka’s effort was kept out, saving Bayern the ordeal of extra time after German player Nicolas Kuhn had scored against his former club to draw Celtic level on aggregate.
Davies’ goal gave Bayern a 3-2 win over two legs.
Next for the Bavarian powerhouse is either Bundesliga rival Bayer Leverkusen or Atletico Madrid.
Club Brugge eliminated Atalanta with a 3-1 win in Bergamo, Italy, for a 5-2 win on aggregate. The 19-year-old forward Chemsdine Talbi scored twice as the visitors gave Gian Piero Gasperini’s team a lesson in efficiency.
Atalanta had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors, and tried 89 attacks compared with 16 from Brugge.
Halftime substitute Ademola Lookman scored seconds after the restart to unleash hopes of a miracle — Atalanta needed three more goals to level the tie — but Simon Mignolet saved Lookman’s penalty in the 61st as those hopes gradually faded.
Benfica reached the last 16 with a 3-3 draw against Monaco in Lisbon, giving the Portuguese team a 4-3 win on aggregate.
The last 16 draw takes place tomorrow.
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
The 2025 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr Universe Chinese Taipei competition began yesterday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, with more than 150 athletes showcasing their physiques. It is the first time in 16 years that the IFBB has held a competition in Taiwan, the last being the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. The professional bodybuilding contest is bringing together athletes from Taiwan and 16 other countries, including Malaysia, Japan, the US, France and Mexico. IFBB Chinese Taipei president Hsu An-chin said in an interview yesterday that the event came to Taiwan thanks to his lobbying efforts at last
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks from Jonas Vingegaard and dropped him to cement his grip on the yellow jersey. With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogacar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than 4 minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion. Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4km climb of the Col de La Loze to the finish. At 2,304m, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour. Two
US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open. World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am. Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fritz, who had 20 aces and six
RSS