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Audi Ace Ekstrom Wins Dakar Prologue as Saudi Desert Slog Awaits

The rally will run until January 19, featuring 434 vehicles across multiple race categories and covering a distance of over 7,800 km. (SPA)
The rally will run until January 19, featuring 434 vehicles across multiple race categories and covering a distance of over 7,800 km. (SPA)
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Audi Ace Ekstrom Wins Dakar Prologue as Saudi Desert Slog Awaits

The rally will run until January 19, featuring 434 vehicles across multiple race categories and covering a distance of over 7,800 km. (SPA)
The rally will run until January 19, featuring 434 vehicles across multiple race categories and covering a distance of over 7,800 km. (SPA)

Audi's Mattias Ekstrom was fastest on Friday on the 27km Dakar Rally prologue raced over the desert sands of AlUla in Saudi Arabia.

Double defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah made a slight detour and ended the day 12th.

Swede Ekstrom set a time of 16min 30sec, some 23sec ahead of the American Seth Quintero of Toyota, making his debut at this level.

"I wanted to prove that I was there to play in the big leagues," said the 21-year-old Quintero who joined Toyota to replace Al-Attiyah, winner of the last two editions, who left for Prodrive this season.

"It worked very well, there were a lot of traps but we did well."

French veteran Sebastien Loeb came in third at 38sec in a promising start after his second place overall in 2023.

The times do not count towards the overall standings but instead provide a choice of starting position for Saturday's opener.

"That wasn't easy," said the nine-time world champion Loeb, who is yet to win a Dakar.

"It was a tough choice to either attack the course or manage the deficit. In the end I attacked and it worked out okay," he said.

Prodrive's Brazilian brothers Marcos and Cristian Baumgart rounded out the top five, according to AFP.

Al-Attiyah brushed off his mishap of 12th place at 1min 01sec saying he was getting used to the new car.

"Twelth is a good place," he said.

Spaniard Tosha Schareina on a Honda took the honors on the motorbikes, finishing the prologue 12secs ahead of Daniel Sanders' GasGAs with Hero rider Ross Branch a further seven seconds behind.

Title holder Kevin Benavides, achieved the day’s ninth best time, a little less than one minute behind the winner.

Saturday's opening stage is a 414km run over sand and grey rock. Sunday's stage 2 is contested over tough jagged-stone sections and vast expanses of sand dunes. The 8,000km long 12-stage marathon ends at the Red Sea January 19.

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Villa Face Chelsea Test as Premier League Title Race Heats Up

Football - Premier League - Aston Villa v Manchester United - Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain - December 21, 2025 Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers celebrates scoring their second goal =. (Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs)
Football - Premier League - Aston Villa v Manchester United - Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain - December 21, 2025 Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers celebrates scoring their second goal =. (Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs)
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Villa Face Chelsea Test as Premier League Title Race Heats Up

Football - Premier League - Aston Villa v Manchester United - Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain - December 21, 2025 Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers celebrates scoring their second goal =. (Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs)
Football - Premier League - Aston Villa v Manchester United - Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain - December 21, 2025 Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers celebrates scoring their second goal =. (Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs)

Aston Villa face a tough challenge at Chelsea on Saturday after muscling their way into the Premier League title race alongside Arsenal and Manchester City.

The Gunners, top of the tree at Christmas, host Brighton, while Pep Guardiola's in-form City travel to Nottingham Forest.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot is grappling with a striker crisis after Alexander Isak fractured his leg, while Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes also faces a spell on the sidelines.

AFP Sport looks at three talking points ahead of the festive action:

Rogers spearheads Villa charge

Unai Emery's third-placed Villa are still considered rank outsiders for the Premier League title even though they are just three points behind leaders Arsenal.

Villa's 2-1 home win against Manchester United was their 10th consecutive victory in all competitions -- the first time they have achieved the feat as a top-flight team since 1914.

One of the major reasons for their recent success is the form of England midfielder Morgan Rogers, who failed to register a single goal involvement in his first seven matches in all competitions.

Now it is a different story: he has recorded 11 goal involvements in his past 15 appearances and the quality of his goals has been striking.

Rogers' seven Premier League goals this season have come from just 2.86 expected goals -- a metric used to determine how likely a player is to convert a chance.

But football analysts Opta give Villa just a five percent chance of becoming English champions for the first time since 1981.

Emery's men have an opportunity to silence the doubters when they take on fourth-placed Chelsea, with a match at Arsenal to follow just days later.

Slot's goals headache

In the early weeks of the season, Arne Slot would probably have envisaged Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak as two of his first-choice attackers.

Now the Liverpool boss has neither -- Salah is with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations, while Isak faces at least two months on the sidelines after fracturing his leg against Tottenham.

Slot has steadied the ship at Anfield after a shocking run of six defeats in seven Premier League matches that left Liverpool's title defense in tatters.

A run of three wins and two draws in five league games has lifted the reigning champions into fifth spot, but there will be concerns over where the goals are going to come from ahead of the visit of bottom club Wolves.

Isak's absence will heap more pressure on the shoulders of top-scorer Hugo Ekitike.

The summer signing has netted eight times in the Premier League -- twice the tallies of Salah and Cody Gakpo.

Fernandes blow for Man Utd

Bruno Fernandes has been a shining light and virtually ever-present during Manchester United's recent lean years.

But manager Ruben Amorim is going to have to plan for a period without his talisman after the Portugal midfielder pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury in United's 2-1 defeat at Villa Park.

While the prognosis is unclear, Amorim has already ruled Fernandes out of United's clash against Newcastle at Old Trafford on Friday, among a list of absentees, with the Portuguese boss urging the rest of his squad to "step up" in the absence of his "impossible to replace" captain.

"It's massive," defender Diogo Dalot told Sky Sports. "We don't know how bad it is but for him to come off (in) the game, we know how tough he is."

Playmaker Fernandes has five goals and seven assists in the Premier League this season for inconsistent United, who are also without top-scorer Bryan Mbeumo, on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Cameroon.

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Romero Faces FA Charge for Behavior After Liverpool Dismissal

Tottenham Hotspur's Argentinian defender #17 Cristian Romero (C) and Spanish defender #23 Pedro Porro (R) remonstrate with referee John Brooks (L) during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
Tottenham Hotspur's Argentinian defender #17 Cristian Romero (C) and Spanish defender #23 Pedro Porro (R) remonstrate with referee John Brooks (L) during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
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Romero Faces FA Charge for Behavior After Liverpool Dismissal

Tottenham Hotspur's Argentinian defender #17 Cristian Romero (C) and Spanish defender #23 Pedro Porro (R) remonstrate with referee John Brooks (L) during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
Tottenham Hotspur's Argentinian defender #17 Cristian Romero (C) and Spanish defender #23 Pedro Porro (R) remonstrate with referee John Brooks (L) during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on December 20, 2025. (AFP)

Tottenham captain Cristian Romero was charged by England's Football Association with allegedly acting in an "improper" manner in response to being sent off during Saturday's 2-1 Premier League defeat against Liverpool.

With Xavi Simons already being given a red ‌card earlier, ‌Tottenham ended up ‌with ⁠nine men ‌after captain Romero was given a second yellow for a tackle on Ibrahima Konate in the 93rd minute.

"It's alleged that he (Romero) acted in ⁠an improper manner by failing to ‌promptly leave the ‍field of ‍play and/or behaving in a ‍confrontational and/or aggressive manner towards the match referee after being sent off in the 93rd minute," the FA said in a statement.

Romero has until ⁠January 2 to respond to the charge.

The dismissal meant he already has to serve a one-match ban and will miss Sunday's away trip to Crystal Palace.

Tottenham are 14th in the league table with 22 points, 17 ‌behind leaders and derby rivals Arsenal.

Sports

Mahrez Leads Algeria to AFCON Cruise Against Sudan

Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E soccer match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E soccer match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
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Mahrez Leads Algeria to AFCON Cruise Against Sudan

Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E soccer match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
Algeria's Riyad Mahrez celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations group E soccer match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)

Captain Riyad Mahrez scored in each half as 2019 champions Algeria eased to a 3-0 win over 10-man Sudan in their opening game at the Africa Cup of Nations on Wednesday.

Mahrez got the opener after just 82 seconds to the delight of the Algerian fans who made up the vast majority of the 16,115 crowd at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat.

The former Manchester City winger, now with Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia, got his and his team's second goal just after the hour mark and Ibrahim Maza wrapped up the win late on as Algeria started in the best possible fashion in Group E.

Among the spectators in the Moroccan capital was France legend Zinedine Zidane, whose parents came from Algeria and whose son Luca was starting in goal for the Desert Foxes.

His appearance on big screens in the ground drew huge cheers from Algerian supporters who will have been delighted to see their team produce a convincing performance.

Algeria were eliminated in the first round without a win at each of the last two AFCON tournaments but wasted no time in breaking the deadlock against the group outsiders.

The match was little over a minute old when Mohamed Amoura's ball across the penalty box was met by a back-heel from Hicham Boudaoui to tee up Mahrez. He took a touch before firing in.

Zidane then did well to save at the feet of Sudan's Yaser Awad Boshara but Algeria were by far the better side.

Sudan's chances of getting back into the game were then severely dented when Salaheldin Adil was sent off six minutes before the interval for a second booking for chopping down Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Ramy Bensebaini had a goal disallowed for offside moments later but Mahrez made it 2-0 on 61 minutes as he connected with a lovely outside-of-the-boot assist from Amoura.

Mahrez, appearing at his sixth AFCON, now has eight goals at the tournament. He came off to an ovation from the Algerian fans late on.

Substitute Maza, of Bayer Leverkusen, finished from Baghdad Bounedjah's knockdown with five minutes left to score Algeria's 100th AFCON goal and make it 3-0.

Sudan have now won just once in 17 Cup of Nations matches since lifting the trophy in 1970.

Earlier in the same group, Burkina Faso came from behind to beat 10-man Equatorial Guinea 2-1 thanks to two goals deep in injury time in Casablanca.

Basilio Ndong was sent off just after half-time for Equatorial Guinea but they looked set to win the game when substitute Marvin Anieboh headed in on 85 minutes.

However, Georgi Minoungou equalized in the fifth added minute before Leverkusen defender Edmond Tapsoba grabbed a dramatic 98th-minute winner.