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Leverkusen Beats Bochum 5-0 to Extend 50-Game Unbeaten Run 

Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)
Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)
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Leverkusen Beats Bochum 5-0 to Extend 50-Game Unbeaten Run 

Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)
Leverkusen supporters celebrate the team being 50 matches unbeaten in all competitions this season after the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen in Bochum, Germany, 12 May 2024. (EPA)

Bayer Leverkusen erased memories of its last defeat almost a year ago by beating Bochum 5-0 away in the Bundesliga to stretch its unbeaten start to the season to 50 games across all competitions.

Sunday’s win atoned for Leverkusen’s 3-0 loss to Bochum at the same ground on the final day last season. Xabi Alonso’s team has not lost any game since – a run that has eclipsed Portuguese club Benfica’s record of 48 consecutive games unbeaten in all competitions from late 1963 to early 1965.

No other top-flight European team remained unbeaten for as long as Leverkusen, which has already wrapped up its first Bundesliga title and will play in both the German Cup and Europa League finals.

“I think already the Bundesliga – you can’t imagine how much that means for the club or the fans,” Leverkusen midfielder Robert Andrich said. “We’ll lift the trophy next week in our stadium. It’s going to be very emotional. And then we go to Dublin and we go to Berlin. We want to get two titles there and then go on vacation with the triple in our backpack.”

Leverkusen faces Italian team Atalanta in the Europa League final in Dublin on May 22, three days before it plays Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final in Berlin.

Bochum made an encouraging start Sunday but was undone by Felix Passlack’s sending off in the 15th minute for bringing down Nathan Tella, who was through on goal.

Arthur crossed for Patrik Schick to open the scoring in the 41st and there was still time before the break for Victor Boniface to tuck away a penalty awarded for Keven Schlotterbeck’s foul on Tella.

A young Bochum supporter in the stands struggled to contain his tears. The home team needed a point to be sure of Bundesliga survival.

Leverkusen controlled the game without too much exertion. Amine Adli scored, then set up the next for Josip Stanišić, who set up the next for Álex Grimaldo.

Leverkusen took its league tally to 87 points with one round remaining, while Bochum remains three points above the relegation zone before its final game at Werder Bremen next weekend.

TUCHEL’S FAREWELL

Lovro Zvonarek scored minutes into his first Bundesliga start to help injury-hit Bayern Munich beat Wolfsburg 2-0 in Thomas Tuchel’s last home game in charge.

The 19-year-old Zvonarek fired in for Bayern off the far post in the fourth minute, and Leon Goretzka grabbed the second goal nine minutes later.

Bayern threatened to run riot despite the absence of injured forwards Harry Kane, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman. Wolfsburg’s defense regrouped as Bayern’s intensity dropped.

Tuchel, who agreed in February to leave after the season, was able to take off goalkeeper Manuel Neuer with some 15 minutes remaining. Neuer was making his 500th Bundesliga appearance.

Swedish defender Matteo Vinlöf went on at the same time for his Bayern debut, and Zvonarek went off in the 90th for the 18-year-old Jonathan Asp-Jensen to make his debut.

Hoffenheim routed relegated Darmstadt 6-0 in the early game.

St. Pauli clinched promotion from the second division.

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Sports

Naomi Osaka Knocked Out of Tournament in Japan by 18-year-old Mia Pohankova

Tennis - WTA 500 - Pan Pacific Open - Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan - October 29, 2026 Slovakia's Mia Pohankova embraces Japan's Naomi Osaka after winning her round of 16 match REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Tennis - WTA 500 - Pan Pacific Open - Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan - October 29, 2026 Slovakia's Mia Pohankova embraces Japan's Naomi Osaka after winning her round of 16 match REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
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Naomi Osaka Knocked Out of Tournament in Japan by 18-year-old Mia Pohankova

Tennis - WTA 500 - Pan Pacific Open - Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan - October 29, 2026 Slovakia's Mia Pohankova embraces Japan's Naomi Osaka after winning her round of 16 match REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Tennis - WTA 500 - Pan Pacific Open - Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan - October 29, 2026 Slovakia's Mia Pohankova embraces Japan's Naomi Osaka after winning her round of 16 match REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Naomi Osaka, seeded No. 7 and playing before home fans in Japan, was knocked out of the Pan Pacific Open on Thursday by Mia Pohankova of Slovakia.

Pohankova, who turned 18 a week ago and was a wildcard entry in Japan, upset Osaka 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals after a match that lasted 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Pohankova will face Alycia Parks in the quarterfinals. Pohankova was the 2025 junior singles champion at Wimbledon.

Osaka was coming off a win over Jasmine Paolini in the first round in Tokyo.

Tennis - WTA 500 - Pan Pacific Open - Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan - October 29, 2026 Japan's Naomi Osaka signs autographs after her round of 16 match against Slovakia's Mia Pohankova REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

In other round-of-16 matches on Thursday at the Pan Pacific Open, Parks defeated Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 6-1, and Leylah Fernandez defeated No. 5 Elise Mertens 6-2, 7-6 (8), The Associated Press reported.

In a late match, top-ranked Elena Rybakina faced Yulina Putintseva. Both were born in Russia but represent Kazakhstan.

Second-seeded Maja Chwalinska and No. 4 Belinda Bencic pulled out of the tournament earlier with injuries. Chwalinska has an injured left thigh and Bencic has a right-ankle injury.

Sports

Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga Face Long Road to Redemption in China

People walk past a bus featuring French football star Kylian Mbappe. Jade GAO / AFP
People walk past a bus featuring French football star Kylian Mbappe. Jade GAO / AFP
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Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga Face Long Road to Redemption in China

People walk past a bus featuring French football star Kylian Mbappe. Jade GAO / AFP
People walk past a bus featuring French football star Kylian Mbappe. Jade GAO / AFP

Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga have apologized for the superstar striker's comments about Mao Zedong, but the damage to their reputation in China won't be easily or quickly repaired, experts say.

The France captain, one of the best footballers on the planet, is at the center of a major row after a video emerged this week of him appearing to make fun of former leader Mao, said AFP.

Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photoshopped onto "some guy, think he's a Chinese dictator".

Mao remains officially revered as the hero of the communist revolution and founder of the People's Republic of China.

He is blamed by historians for millions of deaths, but publicly mocking him is taboo, and Mbappe's remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure or entity to infuriate Beijing.

Major Chinese brands cut ties with the 27-year-old, and Spanish top-flight matches will be pulled from state television broadcaster CCTV.

Chinese state media and social media users lined up to lambast Mbappe, although they were left in the dark about what exactly he said.

China has the world's second-biggest economy and can be hugely lucrative, and within two days the striker, his club Real Madrid, and La Liga all apologized.

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry said the Beijing government took Mbappe's apology "seriously".

- 'Serious damage' -

So is that the end of the matter?

"Viewed from a calm, objective and emotion-free standpoint, this is clearly a very damaging incident," Yan Qiang, a veteran sports commentator, told AFP.

"It causes serious damage to the image of La Liga and Real Madrid in China.

"In the age of the mobile internet things blow up on social media quickly and emotions run high.

"An apology does not necessarily mean the end of the story.

"It's better to have an apology than no apology at all, but it's definitely not the end of the story."

The Mbappe furor and fallout is not an unfamiliar tale.

Various overseas sports leagues or players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.

China effectively cut ties with the NBA in 2019 after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.

NBA executives said Morey had the right to freedom of expression. In contrast, La Liga immediately distanced itself from what Mbappe said.

The NBA, which along with football is the most popular sport in China, was wiped from CCTV for more than a year.

NBA pre-season matches only returned to China last year.

Australian National University lecturer Debby Chan called the NBA case -- and now Mbappe -- an illustration of China's consumer nationalism, where online sentiment and state media converge into "a spiral of outrage".

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league lost "hundreds of millions of dollars" over the split.

- No way back? -

Spanish football also has a lot to lose.

A source within La Liga told AFP that China and the United States alone finance the "majority" of international broadcasting rights, which were valued at 748 million euros ($834 million) for the 2024-25 season.

According to the Real Madrid-affiliated newspaper Marca, the Madrid club generates between 10 and 15 percent of its sales of jerseys and merchandise in China.

Real Madrid also counts Chinese companies among its main sponsors, with Hisense, sports betting firm Kaiyun Sports, and Linglong Tire all featuring prominently.

Adam Zhang, founder of the Beijing-based Key-Solution Sports Consulting, said showing fast and heartfelt remorse was the first step.

"This will influence the decision on whether to continue the broadcast ban and, if so, for how long," he told AFP.

Sports commentator Yan cast doubt on whether the reputation of Mbappe, whose face has adorned drinks bottles and advertising campaigns in China, can ever fully recover.

"Judging by commercial sponsorships and big ad campaigns he appeared in during the World Cup, he has a huge influence in China," he said.

"If that influence can't be sustained there can be no talk of commercial interests, and La Liga and Real Madrid will definitely be badly affected."

Yan said it was "genuinely hard to predict" what happens next.

"In the short term, I'm certainly not optimistic," he added.

"If they want to repair their image and the relationship, their future actions and behavior will be key."

Sports

Antonelli Following in the Footsteps of Farina and Ascari

Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, of Italy, celebrates on the podium after winning the Italian Formula One Grand Prix race in Monza, Italy, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, of Italy, celebrates on the podium after winning the Italian Formula One Grand Prix race in Monza, Italy, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP)
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Antonelli Following in the Footsteps of Farina and Ascari

Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, of Italy, celebrates on the podium after winning the Italian Formula One Grand Prix race in Monza, Italy, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, of Italy, celebrates on the podium after winning the Italian Formula One Grand Prix race in Monza, Italy, Sept. 6, 2026. (AP)

Alberto Ascari was a boyhood hero for US motor racing great Mario Andretti, now 86, but few of Kimi Antonelli's compatriots were around when Italy's last Formula One world champion was making headlines.

Antonelli, 20, is set this weekend to become the only living Italian who knows what it feels like to take the chequered flag and win the Formula One championship. He would be the first to do it in 73 years, since Ascari's second title with Ferrari in 1953.

"I know the corner in Monza is named after him," the Mercedes driver told Reuters when asked what he knew about his illustrious predecessor, who was also champion in 1952 after Giuseppe "Nino" Farina won the first title with Alfa Romeo in 1950. Farina died in 1966.

"I know ‌that he was ‌the last Italian champion. And it was a long time ago. A ‌very, ⁠very long time ⁠ago."

LUCKY BLUE HELMET

Ascari was the son of a racing driver, as is Antonelli, with father Antonio a multiple race winner before his death in the 1925 French Grand Prix at Montlhery, south of Paris, long before the Formula One world championship started in 1950.

Antonio Ascari was 36 when he died, the same age almost to the day as Alberto when he crashed fatally at Monza while testing a Ferrari sportscar in 1955.

The younger Ascari had not been due to drive the car, present only to watch his friend Eugenio Castellotti ⁠in action, but decided to try it out.

Borrowing a helmet, instead of the ‌lucky light blue one the superstitious driver always wore, and ‌dressed in regular street clothes, the Milanese was thrown out of the car after it skidded and somersaulted off ‌the track at the Curva del Vialone.

The chicane is now known to F1 fans as the ‌Variante Ascari.

Four days earlier, wearing the blue helmet, he had plunged his Lancia into the Monaco harbor at the chicane coming out of the tunnel -- miraculously missing an iron mooring hidden by a hay bale -- and emerged relatively unscathed.

"You have to get straight back into the saddle after an accident, otherwise doubt sets in," he was quoted as ‌telling a friend before the fateful drive.

Italians turned out in their tens of thousands for the funeral, with his blue helmet resting on the ⁠coffin, and he was ⁠buried beside his father.

"He was the fastest driver I ever saw," Britain's first world champion Mike Hawthorn recalled later. "Faster even than (Juan Manuel) Fangio".

Andretti, the 1978 world champion and now on the board of newcomers Cadillac F1, has described Ascari as his "absolute idol".

"Very cool and relaxed. He sat back doing his thing, totally in control of his car. I loved that style," the Italian-born American recalls on his website.

"When I was 14, I saw my first Formula One race in Monza, Italy — the Italian Grand Prix. Alberto Ascari didn’t win that day, but he was fighting with Mercedes, the stronger team at the time," Andretti also wrote in the New York Times last April. "He was my hero regardless. That’s when the dream really was cemented."

Until Antonelli came along, Ascari held the record for most wins by an Italian in a single season and for successive victories.

Ascari still holds the record for most career wins by an Italian (13 from 32 races) but, with Antonelli on nine from a single campaign, it is probably only a matter of time before that too falls.