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Chelsea, Lyon and Roma Stay Perfect with Victories in Women's Champions League

Roma's Evelyne Viens, right, fights for the ball with Galatasaray's Berna Yeniceri during the women's Champions League group A soccer match between Galatasaray and Roma at Ataturk Olympic stadium in Istanbul, Türkiye, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Huseyin Yavuz/Dia Photo via AP)
Roma's Evelyne Viens, right, fights for the ball with Galatasaray's Berna Yeniceri during the women's Champions League group A soccer match between Galatasaray and Roma at Ataturk Olympic stadium in Istanbul, Türkiye, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Huseyin Yavuz/Dia Photo via AP)
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Chelsea, Lyon and Roma Stay Perfect with Victories in Women's Champions League

Roma's Evelyne Viens, right, fights for the ball with Galatasaray's Berna Yeniceri during the women's Champions League group A soccer match between Galatasaray and Roma at Ataturk Olympic stadium in Istanbul, Türkiye, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Huseyin Yavuz/Dia Photo via AP)
Roma's Evelyne Viens, right, fights for the ball with Galatasaray's Berna Yeniceri during the women's Champions League group A soccer match between Galatasaray and Roma at Ataturk Olympic stadium in Istanbul, Türkiye, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Huseyin Yavuz/Dia Photo via AP)

Chelsea, Lyon and Roma all stayed perfect in the Women’s Champions League by cruising to away victories on Thursday.
Roma routed Galatasaray at Istanbul 6-1, Chelsea beat Twente in the Netherlands 3-1 and eight-time champion Lyon won 2-0 at Wolfsburg.
Real Madrid claimed its first victory of the campaign by easing past Celtic 4-0, The Associated Press reported.
Roma and Lyon both have six points in Group A. Two-time champion Wolfsburg and Galatasaray, the first Turkish team to reach the group stage, have no points.
In Group B, Chelsea leads with six points, with Madrid and Twente on three and Celtic last bottom without a point.
Wolfsburg striker Alexandra Popp made her 100th competition appearance — becoming only the second player to reach the mark but it was Lyon defender Wendie Renard, the only one who has played more, who stole the show.
Renard’s header found the back of the net early on in her 118th game in the competition.
US international Lindsey Horan netted from the penalty spot in the second half.
Lyon is the competition’s record eight-time champion but last won the trophy in 2022. It was runner-up last season to Barcelona.
In a matchup between the Italian and Turkish champions, Roma dominated in Istanbul.
Summer signing Hawa Cissoko scored in the seventh minute to mark her debut game in the competition. The France defender who transferred from West Ham headed home off Manuela Giugliano's corner.
Valentina Giacinti made it 2-0 in the 24th minute when she was left unmarked near the spot to head in Verena Hanshaw's cross.
Giugliano failed to convert from the spot in the first-half stoppage time but Emilie Haavi got Roma's third with a right-footed blast past goalkeeper Gamze Yaman early in the second.
Giugliano finally found the back of the net from close range for a 4-0 lead before Andrea Staskova scored the consolation goal for the hosts. Roma substitutes Marta Pandini and Alice Corelli also scored.
Blues win again under Bompastor Chelsea struck early in another winning performance under new coach Sonia Bompastor, who joined from Lyon.
Agnes Beever-Jones put the Blues ahead with a long-distance deflected strike in the seventh minute and Maika Hamano made it 2-0 a short time later by lifting the ball over goalkeeper Olivia Clark from outside the area.
Substitute Guro Reiten added the third in the second from the spot just past the hour mark.
On Saturday, Chelsea beat city rival Arsenal 2-1 in the Women’s Super League.
Real Madrid scored three second-half goals in 11 minutes against Celtic in Group B.
The Spanish team had lost to Chelsea 3-2 in the first round and drew with Atlético 1-1 in the Madrid derby over the weekend.
Caroline Weir fired a long-range left-footer from outside the box into the far top corner in the seventh minute.
The visitors kept if close until the 72nd minute, when Signe Bruun headed home the second goal followed eight minutes later by Caroline Moller's lob of goalkeeper Kelsey Daugherty for a 3-0 lead. Linda Caicedo then converted from the penalty spot.
It's back-to-back losses for Scottish club Celtic, making its debut in the group stage. It has yet to score.

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Mbappe's Golden-boy Image Takes A Hit Amid Negative Headlines

Mbappe in action for France last month - AFP
Mbappe in action for France last month - AFP
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Mbappe's Golden-boy Image Takes A Hit Amid Negative Headlines

Mbappe in action for France last month - AFP
Mbappe in action for France last month - AFP

Kylian Mbappe is hoping his recent move to Real Madrid will take his already glittering career on the pitch to new heights, but the French superstar has become embroiled in off-field difficulties in recent months.

In an ideal world, the 25-year-old former Paris Saint-Germain striker would have been able to focus fully on settling in Madrid after he moved to the Spanish capital on a five-year deal during the summer just finished.

Instead, as well as being hampered by fitness problems, Mbappe has been locked in a bitter financial dispute with his old club and is now cited as the suspect in a rape investigation according to reports in Sweden, according to AFP.

Mbappe has dismissed those reports as "fake news" and is hoping to win his battle with PSG over what he claims amounts to 55 million euros ($60m) in unpaid wages and bonuses from last season.

Nevertheless, the negative headlines are a blow to the player's image and remove some of the aura around a young man who has become an icon in his home country and is a global sporting superstar.

When Mbappe emerged as a teenager at Monaco almost a decade ago, he stood out because of his precocious talent but also thanks to his remarkable communication skills.

Rather than being fazed by the media spotlight, Mbappe was clearly at ease in front of the cameras and spoke with the maturity and assurance of someone considerably older.

He was a World Cup winner at 19 and went on to become the all-time top scorer at PSG, the local club of the boy from Bondy in the Paris suburbs.

In March 2023, a few months after scoring a stunning hat-trick in France's World Cup final defeat by Lionel Messi's Argentina, he was named captain of the national team by coach Didier Deschamps.

That seemed a natural choice given his status in the team and in the country in general, but his position as skipper meant the decision to rest him for France's UEFA Nations League matches this month was controversial.

Mbappe had picked up a thigh injury in late September, a minor problem but one that suggested giving him a break would be beneficial in the long run.

"We need to put the player's interests first, without putting him into difficulty," Deschamps said of that decision, referring to Mbappe's relationship with his new club.

But as France's sporting press debated whether Mbappe's temporary absence from the squad was justified or a sign of a lack of commitment to the French cause, the player himself travelled to Stockholm for a short break with members of his entourage.

Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen, and public broadcaster SVT, have since reported that he is under investigation for rape, after an alleged incident in a hotel on October 10.

A Swedish prosecutor confirmed on Tuesday that a rape investigation had been opened but did not mention Mbappe's name.

Meanwhile Mbappe, whose career is managed by his mother Fayza Lamari, has taken his financial row with PSG to a French league committee.

He is trying to recover 55 million euros comprised of several months' unpaid wages and a signing-on fee, money PSG claimed he agreed to waive if he departed for free at the end of last season.

Mbappe even intimated on Monday that there was a link between the rape report and the wrangle with his old team, where he spent seven years.

"It's becoming so predictable, on the eve of the hearing, as if by chance," he wrote on X on Monday.

His unhappy divorce from PSG, which saw him left out of the team on numerous occasions in the second half of last season after he announced his intention to leave, surely contributed to a disappointing European Championship with France.

Mbappe suffered a broken nose in France's opening game at Euro 2024 in June and only scored one goal, a penalty in a group-stage draw with Poland, before Les Bleus lost in the semi-finals.

He looked some way short of peak physical form and is taking his time to settle in Madrid, even if he has seven goals in his first 11 appearances.

One recent moment seemed to capture the change in attitude towards Mbappe in his home country, as he was loudly booed by Lille supporters when introduced as a substitute for Real in a Champions League game earlier this month.

Such a welcome for an opposition player may not be unusual, but it contrasted sharply with the acclaim with which he was received around France in the aftermath of the last World Cup.