عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Sports

Liverpool Shines in Champions League, Dumping Real Madrid Down the Table

Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL
Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL
TT
TT

Liverpool Shines in Champions League, Dumping Real Madrid Down the Table

Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL
Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL

Liverpool is 100% on top of the Champions League after dumping title holder Real Madrid into an almost unbelievable 24th place in the 36-team standings on Wednesday.
No one felt the embarrassment of Madrid’s 2-0 loss at Anfield more than Kylian Mbappé, the superstar added in the offseason by the storied club that also was European champion against Liverpool in the finals of 2022 and 2018.
Mbappé had a penalty saved in the second half and was earlier dumped on his behind by Conor Bradley’s superb tackle in an instant viral moment, The Associated Press reported.
Only Liverpool has started the new Champions League format with five wins and first-year coach Arne Slot's team is two points clear of Inter Milan. Barcelona is third, trailing Liverpool by three points.
Madrid is, remarkably, with three rounds left just one place above being eliminated. The top eight teams at the end of January go direct to the round of 16 in March, and teams placed from ninth to 24th enter a round of two-leg playoffs in February.
“(This) doesn’t change much, because even with a win it was going to be tough to secure a top-eight finish,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. ”It was a fair result."
Monaco missed a chance to go second in the table, giving up a lead playing with 10 men from the 58th minute in a 3-2 loss at home to Benfica. Swiss forward Zeki Amdouni scored the winning goal in the 88th.
Borussia Dortmund, the beaten finalist against Madrid in May, is up to fourth place after beating Dinamo Zagreb 3-0. Champions League standout Jamie Gittens now has four goals in five games, curling a rising shot in the 41st to open the scoring in Croatia.
The best comeback was at PSV Eindhoven, where the home team trailed Shakhtar Donetsk by two goals in the 87th minute before a 3-2 win was sealed by United States forward Ricardo Pepi’s goal deep in stoppage time.
US defender Cameron Carter-Vickers scored an embarrassing own goal for Celtic — playing a no-look pass far beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel — in a 1-1 draw with Club Brugge.
“One of those things,” Schmeichel said. “Cam gets pressed and he hasn’t heard me shout that I’m not in (goal).”
Congo teammates Ngal’Ayel Mukau and Silas impressed in wins for Lille and Red Star Belgrade.
Mukau scored twice in 12th-place Lille’s 2-1 win at Bologna and Silas leveled for Red Star in a 5-1 rout of Stuttgart, though he barely celebrated his goal. Silas is on loan with the Serbian champion from Stuttgart.
Aston Villa's 0-0 draw with Juventus was preserved by an excellent save by Emiliano Martinez, the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper, diving low to push away a header from Francisco Conceição.
Bradley beats Mbappé Liverpool’s stand-in right back Bradley was a standout Wednesday, denying Mbappé at high speed in a signature defensive play in the 32nd.
The 21-year-old Northern Ireland defender, deputizing for fit-again Trent Alexander-Arnold, joined the attack in the 52nd to play a key pass returning the ball to Alexis Mac Allister who scored the opening goal.
After Mbappé’s penalty was pushed away by goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher in the 61st, Liverpool star Mo Salah missed with his spot-kick in the 70th, before substitute Cody Gakpo sealed the win with a header in the 77th.
Madrid now has lost three of five games after defeats at Lille and at home to AC Milan. The record 15-time European champion has another tough trip next, at fifth-place Atalanta on Dec. 10. On the same date, Liverpool is at 30th-place Girona and looks to be cruising into the round of 16.
“You know how special it is to play against a team that has won the Champions League so many times," Liverpool coach Slot said of Madrid. “They were a pain for Liverpool for many years too.”
First wins, first points Red Star Belgrade and Sturm Graz ended four-game losing runs to get their first points and wins.
Red Star rallied against Stuttgart after the German team led in the fifth minute. The 1991 European Cup winner’s goal to level the game in the 12th was scored by on-loan Silas. He held up his hands as if in apology as part of a low-key celebration.
Sturm Graz won 1-0 against Girona, the Spanish newcomer to European competitions. It was the Austrian champion’s first Champions League game since coach Christian Ilzer left to join Hoffenheim.

Most Viewed

 
 
Sports

Jota’s Sons to Join Mascots When Liverpool Face Wolves at Anfield

Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)
Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)
TT
TT

Jota’s Sons to Join Mascots When Liverpool Face Wolves at Anfield

Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)
Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)

Diogo Jota's two sons will join ​the mascots at Anfield when Liverpool face Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday, the club confirmed on Friday.

Portuguese forward Jota, who played for both ‌Premier League ‌clubs, died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. He was 28.

Jota joined Wolves on loan from Atletico Madrid in 2017 and made ⁠a permanent move to the club ‌the following year. ‍He then ‍signed a five-year deal in ‍2020 with Liverpool, where he won the league title earlier this year.

Saturday's match marks the ​first time Liverpool and Wolves have met since Jota's ⁠death.

Jota's wife Rute Cardoso and her two sons, Dinis and Duarte, were present for the Premier League home openers for both Liverpool and Wolves in August.

Liverpool also permanently retired his jersey number 20 following his death.

Sports

Too Hot to Handle? Searing Heat Looming Over 2026 World Cup

A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
TT
TT

Too Hot to Handle? Searing Heat Looming Over 2026 World Cup

A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)

With less than six months to go before the 2026 World Cup kicks off, organizers are bracing for what could be their most challenging opponent yet: extreme heat.

Soaring temperatures across the United States, Mexico and Canada pose safety issues for players and fans and a host of logistical issues that remain far from settled.

In the depths of the $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which will host eight World cup matches, around 15 industrial misting fans more than two meters sit in storage, waiting to be deployed. If temperatures climb above 80F (26.7C), the fans will be rolled out around the stadium.

A roof suspended some 45 meters above the SoFi Stadium pitch offers some shade for spectators, while large openings along the sides of the stadium allow for breezes from the nearby Pacific Ocean to provide a form of natural air conditioning.

"Knowing that you can put 70,000 people into a building, the energy, the excitement, the activity that comes with that, and the higher temperature, that's where we want to make sure we respond," Otto Benedict, vice president of operations for the company that manages the stadium, told AFP.

Not all of the World Cup's 16 stadiums are as modern. And Southern California is not considered to be among the highest-risk areas for a competition scheduled from June 11 to July 19, three and a half years after a winter World Cup in Qatar.

- Automatic cooling breaks -

A study published in the International Journal of Biometeorology in January warned of "serious concern" for the health of players and match officials at the 2026 World Cup due to extreme heat.

The study identified six "high-risk" host cities: Monterrey, Miami, Kansas City, Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

The "Pitches in Peril" report by the Football for Future non-profit noted that in 2025 those cities each recorded at least one day above 35C on the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) scale, which factors in humidity and is considered the upper limit of human heat tolerance.

The issue of heat featured prominently at this year's FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, which drew complaints from players and coaches.

Extreme heat also marked the 1994 World Cup, the last men's edition held in the United States.

FIFA has responded by mandating cooling breaks in the 22nd and 67th minutes of all matches at the World Cup, regardless of conditions.

The World Cup match schedule released after December's draw in Washington shows daytime games largely assigned to air-conditioned stadiums in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta, while higher-risk venues are set to host evening kickoffs.

"You can clearly see an effort to align the competition schedule planning and venue selection with the concerns around player health, but also player performance," a spokesperson for the FIFPro players union told AFP. "This is a clear outcome, which we welcome, and a lesson learned from the Club World Cup."

- 'High-risk matches' -

FIFPRO says the biggest takeaway is that heat will play an increasingly central role in organizing competitions on a warming planet.

The union believes though that several World Cup fixtures remain "high-risk" and recommends postponements when WBGT readings exceed 28C.

Among those fixtures causing FIFPro concern: group-stage matches scheduled for mid-afternoon in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, as well as the final, set for a 3:00 p.m. kickoff in New York.

While teams and players work to mitigate effects of the conditions, some officials say the risks to spectators both inside stadiums and in fan zones have been underestimated.

"There is a risk and importantly, we feel like it's an underappreciated risk," said Chris Fuhrmann, deputy director of the Southeast Regional Center of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"When you're cheering, you're actually generating a lot of metabolic heat and your heart rate's going up. Spectators obviously compared to professional athletes are generally not in as good physical health.

"They have a lot of comorbidities that increase the likelihood that they would have a negative health outcome or succumb to heat stress."

Stadium temperatures are also amplified by the "urban heat island" effect of concrete, asphalt and metal.

Adequate air circulation, plenty of shaded areas and access to hydration are crucial, Fuhrmann said.

FIFA has yet to clarify whether fans will be allowed to bring refillable water bottles into venues or whether water will be sold inside. FIFA did not respond to requests for comment.

- Prevention -

For National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Schott, who has advised FIFA and its World Cup task force, the priority is prevention, particularly for foreign visitors unfamiliar with local climates.

Another lesson from the Club World Cup, he said, is the need for multilingual messaging to ensure heat-safety warnings are clearly understood.

"The lesson learned is just trying to maybe better educate fans as they come to the United States to have a better understanding of what the weather could be like during those two months," Schott said.

Sports

Palladino’s Atalanta on the up as Serie A Leaders Inter Visit

Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)
Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)
TT
TT

Palladino’s Atalanta on the up as Serie A Leaders Inter Visit

Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)
Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)

Atalanta are on the comeback trail ahead of Sunday night's visit of Serie A leaders Inter Milan, with coach Raffaele Palladino leading the charge for the revitalized Bergamo club.

Since Palladino replaced Ivan Juric last month Atalanta have rediscovered their groove, as witnessed by the way they dealt with Eintracht Frankfurt and Chelsea in the Champions League.

Atalanta sit fifth in the Champions League, level on points with mega-bucks Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, and now they're heading back up the Serie A table.

A last-gasp win at Genoa last weekend put Atalanta back in the top half of Italy's top flight and only three points off the European spots.

"It wasn't one of our better performances but today winning was what counted," said Palladino after the victory over Genoa.

"Those three points were hugely important for us to keep our run going and get us up the right end of the table."

Sunday's clash in Bergamo is the first of three fixtures against direct rivals for Champions League football.

Fourth-placed Roma, who are eight points clear of Atalanta, travel north at the turn of the year before the short journey to Bologna, who sit in the Conference League spot.

Atalanta have won six of their eight matches in all competitions under Palladino, who already looks more like the right replacement for Gian Piero Gasperini than Juric ever did.

However, Palladino will be without key attacker Ademola Lookman and defender Odilon Kossounou who are representing Nigeria and Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations.

"We keep scaling a mountain that a month ago seemed impossible," said Palladino.

"Let's enjoy the moment because we've got three big matches coming up and we can take them on in the right spirit."

Inter lead local rivals AC Milan -- who host Verona -- by a single point at the top of the table with champions Napoli a further point back in third ahead of their tricky trip to Jamie Vardy's Cremonese.

But Inter have been on a trip to Saudi Arabia for a failed attempt to win the Italian Super Cup, a tournament won by Napoli which has further clogged up their schedule and left them, Milan, Napoli and Bologna with a game in hand on Roma and fifth-placed Juventus.

The first two weeks of January each have midweek rounds of matches in store for the Super Cup clubs, with the following two weeks containing the decisive final fixtures of the Champions League's expanded league phase.

Inter coach Cristian Chivu has lost Ange-Yoan Bonny to a knee injury picked up in training, the Frenchman joining Denzel Dumfries, Franceco Acerbi and Hakan Calhanoglu on the treatment table.

Man to watch: Daniele De Rossi

De Rossi will make an emotional return to the Stadio Olimpico on Monday night when his Genoa team travel to the Italian capital hoping to bounce back after two unfortunate defeats to Inter and Atalanta.

The Roma icon and World Cup-winning midfielder took his boyhood club to the 2024 Europa League semi-final but was fired after a poor start last season.

He was sacked following a draw at Genoa in September last year, sparking furious protests from Roma fans, and he will be given a hero's welcome from home supporters.

Genoa sit two points above the drop zone while Roma are three points behind Inter having played a game more.