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PSG Coach Faces Crucial Month in Fight for Champions League Survival

Players of PSG celebrate their 3-0 victory over FC Salzburg at the end of a Champions League opening phase soccer match in Salzburg, Austria, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Players of PSG celebrate their 3-0 victory over FC Salzburg at the end of a Champions League opening phase soccer match in Salzburg, Austria, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
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PSG Coach Faces Crucial Month in Fight for Champions League Survival

Players of PSG celebrate their 3-0 victory over FC Salzburg at the end of a Champions League opening phase soccer match in Salzburg, Austria, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Players of PSG celebrate their 3-0 victory over FC Salzburg at the end of a Champions League opening phase soccer match in Salzburg, Austria, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

January could be a crucial month in determining Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique's future at the club.
While runaway league leader PSG is unbeaten in domestic competition heading into Sunday's Trophée des Champions (the French super cup) against Monaco, it is a far different story in the Champions League.
Three defeats in the new-look group format have left PSG in a perilous position, and the ambitious Qatari-backed club faces the threat of elimination.
With only two games remaining PSG is in a dismal 25th place out of 36 teams, with the bottom 12 all going out.
PSG next faces 2023 champion Manchester City at home on Jan. 22 before traveling to play German club Stuttgart the following week.
Those would already be tough games, but they are made even more difficult given the fact that City and Stuttgart are similarly in danger and need victories. City is one point ahead of PSG with eight points and Stuttgart is level on seven.
Stuttgart's penultimate game is against Slovan Bratislava — which has lost all six matches so far and conceded 21 goals — and so victory there would put it ahead of PSG going into the final round, if Enrique's side fails to beat City.
City is struggling to defend its Premier League title and European success could prove coach Pep Guardiola's salvation, so the PSG game is massive for the club.
Defeat may prove costly for Enrique, who is PSG's eighth manager since Qatari investors QSI bought the club in 2011. In that time, Carlo Ancelotti is the only coach not to be sacked, leaving for Real Madrid in 2013.
The hire-and-fire approach is unlikely to spare Enrique if he suffers the crushing humiliation of being knocked out of the new giant group-stage format of the Champions League — where eight sides qualify directly and 16 reach the knockout phase playoffs.
Modest Lille and tournament newcomers Brest are both in the top eight while 2004 runner-up Monaco is 16th, leaving PSG last among the French clubs.
Whatever PSG achieves in France — with the Ligue 1 and French Cup double a possibility — Enrique will be judged on what happens in Europe's elite competition.

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Sports

Slot: Liverpool's Wirtz Will Score Many More After Wolves Winner

Liverpool's Florian Wirtz scores his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers in Liverpool, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)
Liverpool's Florian Wirtz scores his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers in Liverpool, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)
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Slot: Liverpool's Wirtz Will Score Many More After Wolves Winner

Liverpool's Florian Wirtz scores his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers in Liverpool, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)
Liverpool's Florian Wirtz scores his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers in Liverpool, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Florian Wirtz is beginning to find his feet at Liverpool and will keep getting better, manager Arne Slot said after the German midfielder scored his first goal for the Premier League champions in their 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Liverpool signed Wirtz in June for a reported fee of 100 million pounds ($135 million), with a further 16 million pounds in potential bonuses.

The 22-year-old had failed to find the net in more than 20 appearances for Liverpool before scoring the winner in Saturday's match, and Slot said his performances ⁠had been undervalued due to football's obsession with statistics.

"I'm quite sure it was a relief for him. This I could see after his reaction after he scored the goal – and the same I saw with his teammates. I think they were really happy for him," Slot told reporters, according to Reuters.

"In football – rightly ⁠so, maybe – we mainly get judged on results, and individuals mainly get judged on goals and assists. Sometimes we tend to forget what else there is to do during a game."

The Dutch manager called on Wirtz to keep going after ending his drought.

"He's had multiple good games for us but I also feel he gets better and better every single game he is playing for us. He gets fitter and fitter and was getting closer and ⁠closer to his first goal," he added.

"Then it was not a surprise to me that he scored one today, but he would probably be the first one to understand that one goal is not enough.

"He will score many more goals for us than only this one, but I also liked his performance during large parts of the game today. I think he was special in a lot of moments."

Liverpool, fourth in the standings, next host 16th-placed Leeds United in a league match on January 1.

Sports

Valencia Coach Fernando Martin Dies in Indonesia Boat Accident

Rescue teams depart in boats after a boat carrying several people sank off the coast of Indonesia in extreme weather, Spanish authorities and an Indonesian news agency said, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, in this screengrab from the video obtained by Reuters on December 27, 2025. (BASARNAS)/Handout via REUTERS
Rescue teams depart in boats after a boat carrying several people sank off the coast of Indonesia in extreme weather, Spanish authorities and an Indonesian news agency said, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, in this screengrab from the video obtained by Reuters on December 27, 2025. (BASARNAS)/Handout via REUTERS
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Valencia Coach Fernando Martin Dies in Indonesia Boat Accident

Rescue teams depart in boats after a boat carrying several people sank off the coast of Indonesia in extreme weather, Spanish authorities and an Indonesian news agency said, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, in this screengrab from the video obtained by Reuters on December 27, 2025. (BASARNAS)/Handout via REUTERS
Rescue teams depart in boats after a boat carrying several people sank off the coast of Indonesia in extreme weather, Spanish authorities and an Indonesian news agency said, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, in this screengrab from the video obtained by Reuters on December 27, 2025. (BASARNAS)/Handout via REUTERS

Fernando Martin, a coach with Valencia CF, has died with three members of his family after their boat capsized in Indonesia, Spanish football clubs said.

Valencia said they were "deeply saddened by the passing of Fernando Martin, coach of Valencia CF Femenino B, and three of his children, in the tragic boat ⁠accident in Indonesia, as confirmed by local authorities.”

Indonesian and Spanish authorities said on Saturday that Martin and three of his children were missing after the boat carrying 11 people sank ⁠in extreme weather on Friday in the Padar Island Strait near the island of Labuan Bajo, a popular tourist spot.

The search was continuing on Sunday morning, Fathur Rahman, mission coordinator for Indonesia's search and rescue agency in the area, told Reuters.

Real Madrid CF also sent condolences ⁠for Martin, 44, a former player in second-tier Spanish football who was appointed coach of the Valencia Women's B team this year.

His wife and one daughter, as well as four crew members and a tour guide, were rescued and safe, SAR said in a statement.

Sports

Nigeria Let 3 Goal Lead Slip before Edging Past Tunisia

Nigeria's Victor Osimhen, top, wins a header against Tunisia's Ferjani Sassi during the Africa Cup of Nations group C soccer match between Nigeria and Tunisia in Fez, Morocco, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Nigeria's Victor Osimhen, top, wins a header against Tunisia's Ferjani Sassi during the Africa Cup of Nations group C soccer match between Nigeria and Tunisia in Fez, Morocco, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
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Nigeria Let 3 Goal Lead Slip before Edging Past Tunisia

Nigeria's Victor Osimhen, top, wins a header against Tunisia's Ferjani Sassi during the Africa Cup of Nations group C soccer match between Nigeria and Tunisia in Fez, Morocco, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Nigeria's Victor Osimhen, top, wins a header against Tunisia's Ferjani Sassi during the Africa Cup of Nations group C soccer match between Nigeria and Tunisia in Fez, Morocco, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Nigeria put on an impressive display of attacking prowess but had to hang on in the end for a narrow 3-2 win over Tunisia at the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday, becoming the second team to make sure of a place in the last 16.

Victor Osimhen opened the scoring a minute before halftime and captain Wilfred Ndidi and Ademola Lookman added two more after the break.

But Tunisia staged a late comeback with goals from defenders Montassar Talbi and Ali Abdi that set up a frenetic finish, Reuters reported.

It was Nigeria's second win in ⁠Group C and ensures they will top the standings, even with one first-round fixture still to play.

Their six-point haul is three more than second-placed Tunisia with Tanzania and Uganda, who drew 1-1 in Rabat earlier, on one point each.

Osimhen had a series of narrow misses from as early as the eighth minute as Nigeria came out of the starting blocks swarming all over Tunisia.

But it took until ⁠the 44th minute for the striker, wearing his customary mask to protect his cheekbone, to score as he rose at the back post to head home Lookman’s cross.

Nigeria were 2-0 up five minutes into the second half when Ndidi soared high above the Tunisian defence to head home from a corner.

Osimhen turned provider for Nigeria's third in the 67th minute, dragging the ball into the path of Lookman, who looked initially to have spurned a good opportunity but after hesitating was still able to get a shot away and it went in off the post.

Tunisia pulled the first goal back in the 74th ⁠minute as Hannibal Mejri's free kick was met by Talbi and the error-prone Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali slipped in his efforts to stop it.

Tunisia won a fortunate penalty with five minutes left as the ball hit Bright Osayi-Samuel's hand as he was trying to head clear. The spot kick was thrashed home by Abdi, setting up a late surge from Tunisia with Ferjani Sassi's header deep in stoppage time inches away from a dramatic equaliser.

Egypt on Friday became the first team into the last 16 when they beat South Africa 1-0 to make sure of top place in Group B.

Nigeria stay in Fes for the last group game on Tuesday against Uganda while Tanzania and Tunisia clash at the same time in Rabat.