09/12/2025

SPORTS TUESDAY | DEC 9, 2025

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Lyon slip at Lorient, Nice crisis deepens

RASMUS HOJLUND fired Napoli top of Serie A with both goals in yesterday’s 2-1 win over Juventus and former idol Luciano Spalletti, who left empty-handed from the site of his greatest triumph. Denmark striker Hojlund headed home the crucial goal with 12 minutes remaining at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. The 22-year-old also put Napoli ahead early on in Naples, his first club goal since netting the winner against Genoa in early October. Napoli are one point ahead of Inter Milan after condemning Juve to a first league defeat since Spalletti took charge of the Turin giants in late October, but will be surpassed on goal difference by AC Milan overnight if the seven time European champions beat Torino. “All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you to the players,” said coach Antonio Conte, who looked close to a shock exit after a dismal defeat at Bologna before the last international break. But Napoli have won five on the bounce in all competitions since then – in the midst of an injury crisis – and next travel to Portugal to take on Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Thursday. “They’ve grown so much. It makes me very proud because they understand what we’re trying to do and the period we’re going through, and they respond in an incredible fashion,” added Conte. Juve are now eight points off the title pace after 14 matches as Spalletti, who led Napoli to a first Scudetto in over three decades in 2023, struggles to get a tune out of his new players. Juve had looked good for a result when Kenan Yildiz coolly rolled home his sixth goal of the season after brilliantly exchanging passes with Weston McKennie. Juve had been the better team of the second half up to that point but failed to capitalise on that moment, with Yildiz’s substitution in the 76th minute being quickly followed by Hojlund’s winner. “We were better after our goal but it was schoolboy stuff “We didn’t push the situation as a team,” said Spalletti. “We need to step it up and quickly otherwise things become difficult… We need to take stock.” Roma, defeated by Napoli last weekend, lost further ground in the title race with a painful 1-0 loss at Cagliari which left them four points behind Napoli. “We made a few clear mistakes, both for the red card and their goal, and it’s difficult to get a result when things like that happen,” said Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini. Bologna are two points behind Roma in fifth after a 1-1 draw at Rome’s other team Lazio, Jens Odgaard poking home the leveller five minute’s before the break. – AFP Hojlund brace shoots Napoli top

Angry Alonso demands reaction against City after Celta Vigo defeat Real see red

and Cameroon are hurting after failing to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, Egypt have gone 15 years since last conquering Africa, and Senegal seek redemption after a poor 2024 cam paign. Of the 12 contenders who have not won Afcon, Mali stand out as a team capable of going all the way after being unlucky quarterfinal losers to Ivory Coast last year. “We respect everyone, but fear no one. Our ambition is to stay in this competition until the very end,” says Tom Saintfiet, the Belgian coach of the Eagles. – AFP LYON fell to their fifth defeat of the season in Ligue 1 as they lost 1-0 at lowly Lorient yesterday, while crisis-club Nice went down to the same scoreline against Angers. Pablo Pagis’ 39th-minute goal at home was enough to move the Brittany side clear of the relegation zone. Lorient were helped towards just their fourth victory of the campaign when Lyon’s former Arsenal defender Ainsley Maitland-Niles was dismissed for a second bookable offence three minutes after they took the lead. Paulo Fonseca’s Lyon remain fifth, but now lie 10 points behind surprise Ligue 1 leaders Lens. The match also marked Fonseca’s return to the touchline following the culmination of a nine-month ban for an angry altercation with a referee back in March. “It was an important moment (returning)… I wanted a different result today. But I’m happy to be on the pitch, close to the players and close to the match. It’s totally different,” the Portuguese said. Nice’s problems worsened earlier in the day as they lost a seventh consecutive game in all competitions at home to 11th-placed Angers. Franck Haise’s players took to the Allianz Riviera pitch with the names of Terem Moffi and Jeremie Boga emblazoned on their backs in support of their teammates who are currently on sick leave after being targeted by supporters in the previous Sunday’s confrontation outside the team’s training ground. In front of a sparse but hostile crowd due to the call by Nice ultras to boycott the match, the hosts were unable to breach their opponents’ staunch rearguard as Yassin Belkhdim’s goal just after the half-hour was enough to separate the sides. Tom Louchet was dismissed for Nice early in the second period as they dropped to 12th in the table – level on 17 points with Lorient. “This is obviously a very difficult period,” Haise said. “Things will come from the pitch. But we’re not going to change everything overnight, or become flamboyant again overnight. We’re going to have to hang in there and move forward a little bit every day.” Visibly affected by the fans’ attitude, the Nice coach said playing a match in a hostile atmosphere was “very particular”. “It’s the first time I’ve experienced this… Our position is already delicate, and with a large part of your own fans against you, it’s obviously even more complicated,” he added. – AFP

Blood runs down Jude Bellingham’s face after an injury during yesterday’s La Liga match against Celta Vigo. – REUTERSPIC

R EAL MADRID crashed to a damaging 2-0 home defeat by Celta Vigo yesterday in La Liga, finishing the game with nine men after red cards for Fran Garcia and Alvaro Carreras. Williot Swedberg struck twice in the second half for Celta, with Madrid’s second league defeat of the season leaving rivals Barcelona four points clear at the top of La Liga. Xabi Alonso’s side, second, also lost defender Eder Militao to injury on a difficult night in the Spanish capital, before they host Manchester City in the Champions League on Thursday (4am Malaysian time). Madrid were playing their first match at home following six on the road across all competitions after hosting an NFL match at the Bernabeu, coinciding with a poor run of form, having now won just one of their last five league games. “We are all angry, evidently this was not the game we wanted, it was not the result we wanted,” Alonso told reporters at the Bernabeu. “We have to try and turn the page as quickly as possible. It’s only three points. “We have the Champions League game against City to react in, and get this bad taste out of our mouths.” Alonso’s side have struggled for form in recent weeks, leading to speculation over his future at the club in Spanish media. Asked if he was playing for his future against City, Alonso insisted it was only the points at stake. “We’re playing for three points in the Champions League, in a competition we’re in a good position in, and that’s what we’re playing for,” continued Alonso. “But we want to play well, we want to play a good game, we want to show we can play a lot better than we did today. We know that.” With the juicy European battle against Erling

Haaland’s City approaching, Alonso chose to rest centreback Antonio Rudiger, starting with Carreras in the heart of defence. Rudiger’s break did not last long, with the German defender coming on midway through the first half after Militao pulled up injured. Raul Asencio started at right-back, after Trent Alexander-Arnold was sidelined for two months with a thigh injury, continuing a tough start to life in the Spanish capital for the former Liverpool defender. Celta’s Romanian goalkeeper Ionut Radu turned away a fierce Fede Valverde effort from distance early in the second half, before Celta stunned the hosts. Bryan Zaragoza crossed from the left for Swedberg, who produced a gorgeous flicked finish to beat Thibaut Courtois to send the Galicians ahead. Madrid were wounded, literally in the case of Bellingham, with blood running down his face from a cut sustained in a tussle with Celta target man Borja Iglesias. Adding insult to injury Garcia earned two yellow cards inside a minute, the second for a clumsy foul on Swedberg, to leave Los Blancos with 10 men for the final third of the match. Carreras was dismissed in stoppage time as Madrid lost their heads, for dissent as he protested a decision by referee Alejandro Quintero. With Madrid down to nine and in disarray, Celta wrapped up their win as Swedberg rounded Courtois and ran the ball home. “(This was) tremendous… we read the game very well, we had some luck in the chances that we had, but we did well,” Celta’s Iglesias told Movistar . “With the team they have and their quality, it’s hard to equal them, but we read it well, we had the ball, we played in their half, we played a great game.” – AFP

Hakimi’s Atlas Lions team to beat at Afcon MOROCCO have home advantage, a team that has won a world record 18 consecutive internationals and an inspirational captain in Achraf Hakimi as they seek 2025 Africa Cup of Nations glory. Expectations are high in the king spoiling the Moroccan dream. Only hosts Sudan, champions Egypt and Ethiopia took part in the 1957 Afcon after South Africa were disqualified for wanting to field either an all-white or all-black team.

Ghana and Cape Verde, both 2026 World Cup qualifiers, will be the most notable absentees after disastrous qualifying campaigns. Cape Verde managed only one vic tory in six matches and four-time champions Ghana fared even worse – drawing three matches and losing the other three. Morocco will be the team to beat this time as they seek to end a string of disappointing campaigns. Favoured to succeed in the Ivory Coast last year, they made a last-16 exit, falling 2-0 to South Africa. Among the challengers, Nigeria

As time passed so did the number of qualifiers expand. It was six by 1963, eight five years later, 12 in 1992, then 16 four years on, and Egypt hosted the first 24-team event in 2019. Egypt (seven titles), Cameroon (five), Ghana (four), Ivory Coast and Nigeria (three each) have dominated the tournament, winning 22 of the 34 tournaments between them.

dom that the Atlas Lions can lift the most prized football trophy in the con tinent for only the second time on Jan 18 – 50 years after last doing so. But resilient title holders the Ivory Coast, Mohamed Salah-captained Egypt, Victor Osimhen-inspired Nigeria and Sadio Mane-led Senegal are some of the challengers capable of