03/02/2026

SPORTS TUESDAY | FEB 3, 2026

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Real escape Mbappe scores late penalty as Madrid down nine-man Rayo K YLIAN MBAPPE stayed calm to roll home a 100th-minute penalty and claim Real Madrid a 2-1 win over nine-man Rayo Vallecano yester day in a spicy La Liga derby clash. Elsewhere Athletic Bilbao struck late to secure a 1-1 Basque derby draw against Real Sociedad and Real Betis rose to fifth with a 2-1 win at Valencia. have taken the lead after an hour when Andrei Ratiu ran through on goal but Thibaut Courtois denied him superbly, while Mbappe hit the crossbar at the other end. Rayo made life harder for themselves when mid fielder Ciss was sent off for an ugly foul on Madrid’s Dani Ceballos. Eduardo Camavinga headed against the post as Arbeloa’s side turned the screw.

INTER MILAN extended their lead at the top of Serie A to eight points with yesterday’s 2-0 win at Cremonese, a match which was marred by away fans nearly hit ting the hosts’ goalkeeper Emil Audero with a firecracker. Lautaro Martinez and Piotr Zielinski’s first-half strikes were enough for Inter to extend their unbeaten league run to 11 matches and pile pressure on nearest challengers AC Milan who face Bologna overnight. Inter again comfortably dealt with one of the division’s lesser lights, their consistency against the lower-ranked teams. Cristian Chivu’s team have collected 31 points from those 11 fixtures. “It’s not a message to the rest of the league, it’s a message to ourselves,” said Martinez. “There’s still along way to go and it’s a very evenly-balanced division.” Martinez’s header, which came in the 16th minute from Federico Dimarco’s corner, made him Inter’s joint fourth-highest goalscorer in Serie A – level on 128 with Alessandro Altobelli who won the World Cup with Italy in 1982. Martinez celebrated both his goal and his daughter’s fifth birthday, but a positive evening for him and Inter almost took a darker turn when Audero fell to the turf following the arrival of the firecracker from the Inter fans massed behind his goal. The match was stopped for a few minutes and for a moment it appeared Audero, who played four times for Inter during the 2023/24 season, had been directly struck by the explosive, which went off near him in the penalty area. Fortunately a stunned Audero had only suffered minor injuries to his leg and was able to continue, and the match finished without further incident. “It’s something you have to condemn, it’s a very dangerous thing that you cannot do,” said Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni, who was born in Cremona and whose father played at fullback for Cremonese. “I can only express solidarity with Emil who was a teammate of ours. Let’s hope they don’t happen any more.” Gleison Bremer helped Juventus up to fourth, the Brazilian international defender scoring twice in a comfortable 4 1 win at Parma as the Turin giants continued their revival under Luciano Spalletti. Weston McKennie and Jonathan David scored the other goals as Juve, who look like a totally different team to the one coached by Spalletti’s predeces sor Igor Tudor, went two points above Roma who take on Udinese overnight. Como are sixth on 41 points, four behind Juve after Nico Paz wasted a last-gasp penalty in a goalless draw with Atalanta, who sit seventh and are set to sell one-time star winger Ademola Lookman to Atletico Madrid. Inter stretch unbeaten streak

Dortmund back in title race after Guirassy double

SERHOU GUIRASSY scored twice in the second half as Borussia Dortmund came from behind to beat bottom club Heidenheim 3-2 yesterday and move six points behind Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich. Waldemar Anton put the nervy hosts in front but Julian Niehues scored either side of half-time to give Heidenheim the lead. Guirassy had scored just one Bundesliga goal in 10 games since October but grabbed two in the space of two minutes to put Dortmund back in front. Guirassy missed a late penalty but Dortmund, who were 11 points behind Bayern at Christmas, held on to drag them selves back into the title race. “We want to be champions. We’re six points behind now, fewer than after the break,” Dortmund captain Nico Schlotterbeck told DAZN .“We want to attack now.” Dortmund host Bayern in late February. Their only league loss this season came in Munich in October. Dortmund looked anxious despite facing a Heidenheim side six points from guaran teed safety. Anton put the hosts in front in scrappy fashion, tapping in after Heidenheim goal keeper Diant Ramaj spilled a corner. Dortmund switched off and Heidenheim pounced, Niehues scoring after a failed clearance deep into first-half stoppage time. Niehues struck once more after half time, blasting a long-range shot into the far corner. Dortmund were handed a lifeline when VAR awarded a spot-kick for a Niklas Dorsch handball. With first-choice penalty taker Emre Can out with illness, Schlotterbeck handed the ball to Guirassy, who snuck his shot inside the post. With a taste for goal, Guirassy put Dortmund in front with a low shot at the near post shortly afterwards. Guirassy had a chance to complete a hat trick when called to the penalty spot again with five minutes remaining but he sent the ball well over the crossbar. “I always believe in myself,” the much maligned Guirassy said. “We won and that’s the most important thing. But penalties are off the table for me now.” Ermedin Demirovic unleashed a thun derbolt in the 90th minute to send Stuttgart into the top four with a 1-0 home win over Freiburg. RB Leipzig’s home defeat by Mainz on Saturday left the door open for the German Cup holders climb into the Champions League places. “What can you say?” Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeness told DAZN of Demirovic’s goal. “It was beautiful. There were some other nice things, but the goal was simply world-class.” – AFP we were excellent and created the bet ter chances,” said O’Neil. “Many teams lose to PSG just defending but we were in the game the whole way -- it does give us the belief that we can go again.” Elsewhere, Lyon continued their excellent run of form with a 1-0 win over Lille to make it 10 straight victories in all competitions and further boost their chances of Champions League qualification. Nice come from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Brest, while Toulouse drew 0-0 with Auxerre and Angers defeated bottom side Metz 1-0. – AFP

Los Blancos cut Barcelona’s lead back to one point at the top of the table after the Spanish champions beat Elche on Sunday. Vinicius Junior scored early on for Madrid after Jude Bellingham limped off with a hamstring injury which is expected to keep him out for around a month. Jorge de Frutos pulled Rayo level early in the second half as Madrid fans showed their anger at their team fol lowing the midweek Champions League defeat at Benfica. After Pathe Ciss’s red card tilted the game in Madrid’s favour, Mbappe netted from the spot at the death for his 22nd La Liga goal this season. Pep Chavarria was also sent off in the final stages for Rayo, 17th, who took a shaky Madrid to the wire before falling short. Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa said it would take time before the team could become more consistent, having had six games at the helm since replacing Xabi Alonso. “I’m not Gandalf the White,” the Madrid coach told reporters, referring to the fictional wizard from the Lord of the Rings . “What I want from my players is what I’m seeing, commitment, attitude, mental ity, knowing that to win each game quality is not enough, consistency is key, we will work on that.” Arbeloa said Madrid had to play better than other teams to beat opponents, because of their illustrious name. “This is Real Madrid, and to beat Rayo Vallecano we need to do more than the rest of the teams in La Liga,” he continued. The coach said Bellingham would be a “big absence” for the matches ahead after

With nine minutes of stoppage time ticking down Madrid were awarded a penalty when Nobel Mendy clumsily fouled Brahim Diaz, and La Liga’s top scorer Mbappe dispatched it. Rayo finished the match with nine men after Chavarria was shown a second yellow card for shoving Rodrygo Goes. “The important thing is to improve, to grow as a team, try to be calmer, we can’t always be waiting for the

opponent to make a mistake,” said Madrid midfielder Fede Valverde. – AFP

he limped off early, incuding the Champions League playoff games against Jose Mourinho’s Benfica – again. After the defeat in Portugal stopped Madrid reaching the last 16 directly, the Santiago Bernabeu crowd was in unforgiving mood and whistled their own players, despite appeals from Arbeloa and Mbappe ahead of the game. Vinicius, who was targeted, fired the hosts ahead in the 15th minute with a fine individual goal. Los Blancos were in charge but despite taking the lead, their fans were not appeased, and whistled the team in at the break. Things got worse when four

Real’s Kylian Mbappe (left) celebrates with Vinicius Junior after scoring their winning goal during yesterday’s La Liga match against Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabeu. – AFPPIC

minutes into the second half Rayo pulled level through De Frutos. The visitors should

PSG beat Strasbourg to retake top spot NUNO MENDES scored a late winner as Paris Saint-Germain survived the sec ond-half sending-off of Achraf Hakimi to beat Strasbourg 2-1 yesterday and reclaim top spot in Ligue 1. Luis Enrique’s team had been reduced to 10 men on 74 minutes as Moroccan star Hakimi was sent off for a high tackle on Panichelli – he was ini tially shown a yellow card only for the punishment to be upgraded to red after a VAR check. Having missed out on direct qualifi

“We were fortunate to win this match when most people would have thought it was impossible,” said Luis Enrique. “It was not our best performance. In the end I don’t know if we deserved to win or not but it was very important.” For Strasbourg, the defeat was their first in four matches under new English coach Gary O’Neil, appointed last month after Liam Rosenior left for Chelsea. They remain seventh, but are only two points adrift of Lille in fifth. “I am really proud of the team but really disappointed that we somehow found a way to lose, because I thought

A dramatic game in Alsace saw PSG goalkeeper Matfei Safonov save Joaquin Panichelli’s early penalty for Strasbourg, before Senny Mayulu gave the visitors the lead. Guela Doue, elder brother of PSG star Desire, levelled for the home side before the half-hour mark, but Portugal left-back Mendes headed in the winner for the reigning French and European champions in the 81st minute.

cation for the Champions League last 16 in midweek following a 1-1 draw with Newcastle United, PSG bounced back here to make it six successive Ligue 1 victories. As a result, they are two points clear at the top of the table from Lens, who defeated Le Havre 1-0 on Friday.