26/02/2026

SPORTS THURSDAY | FEB 26, 2026

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Boro drop points, Foxes draw as West Brom sack coach Ramsay PROMOTION hopefuls Middlesbrough had to set tle for a point against relegation-threatened Leicester City at the Riverside Stadium. to win today,” Middlesbrough boss Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees .

start,” Rowett told BBC Radio Leicester . “It’s a big point. You have to respect the fact that Middlesbrough are where we want to be, and per haps were expected to be, but we’re not - and there are reasons for that.” The Foxes remain third from bottom and are without a win in eight league matches but they are just a point behind West Bromwich Albion. West Brom have sacked head coach Eric Ramsay after only nine games in charge, with the club just one point above the Championship relegation zone. The 34-year-old was appointed on a two-and-a half-year deal on Jan 11 following the departure of Ryan Mason. His departure leaves Albion looking for their fourth head coach in 14 months since Carlos Corberan’s departure to Valencia, with Tony Mowbray sacked before the end of last season. – Agencies

winning ways in their next match, away to Birmingham on Tuesday (4am Malaysian time). Leicester have drawn both their matches under new boss Gary Rowett, who will be encouraged by their spirited performance. “I can only judge them on what I see, and what I’ve seen is a group of players that are desperate to improve the situation they’re in – desperate to do better in the league. “We’ve got some really talented players who have shown me in the two games…. They’ve shown a really good mentality so far, but we’ve got to keep it like that. It’s just the start, but it’s quite a pleasing

“You take points you get at this stage of the sea son and keep working. We’re in an unbelievable position and we will keep working hard to keep it.” After a recent defeat by Coventry saw the Sky Blues regain top spot from Boro, Kim Hellberg’s side have dropped points against two teams battling against the drop, having played out a frustrating goalless draw against Oxford United at the week end. They are six points clear of third-placed Ipswich and Hull in fourth, but will be keen to get back to

Caleb Okoli opened the scoring before Riley McGree levelled in first half stoppage time for the hosts, who have now gone three Championship matches without a win, having previously won six in a row. A victory would have put second-placed Boro level on points with leaders Coventry City ahead of their match against Sheffield United overnight. “It makes it one loss in the last nine, but of course you want to win games. We weren’t good enough

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Draw Date: 25/02/26 (Wed)

Draw No: 6043/26 Venue: WISMA GENTING, KL

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Newcastle’s Joelinton (2nd right) celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal against Qarabag at St James’ Park yesterday. – AFPPIC

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N EWCASTLE UNITED com pleted their stroll into the Champions League last 16 with a 3-2 win over Qarabag yester day to progress 9-3 on aggregate over the Azeri champions. The Magpies will make up a six-strong contingent of English sides in the last 16 alongside Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham. A tie that involved an over 8,000 kilo metre round trip for both sides was killed off inside 45 minutes last week as Newcastle led 5-0 at halftime on their way to a 6-1 rout. That allowed Eddie Howe to heavily rotate his side, with four-goal hero from the first leg Anthony Gordon among those left on the bench. But he was still disappointed with how Newcastle handled the second half after another fast start as they added to their lead twice inside the opening six minutes of the match. Sandro Tonali fired in the rebound after Dan Burn’s shot was saved, before Joelinton stroked in Harvey Barnes’ cross. “I think if you look at the score over the two legs it’s been fantastic from the play ers even though today feels like a bit of a hollow win for us,” said Howe. “I thought at 2-0 we probably came off the pedal. We didn’t intend to do that but it was sort of the natural reaction. “In the second half the game became end-to-end which, for us, was a real shame. For one, we expended too much energy, and it meant we didn’t put pres sure on their goal.” Qarabag had taken the scalps of Benfica and Eintracht Frankfurt in the league phase to make the play-off round and at least salvaged some pride with two

goals in the second period. Camilo Duran outpaced Burn to pull a goal back before the Newcastle defender was penalised for handball inside the box. Aaron Ramsdale saved Marko Jankovic’s penalty but Elvin Jafarguliyev netted the rebound. In between the visitors’ two goals, Sven Botman powered in a header from a cor ner. That took the tally of goals conceded by Qarabag in the Champions League to 30 – a single season record in the compe tition. A much tougher test lies ahead of Newcastle next month when they will take on either Barcelona or Chelsea in the last 16. Newcastle winger Jacob Murphy did not think twice immediately responded on Amazon Prime after his side beat Qarabag yesterday, said: “Anyone. Honestly, with this group of players, we will take anyone on. Especially with knockout football, we back ourselves. Bring on whoever’s to come.” Howe believes his team can “raise our game and compete with anybody”. “We have to believe in ourselves,” he said. “We have seen the best of ourselves when we have gone into cup games and one-off games, where we have been able to rise to whatever challenge we have had in front of us. “We will have to go in with that mind set again, whoever we get in the next round.” – AFP/Agencies Magpies complete cruise into Champions League last 16

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