13/03/2026

SPORTS FRIDAY | MAR 13, 2026

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Bumbling Blues Rosenior admits Chelsea paid price for ‘crazy’ end to first leg at PSG

Ű BY ROBERT O’CONNOR

THE statement from Minister of Sport Ahmad Donyamali on Wednesday that Iran could not take part in a World Cup being co-hosted by the United States offered the clearest indication yet of the potential for a first withdrawal from global soccer’s showpiece event in the modern era. While that has not officially hap pened at this point, minds at Fifa must now address more urgently the pros pect of having to replace the Iranians in Bodo/Glimt continue dream debut BODO/GLIMT continued their dream debut Champions League campaign by swatting aside Sporting Lisbon 3-0 yesterday to take a big step towards the quar terfinals. The Norwegians racked up a remarkable fifth consecutive win in the competition in the last-16 first leg at Aspmyra Stadion. Sondre Brunstad Fet put Bodo ahead from the penalty spot just after the half-hour mark and Ole Didrik Blomberg made it two in first-half injury time. Kasper Hogh scored his fifth Champions League goal in as many games with 19 minutes remaining to spark wild celebra tions. “It’s a really good feeling, and I’m quite happy with myself and my team’s performance,” Brunstad Fet told uefa.com . “It was quite an open game and we could’ve controlled it more, but I feel we had a good per formance against a good team. So it’s going to be a difficult game in Lisbon.” Bodo claimed shock wins over Manchester City and Atletico Madrid to progress from the league phase and then beat Inter Milan home and away in the knockout play-off round. The Champions League debu tants are now in pole position to reach the last eight, where Bayer Leverkusen or Arsenal await, ahead of next weeks second leg in Portugal. Sporting are hoping to reach the last eight for the first time since 1983 after securing a sur prise seventh-placed finish in the league phase to automatically qualify for the last 16, but will need a miraculous comeback in the return match. Bodo started brightly were rewarded for their pressure in the 29th minute as they were awarded a penalty for a foul by Georgios Vagiannidis on Sondre Fet, who stepped up to score himself by sending keeper Rui Silva the wrong way. Bodo grabbed a second goal in added time, Blomberg slipping the ball into the corner and pro ducing a back-flip in celebration. Sporting enjoyed more of the ball after the interval but strug gled to create chances. Bodo always looked dangerous and Hogh, who also scored against Man City, Atletico and Inter, steered in Blomberg’s low cross from close range to cap off another magnificent night for the Norwegian underdogs. – AFP

L IAM ROSENIOR admitted Chelsea shot them selves in the foot after their Champions League hopes were shredded by a late capitu lation against Paris St Germain. A 5-2 defeat in the Parc des Princes leaves the Blues facing a likely last-16 exit in a week’s time but the manner of the loss was painful. They had twice recovered from a goal down and looked like surviving an intriguing match with a draw when, in the 74th minute, Filip Jorgensen’s pass was cut out easily by Bradley Barcola, substitute Khvicha Kvaratskhelia squared it and Vitinha chipped the stranded goalkeeper. Chelsea fell to bits after that. Kvaratskhelia helped himself to two late goals and there was the unfortu nate sight of Pedro Neto manhandling a ball boy to the ground in a struggle for the ball before Enzo Fernandez, the vice-captain, visibly turned on his goalkeeper after another mistake which led to a late disallowed goal. A brave display was undermined by a psychologi cal capitulation in the last 15 minutes. Chelsea looked to have done enough to take a hard-earned result back to Stamford Bridge, Malo Gusto and Fernandez scoring equalisers in answer to goals by Barcola and Ousmane Dembele. Instead the coming days are likely to involve an inquest into how and why the team collapsed so dis piritingly.

Chelsea had been brave in coming to the home of the European champions and taking them on but their naivety was their undoing. They were too casual about the threat posed by PSG, leaving space for Dembele and for Barcola, not giving their all in challenging for second balls and too easily pulled out of shape by rapid transitions. “We’ve shot ourselves in the foot and made this tie very difficult,” said Rosenior. “Even at 4-2, it’s not the best result but we’re still right in this at nine. The fifth goal, that’s the painful one. It’s something I really have to solve. We are very close to be an outstanding team.” PSG boss Luis Enrique admitted his side had to battle hard. “It has been difficult but I think everybody was happy, who was supporting PSG, because the result is good. It was very tough because both teams were try ing to play football,” Enrique said. “This is the most important moment for us in this competition, we know it’s going to be tough away at Chelsea. I think we played well at a high level against a difficult side. I’m happy.” – The Independent

“A very disappointing result on an evening where for much of the game we were really happy,” said Rosenior. “The last 15 minutes were crazy. “That’s on me. We need to be better in moments when setbacks and mistakes happen. You need to stay calm in the moment, me included. It’s a painful one because for 75 minutes we were in the tie.” There is likely to be intense scrutiny of Rosenior’s goalkeeping selections after this. Jorgensen was in the team after displacing Robert Sanchez but following this mistake it is hard to see where the manager goes from here. “Players make mistakes,” said Rosenior. “Filip is not the first to make mistake. In that moment at 2-2 we’re in the ascendency. In the top level it’s fine mar gins. The fifth goal was the most painful one. We didn’t deal with a basic pattern of play, they scored a fifth and made the tie very difficult.” Neto gave his shirt to the ball boy he had knocked over but it further left a sour taste on an awful night. “If there was anything from our side that was wrong or out of order I apologise on behalf of the club,” said Rosenior.

‘Gunners need to improve’

Ű BY ANDY SIMS

“One is the element of the oppo nent, that they picked that weak ness and that lack of attention or urgency in both situations. “And the other one is us because we knew, we showed them three clips from last week end in three different ways and we weren’t ready for that and we got caught.” The equaliser came when Noni Madueke got past Malik Tillman into the area and was tripped by the defender. It looked soft, but a VAR check upheld the decision after replays showed Tillman’s hip had caught Madueke’s foot and substitute Havertz coolly converted the spot-kick to deny the club where he began his career a famous win. “Football is a funny game and it brings special stories,” smiled Arteta. “Him coming back here after such a long time, being part of this club, to come here and score such an important goal, I think it’s a big moment.” Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjulmand felt his side were hard done by. “Disappointed with the pen alty at the end. I don’t see a pen alty there but that’s the way it went,” he said. “I think sometimes the refe ree shouldn’t blow the whistle and then check with VAR. If he whistles and it’s not clear and obvious then it stays. But for me, it just wasn’t.” – The Independent

MIKEL ARTETA admitted Arsenal would have to improve when they face Bayer Leverkusen in the sec ond leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. The Gunners, who topped the league phase after eight wins from eight games, needed a last minute penalty from Kai Havertz against his former club to escape Germany with a 1-1 draw. “I liked that emotionally we understood what we had to do, but the level of execution obvi ously has to be better,” said Arteta. “And it will be better in the second leg. We’ll adapt a few things and move on.” Arsenal hit the crossbar through Gabriel Martinelli in the first half, but were trailing to Robert Andrich’s goal – from a cor ner, of all things – seconds after the restart. They were caught cold straight from the kickoff, first when Martin Terrier’s header had to be spec tacularly tipped over by David Raya. From the corner, Andrich gave Eberechi Eze the slip at the far post to head the hosts in

front. It was a taste of their own medicine for an Arsenal side so pro ficient from corners this term. “There’s always two sides to that,” added Arteta.

Arsenal’s Kai Havertz (front) converts from the penalty spot to score the equaliser against Leverkusen in the Champions League R16 first-leg clash at the BayArena yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Iran’s withdrawal threat leaves Fifa pondering options

“That means, for example, a team that withdraws wouldn’t have to be replaced by a team from the same con federation, or even replaced at all. Whether either of those scenarios would be politically tenable is a differ ent question. “I would expect a decision is not going to be made until after the final playoffs are finished and for Fifa to take a pragmatic and consultative approach to the situation,” he said. – Reuters

which, while stipulating a series of financial penalties for such a move, also states that Fifa would be at liberty to call up any nation it chooses to fill the void. “There’s no modern precedent for this and, according to Fifa’s own tourna ment regulations, they have full discre tion to do whatever they want in the case of a team withdrawing,” James Kitching, Fifa’s former Director of Football Regulatory, told Reuters .

co-hosts, Fifa were on Tuesday still clearly banking on Team Melli lining up for their first group game against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15. Only a few hours before Donyamali’s statement, Fifa chief Gianni Infantino trumpeted an assur ance from Trump that Iran were “wel come to compete in the tournament in the United States”. A withdrawal would be governed by Article Six of the World Cup regulations

the tournament kicking off in the US, Mexico and Canada in early June. Donyamali said it would be impossi ble for Iran to take part after air attacks launched by the US and Israel on Feb 28 killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering a region-wide conflict that shows no sign of abating. While it always seemed counter intuitive that Iran would take part in a World Cup while at war with one of the