Sports
Bayern Suffer Nine-Year Low In Shock Loss, Slip Eight Points Off Title Pace
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Bayern Munich slumped to a shock 3-2 loss at lowly Bochum on Sunday, suffering a third successive defeat for the first time since 2015 and leaving them eight points behind Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga title race.
The result followed a 3-0 league defeat to Leverkusen last weekend and a 1-0 loss against Lazio in the Champions League as coach Thomas Tuchel came under renewed pressure.
Tuchel was bullish after the match, saying “the loss today wasn’t justified. We were extremely unlucky.”
Bayern were also reduced to 10 men with 13 minutes remaining when Dayot Upamecano elbowed Kevin Stoeger in the box, picking up a second yellow, giving away a penalty and seeing red for the second match in a row.
Stoeger blasted the penalty past Manuel Neuer to give Bochum a 3-1 lead.
Harry Kane scored with three minutes remaining to get Bayern back into the match and even had a chance to equalise late, but directed a tame header straight at Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Riemann.
Bayern had beaten Bochum 7-0 in three of their past five meetings and the visitors scored early, Jamal Musiala blasting in after 14 minutes.
It was the German champions’ first goal in over three hours of football.
Kane had a chance shortly after when one-on-one with Riemann but skied his shot into the stands.
Tuchel lamented his side’s wastefulness in attack, telling DAZN “we had more than enough high-quality chances which those guys would normally put away.”
The home side absorbed waves of Bayern pressure before Takuma Asano levelled after 38 minutes, shooting a low shot past Neuer on a counter attack.
Bayern fell behind just six minutes later, Keven Schlotterbeck heading in a corner.
The visitors turned the screws early in the second-half but the match was delayed for 12 minutes by fan protests against the Bundesliga’s investment plan, after which Bochum held their own against the German giants.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, Upamecano clashed with Stoeger contesting a corner and was sent off.
In teeming rain, Stoeger hit his penalty low and hard to the right, past Neuer’s outstretched hand.
Bayern’s teenage forward Mathys Tel set up Kane after 87 minutes, getting Bayern back into the match but then Kane wasted a golden chance to seize a last-gasp point.
Stoeger said: “It’s an enormous relief. We thought we could get a point and we got three.”
“I think all of Bochum is proud of the performance we delivered.”
Bochum coach Thomas Letsch added: “To win against Bayern is especially nice, given they’re a team stacked with talent.”
– Freiburg, Frankfurt draw –
Earlier on Sunday, Freiburg forward Michael Gregoritsch scored in the last minute to snatch his side a 3-3 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Two goals from Ansgar Knauff, both set up by the impressive Omar Marmoush, who also got on the scoresheet, had Frankfurt on course for three points.
The visitors however failed to clear a corner and the 1.93-metre-tall Gregoritsch headed past Kevin Trapp to level the scores for Freiburg for the third and final time.
A frustrated Trapp told DAZN “we’re shooting ourselves in the foot”.
“It went back and forth, which is a shame for us. We could have taken more out of it.”
Frankfurt’s Marmoush scored first, but Freiburg’s Ritsu Doan hit back just three minutes later on the half-hour mark.
Marmoush’s superb pass allowed Knauff to score on the counter but the match was level again by half-time thanks to a penalty from Italy midfielder Vincenzo Grifo.
Knauff again put Frankfurt in front after 72 minutes before Gregoritsch came to the rescue.
In another match interrupted as fans threw objects on the pitch, Knauff then saved Frankfurt in the ninth minute of added time when he cleared a bouncing ball off the line.
The point moves Frankfurt four clear of Werder Bremen in sixth-place, the last European spot.
Sports
SAD! Rebecca Cheptegi becomes 3rd victim k!lled by partner in Kenya
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Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who succumbed to her injuries on Thursday, four days after being set on fire by her boyfriend at her home in Kenya, has been confirmed as the third female athlete killed by her partner since 2021.
According to reports from CNN and the BBC, Cheptegei’s death follows a troubling trend in Kenya, where several female athletes have been killed by their partners in recent years.
All three of these cases occurred in Iten, Kenya’s renowned hub for elite runners.
Cheptegei, who trained in Kenya, launched her international career at 19, competing for Uganda in the junior category of the 2010 World Cross Country Championships. She later transitioned to road racing, making her marathon debut in 2021.
The following year, Cheptegei achieved a personal best time of 2:22:47, making her the second-fastest Ugandan female runner in history.
In the past three years, two other female Olympians have been killed in Iten, Kenya.
In 2021, Kenyan authorities identified the husband of renowned long-distance athlete Agnes Tirop as a prime suspect in her brutal murder. Tirop, who was 25, was fatally stabbed.
According to CNN, the suspect contacted Tirop’s parents, suggesting his involvement and leading authorities to conclude that he was aware of the circumstances surrounding her death.
The police determined that Tirop’s fatal neck wounds were inflicted by a knife.
Tirop had secured back-to-back bronze medals in the 10,000m at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships and placed fourth in the 5,000m event at the Tokyo Olympics.
She also broke the women’s 10km world record by 28 seconds at Germany’s Adizero Road to Records event, a historic achievement that came just a month before her death.
Approximately six months later, another tragic incident occurred in the same town when marathon runner Damaris Mutua was strangled by her boyfriend, who then attempted to conceal his crime by placing a pillow over her face.
He subsequently fled the country and remains at large, according to authorities, as reported by the BBC.
Mutua earned a bronze medal representing Kenya in the 1,000m event at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore in 2010.
Mutua’s standout season was in 2018, when she achieved personal bests in the 20km (1:08:28), the fastest time that year, with a victory in Marrakesh, and the half-marathon (1:11:51), claiming second place in Mozambique.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ latest data released in January 2023, 34% of women in Kenya have faced physical violence at some point in their lives since the age of 15.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced on Friday that the city will pay tribute to the late Cheptegei by dedicating a sports facility in her name.
Sports
Why I snubbed Eagles job — Cannavaro
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By Mario Deepromoter
Former Italy captain and 2006 World Cup winner, Fabio Cannavaro, says he turned down the Super Eagles job to wait for offers in the Italian Serie A and other European clubs.
Cannavaro was one of the candidates interviewed for the role during the Nigeria Football Federation’s race against time to fill the vacant role ahead of the 2025 AFCON qualifiers against the Benin Republic and Rwanda.
“I had offers from Nigeria [national team] and Iranian clubs, but I want to wait for Serie A and European clubs until December. After that, I may start travelling again,” Cannavaro told La Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview.
German coach Bruno Labbadia was eventually announced by the NFF as the new coach of the Super Eagles, but the 56-year-old eventually turned down the offer over stringent German tax laws.
The team are currently under the guidance of NFF Technical Director Augustine Eguavoen, who is working with coaches of two Nigeria Premier Football League sides, Daniel Ogunmodede (Remo Stars) and Fidelis Ilechukwu (Enugu Rangers), as assistants, ahead of the qualifiers.
They are also joined in Uyo by Tomaz Zorec, a fitness trainer from Slovenia, goalkeeper trainer Olatunji Baruwa, and match analyst Eboboritse Uwejamomere.
After the clash against the Benin Republic at Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Saturday, the team will depart for Kigali on Sunday for Tuesday’s clash with the Amavubi (Bees) of Rwanda at the Amahoro Stadium.
Sports
FULL LIST: Eight Nigerians nominated for Ballon d’Or
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The Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by French magazine France Football since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season.
Over the years, Nigerian players have also proven to be worthy of this award after being shortlisted by the organisers.
Following Wednesday’s announcement, Nigerian winger Ademola Lookman joined the train of Nigerian players to be nominated for the prestigious award after his blistering performances for both club and country.
Here is the full list of nominees from Nigeria and the year.
1. Finidi George- 1995
2. Daniel Amokachi – 1995
3. Austin Okocha – 1995
4. Kanu Nkwankeo – 1996, 1999
5. Victor Ikpeba – 1997
6. Sunday Oliseh – 1998
7. Victor Osimhen – 2023
8. Ademola Lookman – 2024
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