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Sporting Stun Man City In Champions League As Liverpool, Milan Claim Fine Wins

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Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick as Ruben Amorim’s Sporting stunned Manchester City with a 4-1 win in the Champions League on Tuesday, while Liverpool trounced Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan beat holders Real Madrid in Spain.

Sporting stole the show with their performance in Lisbon, but the Portuguese champions had to come from behind after Phil Foden put City ahead early on.

Amorim was hoping to sign off from the Champions League in style as Sporting coach before he leaves for Manchester United, and Gyokeres then took centre stage.

The Swedish striker equalised seven minutes before half-time, holding off Champions League debutant Jahmai Simpson-Pusey as he ran through to finish.

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Sporting then went ahead 19 seconds into the second half as Maximiliano Araujo finished off a fine move, and shortly after that Gyokeres converted a penalty following a foul by Josko Gvardiol.

City could have pulled one back, but Erling Haaland hit the bar from the spot. Gyokeres showed Haaland how to do it as he scored his second spot-kick to complete a hat-trick, condemning City to their heaviest losing margin in Europe since a 3-0 loss to Liverpool in April 2018.

Gyokeres has 23 goals in 17 games in all competitions this season and will surely be the next star to leave Sporting for a bigger club elsewhere following Amorim’s departure.

“It was written that it had to be like that I think, there is no other explanation,” Amorim, at Sporting since 2020, said of a famous victory.

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“I think everyone who has been here in the last four years deserved this. It was a special night.”

Diaz hat-trick

City have seven points at the halfway stage in the new-look Champions League, while Sporting are second on 10 points, behind only Liverpool, who are the sole team with the maximum 12 points.

Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick as the Anfield club secured a statement 4-0 win over Leverkusen on the night Alonso returned to Merseyside, with all the goals coming in the second half.

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Diaz put Liverpool ahead just after the hour mark and Cody Gakpo headed in shortly after. Diaz scored again to make it 3-0 and then got his third and his team’s fourth in stoppage time, leaving the German champions on seven points after four outings.

“I think it’s a good result against a very good team,” Gakpo told Amazon Prime.

“They played a very good game, but we kept going, trying, creating chances, defending well.”

Real slump again

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Madrid suffered their second loss in four games in the competition this season as they went down 3-1 at home to Milan.

The Italians, whose tally of seven European Cups is bettered only by Real’s 15, went ahead early on through Malick Thiaw, but the hosts soon drew level through a Vinicius Junior penalty.

However, Alvaro Morata put Milan back ahead before the interval against his old club, following in to finish after a Rafael Leao shot was parried.

Milan got their third on 73 minutes after great play by Leao set up Tijjani Reijnders to score, and Antonio Ruediger had a late effort disallowed for Real.

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“When we are 11 lions on the pitch, it is very difficult for a team to beat us,” Morata said at full-time.

Monaco are third in the standings with 10 points following a 1-0 victory at Bologna, secured thanks to captain Thilo Kehrer’s late goal.

Dortmund are fourth on nine points after Donyell Malen’s 85th-minute goal gave them a 1-0 win at home to Sturm Graz.

Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty allowed Juventus to come from behind and draw 1-1 at Lille, after Canada’s Jonathan David had given the French side the lead.

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Celtic impress

Celtic have seven points after a fine fightback secured a 3-1 win for the Scottish champions against RB Leipzig in Glasgow.

Christoph Baumgartner fired Leipzig in front but a brilliant Nicolas Kuehn strike brought Celtic level and he then put them ahead in first-half stoppage time. Reo Hatate got their third.

PSV Eindhoven crushed Girona 4-0, with Ryan Flamingo and Malik Tillman netting in the first half. Arnau Martinez was sent off for Girona before Johan Bakayoko made it 3-0 and Ladislav Krejci scored an own goal.

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Dinamo Zagreb came back to win 4-1 at Slovan Bratislava with Sandro Kulenovic scoring twice for the Croatians.

Slovan, Sturm Graz and Leipzig have lost four out of four.

AFP

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CAF Confederation Cup: Enyimba fight back to draw against Zamalek

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Enyimba fought back from a 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with holders Zamalek of Egypt in their CAF Confederation Cup Group D clash in Uyo.

Seifeddine Jaziri put Zamalek ahead three minutes after the half-hour mark.

The visitors doubled their advantage through Omar Faraj four minutes before the break.

Enyimba showed their resilience by pulling a goal back in first-half stoppage time through Ifeanyi Ihemekwele before Ufere Chinedu equalised in the 57th minute.

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The People’s Elephant had chances to win the game but were let down by their poor finishing.

Daniel Olanrewaju’s side now have one point from two games.

The Aba giants will travel to Mozambique for their next game against Black Bulls.

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Osimhen scores 10th Galatasaray goal in Sivasspor thriller

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Nigerian international Victor Osimhen delivered an impressive performance, scoring his seventh goal of the season as 10-man Galatasaray secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Sivasspor in a dramatic match on Sunday.

The game started with Osimhen narrowly missing an early opportunity in the 8th minute, his powerful shot flashing just wide of the post.

However, the contest took a controversial turn in the 15th minute when Metehan Baltaci received a red card after a VAR review, leaving the visitors a man down.

Sivasspor capitalised on their numerical advantage in the 25th minute. Garry Rodrigues pounced on a rebound from goalkeeper Fernando Muslera to smash the ball into the roof of the net, putting the home side 1-0 ahead.

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Galatasaray responded swiftly, equalising in the 36th minute. Yunus Akgun’s shot benefitted from a goalkeeping error, bringing the score to 1-1.

Moments later, Osimhen came close again, his header in stoppage time denied by an excellent save.

Just before half-time, Galatasaray earned a penalty after Djordje Nikolic’s foul. Osimhen stepped up and confidently converted the kick, sending the ball into the top right corner to give Galatasaray a 2-1 lead.

The visitors extended their advantage early in the second half when Baris Alper Yilmaz scored in the 53rd minute, assisted by Yunus Akgun, making it 3-1.

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Sivasspor fought back, with Turac Boke reducing the deficit a minute into added time after connecting with Noah Sonko Sundberg’s cross.

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Man City’s Pep Guardiola Responds To José Mourinho Jibe

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he was only joking when he referred to winning twice as many Premier League titles as José Mourinho, after the former Chelsea boss said that he had won his titles fairly.

The Spaniard also said City were innocent until proven guilty, responding to Mourinho’s allusions to their alleged violations of Premier League financial rules from 2009 to 2018, which the club has always denied.

Guardiola, who held up six fingers to Liverpool fans on Sunday, a gesture similar to Mourinho holding up three fingers in 2018 before getting sacked by Manchester United, had made the comment when asked if he could suffer a fate similar to the Portuguese.

“I hope not in my case … He won three, I won six … but we are the same like that,” Guardiola answered.

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Mourinho responded to Guardiola’s comment on Friday, ahead of his team Fenerbahce’s clash with Besiktas.

“I won fairly and cleanly … I don’t want to win by dealing with 150 court cases,” Turkish outlet Hurriyet quoted Mourinho as saying.

City did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Mourinho’s statement.

Guardiola, speaking to reporters later on Friday, said he had no bad intentions when making the comment about Mourinho.

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“If I have offended him, I am so sorry. But it was a joke. The fact is he has three and I have six, it is a fact. But the intention was completely fine,” he said.

“I think both with our teams – he with Chelsea, myself with Man City – we can sit in the table with Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger right? For the many, many titles we’ve won. I’m pretty sure sooner or later they will congratulate us.”

Guardiola said there were many people around the world who wanted to see City at the bottom.

“We are innocent until proven as guilty. After that we’ll see what happens, but it is what it is,” he added.

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Mourinho has taken shots at City before, saying in October that he was hoping he could add a fourth Premier League medal to his cabinet if City are stripped of their titles and United, who finished second in 2017-18, are awarded the Premier League trophy.

Chelsea, where Mourinho won his three English top-flight titles in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2014-15, are being investigated by the Premier League for potential financial rule breaches between 2012 and 2019.

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