Sports
La Liga: Chukwueze’s Villareal beat Madrid 2-1
Real Madrid suffered a blow in their bid to repeat as La Liga champions after falling 2-1 at Villarreal in an entertaining, action-packed match that was also tinged in controversy. The defending champions missed a chance to go top of the La Liga table with a win or draw.
Samuel Chukwueze’s Villarreal were not intimidated in front of a full house at their renovated El Madrigal home, and the Yellow Submarine attacked Real Madrid from the start, coming away with a win that will give them hope of making a real push at a top-four finish and earning a UEFA Champions League berth, Sportingnews reports.
Real Madrid, who started the match without a Spanish player for the first time in their competitive history, are guaranteed to remain in second place in the La Liga standings as they get set to watch leaders Barcelona take the field against Atletico Madrid on Sunday. Barcelona will have the chance to take a three-point lead atop the table if they can beat Real’s rivals Atletico.
Villarreal forward Gerard Moreno scored a goal and registered an assist as his team deservedly came away with all three points. Real Madrid never got into an attacking rhythm and that was also credit to excellent defensive play from Villarreal.
Sportingnews reported that Referee Cesar Soto Grado called two penalties in a span of four minutes in the second half, both of which were debatable. The first for Real Madrid looked like a light touch from Juan Foyth that barely impacted the flight of the ball. The second was called against Real Madrid’s David Alaba, who seemed to be propping himself up so he didn’t fall to the ground. Both players were punished, and both penalties were converted.
Real Madrid will look to put the loss behind them as they get set to play in the Spanish Supercopa beginning in midweek. Villarreal, who will against host Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey Round of 16, will travel to face Celta Vigo on Friday.
Liverpool winger, Mohamed Salah, on Saturday, surpassed Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard’s goal record in the Premier League.
The Egyptian international achieved the feat after scoring a brace in Liverpool’s away Premier League 2-0 win against Bournemouth.
The match was played at the Vitality Stadium as Salah netted a penalty in the first half and another goal in the second half.
Salah’s two goals means, the former Chelsea and AS Roma star has now surpassed Lampard as 6th all time goal scorer in Premier League history.
The 32-year-old now has 178 Premier League goals with a goal ahead of Lampard, who now sit in 7th position on the all-time Premier League goal scorers chat.
He is, however, behind the likes of Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole and Sergio Aguero in the goal chat.
Salah has scored 21 goals for the Reds so far this season.
He could leave Liverpool in the summer as he is yet to sign a new deal.
His contract with Arne Slot’s side will expire at the end of the season.
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, on Friday announced the full match schedule for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nine venues will be used across six cities for the continent’s flagship soccer event.
Hosts Morocco will will take on Comoros in the competition’s opening game at the newly-built 69,500-seater Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat on Sunday, December 21.
The country’s capital, Rabat, will have four match venues.
Other host cities are Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech, Fes and Tangier, which will have one match each.
The four quarter-final fixtures will be played at the Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, as well as in Tangier, Marrakech and Agadir.
The semi-finals will be in Rabat and Tangier, with the third-place play-off set for the Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca.
52 matches will be played during the biennial competition.
The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire are the defending champions of the competition.
The draw for this season’s UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off draw has been conducted on Friday.
Eight teams have progressed straight to the round of 16 following the completion of the league phase.
They are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.
They will all return to the competition in March, but others have more football to play before then.
The teams that finished between 9th and 24th, have a two-legged play-off to navigate in February.
FULL KNOCKOUT PHASE PLAY-OFF DRAW
Brest vs Paris-Saint Germain
Feyenoord vs AC Milan
Juventus vs PSV
Monaco vs Benfica
Man City vs Real Madrid
Celtic vs Bayern Munich
Sporting vs Borussia Dortmund
Club Brugge vs Atalanta
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