Skip to main content

Haaland fires Dortmund past Leipzig, Schalke end winless run Berlin (AFP) – Erling Braut Haaland netted twice on Saturday as Borussia Dortmund won 3-1 at RB Leipzig, who missed the chance to take top spot in the Bundesliga from Bayern Munich, while Schalke thrashed Hoffenheim to avoid a record-equalling 31st consecutive league game without a win. The result means Bayern stay two points clear of second-placed Leipzig despite crashing to a 3-2 defeat at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday, while Dortmund are five points behind the European champions in fourth. Haaland is the first player to score 25 goals in his first 25 Bundesliga games and the 20-year-old has now netted 35 goals in 34 games in all competitions for Dortmund. England winger Jadon Sancho scored his second goal in as many games by firing home on 55 minutes after Haaland’s cross was deftly flicked into his path by captain Marco Reus. Haaland headed in a Sancho cross to put Dortmund 2-0 up with 19 minutes remaining. The Norwegian then darted onto Reus’s defence-splitting pass in the 84th minute to tap in his second goal, before Alexander Sorloth scored a late consolation for Leipzig. “This win does us an awful lot of good,” said Dortmund midfielder Emre Can, who admitted the weeks since the sacking of head coach Lucien Favre last month following a 5-1 thrashing by Stuttgart were “not so easy”. However, the win could have come at a cost as midfielder Axel Witsel was helped off after half an hour with an ankle injury. Dortmund were the only side in the top four to win this weekend, as third-placed Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 1-1 draw by Werder Bremen and are now four points behind Bayern. – Schalke avoid unwanted record – Earlier, Schalke avoided an unwanted record as American teenager Matthew Hoppe netted a hat-trick in a 4-0 thumping of Hoffenheim to lift his side off the bottom of the table. “I was able to take my chances,” Hoppe said after becoming the first American to score a Bundesliga treble. “The win will give us confidence and some momentum. There are 19 games left, hopefully we can stay up in the first division.” After enduring a 30-match winless run in the league, the Royal Blues enjoyed their first Bundesliga success in just under a year as 19-year-old Hoppe converted three chances created by Morocco’s Amine Harit, who scored the fourth goal. After only his second game in charge, Schalke coach Christian Gross praised Hoppe and the “outstanding” display of goalkeeper Ralf Faehrmann. “We have to build on the result. There are still a lot of difficult games to come,” Gross added, with Bayern Munich, who crushed Schalke 8-0 on the opening day of the season, visiting Gelsenkirchen in a fortnight’s time. Before that, though, Schalke visit midtable Eintracht Frankfurt and host fellow strugglers Cologne. Mainz replaced Schalke at the bottom of the table after a 2-0 home defeat by Frankfurt. Tasmania Berlin, who went 31 games without victory in the 1965/66 season, keep the Bundesliga record for longest winless run. Hoffenheim were missing 11 players through either injury or suspension, while the hosts were captained by Sead Kolasinac who was making his first Schalke appearance since returning to the club on loan from Arsenal. Hoppe broke the deadlock with a deft chip just before the break, then doubled the lead on 57 minutes when Harit’s pass again put him in behind the defence to calmly round Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann and slot into an empty net. The American completed his hat-trick just after the hour mark when put into space by another sublime Harit pass to score with another dinked finish. Harit completed the rout by striking a shot into the bottom corner 10 minutes from time. After losses to Bayern and Frankfurt, Leverkusen drew with Bremen despite Patrik Schick’s equaliser after Omer Toprak put Bremen ahead with a free-kick. Union Berlin are fifth after a 2-2 draw at home with Wolfsburg, who saw Maximilian Arnold sent off just after the break. Freiburg set a new club record of five straight league wins, which has seen them climb from 14th to eighth in the table, with a 5-0 hammering of Cologne.


Berlin (AFP) – Erling Braut Haaland netted twice on Saturday as Borussia Dortmund won 3-1 at RB Leipzig, who missed the chance to take top spot in the Bundesliga from Bayern Munich, while Schalke thrashed Hoffenheim to avoid a record-equalling 31st consecutive league game without a win.

The result means Bayern stay two points clear of second-placed Leipzig despite crashing to a 3-2 defeat at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday, while Dortmund are five points behind the European champions in fourth.

Haaland is the first player to score 25 goals in his first 25 Bundesliga games and the 20-year-old has now netted 35 goals in 34 games in all competitions for Dortmund.

England winger Jadon Sancho scored his second goal in as many games by firing home on 55 minutes after Haaland’s cross was deftly flicked into his path by captain Marco Reus.

Haaland headed in a Sancho cross to put Dortmund 2-0 up with 19 minutes remaining.

The Norwegian then darted onto Reus’s defence-splitting pass in the 84th minute to tap in his second goal, before Alexander Sorloth scored a late consolation for Leipzig.

“This win does us an awful lot of good,” said Dortmund midfielder Emre Can, who admitted the weeks since the sacking of head coach Lucien Favre last month following a 5-1 thrashing by Stuttgart were “not so easy”.

However, the win could have come at a cost as midfielder Axel Witsel was helped off after half an hour with an ankle injury.

Dortmund were the only side in the top four to win this weekend, as third-placed Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 1-1 draw by Werder Bremen and are now four points behind Bayern.

– Schalke avoid unwanted record –

Earlier, Schalke avoided an unwanted record as American teenager Matthew Hoppe netted a hat-trick in a 4-0 thumping of Hoffenheim to lift his side off the bottom of the table.

“I was able to take my chances,” Hoppe said after becoming the first American to score a Bundesliga treble.

“The win will give us confidence and some momentum. There are 19 games left, hopefully we can stay up in the first division.”

After enduring a 30-match winless run in the league, the Royal Blues enjoyed their first Bundesliga success in just under a year as 19-year-old Hoppe converted three chances created by Morocco’s Amine Harit, who scored the fourth goal.

After only his second game in charge, Schalke coach Christian Gross praised Hoppe and the “outstanding” display of goalkeeper Ralf Faehrmann.

“We have to build on the result. There are still a lot of difficult games to come,” Gross added, with Bayern Munich, who crushed Schalke 8-0 on the opening day of the season, visiting Gelsenkirchen in a fortnight’s time.

Before that, though, Schalke visit midtable Eintracht Frankfurt and host fellow strugglers Cologne.

Mainz replaced Schalke at the bottom of the table after a 2-0 home defeat by Frankfurt.

Tasmania Berlin, who went 31 games without victory in the 1965/66 season, keep the Bundesliga record for longest winless run.

Hoffenheim were missing 11 players through either injury or suspension, while the hosts were captained by Sead Kolasinac who was making his first Schalke appearance since returning to the club on loan from Arsenal.

Hoppe broke the deadlock with a deft chip just before the break, then doubled the lead on 57 minutes when Harit’s pass again put him in behind the defence to calmly round Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann and slot into an empty net.

The American completed his hat-trick just after the hour mark when put into space by another sublime Harit pass to score with another dinked finish.

Harit completed the rout by striking a shot into the bottom corner 10 minutes from time.

After losses to Bayern and Frankfurt, Leverkusen drew with Bremen despite Patrik Schick’s equaliser after Omer Toprak put Bremen ahead with a free-kick.

Union Berlin are fifth after a 2-2 draw at home with Wolfsburg, who saw Maximilian Arnold sent off just after the break.

Freiburg set a new club record of five straight league wins, which has seen them climb from 14th to eighth in the table, with a 5-0 hammering of Cologne.



from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/3nurvR5
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Xavi under no illusions ahead of fairytale on Barcelona return Barcelona (AFP) – Xavi Hernandez said he is prepared for the “biggest challenge of his career” before leaving Qatar for Spain on Saturday, as Barcelona’s legendary former midfielder returns home to take over as coach. Xavi’s appointment was confirmed by Barca in the early hours of Saturday morning and the 41-year-old will be presented to fans at Camp Nou on Monday. “I’m very happy as you can imagine, it’s the biggest challenge of my career,” Xavi told Spanish journalists at Doha airport. “I’m going home and I am very happy.” Xavi faces a huge challenge, with Barcelona adrift of La Liga’s top four, struggling to make the knock-out stages of the Champions League and grappling with debts of more than a billion euros. “I have also experienced bad situations,” Xavi said. “It’s not the best moment in the history of the club but I want to explain what my idea is and to work hard, to make a team. Obviously the first thing is to talk to the players to see how they are.” Xavi left Camp Nou to play for Qatari club Al Sadd in 2015, after making 767 appearances for Barcelona, with eight La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues among his 25 trophies. “It’s time to come home. Welcome, Xavi,” Barca tweeted in the early hours of Saturday morning, as Spain slept.  “It wasn’t goodbye, it was see you later,” it wrote, along with a video montage of the player’s departure in 2015. Barcelona said in a statement they had reached an agreement with Xavi to become first-team coach for the rest of the season and two more seasons, replacing the sacked Ronald Koeman. “It is expected that Xavi Hernandez will arrive in Barcelona this weekend and that on Monday 8, November his presentation as new FC Barcelona first team coach will take place in an event open to the public at Camp Nou,” it said. Nicknamed the “Maquina” (the Machine), Xavi is widely considered one of the club’s greatest players and there is huge excitement about his potential as a coach after his influence on the iconic Barca team managed by Pep Guardiola. His passing style was seen as the embodiment of Guardiola’s “tiki-taka” team that won the treble in 2009. “One of the greatest midfield maestros of all time, he helped redefine the art with his creative mind, pinpoint passing and sublime ability to read the game,” Barca said in their statement, heralding the return of “an absolute legend”. Al Sadd, which Xavi had coached since 2019, hours earlier said they had reached an agreement with Barca and posted photos on social media of the Spaniard saying goodbye to the players and staff. – ‘The dream’ – Barcelona’s attempt to appoint Xavi as Koeman’s successor had been held up on Friday over his Al Sadd release clause, with Xavi and Barca considering splitting the payment to complete the deal. Al Sadd said Barca had agreed to pay the clause in Xavi’s contract, which is reportedly set at around five million euros ($5.8 million), but Barcelona did not give any details of the deal in their statement. Spanish sports daily Marca headlined the club hero’s return and estimated the cost to Barca of sacking recent managers Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setien and Koeman at 32 million euros. Xavi had made no secret of his desire to return to Barcelona, which he joined through the club’s La Masia academy at the age of 11. “My main objective, when I can do it, is Barca,” Xavi told Marca last year. “It’s my home, that’s the dream.” Barcelona sat ninth in La Liga on Saturday morning, with concerns growing they might not qualify for next season’s Champions League. The club are also in dire financial straits, having posted debts of 1.35 billion euros. They could not afford to renew Lionel Messi’s contract in the summer, and the Argentine left for Paris Saint-Germain. Xavi will also be charged with improving the team’s style of play, which was a key criticism during the tenure of Koeman, another former Barca player. Xavi’s flight is due to touch down as Barca take on Celta Vigo in La Liga in Juan Barjuan’s last game as caretaker coach before he hands over to the man the fans are pinning their hopes on to turn the club around.

Barcelona (AFP) – Xavi Hernandez said he is prepared for the “biggest challenge of his career” before leaving Qatar for Spain on Saturday, as Barcelona’s legendary former midfielder returns home to take over as coach. Xavi’s appointment was confirmed by Barca in the early hours of Saturday morning and the 41-year-old will be presented to fans at Camp Nou on Monday. “I’m very happy as you can imagine, it’s the biggest challenge of my career,” Xavi told Spanish journalists at Doha airport. “I’m going home and I am very happy.” Xavi faces a huge challenge, with Barcelona adrift of La Liga’s top four, struggling to make the knock-out stages of the Champions League and grappling with debts of more than a billion euros. “I have also experienced bad situations,” Xavi said. “It’s not the best moment in the history of the club but I want to explain what my idea is and to work hard, to make a team. Obviously the first thing is to talk to the players to see how they are.” Xavi left...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rangers brush aside title rivals Hearts Glasgow (AFP) – Alfredo Morelos and Joe Aribo fired Rangers to a 2-0 win at Hearts on Sunday as the Scottish Premiership leaders extended their strong start under new boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Van Bronckhorst has won four successive league games since replacing Steven Gerrard after his predecessor’s move to Aston Villa. Morelos and Aribo scored in the early stages at Tynecastle, giving Rangers six consecutive league victories encompassing the end of Gerrard’s reign. Hearts had Josh Ginnelly sent off late on as they squandered a chance to close the gap on the champions. Rangers are 12 points clear of third placed Hearts and seven ahead of second placed Celtic, who host Motherwell later on Sunday. Van Bronckhorst made six changes to the Rangers side that began Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Lyon in the Europa League. Liam Boyce had a great chance to open the scoring for Hearts in the third minute when he ran on to John Souttar’s clipped ball over the top, but the Northern Ireland striker saw his lob tipped over by Allan McGregor. It was Rangers who scored with their first chance of the match after nine minutes when Ryan Kent’s cross reached Fashion Sakala and the Zambian cut the ball back to Morelos, who fired home from six yards out. Sakala shot just wide from close range moments later before Morelos headed wide from James Tavernier’s corner. Rangers’ second goal came in the 13th minute when Aribo ran on to a brilliant long diagonal from Connor Goldson and fired an angled low shot beyond the exposed Craig Gordon. Gary Mackay-Steven saw his angled shot pushed behind by McGregor early in the second half. Rangers had a let-off in the 53rd minute when Calvin Bassey knocked a Ginnelly cross off the underside of his own crossbar. Rangers remained a threat, however, and Scott Arfield and Sakala were both denied by saves from Gordon. Boyce fired over from close range after being set up by Mackay-Steven before Stephen Kingsley cracked a free kick off the bar from 30 yards out. In the 80th minute, Ginnelly was sent off after being shown a second yellow card for squaring up to Borna Barisic.

Glasgow (AFP) – Alfredo Morelos and Joe Aribo fired Rangers to a 2-0 win at Hearts on Sunday as the Scottish Premiership leaders extended their strong start under new boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Van Bronckhorst has won four successive league games since replacing Steven Gerrard after his predecessor’s move to Aston Villa. Morelos and Aribo scored in the early stages at Tynecastle, giving Rangers six consecutive league victories encompassing the end of Gerrard’s reign. Hearts had Josh Ginnelly sent off late on as they squandered a chance to close the gap on the champions. Rangers are 12 points clear of third placed Hearts and seven ahead of second placed Celtic, who host Motherwell later on Sunday. Van Bronckhorst made six changes to the Rangers side that began Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Lyon in the Europa League. Liam Boyce had a great chance to open the scoring for Hearts in the third minute when he ran on to John Souttar’s clipped ball over the top, but the Northern Ireland stri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bayern down Mainz to go six points clear in the Bundesliga Berlin (AFP) – Defending champions Bayern Munich extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to six points on Saturday after coming from behind to seal a 2-1 home win against Mainz. Second-half goals by Kingsley Coman and 18-year-old Jamal Musiala sealed the victory behind closed doors at Munich’s Allianz Arena after Mainz had taken a shock lead. Bayern remain firmly on course to win the German league for the tenth straight season after stretching their lead at the top of the table as second-placed Dortmund were held 1-1 at Bochum. 

Berlin (AFP) – Defending champions Bayern Munich extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to six points on Saturday after coming from behind to seal a 2-1 home win against Mainz. Second-half goals by Kingsley Coman and 18-year-old Jamal Musiala sealed the victory behind closed doors at Munich’s Allianz Arena after Mainz had taken a shock lead. Bayern remain firmly on course to win the German league for the tenth straight season after stretching their lead at the top of the table as second-placed Dortmund were held 1-1 at Bochum.  from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/3lVLPNa
Post a Comment
Read more