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Tag: Robert Lewandowski

  • Lewandowski extends scoring streak as Barcelona routs Sevilla ahead of ‘clasico’ against Real Madrid

    Lewandowski extends scoring streak as Barcelona routs Sevilla ahead of ‘clasico’ against Real Madrid

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    MADRID (AP) — Robert Lewandowski scored two more goals to extend his league-leading tally to 12 and Barcelona routed Sevilla 5-1 to open a three-point gap on Real Madrid ahead of next weekend’s “clasico.”

    Pedri and Pablo Torre also scored Sunday for the Catalan club, which restored its lead of La Liga a day after second-place Madrid won 2-1 at Celta Vigo.

    Barcelona midfielder Gavi came off the bench to replace Pedri in the 83rd minute, making his return to action nearly a year after a serious knee injury.

    “I had been dreaming about this moment for several months,” Gavi said. “It’s tough to watch from the outside. I have to enjoy every moment. I feel very lucky to be here today.”

    Barcelona will play Madrid on Saturday at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Both teams have Champions League matches midweek — Madrid hosts Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday and Barcelona hosts Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

    “This was an important win considering the matches that we have ahead,” Pedri said. “We had to leave with a good feeling and the three points.”

    Lewandowski scored twice in the first half against the visitors, first by converting a 24th-minute penalty kick and then by finding the net from close range in the 39th.

    The Poland striker was coming off a hat trick at Alaves in the previous league round, and had scored twice in the team’s win over Young Boys in the Champions League. He has 14 goals in 11 matches in all competitions this season.

    Lewandowski, who received a standing ovation when he was substituted in the 65th, nearly got his hat track against Sevilla in a one-on-one situation in the first half.

    Pedri scored with a curling shot from outside the area in the 28th and Torre added to the lead from inside the area in the 82nd and with a free kick in the 88th. Raphinha had a 49th-minute goal disallowed for offside.

    Barcelona has outscored its league opponents 33-10 this season.

    Sevilla, which had no attempts on target in the first half, scored its lone goal in the 87th with 19-year-old substitute Stanis Idumbo.

    Barcelona also saw Lamine Yamal return from a muscle strain that saw him leave Spain’s squad during the international break.

    Barcelona defender Eric García hurt a muscle in the team’s warmup and did not play.

    Atletico’s stadium partially closed

    Fewer fans than normal watched Atletico Madrid beat Leganes 3-1 in a match played in a partially closed stadium because of recent fan trouble.

    Alexander Sorloth scored twice and Antoine Griezmann once after the visitors took the lead in the first half at the Metropolitano stadium, which had an empty fan section behind one of the goals as punishment after Atletico fans threw objects on the field during a city derby against Real Madrid last month.

    The section is where the club’s more radical supporters usually gather.

    Atletico had been originally ordered to close the section for three matches but appealed the decision and the punishment was reduced to a single match. The derby was interrupted for more than 15 minutes after fans threw the objects near Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in a game that ended 1-1.

    Sunday’s victory, which ended Atletico’s three match winless streak in all competitions, moved Diego Simeone’s team to third place in the league. It trails Barcelona by seven points.

    Atletico midfielder Pablo Barrios and defender Clément Lenglet both got injured.

    Griezmann was sent off late in the game after he slid into an opponent, but the red card was changed to a yellow after video review.

    Other results

    Villarreal is in fourth place after conceding an 87th-minute equalizer in a 1-1 draw against Getafe. Santiago Comesaña had put the hosts ahead in the 44th.

    Mallorca defeated visiting Rayo Vallecano 1-0 with a goal by Vedat Muriqi in the 75th. It was the fourth win in five matches for Mallorca, which moved to sixth place in the standings. Rayo stayed ninth.

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    AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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  • Big day at World Cup looms for France, Poland goalkeepers

    Big day at World Cup looms for France, Poland goalkeepers

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    DOHA, Qatar — It’s a huge day for goalkeepers with big reputations when defending champion France faces Poland in the round of 16 at the World Cup on Sunday.

    Hugo Lloris will tie a national team record for Les Bleus four years after lifting the trophy as captain. Opposite number Wojciech Szczęsny is a penalty-saving, wise-cracking No. 1 who seems to be enjoying the tournament more than any other player.

    Both get a stage to shine at Al Thumama Stadium trying to deny two of the most feared forwards in Qatar — Kylian Mbappé and two-time FIFA player of the year Robert Lewandowski.

    “The key to stopping Mbappé? It’s me,” Szczęsny quipped when Poland’s place in the knockout bracket was confirmed.

    Lloris will face Lewandowski in an international game for the first time when he matches France’s record of 142 appearances held by Lilian Thuram, the right back in the 1998 world champion team.

    “It’s quite something and I’m very honored,” Lloris said Saturday. He was in the same France squad as Thuram as an uncapped 21-year-old in 2008 though was never played with him.

    France coach Didier Deschamps, who played often with Thuram and was captain in the 1998 final in Paris, paid tribute to them.

    “They have shown exemplary professionalism for the national team,” Deschamps said Saturday.

    Lloris is a naturally quiet and courteous leader of this talented France team and he praised Szczęsny, who he previously faced at opposite ends of the north London rivalry between Tottenham and Arsenal.

    “He’s playing a magnificent tournament,” Lloris said. “Poland deserve to be here at this stage and they’ve got a great goalkeeper as well.”

    Szczęsny is the only goalkeeper this World Cup to have saved two spot kicks — one against Saudi Arabia and the second against Lionel Messi. Szczęsny himself conceded the latter one for brushing the Argentina great’s face with his glove when stretching for a cross. It was scoreless at the time in a game Argentina won 2-0 on Wednesday.

    Szczęsny’s told the story of how he bet Messi during a lengthy video review that the penalty wouldn’t be awarded, only adding to his quirky time in Qatar.

    The character of the 32-year-old Juventus goalkeeper, who is set to play his 70th game for Poland, is no surprise to long-time teammates.

    “It’s not that Wojciech Szczęsny started to be such a great goalkeeper in this tournament — he’s been a great goalkeeper for years,” forward Arkadiusz Milik said Saturday through an interpreter. “It’s not a coincidence that in his career he played for wonderful clubs.”

    Poland likely will need Szczęsny and Lewandowski to excel in its first knockout game at a World Cup since 1986. Since that 4-0 loss to Brazil, France won both its world titles and also was a beaten finalist.

    Deschamps highlighted Lewandowski’s qualities as clever, technically gifted and knows how to use his body intelligently against defenders.

    “He didn’t get a lot of the ball in the group stage, but with just one chance he can be very dangerous,” the France coach said.

    Giving Poland some hope is that France lost in the round of 16 last year at the European Championship against Switzerland. Mbappé had the decisive penalty saved in a shootout after a 3-3 draw.

    “We talked about that a lot,” said Lloris, who couldn’t stop any of the five Swiss spot kicks that night in Bucharest. “You have to be confident, but if a penalty is well taken, then the goalkeeper has no chance of stopping it.”

    In Qatar, Szczęsny might be just the one to prove that wrong.

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    AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • First win key in tough World Cup group for Swiss, Cameroon

    First win key in tough World Cup group for Swiss, Cameroon

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    DOHA, Qatar — Even for their opening game at the World Cup, Switzerland against Cameroon has the look of a must-win opportunity in a tough group.

    With talent-packed Brazil and robust Serbia also in Group G, taking three points in the early afternoon heat on Thursday shapes as a key step for each team to advance.

    The task is harder for Cameroon based on recent World Cup form after being swept aside in three straight losses at each of its past two appearances, in 2014 and 2010.

    In that period the Indomitable Lions have scored fewer goals collectively as a team on soccer’s biggest stage than a single Swiss player, Xherdan Shaqiri.

    The score is 4-3 in Shaqiri’s favor since 2010 when he made his World Cup debut as a teenager. Now 31 and playing in MLS with Chicago Fire, Shaqiri returns again as playmaker equalling a Swiss record at his fourth edition of the tournament. Goals will more likely come from in-form Monaco forward Breel Embolo.

    At age 33, Cameroon’s star forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting arrives at his third edition in prolific form at Bayern Munich and looking for his first career World Cup goal.

    Choupo-Moting’s 11 goals in all competitions this season helped plug the gap left by Robert Lewandowski’s departure and lifted Bayern back atop the Bundesliga at the enforced mid-season break.

    Both Cameroon and Switzerland come to Qatar with solid results at their continental championships in the past 18 months though each now with different coaches.

    At the European Championship last year, the Swiss broke a streak of being stopped at the round of 16 in major tournaments by eliminating France on penalties after a 3-3 thriller.

    After losing another shootout in the quarterfinals to Spain, coach Vladimir Petkovic parlayed his rising reputation after seven years into joining Bordeaux. He was fired within months.

    Murat Yakin, a 49-times capped central defender, was hired from coaching a Swiss second-tier club. He immediately impressed by steering the team to finish top of a World Cup qualifying group ahead of European champion Italy.

    Cameroon started the year reaching the semifinals at the African Cup of Nations it hosted — losing on penalties to Egypt — then fired Portuguese coach Toni Conceição.

    Samuel Eto’o, Cameroon’s greatest player and now its federation president, turned to his long-time former teammate Rigobert Song who had a patchy record of results coaching within the national teams’ setup.

    Song was the captain and Eto’o scored the only goal when Cameroon last won a World Cup game, 20 years ago in Japan against Saudi Arabia.

    It is overdue for Africa’s first World Cup quarterfinalist, in 1990, to rediscover winning form.

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    AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • World Cup Viewer’s Guide: Messi seeks history with Argentina

    World Cup Viewer’s Guide: Messi seeks history with Argentina

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    DOHA, Qatar — Lionel Messi returns to the World Cup for a fifth attempt at finally winning soccer’s biggest prize.

    He’ll also be hoping to make history with Argentina.

    The Argentines are among the favorites to win in Qatar and victory would fill the one gaping hole in his resume. But a win or a draw Tuesday against Saudi Arabia, one of the weakest teams in the tournament, would give Argentina a record-tying result.

    Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-match unbeaten streak, one shy of tying Italy’s record in international men’s soccer, set from 2018-21.

    Argentina has not lost since falling to Brazil 2-0 in the 2019 Copa América. Argentina first won the World Cup in 1978, and then again in 1986 — one year before Messi was born. The team reached the final in 2014 and lost to Germany, and in a bitter follow-up four years later was eliminated in the round of 16 in Russia.

    Messi, meanwhile, is one of four players making their fifth World Cup appearance. He joins Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo, and Mexico teammates Guillermo Ochoa and Andrés Guardado.

    Saudi Arabia was eliminated in the first round in 2018, opening with a 5-0 loss to host Russia. In a tough Group C that includes Mexico and Poland, the Saudis will be trying to advance out of the group stage for only the second time, after 1994. The team has won two of its last 10 matches.

    DEFENDING CHAMPS

    Defending champion France opens play Tuesday against Australia in a rematch from four years ago.

    France won 2-1 in Russia when Paul Pogba’s shot in the 81st minute deflected in off a defender for an own-goal. Pogba is not in the squad following knee surgery, and France is also down another two stars with N’Golo Kante and Karim Benzema sidelined.

    France does expect defender Raphael Varane to play following a hamstring injury he picked up in October.

    Kylian Mbappé is ready to lead France to back-to-back titles. He was only 19 when he scored in the final and helped France win the World Cup four years ago. With 28 international goals, Mbappé wants to add to his count in the Group D opener.

    However, France arrived in Qatar with only one win in its last six games.

    Australia barely made the World Cup field and needed a dramatic penalty shootout win over Peru in the playoffs. The Socceroos have been eliminated from the group stage in four of five previous appearances.

    OTHER GAMES

    Mexico faces Poland, while Denmark plays Tunisia on the first of 11 consecutive days in which four games are played each day.

    Poland advanced to the World Cup behind striker Robert Lewandowski, who scored nine goals with four assists in qualifying. His 13 direct-goal involvements were twice as many as any teammate.

    He’s never scored in the World Cup, though, as Poland finished last in its group in 2018. The Barcelona striker is eager to find the net in Qatar.

    “I think about the last World Cup for sure,” Lewandowski said. “To score at a World Cup would be a huge dream and I’m going to do everything for this dream. I hope in this World Cup it will happen. I am glad for everything I have achieved and these memories for the World Cup, so now is the time to enjoy.”

    Poland last advanced out of group stage in 1986.

    Mexico, meanwhile, has advanced out of group play in each of its past eight appearances, last failing to move on in 1978. The national team has also won its opening match in five of its past six World Cups.

    Christian Eriksen figures to play for Denmark against Tunisia, 17 months after he was revived on the field during the European Championship.

    The Manchester United midfielder’s presence will be inspirational for Denmark, which sailed through its World Cup qualifying group by winning its first nine games — with clean sheets through the first eight.

    Tunisia has been strong at keeping games tight but its World Cup record isn’t great: Tunisia has lost 60% of its World Cup games (nine out of 15), trailing only Saudi Arabia and Australia.

    OUTSIDE CHAOS

    The first few days of the World Cup have been been marred by logistical snags, the latest on Monday when fans complained their tickets to the England-Iran match had vanished from their mobile FIFA application.

    Long lines grew outside the Khalifa International Stadium about an hour before kickoff with fans furious they might not get inside.

    The night before, the official fan zone quickly became overcrowded during the opening match between host nation Qatar and Ecuador. Tens of thousands of fans pushed and shoved against police lines to enter the venue, one of the few places where fans could purchase beer and watch the game.

    DAVIES UPDATE

    Canada coach John Herdman is expected to give a medical update on Tuesday regarding Alphonso Davies, who arrived in Qatar last week after receiving treatment on a hamstring strain he picked up this month while playing for Bayern Munich.

    Bayern has said Davies’ participation in Qatar was “not at risk,” but he has not played since the Nov. 5 injury.

    “My mission is to make sure he plays at this World Cup, it’s a childhood dream for him,” Herdman said. “And not to put him in a position where he’s unsafe.”

    Read up on all 32 teams playing at the World Cup.

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    AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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