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PSG hit seven, Barcelona, Arsenal run riot as Champions League rains goals

Paris Saint-Germain scored seven and both Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven hit six in big victories while Arsenal crushed Atletico Madrid 4-0 on a prolific night of Champions League action on Tuesday.

Erling Haaland was among the scorers in Manchester City’s 2-0 win at Villarreal as a total of 43 goals rained down across nine games.

However, it was champions PSG who stole the show with their 7-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

Desire Doue scored twice in between goals by Willian Pacho and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for PSG in a first half which saw Alejandro Grimaldo miss a penalty and Aleix Garcia net from the spot for Leverkusen.

Both sides had a man sent off in the opening period, with Robert Andrich seeing red for Leverkusen and Illia Zabarnyi walking for the visitors.

Nuno Mendes got the French side’s fifth goal shortly after the break and Garcia pulled it back to 5-2.

Ousmane Dembele, on his return from injury and first appearance since winning the Ballon d’Or, got PSG’s sixth and Vitinha completed the scoring at the death.

“I am not yet at 100 percent. I wanted to play at the weekend and the coach told me to wait a bit, but I felt great,” Dembele told broadcaster Canal Plus.

It is the first time PSG have scored seven goals away from home in a Champions League game, and they are top of the standings after three outings in the league phase, with a maximum nine points and the best goal difference.

Inter Milan and Arsenal are the other teams with a 100 percent record after three outings, with the Italians easing to a 4-0 victory at Union Saint-Gilloise in Brussels.

Denzel Dumfries and Lautaro Martinez both netted late in the first half before Hakan Calhanoglu added a penalty soon after the restart and Pio Esposito completed the scoring.

Meanwhile Premier League leaders Arsenal hammered Atletico at the Emirates Stadium, as Mikel Arteta’s side made it three straight wins all with clean sheets in Europe this season.

All the goals came in the second half, with Gabriel putting them ahead and Gabriel Martinelli getting the second before Viktor Gyokeres struck twice to end a run of seven club appearances without finding the net.

“Hopefully it’s the start of some beautiful sequence now,” said Arteta of the Sweden striker.

Haaland put City ahead against Villarreal in Spain and Bernardo Silva got their second goal before half-time as Pep Guardiola’s team moved on to seven points from three outings.

Norway superstar Haaland kept up his remarkable record in front of goal this season and he has now found the net 15 times in 11 appearances for City in all competitions.

“I see that things are looking good, we are playing a little bit better day after day and that’s a good sign,” Guardiola told broadcaster Movistar.

Felix Nmecha hit a brace as Borussia Dortmund won 4-2 away to FC Copenhagen, with Ramy Bensebaini converting a penalty and Fabio Silva also scoring.

Waldemar Anton’s own goal had brought the Danes back level at one point in the first half, while Viktor Dadason got their other goal late on. They are yet to win in the league phase.

Beaten at home by PSG last time out, Barcelona bounced back to thump Olympiacos 6-1 at Montjuic as Fermin Lopez starred with a hat-trick.

Lamine Yamal got his name on the scoresheet with a penalty and Marcus Rashford scored twice, with Ayoub El Kaabi’s spot-kick scant consolation for the Greeks.

Newcastle United got their second straight win in the competition by easing to a 3-0 victory against Benfica at St James’ Park.

Anthony Gordon got the opener and Harvey Barnes emerged from the bench to score twice in the second half, leaving Jose Mourinho’s Benfica as the only team to have no points having played three games.

PSV claimed a stunning 6-2 home win against Italian champions Napoli, despite Scott McTominay giving the visitors the lead in the first half.

An Alessandro Buongiorno own goal restored parity and Ismael Saibari put PSV ahead before Dennis Man scored twice and both Ricardo Pepi and Couhaib Driouech also found the net.

McTominay pulled another one back for Napoli, who had Lorenzo Lucca sent off.

The night’s other game ended in a 0-0 draw between rank outsiders Kairat Almaty and Pafos of Cyprus in Kazakhstan. (JapanToday)

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Transgender woman jailed for deceiving man about gender in UK

A British court has sentenced a transgender woman, Ciara Watkin, to 21 months in prison for deceiving a man into sexual activity by falsely claiming to be a biological female.

According to a BBC report on Friday, the victim told Durham Crown Court he would not have consented to the sexual encounter had he known Watkin was biologically male.

The court heard that Watkin, 21, from Thornaby in Stockton-on-Tees, was found guilty of sexual assault after jurors rejected her claim that the man “would have realised” her gender identity.

Recorder Peter Makepeace KC said he was “certain” the victim “fully believed from start to finish” that Watkin was a woman due to her “lies and deception.”

Watkin, who was born male and had used the name Ciara since childhood, had not undergone any medical transition or surgery, the BBC reported.

Both Watkin and the victim were 18 when they met on Snapchat, where she used a female cartoon character as her profile picture. They later met in person, leading to sexual contact. Prosecutor Paul Reid told the court that Watkin even claimed to be menstruating to stop the man from touching her below the waist.

When Watkin later confessed to being biologically male, the man said he was “physically sick” and immediately reported the matter to the police.

Transgender woman jailed for deceiving man about gender in UK

A British court has sentenced a transgender woman, Ciara Watkin, to 21 months in prison for deceiving a man into sexual activity by falsely claiming to be a biological female.

According to a BBC report on Friday, the victim told Durham Crown Court he would not have consented to the sexual encounter had he known Watkin was biologically male.

The court heard that Watkin, 21, from Thornaby in Stockton-on-Tees, was found guilty of sexual assault after jurors rejected her claim that the man “would have realised” her gender identity.

Recorder Peter Makepeace KC said he was “certain” the victim “fully believed from start to finish” that Watkin was a woman due to her “lies and deception.”

Watkin, who was born male and had used the name Ciara since childhood, had not undergone any medical transition or surgery, the BBC reported.

Both Watkin and the victim were 18 when they met on Snapchat, where she used a female cartoon character as her profile picture. They later met in person, leading to sexual contact. Prosecutor Paul Reid told the court that Watkin even claimed to be menstruating to stop the man from touching her below the waist.

When Watkin later confessed to being biologically male, the man said he was “physically sick” and immediately reported the matter to the police.

“He said he was shocked and upset about being deceived, adding that he felt ashamed, embarrassed, and had been ridiculed online due to Watkin’s actions and deception,” the report stated.

The victim, who described himself as heterosexual, told the court he felt “part of his masculinity was taken away.”

Defence counsel Victoria Lamballe argued that Watkin’s actions were not “predatory or sadistic” but stemmed from “shame and a deep sense of discomfort” with her own body.

She said Watkin, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, identified as female from primary school and had endured years of bullying.

“It is hardly surprising that Watkin built up a façade and presented almost as a caricature of herself to mask the inner turmoil she feels at having been born into the wrong body,” Lamballe said, adding that Watkin “simply wanted to be loved.”

However, Recorder Makepeace ruled that the victim was “totally deceived,” saying Watkin had lied to “get away” with her deception and was aware the man would not have consented if he knew her biological sex.

The judge also criticised Watkin’s attitude during the trial, describing her as “flippant, disinterested, and bored,” showing “not a shred of remorse.” (Punch)

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Gaza war not over until Hamas disarms, says Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday that the war in Gaza wouldn’t be over until Hamas was disarmed and the Palestinian territory demilitarised.

His declaration came as Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said it would hand over the remains of two further hostages on Saturday night.

The Israeli military said a Red Cross team was en route to receive “several” bodies just before 11:00pm (2000 GMT).

The issue of the dead hostages still in Gaza has become a sticking point in the implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire, with Israel linking the reopening of the key Rafah crossing between the territory and Egypt to the issue.

Netanyahu cautioned, however, that completing the ceasefire’s second phase was essential to ending the war, saying late on Saturday that “Phase B also involves the disarming of Hamas — or more precisely, the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, following the stripping of Hamas of its weapons”.

“When that is successfully completed — hopefully in an easy way, but if not, in a hard way — then the war will end,” he added in an appearance on right-wing Israeli Channel 14.

The group has so far resisted the idea and since the pause in fighting has moved to reassert its control over the Gaza Strip.

Under the ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Hamas has so far released all 20 living hostages, along with the remains of nine Israelis and one Nepalese.

The most recent handover was on Friday night, that of the body identified by Israel as Eliyahu Margalit, who died aged 75 in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 135 other bodies of Palestinians since the truce came into effect on October 10.

Hamas has said it needs time and technical assistance to recover the remaining bodies, which it says are buried under Gaza’s rubble.

The two bodies to be returned on Saturday “were recovered earlier today” the al-Qassam Brigades said on Telegram.

Netanyahu on Saturday linked the reopening of the vital Rafah crossing to Egypt with Hamas returning all the bodies of hostages still in Gaza.

The Palestinian mission in Cairo announced that the crossing could open as early as Monday, though only for Gazans living in Egypt who wished to return to the territory.

Shortly after, however, Netanyahu’s office said he had “directed that the Rafah crossing remain closed until further notice”.

“Its reopening will be considered based on how Hamas fulfils its part in returning the hostages and the bodies of the deceased, and in implementing the agreed-upon framework,” it said, referring to the week-old ceasefire deal.

Further delays to the reopening could complicate the task facing Tom Fletcher, the UN head of humanitarian relief, who was in northern Gaza on Saturday.

“I drove through here seven to eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing and, to see the devastation — this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland — and it’s absolutely devastating to see,” he told AFP.

Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a “massive, massive job”.

He said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes who were trying to dig latrines in the ruins.

“They’re telling me most of all they want dignity,” he said.

“We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school.”

While the Rafah crossing has yet to reopen, just over a week since the brokering of the truce, hundreds of trucks are rolling in each day via Israeli checkpoints and aid is being distributed.

According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military’s civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Thursday some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel.

Some violence has persisted despite the ceasefire.

Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said on Saturday that it had recovered the bodies of nine Palestinians — two men, three women and four children — from the Shaaban family after Israeli troops fired two tank shells at a bus. (Punch)

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Gusau: Super Eagles will qualify for World Cup ticket

NFF president Ibrahim Gusau has expressed confidence Nigeria will qualify for the 2026 World Cup via the Playoffs, while also backing Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle.

On Tuesday, the Super Eagles kept World Cup hopes alive when they qualified for the continental Playoffs next month in Morocco, where they will battle Gabon, DR Congo and Cameroon for a ticket to next year’s Intercontinental Playoffs in Mexico to produce two more qualifiers for the Mundial.

“We have started preparations (World Cup Playoffs), but the most important thing is the commitment and zeal of the players,” Gusau said while expressing his confidence in Nigeria featuring at next year’s World Cup.

“They have now realised that going to the World Cup is important to their careers, more than even how Nigerians look at it.

“We are getting all the cooperation we need for the government to ensure we are ready for the Playoffs and I know we will move on to the Intercontinental Playoffs.”

He said coach Eric Chelle has justified his appointment as Super Eagles coach by winning four of six World Cup qualifiers.

“Had we had a little resemblance of that record, we would not have been where we are today,” he said. (Nation)

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Tourists upset as Louvre stays shut after jewel heist

Visitors pressed against the Louvre’s iron gates on Monday, peering through bars locked after thieves pulled off a daylight jewel heist inside the world-famous museum the day before.

Would-be museum-goers queued outside the famed tourist attraction for the scheduled 0900 (0700 GMT) opening, a day after robbers stole precious jewelry and fled on scooters.

But the mood soured when the museum announced it would stay closed for a second day.

“It’s my birthday; it was my gift, and I’ve wanted to come for several years, so I’m a bit upset,” Elisa Valentino, a 31-year-old visiting from Italy, told AFP.

“I studied art… It’s even the only thing I had planned for my stay in Paris, and I’m leaving tomorrow,” she said, wiping away tears.

Lingering outside the closed gates, US tourist Jesslyn Ehlers, 38, and her husband were busy rebooking their tickets.

“We heard about the heist the day before, so we checked online before coming, and we didn’t hear anything,” she told AFP. “We were excited to show up.”

But on arrival, they found a sign saying the museum would stay shut for a second day.

“We’re just kind of disappointed. We’ve been planning this for a very long time,” she said.

Those who had booked same-day visits would be reimbursed, the Louvre said in a statement.

“We’ll be refunded, but that’s not the point,” said Adam Cooke, 65, who had travelled from London with his wife, Rachel.

With their return set for Tuesday, the couple will miss their chance to visit the museum, whose extensive collections include the Mona Lisa.

The Louvre, along with the Eiffel Tower, ranks among the French capital’s must-see attractions, drawing nearly nine million visitors last year—around 80 percent of them from abroad.

Tourists said they were shocked after masked thieves took off with eight priceless items, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise.

The burglars dropped and damaged a ninth item — the crown of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III — as they made their escape.

“It was amazing that the heist happened in broad daylight. I mean, that is obviously very unfortunate… very embarrassing,” said Cooke, the 65-year-old British tourist.

He discovered from news websites how the burglars parked an extendable ladder like those used by movers below the museum’s Apollo Gallery, where they used cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases.

All in just seven minutes.

For Sissi Liu, a 39-year-old visiting from China with her husband and young sons, the theft was “unimaginable”.

“It’s a big shock that someone can get in there and steal something,” she told AFP.

Andreea Dumitras, 17, from Moldova, came to Paris with friends and family and said she was not surprised the museum stayed closed after the brazen theft.

“What’s most frustrating is that the security at the Louvre is so weak,” she said.

With her departure set for Thursday, the 17-year-old said she hopes to make it inside on Wednesday — if the museum reopens in time.

But she was not optimistic.

“Someone from security told me it’s not even certain it will reopen” by then, she said. (Channels)

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Postecoglou fired; Haaland scores 2 more for Man City and Arsenal profits again from a corner

Around 20 minutes.

That’s how long it took Nottingham Forest to fire manager Ange Postecoglou after losing to Chelsea 3-0 in the Premier League on Saturday.

As for Erling Haaland, he did his damage in a devastating five-minute spell in the second half, scoring twice more for Manchester City in its 2-0 win over Everton to move to 11 goals in eight league games.

City jumped to second place and was three points behind Arsenal, a 1-0 winner at Fulham thanks to another set-piece goal.

Postecoglou was removed after just 39 days in charge of Forest, which didn’t win any of its eight matches under the Australian after he replaced Nuno Espirito Santo on Sept. 9.

In a terse 39-word statement issued while the City Ground was emptying following the defeat to Chelsea, Forest said Postecoglou was “relieved of his duties as head coach with immediate effect” after “a series of disappointing results and performances.”

British media had already been linking former Burnley and Everton manager Sean Dyche with the beleaguered Postecoglou’s job. On Saturday, The Athletic reported that former Man City and Italy coach Roberto Mancini has been contacted by Forest.

Goals early in the second half by Josh Acheampong and Pedro Neto, and another by Reece James in the 84th minute, earned Chelsea a victory that prompted loud jeers inside the City Ground at fulltime and signaled the end for Postecoglou.

Postecoglou had been in defiant mood in recent weeks, even delivering a five-minute monologue on Friday in which he rejected talk that he was a “failed manager” and promised to win a trophy at Forest — just like he did at Tottenham last season before being fired.

However, Forest lost six and drew the other two of its eight games under Postecoglou. That included four losses from five in the league, scoring just one goal in the process, to leave Forest rooted in the bottom three.

Malo Gusto became the fifth Chelsea player to be sent off this season after collecting a second yellow card in the 87th.

Haaland has 23 goals in 13 games for club and country this season, having just come off a hat trick for Norway against Israel in a World Cup qualifier last week.

The striker has said he is in the best form of his career and it seemed inevitable he would make no mistake when Nico O’Reilly teed up a cross from the left in the 58th. Haaland leapt high and buried his header.

Five minutes later, Haaland peeled away from his marker in the box and met a cut-back from Savinho with a shot that went through the legs of defender James Tarkowski and past the unsighted Jordan Pickford in goal.

“He’s our key man, what can I say?” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “But at the same time, we cannot rely and do good things just with Erling.

“So our wingers, attacking midfielders and our other players have to make a step up.”

Jack Grealish wasn’t able to play for Everton under the terms of his loan move from City.

Make that 37 goals Arsenal has scored from corners since the start of the 2023-24 season.

The league leader’s 58th-minute winner at Fulham came from a familiar source, as Bukayo Saka swung in the corner, Gabriel Magalhaes flicked it on and Leandro Trossard converted at the back post.

It was a sixth win in eight games for Arsenal, which is seeking a first league championship since 2004 after being runner-up in the last three campaigns.

Fresh off his debut for France, Jean-Philippe Mateta scored a hat trick — including an equalizer from the penalty spot in the seventh minute of stoppage time — in a breathless 3-3 draw against Bournemouth.

Nick Woltemade’s latest goal for Newcastle — a deft flick between his legs into the corner — proved to be in vain in a 2-1 loss at Brighton, which had a goal in each half from Danny Welbeck.

Burnley beat Leeds 2-0 and Sunderland won at home to Wolverhampton 2-0. (JapanToday)

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UK’s Prince Andrew gives up royal title

The UK’s Prince Andrew Friday renounced his title of Duke of York under pressure from his brother King Charles, amid further revelations about his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I will… no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me,” Andrew, 65, said in a bombshell announcement.

He said his decision came after discussions with the head of state, King Charles III.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first,” Andrew said in a statement, sent out by Buckingham Palace.

He again denied all allegations of wrongdoing, but said: “We have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”

Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019 amid the Epstein scandal, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II.

But he will no longer hold the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him.

UK media reported that he would also give up membership of the prestigious Order of the Garter, the most senior knighthood in the British honours system which dates back to 1348.

Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, although his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie remain princesses and it is thought that Friday’s move will not affect their status.

The disgraced royal has become a source of deep embarrassment for his brother Charles, following a devastating 2019 TV interview in which Andrew defended his friendship with the late billionaire paedophile Epstein.

In the interview, he vowed he had cut ties in 2010 with Epstein, who was disgraced after an American woman, Virginia Giuffre, accused him of using her as a sex slave.

But in a reported exchange which emerged in UK media this week, Andrew told the convicted sex offender in 2011 that they were “in this together” when a photo of the prince with his arm around Giuffre was published.

But he added that the two would “play together soon”.

Andrew was stripped of his military titles in 2022 and shuffled off into retirement after Giuffre accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

New allegations emerged this week in Giuffre’s posthumous memoir in which she wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his “birthright”. (Vanguard)

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Verstappen wins U.S. Grand Prix; McLaren’s Norris pulls closer to teammate Piastri in F1 title hunt


Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued his late-season charge with a victory Sunday at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, while McLaren’s Lando Norris took a huge chunk out of teammate Oscar Piastri’s championship lead by finishing second.

Piastri was a distant fifth, which allowed Norris to pull within 14 points with five grand prix and two sprint races to go.

Verstappen, who got his third victory in four races, is also closing fast and now trails Piastri by 40 points in third.

Piastri and Norris are chasing their first career drivers championship. Verstappen is hunting his fifth in a row, and his dominant form of late has given him a real chance to get it. He also won Saturday’s sprint race after the two McLarens ran into each other on the first turn and crashed out.

Norris’ late pass of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for second earned him a crucial position as he chases Piastri and hopes to hold off Verstappen over the final stretch of the season.

Verstappen started on the pole Sunday and was never challenged for the lead. He built a 10-second lead by the halfway point as Norris and Leclerc drove a furious battle for second.

Piastri’s day never got going. He started sixth and quickly made up a spot in the first few corners but was stuck there for the rest of the race.

Piastri’s lead is rapidly shrinking under pressure. He hasn’t won since the Dutch Grand Prix on Aug 31 and hasn’t finished on the podium the last three races. Piastri started the race with a 22-point lead over Norris and 55 points over Verstappen.

The series next heads to Mexico City, where Verstappen has five career victories at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. (JapanToday)

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Manchester United beats Liverpool 2-1 with Maguire’s late goal in big boost for Amorim

After nine painful years, and at the 11th time of asking, Manchester United ended its Anfield hoodoo with a 2-1 win against Premier League defending champion Liverpool on Sunday.

Harry Maguire’s header in the 84th minute sealed one of United’s most significant wins under coach Ruben Amorim and consigned Liverpool to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions.

The frustration of so many miserable experiences on Merseyside appeared to pour out of Maguire as the defender celebrated in front of United’s traveling fans.

“It means everything. They’ve had the better of us over the last few years and we know that and it hasn’t been good enough for our club,” Maguire said. “The old cliche is that it is only three points, but it definitely isn’t. It means a lot more than that for the club, the boys and the fans.”

Maguire’s goal came late in another frenetic and thrilling match involving Liverpool in a season of dramatic finales for Arne Slot’s team.

That’s three league games in a row in which Liverpool has been beaten by a goal scored in the last 10 minutes of regulation time or beyond. Before that, it had scraped to late wins of its own in six of the first seven games.

So while Maguire’s headed goal maintained the losing trend, perhaps the biggest surprise was that there wasn’t another twist in the tale.

There might have been when Cody Gakpo headed wide with an open goal to aim at and the fourth official indicated there would be eight minutes of added time.

The Dutch forward had already got Liverpool back on level terms in the 78th – poking in from close range after Bryan Mbeumo had fired United ahead inside two minutes.

United’s last win at Anfield came back in 2016 when Wayne Rooney scored the only goal of the match. Since then there have been some humiliating defeats, notably the 7-0 rout in 2023 and a 4-0 loss a year earlier.

Not only has Amorim ended that bitter run, but he also collected back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since taking over at United last November.

The Portuguese coach has been under increasing pressure, with speculation mounting over his position after a troubled start to his first full season in charge. While United is ninth in the standings, it is only two points off the top four and such a morale-boosting performance could finally prove a turning point for Amorim.

Defeat for Liverpool raises more doubts about its wobbling title defense, leaving it fourth and four points behind leader Arsenal.

That is not an insurmountable gap but the run of four straight defeats extends what was already Slot’s worst run as Liverpool coach and further highlights weaknesses in his team.

Liverpool has only kept two clean sheets in 12 games in all competitions this season and a creaking defense continues to be breached late on in games.

In attack, Mohamed Salah’s only goal in his last seven league games was a penalty against Burnley, while British record signing Alexander Isak has only scored one goal in seven appearances since joining from Newcastle.

“We have to stick together. Not just as players but the fans and everyone,” said Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. “First and foremost we have to stay humble, and stay working. We need to keep our confidence high and stay very calm.”

Emi Buendia’s curling shot sealed a 2-1 comeback win for Aston Villa against Tottenham.

The victory continued Villa’s resurgence after a desperate start to the season and denied Spurs the chance to provisionally move up to second in the standings.

Buendia shimmied his way across the edge of the box in the 77th minute at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before sweeping a perfect shot low into the bottom corner.

It was Villa’s fifth-straight win in all competitions after failing to pick up a victory in its first six games of the campaign.

It ended Spurs’ seven-game unbeaten run that looked set to continue when Rodrigo Bentancur fired the home team ahead after just five minutes.

Morgan Rogers leveled the game in the 37th before Villa went on to take all three points and consign Tottenham coach Thomas Frank to his second league loss since taking over in the summer. (JapanToday)

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Ex-Kenyan leader Raila Odinga buried after days of memorial events

Former Kenyan prime minister and revered long-time opposition leader Raila Odinga was buried in the west of the country after a service attended by thousands on Sunday.

“Now finally Baba is home,” his son, Raila Odinga junior, said beside his father’s casket, draped in the Kenyan flag.

The burial concluded days of memorials that at times led to chaos, with at least five mourners dying at other events and dozens injured at a public viewing on Saturday.

Odinga died on Wednesday aged 80 in an Indian hospital.

He became prime minister after the bloody and disputed 2007 election, and was the main opposition leader for many years, losing five presidential campaigns, most recently three years ago.

He retains a devotional following in the west of the country. Former US President Barack Obama, whose Kenyan family hails from the same region, called Odinga a “true champion of democracy”.

Politicians, relatives and throngs of his supporters waved Kenyan flags and held his picture aloft as they gathered at Sunday’s memorial service, which was held at a university in Bondo.

“Even in the grave, he still remains our hero,” one mourner told the AFP news agency.

Military personnel carried Odinga’s coffin to the front, where a choir sang and speakers, including Kenyan President William Ruto, remembered him.

“His courage, his vision, and his unyielding faith in our collective destiny will forever illuminate the path of our nation,” Ruto said in a post on Facebook about the event.

“His return to Bondo was not merely a homecoming; it was the embrace of a grateful Republic bidding farewell to one of its greatest sons, a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of justice, democracy, and the enduring unity of our beloved Kenya.”

Odinga was buried nearby at his late father’s homestead, where there is a family mausoleum.

Multiple memorial events had already taken place, including a state funeral in Nairobi on Friday and a public viewing in a stadium in his home city of Kisumu on Saturday.

At the viewing, tens of thousands filed past his open coffin, many crying out the phrase “we are orphans”.

At least three people were killed when police opened fire to disperse mourners, with dozens more injured in the chaotic scenes that followed. (BBC)