Category Sports News

So, a change from the last Rangers and Celtic game of the goalless snoozeathon at Ibrox on August 30th…

A stalemate and Celtic’s 71-minute start confirmed Rangers had made their worst league start since 1983, when they needed 71 minutes to score a goal.

Martin (Russell) and Martin (O’Neill) are both at Rangers and Celtic.

For the first time in almost a year, Danilo, the £6 million striker for the Rangers, has scored twice. After two and a half years without a goal, Youssef Chermiti, a £8 million striker for the Rangers, finally scored.

Johnny Kenny became the first Celtic striker to score twice in a game since April’s Adam Idah.

In the 90 minutes that followed the match against an ostensibly obliging Falkirk, Celtic scored four goals after only eight in the 810 league minutes that followed.

A 73-year-old is in one dugout and a 36-year-old is in the other when the teams square off in the League Cup semi-final on Sunday at Hampden.

Rohl will be the fourth manager to lead Rangers to an Old Firm game this year after Martin, Barry Ferguson, and Philippe Clement.

O’Neill, who has been yelling “young man” everywhere since his return, is enjoying the support of Celtic fans. With that 4-0 victory over Falkirk, he made a good start.

This season, Celtic have now won 53% of their games. Poor, inexplicably, but at least O’Neill made a slight improvement.

Rangers have won 33% of their games. Hopeless but improving as a result of Rohl’s adjustments to his formation, which involves a three-piece back-up team with a faster tempo.

The German appears to be reveling in the performance, which logic dictates he should be slain by the gruesome demands of his job at Ibrox. Beyond his predecessor, he now has won two league games in a row.

Rangers maintained a clean sheet on Wednesday, going over that line for 25 games straight up since December. Of course, that was credited to them when they scored a late penalty save against Hibs.

The Rangers’ motto, “READY,” has begged the question, “Ready for what? “

A Club Like No Other is the equivalent of “A Club Like No Other,” and to be fair, that was difficult to refute because the club threatened to eat itself earlier in the week.

After losing at Dundee, these Glasgow institutions reduced Martin to marshmallows and Brendan Rodgers to a gloomy spectacle that echoed in the air.

Dermot Desmond, a major shareholder of Celtic, appears to have transformed into a human loudhailer in the context of a changing landscape, who might impart wisdom to a Trappist monk.

A troubled Rangers’ exclusive access to Statement o’clock was once (and how Celtic made them so mocked).

But even in their darkest days, when Charles Green claimed that one-eighth of the world’s population was being turned into Rangers supporters, they never produced anything even slightly different from what Desmond claimed in a jaw-dropping argument that Rodgers had been merely a very misguided Bhoy.

Celtics enjoy describing their unique way of doing things. They view themselves as being special, which Rodgers was most likely to be when Desmond hit him.

Did the highly decorated manager deserve such harsh treatment despite his flaws?

Did John Kennedy deserve a little more than a passing club salute after his 27 years as a player and assistant manager when he announced his retirement?

The Glasgow giants are now facing off once more against each other. Although this might turn sour, hoped there was only a small amount of football at Hampden.

Rangers defeated Celtic 3-2 at Celtic Park in March, and Celtic defeated Rangers on penalties at Hampden in December after drawing 3-3. Old Firm games of the past have produced some belters.

That Ibrox goalkeeper had a 0-0 advantage. The only thing that stood out about it was how completely forgettable it was. After just giving Brugge six, Rangers ran around like crazy dogs in a meathouse and were awarded a draw.

After Kairat Almaty had just been eliminated from the Champions League, Celtic sat backwards, hesitant, and unthreatening. They didn’t score in three of their previous four games.

The game produced a total xG of 0.32. There is a good chance that this is the lowest xG for a game in Britain since records began, but we can’t say for sure because stats vary.

One of the most stiflingly dull encounters in fixture history’s recent history was undoubtedly felt.

This video game is still intriguing. Celtic won the league title last year, defeating Rangers by 17 points, outscoring them over the course of the campaign with 112 goals to 80, and out-defending them by conceding 26 goals to 41 with a plus-86 score difference of plus-86 for Celtic and plus-39 for Rangers.

However, Old Firm games didn’t show any of this dominance. A 1-1 draw, a 3-2 win for Rangers at Celtic Park, a 3-0 win for Rangers at Ibrox, and a 3-0 win for Celtic at Celtic Park were the four games in the league.

After extra time, Celtic won the League Cup match with a penalty shootout and the score was 3-3. In the last six meetings, Rangers won two victories, Celtic won two (counting the shootout), and two draws. Rangers outscored the six games 10-10 in goals scored.

In derby matches, the idea of form flying out of the window is a little cliche, but it’s still possible to make sense. Nothing else explains why Celtic had such a difficult time getting the better of them than Rangers did last season.

In recent weeks, there have been a lot of changes at these clubs, but some things never change. The loss experience, bonkerdom, the absurd high of winning, and the awful low of losing.

Alexander Zverev was defeated by a brutal Jannik Sinner in the Paris Masters final, bringing one win away from regaining the top spot in the world.

World number three Zverev, who was listless throughout, won by Italy’s Sinner 6 to win 6-1.

Sinner, the champion of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, has won 25 straight games on indoor hard courts.

In the Sunday final, he will face Felix Auger-Aliassime, who will succeed Carlos Alcaraz in the top spot.

The 24-year-old said, “I’m very happy for Felix because he’s one of the nicest guys we have on tour.”

Zverev looked worn out from the start despite saving two match points in the lengthy quarter-final defeat of Daniil Medvedev on Friday.

Within 30 minutes, he lost the opening set, didn’t hold serve until the first game of the second, and had to save a break point as a result.

Sinner, however, was unstoppable, hitting eight aces and winning 90% of first-serve points without a single break point.

When he faces Auger-Aliassime, who defeated Alexander Bublik 7-6 (7-3) 6-4, he will compete for a fifth title of the year.

On the opening day of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina won the match-opening match.

Madison Keys, the reigning Wimbledon champion, defeated in 6-1, 6-2, to defeat reigning champion Swiatek in the season-ending Finals.

In the other match of the Serena Williams Group on Saturday, Kazakhstan’s sixth seed Rybakina defeated fourth seed Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-1. The pair battled for only 57 minutes on the court.

After Keys’ error-filled debut, which was her first match since losing in the US Open’s first round in August, victory never looked in doubt for 2023 winner Swiatek.

Swiatek, the second-ranked player, broke the American’s serve at first chance, helped by two double errors, and did not relent. By the time Keys reached a 5-0 lead, she had only collected three points.

With just one winner and 15 unforced errors in the 23-minute first set, Keys, who finally won her first major title in January, held serve at the third attempt to temporarily halt Swiatek’s progress.

Swiatek, a six-time major winner, maintained her momentum with a break in set two before a poor focus in set three gave Keys a chance to regain her composure.

However, Keys’ two more double errors gave her opponent the lead, and Swiatek won five of the final six games to seal an unavoidable victory.

In a clinical display of serve, Rybakina hit seven aces and won 87% of her points in her first serve.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion beat Wimbledon’s and US Open’s runner-up Anisimova to earn four of her five break point victories.

Rybakina, who won the Ningbo Open in October to place her in the Finals, is the player with the most WTA-level victories since the US Open’s conclusion.

In her follow-up interview, Rybakina stated, “I knew I needed to serve well. I’m very pleased with my performance, and I’m hoping to keep doing so all week.

Two groups of four compete in a round-robin format, with three points awarded for each victory.

The group’s top two players or doubles pairs advance to the knockout stage. The head-to-head winner advances if the rivals are tied.

Aryna Sabalenka, the 2024 champion and French Open champion, Jessica Pegula, and Jasmine Paolini are the top seeds in the Stefanie Graf Group, which will take center stage on Sunday.

Quilter Nations Series

England (10) 25

Earl, Pollock, Mitchell, Cowan-Dickie Cons: Ford Pen: Ford.

Australia (7) 7

England defeated Australia in their final test match against Australia thanks to efforts from warp-speed backrowers Ben Earl and Henry Pollock.

England retaliated with a performance at Allianz Stadium Twickenham that was heavy on perspiration, albeit a little weak on cohesion, after the Wallabies last year outlasted a 10-try classic.

After Harry Potter’s breakaway try gave them a lifeline to the game, Australia were only three points clear at the break.

However, England’s cushion was restored just before the hour when a snipe from Alex Mitchell and a rolling maul by Luke Cowan-Dickie ensured they could survive the final stages comfortably.

Match 2 of 3 of the Rugby League Ashes

England (4) 4

Goals: Smith (2)

Australia (4) 14

The wait is getting longer. Another gallant English failure. Australia’s influence continued.

The Kangaroos won their 14th series win, an Ashes run that started 52 years ago, with a 14-4 victory in the second Test on Saturday.

In order to complete a 3-0 series whitewash, Australia, like in 2003, attempt to play a sold-out third Test at Headingley in Leeds next week as a dead rubber.

However, this performance was more appropriate for a Shaun Wane side after being brutally beaten by Kevin Walters’ team at Wembley a week ago.

After failing to “show up” for the first Test, the England head coach had promised his team would provide a better account of themselves, and they came out on top.

After Nathan Cleary and Harry Smith exchanged penalties, they enjoyed the better of the first period, but the scoreboard displayed four points each instead of their territorial dominance.

England’s issue was that they couldn’t break through an Australian defence, which was as good as it could get.

There were some promising moments, with Morgan Knowles knocking on the ball before grounding it under the sticks before Dom Young was fingernail-struck from a Herbie Farnworth grubber kick to start the corner.

However, the tourists blew the game away in four second-half minutes.

Cameron Munster twisted away from a George Williams tackle to score on the next Australia set, and a shocking error was made on the left of England.

And with the match clearly in full swing, Australia received yet another error.

Canberra Raiders second row Hudson Young was able to collect the loose ball when Cleary’s booming kick ricocheted out of Tom Johnstone’s hands.

With just three minutes left in the game, a major conflict between a number of players caused the frenetic opening, with Tino Fa’asuamaleaui of England and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui of Australia receiving punishment for their actions.

And that set the tone for a more assertive and aggressive England display than at Wembley.

Some of the scruffiness in England’s sets was exacerbated by Smith’s inclusion due to his notable game management skills, and debutant AJ Brimson justified his inclusion at full-back.

Despite England’s excellent work, they were unable to reclaim the win and, even when Australia’s full-back Reece Walsh was sin-binned in the second half, frustratingly for Wane and his team on the sidelines, they were unable to find a way back into the game.

England: AJ Brimson, Dom Young, Herbie Farnworth, Jake Wardle, Tom Johnstone, George Williams (capt), Harry Smith, Mike McMeeken, Jez Litten, Matty Lees, Kai Pearce-Paul, Kallum Watkins, Morgan Knowles, and Dom Young.

Mikey Lewis, Alex Walmsley, Morgan Smithies, and Mikolaj Oledzki make changes.

Walsh, Nawaqanitawase, Staggs, Shibasaki, Addo-Carr, Munster, Cleary, Collins, Grant, Fa’asuamaleaui, Crichton, Young, Carrigan, and Walsh are Australia’s speakers.