Category World News

Erling Haaland scored his 34th goal for club and country this season to give Manchester City a 2-1 win at Real Madrid and leave Xabi Alonso’s position as coach of the Spanish giants in grave danger.

Without injured superstar Kylian Mbappe, Madrid took the lead on Wednesday through Rodrygo, but Nico O’Reilly and a Haaland penalty secured Pep Guardiola’s City the three points.

Spanish media reported in the lead-up to the game that a defeat would seal Alonso’s fate as Madrid coach, although his team’s performance was creditable, despite the eventual outcome at a frustrated Bernabeu stadium.

The record 15-time Champions League winners have now won just two of their last eight matches across all competitions, and face a battle for a place in the top eight of the league phase table.

Alonso was forced to leave his team’s top scorer, Mbappe, on the bench, saying it would have been “a risk” to use him amid knee discomfort, and starting 21-year-old striker Gonzalo Garcia instead.

Madrid knocked out City in last season’s Champions League playoff round in February, as Mbappe scored four of their goals in the 6-3 aggregate win.

This was the 15th meeting between these sides, in what has become a modern Champions League classic, and it started at lightning speed, with Vinicius Junior heavily involved in the opening exchanges.

Madrid’s Brazilian forward was felled by Matheus Nunes with the referee pointing to the spot, but a VAR review showed the contact was outside the area.

Fede Valverde’s ferocious free kick was deflected wide by O’Reilly, before Vinicius dinked just wide of goal after Rodrygo found him with a perfect low cross, which coaxed City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma off his line.

It was deserved when the hosts took the lead in the 28th minute, with Rodrygo finishing a move started by Alvaro Carreras at the other end of the pitch.

Madrid broke forward, and Jude Bellingham fed the Brazilian, who finished early and low, across Donnarumma and into the far corner.

It was his first goal in 33 games, ending a barren and frustrating spell for Rodrygo, and also his fifth against City. In 2022, his stunning late brace helped Madrid defeat Guardiola’s side in the semifinals.

Madrid’s opening half-hour was close to perfect, but City pulled level out of the blue after a mistake from Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

The keeper could not hold on to Josko Gvardiol’s header, and O’Reilly gratefully tapped home the loose ball in the 35th minute.

Guardiola was not pleased with his team’s first-half display, but they went in ahead after Antonio Rudiger held Haaland in the back, and City were awarded a penalty.

The Norwegian striker, who will face Mbappe’s France at the World Cup next summer, sent Courtois the wrong way from the spot.

Courtois made amends for his earlier error with a fine double save to thwart Haaland and Rayan Cherki before the break, and Jeremy Doku after it.

England international Bellingham might have levelled for Madrid, but chipped over after Rodrygo cleverly slipped him in.

Alonso brought on Arda Guler for Garcia and shifted Bellingham into a central attacking role, of the kind he enjoyed under Carlo Ancelotti in his spectacular first season with Madrid.

The Basque coach also turned to youngster Endrick, whom he has hardly utilised at all since arriving, and the 19-year-old headed inches over the crossbar with five minutes to go.

Madrid were short of ideas in the second half and may look to another coach for new ones in the coming days

Haaland told TNT Sports that it was a tough place to come and get a result.

“We had lots of chances, but the game was chaotic, and we struggled to control it,” he said. “These are the games you want to play, and with this new format, you get to play more UCL games. I like it.”

Guardiola said his side is still in transition and is not yet equipped to win the Champions League.

“In February, we will be much better, but one wrong pass and we lose today,” he said.

“The players made an incredible effort, and the spirit is unbelievable, but there is still some way to go.”

Bellingham defended Alonso after the game, saying he has a “great relationship” with the Madrid boss.

“After a run of draws, we thought we would go on a run after that, but we know we need to pick up again and take it on the chin,” Bellingham said.

United States Congressman Randy Fine, an ally of President Donald Trump, has suggested that the Palestinian people should be destroyed, boasting that he is not afraid to be called Islamophobic.

During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Fine – who has a long history of Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian statements – cited the myth that Israelis are banned from going to some areas in the occupied West Bank due to “apartheid” imposed against Israeli settlers.

In reality, the Israeli military, which controls the Palestinian territory, has signs warning settlers against entering Palestinian towns for safety concerns.

But settlers, often armed and protected by Israeli forces, regularly storm and ransack Palestinian villages. At least two US citizens have been killed in settler attacks this year.

“When you are dealing with a group of people who continually call for the destruction of the State of Israel, who are OK with signs that say, ‘Jews may not enter these areas’, we want to be free of Jews, how do you make peace with that?” Fine asked Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, during the hearing.

“How do you create a long-term solution with that? Or is there another way that we have to go?”

Klein – who previously used the slur “filthy Arab” and called for profiling Muslims in the US – said Islam needs to undergo a “reformation” and accept “Israel as a Jewish state”.

“Nobody wants to talk about it. They’re afraid of being called Islamophobic,” Klein said.

Fine interrupted, saying, “I’m not afraid of that.”

The Republican US congressman, who represents a district in the state of Florida, then doubled down on his volatile rhetoric.

“I don’t know how you make peace with those who seek your destruction. I think you destroy them first,” he said.

A United Nations convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, including killing, causing harm, preventing births, forcibly transferring children, and imposing life conditions to cause destruction”.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 70,400 Palestinians and turned nearly the entire territory into rubble, aimed to destroy the Palestinian people, leading rights groups and UN investigators have said.

Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), slammed Fine, calling him “the Temu version of Benjamin Netanyahu,” referring to the discount online retailer and the Israeli prime minister.

“He’s hated by Republicans and Democrats for his policy of Israel first, Israel second, Israel third — Americans nowhere. He’s basically a foreign spokesperson at this point, and not even a good one,” Ayoub told Al Jazeera.

“His unhinged, genocidal rhetoric shows his desperation as he tries to appease his bosses back in Tel Aviv.”

This isn’t the first time that Fine – who was elected to Congress earlier this year with the endorsements of Trump and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – has made inflammatory statements about Palestinians.

In 2021, Fine commented on a social post with a photo of a dead Palestinian child asking him how he sleeps at night with: “Quite well, actually! Thanks for the pic!”

Earlier this year, he wrote “starve away” in response to a report about the deadly hunger in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade.

Last year, Fine lauded the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US activist who was fatally shot by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.

“Throw rocks, get shot. One less #MuslimTerror ist. #FireAway,” Fine wrote in a social media post.

He has also previously argued that fear of Muslims is warranted. “While many Muslims are not terrorists, they are the radicals, not the mainstream,” he wrote in a post on X in 2023. “Now is the time to speak truth, not bathe in political correctness that will kill us.”

Despite such comments, Fine – who refers to himself as the Hebrew Hammer – has been a regular guest on some mainstream media outlets, including CNN.

Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), called out Republicans in Congress and Trump for failing to denounce Fine.

“It’s one thing to read disgusting, racist, anti-Palestinian, anti-Black, and xenophobic vile on social media 24-7, but we’re not supposed to hear it from actual elected officials in this country,” Abudayyeh told Al Jazeera.

Right-wing opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was missing from the ceremony awarding her this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. She’s been in hiding for the past year since she accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of rigging the July 2024 election.

About 200,000 people have fled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels surged into the strategic city of Uvira Wednesday, killing at least 74 people and threatening a US-led peace deal signed days earlier.