Category sport-news

English champions Chelsea thrashed Paris FC 4-0 in the second match day of the women’s Champions League on Wednesday.

Sandy Baltimore, from the penalty spot, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Alyssa Thompson and Erin Cuthbert were all on target for the London side.

Two-time women’s Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas hit a 71st-minute penalty to help Barcelona to a 4-0 victory over Roma.

Esmee Brugts opened the scoring in the second minute, with Kika Nazareth extending the lead before Putellas got her name on the scoreboard before Caroline Graham Hansen’s coup de grace on the whistle.

Record eight-time champions Lyon notched up a 3-0 victory over St Polten of Austria.

READ ALSO: Chelsea’s Maresca Banned For Forest Match After Wild Celebration

Germany’s Jule Brand and Lily Yohannes both scored maiden goals for the French side.

Those goals came either side of one from Norway’s Ada Hegerberg, the all-time UEFA club competition top scorer who now has 67 goals in 77 appearances and in 12 different seasons in the UEFA women’s Champions League.

And two-time championship winners Wolfsburg claimed a 2-1 victory over Norwegian side Valerenga.

The Germans took the lead through Lineth Beerensteyn, quickly nullified by Sara Horte. Janina Minge kept her cool with a penalty in the eighth minute of extra-time to seal victory on the road.

The final game of the evening saw a Linde Veefkind penalty in the 83rd minute seemingly salvage Belgian team Leuven a 1-1 draw with Dutch outfit Twente, for whom Jaimy Ravensbergen scored.

But there was similar late drama as midfielder Sara Pusztai struck six minutes into injury time to hand Leuven a 2-1 win.

For the first time this season, the women’s Champions League has 18 participating teams, playing six games each against different opponents in a league phase.

Only the top four qualify directly for the quarter-finals, with sides ranked fifth to 12th involved in a play-off to join them in the last eight.

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca was given a one-match touchline ban on Wednesday for dissent and over-celebrating a last-gasp goal in a 2-1 Premier League win over Liverpool on October 4.

The Italian will now be banned from the touchline for Chelsea’s match away to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday.

He has also been fined £8,000 ($10,685) and the Football Association said Maresca openly admitted the misconduct charge.

READ ALSO: Estevao Scores Late As Chelsea Hand Liverpool Third Consecutive Loss

He was given a yellow card for railing against a penalty decision and picked up a second one in the sixth minute of stoppage time for wildly celebrating Estevao Willian’s angled winner during a desperate onslaught.

Chelsea had lost their previous two matches before tackling Liverpool at home, and the win lifted them to sixth place at that time as under-fire Maresca avoided a third successive league defeat.

Ahmedabad, India, has been recommended as the host city for the 2030 Commonwealth Games. Commonwealth Sport announced on Wednesday that the Indian city has been chosen ahead of a rival bid from Abuja in Nigeria, to host the event, which will be the Commonwealth Games’ centenary.

It is the second time in 20 years that the event will have been held in the world’s most populous nation.

The city of Ahmedabad in the west of the country has been chosen ahead of Abuja in Nigeria by an evaluation commission from governing body Commonwealth Sport.

The decision to hold the games there in five years time is now expected to be ratified at the organisation’s General Assembly in Glasgow on November 26.

READ ALSO: Hosting Commonwealth Games Is A Dream That Must Be Realised – Tinubu

Ahmedabad can boast the Narendra Modi Stadium – the largest in the world, with a capacity of 132,000 – which hosted the Cricket World Cup final in 2023.

The city has a population in excess of five million people, and has even been suggested as a potential bidder to host a future Olympic Games.

“We see the 2030 Games as a powerful opportunity to inspire our youth, strengthen international partnerships and contribute to a shared future across the Commonwealth,” said Dr. P T Usha, president of Commonwealth Games Association India.

The Games first visited India in 2010 when Delhi hosted.

Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong signed a new deal until 2029, the Spanish champions announced Wednesday.

The 28-year-old Dutch international joined Barcelona from Ajax in 2019 and is in his seventh season with the Catalan giants, winning two La Liga titles and the Copa del Rey twice.

“Barca are confident that the midfielder can be a pivotal part of the current sporting project due to his quality and experience,” said the club in a statement.

READ ALSO: Yamal Injury Complicated, Return Date Uncertain, Says Barca Coach 

De Jong has struggled for form at times but became a key part of the midfield under Hansi Flick last season alongside Pedri Gonzalez.

“I always dreamed of playing for Barca, and now that I am living the dream I have always had since I was a child, I want to continue pursuing this dream for many more years, and I am eager to win titles,” De Jong told a news conference.

Arriving under previous Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu, De Jong is one of the club’s highest earners, with Spanish media reporting he has accepted a pay cut in his new deal starting from the 2026/27 season.

De Jong said previous media reports over his salary were exaggerated and had affected how he was viewed by fans.

“I will not tell you what I will earn, they’ve always talked about it a lot but I think that numbers regarding what I earned before have been exaggerated a lot,” he explained.

“I think that has affected a bit how people see me, because if they read in newspapers that Frenkie earns this, that he’s the player who earns the most money in Europe… it has an impact.”

Barcelona tried to sell De Jong in 2022 as part of cost-cutting measures but the midfielder dug in to stay at the club for whom he has made over 250 appearances.

“I don’t feel under-valued by my team-mates, coaches or within the club, that’s more (a media) thing,” added De Jong.

“That’s the beauty of football, everyone can have their opinion.”

Naomi Osaka battled through injury and her emotions to reach the quarter-finals of the Japan Open on Wednesday, choking back tears after hitting the winning shot against defending champion Suzan Lamens.

Top seed Osaka, playing a singles tournament in her native Japan for the first time in three years, won 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-2 to set up a last-eight match against Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian.

“Emotionally I was going through a lot in this match,” said Osaka.

“And then in the third set I tried my best to have no regrets.”

The former world number one was leading 5-0 in the final set in the city of Osaka when she needed a medical timeout to receive treatment on her left leg.

She returned with heavy strapping on her thigh and lost the next two games before closing out the match in 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka hit a backhand winner and then bent over and put her hand to her face before walking to the net appearing to fight back tears.

Osaka said she had taken painkillers but admitted that her injury “doesn’t feel good”.

“I couldn’t really move that well,” she said.

“It’s not good, but I think I’m a fast healer so it should be OK for my next match.”

The 27-year-old is playing in her first tournament since reaching the US Open semi-finals, where she lost to Amanda Anisimova of the United States.

Osaka had not progressed to the second week of a major since winning the Australian Open for a second time in 2021.

She is now ranked 16 in the world.