Olympique Lyonnais which lost again in Ligue 1, Italy which won the second Davis Cup in its history against Australia, the American queen of alpine skiing Mikaela Shiffrin who pushed back her record with a 90th slalom victory in World Cup… A look back at the weekend’s sports news.
The sporting events that should not be missed, the summary of the five major football championships and the image of the weekend… Here is the France 24 sports recap.
Italy beats Australia and wins the Davis Cup: Led by Jannik Sinner, impressive mastery, Italy won the second Davis Cup in its history by dominating Australia (2-0) on Sunday in Malaga thanks to two singles victories. Forty-seven years after their first victory in the competition in 1976, the Italians were once again able to brandish the “Silver Salad Bowl”, carried by their best player who flew through the week.
Mikaela Shiffrin improves her own World Cup winning record: The American queen of alpine skiing won the Killington slalom in the United States on Sunday, her 90th World Cup victory – a record. At 28, the five-time winner of the overall World Cup rankings beat her Slovak rival Petra Vlhova and Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener. Last season, Mikaela Shiffrin broke Swede Ingemar Stenmark’s record for victories on the world circuit (86); she continues to improve this brand by heading towards 100 successes.
Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen concludes his season in style: the end of an extraordinary year punctuated by a 19th victory. Triple world champion Max Verstappen won in Abu Dhabi the last Grand Prix of a Formula 1 season that he flew through at the wheel of his powerful Red Bull. On the Yas Marina circuit, the Dutchman became the first driver to exceed the mark of 1,000 laps driven in a season. A statistic that is certainly anecdotal, but which says a lot about the pilot’s season. “It’s been an incredible season,” reacted Max Verstappen after the race.
Victor Wembanyama performs with the Spurs but his team loses again: Victor Wembanyama managed a complete match against Denver on Sunday, without being able to prevent a new defeat for the San Antonio Spurs (132-120) in the NBA. The French prodigy shone with 22 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 blocks and 6 steals in 24 minutes. But the Texans, the youngest squad in the NBA, suffered a 12th consecutive defeat, and remain in last place in the Western Conference (3 wins, 14 losses). They haven’t won since November 2 in Phoenix.
Italian Francesco Bagnaia new world champion in MotoGP: the Ducati team rider won the Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday, the last round of the MotoGP season, and won his second consecutive world title. The Turinese, who was ahead of his rival Jorge Martin by 14 lengths before the race, finally finished the season with 39 points ahead of his first pursuer after having won seven Grand Prix victories and four sprint successes.
Lyon is stuck at the bottom of the ranking, Nice keeps pace with PSG
At the end of the 13th day, Olympique Lyonnais is the only club to have won only one match in Ligue 1. OL continues its path of the cross in the French championship with a seventh defeat against Lille (0-2), Sunday, at home. In the space of five minutes (27th, 32nd), Losc took a definitive lead against the uninspired Lyonnais.
Lille is in 4th place, a short distance from Monaco, and Lyon remains last, two points behind Clermont and five behind the first non-relegation places (Montpellier and Toulouse).
At the top of the ranking, OGC Nice continues to impress and keeps pace with PSG. The Niçois won on Sunday by the smallest of margins against Toulouse (1-0) and consolidated their second place in the standings, coming within a small point of the Parisians.
Without being spectacular, the Aiglons are the only ones to keep pace with the capital club, despite only 14 goals scored. The key ingredient of OGC Nice remains its defensive rigor, with only four goals conceded this season.
Manchester City hung by Liverpool at home, Arsenal takes advantage
Manchester City lost its omnipotence at home on Saturday against Liverpool (1-1), at the same time as its first place in the Premier League, recovered by Arsenal after a late victory at Brentford (0-1).
The crossover at the top of the most followed championship in the world keeps the suspense at its peak. The Gunners are one step ahead of the Citizens and two ahead of Liverpool.
Mikel Arteta’s team went through a hole on Saturday at the Brentford “Bees”, defeated in the 89th minute by a header from incoming Kai Havertz, scorer of only his second goal in twenty matches since his arrival this summer. The game could have gone the other way without saves from Declan Rice (14th) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (77th), who came to the rescue to replace replacement goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who was often feverish.
Arsenal therefore managed to convert, even with difficulty and late, the decisive pass that Liverpool had made to them earlier by slowing down Manchester City.
Jürgen Klopp and his Reds have failed to achieve the success that has eluded them at the Etihad Stadium since November 2015, but they have locked City’s number of consecutive victories at their fortress to 23, already a small victory in itself. The three-time reigning English champion had, in fact, not dropped a single point – in all competitions – since December 31, 2022 and the arrival of Everton (1-1), the other Liverpool team.
An Inter-Juventus shock which results in a draw for the 250th “Italian derby”
The 250th edition of the “Italian derby” did not find a winner on Sunday during the 13th day of Serie A, but Inter Milan – leader with 32 points – did well by obtaining a draw (1- 1) on the field of Juventus Turin – second with 30 points.
“The glass is half full,” assured Juve captain Adrien Rabiot. “It’s never easy to score against this defense after conceding a goal, we’re happy to take this point,” added Simone Inzaghi, Inter coach.
For both teams, this draw is welcomed as a good result.
Juve can, however, bite their fingers for not having maintained their advantage. The Turinese opened the scoring after a superb movement between Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa (27th). But the Milan leader only took six minutes to react and equalize on a cross from Marcus Thuram victoriously taken by Lautaro Martinez (33rd).
After a spectacular first period, both teams dropped their pace after the locker room and created no real chances.
Real takes temporary lead ahead of Girona match
Carried by its Brazilian striker Rodrygo, author of a double and an assist, Real Madrid won Sunday without forcing in Cadiz (0-3) to provisionally overtake Girona at the top of the Spanish championship during the 14th day of La Liga. The Madrilenians are one point ahead of the Catalans, who host Athletic Bilbao on Monday evening to try to regain their first place.
The Madrilenians are taking advantage of Barça’s new misstep, who could not do better than a draw on the lawn of Rayo Vallecano (1-1) on Saturday, to push the Blaugrana (4th, 31 points) four lengths behind.
In a contested and rather balanced first half, Real initially trembled against the enterprising Andalusians who created the best chances. But despite numerous injuries – Vinicius, Camavinga, Tchouaméni – Madrid responded with composure. Rodrygo scored a second double in two days (15th, 65th), to which must be added an assist for Bellingham (74th).
This is the 11th achievement in La Liga for the English prodigy, still top scorer in the championship, and who has now scored 14 goals in 15 matches in all competitions this season, as much as his total at Dortmund over the whole of last season.
Leverkusen and Bayern are running a hell of a pace
After Bayern Munich’s victory on Friday in Cologne (0-1), Bayer Leverkusen responded to the Munich on Saturday by winning on the pitch at Werder Bremen (0-3), and thus keeps the lead in the championship after twelve days.
The duo at the top of the Bundesliga are running like crazy: Leverkusen has only given up two points (a 2-2 draw in Munich in mid-September) since the start of the season and has 34 points out of a possible 36 , two more than the Munich team (32) who, in addition to the draw against Leverkusen, conceded a draw against Leipzig (2-2).
Stuttgart (27 points) maintains its third place and its seven points behind Leverkusen, after its victory (1-2) in Frankfurt. Behind the Swabian club, Borussia Dortmund beat Mönchengladbach (4-2) and has 24 points in 4th place.
Bayer Leverkusen players gave a nice birthday present this weekend to their coach Xabi Alonso, who celebrated his 42nd birthday at the Weserstadion. His team equals the best Bundesliga start of Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich during the 2015-2016 season.
Reigning world champion and third in the triathlon test event on the Olympic course, Dorian Coninx will approach the Games at home with confidence. Meeting with a French triathlete full of confidence, before one of the most important seasons of his career.
Dorian Coninx is preselected for the Paris Olympics triathlon. © AFP, France Médias Monde Graphic Studio Mikaela Shiffrin scored a record 90th victory during the slalom race in Killington, Vermont, on November 26, 2023. © Sean M. Haffey, Getty Images via AFP
