International Football
La Liga Title Race On Fast Lane
Sergio Ramos, skipper of Real Madrid is dismissing insinuations by Barcelona’s Gerard Pique that the league leaders are getting preferential treatment from Spanish referees.
Real Madrid will host Las Palmas in Tuesday’s La Liga while Barcelona, a point behind in second place, are at home to Sporting.
Chasing their first La Liga crown since 2012, Real Madrid are top after a Sunday that saw each of the rivals get late wins. Barca had moved top thanks to a late strike from Lionel Messi in their 2-1 victory at Atletico Madrid.
Real then moved back into first place after a 3-2 come-from-behind win at Villarreal. Cristiano Ronaldo converted a disputed penalty to equalise after Villarreal captain, Bruno Soriano handled following a ricochet in the area.
Villarreal coach Fran Escriba and substitute Roberto Soldado were both sent off from the dugout for protesting the decision.
Alvaro Morata then scored the winner in the 83rd minute.
Afterwards, Pique tweeted examples reported by the Spanish press that refereeing decisions were going in the league leaders’ favour and against his own team.
“I don’t believe that the referees attempt to give or take anything away from you, quite the opposite, they try to be fair,” Ramos told his club’s website.
Real gave away two early goals in a midweek defeat to Valencia.
“We’re focused on continuing to improve,” Ramos said. “We want to keep picking up three points in order to win the title.”
Las Palmas forward Jese Rodriguez will face his former club less than six months after leaving Real Madrid to join Paris St Germain.
He has not scored since joining Las Palmas on loan on January 31 and his side have lost all four games since his arrival.
Barcelona host coach Luis Enrique’s hometown club without the services of defender Mathieu, who sustained a sprained ankle against Atletico.
The defending champions have Messi in top form, with the Argentine forward having scored in his team’s last four league games. He has a league-best 20 goals.
Barcelona captain Andres Iniesta says the aim right now is to play well and keep the pressure on the leaders.
“We need to keep on winning for when they (Real) make mistakes,” Iniesta told reporters on Monday. “It’s good for them to notice that we are right there.
Opponents Sporting are in the relegation zone with 17 points from 24 games.
Third-place Sevilla are two points adrift of Barcelona and host Athletic Bilbao on Thursday.
A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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Nigeria’s Super Eagles were held to a 2-2 draw by FIFA World Cup-bound Jordan in an eventful international friendly in Antalya on Tuesday night, with the contest overshadowed by a late red card to Alex Iwobi.
Iwobi, making his 98th appearance for the national team, was sent off in the closing stages, capping a dramatic encounter in which Nigeria surrendered a first-half lead and finished the game with ten men.
The match, played at the Mardan Sports Complex, brought Nigeria’s March international window to a close, but it proved anything but routine as both sides delivered a fiercely contested and entertaining clash.
Jordan, ranked 64th in the world and enjoying strong recent form, struck first in the 17th minute through Mousa Tamari. A well-worked free-kick routine caught the Nigerian defence napping, allowing the forward to fire home the opener.
Nigeria responded quickly and thought they had equalised six minutes later when Raphael Onyedika finished from a Moses Simon cut-back, but the goal was controversially ruled out.
The Super Eagles eventually drew level in the 30th minute. Stand-in captain Moses Simon, earning his 97th cap, reacted fastest after Ademola Lookman’s effort was blocked, slotting home with a composed left-footed finish for his second goal in as many matches.
Nigeria went ahead four minutes before halftime when Bright Osayi-Samuel’s pinpoint cross found debutant Emmanuel Fernandez, who showed great composure to control and finish, giving the three-time African champions a 2-1 lead at the interval.
The second half took on a more physical tone, with goalkeeper Francis Uzoho forced off in the 57th minute after sustaining an injury while clearing the ball. Adebayo Adeleye replaced him between the posts.
Head coach Eric Chelle introduced Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi to shore up the midfield, but Jordan continued to press and were rewarded with an equaliser in the 77th minute.
Nigeria pushed for a winner late on, handing a senior debut to Philip Otele, while Samuel Chukwueze came on for Moses Simon. However, the closing moments were marred by Iwobi’s dismissal, leaving the Super Eagles to see out the match with ten men.
Despite the draw, the encounter offered valuable insights for the coaching crew as Nigeria continues preparations for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
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