Liverpool and Man City draw 1‑1 in thrilling Premier League clash at Anfield
Liverpool fought back to draw 1‐ 1 with Manchester City on Sun‐ day in the last Premier League clash between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola before the German coach steps down at the end of the season.
Alexis Mac Allister struck a 50th‐minute penalty to cancel out John Stones' first‐half strike at Anfield.
The draw kept second‐place Liverpool one point ahead of de‐ fending champion City in third and behind leader Arsenal on goal difference. Arsenal moved top after a 2‐1 win against Brentford on Saturday.
There has been little to separate Klopp and Guardiola in one of English soccer's most enduring ri‐ valries and that theme continued in this latest thrilling encounter.
Klopp has announced this will be his final season with the Merseyside club and is aiming to go out in style by winning a sec‐ ond league title and potentially a quadruple of trophies.
A win on Sunday would have given Liverpool a four‐point ad‐ vantage over City.
But it looked like Guardiola might secure only his second win against Klopp at Anfield after Stones converted from Kevin De Bruyne's corner in the 23rd.
Mac Allister equalized five min‐ utes into the second half after City goalkeeper Ederson brought down Darwin Nunez in the box.
Chances came and went at both ends with Luis Diaz missing a one‐on‐one and City's Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku both hitting the woodwork.
Lecce coach Roberto D'Aversa appears to head butt Verona striker Thomas Henry after Serie A game
Lecce coach Roberto D'Aversa appeared to head butt Hellas Verona striker Thomas Henry fol‐ lowing a heated matchup be‐ tween two teams just above the relegation zone in Serie A on Sun‐ day.
Henry was arguing with Lecce defender Marin Pongracic after the final whistle when D'Aversa went over to intervene and in‐ stead ended up knocking Henry over with an apparent head butt directly in front of one of the match officials.
"Next Saturday we have another big match (against Salernitana) and I didn't want my players to be banned," D'Aversa said. "So I went out to try and separate them from the opponents and then the incident with Henry happened.
Both D'Aversa and Henry were sent off.
While replays appeared to show that it was indeed a head butt, D'Aversa later said on Instagram that it wasn't.
"I was wrong and I apologize," D'Aversa said in his social media post. "I got carried away and lost lucidness, but not to the point of hitting another person. … Once again I apologize to Henry, to the Lecce, Verona and Italian fans, to
the referees, to the two clubs, to my management, my staff and my team."
Michael Folorunsho scored early in the first half for Verona, which won 1‐0 to move up to 13th place, two points above the drop zone. Lecce dropped one point behind in 15th.
Lecce said in a statement on its website that it "firmly disap‐ proves" what its coach did since it "goes against the principles and values of sports."
French league leader PSG draws again as Kylian Mbappé is left on the bench once more
French league leader Paris Saint‐Germain drew 2‐2 at home to Reims on Sunday as Kylian Mbappé was left on the bench for the second straight league game.
It was defending champion PSG's third straight league draw and the attack looked tame with‐ out him. Mbappé came on in the
73rd minute with the score 2‐2, but could not add to his league‐ leading 21 goals.
He curled a shot just wide soon after, missed the ball attempting a bicycle kick and looked frus‐ trated after shooting straight at the goalkeeper from 20 meters out. PSG is 10 points clear of sec‐ ond‐place Brest with nine games remaining.
Mbappé scored both goals on Tuesday as PSG beat Real So‐ ciedad 2‐1 to reach the Champi‐ ons League quarterfinals. But coach Luis Enrique is rotating his players to prepare for next sea‐ son without Mbappé, who is leav‐ ing this summer.
Enrique said he is not taking it easy because of PSG's lead.
Reims took the lead after seven minutes following a defensive blunder from right back Achraf Hakimi, who lost the ball in the penalty area allowing midfielder Marshall Munetsi to score.