PSG need late penalty to scrape past Angers
PARIS, Oct 16, (AP): Runaway French leaders Paris SaintGermain needed a late penalty from striker Kylian Mbappe to come from behind and scrape a 2-1 win against Angers.
PSG won their opening eight games but was soundly beaten by Rennes in their last game and looked out of sorts again without managing a shot on target in the first half.
PSG have needed injury-time goals despite an armada of attacking talent and a huge squad, and produced another late winner at home. Mbappe slotted in from the spot in the 87th minute after midfielder Pierrick Capelle was adjudged to have handled the ball even though PSG striker Mauro Icardi appeared to knock him off balance when he handled.
After a video review, Mbappe sent goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni the wrong way.
Mbappe set up the equalizer in the 69th when midfielder Danilo Pereira headed in his cross.
Angers were unlucky to lose considering it played better in the first half and took the lead in the 36th when Angelo Fulgini turned in fellow midfielder Sofiane Boufal’s low cross from the right.
PSG were without their contingent of Argentina and Brazil players such as Lionel Messi and Neymar because of World Cup qualifiers.
The six-nation Nordic group of European soccer federations detailed their oppositionto FIFA’s push to stage the World Cup every two years.
Increasing the number of World Cups would “cannibalize” existing competitions, make European Championships “obsolete” and marginalize women’s tournaments, the federations wrote in a co-signed statement.
“It (the FIFA proposal) can fundamentally make it impossible to continue with our current model of national tournaments and national team matches,” said the statement, which was released after a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Nordic opposition wasn’t unexpected with influential officials from the region working at European governing body UEFA, which has called for “proper consultation” before a decision is made. Karl-Erik Nilsson of Sweden is UEFA’s first vice president and Danish soccer president Jesper Møller is a UEFA executive committee member.
Still, most of the Nordics meet FIFA’s target market of national teams which typically are not at the World Cup and might vote to get twice as many chances to qualify.
Finland and the Faeroe Islands have never qualified, Iceland’s appearance in 2018 was its first and Norway has not played at the World Cup since 1998.
The former president of Spanish club Barcelona denied accusations by the current leadership that his board had left the team on the brink of bankruptcy because of poor management.
SOCCER
Josep Bartomeu said that most of the club’s financial woes had been caused by the impact of the pandemic, which closed down Camp Nou for more than a year and reduced other sources of revenue.
“There was no mismanagement, we did not leave a poor legacy,” Bartomeu told three Barcelonabased sports papers in a joint interview. “The club is viable, it has many resources to get out of this problem, and without the pandemic it would have only had 50 million euros ($58 million) in losses in 2020-21.”