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Max Verstappen on pole in Jeddah as Lando Norris crashes in qualifying

JEDDAH: World champion Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in track-record time on Saturday as McLaren’s Formula One leader Lando Norris hit the wall and qualified 10th. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, bidding to become the first Australian to lead the standings since Mark Webber in 2010, joined the four-times world champion on the front row for Sunday’s night race. Mercedes’s George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will share the second row in third and fourth at the super-fast Corniche circuit where the winner has come from pole three out of four times previously. “The car came alive in the night,” exclaimed Verstappen after pipping Piastri by a mere 0.010 of a second. The pole position changed hands three times in a final flurry of flying laps before the champion settled matters with a time of one minute 27.294 seconds. “I think in the race it will be difficult to keep them behind.

Man City boost top five bid, Southampton snatch late leveller

LONDON: Manchester City bolstered their bid to qualify for the Champions League with a dramatic 2-0 win at Everton, while Southampton’s last-gasp equalizer at West Ham ensured they will not have sole possession of the lowest points total in Premier League history. City were heading toward a damaging draw before Nico O’Reilly’s 84th minute strike put them on course for a vital victory that was sealed by Mateo Kovacic’s goal in the final seconds. Pep Guardiola’s side climb to fourth place, four points ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea, who face Fulham on Sunday in their game in hand. Fifth-placed Nottingham Forest, who travel to Tottenham on Monday, are one point adrift of City. At a stage of the season when they are usually embroiled in a battle to win the title, City — champions in six of the previous seven campaigns — have been reduced to scrapping for a Champions League berth after a dismal season. They remain on course to achieve their bare minimum target after a hard-fought success on Merseyside. In the 84th minute, Matheus Nunes’s low cross into the six-yard box was met by the 20-year-old O’Reilly, who got in front of Michael Keane to poke home from close range. O’Reilly has emerged as an unlikely hero for City after the Manchester-born midfielder scored last week in the win against Crystal Palace and netted twice against Plymouth in the FA Cup. Kovacic wrapped up City’s victory on their last visit to Goodison Park before Everton move to a new stadium next season. The Croatian guided Ilkay Gundogan’s pass into the bottom corner to give City a third win from their last four league games. “To win here at Goodison Park, where Liverpool and Arsenal couldn’t, is massively important,” Guardiola said. “Now it is in our hands.

Morocco U-17 make history after winning their first AFCON title

BEIRUT: Morocco’s U-17 national football team made history on Saturday by winning their first Africa Cup of Nations 2025 title after edging past Mali 4-2 on penalty shootouts. The final match saw little in the way of clear chances, with both sides struggling to break the deadlock throughout 90 minutes of a goalless draw. In the second half, the Atlas Lions increased their tempo, obviously paving their way for a breakthrough, but could not hit the Malian net. With no goals to separate the two, the match went to penalties, where Morocco held their nerve.

PSG beat Le Havre to stay on course for unbeaten Ligue 1 season

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain stayed on course to complete the Ligue 1 season without losing a game as the Champions League semifinalists beat struggling Le Havre 2-1 on Saturday. Desire Doue and Goncalo Ramos scored the goals for PSG either side of half-time at the Parc des Princes, as coach Luis Enrique changed almost his entire starting line-up following the midweek European clash with Aston Villa. PSG had already secured a fourth successive Ligue 1 title before this game, and their 10th consecutive league win leaves them on 77 points with five matches remaining. No side has ever completed an entire French top-flight campaign unbeaten. “We knew this game was a potential banana skin for us after a Champions League match which sucked out all our energy and left us feeling tired,” Luis Enrique said. “All the ingredients were there for this to be a difficult game against a side who were in need of points.” Achraf Hakimi and Bradley Barcola were the only players to keep their place in the PSG line-up at kick-off, following the 3-2 defeat away to Aston Villa which saw them edge through to the last four of the Champions League and a tie against Arsenal. Doue gave PSG the lead inside eight minutes, and Ramos made the most of his chance in the starting line-up by making it 2-0 shortly after half-time with his 15th goal this season. Issa Soumare pulled one back for Le Havre, but the result leaves the Normandy side still in third-bottom spot, the relegation play-off place. If the title race in France is already over, the fight for European qualification behind PSG is intense, with the next six teams separated by only six points. Second-placed Monaco drew 0-0 at home to Strasbourg, who are three points behind them in fifth, on a

Nassr’s title hopes dented by Qadsiah

Al-Nassr lost 2-1 to Al-Qadsiah on Friday in what was a huge blow to their chances of winning the Saudi Pro League title. The defeat means that while the Yellows stay in third and eight points behind the leaders Al-Ittihad, there are now just six games to go. Time and matches are running out.

Treble-chasing Inter sweat over Thuram’s fitness

MILANO: Inter Milan striker Marcus Thuram has a thigh injury, the Serie A leaders said on Friday as they wait to see if he can recover in time for their Coppa Italia semifinal against AC Milan next week. The Frenchman, Inter’s top scorer in Serie A with 14 goals, is likely to miss Sunday’s Serie A match at fifth-placed Bologna, Italian media reported as the club confirmed Thuram underwent medical tests this morning. “The tests revealed fatigue in the adductor muscles of his left thigh.

F1 title fight is increasingly focused on McLaren but Verstappen still hopeful

JEDDAH: Ahead of Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, this Formula 1 season is looking like McLaren vs. McLaren. Still, defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull says he hasn’t lost hope. McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the only ones to consistently have the pace through the first four rounds of the championship. Norris has a three-point lead but admits he isn’t at his best — though he had the fastest time of the day in practice on Friday — while Piastri has momentum after winning in Bahrain last week. Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes have all had their moments but none has been a consistent challenger, as McLaren’s 58-point constructors’ championship lead shows. Friday practice Norris went fastest in the second practice session, while Yuki Tsunoda crashed to continue his difficult start with Red Bull.

Morocco ex-football club chair denies seizing villa in drug case

CASABLANCA: The former president of Morocco’s most successful football club maintained in court Friday that he legally acquired a villa he is accused of seizing from a convicted Malian drug trafficker dubbed the “Escobar of the Sahara.” Said Naciri, who was chairman of Casablanca club Wydad AC and president of the city’s prefectural council, is being tried alongside the head of a regional council in eastern Morocco, Abdennabi Bioui, in a vast drug trafficking case related to the jailed kingpin. Both defendants — former officials of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), a member of the country’s ruling coalition — have been in custody since the end of 2023, and face charges of “possession, marketing, and export of drugs,” as well as corruption and related offenses. Naciri was accused by the Malian trafficker, Ahmed Ben Brahim, of having wrongfully dispossessed him of a villa in an upscale Casablanca neighborhood, one of Naciri’s lawyers told AFP. But Naciri denied the allegation in court on Friday, saying he legally purchased the villa though a real estate company in 2017 before finalizing the acquisition in 2019. “I am taking advantage of my hearing before the court to refute the false allegations being made,” he told the court, presenting documents and testimony that he said supported his version of events. The trial is the first in Morocco to see prominent political figures accused in a drug trafficking case. It opened last May, and involves 25 people alleged to have played roles in the trafficking network of Ben Brahim, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence. Ben Brahim, whose complaint initiated the proceedings against Naciri and Bioui, accuses the pair of helping him smuggle drugs to elsewhere in

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Morocco Sport News

Max Verstappen on pole in Jeddah as Lando Norris crashes in qualifying

Man City boost top five bid, Southampton snatch late leveller

Morocco U-17 make history after winning their first AFCON title

PSG beat Le Havre to stay on course for unbeaten Ligue 1 season

Nassr’s title hopes dented by Qadsiah

Treble-chasing Inter sweat over Thuram’s fitness

F1 title fight is increasingly focused on McLaren but Verstappen still hopeful

Morocco ex-football club chair denies seizing villa in drug case