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MADRID — Getafe scored twice in the last quarter and beat bottom club Girona 2-1 in La Liga on Friday. Mario Martin, the midfielder on loan from Real Madrid, put Getafe ahead when he headed home a free kick from the right with 19 minutes left on the clock. Then striker Borja Mayoral slid in at the back post four minutes from time to double the lead. Cristhian Stuani converted a stoppage-time penalty for Girona but it was too late to stop Getafe from a first home win in four games. The Madrid club climbed into sixth place on the table. The win also put the brakes on Girona’s mini revival. The Catalan club took just three points from a possible 21 at the start of the season but had lost only one of its last five matches before Friday. It remained on the bottom. More from Sportsnet Serie A Roundup: Lazio held to goalless draw at Pisa Munich to host 2028 Champions League final

The Northern Super League’s first regular season was a major success, as the upstart league provided plenty of action and entertainment on the pitch while capturing the attention of soccer fans across Canada. The NSL is the country’s first professional women’s league, featuring six clubs: AFC Toronto, Ottawa Rapid FC, Vancouver Rise FC, Montreal Roses FC, Calgary Wild FC and Halifax Tides FC. The 25-match regular season wrapped up in late October with the top four teams in the final standings advancing to the post-season, which kicks off this weekend. Here’s what you need to know about the 2025 NSL playoffs. How the playoffs work The semifinals are a two-legged, home-and-away series. If the aggregate score is tied at the end of regulation time in the second match, the game will go to extra time, and penalties if necessary.    The two semifinal winners advance to the final on Nov. 15 at Toronto’s BMO Field where they will battle for the newly minted Diana B. Matheson...

GENEVA — Bayern Munich’s stadium is set to host another Champions League final in 2028, and staging the 2029 final is a contest between Wembley Stadium in London and Barcelona’s renovated Camp Nou. UEFA confirmed Friday the list of interested bidders from among its member associations, suggesting a long-speculated final in New York will not happen until at least 2030. “The declarations of interest are not binding, and the final proposals must be delivered with the bid dossiers by June 10,” UEFA said in a statement. Munich was the only bid for the 2028 final. It hosted the final last season and Wembley staged the previous final in 2024. Barcelona has not been the final venue since 1999, when Manchester United famously stunned Bayern with two stoppage-time goals. The behind-schedule Camp Nou renovation should lift capacity to 105,000, the largest in Europe. The UEFA executive committee is due to decide next September on hosts for all club competitions’ f...

MILAN — Lazio was held to a 0-0 draw at Pisa, which recorded its third straight stalemate to move out of the Serie A relegation zone Thursday. Both teams were fresh from positive results, with Pisa having managed a draw at AC Milan on Friday, after conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, while Lazio had beaten Juventus — which resulted in the Bianconeri firing coach Igor Tudor. Lazio came closest to scoring in the first half, amid heavy rain in Pisa, but Pisa goalkeeper Adrian Semper fingertipped Toma Basic’s strike onto his left post. Lazio remained in midtable, six points below the top four, while Pisa — which is yet to win a match — moved above Hellas Verona to 17th-placed on goal difference. Head-to-head is the first tiebreaker at the end of the season. Cagliari in crisis Cagliari is without a win in five matches after a 2-1 loss at home to Sassuolo. Armand Laurienté broke the deadlock in the 54th minute with a free kick and Andrea Pinamonti doubled Sassuolo’s lead 11 minutes la...

Canadian international Tani Oluwaseyi scored a hat-trick in Villarreal CF’s 6-0 win over lower-tier Ciudad de Lucena in first-round Copa del Rey play Wednesday. Lucene plays in the Tercera Federación, the fifth tier of Spanish soccer. Villarreal, which is also home to Canadian international Tajon Buchanan, currently sits third in La Liga, the top tier, at 6-2-2. Oluwaseyi scored in the 15th, 17th and 71st minute. The 25-year-old striker from Mississauga, Ont., joined the Spanish side on Aug. 29 in a transfer from Minnesota United. The Nigerian-born Oluwaseyi, who moved to Canada when he was 10, was picked by Minnesota in the first round (17th overall) of the 2022 MLS SuperDraft out of St. John’s. He has won 19 caps for Canada with two goals and two assists. 

Harry Kane scored twice as Bayern Munich racked up its 14th straight win in one of soccer’s best-ever starts to a season after overcoming a rare setback to beat Cologne 4-1 in the German Cup on Wednesday. Vincent Kompany’s team has won every game it has played in the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League so far in 2025-26, and the win over Cologne surpassed a historic mark of 13 wins in all competitions set by AC Milan at the start of its 1992-93 campaign. Bayern did it despite falling behind in a game for the first time since July as Ragnar Ache’s 31st-minute header put Cologne ahead. Bayern turned it around with two goals in two minutes, first for Luis Diaz — who seemed clearly offside, though there’s no video review until later in the competition — and then Kane, with an acrobatic turn and shot over the keeper in the 38th. Kane extended Bayern’s lead with a header at a corner, his 22nd goal for Bayern in 14 games this season, and Díaz set up Michael Olise to score Bayern’s...

Liverpool fielded a weakened team and got duly punished in a 3-0 loss to Crystal Palace in the League Cup on Wednesday, the latest setback to strike the beleaguered English champions. Ismaila Sarr scored two first-half goals at Anfield and Yeremy Pino added a third for Palace, which consigned Liverpool to a sixth defeat in its last seven games in all competitions. Also advancing to the quarterfinals were Premier League leader Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea. After four straight losses in its tottering Premier League title defense, Liverpool is now out of one of the two domestic cups in what is proving to be an unexpectedly poor start to the season. This latest loss can at least be explained by manager Arne Slot resting most of his top players — like Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Alexander Isak — and not even putting them on the bench. A team filled mostly with youngsters was cut apart by Sarr, who scored in the 41st and 45th minutes to add to his goals for Pa...

Forge FC’s Daniel Nimick and Rezart Rama and Atletico Ottawa’s Noah Abatneh are the finalists for the Canadian Premier League’s Defender of the Year award. Abatneh is also nominated for the league’s Best Canadian U-21 Player award. The 21-year-old topped the league in successful passes (1,855) and passing accuracy (95.6 percent). His lone goal of the campaign was a timely one, a 96-minute winner against York United in April.  Nimick, 25, led the CPL in blocks (24) and possessions won in the defensive third (99) and ranked second among all defenders with at least 500 minutes played in goals conceded per 90 minutes (0.83). At the other end of the field, he scored two goals and added four assists in his first season with Forge. Nimick was also nominated for the award in 2023. Rama, 24, led all defenders in interceptions made (39) and duels won (143), and finished second in tackles won (46). The winner, decided in a vote of the eight CPL club’s technical leadership plus select me...

FRANKFURT, Germany — Gregor Kobel sent Borussia Dortmund into the third round of the German Cup with a diving save to win a penalty shootout against Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday. Midfielder Farès Chaïbi stepped up to take Frankfurt’s fourth penalty, needing to score after Ritsu Doan had fired his shot over the bar earlier. Chaïbi shot low to Kobel’s right and the Swiss goalkeeper got down to hold the ball, giving Dortmund a 4-2 shootout win that sparked flare-waving celebrations from Dortmund’s away fans. The loss continues a troubled run for Frankfurt, with one win from its last six games in all competitions. Extra time finished with the score at 1-1 after Julian Brandt’s goal for Dortmund cancelled out ex-Dortmund player Ansgar Knauff’s opener for Frankfurt. Wolfsburg knocked out Second-tier Holstein Kiel upset Wolfsburg 1-0 thanks to Alexander Bernhardsson’s penalty. Wolfsburg played most of the game with 10 men after Jenson Seelt was sent off in the 36th minute for picking u...

MILAN — Despite mounting injury problems, Napoli moved clear at the top of Serie A with a 1-0 win at Lecce on Tuesday. Kevin De Bruyne was the latest player sidelined and the talismanic midfielder will most likely not return until February after a serious thigh injury in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Inter Milan. Frank Anguissa scored the only goal of the match at Lecce after Napoli goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic had saved a penalty from teenager Francesco Camarda. Defending champion Napoli moved three points clear of Roma, which hosts Parma on Wednesday. AC Milan can close the gap back to one point if it wins at Atalanta later. Lecce was two points above the relegation zone. Napoli struggled to break Lecce down and the home side had a great opportunity to take the lead when it was awarded a penalty early in the second half following a lengthy video review as Juan Jesus was adjudged to have touched Kialonda Gaspar’s header with his hand. Milinkovic-Savic is known as somewha...

MILAN — An 81-year-old man using an electric wheelchair died after being hit by a car driven by Inter Milan goalkeeper Josep Martínez on Tuesday, according to Italian media reports. Police investigating the accident said the man may have suffered a sudden illness and veered from the cycle path into the lane in which Martínez was driving, the reports said. The incident happened near Inter’s training center in Appiano Gentile, just outside Milan. The Spanish goalkeeper and other motorists immediately stopped to help. Emergency vehicles including an air ambulance arrived, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. Martínez was in shock but uninjured. Inter cancelled coach Cristian Chivu’s press conference as a sign of respect.

After a 1-0 loss to No. 24 Switzerland and on the eve of a date with the 11th-ranked Dutch, Canada coach Casey Stoney offered a dose of perspective Monday. Coupled with a 3-0 loss to the United States in the game before, on July 2, the Swiss setback sent the broadcast crew to the record book to see the last time the ninth-ranked Canadian women had lost two in a row (February and April 2023, 3-0 to Japan and 2-1 to France). Stoney sees the bigger picture, however. “I said to the team the other day everybody needs to calm down a little bit in terms of results, because this is a process we’re going through,” she told a virtual availability. She noted the Swiss and Dutch are both “competition-ready right now,” thanks to the “very competitive” UEFA Women’s Championship in July. In contrast, the Canadian women’s last competitive game was Aug. 2, 2024 — a penalty shootout loss to Germany in the quarterfinal of the Paris Olympics “It’s not an excuse, but it’s a reason,” Stoney said. “And ...

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — The Colorado Rapids parted ways with head coach Chris Armas on Monday after two seasons in charge. The Rapids finished 11-15-8 this season as their attempt to earn a spot in the MLS Cup playoffs fell short. The team has started the process to pick a new coach. Over his time with the Rapids, Armas helped the team make the playoffs last season and to a third-place finish in the 2024 Leagues Cup tournament. Colorado also won back-to-back Rocky Mountain Cup crowns. “We’re grateful to Chris for the professionalism and passion he brought to the club,” Pádraig Smith, the president of the Rapids, said in a statement. “He helped our group take meaningful steps forward over the past two seasons and leaves behind a strong culture that will serve us well as we begin this next chapter.” Armas said he’s “proud of the work we’ve done here and the progress the team has made.” He added the Rapids are a “special club with passionate fans, and I’ll always be grateful...

A report by Canadian Women and Sport concludes that the country’s professional women’s sports market has doubled in size in two years and is on pace to reach over half a billion dollars by 2030. The report titled “It’s Time: Leading the Next Era of Growth” states the market value of women’s pro sports in Canada rose to almost $400 million this year from about half that in 2023.  The report projects growth to $570 million in five years.  The Professional Women’s Hockey League starts its third season in November, and soccer’s Northern Super League launched this year. The Toronto Tempo will join the WNBA next year. Those entities have joined golf’s CPKC Women’s Open and the National Bank Open tennis tournament in the women’s pro sports landscape in Canada.  Canadian Women and Sport says the report, conducted in partnership with Canadian Tire Corporation and Wasserman’s The Collective, surveyed over 6,000 Canadians and consulted sport and business executives.

Thomas Müller scored, and the Vancouver Whitecaps opened their Major League Soccer playoff run with a dominant 3-0 victory over FC Dallas on Sunday.  Daniel Rios opened the scoring for Vancouver, heading in a cross from Ali Ahmed in the 43rd minute. Muller converted a penalty kick to double the lead in the 60th, and Kenji Cabrera came off the bench to seal the deal in the 83rd minute.  The ‘Caps outshot Dallas 22-0, including a 10-0 advantage in on-target shots.  The Whitecaps finished the regular-season second in the Western Conference standings with an 18-7-9 record after falling 2-1 to Dallas in the final game on Oct. 18.  The victory improved Dallas’s record to 11-12-11 and moved the team up to the No. 7 spot, setting up the best-of-three, first-round playoff series with the ‘Caps.  Dallas will host the second game of the matchup on Nov. 1, and if necessary, Game 3 will be held back at B.C. Place on Nov. 7.  The winner of the series will face the ...

MADRID — The first clasico of the season takes place with Real Madrid hosting Barcelona in the Spanish league looking to stop a four-game losing steak against the Catalan rival. Madrid is also defending the league lead as it enters Sunday’s match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium with a two-point advantage over Barcelona. Madrid lost all clasicos last season across all competitions, being outscored 16-7. It was the first time Barcelona won every clasico in a season that had at least three matches between the rivals. Barcelona arrives with injury woes in attack and coach Hansi Flick will have to watch the game from a stadium box after he was shown a red card for protesting in the previous round. Lamine Yamal is set to start for the visitors after having played two games since returning from a nagging groin injury. But striker Robert Lewandowski is ruled out for Barcelona with a hamstring injury and forward Raphinha is staying on the injury list ...

BREMEN, Germany — Marco Grüll curled in left-foot shot in the 72nd minute to give Werder Bremen a 1-0 win over Union Berlin in the Bundesliga on Friday. The win gave Bremen consecutive home victories for the first time this season and moved it into the top half of the table ahead of the weekend’s other games. In a game of few chances, Grüll’s goal was a rare moment of beauty. The former Rapid Vienna winger cut in from the right before curling a shot into the far corner. The win snapped Bremen’s poor run of Friday night results. Horst Steffen’s team had lost its last three Friday games, each time by at least three goals. The result lifts it into seventh spot with 11 points, one point ahead of Berlin in 10th.

MILAN, Italy — Zachary Athekame scored with a long-range drive in injury time to rescue a 2-2 draw for Serie A leader AC Milan against bottom club Pisa on Friday and avoid what would have been the surprise result of the Italian league season so far. Athekame was about 10 yards outside the area when the ball was played to him following a corner, but his low shot found its way through traffic and inside the near post to deny Pisa a first win at Milan since 1981. The newly promoted side has yet to win a game since returning to the top tier this season after a 34-year absence. Milan entered the game as a massive favourite and took the lead through Rafael Leão after just seven minutes, but Juan Cuadrado brought Pisa level when he scored from the penalty spot after an hour. A massive shock looked likely after M’Bala Nzola controlled a long ball before stroking it under goalkeeper Mike Maignan to give Pisa the lead with five minutes left. But Athekame’s goal in the third minute of injury...

Canada suffered a costly 1-0 loss to Switzerland in women’s international soccer play Friday, losing star striker Olivia Smith to injury in the first half. Alayah Pilgrim scored for the 24th-ranked Swiss at the Swissporarena in a game that was anything but friendly, thanks to the physical Swiss. Ninth-ranked Canada had its chances, including two in stoppage time, but failed to take advantage, misfiring more often than not. It was the first-ever win for the Swiss over Canada. Canada outshot the Swiss 13-8 but only managed three shots on goal, compared to four for the home side. Smith was hurt in a heavy fall in the 32nd minute, seemingly deliberately bodied to the ground by Swiss defender Viola Calligaris. Smith spent some five minutes on the turf receiving medical attention before being taken off the field in a golf cart. The 21-year-old grimaced as she was lifted to her feet and was helped to the cart, not putting weight on her right leg. She looked distraught as she was driven o...

Mats Deijl’s second-half goal for European newcomer Go Ahead Eagles completed a 2-1 comeback victory over Aston Villa 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday. It was the first defeat for the Premier League club after two wins in Europe’s second-tier competition. The Dutch team recorded its second victory. Elsewhere, Braga and Lyon maintained their 100 per cent records. Kerem Aktürkoğlu converted from the spot for Fenerbahce in a 1-0 win over Stuttgart. Early goals three minutes apart from Jens Odgaard and Thijs Dallinga put Bologna en route to a 2-1 victory over FCSB in Bucharest. Villa’s winning streak ends Deijl controlled the ball with his chest before firing a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez on the hour mark in the Dutch city of Deventer. Evann Guessand struck early from inside the penalty area off Jadon Sancho’s cross to put Villa ahead in the fourth minute. It was the Ivory Coast forward’s first goal for his new club. Mathis Suray equalized three minut...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lionel Messi has finally agreed to a new contract with Inter Miami, a deal that required several months to complete and ensures that the sport’s biggest icon will be with the Major League Soccer club for its planned move into a new stadium next year. The deal was announced Thursday, one day before Inter Miami’s playoff opener against Nashville. Messi’s team — the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference — will play host to Game 1 of that best-of-three series on Friday night. The team announced the move in a social media post, one showing Messi signing the contract inside the new stadium that remains under construction. “HE’S HOME,” the team said in the post. Inter Miami said it was a three-year deal through 2028. The notion of Messi playing two or three more seasons certainly would serve as a boost to ticket sales at the stadium the team has been building near Miami International Airport. The team has been selling ticket packages and taking de...

Thomas Muller thought he’d made a good choice when he signed with the Vancouver Whitecaps in August.  Even the German soccer legend didn’t anticipate just how well he’d fit in with the Major League Soccer team.  “The journey is quite sensational for me, with the team, with the ‘Caps, with the players. We are doing really well,” Muller said Wednesday.  The 36-year-old attacking midfielder noted that within minutes of stepping into his first game for Vancouver, he scored a goal — albeit one that was later called offside.  “The feeling was insane. The whole stadium got crazy. I’ve never had fireworks in a stadium. Two minutes of playing here, there were fireworks because of a goal for my side. So what better choice you can do?” Muller has seven goals and three assists for Vancouver in just seven league games, and has bigger ambitions, too. “My job is not done yet,” he said. “I’m here to help the ‘Caps win the MLS Cup.” That journey will begin Sunday when the Whit...

After completing the worst season in their 33-year history, CF Montréal enters the offseason with a permanent head coach in Marco Donadel and a long list of roster decisions to make. Donadel went 8-17-10 after taking over on an interim basis following Laurent Courtois’s dismissal five games into the season. “I know the city, I love the city. I also know the club and the organization,” said Donadel, who played 3 1/2 seasons for the then-Montreal Impact. “I’ve lived here for seven months, another three as assistant coach, so I know the league much better and all the players. Knowing them, I also know their potential and what we need to be better and more complete as a team.” With Donadel now confirmed as head coach, Montréal will shift its focus to the offseason and winter transfer window — a critical period after a campaign that fell apart early and never recovered. CF Montréal once again fielded both the youngest roster and the lowest payroll in Major League Soccer. The club’s mode...

A wildly entertaining MLS regular season came to a conclusion last weekend when the last two playoff spots were clinched on the final day of the campaign.  But that was just the entree. Now comes the main course in the form of the playoffs, which always seem to offer up several plot twists and few upsets every year.    Here’s what you need to know about the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs.  Playoff format   The top seven teams in each of the Eastern and Western Conferences clinched playoff berths, while the eighth and ninth seeds will face off in a one-game wild card on Wednesday.   The winners of both wild-card games move on to the first round, made up of best-of-three series (rather than single-elimination contests). In the best-of-three, no games can end in draws. If a match is tied at the end of regulation time, it’ll go straight to a penalty shootout.    Both the conference semifinals and finals are one-legged affairs. The highest...

MADRID — The Spanish league has called off plans for Barcelona to play a regular-season game against Villarreal in Miami in December. The league said Tuesday that the decision was made because of “uncertainty that has arisen in Spain over the past few weeks.” The league had finally succeeded in getting approval from soccer bodies such as UEFA and the Spanish federation to stage its first regular-season game abroad. But opposition by players, some clubs and fans had grown recently in Spain. The Spanish league “deeply regrets that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the international expansion of Spanish soccer, will not be able to move forward.” More from Sportsnet Champions League Roundup: Barcelona routs Olympiakos Barcelona snatches victory over Girona in stoppage time as Flick sent off