Fans celebrate Liverpool winning the Premier League title outside Anfield stadium in Liverpool, north west England on June 26, 2020, following Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City. – Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions without kicking a ball on Thursday as Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City ended the Reds’ 30-year wait to win the English title. Jurgen Klopp’s men sealed a 19th league title for the club with a record seven games left to play after City’s defeat left them 23 points adrift of Liverpool at the top. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)
Latest sports news headlines, results and fixtures: Friday 26 June 2020
We bring you the latest sports news headlines, fixtures, and results this Friday 26 June 2020.
Fans celebrate Liverpool winning the Premier League title outside Anfield stadium in Liverpool, north west England on June 26, 2020, following Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City. – Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions without kicking a ball on Thursday as Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City ended the Reds’ 30-year wait to win the English title. Jurgen Klopp’s men sealed a 19th league title for the club with a record seven games left to play after City’s defeat left them 23 points adrift of Liverpool at the top. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)
Liverpool were crowned Premier League Champions last night and the city and the club’s global network of supporters are still in jubilation, we bring you more on that and all the latest sports news.
Latest sports news headlines
Football
Liverpool were crowned English Premier League Champions on Thursday night sparking wild celebrations around Anfield and across the city.
Frank Lampard has warned his Chelsea players they still face a dogfight in the Battle for a top-four Premier League finish despite their win against Manchester City.
Liverpool defender Andy Robertson has hailed Jurgen Klopp as a father figure, saying the players “love coming into training” after the Reds ended their 30-year wait to be crowned champions of England again.
Erling Braut Haaland said he is eager to end Bayern Munich’s eight-year reign as German champions next season and will not settle for being “second all the time”.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Friday congratulated bitter rivals Liverpool on their long-awaited Premier League triumph but said watching other sides lifting the trophy “hurt”.
Police criticised Liverpool fans after thousands poured into the streets around Anfield to celebrate their Premier League triumph, urging them to show caution during the coronavirus pandemic.
French defender Christophe Jallet, a two-time Ligue 1 champion with Paris Saint-Germain, announced his retirement on Friday at the age of 36.
Jurgen Klopp is Liverpool’s legendary manager Bill Shankly reincarnated in a “German body”, said the club’s Zimbabwean goalkeeping great Bruce Grobbelaar.
The English FA came in for stinging criticism Friday after voting for Colombia to host the 2023 women’s World Cup over Australia and New Zealand, with football bosses calling it “disrespectful”.
The 2023 World Cup will be groundbreaking in more ways than one. It will be the first with 32 teams. That means more matches and more revenue to be ploughed back into women’s football. The sports-mad host nations are expecting 1.5 million spectators, which would be another record, while prize money will be a record-high figure, reflecting the growth of the game. It will be the first women’s World Cup co-hosted by cooperating nations and the first to take place in the southern hemisphere.
Real Madrid and Barcelona are neck-and-neck in the closest title race in Europe as La Liga’s top two have enjoyed an almost faultless return since Spanish football resumed two weeks ago.
Qatar will host a pan-Arab football tournament in November and December 2021 as a dry-run exactly a year before the 2022 World Cup, the country’s soccer association said on Thursday.
Megan Rapinoe and two of her US teammates from last year’s Women’s World Cup champions have opted out of the National Women’s Soccer League tournament that begins Saturday in Utah.
Rugby
According to a report by SARugbyMag Tyler Paul, Franco Marais, Ruan Vermaak and Makazole Mapimpi will all form part of former Lions and Gloucester coach Johan Ackermann’s NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes side in Japan. Paul makes a permanent move from the Sharks, while Mapimpi will be joining the Red Hurricanes on a loan deal before returning to the Durban-based side in April 2021.
Former Stormers number ten Demetri Catrakilis has hailed the kicking game of Sharks pivot Curwin Bosch, telling News24 he believes can push for a place in the Springbok side.
Boxing
Panamanian Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, six-time boxing world champion, was hospitalized in non-life-threatening condition Thursday with the novel coronavirus, his children said on the same day that Panama hit a new record of daily cases.
Ice Hockey
Vancouver is out of the running to host NHL games when the league returns from its coronavirus shutdown, the club said Thursday.
Seattle’s National Hockey League expansion team will play in the world’s first carbon-neutral arena, club officials said Thursday in announcing the new venue will be named Climate Pledge Arena.
Tennis
Madison Keys returned to the scene of her 2019 Charleston WTA triumph on Thursday with a hard-fought win over Carline Dolehide in the Credit One Bank Invitational. The 16-player team event staged with strict social distancing protocols as players prep for the return of WTA action in August after a coronavirus shutdown, is a far cry from the full-fledged WTA Tournament on the green clay courts in South Carolina. Keys let a 3-0 second-set lead slip before pulling off a 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 10-4 victory over 134th-ranked Caroline Dolehide.
Gridiron
The NFL has told teams it expects pre-season training camps to open on schedule on July 28, league general counsel Jeff Pash told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.
Latest sports results
Golf
Leading first-round scores on Thursday in the US PGA Tour Traveler’s Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut (USA unless noted, par-70):
60 – Mackenzie Hughes (CAN)
63 – Rory McIlroy (NIR), Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland (NOR)
64 – Michael Thompson, Phil Mickelson, Tyler Duncan, Sergio Garcia (ESP), Noh Seung-yul (KOR), Louis Oosthuizen (RSA)
65 – Russell Henley, Tyler McCumber, Bryson DeChambeau, Brian Stuard, Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP), Kang Sung (KOR)
66 – Cameron Davis (AUS), Jon Rahm (ESP), Shane Lowry (IRL), Patrick Cantlay, Brendon Todd, Lanto Griffin, Marc Leishman (AUS), Sam Ryder, Chris Stroud, Lucas Glover, Scott Stallings, Kevin Streelman, Kevin Na, Patton Kizzire, Harold Varner, Will Gordon
Football
Spanish La Liga results on Thursday:
Eibar 1 (Kondogbia 16-og) Valencia 0
Real Betis 1 (Bartra 48) Espanyol 0
English Premier League results on Thursday:
Burnley 1 (Rodriguez 73) Watford 0
Chelsea 2 (Pulisic 36, Willian 78-pen) Manchester City 1 (De Bruyne 55)
Southampton 0 Arsenal 2 (Nketiah 20, Willock 87)
Played Wednesday
Liverpool 4 (Alexander-Arnold 23, Salah 44, Fabinho 55, Mane 69) Crystal Palace 0
Manchester United 3 (Martial 7, 44, 74) Sheffield United 0
Newcastle 1 (Gayle 68) Aston Villa 1 (El Mohamady 83)
Norwich 0 Everton 1 (Keane 55)
Wolves 1 (Jimenez 60) Bournemouth 0
Latest sports fixtures
Italian Serie A
Juventus vs Lecce 21:45
Spanish La Liga
Sevilla vs Real Valladolid 22:00
English Championship
Brentford vs West Bromwich Albion 20:45
Golf
Second round of USPGA at Travelers Championship in Hartford, Connecticut.
Tennis
The fourth day of the ‘Battle of the Brits’ exhibition event in London featuring Andy Murray, Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund.
Additional reporting from AFP
