MOSCOW: France fine-tuned their preparations for the World Cup final against Croatia on Friday, desperate to overcome the bitter disappointment of losing the Euro 2016 final as FIFA declared Russia 2018 the best-ever tournament.
Didier Deschamps’ team are firm favorites to win Sunday’s showpiece in Moscow and become world champions for the second time — 20 years after their first triumph in 1998.
But they will come up against a hungry Croatia side boasting one of the players of the tournament in Real Madrid star Luka Modric, who is desperate to win the trophy for the nation of just over four million people.
France failed to click in the group stages but they have gone up through the gears during the knockout rounds and look a formidable blend of youthful vitality and experience.
They will approach the match at the 80,000-capacity Luzhniki Stadium full of confidence and with the pain of losing the final of Euro 2016 on home soil to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal spurring them on.
“The tears have dried from Euro 2016 but it’s still there in a little corner of people’s minds,” said midfielder Blaise Matuidi on Friday.
“It will be useful for us on Sunday, even if I don’t like to keep bringing up the past. It will serve as a lesson to us and it means we know what it is to play in a final.
“We’ll approach it differently and hope that we play really well and win it. It’s up to us to put everything into place to achieve our dream of lifting the World Cup.”
Deschamps’ team are packed with attacking stars such as Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann but it is their defense that has shone in the past two rounds, not conceding a single goal.
Croatia — the smallest nation to make it to the final since Uruguay in 1950 — have battled through three periods of extra-time to reach the final. That means they have played the equivalent of a whole extra match more than France.
But coach Zlatko Dalic said there would be no excuses despite their exertions.
“We prepared to get to the final and we want to play it,” he said. “Going to extra-time might be a problem along with the fact France have had an extra day to recover but there will be no excuses.”
As the tournament drifts toward its end, FIFA president Gianni Infantino declared it the best ever.
“I was saying this would be the best World Cup ever. Today I can say it with more conviction... it is the best World Cup,” Infantino said in Moscow.
More than one million foreign fans have visited Russia during the World Cup, according to FIFA figures.
“A lot of pre-conceived ideas have changed thanks to this World Cup,” said Infantino.
“Everyone has discovered a beautiful country, a welcoming country, full of people keen to show to the world what maybe sometimes is said is not what happens here.”
He also said the use of the VAR (video assistant referee) had been a success and praised the quality of the football, with just a single 0-0 draw in 62 games so far.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to pour onto the streets of Paris at the weekend, 20 years on from the 1998 win on home soil, when Deschamps was captain of the side.
A security operation swung into full gear, with plans for 110,000 law enforcement officers to be deployed across France as the country celebrates the national Bastille Day holiday and the World Cup final.
“Everything is being done so the French can live these festive moments with peace of mind, despite the terrorist threat which remains at a high level,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.
Before the final, England will play Belgium in a low-key battle for third place in Saint Petersburg on Saturday.
Gareth Southgate said his young team, who were just 22 minutes from reaching the final before Croatia’s impressive comeback in the semifinal, would have to learn from their bitter disappointment.
“The team will be better in a couple of years,” Southgate said in comments to the British press. “We have to build. We have some good young players coming through. We’ve had success at youth level.
“What we’ve done over the last few weeks has shown what is possible. We want to be in semifinals and finals and we’ve shown to ourselves that can happen.
“Now we have to use it as a springboard to reach the latter stages of tournaments consistently.”
France focus on World Cup glory, spurred on by 2016 Euro pain
France focus on World Cup glory, spurred on by 2016 Euro pain
- France failed to click in the group stages but they have gone up through the gears during the knockout rounds
- Deschamps’ team are packed with attacking stars such as Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann but it is their defense that has shone
Germany’s Mueller to leave Bayern Munich after 25 years
- Bayern Munich talisman Thomas Mueller says he will leave club at season end
MUNICH: Thomas Mueller will leave Bayern Munich after 25 seasons at the club at the end of the campaign, the veteran midfielder announced on social media on Saturday.
Mueller, who came through the Bayern junior system and has won two Champions Leagues along with 12 Bundesliga titles, said the decision was made by the club and “not what I would have wished.”
The 35-year-old, a 2014 World Cup winner with Germany, did not reveal where he would play next season.
Patrick Reed leads by two, DeChambeau’s Crushers GC show way in team race at LIV Golf Miami
- In LIV Golf’s first US event of 2025, it was fitting that the top four players are all past major champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the Masters a week away
- DeChambeau’s team, Crushers GC, also holds a narrow two-shot lead in the team competition through one round
MIAMI: Despite a double bogey on his closing hole, Patrick Reed shot a 5-under par 67 and grabbed the first-round lead at LIV Golf Miami on Friday at Trump National Doral.
Reed began his round on the 10th hole and put seven birdies on his card, reaching 7 under with a tap-in at the par-5 eighth. But at the par-3 ninth, he missed the green wide left and compounded the mistake by putting his second shot into a bunker.
Reed came back to the pack a bit, but he still held a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson (3-under 69).
“I mean, the first 17 were great,” Reed said. “No, as a whole I played solid. I hit the ball pretty well off the tee, hit some quality iron shots and made some putts, and I think that’s what you have to do around this place.
.”.. Yeah, for the back tee with this kind of wind direction here on 9, I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a club for it that I feel like I can hit a straight shot, and it’s hard to start it over the water and get it turning back. It was just an unfortunate finish, but at the end of the day, it’s still a solid round of golf.”
In LIV Golf’s first US event of 2025, it was fitting that the top four players are all past major champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the Masters a week away.
Reed won the Masters in 2018, Mickelson has captured three green jackets and Dustin Johnson won the 2020 edition that was delayed to November.
“Obviously I was playing really good at the end of 2020,” Johnson said Friday. “But the game I feel like it’s getting pretty close to that. Obviously it’s a really fine line to being that good or just a little bit off, but yeah, I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now.”
Johnson had a three-birdie run at Nos. 14-16 late in his round to get to 3 under, while DeChambeau was steady with four birdies and just one bogey.
DeChambeau’s team, Crushers GC, also holds a narrow two-shot lead in the team competition through one round. The four-man team of DeChambeau, Charles Howell III, Englishman Paul Casey and India’s Anirban Lahiri combined to go 2 under par, with Johnson’s 4Aces GC sitting second at even par.
“There’s a reason we won here (at the LIV Team Championship) in 2023,” DeChambeau said. “They like this golf course. They like a tough, challenging golf course where you can strategically play and let everybody kind of mess up on their own, and we just plot along and make a couple birdies where we can and move along when it’s a really brutal hole.”
Verstappen takes pole for Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Norris
- Motor racing-Verstappen conjures up stunning pole lap at Suzuka
SUZUKA, JAPAN: Four-time world champion Max Verstappen smashed the track record to snatch pole position for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, as Yuki Tsunoda qualified a lowly 15th in his Red Bull debut.
Verstappen clocked a blistering lap of 1min 26.983sec in his Red Bull, 0.012sec ahead of championship leader Norris, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri third.
Verstappen set a new Suzuka track record with his final lap in Saturday’s qualifying, pipping Norris right at the death.
“Each session we kept making little improvements, then the last lap was flat out,” said Verstappen, who has won the Japanese GP for the last three years.
“In a Formula One car around here is insane. This is a proper highlight for us to be back on pole here.”
It was Verstappen’s first pole position of the season.
The Dutchman is still looking for his first grand prix win of the new campaign.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli sixth and RB’s Isack Hadjar seventh.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was eighth, followed by Williams’s Alex Albon and Haas’s Oliver Bearman.
Norris is looking for his second grand prix win of the season, after triumphing in the season opener in Australia.
He finished second behind Piastri in China a fortnight ago in a dominant start to the campaign for McLaren.
“I’m happy, congrats to Max, he did a good job,” said Norris.
“You have to credit something when it is a lap that good that he must have done. I got everything out of the car today, the gaps are tiny.
“Good but not enough.”
Tsunoda was eliminated in Q2 in a disappointing first qualifying drive for Red Bull after being promoted in place of Liam Lawson last week.
The Japanese driver finished one place behind Lawson, who returned to RB after just two races for Red Bull in a ruthless driver swap.
Verstappen has not looked comfortable this week and he again complained to his team over the radio in Q1.
“I still have the same problem, the tires are not gripping on the front,” the Dutchman said.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’s Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso were eliminated in Q2 along with Lawson and Tsunoda.
Sauber pair Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, Haas’s Esteban Ocon, Alpine’s Jack Doohan and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll were all eliminated in Q1.
Doohan’s practice on Friday ended when he crashed heavily into a barrier and mechanics had to work through the night to repair his badly damaged car.
Qualifying was suspended for about eight minutes in Q2 when a small trackside fire broke out as sparks from the cars ignited the grass in the dry conditions.
It was the fifth such incident of the weekend, with the second and third practice sessions also disrupted by fires.
Rain has been forecast for Sunday’s race.
Green, Sengun lift Rockets over Thunder, Celtics clinch record
- Green finished with 34 points from 11-of-24 shooting while Turkish big man Sengun made 31 points as second-placed Houston improved to 51-27
- Cleveland Cavaliers edged closer to locking up the No.1 seed from the Eastern Conference with a nailbiting 114-113 defeat of the Spurs
LOS ANGELES: Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun combined for 65 points as the Houston Rockets halted Oklahoma City’s 11-game winning streak on Friday with a statement 125-111 victory.
In a potential Western Conference finals preview, the Rockets produced a dominant all-round performance to jolt the top-seeded Thunder’s all-conquering preparations for the postseason.
Green finished with 34 points from 11-of-24 shooting while Turkish big man Sengun made 31 points as second-placed Houston improved to 51-27.
Oklahoma City grabbed the lead in the opening minutes of the first quarter, but Houston soon knocked the Thunder out of their stride with a physical approach to move into the lead before building a 23-point advantage late in the second quarter.
Houston maintained a 20-point cushion with 2min 53sec remaining in the third quarter before a Thunder rally cut the gap to single digits early in the fourth.
But Houston coolly regrouped and snuffed out any chance of a comeback from Oklahoma City.
Houston coach Ime Udoka praised the aggressive scoring approach of Sengun and teammate Green.
“He was in attack mode the whole time. Him and Jalen were a great combination tonight,” Udoka said of Sengun. “We’re hard to beat when those two are going like that.”
Jalen Williams led the OKC scoring with 33 points while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 22. Chet Holmgren chipped in with 20 points, 18 of them coming from his tally of six three-pointers.
The Boston Celtics claimed a piece of NBA history by setting a new record for the number of three-pointers scored in a single season.
The NBA champions eclipsed the Golden State Warriors’ record of 1,363 threes set in the 2022-2023 season after adding 14 threes to their season tally in a 123-103 victory over the Phoenix Suns.
Boston’s three-point barrage left them with 1,370 for the season.
Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said the three-point scoring record reflected his team’s work ethic and basketball IQ.
“It says that we fight for a good shot,” Mazzulla said.
“We were able to fight for good looks, versus the coverage. That’s the most important thing, continuing to understand how we’re being defended and how we can create the best shot possible.
“Credit to the guys for continuing to make the right reads.”
Jaylen Brown led Boston’s scoring with 31 points while Jayson Tatum finished with 23 in a win that dealt another blow to the Suns’ hopes of forcing their way into the postseason reckoning.
The Suns’ fifth straight defeat leaves them in 11th place in the Western Conference with a 35-42 record, two wins behind the 10th-placed Sacramento Kings (37-40), 125-102 winners over Charlotte on Friday.
The top six teams in each conference qualify automatically for the playoffs, while teams ranked seventh to 10th enter a four-team play-in tournament to determine the final two playoff places.
In San Antonio, the Cleveland Cavaliers edged closer to locking up the No.1 seed from the Eastern Conference with a nailbiting 114-113 defeat of the Spurs.
McLaughlin-Levrone, Thomas cruise to wins at Grand Slam Track opening leg
- The lucrative prize money on offer is one of the notable features of the four-event series, which was conceived by US Olympic legend Michael Johnson with the aim of revitalizing interest in track racing
- Newly crowned world indoor 400m champion Chris Bailey continued his impressive start to the season with victory in the 400m in a time of 44.34sec, pipping Olympic silver medalist Matt Hudson-Smith of Great Britain
KINGSTON: Two-time Olympic 400m hurdles champion and world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone cruised to victory as the opening leg of the new Grand Slam Track athletics circuit got under way in Jamaica on Friday.
American track star McLaughlin-Levrone — racing in her signature event for the first time since winning gold at the Paris Olympics last year — romped home in 52.76sec at Kingston’s National Stadium.
The 25-year-old, who will also race in Sunday’s 400m, was always in control and had opened a significant lead as she came off the final bend before pulling away to finish several meters clear of 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad, who was second in 54.59sec.
“You know, just shaking the cobwebs off,” McLaughlin-Levrone said after her first race of the year. “The first one always hurts, but happy to be here.”
McLaughlin-Levrone is now in pole position to claim the $100,000 being offered to the athlete with the best combined result from the 400m hurdles and 400m.
The lucrative prize money on offer is one of the notable features of the four-event series, which was conceived by US Olympic legend Michael Johnson with the aim of revitalizing interest in track racing.
The opening action of a series that has been billed as the dawn of a new era for the sport was played out in front of a mostly empty stadium.
In other action on Friday, Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas was a similarly emphatic winner in her specialist race.
The 28-year-old surged home in 22.62sec to finish well clear of Marileidy Paulino, the Dominican Republic’s Paris Olympics 400m gold medalist, who clocked 22.96sec.
Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith was third in 22.96sec.
“It’s really exciting to be here,” Thomas said after her win.
Thomas said the prize money offered by the circuit had created an unusually intense degree of competition for an early season event.
“Normally, these early season meets we’re just practicing and feeling it out,” Thomas said. “Here...the stakes are high, the prize pot is huge and the level of competition is also really high.
“That’s not something that we’re really used to in our sport and I think it’s really good.”
In the men’s 100m, where Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles was a notable absentee, two-time Olympic 200m silver medalist Kenny Bednarek took victory in a thrilling duel with Jamaica’s Oblique Seville.
US sprinter Bednarek took the tape in 10.07sec, with Seville second in 10.08sec. Britain’s Zharnel Hughes was third in 10.13 while the USA’s Fred Kerley, the 2022 world 100m champion, was seventh in 10.30sec.
In other action on Friday, newly crowned world indoor 400m champion Chris Bailey continued his impressive start to the season with victory in the 400m in a time of 44.34sec, pipping Olympic silver medalist Matt Hudson-Smith of Great Britain, who was second in 44.65sec, with veteran US one-lap specialist Vernon Norwood third.
The men’s 400m hurdles saw a win for Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos in a world-leading time of 47.61sec, with Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke second in 48.20 and Caleb Dean of the US third in 48.58.
In the women’s 3,000m, Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye produced a devastating late kick to win in 8min 28.42sec ahead of Kenya’s Agnes Jebet Ngetich, with another Ethiopian Tsige Gebreselama third in 8:38.15.
The women’s 800m saw a world-leading time from the USA’s Nikki Hiltz, the American record-holder in the mile who is better known as a 1,500m runner.
Hiltz won in 1min 58.23sec, with Diribe Welteji second in 1:58.29 and Australia’s Jessica Hull third in 1:58.58.
Kenya’s Mary Moraa, the reigning world champion, finished last in 2:00.97.
American runners meanwhile claimed a 1-2-3 finish in the men’s 5,000m, with Grant Fisher winning in 14min 39.14sec.
