BUDAPEST: Crashing face-first into the ground, France defender Benjamin Pavard said he felt like a boxer knocked out on the canvas.
Pavard slammed into the turf in the 59th minute of France’s 1-0 victory over Germany on Tuesday at the European Championship following a challenge from opposing midfielder Robin Gosens.
“I was a bit KO’d for about 10-15 seconds,” Pavard told broadcaster beIN Sports after the game. “After that I felt better.”
UEFA and players’ union FIFPRO have questioned why France’s medical staff let Pavard continue playing in the match in Munich.
Teams doctors and coaches from all 24 teams at Euro 2020 signed up to UEFA’s Concussion Charter before the tournament. It states that “if a player of our team is suspected of having suffered a concussion, he will be immediately removed from the pitch, whether in training or match play.”
FIFPRO said it was in touch with UEFA to find out why the Concussion Charter was not applied and Pavard was not removed from the match.
Pavard was about to head the ball away from the goalmouth when Gosens jumped into the air and his knee caught the Frenchman around the neck. It sent the off-balance Pavard tumbling forward and he hit the ground face-first, with his right arm only slightly breaking his fall.
The decision for Pavard to continue rested with him and the team’s doctor.
UEFA said its medical people are in contact with the French soccer federation to ascertain if he is able to train or play under protocol rules.
The federations’s medical director, Emmanuel Orhant, is also a member of the UEFA medical committee.
Soccer’s rule-making panel, known as IFAB, is monitoring early trials with temporary substitutes for players who need to have a suspected head injury assessed, but they are not being used at Euro 2020.
The France team said Pavard had not lost consciousness at any point and was able to continue playing.
Pavard had lunch with his teammates as planned on Wednesday and took part in the afternoon training session. The French national team posted a photo on Twitter of him walking alongside teammate Paul Pogba in their training gear.
“It’s true that I took a very heavy blow, I didn’t see it coming,” Pavard said Wednesday. “But everything is fine and I have recovered well. I feel very well.”
A similar incident happened in a match between West Germany and France in the 1982 World Cup semifinals.
Germany goalkeeper Harald Schumacher rushed off his line and jumped into France defender Patrick Battiston just after he had taken a shot, catching him full in the face with his knee and sending him falling backward onto the ground.
Battiston received oxygen as he was carried off the field unconscious in Seville as distressed teammate Michel Platini, whose pass Battiston had latched onto, held his hand. Battiston fell into a coma but later recovered.
After Tuesday’s match in Munich, Pavard was lucid enough to talk in detail about the performance.
“We came across a very good Germany team who had more possession. We really played well, whether in attack or defense, and we stuck together when things were tough,” the 25-year-old Pavard said. “We coped well when they were starting to get on top, and they didn’t get many shots on target.”
Other than Pavard’s worrying fall, France has had no other injuries to contend with. The defending World Cup champions next face Hungary in Budapest on Saturday.
“We’re in good shape physically and I think we’re going to keep getting better in the competition,” Pavard said. “It’s very encouraging for what’s ahead.”
France’s Pavard felt KO’d for nearly 15 seconds at Euro 2020
https://arab.news/yjsmj
France’s Pavard felt KO’d for nearly 15 seconds at Euro 2020
- Pavard slammed into the turf in the 59th minute of France's 1-0 victory over Germany on Tuesday
- “I was a bit KO'd for about 10-15 seconds,” Pavard told broadcaster beIN Sports
Renard confident Green Falcons ready for Gulf Cup challenge
- Frenchman emphasized that his team was aiming for significant results rather than merely gaining experience
KUWAIT CITY: Herve Renard, the Saudi national football team’s head coach, expressed confidence on Saturday in his team’s readiness to compete at the 26th Arabian Gulf Cup, which gets underway on Sunday.
Speaking at a press conference, the Frenchman emphasized that his team was aiming for significant results rather than merely gaining experience.
“We are here to participate effectively and win,” Renard said. “This tournament provides a great platform to work with the players and prepare them for future competitions.”
Renard also said the tournament was a good way to enhance the technical and physical capabilities of his players.
He provided updates on key players, confirming that defender Hassan Tambakti was fully ready for action. However, he said Salem Al-Dawsari was still working to regain full fitness.
Renard praised Al-Dawsari’s dedication to his recovery process, saying it demonstrated his commitment to the team.
Meanwhile, striker Firas Al-Brikan is dealing with an injury, and his participation will depend on further medical evaluations.
Acknowledging the challenges of the competition, Renard said: “I accepted this challenge because I believe in the players’ capabilities. We must work with team spirit and focus on improvement in the coming period.”
The Saudi team get their campaign up and running against Bahrain on Sunday, and Renard stressed the importance of delivering a strong performance to set the tone for the tournament.
Aston Villa beat Manchester City to deepen Guardiola’s pain
- City manager in the worst run of his glittering career said Friday “sooner or later” things will turn around
BIRMINGHAM: Aston Villa beat crisis-hit Manchester City 2-1 on Saturday to heap more misery on floundering manager Pep Guardiola, who has now suffered nine defeats in his past 12 matches.
Jhon Duran finished off a fine team move to give the home side an early lead and Morgan Rogers doubled Villa’s advantage in the 65th minute.
Phil Foden scored his first Premier League goal of the season in stoppage time but it proved to be too little too late.
Pep Guardiola, in the worst run of his glittering career, said Friday that “sooner or later” things will turn around but City’s fear factor has vanished.
The win lifts Unai Emery’s inconsistent Villa team to fifth in the Premier League table, one place above sinking City.
Guardiola made six changes to the team side that lost last week’s Manchester derby, bringing in goalkeeper Stefan Ortega and reshaping his defense with Rico Lewis, John Stones and Manuel Akanji.
Mateo Kovacic and Jack Grealish also returned.
But the defending champions started the match in chaotic fashion and could have been behind inside 20 seconds.
Untidy work from Josko Gvardiol allowed John McGinn to steal the ball and he fed Duran, whose shot from outside the box was pushed behind by Ortega.
Villa were millimeters away from taking the lead from the resulting corner, with Ortega, in for first-choice goalkeeper Ederson, producing a superb save to deny Pau Torres.
City then settled and their possession numbers topped 75 percent but they created little.
Instead it was Villa who took the lead through Duran after a superb team move, scoring his seventh Premier League goal of the season.
Youri Tielemans delivered a wonderful defense-splitting pass to Rogers, who burst through City’s backline with ease before finding Duran on his right and the Colombian international finished crisply.
Phil Foden tested Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in the 35th minute after an incisive move involving Lewis.
And Gvardiol squandered a glorious chance moments before half-time, heading over a Grealish cross.
Guardiola brought on Kyle Walker for Stones at the break.
Minutes into the second half Villa’s Matty Cash lashed an attempt into the side netting after a speedy attack before Duran had a strike ruled out for offside.
Rogers hit the foot of the post just before the hour mark after an intricate team move down the left.
Emery’s men doubled their lead 20 minutes into the second half, with Rogers finishing unerringly from a McGinn pass.
City created little as they searched for a way back into the game until Foden pounced for a late consolation goal.
Learner Tien’s ‘victory royale’ sets him up for promising 2025
- American teenager to face good friend and compatriot Michelsen in Jeddah Next Gen semifinals
JEDDAH: As American teenager Learner Tien wrapped up a four-set victory over Arthur Fils on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah, his next opponent, Alex Michelsen, rose to his feet on the sidelines to applaud his good friend and point to a message printed on the back of his sweatshirt: “Victory Royale” — a nod to the hours he and Tien have spent playing the video game Fortnite together.
“We play a lot together. So it’s kind of a joke,” Tien told Arab News in Jeddah on Friday. “Our agent got us tracksuits that say it on the back. We both got different colors.”
Tien and Michelsen share more than just a love for video games and matching tracksuits. They have trained at the same academy in Irvine, California for the past four years under the tutelage of Jay Leavitt and Eric Diaz, and share the same agent, Mats Merkel of IMG.
Their friendship will briefly take a backseat when they square off in Jeddah on Saturday evening, as they vie for a spot in the final at the prestigious 20-and-under tournament.
“It’s really cool I think,” said Tien. “I’ve been telling him that we are going to play at this tournament for a while. We’ve played, obviously, before, but never at the professional level. I think he’s 2-1 on me in singles. He tries to count doubles and say it’s 4-1, but I only count singles; so he’s up one on me right now.”
Despite missing three months of action earlier this season due to a fractured rib, Tien has amassed a 62-13 win-loss record over 2024 across all levels, including a trio of titles on the Challenger Tour.
He started the season ranked 473 in the world and hit a career-high mark of 114 last month to position himself as one of the top Next Gen players on the men’s professional circuit.
When he returned from his injury layoff in May, he won a stunning 28 matches in a row across six different tournaments, setting the tone for a strong finish to the season here in Jeddah.
“I think a lot of things changed for him mentally when he got injured,” Diaz told Arab News on Friday. “He matured a lot, started working a lot harder, taking things a little bit more seriously — not that he didn’t prior, but you could see the maturity level change. He diligently worked, diligently analyzed what he needed to get better at and he really went after it.”
This isn’t the first time Tien has benefitted from taking a break from tennis. When the pandemic shut down the tour in 2020, it came at a time where Tien needed some time away from the sport to be a regular young teenager, although ‘regular’ might not necessarily be the right word, since during that hiatus, Tien managed to graduate from high school at the age of 15.
At 16, he won his first of two USTA U18 National Championships and at 17 he attended the University of Southern California for a semester before deciding to turn pro.
Asked if starting high school when he was just 11 years old helped him make such big leaps in professional tennis as a teenager, Tien said: “I honestly did all that early just because my mom was a teacher, so she started me in school early. I really didn’t want to, but I’m glad she did it now. Obviously, it’s great to have all that stuff out of the way so I can just focus on tennis, like I’ve wanted to for a while. Having school, there was an incentive for me to play tennis instead. I’m truly grateful that she started me young, but I definitely didn’t enjoy it.”
Although Tien always knew he was good at tennis — a sport he was introduced to by his parents — he admitted he “didn’t love it” early on.
“(But) I thought I’d put so much time into it already, it would be kind of a waste just to stop. I thought that when I was 10 or 11. Thought that even more when I was 13 or 14, like, ‘Oh, I’ve played even longer now, it will be a bigger waste if I stop now,’” he reflected. “Then, I eventually found that love for it and it’s taken me to where I am today.”
He says the breaks he took during the COVID pandemic and his injury this year have helped him “reset” and made him appreciate the sport even more.
“Obviously taking time away from tennis, you end up missing it a little bit, so when you come back, you’re a little bit more motivated and it’s kind of easier to go out there day in, day out, just because you’ve been away for a while,” he said. “I think that really helped — especially this year. Coming back, I was a lot more motivated to practice harder and work on a lot of things that needed some work and it inevitably ended up helping me a lot.”
This is the first time Tien has competed in a tournament outside the US at the professional level and he’s excited to continue that trend when he heads to Hong Kong for the official start of his 2025 season, before flying to Melbourne for the Australian Open.
Previous Next Gen ATP Finals participants and champions have gone on to achieve great things on the tour, with the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner both claiming Grand Slam titles and topping the world rankings not long after their participation.
“I think it’s cool to know that you’re following in their footsteps, going down a similar path to people that have had so much success — even recent winners having a lot of success,” said Tien.
“It’s definitely cool to feel like you’re doing the right thing and you’re taking the right steps to get to that level someday. But I don’t think there’s any pressure that comes with it.”
As he looks to enjoy his first full season at the ATP level in 2025, Tien is bracing himself for change, knowing he’ll be facing new challenges. Not only will the competition level get higher, he’ll also have to learn to adjust to a different calendar that features multiple surface changes, and a great deal of international travel.
His coach Diaz believes stepping up physically will be key for this next chapter of Tien’s tennis journey.
“The jump from the Futures to the Challengers, the difference is the physicality. And then the jump from the Challengers to the main tour is obviously physicality. Learner definitely has the footspeed, the hand speed… but continuing to develop and to become a man, he’s going to have to get stronger,” said Diaz.
Michelsen, who is a year older than Tien, has already made that leap to the ATP Tour and is ranked a career-high 41 in the world.
Diaz is aware both Tien and Michelsen will likely be facing off at tournaments more often moving forward, which will be an interesting dynamic given they share the same team.
“It’s really cool. Both Jay and I, it’s honestly something we never really thought would happen years ago when we started all of it. It’s a surreal moment,” said Diaz, looking ahead to the semifinal in Jeddah.
“Both of those boys have worked incredibly hard. They’ve pushed each other to get better and to improve. So to be on a stage like this now — and to have a guarantee one of them is in the final — is a pretty cool moment.
“Hopefully it does continue to happen, because I think that means they’re both continuing to push each other to get better. It would be an interesting thing. I’m not sure that either one of them would be there if it wasn’t for the other one. We’re big (believers that) iron sharpens iron. So it’s gone well.”
Rafael Nadal delights fans after landing in Jeddah for Next Gen ATP Finals
- The Spanish tennis legend toured the old city of Al-Balad and greeted a massive crowd at King Abdullah Sports City
JEDDAH: Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal began his three-day visit on Friday to Jeddah, where he took a tour of Al-Balad and met players and fans at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF.
The Spanish legend started his time in Jeddah by visiting Al-Balad and taking a tour of Jeddah Historic District before making his way to King Abdullah Sports City, where the Next Gen ATP Finals are being played.
Nadal led a meet-and-greet and attended a prize-giving ceremony at an U-14 ATF tournament, which was held at a stadium next to the main competition.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion met future stars of tennis competing in the Next Gen ATP Finals — Alex Michelsen, Jakub Mensik and Joao Fonseca — before thrilling the massive crowd in the fan zone, where he signed autographs and posed for selfies.
Nadal, who is working with the Saudi Tennis Federation to support its ambition of inspiring one million people to engage — from playing to administration — with tennis by 2030, continues his tour of Jeddah on Saturday by meeting Saudi Davis Cup players ahead of the semifinals of the Next Gen ATP Finals.
Semifinal lineup set for Next Gen ATP finals in Jeddah
- Learner Tien stuns top seed Arthur Fils to face Alex Michelsen at King Abdullah Sports City
- Van Assche defeats Basavareddy to set up clash with undefeated Joao Fonseca in Saturday’s other match
JEDDAH: The semifinal lineup for the 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF was confirmed on Friday following a dramatic conclusion to the group stage in Jeddah.
Sixth seed Learner Tien produced a sensational performance against top seed Arthur Fils to open the evening session with a 4-2, 4-2, 3-4 (4-7), 4-3 (7-5) victory that created an electric atmosphere inside the King Abdullah Sports City stadium.
With only the winner advancing from the Blue Group to the semifinals, the tension was present from the first point, and it ensured a match full of drama and excitement. Despite being separated by 102 places in the PIF ATP Rankings, it was the lower-ranked Tien who seized control, securing early breaks in the first two sets to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
However, Fils refused to go down without a fight. The World No.20 from France, buoyed by the majority of the enthusiastic support, soon displayed his world-class ability to fight back and win the third set. A knife-edge fourth set eventually went to another tiebreak before Tien emerged victorious to continue a remarkably successful week in his first professional tournament outside the US.
The 19-year-old was supported by fellow American Alex Michelsen during his match against Fils, but the two friends will become opponents on Saturday when they play each other for a place in the final.
Tien said: “It was great from the moment we walked out. The crowd was great, the atmosphere was really good, and it carried throughout the match, so it was really fun playing out there.”
In the first of the two winner-takes-all group stage matches on Friday, sixth seed Luca Van Assche claimed the runner-up spot in the Red Group by defeating seventh seed Nishesh Basavareddy 3-4 (2-7), 4-3 (9-7), 4-2, 4-2 following an entertaining and competitive contest.
The 20-year-old Frenchman reached the last four on his debut in Jeddah last year and has now matched that result, having secured two wins out of three in the group stage.
Van Assche will next face Joao Fonseca on Saturday for a place in the final after the 18-year-old Brazilian topped the Blue Group with a marathon 3-4 (4-7), 4-3 (10-8), 4-3 (7-5), 3-4 (4-7), 4-3 (7-5) victory over the already-eliminated third seed Jakub Mensik in the last match of the day.
On playing Fonseca in the semifinals, Van Assche said: “He’s an unbelievable talent. I practiced with him four or five days ago, so he’s a tough opponent for sure. I know that I can beat him, so it will be a very good match — a tough one. But you practice to play these matches, so it’ll be cool.”
Day three got underway with second seed Alex Michelsen confirming his place as the winner of the Red Group after fourth seed Juncheng Shang retired from their match. The 20-year-old American was leading 4-1, 1-1 before China’s Shang called time early, having struggled with illness over the last two days.
Michelsen has enjoyed a successful return to Jeddah. He went winless on his debut appearance in 2023, but has been a leading star this year, winning all three of his group stage matches to ease into the semifinals.
