Qarabag fight back from 2-0 down to beat Benfica
Union Saint-Gilloise win at PSV on league phase debut
It was a dramatic opening night in the Champions League, with Juventus and Borussia Dortmund sharing eight second-half goals while Qarabag shocked Benfica.
Dusan Vlahovic and Lloyd Kelly scored in stoppage time to inspire a dramatic Juventus escape, as they secured a 4-4 draw in a game where all eight goals came after the break.
Continue reading...Kylian Mbappé converted two penalties to secure Real Madrid a 2-1 victory against Marseille in their Champions League group-stage opener despite playing the final stages with 10 men after their captain, Dani Carvajal, was sent off.
Carvajal had not started the match, coming on after five minutes when Trent Alexander-Arnold pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury.
Continue reading...Ahead of the Mets' first game of three against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night at Citi Field, manager Carlos Mendoza had updates on several players' injury rehabs and what the organization has planned for starter Kodai Senga.
The Mets will have the right-hander make a second start for Triple-A Syracuse at the end of this week, but after that, the next step has yet to be determined.
"We'll go from there," Mendoza said about what comes next. "But he's making, for sure, one more."
In Senga's first start with Syracuse last Thursday, he allowed one run on three hits over 6.0 innings with eight strikeouts and no walks. The 32-year-old got 18 whiffs on 43 swings with nine called strikes for a 36 percent called strike-whiff rate on 74 total pitches. The forkball was particularly good; he threw 17 in total and got 11 whiffs on 11 swings.
After Mendoza spoke, president of baseball operations David Stearns, in his regularly scheduled media availability, laid out what the organization would need to see from Senga to merit bringing him back to the majors.
"Results always matter, results are a part of it, and it's where is the stuff?" Stearns said on Tuesday. "Has the stuff ticked up to the point where we feel comfortable that it's going to consistently get major league hitters out?"
Torrens is playing on Tuesday night at Triple-A and is scheduled to catch seven innings, Mendoza said. "We'll see what we got there," he added about the backstop's rehab from a right forearm contusion.
Torrens posted a .225/.287/.348 slash line for a .635 OPS with five home runs and 29 RBI over 87 games. He had been much better since the All-Star break, batting .275 with a .764 OPS over the final 74 plate appearances before landing on the IL on Sept. 7.
The center fielder had to step away from his injury rehab as he went on the paternity list, but is set to resume activities as he looks to work his way back to the big-league roster.
"The baby was born yesterday, so he's supposed to be back here [Wednesday]," Mendoza said. "And then we'll get him going again and hopefully start playing some rehab games up here shortly."
Taylor landed on the IL with a hamstring strain at the start of the month. In 109 games with the Mets on the year, the 31-year-old has slashed .218/.277/.315 for a .592 OPS. The time on the IL came at a bad time; he had 10 hits and six RBI with a 1.208 OPS in his final seven games.
Mendoza did not have an update on the right-hander, who is expected to see a specialist this week.
"He's got another in-person visit this week, and then we gotta wait," the skipper said.
Megill said he felt tightness when throwing his secondary pitches in his rehab start and was sent for imaging.
President of baseball operations David Stearns and the rest of the Mets’ front office had a busy trade deadline this season. After acquiring reliever Gregory Soto in the days prior, Stearns landed Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers, and Cedric Mullins on July 31, seemingly shoring up any glaring holes on the roster.
But since that day, the Mets have gone 15-26, and with all of the struggles the starting rotation has had since that point, questions have arisen about why Stearns didn’t address the rotation at all at the deadline.
Even before the deadline, there were questions about Kodai Senga, Frankie Montas, and Sean Manaea staying healthy and Clay Holmes’ durability during his first year as a starter.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but Stearns said on Tuesday that he would have done things differently had he known where the rotation would be at this point in time.
“I think if I knew exactly how our season would play out, absolutely (I would have approached the trade deadline differently). No question,” Stearns said. “We make the decisions we make at the time with the information we had. I’m very comfortable with the process we went through that led us to those decisions, but yeah, we did not play well during the month of August, and frankly, to this point through September. We’ve had various segments of our team that haven’t performed certainly to the level that we anticipated as we approached the trade deadline, and had I had that knowledge going in, yes, it would have changed what we did.
“I think we’re always trying to project out various possibilities, and there’s a probabilistic nature to everything we do, and we understand that we’re not going to get everything right. We’re unlikely to predict with perfection what seasons are going to look like, what stretches of seasons are going to look like. So I think certainly we have to learn from this and determine whether there are things we could have seen that we did not, but I am confident in our evaluative capabilities and our work on the whole that we’ve accomplished.”
Helsley has struggled with pitch-tipping and consistency, as evidenced by his 10.29 ERA as a Met, and while Rogers has pitched well and Soto has been up-and-down, Mullins has scuffled, posting a .571 OPS in 34 games as a Met.
"I think Cedric came over to a new team for the first time in his career, adjusting to a new organization, little bit of a different role. Got off to a little bit of a struggle, and sometimes that can put pressure on players, and I think he's spoken about that a little bit, that sometimes you can press," Stearns said when asked about Mullins' struggles. "I do think he's beginning to come out of it. I think we're seeing him have a little bit more productive at-bats, staying in at-bats, getting on time with the fastball little bit better. And so that's a really good sign for us."
The question, then, is a simple one: what exactly went wrong?
“First of all I would say we’re not at the end of the line yet, so there are potentially chapters yet to be written, but to this point it’s a fair assessment that our trade deadline, at least some of our trade deadline acquisitions, have not performed to the level that we expected or the level that they have performed at throughout their careers,” Stearns said. “Part of that is streakiness and randomness, and this happens every year in baseball with some trade deadline acquisitions. Part of it is, we need to look and ensure that we’re doing everything we can to help these guys succeed.
"We take a lot of pride in, when players come here, allowing them to be the best versions of themselves. We’ve talked a lot about that, and so when that doesn’t happen, we need to be honest about that as well and see what more we can do.”
As poor as the Mets have played since the start of August, particularly during the recently snapped eight-game losing streak, the club still currently owns the third and final NL Wild Card spot, sitting 1.5 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks and 2.0 games ahead of both the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds.
As Stearns said, the story of the Mets’ 2025 season hasn’t been completed just yet, and all he and the rest of the club can do now is focus on doing whatever is needed to make the dance and play in October.
“I think when you’re sitting where we were in mid-June, we would not have expected to be in this spot,” said Stearns. “There’s no question about that. We’ll have time to evaluate and diagnose and do all of that stuff. For right now, my focus is here from here forward, what can we do to win as many games as possible, and that’s in the regular season and the postseason.”
The Europa League holders marked their return to the Champions League with a scrappy win
Bergvall is sent scampering down the right flank. He looks for Richarlison in the middle with a low cross. Junior dives to claim, but in diving forward to collect, allows the ball to squirt out of his hands, backwards, and into the bottom right. What a huge blunder! What a gift! What a start for Spurs!
2 min: Foyth’s first act on his return to north London is to clatter into Richarlison, knocking him upside the head in an aerial duel. The resulting free kick is launched long, and Van de Ven tees up Simons, who screeches a first-time shot over the bar from distance. A statement of intent from Simons on his home debut.
Continue reading...⚽ Goals and much more from the league stage’s first night
⚽ Live scores | Follow us over on Bluesky | And on Threads
One of the greatest nights in Union Saint-Gilloise’s history. They’ve done an emphatic number on the Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven, with Anouar Ait El Hadj’s exhilarating solo goal the highlight.
UNION SG ARE TOP OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
Continue reading...The Knicks have signed center Trey Jemison III and forward Tosan Evbuomwan to two-way contracts, sources tell SNY NBA Insider Ian Begley.
Jemison, a 6-foot-11, 270-pound big man, will provide New York with some additional front-court depth.
Evbuomwan's signing was originally announced on Tuesday as an Exhibit 10 contract, but Begley reported it will be a two-way deal.
Jemison, 25, has appeared in 63 NBA games (14 starts) with four organizations over the past two seasons. He played 22 games with the Lakers and 16 games with the Pelicans a year ago, averaging 10.3 minutes with 2.5 points and 2.8 rebounds during his time with both franchises.
The center saw his most extensive action with the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2023-24 season, making 14 starts out of 23 appearances, averaging 7.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and 1.2 assists in 24.9 minutes. He went undrafted in 2003 out of UAB, appearing for the Suns' Summer League squad before latching on with the New Orleans Pelicans' G League affiliate.
Evbuomwan, 24, has made 45 career appearances over the past two seasons, including eight starts. He last played with the Nets during the 2024-25 season, averaging 9.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 23.8 minutes off the bench. The 6-foot-8 forward went undrafted out of Princeton in 2023.
The Knicks will enter the preseason with two players signed to two-way contracts. (NBA teams are allowed to carry a maximum of three players on two-way deals.) Kevin McCullar Jr. is expected to return on a two-way deal to fill the final spot, Begley noted.
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney passionately defended his record and said the Tigers can 'send me on my way' if they're 'tired of winning'
UCLA and Virginia Tech's head coaches are out. Who might be next? There's a new philosophy in college football on how to redo an offense in the offseason and it is not just focusing on NIL. Replay transparency has entered college football. Where might it go from here?
As contract negotiations between Kirill Kaprizov and the Minnesota Wild continue, an interesting development is occurring.
One NHL insider hinted on Tuesday that it will be Kaprizov, and not Connor McDavid, that pushes the salary cap ceiling higher in the NHL this summer.
Kaprizov’s camp has already turned down the richest contract in NHL history. Seravalli questioned why in a recent segment for Bleacher Report. He then noted, “Who’s going to be that guy that steps up to push the envelope and move it forward for NHL players? It’s probably not going to be Connor McDavid, so it could be someone like [Kaprizov].”
After Kirill Kaprizov reportedly rejected an 8-year, $128 million extension with the Wild, contract discussions are at a standstill 👀
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) September 16, 2025
(w/ @frank_seravalli) pic.twitter.com/VRc7Fp6nz4
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Prime Minister Weighs In On McDavid Contract Drama in Edmonton
The NHL’s rising salary cap is a leverage point for Kaprizov, who is also using comments from Wild owner Craig Leopold against the organization. Leopold was public in his saying that no team would or could pay Kaprizov more than the Wild. It appears the superstar is holding them to it.
Meanwhile, McDavid is taking his time with his extension, but no one believes this is about money for the captain of the Edmonton Oilers.
In fact, some believe McDavid will opt for a shorter-term deal, one that doesn't set a new record for the total overall value of an extension. Meanwhile, Kaprizov is rumored to be open to an eight-year extension, but he wants better than a record-setting deal. He wants something that maintains strong value as the cap increases exponentially.
Insiders like Seravalli are suggesting Kaprizov could emerge as the next player to push the financial boundaries set by the league's highest-paid players.
McDavid will remain the game’s top player, but in Minnesota, the Wild are about to pay for how valued Kaprizov is in that market. He is trying to negotiate terms that reflect his elite performance, the league’s financial growth, and what he's worth in the Minnesota market. The standstill between the two sides is his trying to structure and maximize his value.
For McDavid, he's looking at winning and what it's going to take for the Oilers to be competitive. That means taking a little less.
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An uneasiness has set in all over Tuscaloosa. But are Bama fans expecting too much?
When looking back at the past three prospects challenges for the Pittsburgh Penguins - all of which they have won - there is a common denominator.
And his name is Avery Hayes.
Hayes, 22, continues to impress the organization after being signed to a two-year AHL contract prior to the 2023-24 season. Undrafted, the 5-foot-10, 175-pound right wing registered 23 goals and 42 points in 60 AHL games last season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS), which earned him a two-year entry-level contract with the Penguins this offseason.
And he's been the standout at the past three Prospects Challenges for the Penguins, which includes four goals in three games this time around.
“I always believed in myself. I always had kind of that confidence about myself," Hayes told Penguins' team reporter Michelle Crechiolo. "But it’s just nice knowing I'm going to be here for a couple more years, hopefully longer."
And if Hayes keeps up what he's doing, his NHL future may not be too far away.
It will certainly be an uphill climb for Hayes to make the NHL roster out of training camp, as there will be a lot of young and veteran forwards competing for few spots on the roster. Forwards like Ville Koivunen, Tristan Broz, Filip Hallander, and Rutger McGroarty - currently on the shelf with an undisclosed injury - will also be vying for the same spots.
But - despite being a bit undersized - Hayes's all-around game makes him an intriguing player. He's good in all three zones, can play in all situations, and isn't afraid to drive the net. He's also a good forechecker.
Some - such as Jesse Marshall of Elite Prospects - have compared him to Penguins' top-six forward Bryan Rust, who has a similar skillset and work ethic, started as a fourth-liner at the NHL level, and worked his way up to the top line - and has now put together six straight seasons of 20 or more goals.
Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) on X@pensroadwarrior Agree, I’d even argue there are similarities in play styleHayes is certainly a player to watch during training camp this season. Even if he doesn't crack the NHL roster initially, don't be surprised to see him skating with the Penguins sometime this season.
There are too many great teams in the NHL for all of them to exceed or match expectations.
Some squads just end up being shockingly disappointing to their fans.
Last season, the Nashville Predators, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers were just that, missing the playoffs when getting that far was initially a no-brainer.
It’s only natural for a handful of teams to fall short of their pre-season goals, whether that’s being a top team in the NHL, a playoff team or a bubble team.
Here are three NHL teams that could surprise everyone next season – in a bad way.
The Los Angeles Kings have been a respectable regular-season team, finishing in the top three of the Pacific Division for the last four campaigns. However, they can't get past the first round of the playoffs and the Edmonton Oilers.
This off-season was a great opportunity for the Kings and new GM Ken Holland to leapfrog the Oilers in terms of their roster.
However, there’s a strong belief that Los Angeles didn’t do that, adding D-men Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin, goaltender Anton Forsberg and right wingers Joel Armia and Corey Perry. The team already received a blow as Perry has been ruled out for six to eight weeks following knee surgery.
Add that loss to an aging Kings team, where their core players like captain Anze Kopitar, D-man Drew Doughty and starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper are 35 or older. Los Angeles has plenty of young players who could counter that, but it isn’t a sure thing to expect this team to improve drastically from last year.
The Washington Capitals blew expectations out of the water last season in Spencer Carbery’s second year as their coach. They led the Eastern Conference with 111 points, which were 20 points more than the season before.
Captain Alexander Ovechkin’s historic goals record chase not only highlighted their campaign by energized it.
Even Carbery said the chase gave his team “a boost and energy at times down the stretch.” With that, he believed his players made an extra effort to help push Ovechkin to the record, which, in the end, took a lot out of his players.
While the Capitals are still in a position to be a playoff contender with the likes of Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, goaltender Logan Thompson, rookie Ryan Leonard and many more crucial pieces of the roster, they likely won’t be the powerhouse they were last season.
BetMGM set the over/under for the Capitals' regular-season points total this season at 96.5. Their odds of getting more than that are at 1.91 (-110), while the odds for the under are at 1.83. (-120).
It could be considered a controversial take to say the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions won’t meet expectations next season. After all, they have the best odds of winning the Stanley Cup this season at 7.00 (+600) on BetMGM.
However, the Florida Panthers have reached the Stanley Cup final for three straight seasons. They won’t be able to recreate that success at some point.
The biggest concern for this impressive team would be its health. Florida has played more hockey than anyone else over the last three years, and the team hasn’t changed much aside from a couple of trade deadline acquisitions.
It’s already known that Matthew Tkachuk will be missing a chunk of this season with a torn adductor and sports hernia injury. It’s a significant loss to be without a star player and leader like Tkachuk, which could affect the start of the Panthers’ campaign.
The underperforming may not stop when the regular season is over, either. Ever since the Tampa Bay Lightning went to the Cup final for three straight years, they haven’t been able to get past the first round of the playoffs or clinch their division.
Could their Florida state counterparts face a similar situation next season?
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Club World Cup winners are Champions League contenders
Chelsea captain surprised by Nicolas Jackson’s loan
Reece James said Chelsea would make their Champions League return confident they were capable of competing with the best teams in the world.
Enzo Maresca’s young side are back at Europe’s top table after a two-year absence and face a stern test when they open the league phase by facing Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday. Yet James is not worried about Chelsea’s lack of experience and accepts that July’s triumph in the Club World Cup means they are contenders to become European champions.
Continue reading...Colorado football coach Deion Sanders is keeping his quarterback choice a mystery again as the Buffaloes prepare to play Wyoming.
