Author: Adejuyigbe Francis

Erling Haaland scored his first derby goals at Old Trafford with a classy double as Premier League champions Manchester City coasted to a 3-0 drubbing of fierce rivals Manchester United. The Norway forward tucked away a penalty for the opener on 26 minutes by sending United keeper André Onana the wrong way from the spot after VAR decided Rasmus Hojlund had pulled back Rodri in a crowded home area. He added his 11th league of the season when he finished off a blistering sweeping move to power home a header from a Bernardo Silva cross on 49 minutes. And Haaland…

PSG snatched a 3-2 win away to Stade Brestois in Ligue 1 courtesy of Kylian Mbappe’s late goal to make it four victories on the spin. Luis Enrique’s side, fresh from their 3-0 victory over AC Milan in midweek, began confidently and broke the deadlock when Bradley Barcola twisted past two challenges before finding Warren Zaire-Emery who fired his shot from distance into the corner for a superb goal. The visitors continued to dominate and doubled their lead when Lee Kang-in pinged the ball over the top for Kylian Mbappe to bulldoze his way into the box and score. Brest…

Liverpool’s players showed their support to absent team-mate Luis Diaz during a comfortable win over Nottingham Forest at Anfield. Diaz missed the match following reports his parents had been kidnapped in Colombia, with officials still searching for the winger’s missing father after his mother was rescued. Diogo Jota, surrounded by his team-mates, held up the Colombia winger’s shirt after firing the Reds into a 31st-minute lead when Matt Turner turned Darwin Nunez’s attempt into the Portuguese forward’s path. Liverpool were dominant and Uruguay striker Nunez doubled the advantage four minutes later with his sixth club goal of the campaign after a…

Tyson Fury escaped defeat in a split-decision victory over Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night. The pair met in Riyadh in what was Ngannou’s first professional boxing match after his move from UFC, where he was the heavyweight champion. While few expected him to win, he had been training with Mike Tyson and others and many believed him to at least have a puncher’s chance, such is his power. Fury, meanwhile, came to the ring as the undefeated WBC heavyweight champion, one of the pound-for-pound best and despite standing a full 6′ 9″, is a fluid and technical…

South Africa clinched a record fourth Rugby World Cup title by doing just enough to deny 14-man New Zealand and retain their crown in a helter-skelter final in Paris. The Springboks seemed to have control when, with Handre Pollard’s dead-eyed goalkicking having already given them a 9-3 lead, Sam Cane caught Jesse Kriel high in the 27th minute. The New Zealand captain was shown a red card on review and another Pollard penalty left the All Blacks a man down, nine points behind and in deep trouble. But New Zealand rallied, rode their luck and dragged themselves back into the…

Andrea Cambiaso’s scrappy goal in the 96th minute earned Juventus a last-gasp win over Hellas Verona to send the Turin club to the top of the table. The relief was palpable for Juve after an evening when Moise Kean twice saw goals disallowed by the video assistant referee on a hugely frustrating night for the otherwise lively forward. Kean’s first, well-finished after a brilliant solo move, was ruled out for an extremely tight offside as he came back to receive the ball earlier in the move. And his second, well-finished after the break, was ruled out for a foul by…

Harry Kane scored his second hat-trick of the Bundesliga season as 10-man Bayern Munich bounced back from a goalless first 45 minutes to beat nine-man Darmstadt 8-0 on a wild afternoon at the Allianz Arena. Joshua Kimmich was sent off after just four minutes, but red cards for Klaus Gjasula and Matej Maglica ensured the hosts had the man advantage at the break, the first time three men have ever been sent off in the first half of a German top-flight encounter. Kane broke the deadlock six minutes after the restart but it was his second goal, a magnificent effort…

Labour Party National Chairman, Julius Abure, has terminated the appointments of some of his aides. The National Secretary of the party, Malam Umar Farouk, confirmed this in a statement made available to journalists on Saturday, stating that all appointments related to elections and campaigns have been dissolved. The statement made available to newsmen revealed the appointees sacked by Abure to include Mr Mandela Ukegbu, Chairman of Labour Party Presidential Campaign Committee on Special Duties; Engineer Balami Isaac David, Senior Special Assistant on Presidential Campaign, Fund Raising and Grassroot Mobilization; Didacus Joe-Adigwe, Senior Special Adviser on Strategy, Protocol and International Relations; Princess…

Jude Bellingham lived up to his billing on El Clasico debut, bagging a stunning brace including a 91st-minute winner to write an impossible Real Madrid comeback and sink a determined Barcelona who were better for most of the game. It was a game with lots of aggression but few chances, especially in the first half, and both goals seemingly came from nowhere with Ilkay Gundogan picking the perfect time to score his first goal for the Catalan club. He gave Xavi’s side the lead just six minutes in after Aurelien Tchouameni inadvertently sent the perfect through-ball into his own box,…

The Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has revealed that the ongoing quick-fix project at the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited, KRPC, will be back on stream by the end of 2024. The Minister disclosed this during an inspection tour of Kaduna Refinery & Petrochemicals while assessing the progress of work on the ongoing quick-fix project of the Refinery in Kaduna on Saturday. Lokpobiri said he is confident that the refinery will be restreamed by the end of 2024, considering the “significant level of progress” he has witnessed on the tour. The Minister, who…

Eddie Nketiah scored a hat-trick as Arsenal breezed past bottom club Sheffield United 5-0. The Gunners saw plenty of the ball from the outset and broke through on 28 minutes when Nketiah expertly collected a cross from behind his body, then slotted home. Nketiah doubled the advantage five minutes into the second half, slamming in from close range, then blasted a 25-yard shot into the top corner to complete his hat-trick in style. Fabio Vieira scored a late penalty, having won the spot kick himself, before Takehiro Tomiyasu netted from a stoppage time corner to complete the rout. The resounding…

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, and the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, are on a project inspection visit to the Kaduna refinery. The duo arrived at the facility earlier in the day to inspect work progress on the ongoing quick-fix project at the refinery. Aside from the project inspection, Lokpobiri and the Kyari are also in Kaduna for the 14th Refineries Rehabilitation Steering Committee meeting, this platform learned. The refinery project is linked with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to the Ministry of Petroleum and NNPCL to fix the nation’s moribund refineries…