Latest news with #Dunkerque
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dunkerque's Luís Castro wants to join Lens after rejecting Shakhtar Donetsk
USL Dunkerque's Luís Castro turned down the opportunity to become Shakhtar Donetsk's new manager, however, the Portuguese technician is interested in another job in France, according to a report from Foot Mercato. Castro exceeded all expectations this season, taking Dunkerque into the promotion play-offs in Ligue 2. His side came unstuck against FC Metz in the dying moments and, as a result, will compete in the second tier once again next season. However, will that be with or without Castro? Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk had hoped to recruit the Dunkerque manager as a successor to Marino Pusic, however, Castro refused. Arda Turan has now been confirmed in the post. But that does not mean that the Portuguese manager won't leave Dunkerque during the off season. RC Lens remain without a manager. Will Still left the club to join Southampton earlier this month after just one season. Castro is open to joining Les Sang et Or. Castro's representatives have held talks with the club's new sporting director, Jean-Louis Leca, however, there are other candidates in the running, notably former Olympique Lyonnais manager Pierre Sage. GFFN | Luke Entwistle
Al-Ahram Weekly
04-04-2025
- Sport
- Al-Ahram Weekly
PSG eye becoming France's first 'Invincibles' - World
Paris Saint-Germain can wrap up another Ligue 1 title this weekend and are also closing in on the first ever unbeaten season in the top flight of French football. PSG play host to relegation-threatened Angers on Saturday knowing a draw will be enough for them to secure their 11th French championship triumph in the last 13 years. It is a long period of dominance which began quickly after the takeover of the club by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. The financial gap between PSG and the rest of France now appears unbridgeable, and Luis Enrique's team are currently a huge 21 points clear at the top of the table with seven games of the season to play. For them to miss out on the title now, PSG would have to lose every remaining game and Monaco would have to win all of theirs and also oversee an enormous swing in goal difference. Put simply, that is not going to happen, and the Parisians will hope to finish the job in front of their own supporters before switching their focus to their Champions League quarter-final first leg at home to Aston Villa next Wednesday. This midweek PSG secured their place in the final of the French Cup, surviving a scare by coming from two goals down to beat Ligue 2 side Dunkerque 4-2 and set up a clash with Reims on May 24. They have not lost any of their last 38 matches against domestic opponents across all competitions since a 3-1 defeat at home to Toulouse last May. The likes of Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, Juventus, Celtic and, just last season, Bayer Leverkusen have all gone through domestic league campaigns without losing a game in the 21st century. In France, Nantes have come the closest, going unbeaten through their first 32 matches of the 38-game season as they took the title in 1994/95. PSG have played 27 of 34 matches in this Ligue 1 campaign, and surely should remain unbeaten as long as they do not become distracted by the Champions League. "We are not unbeatable, we are not invincible, we are not film heroes," insisted Luis Enrique after Tuesday's win against Dunkerque. "We are just a football team. Perfection does not exist and we are not perfect." Yet PSG, with the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Achraf Hakimi in outstanding form, should not need to be perfect to keep their current run going domestically. After this weekend, three of their final six Ligue 1 matches will be against sides presently in the bottom six. A home game against Champions League hopefuls Nice and a trip to in-form Strasbourg are the toughest remaining assignments on the domestic front. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.) Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
The National
04-04-2025
- Sport
- The National
PSG close in on Ligue 1 title with inexhaustible Achraf Hakimi leading the charge
On his 50th match of the season so far, Achraf Hakimi experienced something that, in the course of the previous 49, he had known only once. But, this time, being 2-0 down with half time imminent was a mighty shock bearing heavy consequences – unless it could be redeemed in the next 45 minutes. Paris Saint-Germain, the dominant sporting force in France, were trailing by that scoreline to a second-division opponent, Dunkerque, in Tuesday's French Cup semi-final. The last time they had trailed like that had been at Arsenal in an autumn Uefa Champions League game where the damage of a loss could be made up in later fixtures. And some context here: Dunkerque have spent eight of the past 12 seasons in the third tier of French football; in the same period, PSG have won Ligue 1 nine times. On Saturday, barring a freakish course of events at the Parc des Princes against Angers, PSG will add to that dominant run by lifting their 11th league title of the past 13. The glitch against the upstarts would be resolved by Hakimi, to whom the French champions increasingly look for leadership. He made a clever run from outside right behind the Dunkerque back line, volleyed a measured pass to Ousmane Dembele and the French forward's finish signalled that the comeback was on. Three second-half goals later, PSG had booked their place, 4-2 winners, in the French Cup final. Hakimi and Dembele is the axis on which much of PSG's best work turns, the latter the leading goalscorer in Ligue 1, the former the galvaniser, with his adventurous, tireless interpretation of his full-back position, of the PSG right flank and its adjacent midfield areas. But Hakimi's influence extends beyond the pitch. The Morocco captain, as his PSG coach Luis Enrique put it, 'carries responsibility in the dressing-room – it's always a plus point when important players are positive leaders'. Luis Enrique, now in his second season in Paris, recognised how vital Hakimi is to the club as a footballer when he first arrived as manager. 'I've never come across a better player in his position,' said the Spaniard, quite the tribute when you remember this coach had a long playing career with Real Madrid and Barcelona and has also managed Spain and a European Cup-winning Barca. He has since also come to appreciate how much of an ally Hakimi is in the leadership structure in Paris. 'He's finding out more about himself as a player and as a person,' said Luis Enrique, 'and acting as a reference point on and off the pitch. You show that with your deeds and your words. I think he's really grown in the last year.' It has been a seismic 12 months for the club. Kylian Mbappe departed in the summer to join Real Madrid, with his seven seasons in Paris having coincided, for various lengths of time with Neymar and Lionel Messi's time there. Before them, there was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Since PSG began benefiting from the transformational wealth of their Qatari backers 11 years ago, they have been rather defined by their individual attacking superstars. Hakimi, who in his five years in Paris developed a close friendship with Mbappe, represents a new, distinct era. He is a stellar footballer, certainly, and an international icon for his achievements with Morocco – notably in the run to the semi-final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – but he wears his stardom more discreetly, perhaps, than some of PSG's famous names of the past. He is certainly not short of medals. A prodigious early start to his senior career – promoted to the first-team at Real Madrid while still a teenager – and no shortage of major clubs wanting his unique skills means he had won major prizes with Madrid, with Italy's Inter Milan and with Germany's Borussia Dortmund by the age of 22. 'He had so much experience in spite of the fact he's still young,' said Luis Enrique of the 26-year-old, who was made vice-captain of PSG last summer, chief lieutenant to Marquinhos, 30, who had already been wearing the skipper's armband for the best part of five years. 'It can be hard,' points out the PSG coach, 'to keep progressing when you've achieved so much so young.' But keep progressing he does. The medal haul grows and grows. When PSG complete the formality of the Ligue 1 title against Angers this weekend – they need a single point to guarantee it, and a surreal set of mathematical improbabilities even if they lose, holding their 21-point lead over second-placed Monaco with seven games remaining – he will have his fourth French championship gold in as many years. But it can also be challenging to keep dynamically covering the right flank when you barely have a day off. PSG have a squad whose depth is the envy of most, but nowhere do they seem more dependent on one man than a right-back. Hakimi has played more club minutes than all but one teammate – central defender Willian Pacho – this season, and that's on top of playing six matches last summer at the Paris Olympics, when Morocco won a bronze medal, and on top of his senior international qualifying games in Africa. Hence the fact that, on the first day of April 2025, he was clocking up – and rescuing – his 50th game, all told, of the season. 'The coaching staff try to make sure that the playing time for each player is right,' said his coach. 'That's also about the physical profile of each player, what workload they can carry. Hakimi is top in that respect, with world-class quality. We try to compensate but it's not simple because the fixture list is what it is.' And that fixture list tells Hakimi there are seven Ligue 1 matches for PSG still to target in their race to become the first team unbeaten for a full season since the mid-1990s. There's now a domestic cup final, against Stade de Reims, to look forward to. There's next week's first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Aston Villa, and, PSG hope, several more European Cup games after that. There's the Fifa Club World Cup starting in June. And within the next 15 months, an Africa Cup of Nations, in which Hakimi will likely be captaining the host nation and a World Cup. While he'd like the distinction of being a historic PSG 'Invincible', and finishing the league campaign with no defeats in the 34 fixtures, he's already well established as Achraf the Inexhaustible.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
PSG eye becoming France's first 'Invincibles'
PSG can clinch the Ligue 1 title this weekend and are on course to complete the season without losing (Franck FIFE) Paris Saint-Germain can wrap up another Ligue 1 title this weekend and are also closing in on the first ever unbeaten season in the top flight of French football. PSG play host to relegation-threatened Angers on Saturday knowing a draw will be enough for them to secure their 11th French championship triumph in the last 13 years. Advertisement It is a long period of dominance which began quickly after the takeover of the club by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. The financial gap between PSG and the rest of France now appears unbridgeable, and Luis Enrique's team are currently a huge 21 points clear at the top of the table with seven games of the season to play. For them to miss out on the title now, PSG would have to lose every remaining game and Monaco would have to win all of theirs and also oversee an enormous swing in goal difference. Put simply, that is not going to happen, and the Parisians will hope to finish the job in front of their own supporters before switching their focus to their Champions League quarter-final first leg at home to Aston Villa next Wednesday. Advertisement This midweek PSG secured their place in the final of the French Cup, surviving a scare by coming from two goals down to beat Ligue 2 side Dunkerque 4-2 and set up a clash with Reims on May 24. They have not lost any of their last 38 matches against domestic opponents across all competitions since a 3-1 defeat at home to Toulouse last May. The likes of Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, Juventus, Celtic and, just last season, Bayer Leverkusen have all gone through domestic league campaigns without losing a game in the 21st century. In France, Nantes have come the closest, going unbeaten through their first 32 matches of the 38-game season as they took the title in 1994/95. Advertisement PSG have played 27 of 34 matches in this Ligue 1 campaign, and surely should remain unbeaten as long as they do not become distracted by the Champions League. "We are not unbeatable, we are not invincible, we are not film heroes," insisted Luis Enrique after Tuesday's win against Dunkerque. "We are just a football team. Perfection does not exist and we are not perfect." Yet PSG, with the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Achraf Hakimi in outstanding form, should not need to be perfect to keep their current run going domestically. After this weekend, three of their final six Ligue 1 matches will be against sides presently in the bottom six. Advertisement A home game against Champions League hopefuls Nice and a trip to in-form Strasbourg are the toughest remaining assignments on the domestic front. Player to watch: Mika Biereth The 22-year-old London-born striker, who recently made his debut for the Danish national team, has enjoyed a stunning start to life at Monaco since joining the principality club in January. Recruited from Sturm Graz in Austria, the former Arsenal youngster has scored 12 goals in his first 10 Ligue 1 appearances, including three hat-tricks. His strike in last week's Cote d'Azur derby against Nice left him with 11 goals from five home games with his new club, but he has just one on the road heading into this weekend's trip to Brest. Advertisement According to statisticians Opta, Biereth has scored a goal every 67 minutes since he moved to France's top flight. Key stats 13 - Lucky for some, PSG are set to win their 13th French league title overall 32 - PSG's leading marksman Dembele has scored 32 goals this season in all competitions 5 - While PSG are 21 points clear at the top of the table, just five points separate the next six teams, from Monaco in second to Lyon in seventh Fixtures (times GMT) Friday Nice v Nantes (1845) Saturday Paris Saint-Germain v Angers (1500), Brest v Monaco (1700), Lyon v Lille (1905) Sunday Lens v Saint-Etienne (1300), Reims v Strasbourg, Rennes v Auxerre, Montpellier v Le Havre (all 1515), Marseille v Toulouse (1845) as/nr
Express Tribune
02-04-2025
- Sport
- Express Tribune
PSG survive Dunkerque scare to reach French Cup final
Ousmane Dembele scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain fought back to beat Dunkerque 4-2 in their French Cup semi-final on Tuesday. Photo: AFP Holders Paris Saint-Germain survived a major scare by coming from two goals down to beat second-tier outsiders Dunkerque 4-2 in the semi-finals of the French Cup on Tuesday, sealing their place in next month's final. Ousmane Dembele scored twice on the night for PSG to take his tally for the season to 32 goals in all competitions, while captain Marquinhos and Desire Doue also found the net for the capital side in a game played in Lille. In the final at the Stade de France on May 24, PSG will face the winners of Wednesday's second last-four tie between Reims and fourth-division Cannes. Dunkerque, who are fifth in Ligue 2 and were playing in their first French Cup semi-final in 96 years, had been dreaming of pulling off one of the competition's all-time great shocks as they found themselves 2-0 up against PSG after 27 minutes. Having already eliminated three top-flight teams on their run to the last four, Dunkerque went ahead in the seventh minute when a free-kick from the left was headed on by Alec Georgen for Vincent Sasso to score via the underside of the crossbar. They doubled their advantage before the half-hour mark as PSG were undone by a route-one approach, Gaetan Courtet heading on a long kick by the goalkeeper for Saudi Arabian winger Muhanad Al-Saad to run through and finish. The Dunkerque fans, who had made the trip to Lille from the North Sea port city to watch the game because the club's own stadium was not deemed suitable for the occasion, could probably not believe what they were witnessing. However, PSG launched their comeback bid as Achraf Hakimi cut the ball back for Dembele to lash in on the stroke of half-time. They equalised three minutes after the restart when Marquinhos headed in a Dembele cross following a short corner, although Dunkerque were left furious as they felt the officials were wrong to award a corner in the first place. Naatan Skytta almost headed the second-tier side back in front moments later, but instead new France international Doue played a one-two with Bradley Barcola before scoring with a deflected shot just past the hour mark. With Dunkerque committing players forward, Dembele then burst clear to make it 4-2 deep in injury time. Luis Enrique's PSG side will be confirmed as Ligue 1 champions on Saturday if they avoid defeat at home to Angers. The Parisians then face Aston Villa next Wednesday in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie. AFP
