World Sports News in Brief

Mbappe hat-trick for PSG in easy win in Belgium

Kylian Mbappe came off the bench to grab a second half hat-trick and inspire Paris St Germain to a runaway 5-0 victory at Belgium’s Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Kylian Mbappe came off the bench for Paris to score the 100th group-stage hat-trick. (Photo: Getty Images)
Kylian Mbappe came off the bench for Paris to score the 100th group-stage hat-trick. (Photo: Getty Images)

The win kept up their 100% record in Group A with the French team on nine points at the halfway mark and on the cusp of qualification for the next phase, a comfortable five points ahead of second placed Real Madrid.

* German champions Bayern Munich needed two goals from their top scorer Robert Lewandowski to sneak past hosts Olympiakos 3-2 on Tuesday and remain top of their Champions League Group B. The win lifted Bayern to nine point from three games. Tottenham crushed Red Star Belgrade 5-0 to move up to second place on four, one ahead of the Serbs. Olympiakos are bottom with one point.

* American Taylor Fritz notched up his fourth top 10 win of the year when he upset German second seed Alexander Zverev 7-6(7) 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors championship in Basel on Tuesday. Greek third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was made to toil hard, particularly in the second set, for his 6-3 7-6(6) victory over Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the first round.

* Top seed and home favourite Dominic Thiem began his bid to win the Vienna Open with a straight sets win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Tuesday. Thiem will face Fernando Verdasco in the second round after the Spaniard beat Nikoloz Basilashvili 4-6 6-2 6-1.

* Golfing great Arnold Palmer will be recognised with a commemorative stamp in 2020 to honour the positive impact he had on the sport, the United States Postal Service announced on Tuesday. Palmer, who died in 2016 at the age of 87, earned 62 career victories on the PGA Tour including seven major championships during a career in which he drew a legion of fans to the game.

* A goal from German midfielder Toni Kroos gave Real Madrid their first win of this season's Champions League with a 1-0 victory at Galatasaray on Tuesday. The win means Madrid climb up to second in Group A, but five points behind leaders Paris St Germain.

* Juventus forward Paulo Dybala, surprisingly preferred to Gonzalo Higuain, scored twice in three minutes late in the game as the Turin side came from behind to beat a defiant Lokomotiv Moscow 2-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

* Shakhtar Donetsk scraped a 2-2 home draw against Dinamo Zagreb after the Ukrainian side took the lead and then came from behind in a pulsating Champions League Group C clash on Tuesday.

* Atletico Madrid substitute Alvaro Morata scored a late second half header to give his team a 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday and send them top of their Champions League Group D.

* Midfield maverick Hakim Ziyech is likely to return for Ajax Amsterdam when they host against Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday. Ziyech pulled out of international action for Morocco last week and missed Ajax's win over last-placed RKC Waalwijk in the Dutch league but coach Erik ten Hag said he was likely to feature in the Group H match.

* Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has recovered from an ankle injury to return to the squad for Wednesday's Champions League group game at Genk but they will take a late call on his participation, manager Juergen Klopp said on Tuesday. Salah has not played since injuring his ankle in a 2-1 win over Leicester City earlier this month and he missed the 1-1 draw at Manchester United over the weekend, which ended the Anfield side's 17-match winning streak in the Premier League.

* Reigning champions River Plate qualified for the final of the Copa Libertadores 2-1 on aggregate on Tuesday despite losing 1-0 and surviving a late onslaught by arch rivals Boca Juniors. River won the first leg of the semi-final 2-0 at their home stadium earlier this month and were on the back foot for large parts of the match but it was not until the last few minutes that Boca threatened River's two-goal lead.

* Dutch top seed Kiki Bertens beat Croatia's Donna Vekic for the third consecutive time this year with a 7-6(5) 6-2 victory in their round robin match at the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai on Tuesday. In the other group, fourth seed Aryna Sabalenka overcame Greek ninth seed Maria Sakkari with a straight sets victory, winning 6-3 6-4 in a match where both players won a high percentage of first service points.

* Qatar on Tuesday announced a project to expand the Hamad International Airport to handle over 60 million passengers as part of the preparation for World Cup 2022.

* FC Barcelona's French international defender, Samuel Umtiti is a late absentee from the squad that travels to face Slavia Prague in the Champions League on Wednesday night. The 25-year-old defender suffered a knee injury in the club's Tuesday morning training session ahead of their flight to the Czech Republic.

Reuters, Xinhua