Sports

Semenyo’s stellar summer continues as Maresca’s new-look Manchester City beat Atletico Madrid

Published

1 hour ago

August 9, 2026

Manchester City rounded off their pre-season tour of Asia with a 3-1 victory over Atletico Madrid in Seoul, South Korea.

They trailed at half-time after Jorge Dominguez capitalised on some sloppy defending from a corner but Omar Marmoush converted two Antoine Semenyo crosses in quick succession after the break and Rayan Ait-Nouri added another at the death.

The Atletico players were furious with Marmoush’s second as the big-screen replays showed that Semenyo was well offside, and there was a whiff of suspicion about Ait-Nouri’s goal too.

After making sweeping changes in the previous two matches, Enzo Maresca only made one substitution at half-time as his preparations ramp up for the new season, giving us some idea of how he wants things to look in next weekend’s Community Shield and beyond.

The rest of City’s World Cup players — Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Jeremy Doku and the England representatives — will report back for training on Wednesday ahead of an open training session on Thursday, which will give us more clues ahead of the big kick-off in a fortnight’s time.

Sam Lee breaks down the main talking points from City’s final tour victory.

Which flank will Semenyo settle on?

The Ghana winger probably comes away from this tour as the biggest standout, having shown his quality in all three matches, even in the sapping conditions against K-League All Stars on Wednesday.

He was electric in the first half of the first match against Inter last Saturday and he was especially good in the second half against Atletico here. He was brilliant for City’s first goal, sliding to retrieve a pass that was played behind him before springing up immediately and bursting away from his man to put in a low cross that Marmoush did well to get on the end of.

That assist 🤯

Semenyo tees up Marmoush to level the scores in Seoul! ✨ pic.twitter.com/mrGDxDBhHz

— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 9, 2026

A few moments later, it was a similar story, with Semenyo getting in behind on the left to cross for Marmoush to score — it was slightly less impressive, though, given he was miles offside only for the linesman to miss it.

Semenyo has talked about his excitement at playing for Maresca due to how the Italian wants direct dribbling from his wingers and that should encourage City fans ahead of the new season, too.

One small doubt concerns where Semenyo will play because he has been at his best on the left wing but that is most likely where Jeremy Doku will come in after he returns to training next week. If Maresca were to play Semenyo on the left and Doku on the right, that would certainly add a fresh dynamic to the City attack, but there should be some electric wing play no matter the combination.

Savinho seems suited to City’s new style

It remains to be seen whether Savinho will still be at City next season, given the long-standing interest in his services from Tottenham, but in the meantime, he has been another winger who is seemingly benefiting from Maresca’s up-and-at-’em approach out wide.

In the first half against Atletico, he repeatedly ran at the Spanish side’s defence and although his first chops inside often ended up with him being unable to shift his balance enough to get on the ball cleanly, he had great success when driving to the byline, where he could put the ball across the face of goal.

Manchester City's Savinho attempts to shield the ball from Atletico Madrid's Dani Martinez

Savinho impressed against Atletico (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Marmoush got his two goals in those areas after the break but before half-time, there was nobody in the area to captalise. That scenario presents another cause for optimism ahead of the new season: imagine how many goals Haaland will get if City continue to put crosses into dangerous areas from both sides.

Maresca has made his mark – expect a major tone shift

It is obvious from both speaking to the players and watching both training sessions and matches that City’s build-up play is a lot more straightforward than it was under Pep Guardiola.

Under the previous manager, City would constantly change how they were going to play out from the back from game to game, and give huge responsibility to players like Bernardo Silva and Rodri to hold onto the ball and find solutions whenever they opened up.

Under Maresca, City have been working on certain rehearsed patterns to help them get the ball out from the goalkeeper into midfield. The coaching staff have not tried to conceal any tactical plans from the media or opposition at the two open training sessions, so it has been clear to see the moves that they have been working on on the training ground in matches.

The basic idea seems to be to get the ball to a free man quickly and advance up the pitch as directly as possible with passes through the lines when they present themselves.

Combined with the wingers’ instructions to dribble at speed, it does suggest that City are going to be fun to watch. One drawback could be that they will be more predictable to play against, even allowing for different patterns to be introduced during the season.

Overall, City are likely to be less polished than they were under Guardiola, partly due to the tactical instructions but also because the players that have been recruited over the past couple of years are more suited to a direct style. If there is less control of matches, then individual quality will have to make the difference — they do have plenty of that but the flow of City games could look very different to what are used to.

Sports

Alexandros Kyziridis: Hearts agree deal to sell winger to unnamed Turkish club

Published

8 minutes ago

August 9, 2026

qasimgillani

Heart of Midlothian have agreed a deal to sell Greece winger Alexandros Kyziridis to an unnamed Turkish club for a fee of around £1.7m.

The 25-year-old joined the Tynecastle club last summer from Slovakian outfit Zemplin Michalovce, signing a three-year contract, and has been attracting interest from a number of clubs over the summer.

Kyziridis impressed early on at Hearts as a key attacking player under head coach Derek McInnes as they went close to clinching a historic league title.

He scored six goals and recorded 11 assists in 42 appearances and made his international debut in a friendly against Italy this summer.

Kyziridis played in Lisbon against Benfica last week but will now travel to Turkey to finalise his move.

Under Hearts data-orientated recruitment partner Jamestown Analytics, Josh McPake and Calvin Miller – who has played a prominent role in the early part of this season – have been signed in a similar position this summer.

Sports

MotoGP: Raul Fernandez wins British GP ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin

Published

15 minutes ago

August 9, 2026

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Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez led from the opening lap to win the British MotoGP ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin at Silverstone.

The 25-year-old, who crashed out of Saturday’s sprint, cruised to his second MotoGP victory, 2.5 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.

Martin was on pole but suffered technical issues at Turn One and briefly dropped to fourth before recovering to finish behind Fernandez.

Despite that setback the 25-year-old, who won the sprint race, extended his lead at the top of the championship to 31 points.

Martin’s Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi took third to complete the podium and move up to second in the championship, with Ai Ogura dropping to third after failing to finish for the first time this season.

Defending champion Marc Marquez finished seventh to sit fourth in the drivers’ standings.

Six more riders crashed out of the race on Sunday, with Alex Rins and Joan Mir out after a first lap collision.

Enea Bastianini, Iker Lecuona, Cal Crutchlow and Francesco Bagnaia also did not finish.

MotoGP announced earlier this week that it had extended its contract with Silverstone to keep the British Grand Prix on the calendar until at least 2028.

The next race of the 2026 is the Aragon Grand Prix in Spain on 30 August.

Sports

How to watch Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks: TV channel and streaming options for August 9

Published

21 minutes ago

August 9, 2026

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Two of baseball’s top hitters go head-to-head when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks play at 4:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, at Chase Field. Freddie Freeman has a .304 batting average (sixth in league) for the Dodgers, while Gabriel Moreno ranks seventh at .303. Justin Wrobleski (11-3, 3.31 ERA) will start for the Dodgers, who are 70-47 this season and first in the NL West. Eduardo Rodriguez (10-4, 2.71 ERA) is starting for the Diamondbacks, who are 62-56 and second in the NL West.

How to watch Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks odds

Favorite Moneyline: Dodgers -208
Underdog Moneyline: Diamondbacks +170
Total: 8.5
Total Over Odds: -105
Total Under Odds: -115

Injury reports

Dodgers

Dalton Rushing: 10 Day IL (Arm), Blake Treinen: 15 Day IL (Elbow), Brock Stewart: 15 Day IL (Shoulder), Will Klein: 15 Day IL (Elbow), Bobby Miller: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Gavin Stone: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Jake Cousins: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Will Smith: 60 Day IL (Neck), Brusdar Graterol: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Blake Snell: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Kris Bubic: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Tyler Glasnow: 60 Day IL (Back), Ben Casparius: 60 Day IL (Shoulder)

Diamondbacks

Jordan Lawlar: 10 Day IL (Hamstring), Lourdes Gurriel Jr.: 10 Day IL (Adductor), Tommy Troy: 10 Day IL (Shoulder), Ryan Thompson: 15 Day IL (Back), Drey Jameson: 15 Day IL (Hip), Mike Soroka: 15 Day IL (Lower body), A.J. Puk: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Cristian Mena: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Blake Walston: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Ryne Nelson: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Zac Gallen: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Corbin Burnes: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Andrew Saalfrank: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Justin Martinez: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Merrill Kelly: day-to-day (Leg)

Stats to know

Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani is slashing .294/.398/.547 this season with 26 home runs (9th in MLB), 71 RBIs (14th in MLB) and an OPS of .945 (2nd in MLB). He has a 22.8% strikeout rate and a 14% walk rate in 492 plate appearances, and he has scored 73 total runs. Ohtani has recorded six steals on nine attempts.
In 500 plate appearances, Andy Pages has hit 19 long balls, tallied 75 RBIs (8th in MLB) and scored 66 runs. He is batting .270/.336/.458 and has posted a 20% strikeout rate and an 8.2% walk rate. Pages has recorded 11 steals on 17 attempts.
Corbin Carroll has hit 16 home runs this season. He has also tallied 54 RBIs and has scored 70 runs. In 495 plate appearances, he has recorded a .242 BA, .337 OBP and .469 SLG with an 11.5% walk rate and a 22.4% strikeout rate. He has been effective on the base paths, recording 16 steals on 18 attempts.
In 496 plate appearances, Ketel Marte has slashed .244/.306/.433 this season. He has hit 19 long balls and driven in 62 runs with a strikeout rate of 15.3% and a walk rate of 7.7%. and has scored 60 runs.

This watch guide was created using technology provided by Data Skrive.

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