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PARIS — Luka Modric’s early penalty gave Croatia a 1-0 win over off-form France in Paris on Monday as the World Cup holders finished their June run of UEFA Nations League matches without a victory in four outings.

Veteran Croatia captain Modric stroked in his spot-kick after just five minutes at the Stade de France, and the home side could not find an equaliser despite Kylian Mbappe returning to join Karim Benzema in the starting line up.

“We had an inferiority complex against France after their win in the World Cup and so to win at the Stade de France in front of almost 80,000 people against the world champions is extraordinary,” said Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic.

France won the previous edition of the Nations League last year but it has managed just two points from its four outings this month, with home defeats against Denmark and now Croatia sandwiching draws away to the Croats and in Austria.

As a result, Les Bleus are bottom of League A, Group 1, seven points behind leaders Denmark who beat Austria 2-0 in Copenhagen on Monday with first-half goals by Jonas Wind and Andreas Skov Olsen.

Didier Deschamps’ team may now need to win its last two group games in September to avoid being relegated to the less glamorous League B.

Those matches are also the only games they have left before they begin their defence of the World Cup against Australia in Qatar in November.

“It is not an excuse but in this get-together we have lacked strength, energy and character too,” said Deschamps, who missed the defeat against Denmark earlier this month following the death of his father.

“It hurts because we have not managed to win a game. Maybe I didn’t have the usual energy to transmit to them either.

“We will need everyone at the start of next season to be in the right frame of mind and in the right athletic condition.”

Fatigue

This clash was the latest meeting between the sides who contested the 2018 World Cup final in Moscow, although Mbappe, Modric and Marcelo Brozovic were the only players who started that day to line up at kick-off here.

The home fans in the crowd of over 77,000 were left stunned as the Israeli referee awarded the visitors an early penalty when Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate was adjudged to have fouled Josip Brekalo.

The evergreen Modric, back at the ground where he won the Champions League with Real Madrid at the end of last month, made no mistake with the resulting penalty even though France goalkeeper Mike Maignan got a touch.

From then on it took the occasional burst of pace by Mbappe to bring the crowd to life, although the closest France came to scoring in the first half was when Christopher Nkunku blasted just wide from range.

Mbappe had come off injured against Denmark and so missed the draw in Croatia before emerging from the bench to score a late equaliser in Austria.

The Paris Saint-Germain forward did his best to conjure a leveller here as he came close twice early in the second half, and the hosts also had an appeal for a penalty dismissed when Lucas Digne went down in the area.

Meanwhile, Maignan parried away a fine strike by substitute Lovro Majer at the other end, but Croatia — with Modric as majestic as ever — saw the game out as goalkeeper Ivica Ivusic stopped Josip Sutalo scoring an own-goal.

The final whistle was greeted by jeers and Deschamps will hope France’s summer slump is simply down to the fatigue among his players after a long campaign, rather than a sign of what might be to come later in the year.

SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr says Stephen Curry’s approach to basketball reminds him of tennis great Roger Federer.

Curry wrote another gilded chapter to his glittering career on Friday, delivering a breathtaking 43-point display to haul the Warriors back into NBA Finals contention with a series-leveling victory over the Boston Celtics.

It was the sort of iconic performance that will go down in NBA history, a dazzling reminder of why Curry is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.

For Kerr, Curry’s latest masterpiece brought back memories of an encounter between the Warriors and 20-time grand slam champion Federer in Shanghai five years ago.

“We actually met Federer a few years ago in China when we played in Shanghai. He came and spoke to our locker room, and Draymond [Green] asked him, he said: ‘How have you been doing this for 20 years?’,” Kerr recalled on Sunday.

“And his answer was just simple, yet profound. He said: ‘I love my daily ritual.’ He said: ‘I get up, make my kids breakfast, drop them off at school, go train and I’ve figured out the right training methods to keep me in the best position at my age. I love competing.’ He said, ‘But every single day, I put my head on the pillow at the end of the day and think, man, what a great day.’

“So I think of Steph a lot when I think of that story from Roger Federer. Very, very similar just sort of zest for life and just joy for the process.”

Curry, 34, will be back on home court for game five on Monday, attempting to help Golden State grab a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven series.

‘Like a metronome’

Curry’s performances so far in the series have left him as Golden State’s front-runner for the NBA Finals MVP award, an accolade which would fill one of the few holes on his CV. 

While Curry’s remarkable fitness has enabled him to peak during the finals, Kerr is not surprised that the veteran is in prime physical condition. 

“His routine, it’s like a metronome. Every day, it’s the exact same thing. He’s in the training room, he’s in the weight room, he’s on the court. It’s clockwork,” Kerr said. 

“But there’s also a sense of joy and energy within that work. 

“I think that’s one of the things that ties all great athletes together, like talking about the superstar athletes, the Roger Federers of the world, the Steph Currys of the world. There’s a routine that not only is super-disciplined but it’s really enjoyed each day.

“There’s a passion that comes with it, and that’s what sustains it over time. When you love something like those guys do, you work at it, you get better and you just keep going.

Curry, meanwhile, says simply that his form is down to his appetite for hard work.

“I love to work,” he told reporters on Sunday. “You kind of get lost in the sessions you have on the court in practice, in the weight room, wherever it is, because you know it’s going to lead to you being as prepared as possible for those games.

“Try to have as much fun as possible. Days that you want to get up and do the work, the days that you don’t, days you’re tired, all that type of stuff. 

“But it’s all just built on my approach from the time I started and just trying to carry that every year for as long as I can.

“Win, lose, whatever it is, however you play, you have to keep coming back to the well to keep sharpening the toolkit and finding ways to evolve your game. The hardest part of what we do is the grind of the year-long prep that it takes to be great at this level.”

TORONTO, Canada — Rory McIlroy admitted he had been motivated by pulling clear of Greg Norman’s PGA Tour title haul after surging to victory Sunday at the Canadian Open. 

McIlroy bagged the 21st PGA Tour win of his career in an enthralling final round in Toronto, carding an eight-under-par 62 for a two-shot win.

It came at the end of a momentous week in the golfing world, which is in turmoil following the launch of the lucrative Saudi-backed LIV Golf series fronted by Australian veteran Norman.

McIlroy, who was level with Norman on 20 PGA Tour victories prior to this week’s event in Canada, said going one better than the polarising Norman’s total was especially satisfying.

“I had extra motivation of what’s going on across the pond,” McIlroy said. “The guy that’s spearheading that tour has 20 wins on the PGA Tour and I was tied with him and I wanted to get one ahead of him. And I did.

“So that was really cool for me, just a little sense of pride on that one,” added McIlroy, who did not mention Norman directly by name.

McIlroy fired 10 birdies on Sunday en route to successfully defending the title he won in 2019.

The Northern Ireland star survived some tense moments on the back nine, closing with birdies at the 17th and 18th to seal the victory with a 19-under-par total of 261.

American Tony Finau, who started the day tied for the lead, carded his sixth birdie of the day at 18 for a six-under 64 that put him alone in second on 263 — one stroke in front of compatriot Justin Thomas.

Thomas was tied for the lead with two to play, but closed with back-to-back bogeys in a 64 for 265.

“This is a day I’ll remember for a long, long time,” McIlroy said as fans — who poured onto the fairway to surround the final trio on the 18th green — cheerfully chanted his name.

‘Proper golf tournament’ 

It was his first chance to defend the title he won in 2019 after the COVID pandemic forced cancellation of the event in 2020 and 2021.

“Playing with Tony and JT today — two of the top players in the world, all of us playing the way we did. I think the worst score in the group was what, six-under?” added McIlroy after what he described as a “proper golf tournament”.

McIlroy set an early tone with a 26-foot birdie at the first. He added a four-footer at the fourth, chipped in at the sixth and made a short birdie at the seventh — then got really hot with birdies at the ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th, where he poured in a 39-footer.

But Thomas wouldn’t let him get away. After a birdie at the second the American birdied six in a row from the sixth through the 11th. His birdie at 14 — after McIlroy bogeyed 13, saw the lead cut to one stroke.

After McIlroy bogeyed 16 they were tied at 17-under — but McIlroy finished with a flourish as Thomas faded and Finau drained a 40-foot putt at the 72nd hole to snatch solo second.

England’s Justin Rose provided a curtain-raiser to the final-group fireworks on the par-70 St George’s Golf and Country Club course in suburban Toronto.

Rose flirted with the 13th sub-60 round in PGA tour history, but a bogey at 18 saw him settle for a tournament record-equalling 10-under par 60.

Rose — who had a real chance not only at 59 but even at Jim Furyk’s PGA record of 58 — admitted it was a disappointing finish “because you know what’s at stake, for sure.

“I never shot 59 before, so it would have been a lovely footnote on the week,” added Rose, who finished tied for fourth with Sam Burns, five shots off the lead.

BAKU — World champion Max Verstappen led a Red Bull 1-2 in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a potentially key moment of the title race after pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and Ferrari endured another dose of misery with a double retirement.

Sergio Perez had jumped Leclerc to the first turn before Verstappen took control as the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and then Leclerc retired with engine problems.

George Russell took third ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton who needed a helping elbow to climb out of his cockpit such was the state of his back after an afternoon being jolted around his bouncing car.

Verstappen’s fifth win of the season, and the 25th of his career, tightened his grip on the drivers’ standings with Perez moving into second, 21 points behind, while the luckless Leclerc slipped to 34 points adrift.

“Was that a good drive or was that a good drive?” a pleased Verstappen asked over the team radio, after ending his jinx in Baku, where he had never made the podium.

It was a memorable day for Red Bull who are 80 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship ahead of round nine in Montreal next week.

As for Ferrari their habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory through questionable strategy or unreliability is beginning to look potentially fatal for their title ambitions.

Leclerc, for the fourth time, was unable to convert pole into a win, and he had his head in his hands in frustration.

“Better days will come” if the team just sticks together, Sainz suggested.

That’s what Mercedes have been saying to themselves, and the world, all season as they struggle to unlock their cars’ potential. Yet, despite their troubles Russell is fourth in the title race and Mercedes third in the constructors standings.

The eighth round of the season saw track temperature pushing 50ºC in the Land of Fire. Cars on the grid were treated to disco-style blasts of dry ice in the pre-race build up.

Charged past

Ahead of a stirring rendition of the Azerbaijani national anthem, Leclerc looked cool, leaning against a wall in shades with a kind soul holding a Ferrari red umbrella to protect him from the Sunday afternoon heat.

Also cooling down has been Leclerc’s red hot early-season form after failing to convert three poles into wins.

An Italian inquisition after the botched strategy calls at Monaco last time out and the evidence from qualifying and practice here had left Leclerc optimistic that “Saturday’s man” could become “Sunday’s king”.

But Perez, sharing the front row, helped rip that plan to shreds when as he charged past on the short run to the first turn as Leclerc locked up.

After eight laps, Sainz limped out, his engine spluttering to a standstill, leaving Leclerc in an unequal struggle against the two Red Bulls.

Verstappen pounced on Perez to take the lead at the start of lap 15, as Leclerc posted the fastest lap,

Perez then pitted, coming out behind Leclerc, who was struggling to keep up with Verstappen, the gap at eight seconds with a third of the race completed.

When he did start gaining, Leclerc’s race went up in a cloud of smoke when his engine blew on lap 21 to leave the Red Bulls an unmissable shot at an empty Baku goal.

“Difficult to understand for now,” said Leclerc. “It hurts.”

The battle for the vacant podium spot was being led by Russell, with Pierre Gasly in the Alpha Tauri Daniel Ricciardo the 2017 winner, and Hamilton.

As the midway point approached poor Zhou Guanyu reacted with a dismayed “Are you kidding me, again?” at being told over the team radio he had to retire, for the third time in four races.

Verstappen seemed to have the race in the bag, but both he and his pit lane team will have been mindful of what happened 12 months ago when he suffered a late retirement from a similar position of strength.

History did not repeat itself and Baku’s sequence of producing a different winner each year since the inaugural race, staged as the European Grand Prix in 2016, continued.

BAKU — Charles Leclerc wants to “finish the job” after living up to his status as the master of poles this season when pulling a flying lap out of the bag to keep the Red Bulls at bay in qualifying Saturday for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver, registering his fourth consecutive pole and sixth of the season, has for company on the front row of Sunday’s race the in-form Sergio Perez.

“It feels good,” said a thrilled Leclerc, who has failed to convert any of his three most recent poles into victory.

“The feeling is there and it’s good, so I’m optimistic for tomorrow. I just want to finish the job.”

Perez, who won on the streets of the Azerbaijani capital 12 months ago (with Leclerc on pole) and in Monaco last time out, once again outperformed his world champion teammate Max Verstappen.

Verstappen starts on the second row with Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari.

Leclerc had a healthy championship lead after the fifth race in Australia but goes into this eighth round of the season nine points behind Verstappen, with Perez only six points back in third.

“All poles feel good, but this one I didn’t expect,” he added.

“I thought the Red Bulls were stronger in the first and second qualifying sessions but on the last lap everything came together.”

The man from Monaco nailed his flying lap in the top 10 shoot out, expertly eking the maximum out of his car around this complex circuit with its sinuous old city section and airport runway-long straight.

Perez, in the prime of his racing life with his confidence flowing, had popped up with a sub 1min 42 lap to lead the charge into the final throw of the qualifying dice.

Sainz briefly flirted with his first ever pole but with the qualifying timer almost at zero Leclerc crossed the line in 1min 41.359sec to top the timesheets.

‘Who knows?’ 

Perez threw everything at his last lap, but ended up 0.282s slower.

“Yeah, Q3 is when you go balls out and I hit the wall a couple of times. At the end we had a problem with the engine, we couldn’t turn it on and I was out on my own with no ‘tow’.... would it have been enough for pole, who knows?”

As for Verstappen, only 0.065s off his teammate, he reported: “The start of the lap was good but then it went away from me, tiny mistakes. Still as a team, second and third, we have a good opportunity tomorrow.”

Perez has given Red Bull team chief Christian Horner an interesting dilemma in terms of which of his drivers to back should there be a repeat of Barcelona when the Mexican was given team orders to let Verstappen through for the win.

Mercedes struggled in practice with their under-performing 2022 car bouncing on the bumpy track so George Russell starting on the third row after placing fifth in qualifying was a decent result.

The AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly joins him ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes sharing the fourth row with Yuki Tsunoda while Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10.

The opening session was red-flagged towards the end when Lance Stroll’s front wing flew off his Aston Martin after pranging the barrier at turn two, his second crash in as many laps.

This left Valtteri Bottas, in 17th, in danger of falling at the first qualifying hurdle for the first time in 143 grand prix and Monaco in 2015.

Hamilton led a convoy of cars heading back out when the session restarted at 1840 local time, the temperatures dipping and the shadows lengthening.

They all crossed the line at the cut off time for a final lap with Bottas miraculously sneaking through with the 15th and final Q2 ticket, his proud record intact.

BOSTON — Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 53 points as the Boston Celtics outmuscled the Golden State Warriors 116-100 to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals on Wednesday.

Boston, bullied by the Warriors in a game two blowout in San Francisco on Sunday, bounced back with a dominant physical performance to regain the initiative in the best-of-seven series in a pulsating clash at the Celtics’ TD Garden.

Brown led Boston scoring with 27 points, while Tatum had 26 points and Marcus Smart 24 as the Celtics moved to within two wins of a record 18th NBA crown.

Robert Williams III was the star of a rejuvenated Boston defensive performance, hauling in 10 rebounds, blocking four shots and pilfering three steals to frustrate the Warriors.

Stephen Curry led Golden State with 31 points while Klay Thompson rediscovered his scoring touch with 25, but it was not enough for Steve Kerr’s side.

Celtics coach Ime Udoka pinpointed the rugged physical displays of Williams and Al Horford as a key to the win.

“We want to try to impose our will and size in this series,” Udoka said. “It’s going to be a back-and-forth battle as far as that, but when we get nights like this from [Williams and Horford], obviously it pays dividends for us.”

Warriors coach Kerr meanwhile said his team had been “plugging holes” throughout.

“They did a good job. They earned the win. They put a lot of pressure on us and felt like we were kind of swimming upstream most of the night,” Kerr said.

It looked as if a Warriors comeback was on the cards after a Curry three-pointer late in the third quarter gave Golden State their first lead since the opening seconds of the game at 83-82.

But Boston refused to buckle and regained the initiative to lead by four points heading into the final quarter. 

The Celtics then surged clear with a 9-2 run at the start of the fourth to jump out to an 11-point lead before closing out a deserved victory.

A miserable night for Golden State was capped by defensive talisman Draymond Green fouling out in the fourth quarter to a cacophony of jeers from the Boston crowd.

“He had a tough game, but I trust Draymond as much as I trust anybody,” Kerr said. “He always bounces back from losses and from tough nights individually. He’ll be back on Friday.”

Fast start

Earlier, the Celtics had jumped on the Warriors in the first quarter, racing into a 10-4 lead.

With Boston’s defence swarming all over Golden State, the Warriors were never able to generate any scoring momentum.

Instead it was Boston who kept the scoreline ticking over with Brown leading the way as the Celtics moved into a 15-point lead before finishing the first 11 points clear.

The Warriors improved their shooting markedly in the second quarter but a determined Boston maintained their double-digit advantage, outscoring the Warriors 35-34.

There were signs of a Warriors revival after the Celtics had stretched into an 18-point lead midway through the quarter, with Thompson and Curry both knocking down threes to help reduce the deficit to seven points at 56-49.

But whenever the Warriors seemed poised to close the gap further, Boston responded with a big play. Al Horford’s steal set up a dunk for Brown, who finished the half with 22 points as the Celtics took a 68-56 half-time lead.

Boston started the third quarter in the same manner, managing to re-establish a double-digit cushion whenever Golden State made a dent in the Celtics lead.

Eventually, though, the Warriors’ offensive pressure told and the momentum shifted in a matter of seconds when Curry’s three-pointer cut the Boston lead to six points at 82-76 with just over five minutes in the period remaining. 

A flagrant foul by Horford turned it into a four-point play and Otto Porter Jr’s three-pointer from 26ft made it a two-point game.

But Boston powered back with Grant Williams draining a three-pointer to put the Celtics seven points clear at 93-86 before Thompson hit back from beyond the arc to make it a four-point game heading into the fourth.

Any hopes of a Warriors recovery were snuffed out in the Celtics decisive burst of scoring in the final period.

BAKU — Sergio Perez has fond memories of last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and this weekend the Mexican finds himself returning to the fast and furious streets of Baku as a viable contender for the world championship.

‘Checo’ arrives on the Caspian Sea coastline fresh from his Monaco triumph and with the ink barely dry on a two-year extension to his Red Bull contract.

Monaco, following three second-place finishes, lifted Mexico’s most successful F1 driver to within 15 points of his world champion teammate Max Verstappen.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is only six points in front of Perez heading into this eighth round of the 22-race season which welcomes back fans for the first time since the Covid pandemic.

“He’s in this championship just as much as Max is”, Red Bull boss Christian Horner stated in the aftermath of Perez’s third career win after Azerbaijan in 2021 and in Bahrain the season before.

Perez was helped in Monaco by his team’s pit stop prowess with Ferrari bungling theirs but Horner warned the Italian constructor’s faster car will be hard to stop “over the coming races”.

Baku has a reputation for serving up the unexpected, with cars hurtling down the Neftchilar Avenue, the longest straight on the calendar, at 350kmh, before snaking through the sinuous old town framed by Baku’s medieval city walls.

It’s unpredictable nature is borne out by the results, with a different driver winning each edition since Nico Rosberg won the first Grand Prix held there, the European, in 2016.

Verstappen readily concedes it’s not one of his favourite weekend destinations after last year’s dramatic tyre blow out with the chequered flag his for the taking continuing his sorry sequence of never making the podium.

The Dutchman had to settle for third in Monaco but still came away satisfied at extending his title lead over Leclerc, who judged his home race as “a freaking disaster” after starting from pole to finish fourth.

The man from Monaco has seen the title momentum he established with wins in Bahrain and Australia disappear with Red Bull on a five-timer after annexing the last four races.

“Everything went against us... we’ll come back stronger”, said Leclerc, that sentiment echoed by his team boss.

“We are pretty aware: being competitive is a fact; winning is another task and it’s another level of difficulty. And I think as a team we are still progressing, learning, and maybe it will take some more time,” said Ferrari principal Mattia Binotto.

While Red Bull and Ferrari are dominating the early season limelight Mercedes have struggled to unleash the full potential of their car.

Upgrades in Barcelona last month looked encouraging as Toto Wolff’s under pressure team sought to iron out the “bouncing” that has bedevilled their performance.

The Silver Arrows’ undoubted speed should make deposed seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and his astute new teammate George Russell a force to be reckoned with in qualifying.

But it is perhaps wishful thinking to suggest they are in a position to add to their three wins from the five races held here on Sunday just yet.

Aside from Perez last year the other that escaped the mighty German manufacturer was in 2017, when Daniel Ricciardo won for Red Bull from 10th on the grid.

The Australian’s trademark smile has been tested this term as he struggles to make a mark in his McLaren, collecting only 11 points to 48 for his teammate Lando Norris.

At Monaco he more or less agreed with team boss Zak Brown that so far his move to the team had failed to meet expectations.

“No one’s going to be harder on me than myself,” he said.

“I know that I don’t want to be racing around in 10th, 12th places.”

“I still believe I can be at the front and belong at the front, so it’s been a little bit more, certainly, testing at times, in terms of us trying to get up there and maximise myself in this car.”