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PARIS — It was the moment the fans had really been waiting for ever since Lionel Messi was unveiled as a Paris Saint-Germain player nearly two months ago.

The Argentine had featured only fleetingly for his new club and had not scored a goal, but he chose his moment to get off the mark in Tuesday’s heavyweight Champions League clash with Manchester City.

It was a trademark strike by the Argentine that put PSG 2-0 up against Pep Guardiola’s side in the 74th minute, securing a victory that sends out a message to the rest of Europe, even this early in the season.

The six-time Ballon d’Or winner was having a quiet evening until he collected possession just inside the City half near the right touchline and scampered towards goal.

He held off Aymeric Laporte and played a one-two with Kylian Mbappe before sending a shot high into the net from just outside the box.

Guardiola — who has been on the receiving end of Messi’s magic before against Barcelona with Bayern Munich and with City — called his former pupil “unstoppable”.

“I don’t usually celebrate goals, but that one I did,” said PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino, who came up against Messi in Spain as coach of Espanyol.

“I have seen him score plenty of times before when I was on the opposition bench, so for once I was on the right bench and could celebrate.”

Messi left Barcelona as their all-time top scorer with 672 goals in 778 appearances, a record tally for one club.

Now he is up and running in Paris and the crowd at the Parc des Princes, who will not forget their evening, will hope it was just the first goal of many.

“It is true that I was becoming desperate to get my first goal,” Messi, who was making just his fourth appearance for Pochettino’s side, told Canal Plus.

The 34-year-old came to Paris with his sights firmly set on winning the Champions League, a trophy he last won with Barcelona in 2015.

‘MNM’ getting to know each other

A team containing Messi, Mbappe and Neymar — not to mention Angel Di Maria, who was suspended on Tuesday — can target nothing less than victory in a competition PSG have never won.

The early signs this season have not always been promising, with PSG drawing 1-1 at Club Brugge in their first European game and facing largely limited opposition on the way to eight wins out of eight in Ligue 1.

But Messi believes his relationship with Mbappe and Neymar, the so-called “MNM”, is developing.

“As we go along we are getting to know each other better,” he said.

Pochettino admitted his team “suffered” at times, especially when Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva hit the bar in quick succession for City in the first half.

It is the first time Qatar-owned PSG have ever beaten Abu Dhabi-backed City, having been on the losing side in the quarter-finals in 2016 and then in last season’s semifinals.

City are now a point behind the Parisians, and Club Brugge, in their Champions League group, but the two leading financial powers of the modern European game will still surely both advance to the last 16.

Guardiola will be glad he does not have to worry about playing against Messi again until the reverse fixture in November, yet in many ways this was the least important match of the week for City.

Winners at Chelsea on Saturday in a repeat of last season’s Champions League final, Guardiola’s side now have the small matter of a trip to Premier League leaders Liverpool to come this weekend.

“We played a good game with personality but we couldn’t score a goal,” Guardiola said.

“Now we are going to eat good tonight, we are going to drink a glass of wine, we are going to recover and we are going to prepare for the game on Sunday,” he told BT Sport.

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom — Manchester United cross paths with Villarreal once more on Wednesday in desperate need of a win to avoid another European embarrassment and ease the rising pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The Yellow Submarine emerged 11-10 winners from a marathon penalty shootout when the sides last met in the Europa League final in May to win their first ever major trophy.

Defeat extended Solskjaer’s wait for silverware as United boss since taking charge in December 2019, but goalkeeper David de Gea was the fall guy in Gdansk.

The Spanish international’s failure to stop a single Villarreal penalty was compounded when he was the only player from the 22 on both sides to fail to score from the spot.

At the time it looked like De Gea’s days as United number one may be up, despite being one of the highest paid players in the Premier League.

Solskjaer had already handed the reigns to Dean Henderson towards the of the Premier League season and his decision not to at least bring on the England goalkeeper, who boasts a far better penalty record, became another stick with which to beat his management of the final.

But Henderson’s health suffered badly after testing positive for coronavirus during pre-season, giving De Gea the gloves for the start of the campaign.

Despite a mixed bag of results, United would be even worse off if it wasn’t for the 30-year-old’s return to form.

De Gea produced a series of miraculous saves as the Red Devils escaped with a 1-0 win at Wolves.

And he ended his hoodoo of failing to save 41 penalties on the trot for club and country when he denied Mark Noble in stoppage time of a dramatic 2-1 victory at West Ham.

“I try to train very well, to show that I’m ready and then go to the game with the same spirit, experience and quality for the team,” said De Gea. “I feel well, I fell strong, I feel confident. I’m really happy and that’s the most important thing.”

However, those wins at Molineux and the London Stadium papered over cracks that are beginning to show in United’s unbalanced squad.

Solskjaer’s men have lost three of their past four games despite adding Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho to a squad already rich in attacking talent.

The English giants only dropped into the Europa League last season after crashing out at the group stages.

And anything less than revenge against Villarreal would leave them in severe danger of doing the same again after losing their group opener to Swiss side Young Boys.

The excitement generated by Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford has only intensified the scrutiny on Solskjaer to deliver in his third full season in charge.

But his Champions League record of seven defeats in 11 games does not make for pretty reading.

Solskjaer is yet to find the right midfield balance to carry the defensive burden for his array of attacking talent.

And he may be even more reliant on De Gea for the visit of Unai Emery’s men with defenders Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw major doubts due to injury.

TOKYO — Sumo’s greatest-ever champion Hakuho retired on Monday after battling persistent knee trouble, officials said, leaving a gaping hole at the top of the ancient sport.

The Mongolian-born 36-year-old has won a record 45 tournaments — 13 more than anyone else in history — but has been sidelined by injury for most of the year.

He made his only appearance of 2021 at July’s Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, going unbeaten to win the title after missing all or part of the previous six competitions.

He and 17 other wrestlers from his stable were forced to miss the following tournament, which ended on Sunday, after a coronavirus outbreak.

His departure leaves just one other wrestler, Terunofuji, in the yokozuna class — sumo’s highest rank.

“I learned from the sumo association chairman that Hakuho’s letter of retirement was filed through his stable master today,” Hironori Yano, head of the yokozuna deliberation council, which is close to the association, told reporters.

Hakuho’s decision, reportedly the result of a right knee injury, brings the curtain down on his illustrious career after 1,187 wins.

The Japan Sumo Association declined to comment, but the news made headlines in the country and grateful fans tweeted their support for the star.

Near the Kokugikan venue where sumo’s Tokyo tournament is held, Takashi Sakai was full of praise for the retiring wrestler.

“I want to tell him: ‘Great work. Well done’. He worked really hard, coming all the way to Japan, becoming a sumo wrestler and a yokozuna champion. It’s not very easy to achieve all that,” the 76-year-old told AFP.

“He has been the strongest wrestler for a long time and has been very influential,” said Miyako Arai.

“I think there are many wrestlers whose admiration of Hakuho led them to pursue the sport,” the 46-year-old added.

‘A tremendous yokozuna’

Born Munkhbat Davaajargal and the son of an Olympic silver-medal freestyle wrestler, Hakuho came to Japan at age 15 to enter the sumo world.

He debuted in 2001 and won his first top-division title in May 2006, before reaching the sport’s highest rank of yokozuna at age 22 in July 2007.

His battles with fellow Mongolian yokozuna Asashoryu — the pantomime villain to Hakuho’s popular good guy — helped breathe new life into the sport, with attendances booming.

Asashoryu retired in 2010 but Hakuho went from strength to strength, overtaking the legendary Taiho’s record of 33 tournament wins in January 2015.

The one-time rival called Hakuho “a tremendous yokozuna”, in a post on Twitter after news of the retirement emerged.

“I will save the rest of my words for when the two of us speak in person. But to sum up, thanks for all your hard work,” Asashoryu wrote.

Hakuho outlasted fellow yokozuna Harumafuji, Kakuryu and Kisenosato.

Hakuho acquired Japanese citizenship in September 2019, giving him the right to run his own sumo stable after retirement.

He leaves the sport as sumo’s longest-serving yokozuna, having fought his 1,000th bout at the rank in July 2020.

LONDON — Anthony Joshua said he was “110 per cent” likely to activate a rematch clause with Oleksandr Usyk after losing his world heavyweight titles to the Ukrainian in stunning fashion in London on Saturday

Usyk gave a boxing masterclass in recording a unanimous points victory to deprive Joshua of his World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organisation belts in front of the dethroned champion’s home crowd of more than 66,000 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

His victory extended Usyk’s unbeaten professional record to 19 wins and scuppered the prospects of an all-British world heavyweight title unification bout between Joshua and Tyson Fury.

It also meant Usyk became just the third cruiserweight world champion after Evander Holyfield of the United States and Britain’s David Haye to also take a heavyweight title, with the 34-year-old achieving the feat in just his third professional contest in the heavyweight ranks.

The contract for this bout, however, contained a rematch clause.

And Joshua, who previously lost his belts when beaten by Andy Ruiz in New York in June 2019 before regaining the titles in a rematch in Saudi Arabia six months later, is determined to face Usyk again.

“A hundred per cent, 110 per cent,” he told a post-fight press conference. “I’m ready to get back to training.

“There’s an old saying ‘If you want to go down as a great fighter, don’t fight southpaws’, especially good ones. He [Usyk] is a good fighter.”

Joshua suffered a badly swollen right eye which required medical attention in a fight where only the bell appeared to save him from a last-round knockout.

“I couldn’t see in the ninth round,” explained Joshua. “My eye was shut, but it was a good experience, because in adversity, you’ve just got to learn to control yourself... it’s the first time it’s happened in a fight.”

Joshua, sounding remarkably upbeat despite a convincing loss, insisted: “I’m a different kind of animal. I’m not a sulker, this is a blessed opportunity to be able to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. 

“Straight away I’ve already been watching the fight and figuring out what I could have done better.”

Joshua’s defeat put paid to a fight anytime soon with Fury, who defends his World Boxing Council heavyweight title against Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas next month — the third time the pair have met after a split-decision draw and a win for Fury.

Joshua, however, insisted: “I’ll fight Tyson Fury, Wilder, without the belts. It’s great, it’s legacy but with or without the belts I’ll fight whoever.”

‘Lucky city’

Usyk, three years older than Joshua, also made light of giving away 7.62 centimetres in height as well as nearly nine kilogrammes in weight during his latest triumph in London following a heavyweight gold medal at the 2012 Olympics — a Games where Joshua took the super-heavyweight title.

“London is a really lucky city for me but not a single professional victory can be above an Olympic gold,” said Usyk via a translator. 

“At this point it is the biggest fight in my career but it wasn’t the hardest one. I cannot say [who was] but, most likely, it’s ahead of us.”

Most of Usyk’s wins have come outside Ukraine, with the new champion — who spent three months in a preparation camp away from his wife and family — adding: “I would love to have the rematch at Olympiyskiy Stadium in Kiev.”

But Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, suggested any rematch would be in Britain, in February or March.

Hearn said a defeat by the “outstanding” Usyk was easier to accept than the “bolt from the blue” that was the first Ruiz fight.

“I think in a strange way he [Joshua] enjoyed the fight because I think he knows he learnt so much and, deep down he knows he was beaten by the better man tonight,” he said.

“I think you need to credit him [Joshua] because he could have swerved that fight easy and maybe we should have, but that’s not really what he’s about.”

Hearn, who questioned whether Usyk could hit the same heights again after a “perfect fight”, added: “Anything can happen, but AJ will, I promise you, be much, much better than that in the re-match.”

SOCHI, Russia — Lewis Hamilton finally claimed his 100th Formula One success on Sunday, the peerless Mercedes driver emerging triumphant amid high drama at the rain-hit Russian Grand Prix to retake the championship lead.

With a late downpour causing havoc Hamilton reached the unprecedented century after being stuck on 99 since the British Grand Prix in July.

The 36-year-old Briton moved back to the top of the drivers standings by two points from Max Verstappen, who finished second — starting from last place — a great achievement for the Red Bull driver.

After taking his 100th chequered flag 14 years after his first in Canada Hamilton told his team on the car radio: “Phew. That was hard work man!”

The seven-time champion had looked destined to come away for the fifth race in a row stuck on the 99 mark with McLaren’s Lando Norris firmly in command up front.

But with five laps to go, the rain that had been threatening the 15th round of the championship for so long arrived, causing mayhem.

With cars fitted with slicks starting to lose grip and coming in for intermediates Hamilton joined them, leaving Norris leading.

But with three laps left and Norris a sitting duck and sliding all over the circuit Hamilton eventually hit the front to finally nail the magic number of victories.

After jumping out of his car he said: “The rain came, it was very opportunistic, the team did a great job, I’m grateful for the points”.

“It’s taken a long time to get to 100 wins.

“I wasn’t even sure it would come. The team made such a good call at the end. I didn’t want to let Lando go. I’m incredibly grateful to all these men and women here and back in the factory. Wow, 100.”

‘So determined’

Hamilton had set off from the second row after a rare mistake in qualifying 24 hours earlier.

“Going to bed last night, with the job that I did yesterday, there were subtle little mistakes. I was so determined to do the best job I could. It was tough.”

At the start, as flecks of rain began to appear on drivers’ visors, a ballerina pirouetted on a grand piano at the back of the grid to add a surreal touch to the occasion.

On lights out, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won the long 900m sprint to the first turn from Norris and George Russell in the Williams as Hamilton slipped from fourth to seventh.

Mercedes’ tactical card with Valtteri Bottas — whose engine they had replaced so he would start near Verstappen near the back of the grid and try and hold him up — worked for all of seven laps when the Dutch driver nipped past the Finn, to smug smiles from the Red Bull garage.

On lap 13 Norris took to the team radio to say “Got him” after swooping past Sainz to regain the lead he lost at the start.

Sainz pulled his Ferrari into the pits on the next lap to promote Daniel Ricciardo into second to leave McLaren racing first and second.

Approaching midway the top 10 had yet to pit, with Verstappen, up to sixth.

Ricciardo was the first of the front runners coming on for a change of rubber, but a tardy tyre change saw the Monza winner rejoining back in 14th, as Hamilton took advantage of clean air to set a fastest lap.

The century-chasing man came in finally on lap 27, with Verstappen following suit, the pair dropping to ninth and 12th.

Norris came in for a slick stop, the McLaren mechanics high-fiving in relief after Ricciardo’s problematic visit.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff took to the airwaves to tell Hamilton: “You can win this race.”

With 10 laps left, Norris had regained the lead, Hamilton looming in the young Briton’s wing mirror, around one second behind.

Then the rain came down.

Cars began to come in for a change of rubber for better grip including Hamilton with Norris staying out on hards, 25seconds clear now, as McLaren gambled.

Fernando Alonso pirouetted like the pre-race ballerina and Norris followed to hand Hamilton the lead, and another slice of F1 history.

SOCHI, Russia — Lando Norris celebrated his maiden Formula One pole and gave his team McLaren their first since 2012 in a stunning outcome to Saturday’s qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.

Norris is joined on the front row by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton starting on the second row in his latest attempt at reaching 100 wins.

Hamilton was looking good for pole after topping the timesheets in Q1 and Q2, but he then suffered late drama with three minutes left of Q3 when he hit the pit wall requiring a hastily fitted new front wing to his damaged Mercedes.

A spin on his re-emergence out onto the circuit on slick tyres left the door open for 21-year-old Norris to steal the show at Sochi with a flying last lap of 1min 41.993sec.

“Oh boy. It feels amazing. Manic session,” beamed the Briton, fresh from his team’s first one-two in over a decade at the Italian Grand Prix.

“We made the decision to go slicks, you never think you will get pole until you get it,” he added.

The refreshingly different complexion of the top of the grid was completed by George Russell of Williams.

He posted the third quickest time to start alongside seven-time world champion Hamilton, his teammate when he relaces Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes next season.

“It is crazy. Second time in the top three in three or four events, the team have done an amazing job,” said the 22-year-old referring to a brilliant qualifying session at Spa to gain his first podium in the rain-ruined Belgian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by five points ahead of this 15th round of the season, starts from the back of the grid due to an engine change penalty on his Red Bull.

“As I will be starting from the back of the grid anyway, we decided to take no risks and to skip quali,” the Dutch driver tweeted.

‘Lewis can still win’ 

“Quite an interesting quali result! It’s full focus on the race, in which I’ll try to fight my way forward and hopefully have some fun.”

Hamilton meanwhile will be counting on exploiting Verstappen’s penalty to the fullest at the circuit on the shores of the Black Sea where he has already won four times with Mercedes undefeated since it first appeared on the calendar in 2014.

Stuck on 99 since Silverstone on July 18 the Mercedes world champion will hope his car’s race pace will see him finally become F1’s first century man.

“I think with Lewis we can still win this race,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

He added: “Valtteri starting seventh, we need him on the podium. That’s the target for tomorrow.”

Hamilton was upset with what he readily acknowledged was “a mistake from myself” when hitting the wall.

“Ultimately, incredibly disappointed in myself. Until then I was in a groove, I was really in the zone and I’m really sorry for all the team that are here and back at the factory because that’s not what you expect from a champion.

“But it is what it is and I’ll do my best tomorrow to try and rectify it,” he told Sky.

In fifth spot for Sunday’s race is Norris’s teammate, Monza winner Daniel Ricciardo with the Alpine of Fernando Alonso for company on the third row.

Bottas and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll come next with Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and Esteban Ocon of Alpine completing the top 10.

Qualifying got underway as scheduled after a dramatic improvement in conditions following torrential rain which washed out the morning’s third and final practice.

The deluge left the circuit in the Olympic Park under water, but thankfully the rain relented to allow a qualifying session that Norris won’t forget in a hurry to go ahead.

AMMAN — The 2021 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup (Division A) — the 29th edition of the tournament, tips off in Amman on Monday, the first time it is held in an Arab country.

The event which will run up to October 3, was set to be hosted by India and serves as the Asian and Oceania qualification for the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Australia for which the top four teams will advance. 

The same eight teams from the last edition qualified for this years’ tournament, listed by their final position. Since no Division B tournament was held in the 2019 edition, the last finishing team was not relegated to this edition’s Division B. 

During the Group phase, eight participating teams in Division A were divided into two groups of four teams each. Ttitleholders Japan lead Group A alongside record winners South Korea, New Zealand and India while Group B includes China, Australia, the Philippines and Chinese Taipei.

Jordan will also host the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 – Division B in November 2021.

The FIBA Women’s Asia Cup is an international basketball tournament which takes place every two years for women’s national teams from FIBA Asia region. It was known as the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championship until 2001, and the FIBA Asia Women’s Championship until 2015.

Among Arab teams Syria took part in 1986 (finishing 9th), Jordan in 1995 (finishing 11th) and Lebanon in 2001 (finishing 13th).

Japan are titleholders and five-time winners, South Korea 12-time winners, China 11-time winners.

In addition to the Women’s Asia Cup Divisions A &B, Jordan will again host the FIBA Asia U-18 Championship for Women in 2022, which qualifies the winners to the FIBA U-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup. Jordan took part in FIBA Asia U-18 in 1996 and finished 8th, and hosted the event in 2014 and finished 11th.

In the FIBA Asia U-16 Championship for Women, Jordan played in 2013 and finished 11th.

In men’s events, this year, Jordan qualified to the FIBA Asia Cup — the continent’s leading basketball tournament after an unbeaten streak in qualifiers hosted in Amman. The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 will be played in Jakarta, Indonesia, but is now rescheduled to July 2022, right after the window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asia qualifiers. 

Jordan’s best showing at the FIBA Asia Cup (previously called FIBA Asia Championship) was third in 2009 and runner-up in 2011 when it reached the final for the first time in the country’s history, but lost the chance of qualifying to the 2012 Olympic Games after losing the final 70-69 to China. Jordan then played the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) but were eliminated after losing to Puerto Rico and Greece.

On the world scene, Jordan previously reached the FIBA Basketball World Cup — the world’s premier basketball competition twice — in 2010 and 2019. The basketball squad was the first and only Jordanian team to actually reach a World Cup in a team sport in 2010 and 2019 alongside the junior men’s team in 1995.