MUNICH: Bayern Munich’s Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick and Harry Kane grabbed a double in a comprehensive 5-1 win over 10-man Hoffenheim on Sunday to ensure the reigning champions restored a six-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.
Kane’s two goals came from first-half penalties, while Diaz added the next three goals to see Bayern advance to 54 points from 21 games, well clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund who won 2-1 at VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday.
Hoffenheim had Kevin Akpoguma sent off for a 17th-minute foul that allowed Kane to open the scoring from the spot but they equalized through Andrej Kramaric before Bayern took control and imposed themselves on the under-strength visitors.
Hoffenheim stay in third spot on 42 points as their run of five successive Bundesliga wins came to an end.
Akpoguma was sent off for tugging down Diaz as the Colombian winger burst into the Hoffenheim area and Kane tucked away the resultant kick in the 20th minute.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, Hoffenheim responded with an attacking approach and, after spurning good chances, pulled level when Bayern’s veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer blundered with a casual clearance that was picked off by Fisnik Asllani, who then teed up Kramaric to make it 1-1.
Another foul on Diaz, this time by Vladimir Coufal, handed Bayern a second penalty on the stroke of halftime and Kane netted again for his 24th goal of the Bundesliga season. Coufal was cautioned but, unlike Akpoguma, was not sent off.
England captain Kane then led a swift counter-attack two minutes into stoppage time at the end of the half, before setting up Diaz for a 3-1 lead at the break.
Neuer made a point-blank stop from Asllani in the 58th minute to atone for his earlier error before Diaz got his second goal four minutes later, with Michael Olize squaring for an easy-looking finish.
Diaz completed his hat-trick in the last minute, collecting the ball on the right of the Hoffenheim area and then running inside before picking his spot and hitting the ball wide of goalkeeper Oliver Baumann into the corner of the net.
Bayern have now scored 79 goals in this Bundesliga campaign, prompting coach Vincent Kompany to praise his strikeforce. “They simply never stop. If things get a little less exciting, they’re right back at it. They’re always hungry to attack,” he said.
Bayern open six-point lead with five-goal thrashing of Hoffenheim
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Bayern open six-point lead with five-goal thrashing of Hoffenheim
- Hoffenheim stay in third spot in the German league on 42 points as their run of five successive Bundesliga wins ended
Italian gymnastics ex-coach stands trial for bullying
ROME: The former coach of Italy’s rhythmic gymnastics team goes on trial Tuesday accused of bullying athletes, fueling questions over the treatment of young athletes as the country hosts the Winter Olympics.
Emanuela Maccarani, a former national team gymnast herself, faces charges of abuse of minors at a court in Monza near Milan, which is hosting part of the Games.
The trial was sparked by explosive claims three years ago by two promising Italian gymnasts, Nina Corradini and double world champion Anna Basta, who claimed they quit the sport while still teenagers as a result of psychological abuse by Maccarani.
Corradini and Basta are civil parties along with two other gymnasts, Beatrice Tornatore and Francesca Mayer, and Change The Game, an Italian association campaigning against emotional, physical and sexual abuse and violence in sports.
Maccarani has denied the charges. Five gymnasts who trained with her submitted statements in her defense at a preliminary hearing in September.
Change The Game founder Daniela Simonetti told AFP the trial throws into “question methods that often cause pain, devastation, and significant consequences for boys and girls in general.”
“This trial is linked to a way of thinking, a way of understanding sport, a way of managing young athletes.
“The expectation is that there will be a real debate around this, whether these methods are right or wrong,” she said.
Episodes of alleged abuse in the discipline have come under growing scrutiny, particularly following a sexual abuse scandal in the late 2010s, which saw former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar convicted of molesting girls.
Vulnerable
The Olympics Committee has given more attention to mental health in recent years in a bid to protect athlete wellbeing.
While the discipline is not featured at the Winter Games, the world’s top gymnasts are preparing for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Coach Maccarani, 59, led Italy to the top of a sport traditionally dominated by countries from the former Soviet bloc.
But during her near three-decade reign at the Italian team’s National Training Center in Desio, not far from Monza, days began with gymnasts being weighed in front of one another.
Often a long way from their families and barely out of childhood, they were vulnerable.
Some took laxatives and weighed themselves obsessively. One world champion reported being berated for eating a pear.
The affair appeared to be over in September 2023 when Maccarani was given a simple warning by the disciplinary tribunal of the country’s gymnastics federation (FGI) and handed back the reins of the national team, nicknamed the “Butterflies.”
But in March last year the FGI, under new president Andrea Facci, sacked Maccarani.
The FGI’s official explanation to AFP at the time of her dismissal was that the organization wanted to “open a new cycle in preparation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”
Corradini, whose testimony led the Monza prosecutor’s office to open an investigation, told AFP last year she was happy for “the young athletes who will now join the national team and who will surely have a different experience.”
