France

PARIS - Brazil forward Neymar has signed a new contract with Paris Saint-Germain that will keep him in the French capital until 2025, the Ligue 1 club said on Saturday.

The 29-year-old Neymar, who joined PSG in 2017 from Spanish club Barcelona for a record transfer fee of $270 million, has agreed a deal French media reported will earn him an annual salary of $36.50 million.

Neymar said he wanted to leave PSG in 2019 amid media reports he was keen on returning to Barcelona, but he stayed in Paris and helped PSG reach the Champions League final last season.

Prior to Tuesday, Ángel Di María had played 741 matches for club and country, receiving all of four straight red cards and 80 yellow cards. No one would ever say Di María is a hothead or has a habit of committing bad fouls — even Lionel Messi has more yellow cards in his career. So it makes the racist comment CBS announcer Jim Beglin said after the Di María red card all the more baffling. 

It was a fiery weekend across French football as 10 red cards across an equal number of Ligue 1 matches punctuated both a riveting title race and the tense fight against relegation.

At the bottom end of the table, a 15th-minute red card for Angers helped Lorient stay four points clear of the drop zone, while in Bordeaux, Steven N'Zonzi's eighth-minute sending off for Rennes helped the hosts maintain a five-point cushion from the bottom three.

It looked like PSG was cruising. The first half went just about as well as Mauricio Pochettino could have hoped, with PSG leading by a goal, looking dangerous whenever it attacked and rarely troubled by Manchester City. One wonders what Poch said to his charges at halftime, because it all fell apart in the second 45, much like the PSG wall that completely failed to defend a Riyad Mahrez free kick. 

Wednesday promises to provide an enthralling clash as the high-powered offenses of Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain do battle in the Champions League semifinal first leg.

Both sides lead their respective domestic leagues in scoring this year, with PSG having scored 77 goals through 34 games and Pep Guardiola's City posting 69 in 33. While City waltzes towards its fifth league title since 2011-12 and third in four years, PSG finds itself in the midst of an actual title challenge in Ligue 1 for just the second time in nearly a decade. 

Due to Paris St German's dominance of French football over the years, Ligue 1 has become one of the least competitive competitions in Europe. Since the club's Qatari takeover in 2011, PSG has won seven of the last nine Ligue 1 titles — nearly all of them by 10 points or more.

This season though has brought a welcome change to the Ligue 1 landscape. PSG has played slightly below its standards domestically (its eight league losses, including five at home, are the most in a decade), while the competing sides have noticeably improved, making for a scintillating title race.

It was a massive Sunday for USWNT players abroad as Alana Cook’s PSG hosted Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal showdown, while over in England Christen Press’s Manchester United continued its push for a place in next season’s tournament by welcoming Tottenham.

After knocking out eternal rival Lyon in the quarterfinals, PSG was sent crashing back down to Earth in the 13th minute after Jennifer Hermoso opened the scoring for Barça.