Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl

American Football: Bengals surprise in the Super Bowl, Rams with “home game”

(sda) The Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will meet in the Super Bowl on February 14. Cincinnati defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 after overtime and prevented the favorite from the third Super Bowl appearance in a row. The Rams won 20-17 against the San Francisco 49ers.

Like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, the Rams get the chance to win the championship in their own stadium. While the Rams are seeking their second NFL title (then the St. Louis Rams) after 2000 and the 23-16 loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Bengals have never won the championship and were last in the Super Bowl 33 years ago.

Ice hockey: Fiala scores in the eleventh game in a row

(sda) Kevin Fiala has scored for the eleventh straight game in the NHL. The 25-year-old from eastern Switzerland was credited with the second assist from Matty Boldy (23rd) in the 4-3 away win of the Minnesota Wild against the New York Islanders. If Fiala also scores with the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night, he equals Mikael Granlund’s franchise record from the 2016/17 season.

It is currently the longest scorer series in the best ice hockey league in the world. Fiala, who is playing for a new contract, has recorded eight goals and six assists in those 11 games (total 12/20). Despite 21:43 shots on goal, the Wild celebrated their fifth win in a row, the eighth in the last nine matches – they suffered their only defeat in a penalty shoot-out.

Nino Niederreiter and the Carolina Hurricanes won the Swiss duel against Timo Meier’s San Jose Sharks 2-1. The two power strikers remained without a scorer point. While Carolina won for the fourth time in a row, San Jose suffered their sixth loss in the last eight games. Defenseman Dean Kukan was outnumbered in the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Soccer: Salah takes Egypt to Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals

(sda) Record winner Egypt is in the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. Star striker Mohamed Salah contributed to the 2-1 victory after extra time against Morocco and the decisive pass to 2-1 in extra time. The Egyptians could become African champions for the eighth time. In the semi-finals they meet hosts Cameroon.

Tournament favorites Senegal, the side with the most players from the major European leagues, beat Equatorial Guinea 3-1 in Sunday’s second quarter-final. Opponent of the West Africans in the semi-finals is Burkina Faso.

Ice hockey: Corona-related changes in the national team’s Olympic squad

(sda) There are two changes to the squad of the men’s national ice hockey team for the Winter Games in Beijing due to the corona.

For goalkeeper Joren van Pottelberghe (Biel) and striker Sven Senteler (Zug), the preventive corona tests in the past few days have each yielded a positive result. The two will therefore not travel to the Olympic Games. Their places are taken by goalie Sandro Aeschlimann (Davos) and striker Calvin Thürkauf (Lugano). The men’s national ice hockey team travels to China on February 2nd.

Handball: Sweden ends dry spell and is European champion

(sda) Sweden comes to its first major handball title in 20 years. The Scandinavians prevailed in the European Championship final in Budapest against the two-time defending champion Spain thanks to a penalty after the end of the season with 27:26.

Niclas Ekberg, who returned from the Corona quarantine, used the decisive seven-meter shot with the last shot of the game. The Kiel player was also the Swedes’ top scorer with five goals alongside pivot Oscar Bergendahl.

In the Swedes, goalie Andreas Palicka once again convinced in the head-to-head race against the Spaniards, who had recently become European champions twice in a row. As in the semi-final against France, the 35-year-old was the great support of the new golden generation of Swedes with numerous saves.

For the Swedes it is the return to great success after winning two World Cups and four European Championships between 1990 and 2002. Since then, they had lost three finals – at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, at the 2018 European Championships in Croatia and at the 2021 World Cup in Egypt.

In Budapest, the record European champions kept their nerves in the final minutes. Palicka fended off a Spaniard shot at 26:26 before the last attack resulted in the decisive seven-metre throw.

Bronze went to world champion Denmark, who managed a small revenge for losing the Olympic final last summer in the match for third place against France. The Danes prevailed after extra time with 35:32.

Football: FC Basel stays tuned to FCZ

(sda) What FCZ and YB can do, FC Basel can also do in the top trio of the Super League: Basel also won at the start of the second half of the season with zero. They get the three points with a 3-0 win at FC Luzern.

On the other hand, the result of the game, which was watched by more than 10,000 spectators on site, means Mario Frick’s unsuccessful debut as head coach of FC Luzern. The outcome of the game was open until Lucerne’s Marvin Schulz saw yellow-red after 78 minutes for complaining. Former Lucerne player Darian Males used the majority to make it 2-0, and Fabian Frei scored a double in injury time. Central Switzerland remains in last place, still one point behind Lausanne-Sport.

At the bottom of the table, FC St. Gallen clinched an important victory that gives them some breathing room. The eastern Swiss won 5-1 at Lausanne-Sport and gained a reserve of seven points over the Vaud. With a double strike after around 15 minutes, St. Gallen took a 2-0 lead. They were outnumbered for most of the second half after Lausanne’s Jean N’Guessan was sent off with a yellow card.

In the third Super League game on Sunday, Sion won 2-0 at home against the Grasshoppers. Former hopper Jan Bamert scored the opening goal after just under half an hour. In the fall, GC won both duels against Sion in the championship 3-1.

Results from Sunday: Lausanne Sport – St. Gallen 1: 5 (1: 2). Lucerne – Basel 0:3 (0:0). Sion – Grasshoppers 2-0 (1-0).

Ranking: 1. Zurich 19/43 (44:26). 2. Basel 19/36 (41:19). 3. Young Boys 19/35 (44:22). 4. Lugano 19/30 (25:25). 5. Servette 19/25 (32:34). 6. Session 19/24 (26:35). 7. Grasshoppers 19/23 (32:28). 8. St Gallen 19/19 (27:40). 9. Lausanne-Sport 19/12 (19:42). 10. Lucerne 19/11 (20:39).

Ski jumping: Killian Peier without wind luck

(sda) The bad luck with the wind conditions killed Killian Peier in Willingen, Germany, the main Olympic rehearsal. The man from Vaud touched down after 114.5 m in the final round. The World Championship third from 2019 slipped eight positions down to 23rd place and was also overtaken by Gregor Deschwanden. After jumps on 121.5 and 134.5 m, the Lucerne native was ranked 16th.

A few minutes after Peier, the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi sailed 152 m – the upwind was not constant. The German Markus Eisenbichler complained of similar bad luck as the Swiss and even jumped for victory. The Bavarian was passed after 115.5 m in 11th place. Marius Lindvik from Norway, on the other hand, jumped from 6th place to his third win of the season. Second-placed Karl Geiger snatched the lead in the intermediate World Cup standings from Kobayashi (4th) by three points.

A weekend before the competitions in Beijing, the field in Willingen was full. Only two jumpers from the top 20 of the World Cup intermediate ranking were missing. Next Sunday the first set of medals will be awarded to the men on the normal hill. Peier travels to China as number 11 in the ranking.

Soccer: Diaz is moving to Liverpool FC

(sda/dpa) Colombia international Luis Diaz joins Liverpool from FC Porto. The 25-year-old offensive player has signed a “long-term” contract, the Premier League club said. The two clubs did not provide any information about the transfer modalities. According to media reports, the transfer fee should be up to 60 million euros, depending on bonus payments. Diaz had scored 41 goals in 125 games for Porto.

And Liverpool’s rivals are also active in the transfer market. Manchester City are set to join River Plate’s 22-year-old Argentinian Julian Alvarez in the summer. This was confirmed on Sunday by the president of the traditional club from Buenos Aires. The Premier League leader is expected to pay the equivalent of around 23.3 million euros for Alvarez.

Snowboard: Nicolas Huber tested positive in Beijing

(sda) Nicolas Huber tested positive for the corona virus after arriving at the Winter Games in Beijing. The Zurich freestyle snowboarder, who is asymptomatic, has been placed in an isolated hotel room in Zhangjiakou, as per organizing committee guidelines.

Huber will be released from isolation as soon as he tests negative for the coronavirus twice, 24 hours apart. So the 2017 World Championship runner-up can still hope that he can take part in the slopestyle qualification on Sunday, February 6th as planned.