New Zealand started their Rugby League World Cup campaign with a hard-fought 34-12 victory against Lebanon on Sunday.

The world's number one side were made to sweat on occasion at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington, and surprisingly fell behind to their Group C opponents inside the first minute when Josh Mansour raced onto a loose ball on the right to score.

The Kiwis were soon level when Kenneth Bromwich went over, before substitute Nelson Asofa-Solomona got his side ahead despite some excellent defensive work from Lebanon, with Peta Hiku adding another shortly after to give New Zealand an 18-6 lead at the break.

The Cedars would not go away, though, and scored their second try to halve the deficit shortly after the restart as Abbas Miski went over down the left side.

After a further scare, the Kiwis took charge as terrific work from Manu ended with Dylan Brown racing through to score, before Manu again showed his quality to get a try of his own before the hour.

Jordan Rapana then added another just after Lebanon's Adam Doueihi was sent off for dissent.

Jurgen Klopp admitted he deserved to be sent off against Manchester City, but the Liverpool manager also aired his disappointment at the officiating during his team's 1-0 win at Anfield.

Mohamed Salah scored the only goal of a frenetic game on Sunday, latching onto a long pass from Alisson with 14 minutes remaining to finish past Ederson.

It was City's first Premier League defeat of the season, but the visitors were left frustrated when Phil Foden's second-half strike with the score at 0-0 was chalked off after referee Anthony Taylor was asked to look at the pitchside monitor by the video assistant referee, which showed Erling Haaland pulling over Fabinho in the build-up.

City boss Pep Guardiola and Klopp both showed frustration at Taylor's decisions through the game, with the latter shown a red card after objecting to a challenge on Salah with five minutes remaining going unpunished.

"Yeah, it's about emotion of course... red card, my fault," Klopp conceded at his post-match press conference.

"I went over the top in the moment, I don't think I was disrespectful to anybody but when you look at the pictures back – I know myself for 55 years that the way I look in these moments is already worth a red card.

"I lost it in that moment and that is not OK, but I think a little bit as an excuse I would like to mention, how can you not whistle that foul [on Salah]? How on earth is it possible? And I wish I could get an explanation.

"I don't know what Pep said now in here, probably not a lot, probably very disappointed or frustrated or whatever. But during the game we agreed completely that Anthony Taylor just let the things run. Why would you do that? Both teams, it was not one, but I heard now that people said it was Anfield that made the VAR decision [to disallow Foden's goal].

"With a foul on Mo, Anfield had no chance to make any impact. It's a foul on Fabinho, I think we agree on that. Is it not enough to pull somebody down?

"So there was already the first moment where Pep and I were pretty animated, both, but actually for the same reason to be 100 per cent honest. For the same reason, we were not arguing with each other, not at all.

"Then [the red card] situation, I just had the perfect view, and the linesman, and you can imagine we are 1-0 up and we have a free-kick there or a counter-attack there. That is pretty much a 100 per cent difference and that was when I snapped and again, I am not proud of that, but it happened."

One negative for Klopp was seeing Diogo Jota injured late on. The Portugal international has only recently returned from injury, but his manager did not sound hopeful, saying: "Diogo, I wish I wouldn't have to talk about it.

"When I saw he goes down and there was not a lot of contact, you can see a little bit that somebody kicks his foot and maybe the muscle got overstretched, [playing for] 96 minutes, that's not good for the muscle. He felt it immediately and now we have to wait to see how bad it is."

Klopp already had to make changes to his line-up due to injuries, with Ibrahima Konate missing out and James Milner starting at right-back, meaning Joe Gomez moved back into the middle of the defence.

The 25-year-old helped to keep Haaland and company quiet, and Klopp praised his "outstanding talent", along with Milner's efforts.

"It's just great for Joey that he can show what a player he is," he said. "Outstanding, outstanding talent, a great player and can play different positions, obviously.

"Today was sensational, a mature performance together with Virgil [van Dijk] and the two full-backs.

"I'd like to mention – and it's fine, Joey deserves all the praise – but I am pretty sure before the game a lot of people thought, 'Oh, James Milner against Phil Foden.' The way James Milner played was absolutely unbelievable. Joey as well."

Pep Guardiola was left confused by the decision to disallow Phil Foden's goal in Manchester City's 1-0 defeat to Liverpool 

Foden appeared to have put the Premier League champions ahead early in the second half on Sunday, having lashed home on the rebound following Alisson's failure to keep hold of Kevin De Bruyne's pass.

Yet Liverpool were infuriated by what they claimed was a foul on Fabinho from Erling Haaland in the build-up and, despite initially waving play on, referee Anthony Taylor changed his decision after consulting the pitchside monitor.

To compound City's frustration, Mohamed Salah raced clear in the 76th minute and, having earlier seen a golden opportunity saved by Ederson, clipped a cute finish over City's goalkeeper to seal the spoils.

Guardiola, though, believes referee Taylor – who let plenty of physical challenges go unpunished through the game – showed inconsistency in the decision to disallow Foden's goal, with City's manager seemingly suggesting the fact the match was at Anfield played into the official's call.

He told Sky Sports: "The referee came to the coaches and said play on, play on. There were a million fouls.

"But after we scored a goal, he decided it is not play on. This is Anfield."

Of his side's display, Guardiola had few complaints.

"We had [enough] chances. We had some fantastic chances," he added.

"All the game we were brave, we played the game we should play and I don't have any complaints or regrets over how we have done it. We had chances but not enough to [win]."

Guardiola conceded the electric atmosphere at Anfield in the wake of Salah's goal – a strike that moves the Egyptian ahead of Steven Gerrard into second place in Liverpool's all-time list of Premier League scorers – made matters more difficult for City, though indicated his team had not found the occasion overwhelming prior to the deadlock being broken.

"After the goal, yeah, it's Anfield," Guardiola said. "Before the goal, it was OK."

Julian Nagelsmann saw the Bayern Munich he was looking for as the reigning champions crushed Freiburg 5-0 to leapfrog their visitors into second place in the Bundesliga.

Serge Gnabry, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Leroy Sane, Sadio Mane and Marcel Sabitzer scored in a rout at the Allianz Arena as Bayern kept up their remarkable home record against Freiburg.

Bayern have never lost at home against Sunday's opponents in the Bundesliga, with this success meaning they have taken 20 wins and three draws from their 23 clashes in Munich.

Results and performances in the Champions League have been good for Bayern, but in the Bundesliga they have been inconsistent. Now, perhaps, after last week's jolt of letting Borussia Dortmund pinch a point from 2-0 down, we might start to see coach Nagelsmann's men at their clinical best domestically on a regular basis.

Bayern began this game two points behind their visitors, just the third time they had ever gone into a Bundesliga game against Freiburg trailing them in the standings.

A strong start from Bayern resulted in them leading inside 13 minutes thanks to Gnabry's fine header after Mark Flekken's sharp save from Leroy Sane's close-range shot resulted in the ball looping up towards the penalty spot.

The hosts doubled their lead in the 33rd minute when Choupo-Moting was not sufficiently closed down inside the penalty area by Matthias Ginter, with the striker drilling a low shot across Flekken and inside the left post.

Gnabry hit the left post before Sane struck in the 52nd minute to effectively kill the game, as a fierce 22-yard shot with his left foot sped past Flekken into the left corner.

With the pressure off, Mane got in on the act with a neat lob after Philipp Lienhart made an embarrassingly poor attempt to cut out Gnabry's floated pass from the right flank. Sabitzer added the fifth in the 80th minute, capitalising on more messing defending before sweeping home from 15 yards.

Chelsea head coach Graham Potter says that injured Reece James "will give everything" in his race to make England's World Cup squad.

The defender has been sidelined for eight weeks after sustaining a knee injury during the Blues' Champions League victory over Milan on Tuesday.

But the 23-year-old is clinging onto his hopes of playing at the World Cup, which begins on November 21 with England opening their campaign against Iran.

While Potter is unsure on James' chances of appearing in Qatar, the Chelsea boss insists the full-back will not give up without a fight.

"In terms of his involvement in the World Cup, I don’t know. It will depend on how he recovers," he said following the Blues' 2-0 victory over Aston Villa. 

"He will give everything. I'm sure he will. But he is in a brace for four weeks and that slows everything down.

"He's naturally disappointed, naturally upset because he's injured for us. He misses games for us when he was in a fantastic moment.

"His performance at Milan was incredible in both games, so he's got himself into a real good moment of form and as you can imagine, he's really disappointed to be injured.

"He'll fight, try his best to get back as quickly as he can and when he is, he will be a top, top player.

"It wouldn't be my place to predict what's going to happen. He will be in a brace for four weeks, and that has implications in terms of what he needs to do to get fit from there, but our job is just to help him in the short term now and get him back."

Chelsea's resurgence under Potter continued with the 2-0 win at Villa Park, the former Brighton boss masterminding five successive victories for the first time in his managerial career.

Meanwhile, the Blues have recorded four successive triumphs across all competitions without conceding, while doing so consecutively in the Premier League for the first time since March.

"I think it's a collective desire to do the ugly stuff in the game; a collective idea to help each other and to be together," Potter said.

"If we have to suffer, we will suffer. We have humility, and we know sometimes the opponent can get the better of us, that is normal in football.

"But you can see the players running and can see players getting bodies in the way to block shots. That is an important part of the game because we've got the quality in the group."

Liverpool have condemned a group of Manchester City fans for singing "vile" chants relating to tragedies at football stadiums during Sunday's game at Anfield.

The Reds were 1-0 victors thanks to a Mohamed Salah goal in the second half of a thrilling match.

But the encounter left a sour taste for Liverpool, with some City fans' grim songs audible during the match.

Liverpool also claim the concourse of the away end was vandalised with graffiti centred on a similar subject.

"We are deeply disappointed to hear vile chants relating to football stadium tragedies from the away section during today's game at Anfield," a Reds statement read.

"The concourse in the away section was also vandalised with graffiti of a similar nature.

"We know the impact such behaviour has on the families, survivors and all those associated with such disasters.

"We are working with the relevant authorities, and we will also work with Manchester City in order to do our utmost to ensure these chants are eradicated from football altogether."

Adrian Otaegui claimed his fourth DP World Tour title after a six-shot victory at the Andalucia Masters on Sunday.

The Spaniard went into the final round at Real Club Valderrama with a six-stroke cushion – a lead he never looked like relinquishing as he finished on 19 under par, setting a new course record.

Joakim Lagergren posted a final-round 68 to finish second, while Australia's Lee Min Woo was three shots back in third. 

A two-over 73 saw Angel Hidalgo take fourth, with Rasmus Hojgaard in fifth on a score of six under for the week.

Otaegui, who hit four birdies and a single bogey in a closing round of 68, described it as the "perfect" week on his favourite course in Spain.

"I'm very, very proud. I feel so happy to have my first win in Spain, in front of these crowds, on my favourite golf course in Spain," he told Sky Sports.

"It's just unbelievable. I'm very, very happy with everything, the week went perfect.

"I'm very happy with the way I managed today because it was my first time with such a big shot difference.

"The plan was just to start strong, forget the shot difference I had and try to beat the others today.

"I played very well until the end. I tried to follow the plan and think I did well."

Mohamed Salah condemned Manchester City to a first Premier League defeat of the season as Liverpool took all three points in a brilliant game at Anfield.

A long ball from Alisson was latched onto by Salah before he fired past Ederson to earn Liverpool just their third league win of the campaign.

Chelsea beat struggling Aston Villa 2-0 and Arsenal secured a 1-0 victory over Leeds United at Elland Road, while Manchester United and Newcastle United played out a hard-fought goalless draw at Old Trafford.

Here, Stats Perform picks out the best facts from the day's Premier League action.

Liverpool 1-0 Manchester City: Salah maintains Reds' unbeaten Anfield record

Liverpool's impressive home form continued as they made it 28 Premier League matches unbeaten at Anfield (21 victories, seven draws) with a win over the champions.

Salah's strike makes it 14 goal involvements for him against City in all competitions, more than against any other opponent, while he is the second player to score in four consecutive Premier League home appearances against the Citizens, after Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink between 2000 and 2004.

Alisson has now assisted Salah three times in the Premier League, more than any other goalkeeper-outfield player combination in competition history.

The defeat for City means Pep Guardiola has now lost 11 games against Jurgen Klopp, at least four more than against any other coach.

Aston Villa 0-2 Chelsea: Mount double adds to Gerrard pressure

Steven Gerrard's job security was already coming into question before Graham Potter's Blues took victory at Villa Park on Sunday with two Mason Mount goals and an impressive display from goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Since Gerrard took over as Villa head coach in November 2021, only Watford (12) and Norwich (nine) have lost more home Premier League games than the Villans (eight).

Chelsea were fired to victory by Mount, who scored his 25th and 26th Premier League goals for the Blues, becoming the second-youngest player to reach the 25-goal landmark for the club (23y 279d), after Eden Hazard (23y 271d).

Potter's impressive start to life as Chelsea boss continues with his fifth win in six games since taking over (one draw). Those five victories have come in the last five matches, the joint-longest winning run of Potter's managerial career.

7 - Kepa Arrizabalaga made seven saves while keeping a clean sheet against Aston Villa, his most saves without conceding in his top-flight league career. The Spaniard was expected to concede at least two goals based on the placement of the on-target shots he faced. Rejuvenated. pic.twitter.com/RPJNZeqImR

Leeds United 0-1 Arsenal: Saka strikes again as Gunners continue strong start

Bukayo Saka's 35th-minute goal at Elland Road was enough for Arsenal to record a ninth win in their opening 10 Premier League games, the first time in their history they have managed this in a top-flight campaign.

Arsenal were forced to ride their luck in the second half though, as Patrick Bamford put a penalty wide for Leeds with their first missed spot-kick in the Premier League since Alan Smith was denied by Brad Friedel against Blackburn in 2002.

The Gunners failed to register a second-half shot on target, while they failed to score after half-time in the Premier League for the first time this season.

Another defeat for Leeds means they are now winless in six Premier League games, losing four of these while drawing the other two as they remain without a top-flight win since August.

Manchester United 0-0 Newcastle United: Red Devils lacklustre in home draw

Manchester United were held by a Newcastle side who may feel disappointed not to have earned victory, having twice struck the woodwork through Joelinton.

The Red Devils went close on a couple of occasions late on but could not prevent the match finishing goalless, United's 76th Premier League game ending in a 0-0 scoreline and their 31st since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.

Newcastle picked up a point at a stadium where they have struggled in the past, with their 3.6 per cent Premier League win rate (one win in 28 games) at Old Trafford their joint-lowest at any ground where they have played 10 or more times in the competition.

The visitors could have had all three points after an impressive first-half display, but their inability to find a decisive goal means they have now drawn six Premier League games this season, two more than any other side.

Two players with reason to be pleased were the goalkeepers, with David de Gea earning a shutout in his 500th Premier League appearance for United while Nick Pope enjoyed his 50th clean sheet in the top flight, with no English stopper keeping more since Pope's debut in the competition in September 2017 (level with Jordan Pickford).

Mohamed Salah insisted Liverpool's win against Manchester City does not mean they are back in the title race, despite a hard-fought victory over the Premier League champions at Anfield on Sunday.

The Egyptian scored the only goal of a typically fast-paced encounter between the two rivals, racing on to a long pass from Alisson before slotting past Ederson with 14 minutes remaining.

The loss was City's first in the league this season, but was also just Liverpool's third win from nine league outings, and Jurgen Klopp's men remain down in eighth place, 14 points behind leaders Arsenal and 10 behind City and Tottenham with a game in hand.

Salah said he and his team-mates are still "far away" from the top, but will try to get themselves back into it over time.

"No, we are still far away from [the title race]," he told Sky Sports. "We just need to focus on each game and take it one at a time, we don't have to think about the title at the moment.

"Of course, personally I always love to play for a title and in my head we are going to fight for it… we don't have to feel pressure because there is still a gap to first and second.

"You can see everybody here [is] unbelievable, and we should be in a better position than we are. The players are excited to win again and I think that will give us a good push for the next games."

Virgil van Dijk and the rest of the Liverpool backline did a solid job of keeping Erling Haaland quiet, with the Norwegian still getting off six shots but being denied by Reds stopper Alisson.

"It takes a lot to get three points [against City]," the Dutchman told Sky Sports. "It was always going to be very intense."

The Anfield crowd was at its best as the home fans roared Liverpool on to victory, and Van Dijk acknowledged their contribution.

"It's always like that [the atmosphere] and when certain moments happened in the game it added fuel to the fire," he said.

"It started with the hard work we put on the pitch, and that’s the minimum that’s expected here at this beautiful football club.

"That's what we gave, and the energy we had back today [from the fans] was definitely needed in order to push us forward and keep hold of the 1-0 advantage.

"They played a big part and that's what we need for the rest of the season, especially after a difficult start."

Bernardo Silva does not think Manchester City should have had a goal disallowed in Sunday's defeat to Liverpool as the midfielder criticised referee Anthony Taylor for a lack of consistency.

City suffered their first league defeat of the season as they fell to a 1-0 loss at Anfield, with Mohamed Salah scoring a brilliant second-half winner.

Before that, Phil Foden had a goal wiped out following a VAR review, with referee Taylor urged to watch a replay on the pitchside monitor – a shirt-pull by Erling Haaland on Fabinho in the build-up led to the strike being disallowed.

That ultimately cost the champions a point, and Silva was particularly disgruntled by Taylor's decision given how he had refereed the game until that moment.

He told Sky Sports: "What we expect from the referees is consistency in the decisions.

"When you go through a path of not whistling little contacts through the whole game, you need to keep those decisions and keep going that way.

"If you want to whistle all of them, whistle all of them, but if from the beginning of the game you are not whistling all the little fouls, and we saw in this game the referee was letting us play, which is good, it's fine.

"Then, if there's a goal, you cannot whistle that soft one.

"If you want consistency from the referee, you cannot change just because there's a goal and just because it's a tough decision.

"You have to make the tough decision and keep the goal in my opinion."

J.J. Wolf was no match for Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the Firenze Open, as the Canadian won 6-4 6-4 in Florence.

Auger-Aliassime is targeting a place in the end-of-season ATP Finals and took a huge step towards securing such a spot on Sunday.

The top-seeded 22-year-old only dropped one set throughout the tournament and has now won his second ATP Tour-level title.

His victory over Wolf, the world number 75 who will rise to 56 on Monday, took only one hour and 41 minutes.

"It never gets old. Winning, it always feels like the first time," Auger-Aliassime, the new world number 10, said in his on-court interview.

"It's so special to win, especially here. I had a fantastic week and it's been amazing.

"Every final is tough, it's the two best players of the week. Of course you try to win more than you lose the finals, and that's why I came out here today ready to give everything.

"We had some very tough rallies in the second set, feeling tough physically. But you keep pushing, try to keep the level high.

"But there's no magic. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but of course I'm really happy because I came here [as] the first seed.

"I was the favourite in all of my matches on paper. It's never an easy position, so to come out and win my four matches with confidence and conviction, it's really good for my confidence."

Wolf saved nine of the 12 break points he offered yet could not make any inroads against Auger-Aliassime's serve, with the champion winning without conceding on his service game.

Carlo Ancelotti heaped praise on Real Madrid for delivering a "complete match" as Los Blancos defeated Barcelona 3-1 in Sunday's Clasico.

Ancelotti's side have now won six of their past seven matches against Barca in all competitions, after goals from Karim Benzema, Federico Valverde and Rodrygo sealed maximum points at Santiago Bernabeu.

Los Blancos subsequently moved three points clear at the summit of LaLiga, while condemning their rivals to a first domestic defeat of the season.

And the Italian was pleased by the confidence and control demonstrated by his players. When asked what was the key to his side's victory, he told DAZN: "Everything. We had to make a complete match, and we did it.

"It is true that the beginning was good, we got ahead quite early and we controlled it well in the second half. We had a lot of confidence, with and without the ball.

"It was clear that [Eder] Militao had to put pressure on [Robert] Lewandowski. We controlled the players well between the lines with [Toni] Kroos and [Aurelien] Tchouameni."

Valverde scored the pick of the goals with his fine 20-yard strike doubling Madrid's lead in the 35th minute, while it was the first Los Blancos had scored at home against Barca from outside the area since Raul did so during the 1998-99 season.

After failing to find the back of the net in LaLiga last season, the Uruguay international has now scored four in nine appearances this term.

"I try to enjoy in each position, to give the maximum in each position," Valverde said. "I know that above, I can contribute with goals and assists, and in the middle with work and energy. I was able to score and I'm very happy.

"We knew it would cost. I think we worked well, we knew how to defend and suffer, and in attack, we came out quickly."