Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers felt his side contributed to their own second-half downfall.

Jamie McGrath’s excellent through ball split Celtic’s central defence as Ester Sokler reduced the arrears before Graeme Shinnie’s deflected effort levelled after Daizen Maeda gifted possession to the visitors.

“We got punished for being careless, I felt, in that 10-minute period,” Rodgers said.

“We had good control in the first half, should have been more in front and then, probably around about that 50th minute to the 60th minute, a little bit passive without the ball, lacked aggression.”

Rodgers pointed out that “really good defending and goalkeeping” prevented a Celtic winner despite “32 shots or something at goal”.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect, coming on the back of all the guys travelling around the world and coming back in together, but I would expect us to see that game through,” he said, referencing international fatigue.

Rodgers, nevertheless, praised Thelin for a double change at half-time, with Sokler scoring with virtually his first touch of the ball.

“You have to give them a big credit for that, and Jimmy and his team, they’re well coached, well organised and the changes worked for him,” he said.

“But, when I look at it from our perspective, he doesn’t get the through ball at all if our press is right.”

Technique, power, finesse.

All three were on display as Rob Font defeated Kyler Phillips in the UFC Fight Night 245 co-main event Saturday at the UFC Apex.

There could only be one winner, and that was Font (21-8 MMA, 11-7 UFC), who defeated Phillips (12-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

After a strong first round by Phillips, who scored a takedown and then landed some significant shots when the fight rose back up, Font utilized his signature jab backed with aggressive uppercuts to get the nod on the judges’ scorecards.

The fight was largely a striking battle, but Font had his foot on the pedal. Phillips stayed on his bike and tried to utilized technical striking, but the counter-striking wasn’t functioning at the capacity necessary to top Font.

BIG TIME WIN 👏@RobSFont takes the Unanimous Decision victory in #UFCVegas99‘s co-main event! pic.twitter.com/TDdKdLg1P1

— UFC (@ufc) October 20, 2024

With the victory, Font snaps a two-fight skid. He trained at Tristar in Montreal for the bout under coach Firas Zahabi.

Phillips has a three-fight winning streak snapped. He was as much as a 6-1 betting favorite in the fight – the biggest favorite on the card.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 245 results include:

• Rob Font def. Kyler Phillips via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Charles Johnson def. Su Mudaerji via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Cameron Smotherman def. Jake Hadley via unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27, 29-27)
• Darren Elkins def. Daniel Pineda via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Asu Almabayev def. Matheus Nicolau via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Jean Matsumoto def. Brad Katona via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Joselyne Edwards def. Tamires Vidal via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 4:33
• Elise Reed def, Jessica Penne via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Melissa Martinez def. Alice Ardelean via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Austen Lane def. Robelis Despaigne via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 245.

Marco Bezzecchi has been declared fit to race in the Australian Grand Prix, but also issued with a long lap penalty following his high-speed MotoGP crash with Maverick Vinales in Saturday’s sprint.

The VR46 Ducati rider was taken to hospital for additional checks following the late-race incident at Doohan, for which Vinales laid the blame squarely at the Italian’s door.

The 25-year-old was declared fit to continue with his weekend on Sunday morning, but will have to serve a long lap penalty for his part in the crash.

Bezzecchi will start the race in fourth position on the grid. He made a strong getaway on Saturday and was running second early on, before dropping back on the medium rear tyre.

He had just lost fifth place to Vinales when the accident happened. Bezzecchi misjudged the slipstream effect after being overtaken and slammed into the back of the Aprilia.

Bezzecchi lay motionless in the gravel for a short while but was conscious when taken away on a stretcher.

Vinales did not suffer any major injury in the crash, despite not being able to feel his hand in the initial aftermath.

Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

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Another rider set to serve a long lap penalty on Sunday is Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez. This follows the Spaniard taking out countryman Joan Mir (Honda) at the Japanese Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) has also incurred the wrath of the stewards in Australia. He will start the race last after earning a three-place grid penalty for failing to respond to a black flag with orange disc during FP2.

Riders are expected to leave the track immediately when this flag is shown, but Nakagami continued to circulate.

Meanwhile, Tech3 GasGas rider will not take part in Sunday’s race after being declared unfit due to a shoulder injury he picked up in the sprint. He was due to line up 15th on the grid.

CONOR McGREGOR lost $500,000 in just three minutes after backing Francis Ngannou to LOSE his MMA return.

Ngannou made his cage comeback after two years away against 6ft 8in Brazilian Renan Ferreira in Saudi Arabia.

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And it came just seven months after he was brutally knocked out in the boxing ring by Anthony Joshua in two rounds.

McGregor whacked a huge $500,000 (£380,000) on Ferreira and said: “Hello, folks, The Notorious Conor McGregor here.

“Fight night, fight night, fight night… the Mac is back with his winning bets.

“I have a 100 per cent winning ratio on these bet. Ngannou is losing by KO tonight.

“12/5 the Brazilian is to knock him out and I’m putting half a million on it and I’m going to win back $1.7million. That’s it.

“It’s a ruthless business and I’m a ruthless man.”

But despite McGregor’s hot-streak, it came to a crashing end in just a round.

Ngannou, 38, took Ferreira, 34, down before hammering him with vicious ground and pound till the referee had seen enough.

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It sealed a successful return to MMA for Ngannou and got him off to winning ways under the Professional Fighters League.

And it was also Ngannou’s first fight and victory since the tragic death of his 15-month-old son Kobe.

He tearfully dedicated the win to Kobe and said: “I can’t think about anything other than my son, Kobe.

“I only took this fight because of him, I took the fight for him. I hope they can remember his name because without Kobe, we wouldn’t be here tonight. I wouldn’t have fought.”

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Francis Ngannou is picking up right where he left off.

In his first fight under MMA rules since January 2022, “The Predator” added to his collection of memorable knockouts with a first-round finish of Renan Ferreira in the PFL Battle of the Giants main event on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Ngannou signed with the PFL in May 2023 after parting ways with the UFC—having never lost that promotion’s heavyweight title in the octagon—but booked a pair of high-profile boxing bouts with Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua before finally competing for the league. He didn’t disappoint, needing less than a round to take Ferreira to the mat and finish with power punches on the ground that left the 2023 PFL tournament champion limp.

Praise for Ngannou came from all corners of the combat sports world, with fellow PFL signing Jake Paul calling him “The real f*cking heavyweight champ” and calling for a matchup between Ngannou and UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

See more of the best reactions from social media below.

Pedro Acosta will miss Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix thanks to left shoulder trauma resulting from his crash in Saturday’s MotoGP sprint race.

The Tech3 KTM rookie dislocated his shoulder when he fell on lap 11 of 13 at Phillip Island. Although nothing was broken, the 20-year-old was declared unfit following further medical checks on Sunday morning.

Despite some flashes of pace for the rider who took pole position last time out in Japan, a poorly-timed qualifying run meant he only qualified 15th, his worst starting position of the year.

The Spaniard had only progressed as high as 11th place when his bike spat him into the air. In the violent impact with the ground, his shoulder popped out of place, although it was later repositioned.

After an initial medical examination he was released from the medical centre, with the plan to check how he spent the night and re-evaluate his condition before Sunday’s warm-up.

Despite getting up with the intention of trying to participate in the warm-up before the main race, the pain was intense and led the doctors to declare him unfit.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull GASGAS Tech3

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

This will be the first time Acosta has missed a race in the top category. However, it does not seem that the injury will prevent him from competing in the next two rounds of the calendar, next week in Thailand and a week later in Malaysia.

Until then, the Spaniard will receive conservative, minimally invasive treatment, based on giving the joint time to heal so that he can get on the bike next Friday at Buriram.

“I’ve crashed many times in my career, but this is the first time in my life that the bike spat me into the air when entering the corner,” said Acosta, who has accumulated 24 crashes this season.

He leads that particular metric ahead of even Marc Marquez, who has 22 accidents, but none so far this weekend.

Acosta was unable to finish either the short or the long race in Japan two weeks ago. On Saturday he crashed from the lead of the sprint when he seemed on the verge of his breakthrough win.

He then fell in the Japanese Grand Prix on the following day, while disputing the lead with Francesco Bagnaia.