PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma's weakness under the high ball is increasingly obvious.
Although PSG coach Luis Enrique has not made an issue of it, Donnarumma’s errors may prove costly to them if the French league title race is closer this season. PSG tops the table on goal difference from Monaco ahead of Sunday's trip to face Nice, which scored eight goals in its previous home game.
Donnarumma’s blunders were exposed in Tuesday's 2-0 loss at Arsenal in the Champions League. Although Enrique did not blame him for the goals, the mistakes were evident and worryingly similar to ones last season in Europe's elite competition.
Arsenal’s first goal saw a hesitant Donnarumma beaten as Kai Havertz — hardly the most renowned at headers in world soccer — anticipated a cross from Leandro Trossard and nodded the ball in.
Italy’s No. 1 goalie was beaten again when Bukayo Saka’s low free kick from the right went straight under him. He was not entirely at fault, since his view of the ball may have been obscured, but there seemed to be no talking between Donnarumma and his defenders.
It all looked very familiar.
Last season in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg against Barcelona, Donnarumma failed to come for a corner and central defender Andreas Christensen headed in the winner. Despite his imposing stature — Donnarumma is 1.96 meters tall — he stood rooted to his line and seemed unsure how to judge the ball's flight.
Earlier in that match, Donnarumma struggled with Lamine Yamal’s cross and Raphinha put Barcelona ahead.
Donnarumma's hesitancy repeated itself in the semifinal return leg against Borussia Dortmund when central defender Mats Hummels rose unchallenged to head in Julian Brandt’s corner from the left — a carbon copy of Christensen's goal.
Donnarumma also made blunders trying to pass the ball out from defense in some Ligue 1 games last season.
On Tuesday night, a few minutes after Arsenal's second goal, television cameras showed him muttering to himself and throwing up a hand in exasperation.
For all of his shot stopping and excellent reflexes on the goal line, the 25-year-old Donnarumma does not appear as strong overall as his PSG predecessor Keylor Navas, who was a more commanding presence in the penalty area.
Despite having just had an outstanding season for PSG, Navas was unceremoniously moved aside when Donnarumma arrived from AC Milan following the 2021 European Championship which Italy won thanks in parts to Donnarumma's penalty-saving exploits.
PSG fans could not understand why the highly regarded Navas was suddenly the designated No. 2 without competition for places.
Donnarumma was brought into the club by PSG's then-sporting director Leonardo. The Brazilian's strong ties with each club as a former player for PSG and Milan helped to facilitate the arrivals of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, star defender Thiago Silva, and Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, his friend.
Donnarumma's arrival was seen as somewhat of a coup, given his young age and reputation. He had long been tipped for stardom after making his debut for Milan at age 16 in 2015.
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PSG's goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, center, fails to stop a free kick by Arsenal's Bukayo Saka to concede a second goal during a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Arsenal FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Arsenal stadium in London, England, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
PSG's goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, center, fails to stop a free kick by Arsenal's Bukayo Saka to concede a second goal during a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Arsenal FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Arsenal stadium in London, England, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
PSG's goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saves a shot from Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli, left, during a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Arsenal FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Arsenal stadium in London, England, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Arsenal's Kai Havertz, center, scores the opening goal past PSG's goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma during a Champions League opening phase soccer match between Arsenal FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Arsenal stadium in London, England, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
An Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut has killed nine people, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck in the heart of the capital.
There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit an apartment in central Beirut not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.
The strike came as Israel was pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah, while also conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. The Israeli military said eight soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Here is the latest:
BEIRUT —The Lebanese Red Cross says an Israeli strike killed four of its paramedics and a Lebanese army soldier as they were evacuating wounded people from the south. It says the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted Thursday despite coordinating its movements with U.N. peacekeepers.
BEIRUT — The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of villages and towns in southern Lebanon that are north of a United Nations-declared buffer zone established after the 2006 war. The warning issued Thursday signaled a possible broadening of Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon, which until now has been confined to areas close to the border.
BEIRUT —Lebanon’s Health Ministry Thursday said that at least nine people were killed in an Israeli strike in central Beirut, as it is also running DNA tests on remains they have obtained to identify others.
Hezbollah said that seven paramedics and rescue workers from its medical arm the Islamic Health Committee were killed in the strike that hit its office in Bashoura. The Health Ministry said 14 others were wounded in the strike early Thursday.
Prior to the attack, the ministry said that 55 people were killed and 156 others were wounded in Israeli strikes over Lebanon on Wednesday.
The frequent strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as occasional strikes in central Beirut have exacerbated Lebanon’s displacement crisis. The government estimated days ago that some one million people are currently displaced in the cash-strapped country.
Environment Minister Nasser Yassin, who is spearheading the government’s response efforts to the war, told local media that some 167,000 Syrians left Lebanon over the past 24 hours alone. The Associated Press could not independently confirm.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip around three months ago.
It said that a strike on an underground compound in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders, Sameh Siraj and Sameh Oudeh.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
The military said the three commanders had taken refuge in a fortified underground compound in northern Gaza that served as a command and control center.
It said Mushtaha was a close associate of Yahya Sinwar, the top leader of Hamas who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that triggered the war.
Sinwar is believed to be alive and in hiding inside Gaza.
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The British government chartered more flights to help U.K. nationals leave Lebanon, a day after an evacuation flight left Beirut.
The government said in a statement that the flights will continue as “long as the security situation allows” and that it’s working to increase capacity on commercial flights for British nationals.
U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey on Wednesday visited a British military base on Cyprus where around 700 troops, Foreign Office staff and Border Force officers have been deployed to a British military base in Cyprus to help with evacuation plans.
British nationals and their spouses, partners and children under the age of 18 are eligible. Dependents who aren’t British nationals will need a valid visa granting a maximum six-month stay in the U.K.
BEIRUT — An Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed seven health and rescue workers, an Islamic health organization said.
The airstrike in the residential Bashoura district targeted an apartment in a multi-story building that houses an office of the Health Society, a group of civilian first responders affiliated to Hezbollah.
It was the closest strike to the central downtown district of Beirut, where the United Nations and government offices are located.
It was the second airstrike to hit central Beirut this week and the second to directly target the Health Society in 24 hours. No Israeli warning was issued to the area before it was hit. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike in central Beirut or the allegations it used phorphorous bombs.
Israel has mostly concentrated its airstrikes in south and eastern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah has a strong presence, but its attacks have spanned the entire country and killed many civilians.
Beirut’s southern suburbs also saw heavy bombardment overnight in areas where the Israeli army had earlier issued a warning online for residents to evacuate.
TOKYO — Japan on Thursday dispatched two Self Defense Force planes to prepare for a possible airlift of Japanese citizens from Lebanon.
Two C-2 transport aircraft are expected to arrive in Jordan and Greece on Friday, Japan NHK national television reported.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that there has been no report of injury involving the about 50 Japanese nationals in Lebanon.
Japan dispatched SDF aircraft in October and November 2023 to evacuate more than 100 Japanese and South Korean citizens from Israel.
SYDNEY — Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday her government had booked 500 seats on commercial aircraft for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families to leave Lebanon on Saturday.
The seats are available to 1,700 Australians and their families known to be in Lebanon on two flights from Beirut to Cyprus, Wong said.
“What I would say to Australians who wish to leave, please take whatever option is available to you,” Wong told reporters in Geelong, Australia.
“Please do not wait for your preferred route,” she added.
A Hezbollah paramedic walks between debris after an airstrike hit an apartment in a multistory building, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese women stand in front an apartment in a multistory building hit by Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A destroyed apartment in a multistory building hit by Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Hezbollah paramedics walk between debris after an airstrike hit an apartment in a multistory building, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A woman reacts in front an apartment in a multistory building hit by Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
This image from United Nations Television, shows Israel Ambassador Danny Danon during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (UNTV via AP)
Soldiers carry the coffin of Israeli Army Capt. Eitan Yitzhak Oster, who was killed in action in Lebanon, during his funeral at Mt. Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
An Israeli Apache helicopter releases flares near the Israeli-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Police stand guard at the site of an apparent Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Workers clean at the site of an apparent Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
People collecting remains of victims after an airstrike that hit an apartment in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A firefighter stands in front of an apartment hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
