Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso plays down Boniface confrontation with teammate Buendía

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso has played down Victor Boniface’s furious reaction against a teammate during the team’s Bundesliga win at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Boniface lashed out at Argentine winger Emiliano Buendía after they got in each other’s way during stoppage time in Saturday’s 4-1 win, and he had to be calmed by teammates. Jeremie Frimpong tried reasoning with Boniface, who was also followed closely by Alonso as he left the field after the game.

“I spoke with Boni,” Alonso said at the post-game press conference. “I don’t have all the details, but Boni wanted to shoot, it can happen. We don’t want to make something big out of something so small. We’re staying calm. On Monday we’ll keep going again.”

Both Boniface and Buendia were substitutes and the goals were already scored by the time they went on.

Buendia joined in the winter transfer window from Aston Villa while Boniface has endured an unsettling period, first with a thigh injury sustained with Nigeria in November, then as the subject of a reported 70-million-euro transfer to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr that broke down.

Leverkusen forward Patrik Schick appeared to criticize Boniface when the negotiations with Al-Nassr were ongoing when he said he himself still had “ambitions to play at a top level.”

Leverkusen was apparently open to letting Boniface leave and he reportedly remains a target for Premier League club Newcastle.

Boniface has 21 goals in 37 Bundesliga games since joining from Union Saint-Gilloise in 2023, but his impact this season has been limited because of injury and Schick’s availability. Boniface has 10 goals across all competitions this season, compared to 21 last season.

Leverkusen next faces Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the Champions League, first in Munich on Wednesday with the return game in Leverkusen on March 11, with a home game against struggling Werder Bremen in between.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - Leverkusen's Victor Boniface, center, celebrates with his teammates after scoring the third goal against Cologne during the German Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and FC Cologne at the BayArena in Leverkusen, Germany, on Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)