EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Real Madrid's Club World Cup quarterfinal against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois' post.
Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 6-foot-7 frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down.
Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest.
Sabitzer turned his back to the goal and put both hands on his head as Brazilian referee Ramon Abatti walked by, raised both hands and blew the final whistle.
“In football it’s like this. All the teams that are here, they compete until the end," Courtois said after Real's 3-2 victory Saturday. “A game could become like this at any minute and that’s what happened at the end.”
Voted the top goalkeeper in 2018, Courtois has won a pair of Champions League titles with Real Madrid along with a two Premier League championships and four in La Liga. “We are so lucky that we have Thibaut on goal because Thibaut is one of those keepers that makes you win games and today that save has been so decisive,” Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said.
Gonzalo García and Fran García scored in the first 20 minutes as Real Madrid built a 2-0 lead. Gonzalo García tying Benfica’s Ángel Di María and Al Hilal’s Marcos Leonardo for the tournament lead with four goals.
“Not even in my best dreams did I think it would go this well,” said the 21-year-old Gonzalo García, who played just five La Liga matches over the last two seasons.
Real Madrid's lead still stood when 5 minutes of stoppage time was signaled.
Dortmund’s Maximilian Beier started the zaniness when he scored three minutes into stoppage time after Antonio Rüdiger's failed clearance.
Kylian Mbappé, who entered in the 67th, restored a two-goal lead one minute later with a spectacular bicycle kick, beating goalkeeper Gregor Kobel from 6 yards from Arda Güler's long cross. Mbappé then held up two fingers with his right hand and formed a zero with his left as a tribute to Diogo Jota, flashing the No. 20 of the Liverpool player who died in a car crash Thursday.
That wasn't all.
Serhou Guirassy converted a penalty kick in the eighth minute of added time after he was fouled by Dean Huijsen, who received a red card and will miss the semifinal.
Dortmund pushed for an equalizer. Courtois then came up with a stop for the ages.
“It is a great big save. That’s the reason why he is the best goalkeeper in the world," Dortmund coach Niko Kovač said.
Madrid advanced to a semifinal match against Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, a day after Chelsea meets the Brazilian club Fluminense.
"The nervousness, we need to learn to be more calm in the next game and finish the game in possession,” Courtois said.
Associated Press Writer Nuria Diaz Muñoz contributed to this report.
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Real Madrid's goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois reacts at the end of the Club World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in East Rutherford, N.J., Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Borussia Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy, left reacts after missing a chance to score in front of Real Madrid's goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois during the Club World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in East Rutherford, N.J., Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
