WEST JAVA: Two years after losing on penalties to Japan in the final of the Under-19 Asian Championships, Saudi Arabia were vanquished once more by the Blue Samurai, this time in Monday’s Asian Games quarter-final.
The Young Falcons will fly home on Tuesday after losing 2-1 at the Pakansari Stadium, 60km south of Jakarta, after Yuto Iwasaki netted his second goal of the game 17 minutes from time to cancel out Abdullah Al-Yousif’s equalizer.
Five of Al-Shehri’s starting 11 featured in the 2016 final in Bahrain and the result had not been forgotten, with Ayman Al-Khulaif revealing pre-match that he was seeking revenge for the heartbreak. Much like his previous games at this month’s tournament, the Al-Ahli winger was central to the majority of his side’s creativity, drawing free-kicks and making runs to free up striker Haroune Camara.
“The team tried its best,” said Saad Al-Shehri, who refused to speak in English post-match despite having done so after each of his side’s previous victories. “This was a tough game for us, but we will train and try to improve. Reaching the quarter-finals at the Asian Games is a good achievement.”
Camara should have done better early on when faced with two defenders close to goal, but he failed to lift his head and pick out Nasser Al-Omran. He did not make the same mistake twice when, moments later, he played the ball wide to Abdulrahman Ghareeb, who dragged his shot past the far post.
“Our players played very well and with a strong mentality to go to the next round,” said Japan coach Hajjime Moriyasu. “It was very important for us to go aggressive at the start and fight our opponent. There was a mismatch, but our players were intelligent enough to deal with that.”
Iwasaki, who had earlier tested Mohammed Al-Yami from a similar position, opened the scoring on the half-hour when Daizen Maeda reacted quickest to a probing ball forward and laid off his teammate, who floated a right-footed curler back across the goalkeeper. Saudi felt aggrieved, thinking their opponents would put the ball out of play to allow medical treatment for Taishi Matsumoto.
Eight minutes later though, Saudi were level. A loose ball rattled around the penalty area before being snatched at and struck toward goal, hitting left-back Al-Yousif and looping up over the defense to land in the back of the net. It was a deserved equalizer and, shortly after the interval, Camara and Ghareeb combined again to work an opening, but once more, the latter fired off target.
“We conceded our goal because of poor defending, but in the second half we attacked more and had chances,” said Al-Shehri. “In the end though, Japan got stronger. We were second best ... it was a tough game.”
Japan coach Hajjime Moriyasu made early substitutions to inject more energy into his team and it paid off, with Japan dominating as the game grew on. Reo Hatate sneaked in behind the Saudi defense and knocked the ball past Al-Yami only for it to trickle wide, before the Saudi goalkeeper made an excellent acrobatic save from a Maeda header.
“We knew before the that that KSA have speed and technique and are a strong opponent so it was very important for us to control the risk,” said Kou Itakura, the Japanese captain. “We communicated well to play against them and our forward chased the ball very well, pressuring their defense. We played as a unit to win and were able to deliver the ball forward with success.”
With Abdullah Tarmin suspended, Al-Shehri had shifted the terrier-like Yousef Al-Harbi to right- back, but in the 73rd minute, Maeda was left with too much space on the flank and was able to cut in and pick out Iwasaki, who struck first time to give Japan the lead once more. It felt like a lesson in game-management — Tarmin had needlessly collected his booking while his team led 4-0 against China in the Round of 16.
“We conceded a goal, but our players played well enough to keep the rhythm and ensure we got the result,” said coach Moriyasu, who was not in charge in 2016.
“Two years ago against Saudi Arabia, most of the time we were defending and they created so many chances,” added Itakura, who started both games. “This time we held the ball and avoided too many shots. Saudi were strong before and now are even better, especially No9 [Camara], who offered them strength and speed. But Japan has also developed a lot in these two years.”
As the whistle blew, drawing an end to a memorable campaign for the Young Falcons, Al-Yami and Al-Yousif fell to the ground, inconsolable. Their adventure is over, but there are enough reasons to believe it is also just beginning.
Asian Games adventure over for Saudi Arabia after heartbreaking defeat to Japan
Asian Games adventure over for Saudi Arabia after heartbreaking defeat to Japan
- The Young Falcons will fly home on Tuesday after losing 2-1 to Japan at the Pakansari Stadium
- Defeat follows U-19 heartache against Japan two years ago
Haaland double puts Man City on brink of Premier League history
- The build-up to the game in north London was dominated by a fierce debate over whether home fans wanted their own team to lose in order to leave City in the driving seat, with Arsenal their nearest challengers
LONDON: Erling Haaland scored twice to settle Manchester City’s nerves as the Premier League champions beat Tottenham 2-0 to take a giant step toward a historic fourth consecutive English title on Tuesday.
The Norwegian forward tapped home a pinpoint Kevin De Bruyne cross early in the second half to score City’s first-ever league goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and netted a late penalty to seal the three points.
It takes Pep Guardiola’s team two points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table and means victory at the Etihad against West Ham on Sunday will make them champions for a fourth straight season, regardless of the Gunners’ result against Everton.
No team in English top-flight history has ever won four titles in a row.
Defeat for Spurs also guarantees that Aston Villa will finish in the fourth Champions League spot, joining City, Arsenal and Liverpool in Europe’s top-tier competition next season.
The build-up to the game in north London was dominated by a fierce debate over whether home fans wanted their own team to lose in order to leave City in the driving seat, with Arsenal their nearest challengers.
The Spurs supporters made their feelings toward their bitter local rivals clear in the opening minutes, with chants of “Stand up if you hate Arsenal” ringing around the stadium.
Both sides settled quickly and Spurs had the first sight of goal when a raking ball from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg found Brennan Johnson on the right.
Johnson squared for Rodrigo Bentancur, who unleashed a fierce shot that Ederson tipped over.
Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario kept out Phil Foden’s close-range shot after 15 minutes with a strong right hand.
City, who came into the match on an unbeaten run of 21 matches, were short of their fluent best while Spurs struggled to put the finishing touches to their attacking moves.
The game opened up toward the end of the first period, with City defender Josko Gvardiol flashing a shot over the bar from a tight angle but the sides finished the opening 45 minutes with just one shot on target apiece.
Moments after the re-start Vicario was forced to dive full length to keep out a stinging De Bruyne effort while Son Heung-min went close at the other end after being found by Johnson.
But City broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when Bernardo Silva found De Bruyne in the box and the Belgian crossed for Haaland to slot home from point-blank range.
Thousands of Spurs fans chanted “Are you watching Arsenal” as the City fans celebrated in their corner.
The game then became disjointed as first De Bruyne was hurt by a Pape Sarr tackle on his ankle before Ederson took a blow to the head in denying Cristian Romero and was replaced minutes later by Stefan Ortega.
The German was called into action immediately, keeping out substitute Dejan Kulusevski’s close-range shot with his legs.
The visitors’ hearts were in their mouths when Son burst through with five minutes of normal time remaining but Ortega saved with his legs when he seemed likely to score.
Guardiola fell to the ground, clutching his head in disbelief.
Instead City were awarded a penalty when Pedro Porro brought down substitute Jeremy Doku and Haaland smashed home in the 91st minute to spark wild celebrations from the players in front of the City faithful, taking his league tally to 27 goals for the season.
Last year’s treble winners will prepare for Sunday’s finale knowing they stand just 90 minutes away from creating another slice of football history.
Stubbs gives Delhi IPL play-off hope with win in last league match
- Left-handed Porel hit 58 before Stubbs smashed an unbeaten 57 off 25 balls to steer Delhi to 208-4 after being invited to bat first
- Ishant Sharma led the bowling charge with three early wickets as Delhi restricted Lucknow to 189-9 despite valiant knocks from Nicholas Pooran (61) and Arshad Khan, who hit an unbeaten 58
NEW DELHI: Fiery fifties from Abishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs helped Delhi Capitals sign off their IPL league phase on a high as they beat Lucknow Super Giants by 19 runs on Tuesday.
The win took Delhi to 14 points in 14 matches and they remain technically in the mix to reach the play-offs of the T20 tournament, but a run-rate in the negative keeps their chances slim.
“We are still in contention even after the last game,” Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant said after he returned to lead the side following a one-match ban for slow over-rate.
“We had a better chance of qualifying if I would have had a chance to play in the last game (which Delhi lost).”
The left-handed Porel hit 58 before Stubbs smashed an unbeaten 57 off 25 balls to steer Delhi to 208-4 after being invited to bat first at their high-scoring home venue, Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Pant, a left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman, made 33 to cap off an impressive season after he came back in the IPL from a horror car crash in December 2022.
“Personally, it was fantastic to come back,” said Pant, who has been picked in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup next month.
“It was heartening to see the support from entire India. Was a long time to wait after one-and-a-half years. I want to be on the field all the time. Don’t want to miss any action.”
KL Rahul-led Lucknow have 12 points with one more match to play and have their hopes hanging by a thread.
The result confirmed a play-off spot for Rajasthan Royals, who became the second team to enter the final four alongside table-toppers Kolkata Knight Riders.
The top four teams make the play-offs. The final is on May 26 in Chennai.
Ishant Sharma led the bowling charge with three early wickets as Delhi restricted Lucknow to 189-9 despite valiant knocks from Nicholas Pooran, who smashed 61, and Arshad Khan, who hit an unbeaten 58.
Delhi lost attacking opener Jake Fraser-McGurk for a duck but Porel and Shai Hope, who struck 38, put on 92 runs to lay the foundations of the big total.
Delhi stuttered in the middle after they lost Porel, Hope and then Pant at regular intervals and Lucknow bowlers checked the flow of runs.
But Stubbs had other ideas and he hit back with a flurry of fours and sixes to fire Delhi past the 200 as the last three overs cost Lucknow 45 runs.
Lucknow suffered early blows after pace spearhead Ishant took down Rahul, for five, and Quinton de Kock, for 12, inside three overs.
Marcus Stoinis was stumped by Pant off spinner Axar Patel and Ishant, who was named man of the match, struck again to make Lucknow slip to 44-4.
Stubbs made it count with his off-spin as he sent back impact substitute Ayush Badoni out for six to end a 27-run partnership with Pooran.
The left-handed Pooran attempted to drive the chase in his 27-ball knock laced with six fours and four sixes but he left a lot to be done when he departed in the 12th over.
Number eight Arshad then raised hopes of a turnaround with his late charge as he raised his first T20 50 in 25 balls to give Delhi a scare.
Arshad kept losing partners as he continued the charge but in the end failed to match up the asking-rate.
Paris garbage collectors strike months before Olympics
Paris city hall said that 16 percent of staff, or one in six, were striking
PARIS: Paris garbage collectors went on strike on Tuesday, two and a half months before the French capital is due to host the Summer Olympic Games.
Paris rubbish collectors had been warning that they could strike over the summer, raising the spectre of piles of stinking trash roasting in summer heat on the streets as hordes of athletes and tourists descend on the City of Light.
Unions and city hall differed on how many of the collectors had walked off the job on Tuesday.
Paris city hall said that 16 percent of staff, or one in six, were striking.
“Collection services were little affected today,” a city hall official told AFP, without providing further details.
But the CGT union branch that represents garbage collectors, hailed a “strong” mobilization effort, saying that 70-90 percent of staff, depending on the “arrondissement” district of the capital, had walked off the job.
CGT said that some 400 striking workers had on Tuesday morning “occupied” the building housing city hall’s human resources department.
City hall put the number at 100 and said they had left by mid-day.
CGT had warned that walkouts would occur on several days in May and then continue from July 1 to September 8.
Summer Olympics will run in Paris from July 26 until August 11, and the Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8.
Refuse workers in the Paris region are demanding an extra 400 euros ($430) per month and a one-off 1,900-euro bonus for those working during the Olympics, when French workers traditionally take time off for the summer holidays.
The mayor’s office had previously told AFP that it would extend to refuse collectors bonuses of between 600 and 1,900 euros that it had already announced for workers contributing to the Olympics effort.
The mayor of Paris’s 17th district, Geoffroy Boulard, said the strike was “irresponsible.”
“To take hostage not only Parisians but also tourists and visitors is also an attack on France’s world image,” he said on Tuesday.
In March last year, a three-week strike by rubbish collectors against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pensions reform saw more than 10,000 tons of waste piled in Paris streets at its height.
Images of the heaps of trash, some mounting several meters high, were seen around the world.
8 watches owned by F1 great Michael Schumacher fetch more than $4m at auction in Geneva
- The top piece in the sale, organized by Schumacher’s family, was a watch given to the German racing superstar by former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt
- Remi Guillemin, head of watches for Europe and the Americas for auction house Christie’s, declined to identify the buyer
GENEVA: Eight watches belonging to auto racing icon Michael Schumacher sold Tuesday for nearly 4 million Swiss francs ($4.4 million) at a Geneva auction.
The top piece in the sale, organized by Schumacher’s family, was a watch given to the German racing superstar by former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt as a Christmas present in 2004. The hammer came down at a price of 1.2 million francs, or 1.5 million including the buyer’s commission.
That was well within the pre-sale estimate range of 1-2 million francs.
The custom-made platinum timepiece from F.P. Journe, the Vagabondage 1, features 18-carat white gold, a red watch face and images of a Ferrari logo, Schumacher’s racing helmet and a “7” — to honor his seven World Championship victories.
Remi Guillemin, head of watches for Europe and the Americas for auction house Christie’s, declined to identify the buyer, but said that five watches in the Ruthenium collection — a boxed set — were purchased by the same buyer.
While most of the eight watches sold within the pre-sale estimates, an Audemars Piguet featuring a Ferrari prancing horse emblem, sold for a hammer price of 330,000 francs — well above the top of the expected range at 250,000.
The sale of Schumacher watches, which garnered a total of more than 3.1 million francs at the hammer price, was timed for the 30th anniversary of his first Formula One Drivers Championship win in 1994.
The watches, which were taken to New York and Taipei for showings before the sale, were part of a larger auction of luxury timepieces to go under the hammer on Tuesday at Christie’s in Geneva.
Schumacher, who retired from F1 in 2012, shares the record for most F1 titles with British driver Lewis Hamilton.
In December the following year, Schumacher fell while skiing in the French Alpine resort of Meribel and suffered a near-fatal brain injury.
Since being transferred from hospital in September 2014, he continues to be cared for privately at a family home in Switzerland.
Abu Dhabi owners of Man City and Girona given options to meet Champions League entry rules
- The teams have severely tested UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership that guard against collusion in games
- Failing to comply with UEFA’s rules with a proposal by June 3 should see one of the two teams, likely Girona, demoted to the second-tier Europa League
GENEVA: The Abu Dhabi investors in Manchester City and Girona have been offered divestment options by UEFA to let both compete in the Champions League next season by complying with integrity rules for teams that share owners.
Girona have made a stunning run to a guaranteed top-four finish in Spain’s La Liga, with three key players either loaned or sold via Man City’s influence including Brazilian star Sávio.
On merit, Girona will join Man City, the 2023 Champions League winner which will finish in the top two of the English Premier League.
But the teams have severely tested UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership that guard against collusion in games.
Failing to comply with UEFA’s rules with a proposal by June 3 should see one of the two teams, likely Girona, demoted to the second-tier Europa League. The team finishing higher in their domestic league take priority.
According to a UEFA document seen on Tuesday by The Associated Press, two options are open to City Football Group (CFG), the Abu Dhabi-created operation with stakes in 13 clubs worldwide including 100 percent of Man City and 47 percent of Girona.
CFG could solve the problem by selling shares to an independent third party that reduces one ownership stake to below 30 percent, or transfer all shares in one club to a blind trust overseen by a panel appointed by UEFA.
The trustee could be picked by CFG in a UEFA-approved model that applied this season in a compliance deal for AC Milan, Toulouse and their United States investor Red Bird Capital.
The multi-club ownership issue for UEFA and CFG has loomed since Girona’s league-leading fast start in September.
UEFA declined comment all season pending Girona’s confirmed qualification in the Champions League this month.
On Tuesday, UEFA’s club finance monitoring panel wrote to soccer stakeholders to clarify updates to its multi-club rules for entry to European club competitions that were first drafted in the 1998-99 season.
Man City and Girona drew scrutiny for CFG having “decisive influence” over both because the Abu Dhabi operation holds at least 30 percent of the shares in both, and because of the clubs’ transfer dealings this season.
Girona seemed to meet the UEFA panel’s criteria for clubs that “transferred, permanently or temporarily, three or more players with the other club, directly or indirectly via related parties, during the season.”
Girona have two players on their squad who belong to other CFG clubs: Right back Yan Couto, on loan from Man City, and winger Sávio, on loan from French club Troyes.
Sávio is the revelation of the season in Spain. His dribbling and speed on the left flank has caused mayhem in opposing defenses. The 20-year-old has scored 10 times and is one of the league’s top assist-makers with nine passes for goals.
Couto has excelled in joining in the attack from his position of right back, delivering eight assists. Both are in Brazil’s squad for the end-of-season Copa America in the US
After completing a loan at Girona, City also then sold Venezuela midfielder Yangel Herrera to their sibling club last July.
Man City was bought in 2008 by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family.
The CFG was formed five years later, with Man City — by now a Premier League champion for the first time — acting as the flagship club in a worldwide portfolio that soon contained teams across multiple continents.
First came New York City in 2013, then Melbourne City in Australia’s A-League, Girona in Spain, Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China, Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay and Mumbai City in India joined the group, which also had a “collaboration agreement” with Venezuelan team Atletico Venezuela.
In recent years, the CFG has acquired stakes in European clubs Lommel in Belgium, Palermo in Italy and Troyes.
