VILLARREAL, Spain: A smart piece of improvization by Cristiano Ronaldo helped send Manchester United into the last 16 of the Champions League as Michael Carrick’s spell as the English club’s interim manager began with a 2-0 win at Villarreal on Tuesday.
Scoring his fifth goal of this group stage and 140th overall in the competition, Ronaldo adjusted his feet and lobbed the goalkeeper with a first-time effort in the 78th minute after Fred won the ball back high up the field.
Jadon Sancho then scored his first goal since his $100 million move to United, firing in off the underside of the crossbar in the 90th minute at the end of a sweeping counterattack that used to be a feature of the team under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Solskjaer is now gone, fired on Sunday following a run of woeful results that culminated in a humiliating 4-1 loss at Watford in the Premier League on Sunday.
Carrick, one of Solskjaer’s assistants, is filling in as a replacement until a more long-term interim is found and he put his stamp on the team by dropping Bruno Fernandes and starting Donny van de Beek.
Carrick oversaw a disciplined if limited performance by United until Ronaldo sparked an explosive ending with his 140th goal in the competition. He has scored in all five group-stage matches this season.
United is in first place on 10 points, three more than Villarreal, and is assured of a top-two finish of its final Group F game at home to Young Boys in two weeks.
Whether Carrick will still be in charge then remains to be seen, but he has made a strong start to his interim tenure — even if David De Gea kept United in the game with two great saves to deny Manu Trigueros either side of halftime.
In the first half, United sat off Villarreal and was opened up at times, with Ronaldo virtually anonymous playing mostly on the left of a front three with Sancho on the right and Anthony Martial.
He came to life in the second half and his goal was stunning after Fred dispossessed Etienne Capoue following an ill-advised pass out from the back by goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli.
Ronaldo swivelled and placed his right-footed lob over Rulli just inside the near post.
Fred also sparked the break that was finished by Sancho in ruthless fashion following a lay-off from Fernandes, who came off the bench in the 66th.
“It’s massive for our season,” United captain Harry Maguire said. “The last couple of months have been nowhere near good enough and we needed to get a result for our season and our fans. We need to make sure that’s just the start and we push on.”
Ronaldo helps Man U into CL’s last 16 with win at Villarreal
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Ronaldo helps Man U into CL’s last 16 with win at Villarreal
- Ronaldo scored his fifth goal of this group stage and 140th overall in the competition
- Jadon Sancho scored his first goal since his $100 million move to United
Saudi king, crown prince offer condolences to Brazilian president over flood victims
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman sent a message of condolences and sympathy to Brazilain President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, following the floods that swept the state of Rio Grande do Sul that killed and injured several people and left a number missing, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.
“We learned of the news of the floods that swept through the state of Rio Grande do Sul, south of the Federal Republic of Brazil, and the resulting deaths, injuries, and missing persons,” the king said.
He added: “We share Your Excellency’s pain of this tragedy, and we send to you, to the families of the deceased, and to your friendly people, our warmest condolences and sincere sympathy, wishing that the missing will return safely and the injured a speedy recovery.”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also sent a similar cable to the Brazilian president.
Heavy rains and flooding in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul since last week also have left 128 people missing, authorities said. More than 230,000 have been displaced, and much of the region has been isolated by the floodwaters.
(With AP)
Armenia’s prime minister in Russia for talks amid strain in ties
- Putin hosted Nikol Pashinyan for talks following a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-dominated economic alliance
- Armenia’s ties with its longtime sponsor and ally Russia have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September to reclaim the Karabakh region
MOSCOW: Armenia’s prime minister visited Moscow and held talks Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid spiraling tensions between the estranged allies.
Putin hosted Nikol Pashinyan for talks following a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-dominated economic alliance. that they both attended earlier in the day. The negotiations came a day after Putin began his fifth term at a glittering Kremlin inauguration.
In brief remarks at the start of the talks, Putin said that bilateral trade was growing, but acknowledged “some issues concerning security in the region.”
Pashinyan, who last visited Moscow in December, said that “certain issues have piled up since then.”
Armenia’s ties with its longtime sponsor and ally Russia have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September to reclaim the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatists’ rule there.
Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh after the previous round of hostilities in 2020 of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, has rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.
The Kremlin, in turn, has been angered by Pashinyan’s efforts to deepen ties with the West and distance his country from Moscow-dominated security and economic alliances.
Just as Pashinyan was visiting Moscow on Wednesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry announced that the country will stop paying fees to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-dominated security pact. Armenia has previously suspended its participation in the grouping as Pashinyan has sought to bolster ties with the European Union and NATO.
Russia was also vexed by Armenia’s decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year indicted Putin for alleged war crimes connected to the Russian action in Ukraine.
Moscow, busy with the Ukrainian conflict that has dragged into a third year, has publicly voiced concern about Yerevan’s westward shift but sought to downplay the differences.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov conceded Tuesday that “there are certain problems in our bilateral relations,” but added that “there is a political will to continue the dialogue.”
Saudi crown prince, Ukrainian president discuss Russia-Ukraine conflict during call
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday received a phone call from Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
During the call, they reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries and discussed several issues of common interest.
They also discussed developments in the Ukrainian-Russian crisis and efforts to resolve the conflict.
Ithra Film Production announces new projects at film festival
- The IFP seeks to highlight Saudi stories and discover new voices
DHAHRAN: The King Abdulaziz World Cultural Center, or Ithra, announced 15 new film projects this week at the 10th Saudi Film Festival, which concludes on May 9.
The Saudi film funding program selected four features and 11 short films from 170 submissions over the past year.
The entries were submitted by emerging Saudi filmmakers vying to take their concepts from the drawing board to silver screens across the globe.
Since its inception six years ago, the IFP has played a vital role in supporting Saudi Arabia’s fast-growing film industry, by nurturing home-grown talent and fostering cinematic content through commissioning and co-funding opportunities.
The IFP seeks to highlight Saudi stories and discover new voices and creative storytellers with the ultimate goal of having their films showcased on national and international platforms.
After reviewing an unprecedented number of high-quality submissions, the jury ultimately settled on the 15 films that together comprise an array of unique untold stories presented by talented storytellers who tapped into Saudi Arabia’s rich culture for ideas.
IFP also introduced a range of initiatives aimed at providing platforms for film producers, advancing standards of excellence in filmmaking and empowering new talent in the region.
Additionally, they host numerous workshops and seminars in the field of representation and production, writing and directing, among others.
Since its first film in 2018, IFP has funded 20 titles and produced four which have been showcased at 95 film festivals across the globe, winning 34 awards.
This includes “Hajjan” which most recently won three awards at the Gulf Film Festival including best feature, best actor and best cinematography.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Contact: Art and the Pull of Print’ by Jennifer L. Roberts
In process and technique, printmaking is an art of physical contact. From woodcut and engraving to lithography and screen printing, every print is the record of a contact event: the transfer of an image between surfaces, under pressure, followed by release.
Contact reveals how the physical properties of print have their own poetics and politics and provides a new framework for understanding the intelligence and continuing relevance of printmaking today.
