BOXING | Page 5 FFOOTBALLOOTBALL | Page 2 Pacquiao Los Angeles To Advertise here hints at Galaxy confi rm Call: 444 11 300, 444 66 621 Mayweather Steven Gerrard’s rematch departure Wednesday, November 16, 2016 CRICKET Safar 16, 1438 AH Six-wicket Abbott GULF TIMES fi res South Africa to series win SPORT Page 3 FOOTBALL SPOTLIGHT Khalil helps UAE stay in Qatar grab crucial the hunt for Russia AFC point in China to keep Abu Dhabi hmed Khalil’s thunderous first half volley helped put the United Arab Emirates back in contention for a Aplace at the finals of the 2018 FIFA 2018 WC hopes alive World Cup in Russia as Mahdi Ali’s side secured a 2-0 win over Iraq at the Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium Qatar coach Fossati: This point is important because we have lost three games already. yesterday. The former AFC Player of the Year The first half of the campaign is finished and now we will do our best in the second smashed home an unstoppable right foot effort in the 26th minute to put AFC Mahdi Ali’s side on the road to all Kunming three points, moving the UAE onto Qatar goalkeeper Saad al-Sheeb nine points and level with Australia fends off a China attack in Kunming in third place in the group. atar’s defence fended off China to walk yesterday. Victory was secured for the UAE away with a point yesterday as Jorge Fos- thanks to an equally spectacular sati’s boys stayed in the hunt for a berth save by goalkeeper Ali Khaseif, who at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. threw himself to his left to somehow QThe 0-0 draw in Kunming took Qatar’s tally to keep out Mohanad Abdulraheem’s four points from fi ve matches in Group A, keep- finely glanced header, before Ismail ing them above China, who only have two. Mattar claimed his side’s second Despite the lions’ share of possession and nu- deep into injury time. merous shots on goal, China could not unlock Japan and Saudi Arabia are tied the Qatari defence in Marcello Lippi’s fi rst game at the summit on ten points as the in charge. group reaches the halfway stage. “We had a very tough fi rst half and we couldn’t The game started in feisty fashion control the ball,” said Fossati. “The home team as both sides sought to take control put us under a lot of pressure but our defence of the midfield, with tackles flying held strong and we improved our possession and going in from each team, while weak attack in the second half. efforts from Khalil and Justin Meram “We didn’t have a great match today but we for their respective sides both rolled gained a point thanks to our defence. This point off target inside the opening quarter is important because we have lost three games of the match. already. The fi rst half of the campaign is fi nished By the 23rd minute, the UAE al- and now we will do our best in the second. most carved out the opener when “If we can win against Uzbekistan, it will be a Mohamed Abdulrahman laid off to diff erence of six points. We think we have a big his brother Omar, and the Al Ain chance.” midfielder screwed his left foot shot Qatar had the fi rst real opportunity of the from just outside the area wide of game after being awarded a corner kick with fi ve the goalkeeper’s left post. minutes on the clock. Three minutes later, however, the The set piece delivery initially looked to be home side were in front thanks to a mishit and appeared to be swinging out of the spectacular strike from Khalil. box, but a late-arriving Ibrahim Majid surprised Jiang and Zhang then had further chances for The woodwork then denied China once again their opponents; we were able to play good foot- The Al Ahli forward released Abe- the defence with a fi rm header back in. China but did not manage to unduly trouble al- with ten minutes left as Zheng Zhi ran onto a ball and proved that we were better than Qatar. daziz Sanqoor down the right side The ball found Sebastian Soria in front of the Sheeb before Mohamed Musa tested Yan Junling half-cleared ball and shot from outside the box, “We will do our best as long as we have a theo- and when his attempted cross was goal, but his backheel attempt was just wide of with a strike through a sea of legs just before the but his eff ort came off a Qatari defender before retical chance of qualifying. We are on the right blocked by Dhurgham Ismael, Khalil the goal post as the startled China defenders half that the goalkeeper was equal too. striking the goal post. track and that is what matters. If we keep per- stepped forward to smash his volley stood and watched. The second half saw much of the same as Wu That would prove to be as good as it got for the forming like this, the hope is not dead yet.” over the outstretched arms of Mo- Up the other end, Jiang Zhipeng’s hard free Xi met a Chinese corner kick with a fi rm diving home supporters, as Qatar endured some nervy hamed Hameed and in off the under- kick six minutes later was on target as it found its header in the 55 minutes, only for Al Sheeb to fi nal moments to come away with a share of the STANDINGS side of the bar. way through the Qatari wall, but it bounced off push it onto the underside of the crossbar and spoils. Iraq had barely stirred in the Saad al-Sheeb’s gloves and out for a corner kick. back out before Musa hacked it away. “Our team have done a good job and I told Group A opening exchanges, but in the 34th The hosts were racking up the chances now Yan was then called into action as he dove at them so in the dressing room,” said Lippi. “They Rank P W D L F A GD Pts minute they were almost level but were not having much luck as Wu Lei ran on full stretch to his right to keep substitute Rodrigo should be satisfi ed about themselves. What we Iran 5 3 2 0 4 0 +4 11 when Ahmed Yasin powered down to a ball from Jiang, almost slipping while cutting Tabata’s free kick out. were short of today was a bit of luck. Korea Republic 5 3 1 1 8 6 +2 10 the right before crossing to Abdul- past his marker before hitting the far post with Lippi gave Shanghai Shenhua winger Cao “We had known before this match that our Uzbekistan 5 3 0 2 5 3 +2 9 raheem and his first-time effort his shot. Yunding his debut soon after and the 26-year- hope of qualifying to the World Cup in Russia Syria 5 1 2 2 1 2 -1 5 crashed into the side netting. Four Unfortunately, the fl ag had gone up due to old almost made an instant impact as he took on was a very small one and it will be even more dif- Qatar 5 1 1 3 3 6 -3 4 minutes later Meram sent his at- Zhang Yuning straying off side in the build up to several defenders in the Qatari box, but his fi nal fi cult after this game. After today’s match, I want China PR 5 0 2 3 2 6 -4 2 tempt from the edge of the area over Wu Lei’s shot on goal. eff ort found the side netting. to tell my players that they are not inferior to the bar. BOTTOMLINE Thailand joy at last, S Korea and Japan win in Saitama and the gamble paid off big home fans took full advantage as their Reuters Results Seoul time as the ‘Blue Samurai’ picked up side claimed their fi rst point of the fi - three crucial points. nal qualifying round. Results from Asia’s 2018 World Cup That lifted Japan into second, level Two penalties from Australia skip- qualifiers yesterday. hailand’s national soccer team on 10 points with the Saudis, while per Mile Jedinak were cancelled out by gave the country a lift by hold- Australia slipped to third, a point be- two goals, one from the spot, by Thai- Group A ing Asian champions Australia hind with fi ve games left to play. land’s Teerasil Dangda. South Korea 2 (Nam Tae-Hee 67, to a shock 2-2 draw in World The top two sides in Group A and Japan capitalised on Australia’s slip- Koo Ja-Cheol 85) Uzbekistan 1 (Marat TCup qualifying yesterday while South B qualify automatically for the 2018 up with their victory over Saudi Arabia Bikmaev 25) Korea and Japan took the heat off their World Cup in Russia while the third- but were almost punished for failing to China 0 Qatar 0 under-fi re coaches with matching 2-1 placed teams meet to decide who goes put the game away. Iran 0 Syria 0 wins. into a CONCACAF-Asian Zone playoff A controversial Hiroshi Kiyotake The Koreans gave coach Uli Stielike for a place at the fi nals. penalty and Genki Haraguchi’s late Group B the perfect 62nd birthday gift with a The Thai FA had originally sought to strike put Japan 2-0 up before Saudi Japan 2 (Hiroshi Kiyotake 45-pen, come-from-behind victory over Uz- have the match moved out of the coun- Arabia pulled one back through Omar Genki Haraguchi 80) Saudi Arabia 1 bekistan in Seoul that lifted them into try as a mark of respect for their mon- Hawsawi in the 90th minute.