TENNIS Muharram 7, 1441 AH Favourite Nadal GULF TIMES Storms Into Semis of US Open SPORT Page 3
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FOOTBALL | Page 2 NFL | Page 5 Neymar back Bell ready to for Brazil aft er carry load for injury and Jets against transfer drama Buff alo Bills Friday, September 6, 2019 TENNIS Muharram 7, 1441 AH Favourite Nadal GULF TIMES storms into semis of US Open SPORT Page 3 SPOTLIGHT Belotti shines as Italy beat Armenia AFP Yerevan ndrea Belotti bagged a brace as Italy saw off 10-man Armenia 3-1 Qatar’s coach Felix Sanchez directs his Ato extend their perfect players during their Qatar 2022 World Cup start to Euro 2020 qualifying with and China 2023 Asian Cup joint qualifier a fi fth straight win yesterday. at the Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Stadium Roberto Mancini’s side had yesterday. Qatar’s forward Almoez Ali scores against Afghanistan at the Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha yesterday. trailed after 11 minutes in Yerevan when Aleksandre Karapetyan got just the second goal past Gianluigi FOOTBALL Donnarumma in the Italy goal in fi ve qualifying games. But the forward, who plays for Russian club Sochi, went from hero to villain when he was sent off for a second yellow card just before the break leaving his side a man down. Torino captain Belotti got It- Almoez hits hat-trick as aly back level on 28 minutes and added a second 10 minutes from time after substitute Lorenzo Pel- legrini scored his fi rst Italy goal. Four-time world champi- ons Italy have put their failure to qualify for last year’s World Cup behind them and are top of Group Qatar rout Afghans 6-0 J with maximum 15 points, and on course for the Euro 2020 opening match at home in Rome next June. Coach Sanchez had made it clear that he would be fielding his strongest possible line-up Armenia are third in the group with six points from fi ve games, behind Finland who have nine Agencies Kuwait points from four games. Doha “I said that this was a diffi cult game, and so it was,” said Man- record 7-0 cini. This increases the value of lmoez Ali grabbed a hat-trick our victory. as Qatar started their build-up win over “Paradoxically the red card to the 2022 World Cup and the put us in diffi culty because they 2023 Asian Cup in emphatic Nepal focused more on defending and Afashion, routing minnows Afghanistan reduced the spaces further. 6-0 in a joint qualifying Group E clash Kuwait City: Kuwait scored an “Physically they were much in Doha yesterday. emphatic 7-0 victory over Nepal ahead of us, we had diffi culties Qatar’s group also includes India, in their opening match of the at the start but then we settled Bangladesh and Oman, with the top- FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and down.” Mancini dropped young pers along with the seven other group AFC Asian Cup China 2023 Asian guns Moise Kean and Nicolo Za- winners and four best runners-up ad- Qualifiers at Kuwait Sports Club niolo as punishment for being vancing to the Asian Cup in China and Stadium yesterday. regularly late during the Under-21 the fi nal round of qualifying for the The 1980 AFC Asian Cup winners European Championships at 2022 World Cup. were returning to the qualifiers home in June. Belotti was joined However, if Qatar win their group, after five years, having missed up front in an attacking trident by the seven other group winners and fi ve out on the 2019 qualifying cam- Juventus forward Federico Ber- best second-placed sides will advance paign following their suspension nardeschi and Fiorentina’s Fed- to the fi nal round of qualifying for the by FIFA. erico Chiesa. 2022 FIFA World Cup. The hosts needed less than six Juventus defender Giorgio Qatar’s Spanish coach Felix Sanchez minutes to take the lead. Abdul- Chiellini, 35, was missing as he had made it clear a day before the match lah al-Mutairi advanced down recovers from surgery on a cruci- that he would be fi elding his strongest the right and squared for Yousef ate ligament knee injury. possible line-up despite Afghanistan’s Naser who buried the ball into And the Armenians piled the lowly status, saying being the Asian the roof of the net. pressure on for the fi rst 10 min- Cup champions and World Cup hosts a Fahad al-Hajeri doubled Kuwait’s utes with a slip-up by Inter Milan strong start was important to send out advantage 12 minutes in. The defender Nicolo Barella allowing a message. centre-back rose highest at the Karapetyan to break through for Consequently, the gulf between the far post to head Faisal al-Harbi’s the opener. Asian Cup champions and Afghanistan Qatar players celebrate one of their goals against Afghanistan yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil and agencies in-swinging corner just over the Belotti got the Azzurri back on was more than evident yesterday at line, making it 2-0. track after 28 minutes following the Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Stadium an Afi f pass and Abdelkarim Hassan ons Oman avoided a shock defeat when in the latter stages of the matches as Al-Mutairi and Naser combined good work by Chelsea defender where the hosts stamped their author- scored from a solo eff ort in the 34th to they scored twice late in the match to Oman equalised through Rabia Alwai again four minutes after the re- Emerson Palmieri following a ity early in the match with star forward ensure Qatar took a whopping 4-0 ad- edge past India 2-1 in the north-east- al-Mandhar in the 82nd minute, and start to compound Nepal’s strug- corner with Belotti meeting the Almoez Ali fi nding the target twice ear- vantage into the second half. ern Indian city of Guwahati. the 24-year-old found the mark again gles. Again, it was the winger who curling cross to prod into the net. ly to put Qatar on course to victory. There was no respite for the Afghan India captain Sunil Chhetri, who has in the 90th to give his team a last-gasp delivered the cross from the right Bernardeschi hit the post just Ali, the top scorer in this year’s Asian goalkeeper Ovays Azizi after resump- scored more goals for his country than victory. and Naser guided his free header after with Belotti also missing Cup, fi rst struck with a powerful header tion as Ali grabbed his third goal of Lionel Messi has for Argentina and is Elsewhere, Syria thrashed Philip- into the back of the net for his a chance before the break as he in the fourth minute and then applied the evening in the 51st minute and only behind Portugal’s Ronaldo among pines 5-2, North Korea beat Lebanon second of the night and his side’s failed to connect with a Chiesa the fi nishing touch to a fi ne string of Boualem Khoukhi tapped in from close still active players, took his personal 2-0, Palestine shocked Uzbekistan 2-0, third. The victory puts Kuwait cross. passes in the 11th, Akram Afi f being the in the 67th which proved the last goal tally in international matches to 73 Bahrain drew Iraq 1-1, Malaysia edged at the top of Group B, ahead of But Italy got off the hook when provider. of the match as the hosts eased up with a 24th minute strike at the Indira out Indonesia 3-2, Turkmenistan pre- Jordan who had earlier beaten Karapetyan received a second yel- Captain Hassan al-Haydos then later. Gandhi Athletic Stadium. vailed over Sri Lanka 2-0 and Vietnam Chinese Taipei 2-1. low card for a high elbow on de- made it 3-0 in the 13th minute off Also in Group E, Gulf Cup champi- However, India ran out of steam held Thailand 0-0. fender Leonardo Bonucci. Gulf Times 2 Friday, September 6, 2019 FOOTBALL PREVIEW SPOTLIGHT Neymar back for Brazil aft er injury Germany shrug and transfer drama off Sane absence for Dutch derby ‘Leroy creates a lot of space and is very important for the team, but we have a lot of quality to replace him’ DPA his position in attack without Buenos Aires question or if he must win back his starting jersey. Youngster Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid ecently Neymar’s has been called into the squad headlines have been and will challenge Neymar for generated for his ac- his spot, even if he still looks up Rtions off the eldfi rather to his elder. than on it. Weeks of transfer “It is hard to believe that I here speculation, however, ultimate- at 19, beside the best players, ly came to nothing and he is now beside my idol Neymar,” Vini- back in the Brazil squad still a cius said. Neymar showed talent Paris Saint-Germain player. in front of cameras in a diff erent Beyond that, he is battling in- sense with a recent role in Mon- jury, defended himself against ey Heist, revealing himself as a rape allegations and took a guest character behind a mask. role in a Netfl ix series. Finally, “I could make my dream real however, it is time to get back and be a part of my favourite se- to what he does best in a Brazil ries,” he wrote on social media. friendly against Colombia late And after weeks of speculation, Friday in Miami and against rumours and negotiations, his Peru, in Los Angeles four days professional future — at least as later.