Feb. 7, 2021 No Neymar? Brazil attacker Neymar is a doubt for this weekend’s trip to archrival Marseille 11 with a stomach bug, Paris Saint-Germain announced on Saturday, AFP wrote. Sports

Iran’s happy with Global Voices: ’s Khosrowyar among stars changing women football rules

returning to former club Persepolis The Global Voices website named Iranian-American ewly-signed winger Mehdi Persepolis, currently playing in Iran’s deal with Persepolis on Saturday, Tas- Katayoun “Kat” Khosrowyar Torabi said he is happy to have top-flight the Pro League. nim News Agency wrote. among female footballers Nreturned to his former club Torabi signed a one-and-a-half-year “I’m very happy to return to Perse- from around the globe who polis. I want to repeat the success I are changing the rules of the achieved with the team in the past once game through their talent and again,” he said in a news conference. activism. “Persepolis is going to win the She is the first female league title for the fifth successive time coach in the Iranian Nation- and I want to help the team achieve the al Women’s League, global- goal once again. I also want to help voices.org reported. Persepolis in the 2021 AFC Champions The 33-year-old moved League (ACL),” he added. to Iran from Tulsa, Okla- Torabi canceled his contract with Al- homa, where she was born, Arabi after the Qatari club signed Tuni- to join the national football sian Youssef al-Masakeni. team at the age of 17. She Iraqi midfielder has went on to become a coach left Persepolis and the club has signed for U-14, then eventually Torabi as Resan’s replacement. U-19 teams. In the final showdown of the ACL Khosrowyar scouted 2020, Persepolis failed to lift the tro- girls from rural areas and

phy after suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat pushed to put the team in tasnimnews.com at the hands of South Korea’s Ulsan international competitions, Hyundai. globalvoices.org added. match because of the com- paigning, women were fore, “Kat” and her team This has been the Red Army’s sec- In 2011, her team was petition’s ban on wearing allowed by FIFA to wear finally got permission to ond appearance in the final of the event disqualified from a second- the hijab. a “head covering for reli- compete internationally tasnimnews.com in the last three years. round Olympic qualifying After three years of cam- gious reasons”, and, there- again. Serena Williams ‘feeling good’ Watkins strikes early as Villa sinks Arsenal despite shoulder problem Serena Williams said she is “su- Gippsland Trophy semifinals on finalist points and prize money, Arsenal crashed to a second andre Lacazette clashed heads, Brighton. tain Pierre-Emerick Aubamey- per confident” a right shoulder Saturday but withdrew, citing a but there will be no title match. successive Premier League de- it looked as though the Premier Ryan did well to keep out ang came off the bench with 30 problem will be fine for the Aus- longstanding shoulder problem of Greece’s Maria Sakkari will feat as Ollie Watkins’ early goal League’s new concussion sub- Traore’s close-range chip be- minutes left. tralian Open. her own. play of Estonia fired Aston Villa to a 1-0 win on stitute rule might be used for fore Gabriel blocked Ross Bar- The Gabon forward was un- The American was due to play “It kind of flared up again be- before American Jennifer Brady Saturday. the first time, but the pair were kley’s follow-up effort. able to convert Nicolas Pepe’s world number one Ashleigh Barty cause I played a lot of matches plays compatriot Ann Li. Mikel Arteta’s side fell be- eventually able to play on. Villa had won 10 of the 11 cross as Martinez beat him to it in the Yarra Valley Classic semi- back to back,” Osaka said. Belarussian Azarenka has hind after just 74 seconds at Former Arsenal keeper Emil- league games in which it had with an outstretched hand. finals but withdrew on Friday be- “My main focus is hoping I can played just one match after Villa Park and was unable to iano Martinez made a superb scored the first goal this season. Pepe was Arsenal’s lone cause of the injury, BBC reported. rest enough before the Open.” spending 14 days in her hotel muster a convincing response, save to keep Villa ahead when It was back on top at the start bright spark and the Ivorian’s room following positive corona- AFP wrote. he tipped over Granit Xhaka’s of the second half and John Mc- low strike forced Martinez to virus tests on her flight into the Arsenal lost at Wolves on country. Tuesday and has now gone As the third seed, she received three league games without a a first-round bye, before Thurs- victory. day’s play was canceled when a The Gunners are languishing hotel worker tested positive for in 10th place, nine points adrift the virus. of the top four as their faint Defending champion Sofia hopes of Champions League Kenin, who was left in tears after qualification look less realistic her defeat by Garbine Muguruza by the day. in the Yarra Valley Classic last When Arsenal faced Villa in eight, said being unable to prac- November, it suffered a lackluster tice properly had impacted on her. 3-0 defeat that sent the side slid- “After two matches, my leg is ing toward the relegation zone. completely sore,” the American Although Arsenal had man- said. aged to claw its way back up the GETTY IMAGES “You can see that being in a table, eighth-placed Villa once Serena Williams of the US reacts on a point against Australia’s Daria Gavrilova during their Yarra Valley Classic women’s singles match in room for two weeks, not playing, again showed the flaws that still Melbourne on February 1, 2021. practicing, it’s not the same as plague Arteta’s men. playing a match clearly. Arsenal, badly lacking a cut- Williams will be bidding for a Azarenka, who lost to Osaka in “Today it is better and I want it ting edge, has scored just once record-equaling 24th the New York final, pulled out of to be better for the Open.” in its last three matches and re- title when the tournament begins her Grampians Trophy quarterfi- In the matches that did take tains a fatal inability to stay fo- on Monday. nal with a lower back injury. place, Muguruza secured a meet- cused at the back. KEVIN QUIGLEY/NMC POOL “I feel pretty good. I’ve gotten There are six WTA and ATP ing with Barty by thrashing Mar- Villa took the lead with its Ollie Watkins (2nd R) is congratulated after scoring the only goal of the Premier League match between Aston a lot of treatment already on my events running at Melbourne Park keta Vondrousova 6-1 6-0. earliest Premier League goal Villa and Arsenal at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, England, on February 6, 2021. shoulder,” the 39-year-old said. to allow players to prepare after The Spaniard has lost only 10 since 2014, aided by some woe- US Open champion Naomi their mandatory quarantine in games in her five matches in Aus- ful defending from the Gunners. Osaka, one of the favorites for the Australia. tralia, but she has a 3-1 losing re- Arsenal’s Cedric Soares gave free-kick, with Holding headed Ginn’s blast was saved by Ryan. save with his feet. Melbourne title, and Victoria Az- Because of the backlog of cord against home favorite Barty. the ball away and Bertrand just wide from the resulting cor- Barkley fired just over after Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard, arenka also withdrew from their events, the Grampians Trophy fi- In the Gippsland Trophy, Bel- Traore crossed to the unmarked ner. a fine run from Jack Grealish on as a substitute, wasted a late warmup events with injuries. nal will not be held. gium’s Mertens will play Kaia Watkins, whose shot went in via With Bernd Leno suspended, opened up the Arsenal defense. chance to equalize when the on- Japan’s Osaka was set to face The semifinals will still be held Kanepi, who overcame Ekaterina a deflection off Rob Holding. Mat Ryan was making his first Back in the squad for the sec- loan Real Madrid midfielder ’s in the today, with the winners receiving Alexandrova 6-3 7-6 (7-8). When Villa defender Ezri appearance in goal for Arse- ond successive game after his smashed over from the edge of Konsa and Arsenal striker Alex- nal after joining on loan from mother’s illness, Arsenal cap- the area. Iranian striker Zahedi linked Bayern fumes over seven-hour flight delay to

with Zorya Luhansk Bayern Munich’s Club World final against Egypt’s Al-Ahly Iranian forward Shahab Zahedi has been Cup mission got off to a rocky on Monday, was forced to re- linked with a move to Ukraine’s Zorya Lu- start with its takeoff from Ber- main at the airport overnight, hansk. lin on a direct flight to Qatar eventually leaving a few min- Currently playing for anther Ukrainian delayed seven hours overnight utes before 0700, but this time Premier League club Olimpik Donetsk, Za- Friday. with a stopover in Munich to hedi is reportedly completing a medical at After beating Hertha Berlin change airline crew. Zorya Luhansk ahead of his move, Tasnim 1-0, the team made its way to “We had the impression News Agency reported. the airport and had boarded that the competent authori- Zorya Luhansk, formerly known as Zaria their plane expecting to arrive ties didn’t care about us,” an Voroshilovgrad and Zorya-MALS, is based in Doha six-and-a-half hours irate Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, in the city of Luhansk (formerly known as later, AFP wrote. Bayern’s chairman, told Bild. Voroshilovgrad), Luhansk Oblast. But after heavy snow in the “Those in charge (at the However, because of the war in Eastern German capital the plane’s airport) don’t have an inkling Ukraine, the team plays its de-icing took longer than ex- of what they’ve done to our games at Slavutych-Arena in pected and air traffic control team.” Zaporizhzhia. refused permission for takeoff After Monday’s semifinal Zorya Luhansk sits fourth due to a 00h00-07h00 (2300- JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP against Egypt’s Al-Ahly and in the table. This comes as 0600GMT) ban on flights. either the final or third-place Olimpik Donetsk is seventh. Bayern had to disembark the Qatar Air- clear for departure one minute before the playoff on Thursday Bayern is back home on lines plane which had been due to leave at flight curfew began. Bundesliga duty against Arminia Bielefeld tasnimnews.com 2315 but in the end was only given the all- The German champion, which has a semi- on Monday week.