MOTORSPORT | Page 4 MLB | Page 5 Lorenzo holds McMahon’s off Marquez to homer rallies win Austrian Rockies past MotoGP Dodgers 3-2 Monday, August 13, 2018 FOOTBALL Dhul-Hijja 2, 1439 AH Manchester City GULF TIMES and Liverpool put down markers SPORT Page 2 FOOTBALL / QNB STARS LEAGUE HANDBALL Seven-star Bounedjah Formidable routs sorry Al Arabi Qatar begin Algerian scores his second hat-trick in as many matches as Al Sadd win 10-1 gold quest today By Sports Reporter Jakarta t should be a walk in the park for Qatar’s formidable hand- ball team as they take on Ma- laysia in their preliminary Iround group A match at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta today. Although the pan-Asian quadrennial sporting gala is scheduled to open formally only on August 18, competitions in played four friendly matches extremely strenuous sports such against Iran and Lisbon in Doha as football, basketball and hand- which we won. ball have been given an earlier Murad said some players are start in order to allow teams am- carrying niggles but they were ple rest between matches. not bothering the team much Qatar defeated South Korea in “There are a few injuries in the the fi nal to win the 2014 Asian team but they are not serious. Games gold medal at Incheon, This being only the preliminary and early this year also won the round we can handle the situa- Asian Cup for the third straight tion very well.” time to assert their supremacy in The 13 teams taking part in the continent. the tournament have been di- However, Qatar are not just vided into four groups, with two a force in Asia, having made an from each qualifying for the sec- impact on the world stage too. ond round which will decide the At the 2015 World Men’s Hand- semi-fi nalists. ball Championship held in Doha, The fi nal will be played on Au- Qatar narrowly lost out to France gust 31. in the fi nal to fi nish runners-up. At the 2017 edition, they lost a SQUAD: Abdelrazzak Murad, couple of tight matches to bag a Frankis Marzo, Alaeddin Nabil, creditable eighth place. Rafael Capote, Daniel Saric, Teams such as South Korea, Goran Stojanovic, Bertrand Ro- Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have nay, Mustafa Amir Hiba, Marwan also made some progress in the Ali Sassi, Amin Noureddine game but Qatar’s overall supe- Qahis, Anis Abdel Razak Zouaoui, riority should not be a matter of Ahmed Mohamed Meddi, Rachid debate. Youssef, Wagdi Ibrahim Sinan, And Qatar captain Abdelraz- Youssef El Tayeb Ali and Amin M Al Sadd’s Baghdad Bounedjah (second from right) in action against Al Arabi during their QNB Stars League match yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil zak Murad was therefore natu- Hamad Zoukar. rally exuding confi dence ahead Coach: Valero Rivera By Sports Reporter of the match. Doha “We are a much better side THE GROUPS than Malaysia and should win Group A: Qatar, Malaysia, Iran the match easily,” the centre- Group B: South Korea, Japan, ierce competition is the very es- back said yesterday. Pakistan sence of a derby but yesterday “Our motive is to defend our Group C: Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Baghdad Bounedjah made a total title by winning the gold. We are Hong Kong mockery of that concept. fully prepared. We had a 10-day Group D: Bahrain, Chinese Taipei, FIn an unprecedented show of domina- preparatory camp in Spain and India, Iraq tion, the Algerian striker took on the role of a one-man demolition squad to power Al Sadd to a 10-1 rout of Al Arabi in the QNB Stars League. Mostafa Abdulla of Al Arabi had scored an own goal to put Al Sadd ahead in the 14th minute and Akram Afi f had consoli- dated in the 25th. For almost 20 minutes after that Al Arabi held their own to prevent further misery, but a penalty conceded in the 43rd minute opened the fl oodgates. Bounedjah coolly slotted home the shot for his fi rst goal and then, after re- sumption, struck fi ve more in succession (47, 50, 62, 64, 72). Afi f grabbed his sec- ond in the 85th minute before Bounedjah rounded off the match with an 89th Al Arabi’s Diego Jardel Koester (left) is dejected after the loss yesterday. minute strike for his seventh goal. It was his second hat-trick in as many pulled off a 1-0 win over Al Kharaitiyat Sofyan from close range. He was well sup- matches this season after he had scored with Argentinian striker Luciano Vazquez ported by fellow striker Kesse Jean. three in Al Sadd’s opener against Al scoring the all-important goal in the 27th The goal woke Al Kharaitiyat up, but Kharaitiyat last week. Yesterday’s feat minute. it was not enough. They had their best took his tally to 10 goals to give him a con- Al Shahania, who had lost to holders chance fi ve minutes after restart. First, siderable head start in the race to fi nish as Al Duhail in the fi rst round, thus opened Anwar Diba’s long-ranger was parried by the top-scorer this season. their account, while Al Kharaitiyat keeper Khalifa Al Dossari. The resultant “It was unbelievable. I don’t think I’ll Al Sadd coach Jesualdo Ferreira. crashed to their second successive loss. corner kick, taken by Diba, saw Moham- be able to do it again,” said Bounedjah, They had lost to Al Sadd earlier. med Salam spurn a sitter at the goalmouth who was one of Al Sadd’s star performers Mustafa Abdulla, who scored the own Al Shahania were clearly the better when he was in an unmarked position. last season in the QNB Stars League and goal to aid Al Sadd’s cause, made some side. They created more chances com- In between, Kesse wreaked havoc in the also during the AFC Champions League amends by scoring one for his side in the pared to Al Kharaitiyat whose main bane Al Kharaitiyat area. He almost doubled in which they have qualifi ed for the quar- 34th minute but that must have come as was wayward shooting. their lead towards the end, only to see his ter-fi nals. little consolation to him. Nassif al-Bayawi’s wards were not a shot go wide of the target. “We could have won the title last year But there was no consolation of any determined lot and that refl ected on their Al Shahania’s Reza Shanbeh found the but were beaten in a close race by Al kind for Al Arabi goalkeeper Masoud performance. mark in the 80th minute, but his eff ort Duhail. However, this time we are de- Zarayi who will be haunted by the result Vazquez netted the fi rst opportunity cre- was ruled off side. termined not to let it slip through our for a long time. ated by either side when he chipped in the Al Kharaitiyat ultimately paid the price Coach Valero Rivera (left) had guided Qatar to runners-up finish at the hands,” he warned. Earlier, newly-promoted Al Shahania ball over the head of goalkeeper Ahmed for the absence of a sharp shooter. 2015 Handball World Championship in Doha. Gulf Times 2 Monday, August 13, 2018 FOOTBALL SPOTLIGHT Qatar U-23 squad train ahead of the Asian Games opener By Sports Reporter Games will be represented by a U-23 squad (born Jakarta on or after 1 January 1995) with three overaged players allowed. Qatar did not send a team in the last edition of atar’s Under-23 football team were in the Asiad held in Incheon, South Korea. In the full training mode yesterday as they 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China, prepared for their Asian Games open- they had fi nished ninth, losing to Uzbekistan in ing match against Thailand. extra time in round of 16. QAl Anabi, who are in Group B, will open their South Korea are the favourites to retain the gold campaign at the 30,000 capacity Pakansari Sta- medal, they won four years back in Incheon. Tot- dium, west of Jakarta, tomorrow at 3pm Qatar tenham star Son Heung-min, who had an impres- time. They then face Uzbekistan on August 16, sive World Cup in Russia with South Korea, will before fi nishing their group engagements with a captain his side. The midfi elder is gunning for match against Bangladesh on August 19. The top nothing but gold in Jakarta, or else he will be re- two teams from each group will progress to the quired to enrol in the military. South Korean men round of 16. are required by law to start participating in mili- Qatar is expected to return with a medal, hav- tary service by the age of 27, typically for a dura- ing fi nished third in the AFC U-23 championship tion of 21 months. As Son is 26 years old, he would in China earlier this year. But they will miss sev- have to enrol in the military within the next year. eral players who starred in the tournament. However, the Spurs forward would be able to Spanish coach Unai Melgosa announced the be exempt from the service if he were to win gold 21-member squad on Tuesday, with key play- with South Korea at the Asian Games. Bronze or ers Almoez Ali, Akram Afi f, Basam al-Rawi and silver would not be enough – he would have to Abdullah Abdulsalam not included.