FOOTBALL | Page 2 BASKETBALL | Page 7 Qatar’s ‘beautiful’ Rare double for World Cup will Gasol as Spain be unique, says beat Argentina Samuel Eto’o to win W Cup Monday, September 16, 2019 MOTORCYCLING Muharram 17, 1441 AH Marquez steals GULF TIMES Rossi thunder in San Marino SPORT Page 6 FOOTBALL/AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QNB STARS LEAGUE Al Sadd exude Al Duhail and Rayyan confi dence as they in thrilling 1-1 draw By Sports Reporter Al Duhail’s Paulo Edmil- take on Al Nassr son, Ali Afif and Almoez Ali all Doha made attempts at the rival goal. At the other end, Al Rayyan’s Xavi: I have confidence in the players’ abilities and looking forward to this match l Duhail and Al Rayyan Abdelaziz Hazaa skied his shot played out an exciting over the bar. 1-1 draw in their much- Al Duhail kept attacking By Sports Reporter It will be a challenging Doha anticipated QNB Stars and Ahmed Yasser provided match, says al-Haydos ALeague match at the Al Janoub them with the lead in the 66th Stadium yesterday. minute when he headed a free- parks are expected to fl y when l Sadd captain Hassan al-Hay- Both teams missed a pleth- kick by Ali Afif into the top Al Sadd take on Saudi Arabian dos said the match against Al ora of chances before Ahmed right corner of the net, leaving champions Al Nassr in the sec- Nassr today would be chal- Yasser put Al Duhail ahead in goalkeeper Fahd Younis rooted ond leg of their AFC Champions lenging for the team. the 66th minute. But the lead at the goal. SLeague quarter-fi nal today. The match A was neutralised by new recruit A couple of minutes later, it “We are facing a big game against Al starts at 6.45pm. Nasrr. We respect them but we expect Franck Kom for Al Rayyan in looked Al Duhail would dou- The Wolves are under pressure, having all our players to put their best foot the 76th minute. ble their lead, but Fahd got his lost the fi rst leg 2-1 but they have the ad- forward,” al-Haydos said Al Duhail took their points hand on to a left-footer by Al- vantage of scoring a vital away goal when “We play the game at home and among tally to five and Al Rayyan moez Ali, palming the ball to they clashed in the fi rst leg late last month our fans and this is good for us and we three. Both teams thus main- safety. in Riyadh. should benefit from it.” tained their unbeaten record. Not long after, Al Rayyan But Al Sadd are brimming with confi - The captain added that nothing is Al Duhail had beaten Qa- equalised, Cameroonian Kom dence not just because they are playing at impossible in sport. tar SC 2-1 and drawn 1-1 with banging home a rebound from the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, their home “We have a great chance to compensate Al Arabi, while Al Rayyan had distance off goalkeeper Amine ground, but because they have none other for our defeat in the first leg. We had our drawn 2-2 with Umm Salal and Lecomte after he punched away than Xavi as their coach who is as ambi- chances in that match but we couldn’t goalless with Al Gharafa. a shot from Abdelaziz Hatem, tious as the players themselves. make the most of them. Al Duhail’s Moroccan de- who joined Al Rayyan from Al The Spain and Barcelona legend once ``My message to the Al Sadd fans is to fender Mehdi Benatia made Gharafa this season. again made it clear yesterday that he is not come to the stadium and support us. We his return from injury even as Al Rayyan defender Moham- in Qatar for a picnic but to win trophies for promise them that we will provide all we they missed Tunisian attacking ed Alaaeldin thwarted Ali Afif the club. have in order to make them happy.’’ midfielder Yousef Msakni. in stoppage time and Ahmed “My goal is to win the AFC Champi- On the other hand, Al Rayy- Yasser could not be spot-on ons League,” he said. “I came to Qatar to an were without the services of with his header for a second win trophies with Al Sadd as a player and qualifi er against India last week. injured striker Sebastian Soria. time, off the resultant corner coach. I have talked to the players about After failing to make it past the play-off s Al Duhail were dominant in kick. the importance of winning, and I talked in for two consecutive years, Al Sadd put on a first-half play with 65 per cent Al Rayyan had Rodrigo Taba- particular with captain Hassan al-Haydos solid performance in the 2018 AFC Cham- possession (67 per cent in fa- ta’s straight shot to the goal- about our ability to win the Asian Champi- pions League, going as far as the semi-fi - vour of Al Duhail at final whis- keeper to show. Substitutions ons League like what the national team did nals before losing to eventual runners-up tle), but they could not convert did not help the cause either as in the Asian Cup earlier this year,” said Xavi Persepolis. Al Sadd can also take confi dence the opportunities. the deadlock remained. at his pre-match press conference. from their vastly superior history in the “I have confi dence in the players’ abili- competition, compared to their visitors. ties and looking forward to this match and The Qataris have reached the knock-out we hope to succeed in it and qualify for the stages on fi ve occasions and remain the last semi-fi nals,” Xavi added. West Asian side to lift the trophy, back in Al Sadd coach Xavi watches Xavi, a World Cup winner for Spain, said 2011. Meanwhile, the quarter-fi nals are un- his team (below) during a he is pleased with his team’s performances mapped territory for Al Nassr. training session yesterday. in the QNB Stars League so far. While Al Sadd have history to count on, “We started the season well for I am very Al Nassr will be encouraged by their recent happy with the level that the team off ers. results. The Riyadh-based side only lost We have prepared well for this confronta- one of their four away games in the 2019 tion with great ambition and we hope that AFC Champions League. In the Round of we will be successful in achieving our goal, 16, they were held to a 1-1 draw at home which is a victory against Al Nassr.” by UAE’s Al Wahda, but were then able to He added: “There is pressure on every- come away with a 3-2 win from Abu Dhabi. one, but we are ready. We know Al Nassr A concern for Al Nassr, however, is the have strong players like Abderrazak Ham- fact that Al Sadd have won each of their four dallah and Juliano, but we too have excel- home fi xtures in the competition so far, de- lent players who have the skills and charac- feating Persepolis, Pakhtakor and Al Ahli ter to pull it off .” Al Sadd will be boosted by in the group stage, before brushing aside the return of star forward Akram Afi f, who domestic rivals Al Duhail 3-1 in the Round missed Qatar’s World and Asian Cup joint of 16. Al Rayyan’s Mohamed Alaeddin and Al Duhail’s Ali Hassa Yahya battle for the ball during their QNB Stars League match. Roglic crowned Vuelta a Espana champion Madrid: Primoz Roglic became finished 19th in the stage, 17 the first Slovenian to win a seconds ahead of Roglic, who Grand Tour when he was ended the race two minutes 16 crowned Vuelta a Espana cham- seconds ahead of the Spaniard pion by completing Sunday’s overall. processional final stage into Roglic’s compatriot Tadej Madrid. Pogacar took the final position Roglic, 29, successfully on the podium, two minutes 38 defended his sizeable lead seconds back, rounding off a over second-placed Alejandro stunning race for the 20-year- Valverde in the 21st stage of the old, who earned three stage race, a 106.6km ride from Fuen- wins on his Grand Tour debut. labada to the centre of Madrid Roglic was among the favour- which was won by Dutchman ites to win a Vuelta lacking in Fabio Jakobsen. household names, showing World champion Valverde remarkable consistency. Gulf Times 2 Monday, September 16, 2019 FOOTBALL SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW Qatar’s ‘beautiful’ Qatargas U-23 League World Cup will be to kick off today unique: Eto’o Al Kass will broadcast the matches and produce a special programme By Amjad Vanimal Doha he third edition of the popular Qatargas U-23 League will kick off today, offi cials announced yesterday at a joint press confer- Tence held by The Qatar Football Associa- tion (QFA) and Qatargas at Al Bidda Tow- er. The launch ceremony was attended by Khalid Mubarak al-Kuwari, Director of Marketing and Communications at QFA, Ali Ibrahim al-Sulaiti, Public Relations Manager at Qatargas, along with repre- sentatives from QFA and participating teams. The third edition will feature 12 teams: Al Ahli, Al Sadd, Al Duhail, Al Rayyan, Al Arabi, Al Gharrafa, Qatar, Umm Salal, Al Khor, Al Sailiya, Al Wakrah, and Al Shahania. Speaking at the press confer- ence, al-Kuwari said: “The Qatar Football Association and Qatargas have a long- standing partnership.