09-10-2018

SPORTS
9
TueSDAY, OCTOBeR 9, 2018
Lionel Messi scored a brilliant equaliser as Barcelona's winless run in LaLiga stretched to four
matches following a 1-1 draw at Valencia.
Photo: AP
Messi's brilliant equaliser
helps Barcelona to a 1-1
draw with Valencia
Sports Desk:
Barcelona played to a 1-1 draw with
Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium on
Sunday night in La Liga, reports AP.
The hosts seized the lead inside two
minutes, as Ezequiel Garay took
advantage of some slack defending to
tap home a Dani Parejo corner at the
far post.
Lionel Messi equalised for Barcelona
midway through the first half. The
Barcelona captain swapped passes with
Luis Suarez and then fired a low shot
past goalkeeper Neto.
Barcelona went on to dominate
possession for the majority of the game
but could not find a winner. The result
means they have been knocked off the
top of the table and sit a point behind
Sevilla in second.
Barcelona were again without the
injured Sergi Roberto and Samuel
Umtiti against Valencia, which meant
Nelson Semedo continued at rightback,
while Thomas Vermaelen
partnered Gerard Pique at centre-back.
Yet Valencia took less than two
minutes to open the scoring.
Vermaelen missed a corner in from the
left. It then hit Pique and fell to an
unmarked Garay, who knocked it
home.
The goal means Barcelona have gone
five games without keeping a clean
sheet, a stark contrast to last season
when their title defence was built on
rock-solid defensive foundations.
It could have been worse for the
visitors. The goal boosted Valencia, and
they caused Barcelona big problems in
the opening stages.
Michy Batshuayi went close with a
couple of shots, as did Geoffrey
Kondogbia. Goncalo Guedes was a real
threat down the left with his pace. His
departure after 12 minutes due to
injury was a big relief for Barca.
Barcelona have gone four games
without a win in La Liga and will have
to improve defensively to retain their
title.
Suarez has come under scrutiny this
season after a slow start. He looked
slow and off the pace in Barcelona's
opening three games, but he has shown
in his last two matches he remains the
perfect partner for Messi.
Against Tottenham Hotspur in the
UEFA Champions League on
Wednesday he produced two brilliant
dummies, which allowed Messi to go
through and score.
On Sunday he combined well again
with the Argentinian for Barcelona's
equaliser.
Suarez has only managed three La
Liga goals this term, and Ernesto
Valverde will want more from the
Uruguayan. Yet his understanding with
Messi remains a key part of this
Barcelona team.
Arthur kept his place in the Barcelona
team after impressing against Spurs on
Wedesday, which meant Ousmane
Dembele again started on the bench.
The Brazilian put in another strong
display and looked at home in La Liga
despite the game's being only his
second league start in Spain.
The 22-year-old rarely wasted a pass
in the first half. He was always
available, moved the ball quickly and
helped Barca dominate possession.
Valverde has been happy to rotate his
team this season in search of the right
balance. On current form, Arthur looks
the better midfield option ahead of
Dembele.
Barcelona will be back in action after
the international break when they
welcome Sevilla to the Camp Nou on
Oct. 20. Valencia will play host to
Leganes the same day.
Nadal, Djokovic
to play exhibition
in Saudi Arabia
Sports Desk:
World number one Rafael
Nadal on Sunday said he has
agreed to play an exhibition
match against fellow Grand
Slam title winner Novak
Djokovic in Saudi Arabia in
December, reports BSS.
The match between the
two stars will take place at
Jeddah's King Abdullah
Sports City on December 22.
"Thanks for the invitation
and looking forward to
playing and visiting for the
first time," Nadal said on
Twitter.
Nadal, the reigning French
Open champion, has 17
Grand Slam titles to his
name.
Former world number one
Djokovic, now at three in the
rankings, won Wimbledon
and the US Open this year to
take his majors collection to
14.
Djokovic and Nadal have
played 52 times in their
careers with the Serb leading
their head-to-head 27-25.
Saudi Arabia has hosted a
series of international sports
events in recent months.
The first women's
professional squash
tournament took place in
January while last month
saw Britain's Callum Smith
knock out compatriot
George Groves in a World
Boxing Association super
middleweight boxing bout in
Jeddah.
Mbappé leads
record-breaking PSG
to 5-0 win over Lyon
Sports Desk:
Kylian Mbappe tore Lyon
to shreds on Sunday with
four goals as a 5-0 thrashing
at the Parc des Princes saw
Paris Saint-Germain set a
new French top-flight record
of nine straight wins to start
a season, reports BSS.
Thomas Tuchel's Ligue 1
leaders broke the 82-yearold
record of eight
consecutive wins set by
Olympique Lillois in 1936,
having equalled the mark
with their 3-0 victory at Nice
last weekend.
"Fantastic, incredible. It
was super hard in the first
half, it was a crazy match,"
PSG coach Tuchel told
Canal+.
A Neymar penalty gave
PSG a ninth-minute
advantage, but Presnel
Kimpembe was sent off just
after the half-hour mark to
give Lyon hope. Bruno
Genesio's side threw away
their man advantage, though,
as Lucas Tousart was
dismissed, and after missing
a string of chances, the
sensational Mbappe capped
an virtuoso display by scoring
four times in 13 minutes to
seal history for PSG.
The capital-city giants,
bidding for a sixth title in
seven seasons, are already
eight points clear of secondplaced
Lille at the top of the
table, with Lyon five points
further back in sixth.
Lyon endured the worst
possible start to the match,
as star man Nabil Fekir was
forced off injured in the
seventh minute, and the
hosts were awarded a spotkick
just seconds later.
Mbappe raced to reach a
loose ball, and visiting
goalkeeper Anthony Lopes
needlessly charged off his
line to bring down the
teenager. Neymar stepped
up and sent Lopes the wrong
way with a stuttering run-up
to score his 11th goal of the
season.
Lyon responded well,
though, with veteran
goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon
having to shovel a Memphis
Depay free-kick over the bar,
before Di Maria was
fortunate not to concede a
penalty for handball.
The reigning champions
thought they had got lucky
again when Kimpembe was
only shown a yellow card for
a nasty tackle on Tanguy
Ndombele, but with the
young midfielder lying
stricken on the ground, a
video review resulted in the
centre-back's punishment
being upgraded to red.
Mbappe almost put PSG
out of sight three times in
the space of five minutes -
powering clear after Cornet's
unwitting effort and drilling
against the far post, seeing
Lopes dive at his feet as he
ran through one-on-one,
and shooting too close to the
Lyon 'keeper.
But the World Cupwinner's
persistence finally
paid off in the 61st minute as
he latched onto the ball
inside the area after Neymar
had burst forward, turned
his man and smashed the
ball in off both posts.
Confidence was coursing
through PSG, and the
floodgates opened as centreback
Marquinhos drove into
the box and squared for
Mbappe to stab in his eighth
goal of the campaign.
Neymar soon sent the 19-
year-old bearing down on
goal yet again, and Mbappe
lofted the ball into the net to
complete an incredible
eight-minute hat-trick.
He was not done there,
though, as he pounced to
slam home his fourth with
16 minutes left after Neymar
had seen a low shot blocked.
Khadija's six-for sets up
big Bangladesh win
Sports Desk:
Off-spinner Khadija Tul
Kubra returned 6/20 to
shoot Pakistan out for 94
before the Bangladesh
batters knocked off the runs
without fuss in the one-off
one-day international,
reports ICC.
The fixture, on the back of
Pakistan's 3-0 win in the
four-match Twenty20
International series, was all
Bangladesh as Kubra
scripted a Pakistan batting
collapse in just 34.5 overs at
Sheikh Kamal Stadium in
Cox's Bazar. Fargana Hoque
then scored an 81-ball 48 as
Bangladesh went over the
line in just 29 overs for the
fall of four wickets.
Kubra's was an
outstanding achievement -
the first five-wicket haul by a
Bangladeshi woman in
ODIs, and the best ODI
figures by any Bangladeshi
bowler, man or woman,
ever. Mashrafe Mortaza's
6/26 against Kenya back in
August 2006 was the
previous best.
She took charge after Lata
Mondal, the right-arm
medium pacer, had sent
back Muneeba Ali after an
opening stand of 38 runs.
Ayesha Zafar was Kubra's
first victim, and then she
sent back Nida Dar and
Umaima Sohail before
accounting for the
dangerous Javeria Khan,
Pakistan's captain topscoring
for her team with
29. That made it four for
her, and she finished up
with the wickets of Sidra
Nawaz and Nashra Sandhu.
Chasing 95 for victory,
Bangladesh lost openers
Ayasha Rahman and
Sharmin Akhter quickly
with just six runs on the
board, but Hoque and
Rumana Ahmed
resurrected the chase with
an 81-run stand for the third
wicket.
Ahmed scored 34 and
Hoque 48 before both of
them fell on the same team
score - 87. But Mondal and
Fahima Khatun scored the
remaining runs quickly
enough.
Khadija tul Kubra took the best ever bowling figures by Bangladesh in Women's ODIs as Pakistan
were beaten by 6 wickets in Cox's Bazar.
Photo: ICC
Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring against Lyon on Sunday at the Parc des
Princes stadium in Paris.
Photo: AP
Bale, De Bruyne
in first Ballon
d'Or nominees
Sports Desk:
Real Madrid and Wales
forward Gareth Bale and
Manchester City's Belgium
midfielder Kevin De Bruyne
were among the first 10
nominees for the Ballon d'Or
award announced on
Monday, reports BSS.
Bale, who scored two goals
in Real's triumph in the final
of the Champions League
against Liverpool, joins his
club teammate Karim
Benzema among the first
wave of 30 nominees for the
year's best player.
De Bruyne was nominated
for helping his club win the
Premier League and his
country reach the World Cup
semi-finals.
The winner of the
prestigious award organised
by France Football magazine
will be announced on
December 3.
Having lost out in the FIFA
best player of the year award
to Luka Modric, Cristiano
Ronaldo takes his place
among the 30 nominees for
the Ballon d'Or that were
being unveiled in stages
throughout Monday.
The Juventus forward,
currently facing allegations of
rape dating back to 2009 that
he strenuously denies, has
already won the Ballon d'Or
five times and is the current
holder of the award.
Manchester City forward
Sergio Aguero is nominated as
is another prolific South
American striker, Edinson
Cavani of Uruguay and Paris
Saint-Germain.
Kovac already in trouble
at stuttering Bayern
Sports Desk:
Bayern Munich coach Niko
Kovac is already under
pressure after four matches
without a win and he is
acutely aware that the
German champions are not a
club that deals well with
failure, reports BSS.
Kovac only took over at
Bayern in the summer and
was portrayed as a long-term
leader after the venerable
Jupp Heynckes had
successfully steadied the ship
for a season on a temporary
basis after Carlo Ancelotti was
sacked. The 46-year-old's
reputation had risen after he
won the German Cup with
Eintracht Frankfurt in May,
beating Bayern in the final.
But Bayern's 3-0 home
defeat to Borussia
Moenchengladbach has left
his team sixth in the table -
the last time the club went
winless in four matches in the
first half of the season was
2009.
"Kovac in the eye of the
storm," Stern news weekly
said on its website.
"A Bayern coach who looks
shaky after just 11 matches.
After winning the title for six
seasons in a row, that seems
unimaginable. But that is
exactly what is happening to
Niko Kovac," Bild newspaper
said in its online edition.
After Saturday's loss, Kovac
faced the inevitable questions
about his future.
"I know how football works,
and the mechanics of the
Bundesliga and Bayern," the
German-born Croat said.
"And I know that you get less
time at Bayern than
elsewhere."
Kovac had moved quickly
on Friday to defuse criticism
from his players, with
Colombian striker James
Rodriguez telling reporters
that the new coach's training
sessions were insufficiently
rigorous and his policy of
rotating his team was
angering some of the stars.
"We're not at Frankfurt
here," Rodriguez jibed.
Kovac's response then was
to deny that he had lost his
players' support - but that was
before
the
Moenchengladbach debacle.
Pressed on whether he still
had their backing now, Kovac
said on Saturday: "I had their
support after the first seven
games (when Bayern were
undefeated), so I assume I
still have it."
Bayern's bosses Uli
Hoeness and Karl-Heinz
Rummenigge left the Allianz
Arena without saying a word.
A year ago, the powerful duo
removed Ancelotti from his
job after Bayern lost 3-0 to
Paris Saint-Germain in the
Champions League.
Matthew Hayden injured
in surfing accident
Sports Desk:
Matthew Hayden has suffered multiple injuries after being
involved in a surfing accident in Queensland. The former
Australia opener was surfing with his son near Stradbroke
Island where he was knocked over by a wave, reports Cricbuzz.
The incident happened on Friday (October 5) and has resulted
in a fractured spine and torn ligaments. "Just wanted to say a big
thank you to all our mates on Straddie who have been so
supportive," Hayden conveyed through an Instagram post.
"Especially Ben & Sue Kelley for the fast diagnosis with MRI, CT
scan. Fractured C6, torn C5,C4 ligaments safe to say I truly have
dodged a bullet. Thank you everyone. On the road to recovery."
"It was an hour into the session and we had had half dozen
waves together and I got this one right-handed wave which I sort
of ducked under and that is pretty much all I can remember,"
Hayden told Courier Mail about the accident. "I wasn't knocked
out. I was speared into the top of the sandbank onto the top of
my head. Then it twisted my head with my own weight and the
weight of the wave. I heard this god almighty click in my neck. I
did not get knocked out but I sort of came to and rolled up on my
back."