Category «Sports»

Marcos Rojo stubbed the dagger into Nigerian hearts and scored a fine late volley to send Argentina through to the last 16 of the 2018 World Cup with a dramatic victory over Nigeria in St Petersburg. A lacklustre Argentina were on the verge of an embarrassing exit, before Manchester United defender Rojo surged into the area to place Gabriel Mercado’s cross into the bottom corner. Lionel Messi had scored a brilliant opener, Victor Moses equalised after a Javier Mascherano error that ended up being rewarded as a penalty to Nigeria. Given Messi will be 35 during the next World Cup in Qatar in 2022, victory here has at least staved off a miserable end to what could well be his last …

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Egypt goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary became the oldest player to feature at the World Cup finals in a match his team lost to Saudi Arabia. At 45 years and 161 days El Hadary beat the record of Colombia keeper Faryd Mondragon (43 and three days at Brazil 2014) to become the oldest player to take to the field. He began his international career in 1996. El-Hadary made a spectacular penalty save to mark a historic day as His team scored their first World Cup goal from open play since 1934 but still lost the game. With only a consolation match standing between Egypt and their plane home after losing their first two group matches, El-Hadary, 45, will at least be heading home with a …

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VAR has been a major talking point in the 2018 World Cup but the final matches in Group B provided its most controversial night so far. Portugal progressed to the World Cup knockout stages after drawing with Iran but it was the VAR controversy that made more news.   Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty for Portugal and was shown a yellow card after a lengthy VAR review for a possible red card. The controversy began with the awarding of Portugal’s penalty, which was eventually saved by Iran goalkeeper Ali Beiranvand, diving to his left to deny Ronaldo. The game became heated after that decision with both sides asking for further reviews, but its next use again involved Ronaldo. Attempting to …

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By Regina Nalujja. She Cranes, Uganda’s National Netball team will today start non –residential training at Mandela National Stadium as they prepare for African Netball Championships due August 13-18 in Zambia. The event doubles as qualifier for Netball World Cup to be held in Liverpool July next year. Twenty players have been summoned by the Uganda Netball Federation and they will be coached by Vicent Kiwanuka. According to Kiwanuka, he is back for another stint to the team where he was unceremoniously dismissed because they have pleaded with him for a long time. Kiwanuka coached She Cranes last year and the team won the African Netball Championships at MTN Arena Lugogo before being replaced by Rashid Mubiru.

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The World Cup tournament has got many people excited and perplexed as favourite teams seem to be struggling to get through the first stage. As you keep watching, a little history might enrich your knowledge. Did you know that Egypt wasthe first African nation to appear at the World Cup? The Pharoahs appeared in the second edition of the tournament in 1934. Following the team’s performance in Italy at the World Cup, no African nation appeared in the tournament finals until 1970. The tournament in Mexico saw Morocco qualify and the nation became the first African country to obtain a point at the tournament finals. Despite an African country never winning the World Cup, there have been some tremendous performances …

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