Italy keep England at bay, win crucial Group D match 2-1

June 15, 2014

England win

Manaus (Brazil), Jun 15: Italy were truly class in their 2-1 win against an aggressive England as Claudio Marchisio and Mario Balotelli struck in either half for the Azzurri in a crucial and gripping Group D contest, here today.

Italy lost skipper and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon hours before the start of the clash due to injury but did not allow the setback to affect their performance. Salvatore Sirigu was excellent under the bar in the absence of legendary Buffon, making spectacular saves.

In a fascinating first half, Italy surged ahead on a set-piece goal in the 35th minute by Marchisio and England retaliated two minutes later through Daniel Sturridge, brilliantly fed by Wayne Rooney and Raheem Sterling.

England attacked relentlessly but it was young Balotelli, the hero of Italy's Qualifying campaign, who found the winner for the Azzurri early in the second half. He headed home a sumptuous pass from Antonio Candreva, five minutes into the second half and that proved decisive in the outcome.

England's failure to get the equaliser meant that they have made a losing start to the World Cup for the first time in 28 years and remained winless against Italy in a competieve match since 1977.

The clash was a repeat of a 2012 European Championship quarterfinal between the two teams and the Italians prevailed yet again.

Rooney, who has been struggling playing from the left, had a brilliant chance to equalise after getting a pass from Leighton Baines but he hit wide in the 62nd minute.

Italy kept England at bay for the remainder of the session to walk through with three points. Nevertheless, Sturridge and Sterling were outstanding for England.

An upset 3-1 win for Costa Rica over Uruguay early in the day in Fortaleza means that England now have an enormous challenge to advance to the second round from Group D.

Uruguay badly missed star striker Luis Suarez as Costa Rica rallied from a goal down to stun Copa America champions. Two goal in three minutes from Joel Campbell and Oscar Duarte rocked the Uruguay defence. Substitute Urena made it 3-1 for his side, capitalising on a pass from Campbell, minutes before the whistle.

In a Group C match in Belo Horizonte, Colombia made a grand return to the World Cup finals after 16 long years with a superb 3-0 win over Greece. It was their best ever result in World Cup finals. At Manaus, both England and Italy played very fast, skillful and engaging game from the start, and it was Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling, who took the first aim at the goal with a stunning shot from 25 yards after beating two men in midfield.

He almost pulled it off for the British side, playing at a former colonial post, but the shot crashed into the side-netting.

Consistent English raids put Italian defence under some pressure. It was Sterling again creating a chance as he charged from the left and sent a perfect cross but Danny Welbeck could not reach to that.

Welbeck was quickly back in action as he puts in a low cross after beating a defender, Daniel Sturridge was inches away from a tap-in.

Italy got their first corner in the 33rd minute and immediately struck with a sensational set-piece. Receiving from the right corner, Andrea Pirlo lets the ball go through his legs towards Claudio Marchisio, who stopped the ball shot it into the net through the legs of both Wayne Rooney and Gary Cahill.

But Italy's joy was short-lived as two minutes later England levelled on counter attack. In a flowing move, Sterling sent the ball rolling from left towards Rooney, who had enough space to send a cross and Daniel Sturridge latched on the half volley to slam home the equaliser.

Italy regained the lead in the 50th minute when Antonio Candreva sent a pass to Balotelli, who nodded in easily.

England came close to getting equaliser on a few occasions but Rooney missed two chances. In the 77th minute, England failed to capitalise on a free kick as Baines' brillant shot over the wall and into the corner was spectacularly saved by Italian goalkeeper Sirigu. In the dying moments, Andrea Pirlo's free-kick from right to left hit the crossbar.

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 6: 'The Irishman,' and 'Two Popes' were shut out from the winners list despite getting multiple nominations, the movies didn't win a single award at the Golden Globes Award held on Sunday (local time). Other movies in the list include 'Bombshell,' 'Dolemite Is My Name,' 'Harriet,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Knives Out' and 'Little Women.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Irishman' may have gone into the 2020 Golden Globes with the second-highest number of film nominations, tied with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' with five nods, but Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated mob epic for Netflix was completely shut out at the award ceremony.

Netflix landed the most film nominations of any company with 17 mentions, but it won only one award which is the best-supporting actress for 'Marriage Story's' Laura Dern. Netflix's nominated films 'Dolemite Is My Name' and 'The Two Popes' was tied with 'Joker' with four mentions each and failed to grab any awards.

'Dolemite Is My Name' star Eddie Murphy was expected by a number of pundits to win for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy.

'Bombshell', 'Harriet',' Frozen 2', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Knives Out', 'The Lion King', 'Little Women' and 'Pain and Glory' are among the other films that received multiple nominations but didn't win a single award.

On the TV side, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' tied in the race to most small-screen nominations with 'Chernobyl' and 'The Crown' with four nominations, and 'The Crown' won only one award, for star Olivia Colman.

The three-time nominees 'Barry', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Kominsky Method' and 'The Morning Show' also didn't grab any award. 'Catch-22', 'Killing Eve', 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'The Politician' who were two-time nominees that were also iced out.

'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez failed to take home the best-supporting actress award as she was predicted to win the award by a number of pundits. Billy porter also failed to make history with the best drama actor win for his role on 'Pose,' if he would've won the award, he reportedly would have been the first openly gay African-American to win that award.

'Chernobyl' won two of its four nominations. Despite that, star Jared Harris didn't win the best actor in a limited series Globe which was predicted by many prognosticators. The award was bagged by Russell Crowe for his portrayal of Roger Ailes in 'The Loudest Voice.' But the star was absent from the ceremony.

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Agencies
April 2,2020

Lausanne, Apr 2: The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics and the shutdown of the sporting calendar because of the coronavirus pandemic are going to hit international sports federations hard financially.

Many sports that are part of the Games depend heavily on the payouts every four years from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"The situation is tense and very gloomy. An assessment will be made, but clearly some posts are under threat," said an official of a major international federation.

The 28 international federations (IF) of the sports that were due to be present at the Tokyo Olympics, would have received substantial sums from the IOC.

However, the postponement of the Games until 2021 could lead to a freeze of their payment.

"We have a lot of IF with substantial reserves, but others work on a different business model, they have income from major events which are suspended, which can be a problem for the cashflow if they don't have enough reserves," said Andrew Ryan, director general of the Association of International Olympic Summer Sports Federations (ASOIF), which is responsible for distributing this money.

The five additions to the Tokyo Games programme - karate, surfing, skateboarding, climbing and baseball/softball - are not eligible.

The Olympic payout totalled 520 million after the Rio Games, four years ago.

"The Olympic money could be less than for Rio 2016," Ryan warned before adding: "My advice is to budget the same as in Rio".

The federations receive money on a sliding scale determined by their audience and size.

The three largest (athletics, swimming and gymnastics) can expect approximately 40 million.

For the second tier, made up of cycling, basketball, volleyball, football and tennis, the sum is 25 million.

For group three, which contains eight sports, including boxing, rowing, judo and table tennis, it is 17 million.

The nine sports in the next level (including sailing, canoing and fencing) receive 12 million.

For the three in the last category (rugby, golf, modern pentathlon) the payout is 7 million.

For the largest associations, such as football's FIFA which has a 1.5 billion nest egg, or basketball body FIBA which has CHF 44.4 million (42 million euros) in reserves, IOC aid represents a small proportion of their income.

For others, it is vital.

"Some IF probably don't have the cashflow to survive one year," said Ryan.

For most federations, the postponement of the Olympic Games has a domino effect, forcing them to reschedule their own money-earning competitions.

"The revenues from these events will eventually come in," said Ryan. "But this impacts the cashflow." World Athletics has already postponed the 2021 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon to 2022.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) will have to do the same for its World Championships scheduled for next summer in Fukuoka, Japan, when they would probably clash with the Tokyo Games.

"One edition of the World Championships means for us 10 million in revenues," said one sports federation official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"If this income is postponed, totally or partially, for a year, we will face major problems, especially if the IOC money, originally expected in September, is not paid out."

The Singapore-based International Table Tennis Federation has already taken steps, with "the Executive Committee agreeing to reduce their expenses and senior staff offering to take a salary reduction," said marketing director Matt Pound, but, he added,"further cuts will take place if needed."

- 'Significant loss of revenue' -

The ITTF has suspended all its competitions until June and that is costly.

Kim Andersen, the Danish president of London-based World Sailing, said commercial revenues are not immune.

"The IOC will eventually pay out its aid, but what weighs most heavily is the uncertainty about whether our competitions will be held and whether our sponsors will be maintained," he said.

The IOC is not prepared to go into details of what it plans.

"It is not possible at this stage to assess the overall impact" of the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, an official told AFP.

"It depends on a number of variables that are currently being studied." According to an official of one federation: "the IOC will discuss on a case-by-case basis, sport by sport".

Another option is for the federations to ask for a share of the public aid set up to deal with the coronavirus crisis, in Switzerland, where 22 ASOIF members are based and also in the United Kingdom, home of World Sailing.

"Can sports federations benefit from federal aid? The answer is yes, in principle," Philippe Leuba, State Councillor of the canton of Vaud, in charge of the economy and sport, told.

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News Network
April 7,2020

London, Apr 7: Bowling coach Waqar Younis feels that it was the absence of pacers Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir which saw Pakistan getting whitewashed during Australia tour last year.

Amir and Riaz had quit the red-ball format ahead of the matches against Australia in 2019.

"Just before the Australia series, they ditched us and we had the only choice to pick youngsters.

We were the new management and decided to go on with taking in the younger lot and groom them. ESPNcricinfo quoted Younis as saying.

Pakistan was not able to win a single match in Australia as they got defeated both in T20Is and Test series.

"It's not like we have lost a lot, but yes they left us at the wrong time. But anyway, we don't have any grudge against them," Younis added.

"We cannot control players' choice on what they want to play, but then there should be a mechanism so we all are on board. "It's not like I am saying we could have won in Australia but we could have done better than what we have done," he opined.

Amir gave up the red ball format in July in order to manage his workload and extend his white-ball career for Pakistan as well as in T20 leagues around the world, while Riaz took an "indefinite break" from Test cricket in September last year.

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