Football

Karachi: Gawadar football team cruised into Leisure Leagues National Championship after winning Balochistan Regional Leisure Leagues Championship, which was recently held in Quetta. Gawadar won the final game against host Quetta by 3-1 score at Al-Muntazir Futsal ground in Quetta. Gawadar became the second team to qualify for the Leisure Leagues National finals. Earlier, Karachi’s Abdul FC qualified for the ...

Wolves beat champions Manchester City to win the pre-season Premier League Asia Trophy following a bizarre penalty shootout in China. Four of the first five penalties were saved or missed before keeper Rui Patricio denied City’s Lukas Nmecha to give Wolves a 3-2 shootout victory. The game was level at 0-0 following 90 minutes of an intriguing match in which ...

Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi lauded his side’s “incredible” Africa Cup of Nations triumph on Friday as Baghdad Bounedjah’s early goal earned a 1-0 victory over Senegal in the final. Bounedjah gave Algeria a dream start against Sadio Mane’s Senegal, the top team in Africa, in front of a large Cairo crowd when his deflected shot looped over Senegal goalkeeper Alfred ...

Zlatan Ibrahimovic lived up to the bravado on Friday, scoring all three goals to power the LA Galaxy to a hard fought 3-2 victory over MLS rivals Los Angeles Football Club. The unstoppable 37-year-old showed he’s still capable of astounding feats by dominating the smaller LAFC defence and scoring when it counted the most for his second career MLS hat-trick. ...

Former South African footballer Marc Batchelor was shot dead in an apparent targeted killing on Monday evening as he drove home in Johannesburg, police said. “He was driving to his house and he was accosted by two guys on a motorcycle,” police spokesman Lungelo Dlamini told AFP. “They fired shots at him and he died in his vehicle and the ...

Senegal reached the Africa Cup of Nations final for the second time as Tunisia defender Dylan Bronn’s extra-time own goal gave them victory. Both sides had penalties saved in normal time before Bronn inadvertently headed the only goal of the game. Mouez Hassen tipped Sadio Mane’s free-kick on to Bronn’s head as Senegal – who face Algeria in Friday’s final ...

Riyad Mahrez rifled in a stoppage-time free-kick to earn Algeria a dramatic 2-1 victory over three-time champions Nigeria on Sunday and set up a rematch with Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations final. Algeria led through a first-half own goal by William Troost-Ekong before Nigeria equalised with an Odion Ighalo penalty on 72 minutes awarded after a VAR review. ...

Dutch winger Arjen Robben announced on Thursday he is ending his playing career at the age of 35 after a 10-year spell with German giants Bayern Munich. “It is without a doubt the most difficult decision I have had to make in my career, my heart says yes, my body says no,” Robben said. His contract at Bayern had expired ...

LYON: A long-range strike from Jackie Groenen sent European Champions the Netherlands into their first women’s World Cup final as they edged Sweden 1-0 after extra time in their last-four clash on Wednesday. The 24-year-old midfielder scored in the 99th minute when she collected a deflected pass outside the box and struck it expertly into the bottom right corner of ...

BELO HORIZONTE: Brazil advanced to the Copa America final with a 2-0 win over old rivals Argentina on Tuesday in a pulsating and, at times, a bad-tempered match decided by a goal in each half from Gabriel Jesus and Roberto Firmino. Both sides tried to impose themselves physically early on but it was Jesus who gave Brazil the lead after ...