EURO 2020 - (GROUP STAGE) - Hungary 1, France 1; Germany 4, Portugal 2 (Group F) ; Spain 1, Poland 1 (Group E)

SUNDAY 20 JUNE 2021

Red Bull's Verstappen beats Hamilton to clinch French Grand Prix poleSo far it has been a really positive weekend at a track where it has been a bit difficult for us. No points are scored today but it is a great day and we have to finish it off tomorrow.

Sport |15Max Verstappen

Sport

Al Shaqab Racing’s Lusail shines with impressive winTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Despite carrying top weight in the Betstival Season at Mansion Bet British EBF Novice Stakes at Newmarket yesterday, Al Shaqab Racing’s Lusail (IRE) (Mehmas x Diaminda) proved a decisive winner of the two-year-old heat.

Jockey Pat Dobbs never had recourse to use the whip, as Lusail easily dominated the field to land the spoils in the seven-furlong Class 4 race by a length for trainer Richard Hannon.

The John & Thady Gosden-trained and Robert

Havlin-ridden FIND (GB) (Frankel x Spring In The Air) was the runner-up, further three lengths in front of the Charlie Appleby -trained and Royston Ffrench-ridden Noble Truth (FR) (Kingman x Speralita).

The Richard Hannon runner made a winning debut at York on 13 May before fin-ishing third at Pontefract on his second attempt two weeks later and returned on Saturday to double his tally on his third career start. Lusail is a son of the last season’s top first season sire Mehmas, and is the first winner of the mare Diaminda.

Lusail, helmed by Jockey Pat Dobbs, in action yesterday.

Al Hammadi chosen as technical expert for World Cup in CroatiaTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Executive Committee of the International Shooting Sports Feder-ation (ISSF) has announced the appointment of the international and Olympic referee Abdullah Ali Al Mutawa Al Hammadi (pictured), member of the Board of Directors of Qatar Shooting and Archery Associ-ation (QSSA), as a technical delegate for Shooting World Cup to be held in the city of Osijek in Croatian from June 23 to July 3.

Hammadi’s participation as a technical delegate at the major event shows the high role Qatari officials besides the shooters occupy in sport.

“Our presence in the Arab and

international events has had a great impact on representing this sport in the way everyone seeks to achieve its best levels. The aim is to increase the intensity of the competition,” said Al Hammadi.

Argentina down Uruguay 1-0 in Copa AmericaAP — SAO PAULO

Argentina beat Uruguay 1-0 on Friday in its second match at Copa America, making Lionel Messi’s team co-leaders of Group A with Chile with four points each.

Striker Guido Rodriguez scored the only goal at the Mané Garrincha stadium in Brasilia with a header in the 13th minute after Messi crossed from the left. The ball hit goal-keeper Fernando Muslera’s right post before going in.

Earlier Chile beat Bolivia 1-0 on a goal by English-Chilean striker Ben Brereton.

Argentina controlled nearly all of the game against an Uruguayan team that included the powerful offensive duo of Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani.

Argentina’s next match will be against Paraguay on Monday, the same day that Uruguay will play its second match in the tournament against Chile.

A victory against Uruguay could move Argentina into first place in its group and avoid an early knockout-stage meeting with defending champion Brazil, which is in Group B.

Qatar confirm another friendly in CroatiaTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar, coached by Felix Sanchez, will play Croatia (local squad) at the Aldo Drosina Stadium on June 30, as part of the training camp currently taking place in Croatia.

Qatar will also take on El Salvador at the same venue on July 4.

The match will allow Qatar match practice ahead of this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup in which Qatar were drawn in Group D alongside Panama, Honduras and Grenada.

The maroons have just sealed the top spot in Group E of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 with a tally of 22 points.

The 2021 Gold Cup, which will take place from 10 July to 1 August and, for the first time in its history, will have a pre-liminary phase, which be played between 2 and 6 July. This phase will determine the remaining teams that will join the group stage of the tour-nament that is being held in the United States.

Oman target win over Somalia in second play-off

Germany bounce back to beat Portugal 4-2REUTERS — MUNICH

Germany benefitted from two first-half own goals as they came from behind to beat defending champions Portugal 4-2 in their Group F match yesterday, getting their European Championship last 16 qualification hopes back on track.

Germany, who were beaten by France in their opening match, started at breakneck speed but fell behind against the run of play when Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 107th international goal after a swift counter attack.

Joachim Loew’s Germany side flipped the script thanks to two own goals within four minutes, with Kai Havertz’s strike deflected in by Ruben Dias from six yards followed by Raphael Guerreiro finding his own net from a Joshua Kimmich cut back.

A Germany player finally got on the scoresheet after the interval when Havertz made it 3-1 before Robin Gosens capped

a memorable individual display by heading in the fourth on the hour.

Diogo Jota pulled one back to offer Portugal a glimmer of hope in the closing stages.

France held 1-1 by pas-sionate Hungary

Meanwhile, Hungary took a shock lead against France in

a pulsating second Group F match in the European Cham-pionship yesterday, but Antoine Griezmann equalised for a 1-1 draw inside the packed Puskas Arena.

The result put France on four points to provisionally top.

Roared on by over 60,000 fans, they took the lead in first half injury time when Attila Fiola combined with Roland Sallai before the wing-back raced through on goal to beat goalkeeper Hugo Lloris with a low shot at the near post.

France equalised in the 66th minute when Kylian Mbappe stole in behind the defence to latch on to a bouncing long ball from Lloris and though his cross was only half cleared, Griezmann was on hand to find the back of the net.

Spain struggle to 1-1 draw with Poland

Spain striker Alvaro Mor-ata's first-half goal was can-celled out by a Robert Lewand-owski strike for Poland in a 1-1 draw yesterday that ensured all four Euro 2020 Group E teams

can still qualify as they head into Wednesday's final round of matches.

Morata broke the deadlock in the 25th minute, pouncing to sweep home Gerard Moreno's driven ball into the box and, though a linesman's flag for offside delayed the celebrations, the goal was awarded following

a VAR review. Lewandowski equalised with a towering header from Kamil Jozwiak's cross in the 54th minute and four minutes later a Moreno penalty came cannoning off the left-hand post, with Morata missing the rebound and several more second-half chances.

Germany’s Thomas Mueller celebrates after Kai Havertz scores their third goal against Portugal yesterday.

Today's Fixtures

7pm: Italy vs Wales7pm: Switzerland vs

Turkey

Sudan edge Libya to seal Arab Cup spot THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Sudan yesterday edged Libya 1-0 in an exciting play-off and celebrated their berth at the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021 in style at the iconic Khalifa Inter-national Stadium.

Mohammed Abdelrahman scored the winner from a spot kick in 15th minute followed by some desperate attempts from Libya to score an equaliser.

Yesterday’s victory, watched by passionate fans, put Sudan alongside hosts Qatar, Iraq, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Algeria in the tournament’s final phase to be played from November 30 to December 18.

Last night at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 venue, Sudan started the match in a domi-nating fashion and were awarded a penalty following a late challenge by Ali Salama on Seif El-Din Malik.

Abdelrahman assumed responsibility and sent the goal-keeper the wrong way with a calmy dispatched spot-kick.

Libya created many oppor-tunities in search of a goal but they missed execution as Sudan held on bravely to their narrow advantage.

Today, Oman will be eyeing a spot in the main round when they will meet Somalia in the second play-off at the Jassim

Bin Hamad Stadium. The winner of the match will confirm a place in Group A along with hosts Qatar, Iraq and the winner of Bahrain versus Kuwait play-off.

Coached by Branko Ivankovic, Oman – ranked 80 in the FIFA rankings – will start as favourites against World No.197 Somalia. But Ivankovic’s side will not take the opponents lightly.

“We have to respect our opponents in this important,” Ivankovic told a virtual con-ference yesterday.

“The team is eager to qualify for the main stage FIFA Arab Cup, which will be a matter of pride for the players,” he added.

Oman have shown good form recently, finishing the Asian Qualifiers as runners-up in Group E behind FIFA

World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar. Oman captain Abdulaziz Al

Muqbali hoped the team will con-tinue its fine run in today’s match.

“Our fans expect us to qualify for this unique tour-nament and we will do everthying to live up to their expectations,” he told reporters yesterday.

For Somalia, today’s match is an oppurtunity to showcase their skills at a big stage. “We

would like to thank Qatar for giving us this opportunity. Oman is a big side and it is a difficult challenge for us. But, I am hopeful that the players will give their best,” said Somalia manager Said Abdel Haibeh.

Somalia captain Abdu-lasmad Abdullahi said: “We will represent our country in a best possible way. We are prepared for the match."

Sudan players celebrate their victory against Libya yesterday.

15SUNDAY 20 JUNE 2021Sport

Ahmed Elkhoully on the podium after winning the sixth and final round of the Qatar Digital Motorsports Championship (QDMC). Elkhoully clocked a time of 22:03.475 against a field of 11 participants in the online round contested at Interlagos (4.309km) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Elkhoully’s win yesterday was his fourth consecutive in the six-round championship. Qatar’s Khalid Al Maraghi finished second in the sixth round (+3.086) while Mansour Dbeissy (Lebanon) clinched third spot (+9.021). Qatar’s Faesal Alyafei and Rashid Almannai finished in fourth and fifth places respectively. Elkhoully wrapped up the hugely popular series with a tally of 143 points while Al Maraghi (85 points) secured the second spot overall. Alyafei (69), Sheikh Soud Jassim Al Thani (62) and Khalid Al Abdulla (52) completed the top five. The series was hosted by QMMF. Omar Aswat served as QDMC Observer while Timekeeping Officer was Aaron Limbago. Rami Azzam was the Race Director of the championship.

F1: Verstappen beats Hamilton to clinch French GP poleREUTERS — PARIS

Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen put on a blinding display in yesterday’s qualifying to seize pole position for the French Grand Prix ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton.

The 23-year-old lapped the 5.8-kilometer long Paul Ricard circuit in one minute 29.990 seconds in his Red Bull, 0.258 seconds clear of Mercedes’ Hamilton, who trails Ver-stappen by four points in the overall standings and will line up alongside him on the front row.

Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes was third while Sergio Perez, winner two weeks ago in Baku, was fourth for Red Bull.

Verstappen’s yesterday display, which made him the only driver to lap below the one minute, 30 second mark, earned the Dutchman his second pole of the season and fifth of his career.

It also ended Mercedes’ run of practice and qualifying dom-inance at the Paul Ricard track.

The reigning champions had led every practice and

qualifying session for the two races the circuit has hosted since joining the calendar in 2018, with Hamilton winning both from pole.

Nevertheless, it marked a welcome return to form for Mercedes after two poor weekends in Monaco and Baku and early struggles at Paul Ricard this weekend.

Saturday’s qualifying session was interrupted by two red flags. Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda caused the first stoppage just three minutes into the hour-long session when he lost control of his AlphaTauri at the first corner and ended up in the barriers.

Mick Schumacher brought the red flags out for a second time in the dying seconds of the opening phase of qualifying, when the German spun off into the barriers.

The 22-year-old Haas driver, who was 14th when he crashed, nevertheless pro-gressed out of qualifying’s opening knockout phase for the first time in his career, even if he couldn’t take part in the remainder of the session.

He will line up a career-best 15th today.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (right) and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton shake hands after the qualifying yesterday.

Ahmed Elkhoully storms to another

victory, bags QDMC crown

Chess: Carlsen among stars to feature in Katara eventTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway, a seven-time world chess champion, world rapid chess champion, and world blitz chess champion, along with an array of grand-masters from Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Germany, Spain and India among others will be in action in the second edition of the $12,800 Katara International Chess Tour-nament 2021 (Online Bullet Tournament) which will go into action in Doha today.

A large number of entries have been and are still being received as players can reg-ister till the last moment in the online tournament.

The Qatar Chess Feder-ation (QCF) in cooperation with the Cultural Village Foun-dation – Katara will conduct the event till June 23.

Commenting on the growing interest in the tour-nament worldwide, HE Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of the Cul-tural Village Foundation -- Katara, said: “The organisation of this tournament online emerged following the state’s precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the coro-navirus (COVID-19). We are confident that this edition too will see a world-class tour-nament worthy of its success as in the last year,” he added.

On the opening day (inde-pendent qualifying sessions will be held each lasting 90 minutes.

Handball: Al Duhail reach final

Kohli leads India revival before bad light intervenes in WTC finalREUTERS — SOUTHAMPTON

Skipper Virat Kohli led India’s revival and steered his team to 146-3 against New Zealand before bad light stopped play in the weather-marred World Test Championship (WTC) final on yesterday.

Kohli had raised 58 runs with Ajinkya Rahane when the players were forced off amid fading light at the Ageas Bowl with only 9.1 overs played in the final session.

The India captain, like several of his team mates, stood outside the crease to try to negate any swing and played the moving ball quite late for his unbeaten 44.

Rahane, batting on 29, looked cagey initially but gamely hung on to feature in India’s second 50-plus partnership.

After persistent rain washed out the entire opening day on Friday, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson unsurpris-ingly elected to field after winning the toss.

Under an overcast sky, India scored 69 runs but lost both their set openers in an evenly balanced morning session.

Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill raised 62 runs for the opening partnership before Kyle Jamieson separated them

with a delivery that swung late.Rohit, having made a fluent

34, left his bat hanging and Tim Southee dived to his right to pouch the outside edge at third slip.

Neil Wagner was intro-duced late in the session and the left-arm quick struck with his third delivery, dismissing Gill caught behind for 28.

Cheteshwar Pujara took 36 balls to get off the mark and, like Gill earlier in the match, was smacked on the helmet grill by a rising delivery which sent his neck guard flying.

Pujara made eight before Boult swung one back in to trap him lbw.

Kohli and Rahane did not allow their concentration to

lapse despite interruptions because of bad light, which also forced an early tea break.

Both teams stuck to their strengths with India picking both their spinners -- Ravi-chandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja -- and New Zealand opting for an all-seam attack.

Only 64.4 overs have been played in the first two days of the weather-hit contest which has a reserve day to make up for lost time.

The one-off match marks the culmination of a two-year cycle of the inaugural WTC, launched in 2019 to create a pinnacle event for Test cricket.

India’s Virat Kohli and New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson walk off the pitch yesterday.

PSL: Kings claim win over Gladiators

India 1st Innings

R. Sharma c Southee b Jamieson .................34

S. Gill c Watling b Wagner ..............................28

C. Pujara lbw b Boult ........................................8

V. Kohli not out ............................................... 44

A. Rahane not out ...........................................29

Extras (lb2, nb1) .............................................. 3

Total (3 wkts, 64.4 overs, 283 mins) ..146

To bat: R Pant, R Jadeja, R Ashwin, J Bumrah, I Shar-

ma, M Shami

Fall of wickets: 1-62 (Rohit), 2-63 (Gill), 3-88 (Pu-

jara)

Bowling: Southee 17-4-47-0; Boult 12.4-2-32-1;

Jamieson 14-9-14-1; De Grandhomme 11-6-23-0;

Wagner 10-3-28-1 (1nb)

New Zealand: Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Kane

Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ

Watling (wkt), Colin de Grandhomme, Kyle Jamieson,

Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult

Toss: New Zealand

SCOREBOARD

South Africa all out for 298 against WIAP — GROS ISLET, ST. LUCIA

Quinton de Kock missed out on a second successive century and was out for 96 to drag South Africa to 298 all out in its first innings against the West Indies on the second day of the second Test yesterday.

De Kock’s edge off the bowling of Kyle Mayers flicked the gloves of wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva standing up and looped to Shai Hope in the slips for a simple catch.

That denied de Kock another ton after his 141 not out in the first Test set up South Africa’s innings win and 1-0 lead in the two-match series. That was de Kock’s first Test since giving up the captaincy.

Medium pacer Mayers took 3-28 and Kemar Roach 3-45 as West Indies kept on top of South Africa, with the exception of de Kock. South Africa started the day on 218-5 after a delay in the morning because of a wet outfield in St. Lucia.

De Kock hit eight fours to once again be the rock of the South Africa innings. Kagiso Rabada cracked 21 from 23 balls at the end to see South Africa to the brink of 300.

Al Duhail players in action during the semi-final of Asian Club Handball Championship against Bahrain’s Al Najma in Jeddah, yesterday. Al Duhail sealed an emphatic 30-22 victory to sail into the final. In other semi-final, Al Arabi lost to Al Kuwait SC 22-23 in overtime.