Saudi Arabia's Ali Al Bulayhi was made to wait by a lengthy VAR check and confusion from the referee before celebrating his headed goal to seal a 2-1 win over Oman. Reuters
Saudi Arabia's Ali Al Bulayhi was made to wait by a lengthy VAR check and confusion from the referee before celebrating his headed goal to seal a 2-1 win over Oman. Reuters
Saudi Arabia's Ali Al Bulayhi was made to wait by a lengthy VAR check and confusion from the referee before celebrating his headed goal to seal a 2-1 win over Oman. Reuters
Ali Al Bulayhi called his winning goal against Oman "a gift to the Saudi people" as Roberto Mancini's men fought back in the dying seconds to win their opening match at the 2023 Asian Cup.
Saudi Arabia had to endure a farcical few minutes as confusion reigned over whether Al Bulayhi's goal would stand.
Mancini's side trailed to a 14th-minute Salaah Al Yahyaei penalty but equalised through substitute Abdulrahman Ghareeb 12 minutes from time.
Al Bulayhi then headed in following a corner to spark pandemonium for what they thought was the winner.
The goal was disallowed for offside by the assistant referee, and was checked by VAR. He appeared in replays to have been onside.
Then came the confusion when it appeared that referee Shaun Evans had stuck with the original offside call and the game restarted, only for him to call back play and award the goal.
Al Bulayhi celebrated in trademark fashion by inflating a green balloon as his teammates mobbed him.
"The goal is a gift to the Saudi people. This is what great players do," said the 34-year-old defender.
Midfielder, and long-time captain, Salman Al Faraj, goalkeeper Nawaf Al Aqidi and full-back Sultan Al Ghannam were released from the 26-man roster ahead of the country’s bid for a fourth continental crown – and first since 1996.
Mancini, who took the Saudi reins in September, said his side made mistakes in the first half "but this is normal in the first game.
"The second half was better than the first half, we created a lot of chances, we had more possession. If you have more possession, you have chances to score.
"Oman defended very well. We didn't find good solutions at first but we had chances and we scored the second goal in the end, but we should have scored before."
His opposite number Branko Ivankovic said the "Saudi team deserved the victory", citing the tiredness of his players as a reason behind Oman's late collapse.
"We wanted to score a second goal for the players to feel comfortable. But towards the end, we didn't have options," Ivankovic added.
Also in Group F, Thailand beat Kyrgyzstan 2-0 with Supachai Chaided scoring both goals.
Buriram United striker Supachai prodded in from close range on 26 minutes to give Thailand the lead over Kyrgyzstan.
He got his second in similar style just after the break when the ball again fell his way with the goal gaping.
Reigning champions Qatar return to action on Wednesday when they will look to seal their place in the last 16 with victory over Tajikistan.
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
