Carlos Tevez confirmed he will not be taking over free kick duties from Juventus specialist Andrea Pirlo despite scoring from his first Serie A set piece on Monday during a 1-1 draw with Roma.
With Pirlo out for three weeks due to a calf injury, Tevez stepped up for a free kick just after the hour mark of the top-of-the-table clash at Roma’s Stadio Olimpico.
To general surprise, the Argentinian curled his effort over the wall superbly, leaving Roma goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis rooted to the spot as Juventus took a 1-0 lead.
Ten-man Roma, who lost Vasilis Torosidis to a red card minutes earlier, went on to level through Seydou Keita’s late header from Juan Iturbe’s free kick, allowing the hosts to grab a share of the spoils as Juventus maintained their nine-point advantage at the top of the table.
Tevez, meanwhile, said: “I train alongside Pirlo every day and try to copy the things he does. He still has priority on the free kicks!
“He is the specialist and I have to respect that.”
Tevez’s 15th goal of the campaign means the Argentinian international took the sole lead in the race for Serie A’s ‘Capocannoniere’ award, given to the league’s top scorer.
Compatriot Mauro Icardi of Inter Milan, a reported target for Chelsea, has hit the net 14 times this season while two other Argentinians — Paulo Dybala of Palermo and Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain — are third and fourth on 12 goals apiece.
Juventus, meanwhile, return to action Thursday when they host Fiorentina in the first leg of the Italian Cup semi-finals in Turin. Lazio host Napoli in the first leg of the other semi-final on Wednesday.
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Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
