Rivalry weekend set for NFL’s conference championship games, with Broncos v Patriots and Seahawks v 49ers

Peyton Manning powered the Denver Broncos to within one victory of the Super Bowl and San Francisco advanced as well by beating Carolina in Sunday’s National Football League play-off games.

Manning threw two touchdown passes to lead Denver over visiting San Diego 24-17 while Colin Kaepernick ran for one touchdown and threw for another to lift the 49ers over host Carolina 23-10.

Denver will host New England and San Francisco will visit Seattle in next Sunday’s play-off semi-finals with those winners to meet in Super Bowl 48 on February 2 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City.

Manning, who set new NFL pass yardage and touchdown toss records this season leading the top-scoring offensive unit in league history, will have a showdown against New England rival Tom Brady, whose records he broke, in a battle of star quarterbacks for the American Conference crown.

“It’s the Broncos versus the Patriots,” Manning said. “Tom and I have played against each other a lot but when you get to the conference championship it’s about two good teams getting there.”

The Patriots defeated Denver 34-31 in overtime in a regular-season matchup November 25 at New England. The Broncos led 24-0 at halftime before three-time Super Bowl winner Brady produced the greatest comeback of his NFL career.

Brady is 10-4 in games against Manning with a 2-1 play-offs edge. Each time the winner went on to win the Super Bowl, Manning taking the most recent such meeting in 2007 on the way to a title with Indianapolis.

But first the Broncos, who lost in this round last year to eventual Super Bowl winner Baltimore, had to get past a San Diego squad that upset them a month ago at home.

“We worked on (closing out games) all season,” Manning said. “When you have a game that ended like last year, it becomes a focus point.

“It was good to see all that work pay off in that situation. Hopefully we can do it again next week.”

Kaepernick, meanwhile, completed 15-of-28 passes for 196 yards and ran seven times for 15 yards as the 49ers shook off a slow start and avenged a 10-9 regular-season home loss to the Panthers last November.

“We had to get settled down,” Kaepernick said. “We got into our rhythm and we started making plays.”

San Francisco, who lost last year’s Super Bowl to Baltimore, split two games with the Seahawks this season, losing 29-3 at Seattle in September but winning 19-17 at home last month.

“We’re a different team than we were the first time we played them up there,” Kaepernick said. “We have a lot of key playmakers back and we will be ready to go.”

Jim Harbaugh, the 49ers’ coach, became the first coach in the Super Bowl era to reach the conference finals in each of his first three years guiding a team.

New England defeated Indianapolis 43-22 and Seattle downed New Orleans 23-15 in play-off matchups Saturday.

Manning flipped a 2-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas and a 3-yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker and Matt Prater added a 45-yard field goal to put Denver ahead 17-0 entering the fourth quarter.

San Diego’s Philip Rivers sandwiched two 16-yard touchdown passes to rookie Keenan Allen around a 3-yard touchdown run for Denver’s Knowshon Moreno in the fourth quarter.

The Chargers pulled within the final margin on Nick Novak’s 30-yard field goal with 3:53 to play, but Manning connected with Julius Thomas on two third-down conversion passes that allowed the Broncos to run out the clock on San Diego’s upset bid.

“We were able to convert third downs,” Manning said about the difference from an earlier home loss to San Diego. “We made a real point to be productive on first and second down.”

At Charlotte, San Francisco took a 6-0 lead on Phil Dawson field goals of 33 and 49 yards in the first quarter.

Carolina answered on Cam Newton’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Steve Smith and the Panthers stretched their lead to 10-6 on Graham Gano’s 24-yard field goal.

The 49ers responded with a 12-play, 80-yard march capped by Kaepernick’s 1-yard touchdown toss to Vernon Davis, which counted only after a video review overuled him being called out of bounds.

That gave the 49ers a 13-10 half-time lead and they stretched it to 20-10 just 6:07 into the third quarter on a 4-yard Kaepernick touchdown run.

Dawson added a 34-yard field goal with 7:41 remaining for the final victory margin.

In numbers

Number of Chinese tourists coming to UAE in 2017 was... 1.3m

Alibaba’s new ‘Tech Town’ in Dubai is worth... $600m

China’s investment in the MIddle East in 2016 was... $29.5bn

The world’s most valuable start-up in 2018, TikTok, is valued at... $75bn

Boost to the UAE economy of 5G connectivity will be... $269bn

The biog

Name: Fareed Lafta

Age: 40

From: Baghdad, Iraq

Mission: Promote world peace

Favourite poet: Al Mutanabbi

Role models: His parents

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ON%20TRACK

%3Cp%3EThe%20Dubai%20Metaverse%20Assembly%20will%20host%20three%20main%20tracks%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEducate%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Consists%20of%20more%20than%2010%20in-depth%20sessions%20on%20the%20metaverse%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInspire%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Will%20showcase%20use%20cases%20of%20the%20metaverse%20in%20tourism%2C%20logistics%2C%20retail%2C%20education%20and%20health%20care%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EContribute%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Workshops%20for%20metaverse%20foresight%20and%20use-case%20reviews%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others

Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.

As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.

Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.

“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”

Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.

“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”

Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.

Salah in numbers

€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.

13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.

57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.

7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.

3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.

40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.

30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.

8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.

Three ways to get a gratitude glow

By committing to at least one of these daily, you can bring more gratitude into your life, says Ong.

During your morning skincare routine, name five things you are thankful for about yourself.
As you finish your skincare routine, look yourself in the eye and speak an affirmation, such as: “I am grateful for every part of me, including my ability to take care of my skin.”
In the evening, take some deep breaths, notice how your skin feels, and listen for what your skin is grateful for.