East Timor 0 UAE 1
UAE Omar Abdulrahman 80'
Man of the match Omar Abdulrahman (UAE)
KUALA LUMPUR // Mahdi Ali said the performance was secondary to the result after the UAE opened their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory against East Timor.
The Emirati side struggled to break down their opponents at Malaysia’s Shah Alam Stadium on Tuesday, but were provided a winning start in Group A through Omar Abdulrahman’s 80th-minute strike.
The UAE were heavy favourites, since East Timor sit 146th in the Fifa rankings – 73 places below them. However, played in stifling conditions and arriving immediately after an arduous domestic campaign, the match proved more difficult than the UAE originally anticipated.
Read more:
[ – Football Association expect strong response from UAE in 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifying opener ]
[ – Photo gallery: UAE squad go through their paces ahead of 2018 World Cup qualifier with East Timor ]
“The result was very good for us because we came here to win and achieved it,” Mahdi Ali said. “That’s the most important thing. As I said after the Asian Cup, in two years these players haven’t had a rest.
“There are some players who didn’t play for maybe one month and you cannot keep the performance at game level if you don’t play every week. That’s not possible. Although I spoke about this, no action was taken.
“The most important thing is we won in these circumstances. I’d like to thank the players for all their effort - they fought until the end. Now we have to close this chapter. We have one month rest and then we have to think about the coming games in September.”
Other than the victory, Abdulrahman’s performance was perhaps the only positive. The Al Ain playmaker was again his side’s creative fulcrum and capped a competent display with a fine long-range effort to secure the points.
Photo gallery:
[ – UAE get past East Timor to win their first 2018 World Cup qualifier ]
Mahdi Ali commended the collective, although he did single out Abdulrahmans’s work ethic – a consequence, Mahdi Ali said, of the midfielder’s abbreviated club season.
“For me, the whole team is important, it’s not one player,” he said. “If a player scores a goal, it’s the effort of all the team. But I think Omar did well today, he was fighting. He played only [11] league games last season. That proves what I’m saying about the players being tired. We have seen Omar probably run more than anyone today.”
Fabio Magrao, East Timor’s coach, had identified Abdulrahman as the UAE’s danger man. Yet despite the defeat, the Brazilian was content with his side’s work this past week: on Thursday, East Timor began the group with a last-gasp 1-1 draw against Malaysia.
“We know the quality of the UAE, who had more possession although we had defensive control and made a few chances,” Magrao said. “But we knew Omar could change the game – I told [midfielder Ebi] to stay with Omar, even if he’s going to the toilet, because I knew he had the quality to finish the game. In a minute, [Ebi] lost concentration and Omar turned and scored.
“I’m proud of my players because we met just a few days before and got what felt like victory against Malaysia. Now we fought for the whole game against one of the biggest teams in the region.”
East Timor v UAE report card
East Timor 6/10 – Not much was expected from the Southeast Asians, but they defended resolutely and almost snatched a second successive draw. Created a few chances on the counter.
UAE 6/10 – Mahdi Ali's mens struggled to continually carve out decent chances, often peppering the opposition goal with shots from distance. Looked tired, even though they enjoyed the majority of possession.
The National verdict The UAE will be glad to have gotten this match out of the way, especially since it came on the back of a lengthy season. Were nowhere near their best, but saved by Abdulrahman's brilliance.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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List of alleged parties
May 12, 2020: PM and his wife Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at least 17 staff
May 20, 2020: They attend 'bring your own booze party'
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Afghanistan Premier League - at a glance
Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Fixtures:
Tue, Oct 16, 8pm: Kandahar Knights v Kabul Zwanan; Wed, Oct 17, 4pm: Balkh Legends v Nangarhar Leopards; 8pm: Kandahar Knights v Paktia Panthers; Thu, Oct 18, 4pm: Balkh Legends v Kandahar Knights; 8pm: Kabul Zwanan v Paktia Panthers; Fri, Oct 19, 8pm: First semi-final; Sat, Oct 20, 8pm: Second semi-final; Sun, Oct 21, 8pm: final
Table:
1. Balkh Legends 6 5 1 10
2. Paktia Panthers 6 4 2 8
3. Kabul Zwanan 6 3 3 6
4. Nagarhar Leopards 7 2 5 4
5. Kandahar Knights 5 1 4 2
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Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
Final scores
18 under: Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)
- 14: Jason Scrivener (AUS)
-13: Rory McIlroy (NIR)
-12: Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP)
-11: David Lipsky (USA), Marc Warren (SCO)
-10: Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Chris Paisley (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR)
The Facility’s Versatility
Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket
Francesco Totti's bio
Born September 27, 1976
Position Attacking midifelder
Clubs played for (1) - Roma
Total seasons 24
First season 1992/93
Last season 2016/17
Appearances 786
Goals 307
Titles (5) - Serie A 1; Italian Cup 2; Italian Supercup 2
The Boy and the Heron
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Rating: 5/5
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AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Director: Jon Watts
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Rating:*****
Name: Peter Dicce
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Company: Eco Way
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Low turnout
Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.
Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.
"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
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Industry: AI
Number of employees: 41
Funding: About $1.7 million
Investors: Self, family and friends
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Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
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Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
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Company name: Klipit
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Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant
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Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
Funding: $4 million
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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World record transfers
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9. Angel di Maria - to Manchester United in 2014/15 - €75m
10. James Rodriguez - to Real Madrid in 2014/15 - €75m
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
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