Build-up
Copa America: Lionel Messi equals record as Argentina progress
Lionel Messi earned a record-equalling 147th cap for Argentina as they progressed to the Copa America quarter-finals with victory over Paraguay. Papu Gomez scored the decisive goal early on, meeting a pass from Angel Di Maria before producing a fine finish. Messi, 34, equalled Javier Mascherano’s appearance record for the national team in the hard-fought win in Brasilia. Argentina top Group A ahead of Chile, who drew 1-1 with Uruguay to also advance to the knockout stage. The hastily-rearranged tournament in Brazil, which was moved from Argentina just two weeks before it was scheduled to start because of a surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, is Messi’s latest chance to win silverware with the senior team. The six-time Ballon d’Or winner was typically influential, playing a part in the ...
Thomas Tuchel reacts as ‘unlucky’ Chelsea suffer back-to-back FA Cup final defeats
Chelsea suffered late VAR heartache as they slipped to back-to-back FA Cup final defeats after a 1-0 loss to Leicester City, Youri Tielemans’ second-half strike proving decisive. In front of a reduced, yet undoubtedly noisy, Wembley crowd, it was Chelsea who made the brighter start, Timo Werner showcasing his electric speed to test the Foxes backline early on. Despite controlling the opening exchanges, the first real chance of the match fell to their opponents, Timothy Castagne getting in down the right and teeing up Jamie Vardy inside the area, the veteran striker’s effort well blocked by Reece James. At the other end of the pitch, Thomas Tuchel’s men almost fashioned a chance of their own, Thiago Silva’s dinked cross agonisingly evading the head of Cesar Azpilicueta at the back post, aft...
Presidency: Atiku Abubakar can’t extricate himself from Nigeria’s rot
The Presidency has attacked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for his comment on the Bloomberg report that Nigeria may emerge the country with the highest unemployment rate in the world. The position of the Presidency was stated by the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on a Channels Television programme: Sunday Politics, on Sunday. Adesina said the recent report released by the National Bureau of Statistics that 23.2 million Nigerians are unemployed was not new. He said: “You will recall that in the build-up to the 2015 elections, when the APC (All Progressives Congress) was campaigning, the figure that was used by then candidate Buhari was that a minimum of 30 million Nigerians were unemployed, particularly youths, and that his governme...
Official: NASRDA to launch another satellite in June
IBTimes The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) says it is putting modalities in place to launch a Cubesat ‘Edusat-2’ within the first half of the year. The Acting Director-General of NASRDA, Dr Francis Chizea, said this at the ongoing Science and Technology Expo on Tuesday in Abuja, where the agency showcased its research works and achievements. The science expo is with the theme “Science, Technology and Innovation for Economic Recovery and Sustainability Amidst the COVID-19 Challenges” and is a platform to showcase innovation within agencies of government, private research institutions, the academia, among other participants. Chizea explained that EduSat-2 was a build-up on EduSat-1 which the agency built in collaboration with Federal University of Technology, Akure a...
Jurgen Klopp: I thought VAR was a good idea, but now I’m not so sure
Jurgen Klopp admits he may have changed his mind about the need for VAR in football, after another incident-filled match for his Liverpool side in the Champions League. The Reds’ 1-1 draw with Danish champions FC Midtjylland on Wednesday saw a number of interventions from the video assistant referee. First Midtjylland were awarded a penalty for a foul by Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher on Anders Dreyer. The forward had initially been flagged offside by the assistant referee but replays showed, eventually at least, that he had been onside, though there was a lengthy delay as the referee headed to the pitchside monitor to rule on Kelleher’s subsequent challenge. Andreas Scholz converted from the spot to equalise for the home side after Mohamed Salah had opened the scoring. There was m...
