Arsenal’s Sanchez hits out at critics

RIO DE JANEIRO: Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez has hit back at critics that have taken aim at him and Chile’s national team after their disastrous double header of South American zone World Cup football qualifiers.

Chile lost to Paraguay 0-3 in Santiago last Thursday before suffering a 0-1 defeat to Bolivia in La Paz on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The results left the reigning Copa America champions sixth in the CONMEBOL group standings and Juan Antonio Pizzi’s side need to win their last two qualifiers against Ecuador and Brazil next month to have any hope of going to Russia next year. “There comes a time when you get tired,” said Sanchez, who has been singled for particularly harsh criticism by Chile’s media, in a social media post.

“You get tired of those who criticise you, rightly or wrongly. You get tired of those who want to see you lose. You get tired of telling yourself, ‘I’m going to pick myself back up again’ after another defeat.

“You get tired of telling everybody that everything will be ok. The worst thing is that nobody realizes how this makes you feel. I wear the No. 7 shirt for Chile and it’s an enormous responsibility. It makes me sad that journalists and people who don’t understand criticize me,” the Arsenal forward added.

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Canadian Grandmaster Anton Kovalyov and now faces ouster threat from the World Chess Cup in Tbilisi.

Having struggled in the second game of the first round that he eventually managed to draw, Anand’s dip in form continued against Kovalyov who kept his nerves in a thrilling game after a speculative piece sacrifice by the Indian ace. For the records, it was a Sicilian Najdorf wherein Anand continued with a typical variation he has been using off-late.

Kovalyov got a slightly worse position in the middle game but stayed put with some fine defensive manoeuvres.

After the trade of queens, the Canadian Grandmaster was surprised by a knight sacrifice by Anand but again held on to his guard despite his king taking a walk around the centre.

As it turned out, Anand’s sacrifice was not enough to get any advantage and Kovalyov’s extra piece had the final say. Down a point in the two-games minimatch, Anand will now have to win with black pieces in the return game. If Anand wins, tiebreak games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.