Dutch suffer World Cup shock
PARIS. — The Netherlands’ hopes of reaching the World Cup soccer finals suffered a major setback on Saturday when the three-time runners-up slumped to a shock 2-0 defeat to Bulgaria.
The loss left the Dutch six points behind Group A leaders France, who beat Luxembourg 3-1, and down in fourth spot, three back from Sweden and two off Bulgaria with just the group winners guaranteed a place in the 2018 finals in Russia.
“What can I tell you? We came here with good intentions, but it has become a nightmare,” Dutch skipper Arjen Robben said.
Elsewhere, Cristiano Ronaldo took his international tally to 70 goals as European champions Portugal beat Hungary 3-0 to stay in second spot behind Switzerland in Group B.
Belgium needed a goal two minutes from time by Romelu Lukaku to salvage a 1-1 draw against nine-man Greece as they stayed two points clear in Group H, although Roberto Martinez’s team lost THE HAGUE. — Former Dutch soccer star Patrick Kluivert, currently director of football at French club Paris Saint-German, owed up to one million euros to a criminal gang after racking up debts betting on football, a Dutch newspaper said on Saturday.
De Volkskrant said the gang applied threats to pressure Kluivert in order to recoup the debt which he had repaid in part.
The newspaper said investigators had no proof the former player was involved in illegal match-fixing and his lawyer was quoted as saying his client was “only a victim in this affair.”
Prosecutors arrested five suspects in February in connection with the affair and during their probe uncovered documents linking the gang to Kluivert, who was called in for questioning, but “purely as a witness,” his lawyer Gerard Sprong insisted. — AFP. their 100 percent record in the process.
In Sofia, Bulgaria stunned the Dutch with two goals in the first 20 minutes, both coming from Spas Delev.
Delev pounced on a mistake by 17-year-old Matthijs De Ligt, Holland’s youngest debutant since 1931, who misjudged a pass and allowed the striker to slot the ball past Jeroen Zoet.
Delev then made it 2-0 when he unleashed a stinging right-foot drive past Zoet.
The Dutch dominated large parts of the rest of the game but were thwarted by a solid Bulgarian defence while goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov pulled off a super save in the second period to deny Davy Klaassen.
Group A table-toppers France, the 1998 champions and last year’s Euro 2016 runners-up, saw Olivier Giroud open the scoring in Luxembourg just before the half-hour mark.
Luxembourg levelled after 34 minutes thanks to Aurelien Joachim’s penalty, his country’s first goal against France in 39 years. DHARAMSALA. — Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon emerged as the unlikely hero, taking four key Indian wickets on an engrossing second day of the decisive fourth and final Test cricket yesterday.
The 29-year-old made the most of a lively track at Dharamsala which is hosting its first ever Test to return a rich haul of 4-67.
Fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood (1-40) and Pat Cummins (1-59) also bowled their hearts out during frugal spells to restrict the topranked hosts to 248-6 at stumps.
India still trail by 52 runs with four wickets in hand after Australia made 300 in their first knock, largely thanks to a fine 111-run knock by captain Steve Smith.
At stumps, Wriddhiman Saha was batting on 10 with Ravindra Jadeja on 16. — AFP.
But the minnows’ joy was short-lived as Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann restored France’s lead, also from the spot, just four minutes later.
Arsenal star Giroud scored his second of the evening after 77 minutes after being set up by Benjamin Mendy.
“With us, Olivier often scores goals even if he is having a difficult time with his club. We gave him the crosses and he was very efficient,” said France coach Didier Deschamps.
In Lisbon, Portugal saw off Hungary, a team they shared six goals with at Euro 2016.
The win kept Portugal in second place in Group B, three points behind Switzerland, who earlier preserved their 100 percent record with a fifth win in five games, a 1-0 home victory against Latvia.
Porto striker Andre Silva opened the scoring after 30 minutes, converting a pass from Raphael Guerreiro for his fifth goal in six games for Portugal.
Six minutes later, skipper Ronaldo doubled the lead with a superb leftfooted LONDON. — Nigeria’s international friendly soccer match with Burkina Faso today in London has been called off after several Burkina Faso players failed to gain visas to enter the UK. According to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) “seven players in the Burkinabe contingent failed to secure entry visas into the United Kingdom”.
The match was scheduled as part of Nigeria’s build-up for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against South Africa in June and the World Cup qualifier against Cameroon later in the year.
“The match in question is called off due to no fault of either the organisers or the Nigeria Football Federation. We will announce further plans for the Super Eagles’ preparation for these two important qualifying campaigns in due course,” top NFF official Chris Green said. — BBC Sport. finish and the Real Madrid superstar made it 3-0 on 65 minutes with a clever free-kick for his 70th international goal.
“We want to go the World Cup so we have to win our next five matches, they are all finals,” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos. Belgium stayed top of Group H but only after struggling to a 1-1 draw with Greece.
Missing the injured Eden Hazard, Belgium lacked a creative spark in Brussels and they were made to pay when Greece grabbed the lead just 20 seconds into the second period when Benfica striker Kostas Mitroglou latched on to a long ball to fire home his third goal of the qualifying campaign.
Greece were reduced to 10 men after 65 minutes when Panagiotis Tachtsidis was red carded for a crude lunge on defender Toby Alderweireld.
Everton striker Lukaku drove home from close range in the 89th minute to grab a share of the spoils before Georgios Tzavelas was sent-off in injury time. — AFP. MIAMI. — Fifth-seed Agnieszka Radwanska had her bid to repeat her 2012 success at the Miami Open tennis tournament ended by Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at Crandon Park. But second-seed Karolina Pliskova fought past Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-3 to move into the last 16 and Slovak Dominika Cibulkova also progressed with a comfortable two sets win over Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens.
Lucic-Baroni is enjoying an unexpected upturn in her fortunes at the age of 35 and in January reached the semi-final of the Australian Open - 18 years after her previous appearance in the last four of a slam, in 1999 at Wimbledon. The Croat was a teenage prodigy who appeared to have disappeared from the top tier of the sport but has fought her way back impressively in recent years and is now ranked 29th in the world. — AFP.