BOLTON // Dimitar Berbatov's dramatic last-minute header helped Manchester United overtake Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table.
Trailing Rafa Benitez's side by two points before kick-off, the champions looked like they had missed an excellent opportunity to hit the summit against a resilient Bolton.
But the Bulgarian striker stooped to head home Carlos Tevez's perfect cross in the final minute to move Sir Alex Ferguson's team a point clear of their closest rivals. After three successive Premier League defeats, Bolton were hoping for a repeat of last season's success at the Reebok when Gary Megson's side triumphed 1-0.
But the omens were not good for Wanderers, who have lost seven out of their last eight encounters with the champions and had not scored a goal against anyone since defeating Portsmouth on December 20. United, meanwhile, had the opportunity to equal Chelsea's top-flight record of 10 consecutive clean sheets.
With the in-form Reds eager to pile the pressure on Liverpool ahead of their game with Everton on Monday night, the visitors dominated the early exchanges and Berbatov fired over after neat link-up play with Tevez on the edge of the area.
It was Bolton, however, who came closest to breaking the deadlock when Fabrice Muamba's 25-yard piledriver forced a finger-tip save from Edwin Van der Sar on 28 minutes.
Kevin Davies then saw his ambitious volley fly wide as Wanderers' confidence visibly grew.
United continued to struggle to create clear-cut chances but Cristiano Ronaldo finally forced Jussi Jaaskelainen into action with a downward header from Darren Fletcher's cross.
The Wanderers' goalkeeper then made an even better save from Ronaldo three minutes before half time when he dived low to his left to turned aside the Portuguese star's free-kick.
Megson had clearly set his side up to grab a point, with new signing Ariza Makakula cutting an isolated figure up front as the game progressed into the second period.
The Portuguese striker, on loan from Benfica until the end of the season, only joined on Friday but Bolton rushed through his papers to get international clearance so he could make his debut.
Makakula nearly made a telling contribution nine minutes after restart when he set up Matt Taylor, but the midfielder volleyed wildly over when he should have scored.
Davies went even closer when he headed Jloyd Samuel's cross inches over before Jaaskelainen again denied Ronaldo when he kept out one of the winger's trademark thunderous free-kicks.
Ferguson threw on the experienced Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs as United searched for a goal, but, apart from another Ronaldo free-kick which was well saved by Jaaskelainen, they could find no way through until Berbatov's timely late contribution.
sports@thenational.ae
Fixtures
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THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS
Qualifier A, Muscat
(All matches to be streamed live on icc.tv)
Fixtures
Friday, February 18: 10am Oman v Nepal, Canada v Philippines; 2pm Ireland v UAE, Germany v Bahrain
Saturday, February 19: 10am Oman v Canada, Nepal v Philippines; 2pm UAE v Germany, Ireland v Bahrain
Monday, February 21: 10am Ireland v Germany, UAE v Bahrain; 2pm Nepal v Canada, Oman v Philippines
Tuesday, February 22: 2pm Semi-finals
Thursday, February 24: 2pm Final
UAE squad:Ahmed Raza(captain), Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Vriitya Aravind, Rohan Mustafa, Kashif Daud, Zahoor Khan, Alishan Sharafu, Raja Akifullah, Karthik Meiyappan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Zafar Farid, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Rahul Bhatia
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
THREE
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Naga
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