Al Ahli 2 Sharjah 1
Al Ahli Basheer Saeed 56', Grafite 87'
Sharjah Ze Carlos 51'
Red cards Salmeen Khamis (Al Ahli); Shahin Abdulrahman (Sharjah)
Man of the match Basheer Saeed (Al Ahli)
DUBAI // Class is all about grace and grit under pressure, and Al Ahli showed plenty of it on Thursday night.
Reduced to 10 men in the 23rd minute after Salmeen Khamis was booked for a second time, the Arabian Gulf League leaders defended stoutly through the first half and when Ze Carlos put Sharjah ahead in the 51st minute, Basheer Saeed rallied the team with the equaliser five minutes later.
Grafite then struck the winner for the inspired hosts three minutes from time, seconds after Sharjah were also reduced to 10 men when Shahin Abdulrahman received his second yellow card of the night for a foul on the Brazilian.
Catalin Raducan, the Ahli assistant manager, saluted the efforts of his men, who have played four matches in the past 11 days.
“I think to play four games in 11 days is very difficult, but to play with 10 men after 23 minutes against a team like Sharjah is even worse,” he said. “So I have to congratulate my players. They showed a lot of character and played with their heart, fighting till the end.
“I don’t know how many teams can play like this after going down 1-0 with 10 men. This shows the true character and spirit of our team.
“They spent a lot of energy tonight, but we have won a very important match and very important three points.”
The result was even more pleasing for Ahli’s fans because it was Sharjah who broke their run of seven consecutive wins at the start of the season.
A repeat looked possible as an injudicious, but innocuous, Salmeen Khamis foul on Carlos in the 23rd minute left the hosts a man short.
Carlos made the most of Khamis’s slight tug and extended arm, rolling on the ground in seeming agony, and the Ahli defender, who had been booked in the third minute, was given his marching orders by the referee Ammar Al Junaibi.
Six minutes into the second half, Salem Khamis found Carlos with a through ball from the centre and the Brazilian sashayed his way into the box before scoring through the legs of the Ahli keeper.
Luis Jimenez almost levelled the scores for the hosts in the 56th minute with a stinging right footer from the top of the box, but the Sharjah keeper Mohammed Yousuf made a valiant diving save. Seconds later he could do little as Basheer Saeed headed in Ciel’s cross to make it 1-1.
The equaliser turned the tide for Ahli and it culminated with Grafite’s winner in the 87th minute. The Brazilian pounced on a rebound and placed it home after the Yousuf had punched back Majed Hassan’s initial effort.
“We played a lot better when we were 11 against 11,” said Paulo Bonamigo, the Sharjah coach. “We could put pressure on Ahli after they lost a player and failed to create any chances. We did get a goal in the second half, but Ahli created more chances and scored.
“They were clearly more efficient than our team, but now we just have to look forward to the next game. Our target is to keep our team in the top four and we will continue working to achieve this.”
Emirates 1 Al Ain 2
Asamoah Gyan made it 21 league goals with a double to defeat Emirates.
The Ghanaian opened the scoring, but Emirates hit back as Masoud Hassan’s shot trickled through the legs of Dawoud Sulaiman.
Gyan scored the winner from the penalty spot after being upended by goalkeeper Ali Saeed Saqr.
Baniyas 2 Al Shaab 1
Al Shaab were forced to pay the price for Essa Mohammed’s red card with 30 minutes remaining as Baniyas secured victory on Thursday night.
Carlos Munoz gave the home side the lead before Mohammed was sent off.
Shaab equalised through Jesus Meza but Nawaf Musabh grabbed the winner.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 2 (Vecino 65', Barella 83')
Verona 1 (Verre 19' pen)
Series information
Pakistan v Dubai
First Test, Dubai International Stadium
Sun Oct 6 to Thu Oct 11
Second Test, Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tue Oct 16 to Sat Oct 20
Play starts at 10am each day
Teams
Pakistan
1 Mohammed Hafeez, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed, 8 Bilal Asif, 9 Yasir Shah, 10, Mohammed Abbas, 11 Wahab Riaz or Mir Hamza
Australia
1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Mitchell Marsh, 5 Travis Head, 6 Marnus Labuschagne, 7 Tim Paine, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jon Holland
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Company Profile
Company name: Yeepeey
Started: Soft launch in November, 2020
Founders: Sagar Chandiramani, Jatin Sharma and Monish Chandiramani
Based: Dubai
Industry: E-grocery
Initial investment: $150,000
Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year
Tips for entertaining with ease
· Set the table the night before. It’s a small job but it will make you feel more organised once done.
· As the host, your mood sets the tone. If people arrive to find you red-faced and harried, they’re not going to relax until you do. Take a deep breath and try to exude calm energy.
· Guests tend to turn up thirsty. Fill a big jug with iced water and lemon or lime slices and encourage people to help themselves.
· Have some background music on to help create a bit of ambience and fill any initial lulls in conversations.
· The meal certainly doesn’t need to be ready the moment your guests step through the door, but if there’s a nibble or two that can be passed around it will ward off hunger pangs and buy you a bit more time in the kitchen.
· You absolutely don’t have to make every element of the brunch from scratch. Take inspiration from our ideas for ready-made extras and by all means pick up a store-bought dessert.
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