On the eve of his Gulf Cup of Nations opener against the UAE, the Oman coach Paul Le Guen had talked about avenging their 2-0 loss to Bahrain in the most recent tournament, a result that had sent his team home early.
“It is time for revenge,” the Frenchman said.
A goalless draw was probably not on his mind when he said that, but Le Guen might just take it, because the result is probably a lot more difficult to accept for the UAE than his own.
It might have even put a small dent in the UAE’s hopes of defending their title.
With Kuwait and Iraq up next, Mahdi Ali’s men have a big job ahead of them and will need to lift their performance a few notches.
on Friday night, they were not at their best. The UAE were far from fluent and struggled to keep possession. The passing was a bit awry and that allowed the Omanis to dictate play.
Le Guen’s men were a much more organised than the UAE, looked crisp relaying the ball and hogged as much as 60 per cent of possession in the first 45 minutes.
The absence of Emad Al Hosni from the tournament through injury, though, meant that they did not have someone to take advantage of that superior possession.
The toughest test for the UAE goalkeeper came through one of his own defenders – in the fifth minute, when Mohaned Salem almost deflected a free kick into his own goal.
Fortunately, Ali Kasheif was able to leap high to tip the ball over the crossbar.
Oman had another great chance in the 31st minute after a good run down the left by Qasim Said, but Mohammed Al Siyabi blasted the ball over from a couple of metres out.
Ali Al Habsi, the Omani goalkeeper, had a tougher time at the other end but the former Wigan Athletic standout, now on loan at Brighton and Hove Albion, kept frustrating the Emiratis.
First, he dived low to his left to keep a blistering Ismail Al Hammadi volley out in the 18th minute.
In the 34th minute, he was flying to his other side to punch away Ahmed Khalil’s curling free kick.
Frustrated, the Emiratis tried to innovate. Al Hammadi attempted to chip the ball over the keeper, who had charged out of the box, in the 37th minute, but his shot sailed just wide.
Khalil came over to provide a sympathetic hug to his teammate, but he was himself left in disbelief just a minute later when his attempt to curl the ball away from Al Habsi and into the far corner just missed the target.
The Omani keeper’s brilliance continued into the second half as he stretched to palm over an Al Hammadi attempt in the 46th minute and then dived in front to keep out another Khalil free kick in the 67th minute.
The UAE kept trying, but they just could not find a way past Al Habsi and had to eventually settle for a draw, the third in three games of this Gulf Cup.
Kuwait 1 Iraq 0
Kuwait’s Fahad Al Enezi gave the fans in Riyadh something to cheer last night after 180 minutes of largely fruitless football. His strike, a curling effort from 18 yards that just eluded Jalal Hassan Hachim’s grasp, in the second minute of second-half stoppage time gave Kuwait a 1-0 victory over Iraq.
The teams cancelled each other out for large periods of a physical game at the Prince Faisal bin Fahad Stadium in the Saudi Arabian capital, which saw six players booked. Jorvan Vieira’s Kuwait side face the UAE next on Monday before Iraq take on Oman.
It could have been different for Iraq, who thought they had scored in the first half, but goal-line technology showed that a Kuwaiti defender cleared the ball off the line amid appeals he made contact with his hand. But the referee was correct in allowing play to continue before Al Enezi struck – after receiving the ball from a teammate who appeared to be offside – to send Kuwait top of Group B.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
NEW ARRIVALS
Benjamin Mendy (Monaco) - £51.75m (Dh247.94m)
Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur) - £45.9m
Bernardo Silva (Monaco) - £45m
Ederson Moraes (Benfica) - £36m
Danilo (Real Madrid) - £27m
Douglas Luiz (Vasco de Gama) - £10.8m
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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"
Ahmed Raza
UAE cricket captain
Age: 31
Born: Sharjah
Role: Left-arm spinner
One-day internationals: 31 matches, 35 wickets, average 31.4, economy rate 3.95
T20 internationals: 41 matches, 29 wickets, average 30.3, economy rate 6.28
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The biog
Name: James Mullan
Nationality: Irish
Family: Wife, Pom; and daughters Kate, 18, and Ciara, 13, who attend Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS)
Favourite book or author: “That’s a really difficult question. I’m a big fan of Donna Tartt, The Secret History. I’d recommend that, go and have a read of that.”
Dream: “It would be to continue to have fun and to work with really interesting people, which I have been very fortunate to do for a lot of my life. I just enjoy working with very smart, fun people.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from our neighbourhood series:
Normal People
Sally Rooney, Faber & Faber
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EOutsized%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2016%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAzeem%20Zainulbhai%2C%20Niclas%20Thelander%2C%20Anurag%20Bhalla%20and%20Johann%20van%20Niekerk%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EIndia%2C%20South%20Africa%2C%20South-East%20Asia%2C%20Mena%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Recruitment%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20raised%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20staff%20count%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2040%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeed%20and%20angel%20investors%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dubai World Cup factbox
Most wins by a trainer: Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor(9)
Most wins by a jockey: Jerry Bailey(4)
Most wins by an owner: Godolphin(9)
Most wins by a horse: Godolphin’s Thunder Snow(2)
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
The specs: 2018 BMW X2 and X3
Price, as tested: Dh255,150 (X2); Dh383,250 (X3)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged inline four-cylinder (X2); 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six-cylinder (X3)
Power 192hp @ 5,000rpm (X2); 355hp @ 5,500rpm (X3)
Torque: 280Nm @ 1,350rpm (X2); 500Nm @ 1,520rpm (X3)
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic (X2); Eight-speed automatic (X3)
Fuel consumption, combined: 5.7L / 100km (X2); 8.3L / 100km (X3)
The five pillars of Islam
