1. Anupama Clinches World Open Under-16 Snooker Championship Title.
Anupama Ramachandran of India and Dylan Emery of Wales have emerged winners in the World Open Under-16 Snooker Championship in the girls and boys category, respectively, in St. Petersburg Russia.
Federation of Billiards Sports of Russia hosted this first ever World Open championships for Under-16 boys and girls, which was a success with total participation of 73 cueists from across the world.
Wales player Dylan Emery, after obtaining 8th seed for knockout stage played splendid game of snooker. He ousted Grigorii Pakhomov of Russia (3-0); Digvijay Kadian of India (3-2); Kreishh Gurbaxani of India (4-0); Andrei Karasov of Russia (4-2) to enter in the final where he knocked out 14th seed Mikhail Terekhov of Russia 4-1 to claim the title.
In girls category, 2nd seed Anupama Ramachandran of India knocked out her compatriot and top seed Keerthana Pandian 3-1 to become World Open Under-16 champion.
Before that, she defeated Albina Leschuk of Belarus (3-0) in the semis and Alexsandra Riabinina of Russia in the quarterfinals with an identical 3-0 scoreline.
2. Iceland becomes smallest nation ever to enter FIFA World Cup.
Paraguay had an estimated population of around 850,000 when it was invited to the 1930 World Cup. In 2005, Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest country to ever qualify for the tournament with a population of just over 1.2 million. Iceland has shattered their records.
Iceland defeated Kosovo 2-0 on Monday to top its UEFA qualifying group, and in the process become the smallest country to ever make the World Cup. The last estimate of Iceland’s population is 334,252, according to the United Nations.
It’s possible that no other country takes training soccer players as seriously as Iceland. The country has over 20,000 registered soccer players, or 5 percent of all Icelandic people. One in 500 Icelanders has a UEFA B license or higher, meaning some players start training under professional coaches as 5-year-olds. I highly recommend Barney Ronay’s piece in The Guardian on Iceland’s rise to prominence in global soccer.
Soccer fans around the world got the chance to fall in love with Iceland during Euro 2016, the first major tournament that Iceland ever qualified for. It drew Portugal and Hungary, then beat Austria in the group stage, securing a place in the knockout stages. In the Round of 16, Iceland pulled off an amazing comeback upset win over England.
Despite its small population, Iceland had incredible fan support at the Euros and got to introduce the world to the viking clap, which the players did with tens of thousands of supporters upon their return to Reykjavík.
Despite its successes, Iceland only ascended to Pot 2 in the draw for UEFA World Cup qualifying, and was placed into a difficult group with Croatia, Ukraine, and Turkey. But Iceland put together a perfect home record in qualifying and two wins on the road, including a dramatic 3-0 victory in Turkey last Friday. Croatia failed to beat Finland at home on the same day, gifting first place in the group to Iceland. The Icelanders went into Monday’s matches knowing that they would make the World Cup if they defeated Kosovo, which they did comfortably.
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The goal that Gylfi Sigurdsson scored to win the match for Iceland was a spectacular one. Watch as he beats the entire Kosovo defense by himself.
Sigurdsson — who signed for Everton for a reported £40 million transfer fee this summer — is Iceland’s biggest star, but he’s not usually a one-man show. Iceland owes its success to surprising depth — there are dozens of Icelandic players who started with small clubs in Scandinavia before moving on to clubs in bigger European leagues. Check out the wide variety of European clubs that Icelandic internationals play for.
Iceland is good enough at developing talent that it is no longer an underdog story, despite its small population. Its results have consistently improved over the last decade. Everyone knows who Iceland is now, and no one will underestimate it in Russia.
3. Indian football team qualifies for 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
Indian football team beat Macau 4-1 in their AFC?Asian Cup qualifying match at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in?Bengaluru on?Wednesday to qualify for the 2019 edition of the continental tournament in the UAE.
The Sunil Chhetri-led side pumped in four goals against Macau to seal their qualification spot with two matches still to go in the campaign. Rowllin Borges, Chhetri and Jeje Lalpekhlua scored for the Indians while Macau struck though Nicholas Tarrao.
This is the third time India have qualified for the continental showpiece tournament in the past 37 years. The last time India played in the tournament was in 2011 while their only appearance before that was way back in 1984.
Rowllin Borges opened the scoring for India with a fine right-footed volley in the 28th minute. Jeje Lalpekhlua sent a sensational pass to midfielder Borges, struck hard for the opening goal.
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However, the hosts conceded in the 37th minute when Nicholas Tarrao scored. The goal was the result of a defensive lapse from the Indians. Tarrao was left unmarked in the area as a cross was floated in from the right flank. Two defenders, who were beside him reacted late and Tarrao’s attempt was deflected by one of them into the goal.
Skipper Sunil Chhetri restored the lead for India with a strike in the 60th minute, while Macau conceded an own goal in the 70th minute.
The fourth goal was scored by Jeje Lalpekhlua after being assisted by Chhetri.
India have ensured qualification with two more matches left. They are atop Group A with 12 points from four matches and play Myanmar on November 24 and Kyrgyzstan on March 27 next year.
In the 2011 edition that was held in Doha, India had a disappointing campaign, losing all their group matches -- to Australia, South Korea and Bahrain.
4. India bows out from FIFA U-17 World Cup after 0-4 defeat against Ghana.
Rank outsiders India ended their maiden FIFA U-17 World Cup campaign in a cry of pain and agony as they were handed a 0-4 thrashing by two-time champions Ghana in their final group match on Thursday.
The Indians played their hearts out in the final Group A game but that was not enough as formidable Ghana outplayed them in all departments.
The scoreline, though, would not tell the exact story.
Captain Eric Ayiah scored twice — in the 43rd and 52nd minutes — while second-half substitutes Richard Danso (86) and Emmanuel Toku (87) struck once each to break the hearts of the 52,614 home supporters at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The fans had turned up in large numbers, hoping that their players would come up with another inspiring show, like they had done against Colombia in the previous match.
With Colombia beating the USA 3-1 in the other Group A game in Mumbai, Ghana topped the group. Colombia also qualified in the round of 16 as they finished second. The USA had to be content with the third place.
All the three Ghana, Colombia and USA ended with three points each. But Ghana had the best goal difference of plus four while Colombia and USA had plus two each. As the number of goals scored between USA and Colombia were also the same 5 the ranking was decided on head to head record.
To be fair to the Indians, they had not done too badly in the tournament against the best in the world. Built into a team in around two years through scouting from across the country and being trained together by head coach Luis Norton de Matos for just seven months, they were not expected to even perform like this.
They were also unlucky not to have added at least a goal each in the match against USA (which they lost 0-3) and against Colombia (which they narrowly lost 1-2).
Vastly superior in physique, speed and skill, the Ghanaians totally dominated the match as far as both possession and shots were concerned. Ghana also needed a win to be sure of a top-two finish in the group and hence an automatic knock-out berth, prompting them to keep the Indian citadel under seize throughout the match.
It was desperate defending for the most part of the match with nine outfield players behind the ball in their own half with only Aniket Jadhav lurking upfront. Even Aniket had to run deep down and help his team-mates in the wake of the wave of Ghana offensive.
The crowd cheered lustily to spur the home players but it was too much for the Indians to keep on defending all the time against the rampaging Ghana attackers and they wilted under the enormous pressure.
As de Matos had picked his two key players for Ghana, Sadiq Ibrahim and Bismark Owusu — the left and right wingers respectively — tormented the Indians time and again with their speed and deft manoeuvres.
In the first 45 minutes, all that India could manage was a 16th-minute free-kick at the edge of the box, which Sanjeev Stalin took, only for the Ghanaian goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim to clear without a fuss.
To be fair to India, Ghana also did not have too many strikes on target. Ghana captain Eric Ayiah had a fierce right-footer in the 35th minute tipped over by goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh. A short while later, Ibrahim Sulley had a shot at the Indian goal, which was again saved by Dheeraj.
It was a matter of time the Ghana goal came and it all started from the right flank. Sadiq Ibrahim cut through the right, sent a low cross, which Dheeraj tried to collect with a dive but spilled over and Ayiah was there to fire home with a bullet right-footed shot.
The second half was not much different as India defended grimly but Ghana ended the hosts` flickering hopes of getting any point from the tournament with Ayiah finding the target once again, in the 52nd minute, for his second goal of the night.
De Matos pulled out captain Amarjit Singh and replaced him with striker Rahim Ali to try and look for at least a goal.
India had two shots at the opposition goal late in the match through Rahim Ali and Lalengmawia, another second-half substitute, but they did not trouble the Ghana keeper much.
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Then the home side conceded two more goals in the space of one minute with Danso and Toku completing the rout.
Earlier, De Matos brought back Jitendra Singh in place of Namit Deshpande to pair with Anwar Ali at the centre of the defence after benching him against Colombia.
Suresh Singh Wangjam also returned to the midfield after missing out on the previous match while Aniket Jadhav and Naorem Nongdamba were named in the starting line-up after coming on as substitutes against Colombia.