Sports
CWC: Bad Blood As Inter Edge River Plate To Advance
Inter Milan early yesterday went through to the last 16 of the Club World Cup with victory over Argentine side River Plate, who finished their final Group E game with nine players and are out of the tournament.
The bad-tempered match at Lumen Field in Seattle ended with River Plate’s Marcos Acuna having to be restrained by team-mates and staff, including his captain Franco Armani and Inter manager Cristian Chivu, as he chased opposition winger Denzel Dumfries who was jogging off the pitch.
Fans threw objects at players as Dumfries was escorted down the tunnel.
That was preceded by a melee between players from the two sides, sparked by a tackle by Acuna on Dumfries, with River Plate’s Gonzalo Montiel dismissed in the aftermath after picking up a second yellow card.
The Argentine side had already seen Lucas Martinez Quarta sent off after 66 minutes for denying midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan a goalscoring opportunity.
Shortly afterwards, 19-year-old Francesco Esposito lashed in his first goal for the club to give Inter the lead.
Alessandro Bastoni added a second with a left-foot shot five minutes into added time.
“We have the job done,” said Inter’s Romanian boss Cristian Chivu. “We qualify for the further stage of this competition. We are pleased with that.
“The game was very tough for us in the first half, River had a lot of aggression, a lot of intensity. In the second half, we controlled the game a little bit better and after the red card it was much easier for us.”
Inter, who were beaten by Paris St-Germain in the Champions League final, will play Brazilian club Fluminense in the last 16 on Monday.
Monterrey beat Urawa Red Diamonds 4-0 to progress to the knockout stage by finishing second in Group E on five points, one point ahead of River Plate.
The Mexican side will face German club Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, 2 July in the knockout stage.
Meanwhile, Striker Liam Delap scored his first Chelsea goal as the Blues qualified for the knockout stages of the Club World Cup with a win over ES Tunis.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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