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Salah starts for Egypt against Russia

Line-up

St. Petersburg (Russia), June 19, 2018 (Reuters/NAN) Egypt’s talismanic striker Mohamed Salah was named in their starting line-up for their second World Cup Group A match against Russia in St Petersburg on Tuesday.

Salah missed Egypt’s 1-0 defeat by Uruguay in their first match as he was still recovering from a shoulder injury he sustained in the Champions League final last month.

He is now expected to replace Amr Warda in the only change made by coach Hector Cuper for the match against hosts Russia. (Reuters/NAN)

KIA/ERO/MZA
Emmanuel Okara/Maharazu Ahmed

Sport

What we learnt from 2018 World Cup opening match – experts

Russia 2018

Abuja, June 14, 2018 (NAN) Host nation Russia crushed pitiful Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the opening match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow on Thursday to kick-off what experts hope would be a tournament of goals.

According to football date site, OptaJoe, Russia’s 5-0 victory recorded against Saudi Arabia became the second biggest victory by a host nation in their opening match in World Cup history.

The scoreline is only bettered by Italy’s 7-1 defeat of U.S. at the 1934 World Cup in Italy.

It was also the first time Russia have scored more than three goals in a World Cup game since beating Cameroon 6-1 at USA’94.

Thursday’s opening match therefore came  as a pleasant surprise to football experts, considering the caginess and scarcity of goals which World Cup opening matches were characterised by in recent times.

Some experts, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shortly after the match on Thursday, believe that Russia 2018 would record plenty of goals, thanks to the Adidas Telstar 18 World Cup official ball.

One of them, Korgba Emmanuel, a football administrator based in Makurdi, Benue State, noted that the official World Cup ball would be goalkeepers’ nightmare in Russia.

“The Telstar 18 will be goalkeepers’ nightmare at this year’s World Cup.

“We were told that it was designed with goal scoring in mind and you know spectators want to see goals, plenty of goals, at major tournaments such as the World Cup,” he said.

A product of three years of research, the Telstar 18 uses jigsaw-like panels and slots together perfectly so that when players hit the “sweet spot”, they do so without dip or swerve.

NAN reports that some goalkeepers, including Spain’s David de Gea, compatriot Pepe Reina and Ter Stegen of Germany, had labelled the ball “strange” and “unpredictable”.

However, Super Eagles former defender, Waidi Akanni, told NAN that the rather shocking outcome of the opening match would not necessarily mean a floodgate of goals at football’s biggest fiesta.

“I was surprised by the scoreline myself. However, it doesn’t mean that Russia 2018 will be a harvest of goals.

“Russia and Saudi Arabia are the least-ranked teams in the tournament and, of course, Saudi Arabia are known to concede heavily at the World Cup.

“As the host nation, Russia just took advantage of their woeful opponents and they also were clinical in front of goal.

“I am not sure we will see a lot of goals in more high-profile matches,” Akanni, a former head of the Lagos State Football Association, said. (NAN)

KIA/YAZ

Foreign

Putin says Washington nervous about Russia joining NATO

Putin says Washington nervous about Russia joining NATO

NAN-F-12

NATO

Moscow, June 13, 2017 (Xinhua/NAN) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday raised the issue of the country’s possible accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), saying Washington is clearly nervous about the idea.

In a released clip of an interview with American film director Oliver Stone, Putin recalled that he inquired about Russia joining the alliance when then U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Moscow in 2000.

“During the meeting I said: let’s consider an option that Russia might join NATO and Clinton said why not, but the U.S. delegation got very nervous.

“Why did our partner get nervous, because if Russia joins NATO, it will always have a voice.

“We would not allow us to be manipulated, but our U.S. friends do not even allow a thought about this,” Putin said.

Such disclosures were from a series of interviews with Putin since 2015 to 2017.

The full content is scheduled to be shown in the U.S. beginning from June 26.

Putin also said in the interview that the U.S. is “using terrorists” to wobble the domestic political situation in Russia, and what happened in Chechnya was an example of U.S. meddling.

“The Cold War is in the past.

“We have transparent relations with the whole world, and of course we were counting on some support, but instead we saw that the U.S. special services are supporting the terrorists.

“Unlike some other countries, Russia has no habit of interfering in the internal political processes of other countries,’’ Putin said. (Xinhua/NAN)

OYE/MST

Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Muhammad Suleiman Tola