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APRIL 23, 2015
Iran Wrestlers to Attend
Dan Kolov, Nikola Petrov
Intl. Tournament
TEHRAN (MNA) – Iranian wrestlers will leave
Iran for Bulgaria to attend Dan Kolov and Nikola
Petrov International Tournament.
Selected Iranian Freestyle and Greco-Roman
wrestlers will leave Tehran for Sofia early Thursday to attend Dan Kolov and Nikola Petrov International Tournament which will take place from
April 24 to 26 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Following are the names of wrestlers who will
Iran wrestling federation logo
attend the event:
Freestyle wrestling
Reza Athari in the 57kg
Meisam Heidari in the 65kg
Ali-Asghar Jabali in the 65kg
Yadollah Mohebbi in the 125kg
Mentor and Head of Team: Reza Layegh
Coach: Saeed Ebrahimi
Greco-Roman wrestling
Hamid Sourian in the 59kg
Omid Nowrouzi in the 66kg
Afshin Biabangard in the 71kg
Habibollah Akhlaghi in the 85kg
Seyyed Mostafa Salehizadeh in the 98kg
Mentor and Head of Team: Ahad Pazach
Coach: Majid Jahandideh and Behrouz Jamshidi
Referee: Jafar Arsevaziri
FIFA Face Further Qatar Revote Calls
ZURICH (FNA) - FIFA’s decision
to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar is set to be cast under a further
spotlight, with leading lawmakers
likely to ask for the bidding process
to be rerun.
Qatar was announced to have presented the winning bid in December
2010, but reports of human rights
abuses and migrant worker deaths
have steeped pressure on FIFA to
reallocate the finals tournament,
Goal reported.
Furthermore, the decision to move
the competition from its traditional
June-July time slot to November
and December to combat the extreme summer weather in the country has drawn immense criticism.
And the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has
now announced that it will discuss
the possibility of petitioning FIFA
to order a revote at its meeting on
Thursday.
The decision comes after the
Council of Europe received a report
uncovering apparent illegal payments related to Qatar’s successful
bid.
Part of the report’s findings come
from a Sunday Times inquiries
which unearthed around €4 mil-
lion of cash payments from former
Qatari FA and AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam in the favour
of football administrators across the
globe.
While the increased opposition to
Qatar’s status as host will add to the
pressure placed on FIFA of late, the
Council of Europe has no official
jurisdiction over world football’s
governing body.
Bayern Munich and
Barcelona Cruise Into Semifinals
BARCELONA (Hurriyet Daily
News) - Doubles from Robert Le-
wandowski and Neymar inspired
Bayern Munich and Barcelona
respectively into the Champions
League semifinals on April 21.
Lewandowski’s brace came in
a crazy first half where Bayern
rattled five goals past a demoralized Porto side, which had come
into the game leading 3-1 after
the first leg and with real hopes of
reaching its first semifinal since it
won the trophy in 2004.
The game ended 6-1 and a 7-4
aggregate victory for Bayern and
extended coach Pep Guardiola’s
remarkable record in the competition where in six campaigns he
has never failed to reach the last
four.
While Bayern president KarlHeinz Rummenigge said “We
have seen something miraculous,” Guardiola poured praise
over his players.
“At this moment, it’s easy to
love my players,” beamed Guardiola.
Not even splitting his trousers
while shouting instructions from the
sidelines could take away the joy the
44-year-old Spaniard felt.
Neymar
“Ah, they broke. It’s not so bad,
I’ll just put on a new pair for the
next game,” said Guardiola.
For his opposite number, Julen
Lopetegui, it was a devastating
evening.
“The first half here in Munich
cost us everything, we were punished and now we have to pick
ourselves up again,” said Lopetegui.
Neymar also scored his double
in the first half for Guardiola’s
former side Barcelona as it eased
to a 2-0 win on the night and a 5-1
aggregate win over French champion Paris Saint Germain.
“I am very happy with the season I am having and we need to
continue like this to achieve our
objectives. We need to keep going
and get to the final,” said Neymar,
who took his tally to 30 goals for
the season.
“In my first goal Iniesta did
everything. All I had to do was
dribble past the goalkeeper and
score.”
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique
was delighted with the result in
what was his 50th match in charge
and still on course for a treble this
season, all the more extraordinary
that rumors earlier in the season
suggested his job was at risk after
apparently falling out with Lionel
Messi.
“I hope the best is yet to come,”
said the 44-year-old former Spain
international, who played for both
Real Madrid and Barcelona.
“We are where we wanted to be
but we need to go forward from
here.
“We are determined to be among
the best two clubs in Europe.”
While Barcelona, which has
won 23 and drawn one of its last
25 games, reached the club’s seventh semifinal in eight seasons,
for PSG it was the third successive exit at this stage.
PSG coach Laurent Blanc had
said prior to the game that they
weren’t coming on a “school trip”
but having been made to look like
children playing against adults he
felt deflated.
“We knew Barcelona were better than us. When I say there are
things lacking, I mean Barça are
a stronger team than us,” said
Blanc.
“To compete with a team like
Barcelona, we need all of our
strengths and we need them at
120 percent. It wasn’t the case in
those two games.
“Realizing a treble (Ligue
1+French
Cup+League
Cup
which they have already won) is
still a goal for the players and the
staff.
“It feels a bit ouf of place to talk
about this tonight, however. We are
disappointed. It hurts to be out of
the competition but we need to rest
for the game against Lille (on Saturday) because, as you know, the
calendar won’t allow much time to
rest.”
Iran Wrestling Federation
Signs MoU With US
Wrestling Council
President of Iran’s Wrestling Federation Rasoul Khadem
TEHRAN (IRNA) – Iran Wres- coaching course and camps.
tling Federation on Tuesday signed
Lopez invited Iran’s wrestling team
Memorandum of Understanding to attend American Continent wrestling
(MoU) on cooperation with the US championship competition in Chile.
Wrestling Council.
Khadem also met with President
President of Iran’s Wrestling of the US Wrestling Federation Jim
Federation Rasoul Khadem held Ravannack.
several meetings with head of the
Presence of the US Junior wresUS Wrestling Council Francisco tling team in a joint camp and in
Eduardo Lee Lopez, which lead International Yadegar (Souvenir)
to signing a MoU on cooperation Imam Cup and cooperation in the
in different fields such as holding field of Alysh Wrestling.
Uzbek’s Nasaf Defeats
Tractorsazi Tabriz
TABRIZ(AFC) - Artur Gevorkyan’s brace gave Nasaf a hard-fought
2-1 victory against Tractorsazi Tabriz
in Group D of the AFC Champions
League on Tuesday and kept the Uzbek club’s hopes of qualifying for the
Round of 16 alive while in turn eliminating the Iranians.
Both teams went into the game at
the Yadegar Emam Stadium knowing that defeat could spell elimination for them, and it was the hosts
who went in front seven minutes after the interval through a wonderful
curling free-kick from midfielder
Mehdi Kiani.
But Nasaf came back strongly and
levelled things up on the hour mark
through Gevorkyan after an error
by Tractorsazi keeper Hamed Lak,
before the Turkmen striker’s corner
in the 71st minute evaded everyone
before finding the back of the net.
The Uzbeks will now go into their
final group game at home to Saudi
Arabia’s Al Ahli next month knowing that a win will guarantee their
passage to the last 16 for the first
time, while Tractorsazi will travel
to the United Arab Emirates to face
the group’s other Al Ahli after being
eliminated at the group stage for the
third successive year.
The Iranian side started strongly
and were just inches away from
taking the lead in the eighth minute
when forward Mehrdad Bayrami
slid in at the back post to connect
with midfielder Mohammad Pourrahmatollah’s corner but was unfortunate to see his effort rebound back
off the post.
Tractorsazi were then twice more
denied by the woodwork in the
opening period, first when midfielder Saman Narimanjahan’s effort
from outside the box deflected off
defender Maksud Karimov before
clipping the bar on the way over,
and then when Habib Gordani’s
corner from the left was powerfully
headed onto the post by defender
Hani Hashemi.
The home side’s pressure continued after the interval and they took
the lead in the 52nd minute through
a superb curling free-kick from Kiani from 25 yards out that left Nasaf
keeper Eldorbek Suyunov rooted to
the spot.
But going a goal down seemed to
spur the visitors on and they then
equalised in the 59th minute when
last season’s top scorer in the Uzbek
league Gervorkyan headed in from
close range after goalkeeper Lak
fumbled Kiani’s long-range effort
straight into his path.
And Nasaf then went in front with
20 minutes left on the clock when
Gervorkyan scored directly from a
corner kick from the left.
Tractorsazi desperately sought to
level things up but it was the visitors
who should have wrapped things
up in the last minute when forward
Farrukh Sayfiev latched onto a long
ball but saw his effort well saved by
goalkeeper Lak.
And then in the dying seconds the
hosts almost grabbed an equaliser
when substitute Andranik Teymourian dinked the ball in from the
right to Brazilian substitute Edinho,
whose header was superbly saved
by Suyunov.
Butler Scores 31,
Bulls Beat Bucks
91-82 to Go Up 2-0
CHICAGO (Chaina Daily) - Jimmy
Butler set a playoff career-high for the
second straight game with 31 points
as Chicago beat Milwaukee 91-82 on
Monday to take a 2-0 lead in their firstround series.
Milwaukee Bucks center John Henson (31) fouls Chicago Bulls guard
Jimmy Butler (21) during the second half in game two of the first round
of the 2015 NBA Playoffs at the United Center, Chicago,
After scoring 25 points in Game
1, Butler was at his best down the
stretch, scoring 14 points in the
fourth quarter.
Chicago’s Derrick Rose scored
all of his 15 points in the second
half after dominating in the series
opener.
Pau Gasol added 11 points and
16 rebounds and Mike Dunleavy
Jr. scored 12 points for the thirdseeded Bulls.
Khris Middleton led the sixthseeded Bucks with 22 points,
and Michael Carter-Williams
scored 12.
Uzbek’s side trashed Tractorsazi FC 2-1 in Tabriz Stadium on Tuesday.