Argentina beat Australia 2-1 in the 2022 World Cup round of 16 on Saturday. Ace player Lionel Messi marked his 1,000th professional game with his first goal in the knockout stage of a World Cup, leading Argentina into the quarterfinals. Julian Alvarez made the second goal. Argentina will now play the Netherlands in the next round. The third goal of the game came from Australia’s Craig Goodwin, who scored a 77th-minute goal. Messi gave the team the lead towards the end of the first half with a stunning low strike, striking his ninth World Cup goal. He now has 789 goals in a career. The
Argentina trounced Poland 2-0 in their last Group C stage match to qualify for the FIFA World Cup round of 16 at Stadium 974 in Doha on Wednesday. The team has qualified for the round for the fifth straight time. The South American giants will now face Australia in the knockout stage on Saturday. Argentina players Alexis Mac Allister and Julián Álvarez scored in the second half of the game, while Lionel Messi missed a penalty in the first half. Argentina topped the table with six points, while Poland waited for the result of the other Group C game between Saudi Arabia and Mexico to qu
The 2018 FIFA world champions France has become the first team to qualify for the knockout stages in the ongoing World Cup. Since the 1998 edition, European champions have failed to go beyond the group stages of the FIFA World Cup. France, the winner of World Cup 1998, exited the competition in the group stage four years later. The winners of the 2006 World Cup, Italy, were eliminated from the 2010 World Cup in the group stages. The 2010 champions, Spain, had the same fate in 2014, while Germany, who won the FIFA World Cup in 2014, made a shocking exit in Russia four years ago. Defendin
Lionel Messi on Tuesday became the first Argentina player to score in four FIFA World Cup tournaments. The forward accomplished the feat in the FIFA World Cup 2022 match against Saudi Arabia at the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday. The 35-year-old Argentine has also become the fifth player to score in four different World Cups (2006, 2014, 2018 and 2022) after Brazil’s Pele, Germany’s Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose, and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi has now scored seven goals in four different World Cups and has been involved in 14 of Argentina’s last 20 goals in all competitions.
Indian table tennis player Manika Batra has become the first Indian female to win a medal at the ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup at Huamark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. The star paddler Batra beat three-time Asian champion Hina Hayata 4-2 to clinch the bronze medal. With the win, she also became the first Indian to beat two top-10 players in the same competition, after defeating world number 7 Chen Xingtong of China in the pre-quarterfinals on November 17. Manika won the match 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9. It was also the third Chinese opponent she defeated in her career. The 27-ye
Former world no.1 tennis player Novak Djokovic will be granted a visa to play at the Australian Open in January 2023, as the Australian government plans to overturn the three-year ban imposed on the unvaccinated Serbian player. Djokovic’s visa was cancelled in January 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic amidst Australia’s strict vaccination protocols. The unvaccinated Serb, who was already in Melbourne for his 10th Australian Open title, was deported after losing court appeals to stay and play. The Australian government said that a COVID-19 diagnosis did not justify Djokovic’s medic
President of India Droupadi Murmu will award Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2022 to table tennis legend Achanta Sharath Kamal at a specially organised function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on November 30. The country’s highest sporting honour, Khel Ratna, and other National Sports Awards, including the Arjuna Award, are given out by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports annually. This year, Kamal, the Commonwealth Games 2022 table tennis champion, will be the only recipient of the Khel Ratna. The Arjuna Awards will be given to 25 sportspersons. The winners include sh
World champion boxer MC Mary Kom, Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan were among the 10 distinguished sportspersons elected unopposed as members of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Athletes Commission in the polls held in New Delhi on Monday. The other seven members of the apex body are Tokyo Olympics silver medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, 2012 Olympics bronze winner shooter Gagan Narang, ace table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal, hockey player Rani Rampal, fencer Bhavani Devi, rower Bajrang Lal and former shot putter OP Karhana. The 12-member at
Indian batter Virat Kohli scripted history on Thursday to become the first cricketer to score 4,000 runs in T20 Internationals. He made the record during his 40-ball 50-run performance in the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final against England in Adelaide on Thursday. The cricketer has now hit 38 50-plus scores in 107 innings in T20I cricket. Kohli needed 42 runs to complete 4000 T20I runs. He accomplished the landmark in the 15th over of India's innings with a boundary off Adil Rashid. Earlier, in a match against Bangladesh in Adelaide, Kohli became the all-time leading run-scorer in the men
Virat Kohli has won the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Player of the Month Award for October 22 for his outstanding performance at the T20 World Cup in Australia. The Indian cricketer was nominated for the title for the first time in his career. The International Cricket Council (ICC) also announced Pakistan’s veteran all-rounder Nida Dar as the ICC Women’s Player of the Month acknowledging her sensational form in their Women’s Asia Cup campaign. Virat Kohli beat David Miller of South Africa and Sikandar Raza of Zimbabwe for the honour. The batter scored 205 runs, includ