arabnews.com - Haaland hits hat-trick to take Man City top, Son treble inspires Spurs

Haaland hits hat-trick to take Man City top, Son treble inspires Spurs

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick as Manchester City maintained their perfect Premier League start with a 5-1 thrashing of Fulham on Saturday, as Son Heung-min’s also netted three times in Tottenham’s 5-2 victory at Burnley. But Chelsea’s huge investment in the transfer market is still to reap reward as the Blues were beaten 1-0 at home by Nottingham Forest. In keeping with the early weeks of the season, City were good enough for the three points without ever hitting top gear. The English champions were without manager Pep Guardiola as he recovers from back surgery in his native Catalonia. The home side had not had a shot on target until Julian Alvarez turned home Haaland’s cross to open the scoring on 31 minutes. Fulham, who were missing influential midfielder Joao Palhinha after his deadline day move to Bayern Munich collapsed on Friday, responded immediately when Tim Ream tapped in from a corner. City needed a set-piece of their own to restore the lead in controversial circumstances. Nathan Ake’s header was allowed to stand despite Manuel Akanji, who was in an offside position, jumping over the ball. Haaland then exploded after the break.

Sainz pips record-chasing Verstappen to pole at Italian GP

MONZA, Italy: Carlos Sainz Jr. was enjoying a perfect birthday weekend so far after he secured pole position for the Italian Grand Prix to the delight of the Ferrari tifosi on Saturday. Thousands of red-clad Ferrari fans cheered as Sainz, who turned 29 on Friday, crossed the line 0.013 seconds quicker than runaway Formula One leader Max Verstappen, who is chasing a record 10th straight victory on Sunday. “Tell me we have it, tell me we have it,” Sainz yelled into race radio after beating Verstappen’s time on his final flying lap. The roars from the grandstands should have confirmed it. It was his fourth career pole and first since Austin last year.

Roberto Mancini names his first Saudi Arabia training squad ahead of friendlies in Newcastle

LONDON: New Saudi Arabia head coach Roberto Mancini has picked his 26-man training squad for the Green Falcons’ preparation camp, which starts on Sunday in Newcastle.

In a historic first, Iranian TV broadcasts Saudi Pro League match

Football fans in Iran have come out in praise of Saudi football after the Islamic Republic’s state television broadcast Friday’s “Classico” match between champions Al-Ittihad and former Asian champions Al-Hilal on its sports channel.

Magic Mitrovic gives Hilal stunning Classico comeback win over Ittihad

The facts say that Al-Hilal won 4-3 at Al-Ittihad on Friday but there was a great deal more to this seven-goal thriller. With two thirds of the Classico gone, Al-Ittihad were cruising, 3-1 to the good and heading for a fifth win out of five this season but then, incredibly, the defending champions who not conceded a single goal in the first 360 minutes of Roshn Saudi League football, conceded three in the space of ten second half minutes as Aleksandar Mitrovic grabbed a hat-trick, the headlines and three points for the Riyadh giants. It was a stunning comeback and result.

Germany, Slovenia, US and Lithuania make World Cup quarterfinals

OKINAWA: Luka Doncic and Slovenia are headed to the World Cup quarterfinals. So are the US, Germany and Lithuania. Out of the mix: Olympic bronze medalist Australia. Half of the World Cup quarterfinal field is now set, after those four nations won their opening second-round games Friday to secure spots in the knockout round.

Chelsea and Man City make moves as EPL spending hurtles toward $3 billion in window

LONDON: English Premier League spending was hurtling toward a staggering $3 billion in a record outlay during European soccer’s summer transfer window on Friday. Manchester City and — of course — Chelsea were among those making moves on a typically frantic deadline day. Chelsea were leading the unprecedented splurge, with the arrival of 21-year-old winger Cole Palmer from City for 40 million pounds ($50.7 million) taking the west London club’s spending in this window to around $500 million. In the three transfer windows under their new American ownership fronted by Todd Boehly, Chelsea have spent about $1.15 billion on players mostly signed up on long contracts in an innovative way to spread “amortization” costs of transfer fees. By comparison, the $260 million outlay by City, the English and European champion, look modest. The fourth and final arrival in the window came on deadline day and was Portugal international Matheus Nunes from Wolverhampton, a ball-carrier costing $67 million and providing extra depth in central midfield. Central midfielders were also priorities for Liverpool and Manchester United, who were attempting to tie up the signings of Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern Munich and Sofyan Amrabat from Fiorentina, respectively, in the final hours of the window. It was a busy day for United, which signed left back Sergio Reguilón on loan from Tottenham as cover for the injured Luke Shaw and goalkeeper Altay Bayindir on a transfer from Fenerbahce to back up Andre Onana.

Spain legal panel opens case against suspended soccer chief over World Cup kiss

MADRID: A Spanish government legal panel is opening a case against suspended soccer chief Luis Rubiales, the state news agency Efe said on Friday. Rubiales has come in for a storm of criticism and calls for his resignation for kissing a player without consent after Spain won the recent Women’s World Cup final in Sydney. FIFA has already suspended Rubiales for 90 days while it studies the case. Spain is looking to remove him independently of the FIFA process. Rubiales is the president of the Spanish Football Federation and a vice president of UEFA. Efe said the legal panel said Rubiales’ behavior would be studied for two possible cases of serious misconduct. The government hoped the panel would recommend very serious misconduct, a category that would allow the state’s sport body to ban him provisionally with a view to eventually declaring him unfit to hold the job.

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Haaland hits hat-trick to take Man City top, Son treble inspires Spurs

Sainz pips record-chasing Verstappen to pole at Italian GP

Roberto Mancini names his first Saudi Arabia training squad ahead of friendlies in Newcastle

In a historic first, Iranian TV broadcasts Saudi Pro League match

Magic Mitrovic gives Hilal stunning Classico comeback win over Ittihad

Germany, Slovenia, US and Lithuania make World Cup quarterfinals

Chelsea and Man City make moves as EPL spending hurtles toward $3 billion in window

Spain legal panel opens case against suspended soccer chief over World Cup kiss