Barcelona and Valencia move clear at the top of La Liga

MADRID: A controversial Gerard Deulofeu strike sent Barcelona on their way to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Malaga on Saturday as they stretched their lead at the top of La Liga.

In the second minute at the Nou Camp, the ball clearly ran out of play before Lucas Digne crossed for Deulofeu, who flicked it in with a superb backheel, leaving Malaga irate.

Barcelona struggled to break the visitors down as they searched for a second, which came in the 56th minute when captain Andres Iniesta fired a deflected strike home.

Luis Suarez missed a golden opportunity as the Catalans failed to score a third but still moved four points clear of second-placed Valencia, who beat Sevilla 4-0.

“For me it’s legal. I believed it (stayed on), that’s why I continued,” Deulofeu said on Spanish television afterwards.

In the wake of protests in the city following the Spanish government’s move to reduce the autonomy of Catalonia, the atmosphere was charged.

However things were much quieter on the pitch after Deulofeu’s opener, with Barcelona struggling to break down Malaga and even Lionel Messi finding it tough until he fed Iniesta for the second.

Suarez should have increased the lead when Sergi Roberto played him in but fired wide with the goal gaping, continuing a personal run of poor form with only three goals this season in all competitions. Deulofeu backed his team mate to recover quickly.

“(His goal) will come, it’s the same as Leo (Messi). They are players who get a lot of chances, in the next game they will score,” said the former Everton winger.

Ernesto Valverde also defended Suarez, saying the Uruguayan is a crucial component in the side, whether he scores or not.

“The aggression that he has always gives him chances. The more he misses the better, it means that he’s there. He’s priceless for us,” explained the coach.

Unlike Suarez, unbeaten Barcelona are in excellent shape and this was their eighth victory in nine league games, keeping them four points clear of Valencia.

Marcelino Garcia Toral’s similarly undefeated side continued their superb start with a convincing victory over Sevilla at a vibrant Mestalla.

Goncalo Guedes followed up his brilliant strike against Real Betis last weekend with another stunning goal, beating two men and then rocketing a shot past the helpless Sergio Rico in the 43rd minute.

Simone Zaza doubled Valencia’s lead six minutes after the restart, notching his eighth goal of the season.

Santi Mina tucked home the third after being played in by the electric Guedes, with the 20-year-old Portuguese winger grabbing his second in stoppage time.

Comments

US drone strike kills leader of Pakistan’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militants: spokesman

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The leader of Pakistani militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, who planned some of the deadliest suicide bombings in Pakistan over the last year, died on Thursday of wounds sustained in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, a spokesman said. “Our leader, Omar Khalid Khorasani, was wounded in one of the recent drone strikes in Afghanistan. He was wounded badly, and today he was martyred,” Asad Mansoor, a Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman, said by telephone.The killing comes ahead of American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit next week and is likely to further ease tensions between the often-wary allies, as Islamabad has been asking Washington for years to target militants who attack inside Pakistan and then hide over the border in Afghanistan. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has in the past also backed Middle East-based Islamic State and has increasingly targeted religious minorities in Pakistan. The group clai

PM commits all kinds of support for upcoming elections

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has committed to hold the upcoming federal and provincial elections on stipulated time. He further said that government was committed to extend all kinds of essential support for the elections. According to Election Commission’s spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal, in a meeting with Election Commission’s office bearers at PM’s official residence, Baluwatar today, PM Deuba committed to reach all kinds of support for elections to the commission. PM Deuba expressed happiness on the preparations going on for the elections and directed the EC officials to work in full speed for remaining preparations as well.Chief election commissioner Dr Ayodhee Prasad Yadav briefed PM Deuba about their preparations for elections. He informed PM Deuba that the political parties submitted their closed lists of candidates for the proportional system under the federal and provincial elections in the stipulated time with enthusiasm. On the occasion, PM and

‘Contractor’s negligence responsible for collapse of Jabdighat Bridge’

The government’s study panel has found that Pappu Construction — the contractor that built the Jabdighat Bridge over the Babai River in Bardiya — deviated from the design approved by the government during the construction process of the bridge, which resulted in its collapse during heavy floods on Babai River on August 21. The probe panel formed by the Department of Roads (DoR) has concluded that the contractor had not followed through on the design approved by the government during construction of the 425-metre-long bridge. According to Ayodhya Prasad Shrestha, coordinator of the probe panel and chief of Mid-western Regional Road Directorate Surkhet, the contractor’s negligence is one of the major reasons for collapse of the bridge even before it had been handed over to the government authority. “In our preliminary study, we found that the distance between the pillars of the bridge is inconsistent to the approved design. The gap between the pillars should have been 25 metres, b

Nepalinews

Search This Blog