Inter Milan a win away from Serie A title despite blowing two-goal le…

MILAN: Inter Milan moved a step closer to the Serie A title but the Nerazzurri made it more difficult for themselves by letting slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Torino on Sunday.
That left Inter 10 points ahead of second-placed Napoli, with four rounds remaining.
A win would have left Inter simply needing to avoid defeat against Parma next weekend to mathematically clinch the Serie A title irrespective of how Napoli and AC Milan fared.

London: Tottenham confirmed on Monday that "heartbroken" Xavi Simons had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament, forcing him out of the club's relegation scrap and the World Cup.

The 23-year-old Dutch midfielder clutched his right knee and was stretchered off in distress in the second half of Tottenham's crucial 1-0 win at already relegated Wolves on Saturday. catcross.biz

In an emotional post on social media late Sunday, Simons said his season was over.

"They say life can be cruel and today it feels that way," Simons, who has played 34 times for his country, wrote on Instagram.

الأخبارQatar cross 100-medal mark as athletics end with 12 gold, Aya wins table tennis crownDoha, Qatar: Mubarak Saeed and Zakaria Al-Alami secured a one-two finish in the men’s 1500m as Qatar’s athletics team claimed two more gold medals, while Aya Mohammed triumphed ...فتح →

"My season has come to an abrupt end and I'm just trying to process it. Honestly, I'm heartbroken. None of it makes sense.

"All I've wanted to do is fight for my team and now the ability to do that has been snatched away from me, along with the World Cup. Representing my country this summer, just gone."

Spurs issued a statement saying Simons had ruptured the ACL in his right knee.

"Xavi will undergo surgery in the coming weeks and, following that, will then begin his rehabilitation with our medical team," the club said.

"Everyone at Tottenham Hotspur sends Xavi our love and support -- we will be with him every step of the way."

Simons' injury is a major blow to new Spurs boss Roberto De Zerbi, whose side are two points from Premier League safety with four matches remaining.

He would also have played a key role for the Netherlands at the World Cup in North America, starting on June 11.

London: Kenya's Sabastian Sawe on Sunday shattered one of the most elusive barriers in athletics, becoming the first man to dip below the two-hour mark in the marathon.

Sawe, sporting state-of-the-art running shoes and spurred on by second-placed Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, clocked a barely believable 1hr 59min 30sec to retain his London crown.

It shattered by 65 seconds the previous best of 2:00:35 set in Chicago in 2023 by the late Kelvin Kiptum.

"The goalposts have literally just moved for marathon running and where you benchmark yourself as being world class," said BBC pundit Paula Radcliffe, who held the women's marathon record of 2:15:25 from 2003 to 2019.

"I did think that mark could be beaten but not today.

"It is a lesson to everybody out there. We say don't go out too fast and they went out smartly and paced it really well. Smart racing brought it to the line."

The two-hour barrier has long been a goal of increasing numbers of elite marathon runners, not least Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge.

In October 2019, Kipchoge famously broke that barrier as he timed 1:59:40 on the streets of Vienna.

But the time was not ratified as a world record because he ran with specialised shoes, standard competition rules for pacing and fluids were not followed, and it was not an open event.

Kenyan Paul Tergat's time of 2:04:55 in the 2003 Berlin Marathon was the first ratified world record over the 26.2-mile (42.2-km) distance.

Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie twice bettered that mark, both times in Berlin, dipping under 2:04:00.

The record then swung back into Kenyan hands, first with Patrick Makau and then Wilson Kipsang and Dennis Kimetto setting new marks.

Kipchoge then set new standards, again in Berlin, in 2018 and then 2022. Kiptum rose to prominence a year later before his tragic death in 2024.

تتجه الأنظار إلى ملعب 974 اليوم، حيث يلتقي فريقا أم صلال والأهلي في الجولة الثانية والعشرين والأخيرة من دوري نجوم بنك الدوحة، في مباراة تحمل طابعًا حاسمًا لمصير الفريقين في جدول الترتيب.
يدخل الأهلي اللقاء وهو في المركز التاسع برصيد 23 نقطة، ويطمح لتحقيق نتيجة إيجابية تؤمّن موقعه وتبعده عن أي حسابات معقدة، بينما يخوض أم صلال المواجهة وهو في المركز قبل الأخير برصيد 20 نقطة، ولا يملك خيارًا سوى الفوز من أجل إنعاش آماله في البقاء المباشر أو على الأقل خوض المباراة الفاصلة.
وتكتسب المباراة أهمية مضاعفة، في ظل تشابك الحسابات مع نتائج بقية مباريات الجولة، ما يجعل مصير الفريقين معلقًا حتى صافرة النهاية، في واحدة من أكثر مواجهات ختام الدوري إثارة وترقبًا. ويدخل الفريقان اللقاء وكل منهما يلعب على ملعب 974 وقلبه وعقله خارج حدود الملعب تحسبا للمباريات الاخيرة في ملعبي استاد البيت والثمامة حيث إن نتائج الآخرين تدخل ضمن حسابات اللقاء الذي ينتظر ان يأتي قويا لان كلا من الصقور والعميد هدفه الفوز خاصة أم صلال الذي لا مفر أمامه سوى النقاط الثلاث وانتظار بقية مباريات القاع أما العميد فالتعادل يبعده تماما عن اى حسابات وبالتالي ستكون المواجهة نارية.