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Akram Afif stakes claim as one of Asian Cup’s greatest as Qatar win back-to-back titles
Twice, the crowd roared as the dawning realisation of what was about to happen spread like waves amongst them but by the third time, they definitely knew what was coming.
For cometh the hour, cometh Akram Afif.
After positioning himself to take the 21st-minute penalty that would open the scoring in Qatar’s 3-1 win over Jordan in the Asian Cup final on Saturday evening, Qatar skipper Hassan Al-Havdos instead turned away and knocked the ball into the hands of a waiting Afif.
It was a move the Qataris have pulled before, the subtle art of mental disintegration in penalty shootouts, but the crowd responded anyway.
In the 73rd minute, with the scores locked at 1-1 after Yazan Al-Maimat had fired the gallant Jordanians level as part of an improved second-half effort, VAR intervention led referee Ma Ning to determine that Mahmoud Al-Mardi had unfairly brought down Ismaeel Mohammad in the Jordanian penalty area.
Almoez Ali stepped up, before he too turned on his heel and handed the ball off to Afif. Another roar rang out.
Then, in the 91st, following another VAR intervention, this one seeing Ning award a penalty after Jordanian keeper Yazid Abu Layla was adjudged to have brought down Afif’s burst behind the Chivalrous Ones’ lines, Almoez again stood over the spot, ball in hand.
Only this time, the crowd wasn’t going to be fooled. Nobody in Doha was fooled at this point and the Lusail Stadium thundered with a call for Afif to take the spot kick, noise that rose to another level when he moved forward.
On each occasion, the Qatari contingent of the 86,492 reported attendees emanated a sense of eager anticipation and confidence. Not only for the second consecutive Asian Cup title that would soon be theirs, but for a legacy-defining moment for one of the Asian Cup’s greatest-ever players.
The 27-year-old had played a defining role in lifting his side to an upset 3-2 win over Iran in the semifinals just days prior and now, it would fall upon his shoulders once more. And on all three occasions, he was up for the challenge.
To Abu Layla’s credit, he reacted quickly after Afif’s stutter-step run-up and side-footed effort on the first penalty, coming agonisingly close to getting a hand to the shot as he moved down and to his right. But the shot was hit with too much direction and power, nestling into the bottom corner of the net and putting Qatar into the ascendancy.
The Jordanian keeper would again guess right on the second but, once again, prove unable to get a hand to a wickedly hit effort as it flew beyond him and into the back of the net.
Afif then got one up on the keeper when he sealed his hat trick at the death, burying a shot into the bottom right corner as the keeper dived to his left. Qatar’s status as just the fifth Asian nation to defend its crown was now secured off the boot of its talisman.
In 2019, Afif provided ten assists and netted once as Qatar secured their first continental crown. This time around, propelled by his hat-trick in the decider, he has taken out the tournament’s Golden Boot with eight goals, as well as grabbing a further three assists.
More than one and a half goal involvements across two Asian Cups, a key cog in one title and a figure without which a second one simply does not happen — the attacker earning deserved recognition as best on ground and player of the tournament in the aftermath of Saturday’s final.
After his first penalty, he reached into his sock and pulled out a trading card featuring his likeness in celebration of his first goal, showing it to the camera and kissing his ring finger before performing a sleight-of-hand trick to reveal an ‘S’ drawn on the other side. He confirmed post-game that it was a tribute to his wife, who was attending her first match at Lusail; Afif’s own tribute as he was etching his name into the annals of Asian Cup history.
Indeed, to watch Afif in action on stages such as the Asian Cup is to come to engage in an act of simultaneous appreciation and selfishness; of admiration for what he is capable of on a football pitch and a yearning to see someone of his talents tested against the world’s best.
His work to win the penalty was a devastating case in point.
Seconds before Ma pointed to the spot, he had been bearing down the left flank, cushioning perfectly a pass from Lucas Mendes to accelerate beyond defender Abdallah Nasib and towards the Jordanian penalty area in one smooth movement. A lethal blur of afro hair and maroon kit, he would subtly shift his body weight one way and then the other to gain a step on his pursuer before bursting towards the box, with Nasib’s attempts to recover only resulting in the pair’s right legs clipping into each other.
The 27-year-old had brief spells in Spain and Belgium earlier in his career but settled himself at Qatar Stars League side Al Sadd in 2018 — but what if?
That’s not to be dismissive of Qatar’s domestic league, moreso an almost yearning to see just what would happen if this dynamo, one seemingly at the peak of his powers, was tested week in and week out against some of the world’s best defenders while deployed alongside the world’s best attackers. Post-game, he would speak of that of course the idea appeals to him but that it’s not just up to him about his future, that there are many views to be heard, not the least of which is his wife.
“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” he reflected, “it’s destiny.”
It’s funny that he spoke of destiny, because just before halftime there looked like there was going to be a cruel twist of it when Afif sent a brief scare through the crowd after remaining on the turf after going down without contact, with the stretcher called for to carry him off.
He would soon re-emerge, but the soreness remained as he was beaten to a ball into the box by Jordan’s leading light Musa Al-Taamari with Mohammed Waad forced to stage a last-ditch intervention to deflect it away.
He was fine, staying out there as Jordan would refuse to bow in the face of adversity, something they have done all tournament. But alas for coach Hussein Ammouta, the magic that had come to define their run to the final in Doha didn’t have anything left to give in Lusail.
They would hurl numerous attacks forward in their attempt to get into the game before Al-Naimat’s leveller, improving in the second half but unable to get past the brick wall that was Qatari keeper Meshaal Barsham.
Trailing for much of the game, or attempting to capitalise on the momentum of their equaliser, they were forced to take the initiative and control of the ball, denied their free-flowing transition game and instead needed to work against a settled Qatari defence, who in turn could play in transition.
Jordan would end the game with 58% of the ball and 16 shots but with just six of them on target, as Qatar picked their moments and moved the ball into areas where they could win their spot kicks — the timing of which Ammouta’s admitted post-game came at the worst possible time for his squad, while refusing to take issue with any of their awarding.
Of course, to some extent, while Jordan was already a winner having advanced to this point, Qatar needed this win.
After their three straight defeats at a home World Cup a lot of their reputation — the reputation of 2019 — rested on what they could do at home.
Now, perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from the 2023 Asian Cup is just how much Qatar bungled their preparations for the 2022 World Cup, their long overseas tours inadvertently setting them up to perform at a level so below what they should have been able to.
Furthermore, Saudi Arabia’s increasing investment and moves to monopolise major events in the region also threaten to put them in the shade in the years ahead, even if a large number of the soft power, reputational laundering, economic, and infrastructural benefits of hosting major footballing events have already been banked.
Whatever happens, though, they’ll now always be back-to-back Asian champions. And Afif will always be one of the Asian Cup’s greatest ever.
(ESPN)
The United States said it had launched fresh strikes against Iran on Wednesday evening as President Donald Trump warned Tehran it “better behave”.
The US military said “Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels” moving through the Strait of Hormuz had been targeted, and that it had separately fired on a ship attempting to violate its renewed blockade of Iran’s ports.
It came after Iran claimed it had struck US military targets in the region, including in Bahrain and Kuwait, as a fifth day of renewed hostilities strained their preliminary deal to end the war.
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, meanwhile told state media Tehran had “no reason” to abide by the deal if it did benefit from it.
Trump had threatened late on Tuesday to attack bridges and power plants should Iran not return to talks next week.
Asked by reporters late on Wednesday whether he would give a deadline before doing so, he responded: “I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know, they know the story… they better behave.”
He later told delegates at a defence summit that Iran was “not happy right now”.
“They want to settle so badly. They don’t like what we’re doing,” he said. “We’ll find out whether we want to settle with them or if we just finish it off.”
Ghalibaf however said Iran’s national security depended on Tehran maintaining “Iranian arrangements” in the strait.
He added that negotiation – along with war – was part of Iran’s strategy of resistance as it engaged an “existential” conflict with the US.
The escalation in Trump’s rhetoric came after he said a 20% toll he had threatened to impose in the Strait of Hormuz would be replaced by “massive” trade and investment deals with Gulf states.
A previous threat by Trump to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure, which was made in April, drew condemnation at the time from UN human rights chief Volker Türk, who said: “Under international law, deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime.”
The latest US strikes marked the second wave its military said it had carried out during daylight hours on Wednesday. It said it had “further degraded Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz” earlier in the day.
A 90-minute wave was used to target Iran’s coastal defences and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island, US Central Command (Centcom) added.
Centcom also said it had redirected two commercial vessels since reimposing its blockade on Iranian ports on Tuesday evening, which stops vessels from transiting to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas.
The blockade had previously been lifted as part of a deal that was struck by the two countries last month – known as a memorandum of understanding – that aimed to end the months-long conflict.
However, a dispute over the strait has become a key point of contention.
In response to the renewal of the US blockade, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned the US that it should “expect the closure of other oil and gas export routes that serve the interests of the United States and its allies”. It did not elaborate on which routes could be affected.
Ongoing US-Iran hostilities have underscored the strategic importance of the Strait to the global economy, with a sharp rise in oil prices triggered by tanker traffic virtually stalling through the key shipping lane.
[BBC]
Lautaro Martinez scored a 92nd-minute winner as Lionel Messi inspired World Cup holders Argentina to a stunning comeback to beat England 2-1 and set up a final with European football champions Spain.
England had been on course to reach their first FIFA World Cup final since 1966 after Anthony Gordon fired them into the lead 10 minutes into the second half of the semifinal in front of 68,239 fans in Atlanta on Wednesday.
The great rivalry between these nations has produced several memorable contests on the World Cup stage through the years, and this will be remembered as the stuff of legends in Argentina as the South Americans denied England with two late sucker punches.
Messi set up Enzo Fernandez to fire in an 85th-minute equaliser, and then, with extra time looming, crossed for substitute Lautaro Martinez to head in the winner in the second minute of stoppage time.
It was maybe not quite up there with Diego Maradona’s legendary display in putting England to the sword in 1986, but the goals this time brought Argentina back from the dead and kept alive their hopes of winning back-to-back World Cups.
No team has retained the trophy since Brazil in 1962, and now, Messi will become just the second player after Brazilian great Cafu to appear in three World Cup finals. Italy are the only other side to defend a World Cup crown.
The 2026 final will take place at New York New Jersey Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, as the first 48-team World Cup boils down to a confrontation between the reigning champions of Europe and South America.
Messi had waited until the age of 39 to get the chance to play against England, and he will now face Spain for the first time in a competitive game.
His career appeared to be complete when he dragged Argentina to glory in 2022 in Qatar, but he is clearly not done yet.
England, though, will have huge regrets as they head to Miami to play France in Saturday’s third-place playoff, a game neither team will want to contest.
The prospect of a first World Cup final appearance since their sole triumph 60 years ago was a momentous one, and they were so close, but will live to regret sitting back after Gordon’s opener.
Given the deep-rooted rivalry between these nations, this was always likely to be a game with an edge, and there was a palpable sense of tension at Atlanta Stadium.
Argentina’s players were clearly fired up, partly by a determination to hold onto their World Cup crown but also by a sense of what this fixture means.
That translated into a niggly contest, pockmarked by fouls in the first half, including Elliot Anderson being booked for scything down Messi.
There were no real chances to speak of in the first half, but England struck in the 55th minute.
Kane was involved in the buildup as the ball eventually came to Morgan Rogers on the right, and he whipped in a low cross towards the back post where Gordon stole in front of Nahuel Molina to score.
But this was the stadium where Argentina produced a stunning comeback from 2-0 down to beat Egypt in the last 16, and they were not done.
They threw everything at their opponents, as Jordan Pickford made a great save from a Nico Gonzalez header, and Alexis Mac Allister was then denied by the post in the 76th minute.
Fernandez was denied from range by Pickford, but moments later, he equalised, controlling a Messi pass on the edge of the area and letting fly past the goalkeeper.
Argentina smelled blood, and Mac Allister again hit the post before England failed to clear, and Martinez headed in the winner from an exquisite Messi cross to spark chaotic scenes of celebration and leave England completely deflated.
[Aljazeera]
The key men for Thomas Tuchel’s side during this campaign have been Jude Bellingham and captain Harry Kane, yet they failed to deliver on this occasion, and England’s players slumped to the turf at full-time.
Years of political history and football rivalry will collide in Atlanta when England face Argentina in a World Cup semifinal for the ages.
From the controversial “Hand of God” goal by Diego Maradona in 1986 to David Beckham being red-carded for kicking Diego Simeone in 1998, sporting contests between England and Argentina are often theatrical, tense and tricky.
Then, there is also the lingering sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands.
Divided by geography and conflict, England and Argentina are vastly different in many ways, yet at this World Cup, they have at least one thing in common – both have made a habit of surviving on the edge.
For England, the plan is simple: Find a way to stop the magical force of Lionel Messi and reach their first final in six decades.
And for Argentina? To grind again and chase history in back-to-back finals.
Here’s everything you need to know about this semifinal:
How did England and Argentina reach the semifinals?
England topped Group L with seven points, beating Croatia and Panama and drawing with Ghana. They needed a second-half comeback to beat the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the round of 32 and knocked out co-hosts Mexico3-2 in a scintillating last-16 contest at the iconic Azteca Stadium.
In the quarterfinals, they came from a goal down to beat Norway 2-1 in extra time.
Argentina had a strong showing in the first round, topping Group J by beating Algeria, Austria and Jordan. In the round of 32, they were pushed to their limits before squeezing past Cape Verde 3-2 in extra time, and came from two goals down to beat Egypt 3-2 in a controversial last-16 contest which drew allegations of officiating bias.
Against Switzerland in the quarterfinals, they again played a full 120 minutes before securing a 3-1 win.
At last, Messi meets England
From winning the World Cup to Copa America, lifting the Champions League trophy to the Ballon d’Or, and kissing the Golden Ball, Messi has achieved almost everything possible in football.
But in his 21 years playing for Argentina, there is one thing he has not done: face England.
The 39-year-old forward will play against the Three Lions for the first time, 21 years on from the red card he received in the early days of his career, which denied him the chance in a 2005 friendly.
“I have played against everyone except England, and it is special because they are a major nation, a powerhouse, and it is always nice to play against a side like that, especially in a World Cup semifinal,” Messi said.
With eight goals in six matches, Messi is enjoying a World Cup campaign like no other as he bids for his first Golden Boot. As the captain, he is also leading Argentina’s charge to become the first team to retain the World Cup since Brazil in 1962.
Should they beat England, Argentina would be in their third final in four World Cups, and Messi could follow in the footsteps of Brazil’s great, Cafu, who played in three in a row from 1994 to 2002 – even Maradona only ever played in two.
“Getting to another semifinal is not a normal, mundane thing, so this is something we should really enjoy because we don’t know if it will happen again,” Messi said.
Pickford backs England to keep cool in tense clash
Generations in England have not seen their team lift a major trophy. Their only success came when hosting the 1966 World Cup.
This current squad – headlined by the dynamic duo of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham – is, however, within touching distance of making history, by not only winning a second trophy, but a first on foreign soil.
Before the game, though, Thomas Tuchel’s side knows the pressure is firmly on them, but goalkeeper Jordan Pickford believes the team can cope.
“You’ve seen throughout the tournament our desire to win tackles. We’ve not got into any scuffles or anything,” he said on Monday.
“We’ve been very well respected within the game. Decisions go our way [or] they don’t go our way, we just reset, we go again, and we let the football do the talking.”
England, fourth in the FIFA rankings, two spots below Argentina, are set to feature in a fourth semifinal in the last five major tournaments.
England vs Argentina predictions
As of Tuesday, Opta’s supercomputer gives England a 39.1 percent probability of winning in regulation time, while Argentina’s chances of winning are 31.6 percent.
The model estimates a 29.3 percent probability of the game going to extra time.
Who is the referee for England vs Argentina?
- Referee: Ismail Elfath (US)
- Assistant referee 1: Corey Parker (US)
- Assistant referee 2: Kyle Atkins (US)
- Fourth official: Maurizio Mariani (Italy)
- Reserve assistant referee: Daniele Bindoni (Italy)
Where is England vs Argentina being played?
England will play Argentina in the second semifinal at Atlanta Stadium, commonly known as Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the last of the seven World Cup matches held at this venue, which has a capacity of 68,239 for the tournament.
The stadium, boasting a retractable roof and a 360-degree halo video display, undoubtedly has the most space-age architecture of the 16 host cities.
What is the weather forecast for Atlanta?
AccuWeather forecasts rain on Wednesday afternoon. “Some sun with a thundery shower,” it says.
England vs Argentina: Head-to-head
Overall, they have met 14 times in competitive and friendly matches.
England lead the head-to-head record with six wins, while Argentina have three. Five games ended in a draw.
England vs Argentina: Past results
- England 3-2 Argentina (International friendly, 2005)
- England 1-0 Argentina (World Cup 2002, group stage)
- England 0-0 Argentina (International friendly, 2000)
- Argentina 2-2 England (4-3 on penalties, World Cup 1998, round of 16)
- England 2-2 Argentina (Challenge Cup, 1991)
The winner of the semifinal between Argentina and England will face Spain in Sunday’s final at New York New Jersey Stadium.
England vs Argentina: Team news
England midfielder Declan Rice, who has been struggling with illness, is a doubt, while veteran player Jordan Henderson is out with a wrist injury.
No injuries reported in the Argentina camp.
England’s predicted lineup
(4-1-3-2): Pickford; Konsa, Stones, Guehi, O’Reilly; Rice, Anderson; Madueke, Bellingham, Gordon; Kane
Argentina’s predicted lineup
(4-1-3-2): Martinez; Molina, Romero, Lisandro, Tagliafico; Paredes; De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister; Messi, Alvarez
[Aljazeera]
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Argentina face fine for Falklands banner in semi-final win
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