Berlin, June 16 (IANS) Alvaro Morata, Fabian Ruiz, and Daniel Carvajal scored once each in the first half as Spain got their UEFA Euro 2024 campaign off to a flying start with a 3-0 win against Croatia in a Group B encounter here on Saturday evening.

It was expected to be a hard-fought encounter between two sides that have done well in the past. With these two sides facing each other in a fourth consecutive Euro finals, it was La Roja who triumphed for a third time against familiar opponents with a ruthless and slick attacking display.

After dominating the early stages, former champions Spain took the lead in the 29th minute when Fabián Ruiz threaded a wonderful pinpoint pass through to Morata, who made no mistake to coolly score his seventh Euro finals goal for his country, three of those goals coming against Croatia.

Just minutes later, Fabián Ruiz went from provider to scorer, twisting and turning in the box before firing into the bottom-right corner to put Spain in total control.

Croatia responded well to that quickfire double, Josko Gvardiol stinging the fingertips of Unai Simon and Ante Budimir mere centimetres away from getting on the end of the rebound.

Spain’s 16-year-old winger Lamine Yamal made history by becoming the youngest player to ever feature in a European Championship match. It was the teenager who created his side’s third goal just before half-time, his wicked cross turned in by Champions League final scorer Carvajal to cap off a superb first period from Luis de la Fuente’s side.

Yamal was in the thick of the action again at the start of the second half, with only a brilliant reflex save from Dominik Livakovic denying him the honour of also becoming the youngest Euro scorer.

Croatia were handed a lifeline when Rodri brought down substitute Bruno Petkovic in the box with ten minutes to go, but Simon guessed correctly to dive to his right and save the forward’s effort from the spot.

Croatia will now dust themselves down and go again against Albania on June 19 while Spain will face another former champion Italy the day after.

–IANS

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Perugia (Italy), June 16 (IANS) India’s Sumit Nagal continued his dream run in Europe as he reached the final of the Internazionali di Tennis Citta di Perugia, a Challenger-level event in Italy, with a three-set win over Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain in the semifinals on Saturday.

Fifth-seeded Nagal secured his spot in the final by defeating Zapata Miralles 7-6(2),1-6, 6-2 for his ninth win in 11 days this season.

After winning the Heilbronn Challenger last week in Germany, he has now advanced to the final at the Perugia Challenger.

Nagal broke in the second game of the first set to take a 2-0 lead but Zapata broke back in the marathon fifth game that went to deuce six times before the Spaniard got the break and made the score 2-3. He then held his service to make it 3-3. The two players continued to hold serve in the next few games before Zapata put Nagal’s serve under pressure in the 11th game. The Indian managed to hold his service. He eventually won the tiebreak 7-2 to win the first set.

Zapata turned the tables on Nagal in the second set. He dominated the set, breaking Nagal in the 5th and 6th games to win the set easily.

Nagal regrouped in the decider and broke serve in the second game. Though Zapata broke immediately back to negate the advantage, Nagal broke Zapata’s service in the fourth game and again in the sixth game to win the set and the match in two hours and 39 minutes.

–IANS

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New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni has named his final 26-man squad for the Copa América, with veterans Lionel Messi and Ángel Di María leading the charge. The squad features a blend of experience and youth, with 21 players returning from the 2022 World Cup victory.

“I have decided which players will be left out, but first I am going to inform them. The decision always involves looking for the best for the team. This is the most difficult list of all because we have had complications,” Scaloni said to reporters after their 4-1 victory over Guatemala.

Scaloni experimented during pre-tournament friendlies, calling up 29 players including youngsters Valentín Barco, Ángel Correa, and Leonardo Balerdi. However, they didn’t make the final cut. Conversely, Monza’s Valentín Carboni impressed against Guatemala and earned a call-up, receiving praise from Messi himself.

Argentina open their Copa América campaign against Canada on June 20th at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. They’ll then face Chile and Peru in Group A, aiming to defend their 2021 Copa America title.

Argentina Squad:

Goalkeepers: Franco Armani, Geronimo Rulli, Emiliano Martinez

Defenders: Gonzalo Montiel, Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, German Pezzella, Lucas Martinez Quarta, Nicolas Otamendi, Lisandro Martinez, Marcos Acuna, Nicolas Tagliafico,

Midfielders: Guido Rodriguez, Leandro Paredes, Alexis Mac Allister, Rodrigo De Paul, Exequiel Palacios, Enzo Fernandez, Giovani Lo Celso

Forwards: Angel Di Maria, Valentin Carboni, Lionel Messi, Alejandro Garnacho, Nicolas Gonzalez, Lautaro Martinez, Julian Alvarez

–IANS

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New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) Sheeraz Sheikh shot two perfect qualification rounds of 25 hits each, to emerge the best Indian on the day, as Skeet competitions at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Shotgun in Lonato, Italy, got underway.

The Indian was currently sharing the top spot in Men’s Skeet with 10 other contenders, including legends of the sport like Vincent Hancock of the USA and Abdullah Alrashidi of Kuwait.

Paris Olympics quota winner Anantjeet Singh Naruka missed two birds in the second round to be further down the pecking order, while Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan had 46 to his name after two rounds.

In Women’s Skeet, Ganemat Sekhon shot 47 to be placed 21st while Raiza Dhillon’s tally of 46 put her in the 28th spot. Maheshwari Chauhan was 38th with rounds of 24 and 20 respectively.

All come back for two more rounds on Sunday, before the top six make the medal round slated for Monday, after the completion of the fifth and final qualification round.

–IANS

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Lauderhill, June 15 (IANS) After Uganda’s campaign in the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup ended with a nine-wicket defeat to New Zealand, captain Brian Masaba said playing in the tournament for the first time has been an eye-opener for his side.

Uganda got their first T20 World Cup win over Papua New Guinea, serving a major delightful news for the side. But being dismissed for double-digit scores against Afghanistan, West Indies, and New Zealand indicated that Uganda has still got lots of things to improve if they are to be a top-flight team in the future.

“It’s been very eye-opening for us as a team, playing at this level for the first time against some of the full-member teams. I say eye-opening because you realise the skill level is a bit different, the execution is very different and I mean these are guys that professional players that play all around the world so they’re very, very good players.”

“As a player that’s aspiring to get better there is no better lesson than that to carry back home because it just shows you how much more work you need to put in to be able to come back and compete favourably,” said Masaba to reporters after the match ended.

Asked about Uganda’s next big goal in international cricket, Masaba explained that their growth targets and hard work for it will be different after their maiden T20 World Cup appearance.

“It was important for us to make it to the World Cup for the first time because now our targets are different. We want to make sure we come back again and again and that’s what you want as a team because then it shows that you’re growing.”

“So going back home, the work won’t stop if anything will work twice as hard to make sure that the next time, we come we’re a better team and we can compete a bit more with some of the big boys. That’s going to be the plan going forward not just for this playing group but for the whole cricket association back home because we need to expand our pool of players just to increase the level of competitiveness in the team. So it’s going to be one huge effort for everyone involved.”

Masaba signed off by saying cricket in Uganda is heading in the right direction and acknowledged the fans back home for being awake at odd hours to see the team’s matches in the T20 World Cup.

“We’re very grateful as a team, to have guys get behind you whenever you play away from home. It’s something we don’t take for granted. But more especially to the guys that travelled a long distance to be with us here to witness Uganda play at the World Cup for the first time. We say a massive thank you to them for getting behind the team – you guys saw the energy and the love that they have for the team.”

“It didn’t matter whether we’re playing well or not; they’re always there. They always showed up for us so we’re very grateful to them and there’s also a huge number of fans back home- the timings were crazy for them. This game started at 3.30 in the morning for them. But guys stay up and follow every ball. So that’s some commitment to this team. We say thank you again to them. We appreciate the love; we feel the support and hopefully, this team can continue to do well as appreciation to them.”

“It’s still a niche sport back home the community is not as huge as say football or rugby but it’s growing again because the team has done well, so the support and community are growing. A couple of years ago at most, you’d get two or three traveling fans, this time we’ve got a whole contingent.”

“Again it’s small little wins that we look for – it’s the positives that we can pick up and for me, that’s a big sign that the game is growing and again the whole country got behind this team. So, for me, that’s a good thing to see and I believe the game is headed in the right direction.”

–IANS

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