Argentina vs Germany; Paraguay-Spain clashes today

CAPE TOWN: In the FIFA World Cup third quarter-final today, Argentina will take on Gerrmany in Cape Town at 1930 hours. The fourth quarter-final between Spain and Paraguay will be played in Johannesburg at Midnight tonight.

On Friday, five-time champions Brazil made a shocking exit losing to the Netherlands 1-2, and Uruguay defeated Ghana 4-2 in a pulsating penalty shoot out.

In the first match in Port Elizabeth, Brazil took a 10th minute lead through Robinho and dominated the first half against a Dutch team which initially looked outclassed. But Felipe Melo scored an unfortunate own goal in the 53rd minute, which was a killer blow for Brazil.

Then Dutch midfielder Sneijder headed home the match-winner in the 68th minute to break the Brazillians’ hearts. Shortly afterwards, Melo was sent off for stamping on Arjen Robben. With the win, the Netherlands marched into the semi-finals—-avenging their quarter-final losses against Brazil in 1994 and 1998. The Netherlands were the losing finalists in 1974 and 1978.

In the second quarter-final in Johannesburg, Uruguay claimed their first World Cup semi-final appearance in 40 years when they recorded a 4-2 penalty shoot win over heartbroken Ghana. Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera saved two spot kicks from skipper John Mensah and Dominic Adiyah after the match had been locked 1-1 after extra time.

Ghana could have won the match in the last minute of extra-time but leading scorer Asamoah Gyan sent a penalty crashing off the crossbar after rival player Luis Suarez had been sent off for deliberate handball on the goal-line.

Ghana were bidding to become the first African team to win through to the semi-finals of the World Cup after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002 had fallen in the last eight.

Now, Uruguay will clash with the Netherlands in the first semi-final in Cape Town on July 6.

Uruguay beat Ghana on penalties

JOHANNESBURG: Uruguay claimed their first World Cup semi-final appearance in 40 years after a pulsating 4-2 penalty shootout win over heartbroken Ghana at Soccer City on Friday.

Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera saved skipper John Mensah and Dominic Adiyah”s attempts after the quarter-final had been locked at 1-1 after extra time.

Two-time World Cup winners Uruguay will now play the Netherlands in the semi-finals in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Ghana could have won the match in the last minute of extra-time but leading scorer Asamoah Gyan sent a penalty crashing off the crossbar after Luis Suarez had been sent off for deliberate handball on the goal-line.

Ghana were bidding to become the first African team to win through to the semi-finals of the World Cup after Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) had fallen in the last eight.

The Ghanaians scored first through Sulley Muntari two minutes into first-half stoppage time before Diego Forlan equalised with a brilliant free kick in the 55th minute.

In a pulsating quarter-final before 84,017 fans, Ghana led after Inter Milan midfielder Muntari let fly with a 30-yard effort which swerved and beat the diving Muslera into the bottom-left corner.

Muntari was having his first start of the tournament after coming in for the suspended Andre Ayew after being close to being sent home.

Muntari, who has a history of clashes with the management of his national side, had a dressing-room bust-up with Ghana”s Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac earlier in the tournament.

Man-of-the-match Forlan equalised with a spectacular direct free kick 10 minutes after the resumption.

The influential Atletico Madrid star sent his free kick over the three-man defensive wall and beyond Richard Kingson”s reach into the top of the net after Ghana had threatened to take the game away from the Uruguayans.

Both teams went at each other in pulsating end-to-end action with fierce tackles and plenty of goalmouth action before the quarter-final went into extra time.

Uruguay, who last reached the semi-finals in 1970, will be without defender Jorge Fucile for the game after his second yellow card with Suarez also sitting out the game.

Just before halftime Uruguay also lost their skipper and key defender Diego Lugano with an injured right knee and he was replaced by Andres Scotti.

Dutch advance after victory over Slovakia

DURBAN: Arjen Robben and Wesley Sniejder fired the Dutch team to a 2-1 victory over Slovakia here on Monday to set up a World Cup quarter-final against either Brazil or Chile.

Robben made a 20-minute appearance against Cameroon in the Netherlands” final group game after recovering from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the opening two matches.

But coach Bert van Marwijk started the Bayern Munich winger here and he repaid his faith by scoring a textbook goal in the 18th minute against a side that roundly failed in their bid to repeat their giant-killing 3-2 group win over defending champions Italy.

Robben latched onto an excellent long ball from Sneijder, cut back in past the retreating Jan Durica and Radoslav Zabavnik, and drilled a left-footed shot in at the near post past the despairing dive of Jan Mucha.

Sneijder was on hand to convert a clever Dirk Kuyt cross in the 85th minute after the Liverpool striker had robbed an out-of-position Mucha of the ball with the Slovak defence in disarray.

With the last kick of the game, Robert Vittek scored a penalty for Slovakia after Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg brought down Martin Jakubko in the area.

The fact the scoreline was kept to a respectable margin fell in large part to Mucha, who produced three excellent saves in the second-half prior to Sneijder”s goal.

An early chance fell to Slovakia”s Eric Jendrisek who blasted a shot just over the crossbar and skipper Marek Hamsik shot wide after being given too much space.

Robin van Persie had an excellent chance in the eighth minute, his header from a Kuyt cross just ricocheting off Zabavnik for a corner.

The Arsenal player then laid off Sneijder in the box, but the Inter Milan midfielder could only drill an underpowered shot at Mucha.

Mucha was on hand to make two great saves in a matter of minutes early in the second period, firstly parrying a Robben cutback and drive, and then brilliantly fending off a close-range Gregory van der Wiel stab.

The keeper, who has signed for Everton from Polish outfit Legia Warsaw, then punched away an in-swinging free-kick from van Persie, with the Dutch looking very dangerous on the ball.

Having spent the first hour not having made a save of note, Stekelenburg produced two fine efforts in quick succession to keep out efforts from Miroslav Stoch and Vittek.

Kuyt went close with a header from a Sneijder free-kick and then forced Mucha into a good save with a low 25-yard shot.

Dutch advance after victory over Slovakia

DURBAN: Arjen Robben and Wesley Sniejder fired the Dutch team to a 2-1 victory over Slovakia here on Monday to set up a World Cup quarter-final against either Brazil or Chile.

Robben made a 20-minute appearance against Cameroon in the Netherlands” final group game after recovering from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the opening two matches.

But coach Bert van Marwijk started the Bayern Munich winger here and he repaid his faith by scoring a textbook goal in the 18th minute against a side that roundly failed in their bid to repeat their giant-killing 3-2 group win over defending champions Italy.

Robben latched onto an excellent long ball from Sneijder, cut back in past the retreating Jan Durica and Radoslav Zabavnik, and drilled a left-footed shot in at the near post past the despairing dive of Jan Mucha.

Sneijder was on hand to convert a clever Dirk Kuyt cross in the 85th minute after the Liverpool striker had robbed an out-of-position Mucha of the ball with the Slovak defence in disarray.

With the last kick of the game, Robert Vittek scored a penalty for Slovakia after Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg brought down Martin Jakubko in the area.

The fact the scoreline was kept to a respectable margin fell in large part to Mucha, who produced three excellent saves in the second-half prior to Sneijder”s goal.

An early chance fell to Slovakia”s Eric Jendrisek who blasted a shot just over the crossbar and skipper Marek Hamsik shot wide after being given too much space.

Robin van Persie had an excellent chance in the eighth minute, his header from a Kuyt cross just ricocheting off Zabavnik for a corner.

The Arsenal player then laid off Sneijder in the box, but the Inter Milan midfielder could only drill an underpowered shot at Mucha.

Mucha was on hand to make two great saves in a matter of minutes early in the second period, firstly parrying a Robben cutback and drive, and then brilliantly fending off a close-range Gregory van der Wiel stab.

The keeper, who has signed for Everton from Polish outfit Legia Warsaw, then punched away an in-swinging free-kick from van Persie, with the Dutch looking very dangerous on the ball.

Having spent the first hour not having made a save of note, Stekelenburg produced two fine efforts in quick succession to keep out efforts from Miroslav Stoch and Vittek.

Kuyt went close with a header from a Sneijder free-kick and then forced Mucha into a good save with a low 25-yard shot.

Ivory Coast score three but not enough for last 16

NELSPRUIT, South Africa: Ivory Coast fell short of their goal chase to make the last 16 at the World Cup as they beat North Korea 3-0 in their Group G match to continue the exodus of African teams here on Friday.

Chasing down a seemingly impossible nine goals to nudge Portugal out of the last 16 – though it wouldn”t have made a difference in the end as the Portuguese drew with Brazil to finish a point ahead of the ”Elephants” – the Ivorians” goals dried up in the second half against a massed North Korean red wall of defenders.

Ivory Coast joined hosts South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria and Algeria as first-round casualties with only Ghana carrying on the African cause in the knockout round.

The Ivorians scored twice in the opening half, raising some hopes that they might set sail after the imposing target, but as the smoke drifted in from fires on the surrounding low veld, so did Sven-Goran Eriksson”s team lose their way.

Only Chelsea”s Salomon Kalou, a second half substitute, found the net in the 82nd minute, tucking away a high ball from defender Arthur Boka.

The Elephants made a good fist of a vibrant opening half with strikes by Yaya Toure and Romaric among 10 Ivorian shots on target.

Ivory Coast were looking for a mammoth win over the North Koreans, like Portugal”s last start 7-0 rout, and relying on group leaders Brazil to beat the Portuguese in Durban for them to have an outside prospect of reaching the knockout round.

Barcelona playmaker Yaya Toure struck first in the 14th minute, drilling home from outside the area off a cut-back from Kader Keita.

The Elephants went two-up on 20 minutes after Chelsea superstar Didier Drogba rattled the crossbar with a fierce volley and left midfielder Romaric with an easy header into an unguarded net.

Drogba, in imperious form, headed the ball into the net in the 12th minute but was ruled offside as Ivory Coast bombarded the North Korean goal.

The Ivorians” play fell away in the second half as the North Koreans tightened their five-man defence screened by three midfielders.

Eriksson made a double substitution in the 64th minute bringing on Kalou for Keita and Aruna Dindane for Gervinho as he juggled his attack to prise more goals and Kalou dutifully answered the Swedish coach”s call.

North Korea”s Japanese-based striker Jong Tae-Se didn”t look out of place with the skilful Ivorians and he tested their defence with speed and close control several times.

Jong had a great chance in the 81st minute and only a diving block from Manchester City defender Kolo Toure – brother of Yaya – stopped him from scoring.

The match was played in clean spirits with Spanish referee Alberto Undiano not once brandishing the yellow card.

Two Baghdad car bombs kill 26, wound 53

BAGHDAD: Twin car bombs in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday killed 26 people and wounded 53, many of them women or traffic police, the interior ministry said.

The bombs exploded within minutes of each other at around 11:30 am (0830 GMT) in the Al-Yarmuk neighbourhood of west Baghdad, a security official said.

The vehicles were parked close to government offices where identity cards and passports are issued, and large queues of people had formed to seek renewals.

Traffic police offices and a branch of the Iraqi Commercial Bank also lie nearby in the same square which was thronged with people on the first day of the working week. “The bank branch was seriously damaged,” the security official said.

The bombings came hot on the heels of a string of attacks in the capital on Saturday evening.

Three roadside bombs planted in Hurriya, a Shiite neighbourhood in the north of Baghdad, killed four people and wounded 16, a security official told a foreign news agency.

Fire from a Katyusha multiple rocket launcher killed three people and wounded four in Al-Obeidi, an anarchic Shiite slum district in the far east of the capital beyond the sprawling Shiite bastion of Sadr City, an official said.

And in the Zayouna neighbourhood of central Baghdad, police found the bodies of five women. A security official said they were believed to have been killed two or three weeks ago.

There has been a spate of attacks recently by hardline Islamists against women accused of breaking the mores of their ultra-strict brand of the Muslim religion.

Plane with Australians, other foreigners ”missing”

YAOUNDE: Cameroon”s communications ministry on Sunday confirmed that a flight with 11 people on board — six Australians, two French, two Britons and an American — has been missing since Saturday.

Denmark crush Cameroon”s World Cup hopes

PRETORIA: Denmark ended Cameroon”s hopes of reaching the last 16 of the World Cup with a 2-1 victory here on Saturday, a result which means Group E leaders Holland become the first team to qualify for the next round.

Cameroon scored first when Samuel Eto”o coolly shot into the corner of the net after 10 minutes after a pass from midfield was intercepted, but Arsenal”s Nicklas Bendtner struck back for the Danes, converting a cross in the 33rd minute.

Jon Dahl Tomasson was denied by a post shortly before half-time in a match full of defensive errors.

But Dennis Rommedahl gave Denmark the lead, curling a neat finish around Cameroon ”keeper Hamidou Souleymanou on 61 minutes.

Despite several scoring opportunities the west Africans saw their hopes of progressing further in the competition vanish.

Senate apprised of Kyrgyzstan situation

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dr.

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Senate apprised of Kyrgyzstan situation

Canadian director wins 3rd Sydney Film Prize

SYDNEY: A quirky film about love by 21-year-old French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan was named the winner of the third annual Sydney Film Prize on Monday.

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Canadian director wins 3rd Sydney Film Prize

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