3, April 2021
Football: Liverpool back into Champions League contention 0
Liverpool clicked back into form to thrash Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates on Saturday and rekindle their chances of a top-four finish in the Premier League.
Diogo Jota came off the bench to score twice either side of Mohamed Salah’s 26th goal of the season as Jurgen Klopp’s men closed to within two points of fourth-placed Chelsea.
The manner of the victory will be just as pleasing as the scoreline for Klopp as Liverpool looked far more like their old selves ahead of a trip to Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday.
Chelsea’s shock 5-2 defeat at home to West Brom earlier on Saturday opened the door for both sides to close in on their target of a top-four finish.
However, it was only Liverpool who showed any ambition as Arsenal were thoroughly outplayed.
The visitors pressed the Gunners high and quickly recovered possession, but lacked the killer edge up front to turn their dominance into goals until Jota was introduced on the hour mark.
Roberto Firmino flashed a shot just wide from outside the box before James Milner also failed to hit the target with the best chance of the first period.
Arsenal got to half-time without any damage done on the scoreboard, but suffered a major injury blow as Kieran Tierney limped off just before the break.
Tierney’s outstanding form for club and country has seen calls for Liverpool’s Andy Robertson to be dropped by Scotland to allow the former Celtic left-back to play in his favoured role.
With success for Arsenal this season now dependent on winning the Europa League, Tierney would be a big miss for Thursday’s quarter-final, first leg against Slavia Prague.
Like Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold has failed to hit the heights of his stunning season as Liverpool romped to the title last year.
On Friday, Klopp expressed his shock that Alexander-Arnold had been dropped from the England squad by Gareth Southgate and the right-back showed his international manager what he is missing by creating the opener on 64 minutes.
Jota had only been on the field three minutes when he met Alexander-Arnold’s cross with a powerful header at the back post.
Four minutes later, Salah wrapped up the three points as the Egyptian outmuscled Gabriel Magalhaes before coolly slotting underneath the advancing Bernd Leno.
The loss of centre-backs Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip to injury has been attributed as the principal reason for Liverpool’s slide down the Premier League table this season.
However, Jota’s absence for three months due to a knee injury between December and March also played a major part.
The Portuguese pounced again at the back post for his sixth goal in four games for club and country to round off a miserable night for the Gunners eight minutes from the end.
Arsenal remain in ninth, nine points adrift of the top four.
Source: AFP
4, April 2021
Jordan arrests former senior royal aides for ‘security reasons’ 0
The half-brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah II was asked to “stop some movements and activities that are being used to target Jordan’s security and stability,” the country’s top general said Saturday amid the arrest of former senior officials close to the ruling monarchy.
The details remained murky, but any internal unrest would raise alarms among the US and other Western nations, which have long viewed Jordan’s ruling monarchy as a key military ally and a bastion of stability in a volatile region.
Gen. Yousef Huneiti, the army chief of staff, denied reports that Prince Hamzah – the king’s half-brother who was also a former crown prince – had been arrested. He said an investigation is still ongoing and its results will be made public “in a transparent and clear form.”
“No one is above the law and Jordan’s security and stability are above all,” he told the official Petra news agency.
Petra had earlier reported that two senior officials who formerly worked for the palace “and others” had been arrested for “security reasons,” without providing further details.
The Petra report said Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, the former royal envoy to Saudi Arabia, and Bassem Ibrahim Awadallah, the former head of the royal court, were detained. Awadallah also previously served as planning minister and finance minister.
The agency did not provide further details or name the others who were arrested.
“We are closely following the reports and in touch with Jordanian officials,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “King Abdullah is a key partner of the United States, and he has our full support.”
Abdullah has ruled Jordan since the 1999 death of of his father, King Hussein, who ruled the country for close to a half-century. The king has cultivated close relations with US and other Western leaders over the years, and Jordan was a key ally in the war against the Islamic State group. The country borders Israel, the occupied West Bank, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Jordan’s economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. The country, with a population of around 10 million, also hosts more than 600,000 Syrian refugees.
Jordan made peace with Israel in 1994, but relations have been tense in recent years, largely due to differences linked to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Jordan is home to more than 2 million Palestinian refugees, most of whom have Jordanian citizenship.
Abdullah stripped his half-brother Hamzah of his title as crown prince in 2004, saying he had decided to “free” him “from the constraints of the position of crown prince in order to give you the freedom to work and undertake any mission or responsibility I entrust you with.”
The current crown prince is Abdullah’s oldest son, Hussein, aged 26.
Abdullah had chosen Hamzah as his crown prince hours after their father died of cancer in February 1999. The designation was out of respect for Hussein, who is known to have favored Hamzah the most among his 11 children from four marriages.
Abdullah and Hamzah have not displayed any open rivalry over the years.
Source: AP