Vincent Aboubakar scored one of the most eye-catching goals of the World Cup – but only with the help of VAR.

Unfortunately, Aboubakar wasn’t able to properly celebrate his glorious lob of Serbia goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic because the assistant referee raised his flag for offside straight away.

But video assistant referee Mohamed Al Hammadi ensured one of the best-taken goals of the tournament wouldn’t be wasted by checking the replays and finding Aboubakar had timed his run to perfection.

Source: Daily Mail

The Italian who ran on to the World Cup pitch wearing a T-shirt in support of Ukraine and Iranian women is a football player with a history of similar stunts.

Mario Ferri, 35, who calls himself “The Falcon”, interrupted the Portugal-Uruguay game on Monday when he sprinted on to the pitch wearing a blue Superman T-shirt with “Save Ukraine” on the front and “Respect for Iranian Woman” on the back.

He also carried a rainbow-coloured flag adorned with the words PACE, meaning peace in Italian.

“I’m BACK,” wrote the footballer on his Instagram page, where he describes himself as a “modern pirate”.

Ferri said he wanted to send “important messages”, including for Iran “where I have friends who are suffering, where women are not respected”.

“FIFA banned rainbow captain’s armbands and human rights flags in the stands, they blocked everyone, BUT NOT ME, like a Robin Hood,” he wrote.

“SAVE UKRAINE. I spent a month in the war in Kyiv as a volunteer and saw how much those people are suffering,” he wrote, adding that “breaking the rules for a good cause is never a crime”.

Italy’s foreign ministry confirmed Ferri had been briefly detained following the pitch invasion, before being “released by the authorities without any further consequences”.

Gay rights and the use of the rainbow flag have been a simmering issue at the World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal. The rainbow features in both the flag for LGBTQ rights and the peace flag.

According to the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper, Ferri has played football in India, Jordan, San Marino, the Seychelles and Switzerland.

In 2010, Ferri invaded the Club World Cup pitch in Abu Dhabi during an Inter-Mazembe game furling an AC Milan scarf.

Four years later during the World Cup in Brazil, he again sported his Superman T-shirt as he ran onto the field during a Belgium-USA game.

The T-shirt read “Save the children of the favelas,” or the slums of Brazilian cities, with underneath it “Ciro lives”, in memory of Naples fan Ciro Esposito who shot by an ultra before the Coppa Italia final. He later died.

In 2017, Ferri threw a Naples scarf in the face of Juventus player Gonzalo Higuain during a Naples-Juventus match.

“I decided to avenge the Neapolitans for Higuain’s move to Juventus,” he told Corriere dello Sport.

“I said, ‘Traitor!’ and left.”

Source: AFP

Normally, it would be horrible news to football fans anywhere that their team’s star player was injured. But even as they endured an anguished wait for a Neymar-less Brazil to score in their 1-0 win over Switzerland Monday, some Brazilians found it hard to miss the injured superstar, who has promised to dedicate his first World Cup goal to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Watching the match in a packed bar in central Rio de Janeiro, where fans decked out in yellow and green waited nervously for what turned out to be the lone goal — scored in the 83rd minute, by Casemiro — 23-year-old law student Henrique Melo explained his dilemma.

As a football fan, he desperately wanted Neymar back from the ankle injury that sidelined him late in Brazil’s 2-0 win over Serbia Thursday, in which the Paris Saint-Germain star sparkled despite failing to find the goal.

“The team are missing him,” Melo said, proudly sporting the football-mad nation’s jersey.

At the same time, the fact that the world’s most expensive footballer has yet to score in the tournament “is the best result Brazil’s had in the World Cup,” he joked.

“We would have had all these Bolsonaro supporters celebrating,” Melo, a proud supporter of leftist president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, told AFP.

“As a player, Neymar’s incredible — he’s an artist. As a person, he leaves a lot to be desired. Not just his political opinions, but who he is. Instead of just enjoying his bling lifestyle, he could be investing in education, social projects, setting an example for kids… He could be the man.”

On Rio’s iconic Copacabana beach, where a huge crowd watched the match on a giant screen, 29-year-old vendor Tainara Santana was feeling the same quandary.

“I like football, so I want (Neymar) to play because he’s good. But I can’t say I’m sad he hasn’t scored. It’s great to see Neymar fail,” she laughed.

With his lean good looks and huge social media following, Neymar is one of the biggest names in sports.

But his footballing magic has been tarnished at times.

On the pitch, critics accuse the 30-year-old Paris Saint-Germain star of diving and of failing to live up to the hype when it counts. Off the pitch, he has faced accusations of excessive partying, tax fraud and spoiled behavior.

“He’s a jerk,” Santana said.

“Not just for his politics, but because of his machismo, his ego, his total lack of humility.”

‘How low have we sunk?’

Brazil’s campaign for a record-extending sixth World Cup comes on the heels of its divisive elections last month.

Neymar endorsed Bolsonaro against Lula — and became the target of an army of “Neymar haters” online.

At the weekend, “F*** Neymar” became one of the top trending topics in Brazil on Twitter.

Brazilian football legend Ronaldo rushed to Neymar’s defense Sunday.

“You’re f***ing Neymar! Giant!” the two-time World Cup winner wrote on Instagram Sunday.

“That’s why you have to deal with so much envy and evil, to the point of people celebrating your injury. How low have we sunk?” he said, urging Neymar to “use that hate as fuel.”

Teammates Casemiro and Raphinha also stuck up for Neymar, saying he didn’t deserve the shade he was getting on social media.

Brazil have struggled in the past without Neymar — notably enduring the shame of their 7-1 elimination by Germany on home soil in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals after their talisman suffered a back injury.

In Copacabana, Lula supporter Charleo Luis just wanted to keep politics and football separate.

Neymar haters “are idiots who know nothing about football,” said the 24-year-old street vendor.

“Who cares if he supports Bolsonaro? He’s a great player. I’m a huge fan, I love him. I’m rooting for him to recover.”

The World Cup, he added, “is a time for us to cheer like one big family.”

Source: AFP

Cameroon kept their hopes of making the last 16 of the World Cup alive on Monday after fighting back from two goals down to draw a thrilling Group G encounter with Serbia 3-3.

Rigobert Song’s team looked almost dead and buried after goals from Strahinja Pavlovic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Aleksandar Mitrovic gave Serbia a 3-1 lead early in the second half.

But substitute Vincent Aboubakar and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting snatched a draw with two quick-fire strikes just after the hour mark to leave both Cameroon and Serbia on a single point, two behind group leaders Brazil and Switzerland.

Had they lost, Cameroon would have been relying on the Swiss beating Brazil in order to not be eliminated with a game to spare, but instead the west Africans still have a chance of getting out of the group stage for the first time since 1990.

Cameroon have a tough task ahead as they play Brazil in their final match, which according to reports they will play without first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana who was dropped from the matchday squad just hours before kick-off following an unspecified disciplinary issue.

Media reports suggest that Onana has been sent home from the World Cup after a disagreement with Song, but that pre-match turmoil didn’t stop Cameroon putting in a fighting display against a Serbia team who probably deserved to win on the balance of play.

Mitrovic was almost invisible in Serbia’s defeat to Brazil but here he was involved from kick-off, the Fulham forward unlucky not to give Serbia the lead in the 11th minute when he crashed a shot off the post from a tight angle following a neat exchange of passes with Dusan Tadic.

Lions comeback

But Mitrovic only had himself to blame for not opening the scoring six minutes later, shanking an awful first-time finish wide when, after a mix up in the Cameroon defence, the ball dropped at his feet with only Onana’s replacement Devis Epassy to beat.

And Castelletto punished the Serbs for Mitrovic’s miss in the 29th minute with the simplest of finishes after ghosting in at the back post to meet Nicolas Nkoulou’s flick-on at a corner.

Pierre Kunde then passed up a golden opportunity to double Cameroon’s lead in the 43rd minute when he first shot straight at goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and then smashed the rebound wide.

It was Cameroon’s turn to be undone at a set-piece as the half crept into first-half stoppage time when Pavlovic brilliantly headed home Dusan Tadic’s floated free-kick.

The Serbs’ tails were up and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic flipped the match on its head two minutes later with a superb left-footed finish after Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa sloppily gave the ball away just outside his own penalty area.

Mitrovic finally had the goal his strong display deserved seven minutes after the break, tapping in Andrija Zivkovic’s pass unopposed at the end of beautiful move guided by Milinkovic-Savic and Tadic.

The match looked over but from nowhere Cameroon sprung back into life thanks to Aboubakar’s odd goal.

The Al Nassr forward raced through onto Castelletto’s launched pass over the top and scooped an improbable finish over the Serbia ‘keeper, beaming with delight after his goal was awarded following a VAR check.

Aboubakar’s pace caused Serbia all kinds of problems and he laid on Choupo-Moting’s leveller, bursting down the right and laying on a simple finish for the Bayern Munich forward which sparked wild celebrations on the pitch and in the stands.

Neither side could find a winner in an end-to-end finish to the game and their bids to make the knockouts will go down to the final game.

Source:  AFP