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The National
5 hours ago
- Sport
- The National
Club World Cup: Esperance clinch dramatic win while Harry Kane sends Bayern Munich through
Esperance de Tunis kept their Club World Cup hopes alive as the enigmatic Youcef Belaili scored in the 70th minute while goalkeeper Ben Said saved a penalty deep in second-half stoppage time to help defeat Los Angeles FC 1-0 in a dramatic contest in Nashville. Victory took Esperance level with Chelsea in Group D in second spot, after the English side lost 3-1 to Brazil's Flamengo earlier on Friday. In the game on Friday, referee Espen Eskas awarded a very late spot kick following a video review, ruling Khalil Guenichi had felled Marlon in the area. But Denis Bouanga drove his ensuing penalty kick into the dive of Said, the final salvo in a result that eliminated LA FC from tournament contention. The winners of Esperance's clash with Chelsea on Tuesday in Philadelphia will move on to the knockout phase. The Tunisians had an earlier penalty decision go against them 20 minutes before Belaili 's opener, when the Algerian attacker believed he had earned a spot kick after driving past Bouanga on the dribble. But Eskas was summoned to the monitor, and after consulting replays, ruled Bouanga wasn't guilty of a foul, and booked Belaili for simulation. That failed to halt the momentum for Esperance, however, who were the better side for most of the encounter and did allow LA FC to record a shot on target until second-half stoppage time. They were eventually rewarded when Amine Ben Hamida made a marauding run from the left flank. He was eventually halted by an LA's defence. But Belaili was first to the loose ball, and he drove his finish low and hard through goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. It appeared LA FC's fading tournament hopes would be given a lifeline after Eskas's second penalty decision, with the Gabon international Bouanga stepping forward. But Said dove to his left, and with Bouanga's placement very poor, the Tunisian goalkeeper kicked the ball wide of danger with his trailing leg. Harry Kane delighted Bayern Munich's England striker Harry Kane said he is relishing the Club World Cup 's 'special' atmosphere and is confident the German team can now go all the way. Kane scored the opener for Bayern in a 2-1 win over Argentina's Boca Juniors at Hard Rock Stadium that took his side through to the last 16. He said it had been a tough challenge in the heat and humidity of South Florida. 'There's something special about these World Cup games and next year will be the same,' he said with a nod to the 2026 World Cup. 'When you come off that pitch and you're sweating and you're dripping and you're cramping and you've given everything on the pitch. There's a special feeling inside, especially when you win. That's what we had today.' Boca responded to Kane's opener through Miguel Merentiel, but Michael Olise sealed the win six minutes from time. 'Really tough game. I thought the first half was really good, I mean we probably should have been 2 or 3-0 up. They hung in the game and the second half made it more difficult,' said Kane, who acknowledged the incredible support of more than 55,000 Boca fans in the 63,587 crowd. 'I mean it felt like an away game out there for sure, their fans were really loud. It was a great experience to play in front of them and I think that's what makes the win even more special, because it feels like a good away win,' he said. 'So we're really happy, really pleased and we'll sleep well tonight.' Bayern's win was the first for a European team against South American opposition in the tournament and Kane said he was enjoying pitting himself against opponents European clubs rarely face. 'I think it's great to experience different teams and I think you've seen in this tournament already, the South American teams especially have caused big problems for some of the European teams.
Asharq Al-Awsat
8 hours ago
- Sport
- Asharq Al-Awsat
ES Tunis Claim 1-0 Win, Eliminating LAFC from Club World Cup
Youcef Belaili scored in the 70th minute, goalkeeper Ben Said saved a penalty deep in second-half stoppage time and ES Tunis defeated LAFC 1-0 to keep their FIFA Club World Cup hopes alive in a dramatic contest Friday in Nashville, Tenn. The victory takes ES Tunis (1-1-0, 3 points) level with Chelsea in Group D, after the English side lost 3-1 to Brazil's Flamengo earlier on Friday. Referee Espen Eskas awarded a very late spot kick following a video review, ruling Khalil Guenichi had felled Marlon in the area. But Denis Bouanga drove his ensuing penalty kick into the dive of Said, the final salvo in a result that eliminated LAFC (0-2-0, 0 points) from tournament contention. The winner of ES Tunis' meeting with Chelsea Tuesday in Philadelphia will move on to the knockout phase, with Chelsea advancing on a draw based on superior goal differential.
The National
11-06-2025
- Sport
- The National
Youcef Belaili back to his maverick best and looking to elevate Esperance at Club World Cup
It took around 46 minutes for the supporters of Esperance of Tunisia, numerous and fantastically noisy when circumstances demand, to fall in love all over again with a favourite maverick. The players had just emerged from half time on the opening day of the 2024/25 league season, Esperance at home to US Tataouine, when Youcef Belaili drifted across the penalty area, left to right, and was picked out by a neat angled pass from Yan Sasse. The rest was instantly familiar. A deft check inside his marker, then a booming trivela, curled from the outside of his right boot past a helpless goalkeeper. Welcome home, the brilliant, sometimes baffling Belaili. Esperance won 3-0, their first points towards another league title, number 34 on the club's unmatched tally of domestic championships, and here was Belaili doing just what he used to do in the blood-and-gold jersey. It was a soothing sight because there had been some scepticism when, last summer, the Algerian winger signed for a third time with Esperance. He was 32, and looked back on a zig-zag career peppered with shortened stays at some clubs and angry disputes at a few of them. 'The 'enfant terrible' is back,' suggested a headline in La Presse de Tunisie, wondering if a second return to Esperance might be one comeback too many. Ten months on, heading for a Club World Cup that was in Belaili's mind when he plotted his third stint at Esperance, the maverick has cast himself as main man in the club's ambitions to upset the hierarchy of a group that has Chelsea and Flamengo as its favourites and to push the North Africans into the knockout phase. Belaili arrives in the USA in the form of his life, the club's top scorer and top assister in a double-winning campaign – 34 goal-involvements in all from 24 games across competitions. In the CAF Champions League, where Esperance were narrowly eliminated in the semi-final, only Fiston Mayele, of champions Pyramids, finished with more goals than Belaili. He is back in the Algeria national team, too, recalled in March by a head coach, Vladimir Petkovic, who began his reign by directly referencing 'indiscipline' as a reason for excluding Belaili. Petkovic barely needed to cite the long history, from the ban, after testing positive for a prohibited substance that cost Belaili two years of his career in his mid-20s to the rows that led to the cancellation of his contacts at French clubs Brest and Ajaccio. There were sour endings to his stints at Al Ahli in Jeddah and Qatar SC, too. Nor was his exit from Mouloudia of Algiers, where he spearheaded a title-winning season in 2023/24, happily received there, his departure taken as evidence, in the eyes of some compatriots, of Belail's incorrigible restlessness. His stay there lasted just one year. This deep into his career, Belaili is stuck with that 'difficult' reputation, but when a player is supplying match-winning moments at such frequency, and delighting fans, a wise manager makes compromises. 'He made a great impression for us,' his coach at Mouloudia, Patrice Beaumelle, told So Foot magazine. 'He's a player who lives on instinct and for challenges. But put too many restrictions on him and he won't enjoy himself or be at his best.' And being so clearly at his best in his club football for two full seasons now has convinced Petkovic. Last week, Belaili marked his third game since his Algeria recall – his 54th cap in all – by scoring the first goal and setting up the second in Algeria's 2-0 win against Rwanda. That's fine form to be taking to the US adventure and the mark of a consistency that both challenges the well-established image of Belaili as erratic and speaks of a stability and leadership that has not been reflected elsewhere at Esperance. Notably in the dugout. There have been four head coaches in charge in 2024/25, and if none of them have doubted that Belaili should be their touchstone in attack, that high turnover gives a clue to the sorts of nervy expectation that drives Esperance club presidents. In October Miguel Cardoso was dismissed as head coach, five months after having led Esperance to a CAF Champions League final and to the club's 33rd national title. After the brief caretakership of Skander Kasri, Laurentiu Reghecampf lasted 24 games, invited to leave after a sequence of two wins in five. And so the wheel turned back to Maher Kanzari, twice previously an Esperance head coach. He'll be the man in charge for the Club World Cup adventure. Kanzari and Belaili go back all the way to the 2012/13 season, when Belaili was first making himself a hero at Esperance and the coach had his initial go aboard the club's managerial merry-go-round. A dozen years later, Kanzari was grateful of the savvy of his Algerian wizard to push Esperance through the last stages of a tight title race, the prize sealed on the penultimate matchday. 'Thanks to the experience of the players and the coaching staff, we came through a lot of challenges this season,' said Kanzari. 'This is Esperance. We have to finish on top,' added Belaili. It was his fifth Tunisian league title, to add to the 2012 medal from spell number one with the club; to the two titles, coupled with back-to-back African Champions Leagues, from his first Esperance sequel, the two seasons up until 2019, the year he also won the Africa Cup of Nations with his country. He's a player who lives on instinct and for challenges. But put too many restrictions on him and he won't enjoy himself or be at his best. Patrice Beaumelle, former Mouloudia coach But never has Belaili been so regularly effective as now with the club that keeps asking him back. Part of that is down to his slick dovetailing with Sasse, the Brazilian and his connection, along the left flank with the redoutable full-back Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida. Esperance recruited well in the winter transfer window, too, by signing Chiheb Jebali from Monastir, a creative passer and a strong alternative, delivering a dead ball, to Belaili's set-piece skills. Defensively, Esperance have tightened up over the two months under Kanzari's watch. If the group that awaits them in America looks daunting, with its opening test against in-form Flamengo, it offers possibilities of progress, particularly if they can go into their last first-phase game against Chelsea having beaten Los Angeles FC, the last of the 32 qualifiers for the tournament. 'We know how to make our experience in big matches count,' promised Kanzari.
