Al-Taawoun edge close to Asian final with narrow win over Sharjah

BARCELONA: Hansi Flick ran onto the field on the final whistle and lifted Raphinha off his feet in a bear hug.
The Brazil forward deserved being singled out for extra praise from Barcelona’s coach. He had just led a thrilling 4-3 fightback over Celta Vigo by scoring two late goals including a clutch penalty for an injury-time winner.
Barcelona remained on pace for the Spanish league title as they opened up a seven-point gap over Real Madrid before the defending champion host Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.
“It was amazing to see at this stage how this team gives everything to never give up,” Flick said. He added that at halftime he told Raphinha he needed him “as a leader” on the field.
Raphinha’s double let him reach 30 goals in all competitions this season, the best of his career.
Lewandowski injury worry ahead of big games
The loss might come at a price, however. Barcelona top scorer Robert Lewandowski asked to be substituted in the final minutes while touching his left thigh.
“We have to wait until tomorrow,” Flick said.
There is no let up for Barcelona with three titles in play.
Barcelona face Mallorca in the league on Tuesday and Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final next weekend. Four days after that they will start their Champions League semifinal against Inter Milan.
Raphinha and Olmo spoil Iglesias treble
It looked like another easy win for Barcelona when Ferran Torres fired the hosts ahead early.
But Celta striker Borja Iglesias started his spectacular three-goal performance just three minutes later, scoring on the break after Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny failed to reach a low cross.
Iglesias stunned the home fans again by scoring twice more in the 59th and 62nd from passes from Celta’s own area that were poorly defended by Barcelona.
Iglesias got his second goal after Frenkie De Jong let a long goal kick that looked harmless bounce past him, apparently thinking a teammate would control it. Instead, Iglesias pounced on the ball and drilled a shot inside the far post. Iglesias made it a hat trick when Barcelona’s defense let him run onto a long ball and dink his shot past Szczesny.
Barcelona looked done but Flick’s side quickly rallied behind Raphinha — with some help from substitutes Olmo and Lamine Yamal.
Raphinha slipped a ball through for Olmo to take Barcelona’s second goal. He then rose up to thump in Yamal’s cross with a powerful header. And with Lewandowski on the bench, Raphinha beat goalkeeper Vincente Guaita from the high-pressure penalty deep in injury time after a video review convinced the referee to penalize a foul by Celta defender Yoel Lago on Olmo.
Celta, which held Barcelona to 2-2 in their other meeting this season, fell into eighth place.
Mallorca moved into seventh after a 0-0 draw with Leganes.
Also, Umar Sadiq struck to help Valencia rally for 1-1 at Rayo Vallecano.

JEDDAH: World champion Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in track-record time on Saturday as McLaren’s Formula One leader Lando Norris hit the wall and qualified 10th.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, bidding to become the first Australian to lead the standings since Mark Webber in 2010, joined the four-times world champion on the front row for Sunday’s night race.
Mercedes’s George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will share the second row in third and fourth at the super-fast Corniche circuit where the winner has come from pole three out of four times previously.
“The car came alive in the night,” exclaimed Verstappen after pipping Piastri by a mere 0.010 of a second.
The pole position changed hands three times in a final flurry of flying laps before the champion settled matters with a time of one minute 27.294 seconds.
“I think in the race it will be difficult to keep them behind. But we will give it a good go,” said Verstappen, winner last year.
Italian 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli qualified fifth for Mercedes, with Carlos Sainz sixth for Williams and Lewis Hamilton only seventh for Ferrari.
Verstappen’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda will start eighth with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly ninth.
Norris was fastest in final practice and the second phase of qualifying, after Verstappen had led the first, but brought out red flags with eight-and-a-half minutes remaining when he hit the wall.
The Briton, who leads Piastri by three points after four races, signalled over the team radio that he was unhurt while calling himself an idiot with an exasperated expletive thrown in.
Piastri was the only one with a time on the board at that point, his 1:27.560 effort slower than Norris’s best of 1:27.481 in Q2.
Verstappen then went top when the track action resumed but Russell and Piastri went faster again before the Red Bull driver’s last effort.
Hamilton just squeezed through to the final top-10 shootout, the 40-year-old just 0.007 quicker than 11th-placed Alex Albon in the Williams.
Liam Lawson qualified 12th and ahead of his Racing Bulls rookie team mate Isack Hadjar in 14th.
Oliver Bearman, who made a sensational F1 debut with Ferrari as a stand-in at last year’s Saudi race, will line up 15th for Haas.
Aston Martin, marking their 100th Formula One race as a marque, had another difficult session with double world champion Fernando Alonso 13th and Lance Stroll 16th.