Australia

West Ham 1-4 Liverpool: Mohamed Salah brace beats Hammers

Liverpool won at West Ham on Saturday, with Mohamed Salah scoring twice in an emphatic 4-1 victory S..

Published

6 years ago

November 4, 2017

Europe Disk

Liverpool won at West Ham on Saturday, with Mohamed Salah scoring twice in an emphatic 4-1 victory
Salah scored in each half at the London Stadium where Joel Matip and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also netted
Manuel Lanzini bagged for West Ham, who were awful defensively and conceded from an attacking corner

By Rob Draper for MailOnline

Published: 15:23 EDT, 4 November 2017 | Updated: 15:31 EDT, 4 November 2017

Sometimes it is not the defeat itself that marks the end of an era; sometimes it is the manner of the defeat which is far more damaging than the score-line itself.

West Ham were abject against Liverpool at the London Stadium. By the end, a crowd of almost 60,000 had withered and thinned to around 15,000 hardy souls who saw it out to the bitter end to half-heartedly boo the team off. Most of those left by then were jubilant Liverpool fans.

This wasn't how it was meant to be when West Ham launched their brave new world in Stratford last year. Then, Slaven Bilic was riding high, having overseen an excellent first season at the club, full of passion and excitement. European adventures beckoned; new horizons were coming into view. West Ham might even set their sights hanging onto the coat tails of the big six.

Liverpool won for the third time in eight days as they beat West Ham United in Stratford on Saturday evening

Mohamed Salah scored twice for the Reds, who climbed to sixth in the Premier League table and to within one point of third

Centre back Joel Matip also scored for a dominant Liverpool outfit, who were 2-0 up inside the opening 24 minutes

Summer signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got on the scoresheet too, netting his first Premier League goal for the Reds

MATCH FACTS AND PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE

West Ham (4-4-1-1): Hart; Kouyate, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Ayew, Obiang, Noble, Lanzini; Fernandes; Hernandez

Subs: Arnautovic, Masuaku, Sakho, Adrian, Haksabanovic, Rice

Bookings: Noble, Reid, Lanzini

Scorers: Lanzini (55)

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Mignolet; Gomez, Matip, Klavan, Moreno; Wijnaldum, Can; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Salah, Mane; Firmino

Subs: Lovren, Karius, Grujic, Solanke, Alexander-Arnold, Milner, Sturridge

Bookings: n/a

Scorers: Salah (21, 76), Matip (24), Oxlade-Chamberlain (56)

Season at glance

Premier League
Premier League
Championship
League One
League Two
Scottish Premiership
Scottish Div 1
Scottish Div 2
Scottish Div 3
Ligue 1
Serie A
La Liga
Bundesliga

Liverpool's first goal was the product of a counter attack led by a pacy dribble from Sadio Mane, who set up Mohamed Salah

Liverpool's third was scored by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain but Roberto Firmino made it with a fine run, past Winston Reid, and pass

For more stats and graphs visit Sportsmail's brilliant Match Zone.

That seems fanciful for now. Of course, they will play better than this and they could yet recover some respectability. Yet when you concede so easily, defend so poorly and appear so utterly bewildered by a Liverpool team which, good though they are, always offer some hope, it's hard to see how any immediate improvement will come. Owner David Gold and David Sullivan have to ponder whether to see out a season treading water at best and then head out for deeper waters in the summer or take the plunge now. Right now, West Ham have a League Cup quarter final to sustain them but precious little else.

Conceding goals to Liverpool on the counter attack is not necessarily a disgrace. Plenty have done so this season and better sides than West Ham. However, the way they collectively allowed the first goal to be scored after 22 minutes was especially abject. There were 13 seconds between Manuel Lanzini taking West Ham's corner at one end and Mohamed Salah scoring at the other.

Liverpool headed the corner clear and ball fell to Salah. His clever touch for Mane put Fernandes out of the game, but, in theory that should have only be temporarily. Incredibly though Salah and Mane, with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain swiftly joining them, found themselves deep inside their own half yet with just Aaron Creswell confronting them. It was evidently a hopeless task.

Quite how West Ham had left themselves so exposed was inexplicable. Presumably that isn't how Slaven Bilic intends them to set up for a corner against the quickest counter attacking side in the league. It was beyond naïve, a schoolboy moment.

Mane carried the ball for 60 metres before releasing Salah as Cresswell battled against the odds. What was as shocking though was that only Mark Noble and Winston Reid had then managed to get themselves anywhere near the attackers. Though they couldn't catch them, but they both overtook Edimilson Fernandes, who sauntered back. No surprise that he was replaced at half time but barely any of his team-mates contributed either. As such, Salah's task was easy to finish from close range and Joe Hart and Cresswell's mission was always doomed.

Then, two minutes and thirty seven seconds passed from the restart before West Ham were looking around utterly bewildered again and now two goals down. This time, at least, it was a Liverpool corner which was their downfall. Salah drilled it in low to Mané but André Ayew cleared against Mark Noble. Hart dived to save the deflection off his own team-mate but could only push the ball to Joel Matip, who finished from close range. Twenty four minutes had passed and West Ham had seemingly resigned from the contest.

Which was infuriating for their supporters as, given the fragile state of Liverpool's defence, they were not unreasonably hopeful in the early exchanges. They should have taken the lead on ten minutes, Lanzini lifting the ball beyond that often-hapless Liverpool back four for Ayew, who charged clear but shot against the post with Simon Mignolet rapidly closing down his angle.

The Reds were ahead on 21 minutes when Salah scored his 11th goal since joining from Roma in the summer

Salah was left with a simple finish after he and Sadio Mane broke at speed following a West Ham corner kick at the other end

Egypt international Salah celebrated by kissing the turf at the London Stadium while his team-mates gathered around him

Mane also kissed the ground, playing in his first Reds match since recovering from an injury picked up in early October

Liverpool always offer you some hope, however. They are not a team to shut up shop; rather, they're open all hours. West Ham changed to a more effective 4-4-2 with Andy Carroll at half time and on 55 minutes Andrew Ayew's cross headed in Lanzini's direction. The Argentine still had plenty of work to do, but his movement was too clever for Joe Gomez, with Lanzini giving himself a clear strike on goal. That said, his volley past Mignolet, crisp and powerful, was wonderful.

Briefly the London Stadium stirred from its slumber. What had seemed unlikely, suddenly came into view. Yet, as had been their wont in this game, they soon quickly managed to puncture their own optimism with a self-inflicted wound. Just fifty-five seconds passed from the re-start and hope was deferred once more.

Firmino shrugged off half-hearted challenges, found space and released Oxlade-Chamberlain. His first strike was parried by Hart but the rebound landed kindly and the former Arsenal man struck home from close range, his first Premier League goal since his summer move.

Even then, Liverpool weren't wholly safe. Carrol remained a threat and just two minutes after Liverpool restored their two-goal lead, Lanzini really should have scored for West Ham again. Played in by Carroll and with Mignolet to beat from an admittedly tight angle, he fired over.

Liverpool would though extend their lead still further. Mané, excellent on his return, wriggled his way through a plethora of semi-committed challenges before lifting the ball to Salah, in yards of space, on the edge of the box on 76 minutes. Confident and precise, the Egyptian simply drilled the ball across goal and into the far corner of the net. Cue an exodus. Seemingly without rancour, West Ham fans simply got up and left. Thousands headed for the exits. There wasn't even much anger; simply resignation. Even with ten minutes to play, the stadium was half empty. But the team had surrendered long before the crowd had thrown in the towel.

Liverpool were 2-0 up on 24 minutes when defender Matip was left with a simple finish in the Hammers' six-yard box

Matip tapped home after Joe Hart had failed to hold onto the ball as he made a diving save to prevent a Mark Noble own goal

Manuel Lanzini gave West Ham supporters brief hope by making it 2-1 just 10 minutes into the second half

Argentina international Lanzini found the net with an attractive chip over goalkeeper Simon Mignolet

But Liverpool regained their two-goal lead less than 60 seconds later when Oxlade-Chamberlain gobbled a rebound

Salah then made it 4-1 with a crisp left-footed shot, again set up by Mane, who completed 77 minutes for Jurgen Klopp

West Ham's defeat left Slaven Bilic facing increasing pressure. He looked exasperated as he watched his team struggle

Mignolet captained Liverpool for the first time and looked proud as he celebrated one of his team's first-half goals

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Australia

Why Australia decided to quit its vaping habit

Published

2 weeks ago

May 28, 2023

Europe Disk

He’s talking about students in his class, teenagers, who can’t stop vaping.

He sees the effect of the candy-flavoured, nicotine-packed e-cigarettes on young minds every day, with children even vaping in class.

“The ones who are deepest into it will just get up out of their seat, or they’ll be fidgeting or nervous. The worst offenders will just walk out because they’re literally in withdrawal.”

Those who are most addicted need nicotine patches or rehabilitation, he says, talking about 13 and 14-year-olds.

is enough and introduced a range of new restrictions. Despite vapes already being illegal for many, under new legislation they will become available by prescription only.

The number of vaping teenagers in Australia has soared in recent years and authorities say it is the “number one behavioural issue” in schools across the country.

And they blame disposable vapes – which some experts say could be more addictive than heroin and cocaine – but for now are available in Australia in every convenience store, next to the chocolate bars at the counter.

For concerned teachers like Chris, their hands have been tied.

“If we suspect they have a vape, all we can really do is tell them to go to the principal’s office.

“At my old school, my head teacher told me he wanted to install vape detector alarms in the toilet, but apparently we weren’t allowed to because that would be an invasion of privacy.”

E-cigarettes have been sold as a safer alternative to tobacco, as they do not produce tar – the primary cause of lung cancer.

Some countries continue to promote them with public health initiatives to help cigarette smokers switch to a less deadly habit.

Last month, the UK government announced plans to hand out free vaping starter kits to one million smokers in England to get smoking rates below 5% by 2030.

But Australia’s government says that evidence that e-cigarettes help smokers quit is insufficient for now. Instead, research shows it may push young vapers into taking up smoking later in life.

‘Generation Vape’

Vapes, or e-cigarettes, are lithium battery-powered devices that have cartridges filled with liquids containing nicotine, artificial flavourings, and other chemicals.

The liquid is heated and turned into a vapour and inhaled into the user’s lungs.

Vaping took off from the mid-2000s and there were some 81 million vapers worldwide in 2021, according to the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction group.

Fuelling the rise is the mushrooming popularity of flavoured vapes designed to appeal to the young.

These products can contain far higher volumes of nicotine than regular cigarettes, while some devices sold as ‘nicotine-free’ can actually hold large amounts.

The chemical cocktail also contains formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde – which have been linked to lung disease, heart disease, and cancer.

There’s also a suggestion of an increased risk of stroke, respiratory infection, and impaired lung function.

Experts warn not enough is known about the long-term health effects. But some alarming data has already been drawn out.

In 2020, US health authorities identified more than 2,800 cases of e-cigarette or vaping-related lung injury. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 68 deaths attributed to that injury.

In Australia, a major study by leading charity The Cancer Council found more than half of all children who had ever vaped had used an e-cigarette they knew contained nicotine and thought that vaping was a socially acceptable behaviour.

School-age children were being supplied with e-cigarettes through friends or “dealers” inside and outside school, or from convenience stores and tobacconists, the report said.

Teens also reported purchasing vapes through social media, websites and at pop-up vape stores, the Generation Vape project found.

“Whichever way teenagers obtain e-cigarettes, they are all illegal, yet it’s happening under the noses of federal and state authorities”, report author and Cancer Council chair Anita Dessaix said.

“All Australian governments say they’re committed to ensuring e-cigarettes are only accessed by smokers with a prescription trying to quit – yet a crisis in youth e-cigarette use is unfolding in plain view.”

In addition to the government’s move to ban the import of all non-pharmaceutical vaping products – meaning they can now only be bought with a prescription – all single-use disposable vapes will be made illegal.

The volume and concentration of nicotine in e-cigarettes will also be restricted, and both flavours and packaging must be plain and carrying warning labels.

But these new measures are not actually all that drastic, says public health physician Professor Emily Banks from the Australian National University.

“Australia is not an outlier. It is unique to have a prescription-only model, but other places actually ban them completely, and that includes almost all of Latin America, India, Thailand and Japan.”

‘We have been duped’

Health Minister Mark Butler said the new vaping regulations will close the “biggest loophole in Australian healthcare history”.

“Just like they did with smoking… ‘Big Tobacco’ has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added sweet flavours to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.”

“We have been duped”, he said.

Medical experts agree. Prof Banks argues that the promotion of e-cigarettes as a “healthier” alternative was a classic “sleight-of-hand” from the tobacco industry.

As such vaping has become “normalised” in Australia, and in the UK too.

“There’s over 17,000 flavours, and the majority of use is not for smoking cessation”, she tells the BBC.

“They’re being heavily marketed towards children and adolescents. People who are smoking and using e-cigarettes – that’s the most common pattern of use, dual use.”

Professor Banks says authorities need to “de-normalise” vaping among teenagers and make vapes much harder to get hold of.

“Kids are interpreting the fact that they can very easily get hold of [vapes] as evidence [they’re safe], and they’re actually saying, ‘well, if they were that unsafe, I wouldn’t be able to buy one at the coffee shop’.

But could stricter controls make it harder for people who do turn to vapes hoping to quit or cut down on tobacco?

“It is important to bear in mind that for some people, e-cigarettes have really helped. But we shouldn’t say ‘this is great for smokers to quit’, says Prof Banks.

“We know from

Australia, from the US, from Europe, that two-thirds to three-quarters of people who quit smoking successfully, do so unaided.”

“You’re trying to bring these [vapes] in saying they’re a great way to quit smoking, but actually we’ve got bubble gum flavoured vapes being used by 13-year-olds in the school toilets. That is not what the community signed up for.”

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-65522841

Australia

Australia: Scott Morrison saga casts scrutiny on Queen’s representative

Published

9 months ago

August 27, 2022

Europe Disk

In the past fortnight, Australia has been gripped by revelations that former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to several additional ministries.

The move has been labelled a “power grab” by his successor as prime minister, and Mr Morrison has been scolded by many – even his own colleagues.

But the scandal has also dragged Australia’s governor-general into the fray – sparking one of the biggest controversies involving the Queen’s representative in Australia in 50 years.

So does Governor-General David Hurley have questions to answer, or is he just collateral damage?

‘Just paperwork’

Governors-general have fulfilled the practical duties as Australia’s head of state since the country’s 1901 federation.

Candidates for the role were initially chosen by the monarch but are now recommended by the Australian government.

The job is largely ceremonial – a governor-general in almost every circumstance must act on the advice of the government of the day. But conventions allow them the right to “encourage” and “warn” politicians.

Key duties include signing bills into law, issuing writs for elections, and swearing in ministers.

Mr Hurley has run into trouble on the latter. At Mr Morrison’s request, he swore the prime minister in as joint minister for health in March 2020, in case the existing minister became incapacitated by Covid.

Over the next 14 months, he also signed off Mr Morrison as an additional minister in the finance, treasury, home affairs and resources portfolios.

Mr Morrison already had ministerial powers, so Mr Hurley was basically just giving him authority over extra departments.

It’s a request the governor-general “would not have any kind of power to override or reject”, constitutional law professor Anne Twomey tells the BBC.

“This wasn’t even a meeting between the prime minister and the governor-general, it was just paperwork.”

But Mr Morrison’s appointments were not publicly announced, disclosed to the parliament, or even communicated to most of the ministers he was job-sharing with.

Australia’s solicitor-general found Mr Morrison’s actions were not illegal but had “fundamentally undermined” responsible government.

But the governor-general had done the right thing, the solicitor-general said in his advice this week.

It would have been “a clear breach” for him to refuse the prime minister, regardless of whether he knew the appointments would be kept secret, Stephen Donaghue said.

Critics push for investigation

Ultimately, Mr Hurley had to sign off on Mr Morrison’s requests, but critics say he could have counselled him against it and he could have publicised it himself.

But representatives for the governor-general say these types of appointments – giving ministers the right to administer other departments – are not unusual.

And it falls to the government of the day to decide if they should be announced to the public. They often opt not to.

Mr Hurley himself announcing the appointments would be unprecedented. He had “no reason to believe that appointments would not be communicated”, his spokesperson said.

Emeritus professor Jenny Hocking finds the suggestion Mr Hurley didn’t know the ministries had been kept secret “ridiculous”.

“The last of these bizarre, duplicated ministry appointments… were made more than a year after the first, so clearly by then the governor-general did know that they weren’t being made public,” she says.

“I don’t agree for a moment that the governor-general has a lot of things on his plate and might not have noticed.”

The historian says it’s one of the biggest controversies surrounding a governor-general since John Kerr caused a constitutional crisis by sacking Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975.

Prof Hocking famously fought for transparency around that matter – waging a lengthy and costly legal battle that culminated in the release of Mr Kerr’s correspondence with the Queen.

And she says the same transparency is needed here.

The Australian public need to know whether Mr Hurley counselled the prime minister against the moves, and why he didn’t disclose them

The government has already announced an inquiry into Mr Morrison’s actions, but she wants it to look at the governor-general and his office too.

“If the inquiry is to find out what happened in order to fix what happened, it would be extremely problematic to leave out a key part of that equation.”

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull – Mr Morrison’s predecessor – has also voiced support for an inquiry.

“Something has gone seriously wrong at Government House,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“It is the passive compliance along the chain… that did undermine our constitution and our democracy… that troubles me the most. This is how tyranny gets under way.”

PM defends governor-general

Prof Twomey says the criticism of Mr Hurley is unfair – there’s was no “conspiracy” on his part to keep things secret.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable for anyone to expect that he could have guessed that the prime minister was keeping things secret from his own ministers, for example.

“Nobody really thought that was a possibility until about two weeks ago.”

Even if he had taken the unprecedented step to publicise the appointments or to reject Mr Morrison’s request, he’d have been criticised, she says.

“There’d be even more people saying ‘how outrageous!'” she says. “The role of governor-general is awkward because people are going to attack you either way.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also defended Mr Hurley, saying he was just doing his job.

“I have no intention of undertaking any criticism of [him].”

A role fit for purpose?

Prof Hocking says it’s a timely moment to look at the role of the governor-general more broadly.

She points out it’s possible the Queen may have been informed about Mr Morrison’s extra ministries when Australia’s parliament and people were not.

“It does raise questions about whether this is fit for purpose, as we have for decades been a fully independent nation, but we still have… ‘the relics of colonialism’ alive and well.”

Momentum for a fresh referendum on an Australian republic has been growing and advocates have seized on the controversy.

“The idea that the Queen and her representative can be relied upon to uphold our system of government has been debunked once and for all,” the Australian Republic Movement’s Sandy Biar says.

“It’s time we had an Australian head of state, chosen by Australians and accountable to them to safeguard and uphold Australia’s constitution.”

But Prof Twomey says republicans are “clutching at straws” – under their proposals, the head of state would also have been bound to follow the prime minister’s advice.

“It wouldn’t result in any changes that would have made one iota of difference.”

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-62683210

Australia

Australia election: PM Morrison’s security team in car crash in Tasmania

Published

1 year ago

April 16, 2022

Europe Disk

A car carrying the Australian prime minister’s security team has crashed in Tasmania during an election campaign visit.

Four police officers were taken to hospital with “non-life threatening injuries” after the car and another vehicle collided, authorities said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was not in the car, but the accident prompted him to cancel the rest of his campaign events on Thursday.

The other driver involved was not hurt.

Tasmania Police said initial investigations suggested the second car had “collided with the rear of the police vehicle, while attempting to merge”. It caused the unmarked security vehicle to roll off the road.

The two Tasmania Police officers and two Australian Federal Police officers were conscious when taken to hospital for medical assessment, the prime minister’s office said.

“Family members of the officers have been contacted and are being kept informed of their condition,” a statement said.

“The PM is always extremely grateful for the protection provided by his security team and extends his best wishes for their recovery and to their families.”

Australians go to the polls on 21 May. Mr Morrison – prime minister since 2018 – is hoping to win his conservative coalition’s fourth term in office.

Polls suggest the opposition Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese, is favoured to win. However, Mr Morrison defied similar polling to claim victory at the last election in 2019.

Mr Morrison’s Liberal-National coalition holds 76 seats in the House of Representatives – the minimum needed to retain power.

Political observers say the cost of living, climate change, trust in political leaders, and national security will be among key issues in the campaign.

In recent weeks, the prime minister has faced accusations of being a bully and once sabotaging a rival’s career by suggesting the man’s Lebanese heritage made him less electable. Mr Morrison has denied the allegations.

Mr Albanese stumbled into his own controversy this week when he failed to recall the nation’s unemployment or interest rates.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61103987