France may rue their lucklustre performance at Kiev's Olympic Stadium last night after a 2-0 defeat to Sweden meant they finished runners-up in Group D, meaning a quarter-final match against defending champions Spain on Saturday.
With England beating Ukraine 1-0 in Donetsk, Laurent Blanc's side now face the world and European champions while England meet Italy on Sunday for a place in the semi-finals of Euro 2012.
A spectacular volley from Zlatan Ibrahimovic on 54 minutes and an injury-time tap in from Sebastian Larsson ensured Sweden a third-place finish at the expense of co-hosts Ukraine.
Sweden made the brighter start and as Kim Kallstrom's long ball forward set striker Ola Toivonen clear on goal. Toivonen rounded the onrushing French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris but his shot from a difficult angle hit the outside of the post.
Karim Benzema responded at the opposite end when he benefitted from a slip-up by a Swedish defender which left him free in the box but his shot was well blocked by Andreas Isaakson in the Sweden goal. When the goal did come, it was more than worth the wait.
Larsson swung in a peach of a cross from the right, and the AC Milan striker Ibrahimovic launched himself acrobatically at the ball to finish with a volley of pure class.
Despite news filtering through that England had taken the lead against Ukraine in the other group game, France seemed reluctant to commit bodies forward in search of the two goals they would possibly need to avoid a quarter-final match with Spain.
As they struggled to penetrate a stubborn Sweden defence, substitutes Jeremy Menez and Olivier Giroud were introduced for Samir Nasri and Yann M'Vila and both added much-needed energy into the France attack.
Menez's left-foot volley on 85 minutes was cleared off the line by Olof Mellberg and Giroud, who will join Arsenal after the tournament, wasted a glorious chance after Ribery picked him out with a cross from the left, but the striker's header was well wide.
Larsson, the Sunderland winger, made sure of victory in the dying embers of the game when he thumped home from close range after Christian Wilhelmsson hit the crossbar.
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Company%20Profile
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THREE
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Nayla%20Al%20Khaja%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Jefferson%20Hall%2C%20Faten%20Ahmed%2C%20Noura%20Alabed%2C%20Saud%20Alzarooni%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Company name: Farmin
Date started: March 2019
Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: AgriTech
Initial investment: None to date
Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
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Champions League quarter-final, first leg
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Match on BeIN Sports
360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
PROFILE OF INVYGO
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Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
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From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Company%20Profile
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1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
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Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
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