Soccer Shorts

Dzeko’s double downs Drogba’s Ivory Coast

Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko scored a double to lead Bosnia to a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast in a friendly in Missouri in the US yesterday morning (Singapore time).

Dzeko scored one goal in each half to give Bosnia a 2-0 lead before Didier Drogba scored a late consolation goal for Ivory Coast.

Bosnia play Mexico in a friendly in Chicago on Wednesday before flying to Brazil, where they are drawn in Group F with Argentina, Iran and Nigeria.

Ivory Coast’s next warm-up match is against El Salvador in Dallas on Thursday. The Africans are in Group C with Colombia, Greece and Japan. - Reuters.

Sanchez turns playmaker for Chile

Barcelona striker Alexis Sanchez set up all three goals as Chile fought back from 2-0 down to beat Egypt 3-2 yesterday morning (Singapore time) in a warm-up match.

The Chileans fell behind to two early goals on the counter-attack  through Mohamed Salah and Khaled Kamar.

Then Sanchez took over. On 26 minutes, he fired in a low cross for Marcelo Diaz, who volleyed home. 

On the hour mark, Sanchez teed up for Eduardo Vargas to draw level.

With 12 minutes to play, Sanchez split the Egyptian defence with an inch-perfect pass for Vargas to stroke home his second of the night. - Reuters.

Stadium for opener not ready for final test

The stadium hosting the opening match of the World Cup on June 12 will not be finished in time for its final test event.

Sao Paulo’s Corinthians Arena had to schedule a last-minute test for today, 12 days from the World Cup kick-off, after an earlier event revealed a host of problems and only filled the stadium to half capacity.

But Corinthians football club, the stadium’s owners, said on Friday that safety officials had authorised them to sell only 40,000 tickets for today’s match, still short of the 65,000 expected for the World Cup opener between Brazil and Croatia. - AFP.