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Iran face herculean task against Portugal’s Ronaldo (Preview)
Saransk (Russia), June 24 (IANS) Iran’s primary objective will be to stop Christiano Ronaldo from scoring when they take on Portugal in a Group B tie of the FIFA World Cup at the Mordovia Arena here on Monday.
So far, Portugal’s all four goals in the tournament have come through Ronaldo and the Europeans will once again rely heavily on the talismanic striker if they want to make it to the second round.
Both the sides need a win on Monday to enter the Round of 16 and a loss for any of them could make life difficult.
With a win from two games, Portugal are placed second in the group with four points while Iran, who pipped Morocco 1-0 before falling against Spain, lie at the third place with three points.
Fernando Santos’s side has till now appeared to be a one-man team with Ronaldo doing the most for his side on both occasions.
In their last game against Morocco, Ronaldo was the only difference between the two teams. The Real Madrid star scored the only goal of the match in the fourth minute but Morocco did well to match the reigning European champions blow for blow throughout the encounter.
The north Africans were well organised in defence and midfield with the experienced Nordin Amrabat repeatedly troubling the Portugal defenders with his runs down the right wing.
The ‘Atlas Lions’ in fact dominated the second half as they went all out for the elusive equaliser. But a lack of quality in their final passes and some excellent defending by Portugal prevented them from scoring.
Even if they manage to enter the second round, the rest of the Portugal players must do better otherwise simply depending on Ronaldo will not carry them too far.
Before their last group game, Portugal defender Ruben Dias felt there is some anxiety in camp as they look to live up to expectations in the tournament as European champions.
“Anxiety exists because it’s a World Cup and we are European champions and we want to get through the group and go as far as possible,” Dias told mediapersons.
Dias, however, said that despite a slow start in this year’s World Cup, his side could improve further as the tournament progresses.
“Sometimes, things aren’t so good at the start and you start improving during the competition and gaining in confidence.”
“This is natural…You start gaining confidence naturally,” he added.
On the other side, Iran, Asia’s number one team, benefited from a late own goal by Morocco to get their World Cup off to a winning start in Saint Petersburg before losing 0-1 to Spain in a hard-fought battle.
On Monday, Iran will expect young striker Sardar Azmoun to fire and secure the Asian side a pre-quarter berth for the first time in their World Cup history.
Iran coach Carlos Queiroz has already declared the match against Portugal as the most interesting and important match.
“We go for it, with great belief and great determination to try to win the game,” Queiroz said.
“When we arrived, no-one gave us a chance, but we still fight for our dreams,” he added.
Iran have so far been impressive in defence and their defenders will have to once again come out with spirit to restrict Ronaldo from scoring.
Overall, a draw for Portugal will be enough to lift them to the next round while Iran need nothing less than a win to secure a pre-qualifier berth.
–IANS
kk/ajb/bg
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
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Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
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Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
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The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
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The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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