FIFA World Cup : Portugal enter pre-quarters despite being held by Iran
Saransk (Russia), June 26 : Iran held Portugal 1-1 in their final Group B match here on Monday but couldn't stop the reigning European champions from entering the FIFA World Cup pre-quarterfinals.
Ricardo Quaresma gave Portugal the lead in the 45th minute but Iran found the equaliser through a penalty conversion from Karim Ansarifard in the 90+3 minute.
Following the draw at the Mordovia Arena, Iran are third on the table with four points and will now exit alongside Morocco (one point) from Group B. Portugal are second with five points - same as Spain but the latter side is ahead on the basis of scoring more goals during the group stage matches.
With the day's other game of the group, between Spain and Morocco being played at the same time, the Portugal vs Iran match had a lot of significance in terms of qualifying for the second round and the top position cushion.
Portugal, who started the match with four points - one more than the Asian outfit - had the advantage in case of a draw. And having witnessed the pragmatic style of Fernando Santos' side, the Europeans, though were expected to dominate, gave a signal of first trying to secure the qualification and then going after the top position, if chances came.
As a result, the first half between Portugal and Iran saw a slow game, with not many chances created. However, Iran, bidding to reach the World Cup knockouts for the first time, had a weird start.
They could have conceded the lead in the 10th minute of the match as Joao Mario found himself in front of an open goal thanks to a lack of communication inside the box but he shot over the cross-bar.
Goalkeeper Ali Beiranvand called to clear a cross but defender Saeid Ezatolahi decided to cut it out.
He got no distance on the clearance and then the ball dropped near Mario on the edge of the box but the latter came out with a poor shot.
Beiranvand then went through a period of lapse of concentration as he couple of times fumbled the ball but his defenders were alert.
Also Portugal didn't press as much as they should have and didn't made the most of the faults Iran made.
Portugal tried to feed their target man Ronaldo but couple of his free-kicks and headers were not on target and Portugal's slow passing of the ball didn't help their cause.
It did clearly help Iran as they tried to do some clever moves through Sardar Azmoun and Alireza Jahanbakhsh.
A Jahanbakhsh free-kick was headed towards goal by Ezatolahi, but the effort was straight down the throat of Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio in the 34th minute.
Portugal, however, broke the deadlock in the 45th minute when Quaresma played a quick one-two with full-back Cedric Soares, sprinted to the edge of the box before curling a gorgeous outside-of-the-foot finish into the far top corner.
Six minutes into the second half, Portugal could have added a cushion goal after being awarded a penalty after Video Assistant Referee (VAR) found Ezatolahi to have fouled Ronaldo.
But Beiranvand came up with the heroics as he dived to the left to block Ronaldo's penalty to keep Iran alive in the contest and in the World Cup.
Later, Azmoun and Jahanbakhsh kept threatening Portugal goal. Azmound also had couple of penalty shouts rejected until he found one in the third minute of the injury time.
A header from him saw fell on the left hand of Cedric Soares, leading to a penalty from which Iran levelled 1-1. Ansarifard fired to the roof of the net on the right, giving no chance to Patricio.
In the dying moments, Iranian attacking midfielder Vahid Amiri missed a golden chance to score a stunning winner as a long overhead ball saw him through the Portuguese defence but his left-footed flick hit the side-netting, ending their chances in the match.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
