It’s a victory of historic proportions. On Tuesday, Bayern Munich beat Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 to open its Champions League marketing campaign at a sold-out Allianz Area. Harry Kane (19’ pen., 57’, 73’ pen., and 78’ pen.), Raphaël Guerreiro (33’), Michael Olise (33’ and 61’), Leroy Sané (85’) and Leon Goretzka (90’) scored for Bayern. Bruno Petkovic (49’) and Takuya Ogiwara (50’) scored for Dinamo Zagreb.

The 2 Dinamo Zagreb targets proper after halftime had been maybe the one matter of concern for Bayern Munich on what was in any other case an ideal night. At halftime, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer needed to come off with an harm, and together with his alternative Sven Ulreich on, Bayern’s protection skilled 5 minutes of insanity by which Zagreb threatened to return again into this match.

“We nonetheless must work on that,” Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany mentioned to German tv after the sport when requested concerning the two fast targets after halftime. “However we stayed calm and instantly created three huge probabilities. The mentality was there.”

Seven minutes after Zagreb made it 3-2, Bayern Munich restored the two-goal lead because of a ravishing strike by Kane. 4 minutes later, the previous stability was restored when Olise scored his second of the night.

“In the long run, it is concerning the three factors, the 9 targets we scored, and the very fact we received,” Kompany mentioned. The vitality was good; the gamers loved themselves on the pitch. We conceded twice as a result of we had been a step too late as a group, however we confirmed a response, and it was a great night for us.”

That’s maybe a little bit of an understatement. In reality, Bayern broke a number of information on Tuesday. The Munich-based membership grew to become the primary group within the Champions League period to attain 9 targets in a single recreation. The 11 targets scored by each groups additionally mark essentially the most targets in a single match since Dortmund’s 8-4 win over Legia Warsaw all the way in which again within the 2016/17 season.

These are simply the membership information. Bayern star Kane scored 4 instances, surpassing Wayne Rooney because the English participant with essentially the most targets in Champions League historical past. Kane has now scored 33 targets within the competitors, and his 4 targets tonight imply he’s already midway to his eight-goal tally from final season.

“Everytime you’re in a dialog with Wayne Rooney, it means you are doing one thing nicely,” Kane mentioned to UEFA after the match. “He is one of many biggest English gamers and among the finest gamers there was within the recreation. It is a good achievement.”

With all that in thoughts, what can we take away from one other superb Champions League night on the Allianz Area? Initially, scoring 9 targets in opposition to any opponent could be very spectacular. However Kompany will, no doubt, take a look at these 5 minutes of insanity after halftime with some concern as a extra certified opponent might need capitalized.

In reality, we nonetheless don’t really know the place this Bayern group is after 5 wins throughout all competitions to begin the season. General, Kompany’s group hasn’t been challenged but this season. The final two video games in opposition to Holstein Kiel and Dinamo Zagreb, specifically, will probably be a great distance off from the opponents Bayern will face within the coming weeks.

With that in thoughts, Bayern Munich’s first actual take a look at will come on matchday 5 within the Bundesliga when it faces Leverkusen. Within the Champions League, Aston Villa will probably be a much more important problem than Zagreb.

In different phrases, we must see the place Bayern is actually at. However there are additionally a number of positives. Each Jamal Musiala and Aleksandar Pavlovic had excellent video games. The attacking and central midfielder managed the sport and seemed like Bayern’s future for years to return. Certainly, Musiala made one more argument for an enormous contract renewal.

General, the positives outweigh the negatives by a major margin. Finally, Kompany has ensured that his new membership has made essentially the most of what has been, a minimum of on paper, a straightforward begin for his membership this season.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Entrepreneur Hsu Ching-kuang was as soon as lauded in Taiwan for resuscitating the archaic digital pager, partially by pivoting into gross sales to international governments. At one level, he claimed his firm, Gold Apollo, dominated 99% of the Dutch pager market and even counted the FBI as a consumer.

However on Wednesday, he confronted an onslaught of cops and journalists exterior his workplace in northern Taiwan, after Gold Apollo was linked to lots of of pagers belonging to members of the militant group Hezbollah and which killed not less than 9 individuals after they concurrently exploded throughout Lebanon and Syria.

Hsu confirmed it was his firm’s model on the pagers. “That is very embarrassing,” he stated. Shortly after, greater than a dozen Taiwan cops and metropolis officers entered his firm workplace for investigation.

Hsu denied all involvement with the explosive pagers, telling NPR exterior his workplace in northern Taiwan that it was a Budapest-based firm known as BAC Consulting which manufactured the gadgets.

“There was nothing in these gadgets that we had manufactured or exported to them [BAC],” Hsu stated, noting the pagers “had been fully completely different” from his designs and contained a chip that Gold Apollo doesn’t use in its personal pagers.

Reuters and the New York Occasions report the pagers had been in the end planted by Israel, citing Lebanese and American officers. However how and when the gadgets had been modified to grow to be deadly continues to be unclear.

The pagers’ hyperlink to relatively-unknown corporations spanning Asia and Europe suggests a plot years within the making.

A European alternative

Three years in the past, Hsu says he was approached by a Taiwanese lady Hsu says he solely knew as “Teresa” who claimed to be a neighborhood consultant for a Hungarian firm named BAC Consulting.

After greater than two months of negotiation with Teresa, Hsu agreed to signal a contract to promote Gold Apollo’s pagers to BAC and moreover, to let BAC use Gold Apollo’s trademark on his personal merchandise.

“She had already flown a number of instances to Europe to contact [her colleagues],” says Hsu. He says he was additionally instructed BAC additionally had pursuits in East Africa: “From starting to finish, they by no means talked about Lebanon.”

Annual studies for the final two years, downloaded from the Hungarian Ministry of Justice’s on-line enterprise registration portal, confirmed that the agency was registered in Might 2022, and the only proprietor of BAC is known as as Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono. The corporate’s most up-to-date annual accounts, signed in Might of this 12 months, report a stability sheet of barely greater than $320.

Bársony-Arcidiacono’s LinkedIn profile describes her as a “CEO, strategic Advisor & Enterprise Developer,” and features a hyperlink for BAC Consulting. On one other skilled networking website, she is listed as a “freelance professional in Pure Assets and Sustainable Improvement.”

“When you’ve got a problem and also you prefer to suppose out of the field, convey it to me and we are going to remedy it collectively,” Bársony-Arcidiacono instructed a jobs web site this February. “An excellent understanding of native points and a community of collaborators in numerous areas are vital to succeed.”

A cellphone quantity belonging to an individual with the identical profile photograph as Bársony-Arcidiacono’s Linkedin web page was unavailable when dialed by an NPR reporter.

“Unusual” funds

A couple of 12 months after BAC signed a contract with Gold Apollo, Hsu says they got here again to him with an uncommon request: they wished to design their very own merchandise however put his firm’s trademark on them.

“They stated they wished to domesticate a cohort of engineers,” Hsu says he remembers BAC telling him. “I instructed them, the stuff you make is neither straightforward to make use of neither is it aesthetically-pleasing. Why not simply use my merchandise?”

Hsu additionally seen their cost transfers had been “unusual.”

Whereas BAC is positioned within the capital of Hungary, Hsu stated the corporate paid Gold Apollo from a Center Jap checking account that was blocked not less than as soon as by their financial institution in Taiwan.

“It was very inconvenient. It’s important to take care of these dangers when doing world commerce,” remembers Hsu. He says his accountant spent a whole week working to unfreeze the cost.

The final time Gold Apollo shipped parts to BAC was earlier this 12 months, Hsu stated. The “AR-924” mannequin pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria had been new and had been just lately acquired by Hezbollah in February, the Related Press reported.

Hsu is adamant not one of the exploding pagers had been made in Taiwan by his firm: “We didn’t make these gadgets, and we didn’t export a single one among them [to BAC],” he insists.

Taiwan’s ministry of financial affairs says it has no report of any Taiwan corporations exporting pagers on to Lebanon between 2022 and 2024 and deemed Gold Apollo’s pagers “modified after being exported,” in keeping with a press release. NPR was unable to confirm the ministry’s evaluation.

Willen Marx contributed to this report.

ROME (AP) — Salvatore “Totò” Schillaci, the Italy striker who was high scorer at its dwelling World Cup in 1990, has died. He was 59.

Schillaci had been hospitalized in Palermo following remedy for colon most cancers.

The Palermo Civico hospital mentioned in an announcement that Schillacci died on Wednesday morning after being admitted 11 days in the past.

Schillaci scored six objectives for Italy throughout the 1990 World Cup. He got here on instead throughout Italy’s opener in opposition to Austria, scored in a 1-0 victory, and went on to earn the Golden Boot awarded to the event’s high scorer. He solely scored one different objective for Italy in his profession.

Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina introduced {that a} minute of silence could be held in reminiscence of Schillaci earlier than all video games within the nation for the remainder of the week.

“The uncontrollable celebrations, during which his face was the image of shared pleasure, will stay without end a part of Italian soccer (historical past),” Gravina mentioned. “Totò was a terrific participant, an emblem of tenacious want and redemption. … His soccer was filled with ardour. And that fearless spirit made everybody admire him and can make him immortal.”

Schillaci additionally received the Golden Ball award on the 1990 World Cup because the event’s high participant forward of Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona.

“Thanks for the feelings you gave us, for making us dream, cheer, hug and wave our Tricolore,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni wrote on X.

Schillaci performed for Messina, Juventus, Inter Milan and Japanese staff Jubilo Iwata throughout his membership profession.

“Ciao Totò,” Juventus mentioned on Instagram.

“You made a complete nation dream throughout the Magical Nights of Italia ’90,” Inter mentioned on its social media channels.

West Germany received the 1990 World Cup, beating Argentina within the remaining, whereas Italy beat England for third place with a successful penalty kick from Schillaci.

Roberto Baggio, who scored Italy’s opening objective within the third-place match, wrote on Instagram, “Ciao my expensive pal.”

With Schillaci having been born and raised in Palermo, town will maintain a public viewing of Schillaci at its Renzo Barbera stadium forward of the funeral.

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