KANSAS CITY (AP) — Austria y Argelia firmaron el sábado un vibrante empate 3-3 que benefició a ambos en el cierre de la fase de grupos del Mundial. El resultado selló el boleto de los dos equipos a la ronda de eliminación directa y dejó a Irán fuera del torneo.

El encuentro estaba igualado 2-2 en la recta final y Argelia parecía conforme con el resultado, pero el capitán Riyad Mahrez marcó su segundo tanto del partido cuando quedaba aproximadamente un minuto en el tiempo añadido. Ese marcador puso a Austria al borde de la eliminación, pero entonces Sasa Kalajdzic igualó nuevamente la pizarra instantes después con un remate de cabeza que rescató las esperanzas mundialistas de Das Team.

Marko Arnautovic y Marcel Sabitzer también gritaron goles por Austria, que terminó en el segundo lugar del Grupo J, detrás de Argentina, para clasificarse a la ronda de eliminación directa por primera vez desde 1982. Su premio es un duelo con el campeón europeo España el próximo jueves en Los Ángeles.

Rafik Belghali también anotó por Les Fennecs, que se convirtieron en el noveno de 10 equipos de África en avanzar a la siguiente fase. Terminaron en tercer lugar de su llave y se medirán en dieciseisavos de final a Suiza el jueves en Vancouver.

Irán habría avanzado como uno de los ocho mejores terceros lugares con un triunfo ya fuera de Austria o Argelia. Pero el gol de Kalajdzic en el último suspiro marcó un desgarrador final al camino de Irán en este Mundial.

Los primeros tres partidos del Mundial en Kansas City pintaron la casa de los Chiefs con el celeste de Argentina, el amarillo de Ecuador y el naranja de Holanda. Pero en el cierre de la fase de grupos, el verde de Argelia y el rojo de los austriacos se vieron acompañados por miles de aficionados locales satisfechos de encontrar un boleto asequible.

Muchos de los hinchas locales alentaban a Argelia, que ha establecido su sede de entrenamiento en la cercana Lawrence, Kansas, y ha forjado una amistad única con la pequeña ciudad sede de la Universidad de Kansas.

Pocos de esos nuevos aficionados de Les Fennecs probablemente conocen la “Desgracia de Gijón”.

Sin embargo, los seguidores de Argelia habían esperado 44 años por una revancha mundialista. En España 1982, Austria y Alemania Occidental prácticamente dejaron de jugar después de que el cuadro alemán tomó ventaja de 1-0, debido a que el resultado le otorgaba a ambos equipo un boleto en la siguiente fase a expensas de Argelia, que presentó una infructuosa protesta ante la FIFA y quedó eliminada del Mundial.

Algunos tenían curiosidad por saber si un Mundial ampliado a 48 equipos daría lugar a una “Desgracia de Kansas City”, porque ambos sabían desde el principio que un empate los colocaría en la siguiente fase. En cambio, los 69.045 espectadores fueron testigos de un duelo repleto de drama.

Austria pegó primero cuando Arnautovic recibió a la perfección un pase filtrado entre dos defensores argelinos y quedó mano a mano con el arquero Oussama Benbot, antes de firmar su gol 49 con la camiseta de su selección, ampliando su récord.

Argelia respondió segundos antes del descanso, cuando el disparo de zurda de Belghali venció con facilidad al arquero austriaco Alexander Schlager.

El ritmo desenfrenado continuó en el segundo tiempo.

No conforme con el empate 1 -1, el austriaco Konrad Laimer lanzó un preciso servicio que Sabitzer envió al fondo de las redes para recuperar la ventaja de Austria y las esperanzas de Irán. Pero Argelia respondió minutos después por conducto de Mahrez, quien remató un centro perfecto de Houssem Aouar.

Argelia tomó el control en el tramo final, manteniendo la posesión. Pero cuando parecía que ambos equipos estaban felices de dejar correr el reloj, Mahrez y Kalajdzic les regalaron fuegos artificiales en el tiempo añadido.

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Vea más de la cobertura del Mundial de AP aquí.

England’s World Cup 2026 campaign is well and truly underway, with the likes of Jude Bellingham heading out to the Americas to try and bring football home. And while we’ve been tuning in from kick-off in the hopes of seeing some stellar play, we’re also huge fans of getting little insights into the personal lives of the players – including their wives and girlfriends.

22-year-old Jude Bellingham, who plays for La Liga’s Real Madrid at a club level, is one of the nation’s shining stars this season, and is dating Ashlyn Castro. But who exactly is she? Here’s what you need to know about her career, background, age, famous ex-boyfriend and more.

Ashlyn was born on the 17th December 1997, making her 28 years old and six years senior to Jude, who is 22 (about to be 23 though on the 29th June.)

She was born in California in the US, making this the perfect World Cup for her.

She’s an influencer, model and content creator with a massive 675k followers on Instagram. Her bio simply reads as a green heart, and her grid shows off brand partnerships with the likes of Clarins, lots of selfies and outfit pictures from tropical locations, as well as beauty and lifestyle content.

The pair are very private about their relationship, and so neither of them have ever publicly spoken out to reveal how they met. It’s thought, though, that they matched on celebrity dating app Raya in late 2024, and she was later seen hanging out with his parents at a Real Madrid game in early 2025. They were spotted interacting on Instagram as early as November 2024.

Since then, the pair have been photographed together a number of times, including after the Croatia game in Dallas on 17th June, and also at the Spanish tennis open back in April.

Ashlyn was linked to none other than Academy Award winning actor Michael B. Jordan from Sinners. According to Fashion Times, the pair were photographed together in “late 2017, after she was seen with him at a private event in Los Angeles, where photographs showed her sitting on his lap.”

Neither Michael not Ashlyn ever confirmed the rumours, so they could easily be just that: rumours. There does appear to be a video of them together circulating on Instagram, but it could just as easily be as friends or strangers who met for one night out.

The Sun have also linked her to basketball player LaMelo Ball, 23.

According to The Sun, Jude was reportedly dating model Laura Celia Valk back in April 2024, and was said to be “completely smitten”, however she confirmed she was single shortly afterwards.

Back in 2023, he was then thought to be dating model Asantewa Chitty, while he was previously linked to US TikTok creator Azra Mian.

Now all we need is some more PDA moments please, you two!

BETTING ODDS: Ruziboev (-225); Pulyaev (+180)

Towering 185-pounders clash in this intriguing preliminary bout
when 6-foot-5 Ruziboev seeks his third straight win against
6-foot-4 Pulyaev, who needs a victory to pull back up to .500 in
the UFC.

Incredibly for the tallest middleweight in the UFC, Ruziboev tried
his hand at welterweight two years ago, coming up short, no pun
intended, against fellow ‘tweener Joaquin
Buckley. He bounced back with two straight wins at
middleweight, then had a matchup with Bryan
Battle scratched last summer when Battle missed weight
badly.

Ruziboev is a powerful striker with good kicks from both legs and a
very powerful right hand that he can sometimes rely on too heavily,
to the point of becoming predictable in pocket exchanges. He can
sometimes be drawn into leg kicking contests with fighters he could
outclass in other ways, simply because his own calf kicks are very
effective and he prefers looking for counterpunches to checking his
opponent’s kicks.

He has not used it nearly as often since joining the UFC, but
Ruziboev’s wrestling is unorthodox yet effective, as one might
expect of a titanic, lanky man who sometimes wants the fight on the
ground. He is one of the few fighters with his build who doesn’t
mind changing levels and shooting, but his best work comes from the
clinch, where he can sneak trip and body lock attempts into the
flow of close-quarters striking. On the ground, he makes full use
of his huge frame, locking up back control and body triangles, and
threatening with chokes from a variety of angles.

Pulyaev is in nearly every way the opposite of what one might
expect of an Alexander
Shlemenko protégé. Where “Storm” was a short, stocky (even
portly, depending on which weight class he was competing in) yet
explosive, whirling dervish of spinning strikes, Pulyaev is a tall,
long-limbed, mediocre athlete who employs a very conventional
kickboxing game. The 28-year-old Russian is a rangy southpaw who
can sometimes look quite disciplined and technical, but can lapse
into swinging sloppily if he is hurt, tired or frustrated.

Pulyaev’s defensive wrestling and grappling have always been
liabilities, and that has held true in the UFC. His defensive stats
look decent on paper, but the numbers belie the fact that Nick Klein,
who appears to be a marginal UFC talent at best, had significant
success getting him down despite his gameplan being screamingly
obvious.

This matchup feels lopsided in a way the betting line might not
even truly reflect. Ruziboev is the more diverse, harder hitting
striker and by far the better ground fighter. At 32, with 50 fights
on his record and after over a year away, there is the outside
possibility that Ruziboev suddenly looks old in the cage, but
assuming he is roughly the same fighter who won two fights in the
first half of 2025, he should win easily. The pick is Ruziboev by
second-round submission.

Jump To »

Hasanov vs. Nolan

Yakhyaev vs. Walker
Ruziboev vs. Pulyaev

Ofli vs. Reyes

Donchenko vs. Berggren

Almakhan vs. Matsumoto

Abdullaev vs. Nascimento