A place in the Copa del Rey semi-final was already safely secured for Atletico Madrid when two second-half substitutes combined to complete a five-star performance at the Metropolitano Stadium.
Diego Simeone's side were 4-0 up against city rivals Getafe in the 86th minute when giant striker Alexander Sorloth exchanged passes with Andre Correa before slotting home his 11th goal of the campaign.
It had been a convincing if not exactly surprising victory for Atletico who went into the game having lost just once in all competitions since the start of November, winning 19 out of 21 matches along the way.
The run had lifted Los Rojiblancos up to second in La Liga, through to the Uefa Champions League knockout stage and now into the last four of the Copa del Rey.
This latest win had capped a memorable few days for the Simeone family. On Saturday, manager Diego took charge of his 500th La Liga game as Atletico eased to a 2-0 win over Mallorca that lifted them to within a point of table-toppers Real Madrid – who they face on Saturday.
“We look at the present, but I’m very happy with this journey,” said the Argentine, who has won two La Liga titles, two Europa Leagues, plus one Uefa Super Cup, Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup during a remarkable 14-year reign.
“Many people in the coaching staff who are no longer here helped us get to this point, players who shared an idea, leaders who are also not here and accompanied us. It makes me very happy.
“I'll make a special section for my family … Without their support and company, this would be impossible. It has been many years giving all the love and responsibility to a club that I love very much, but we take a lot of time away from the family.”
Three days later, it was his son, Giuliano, hogging the headlines when the winger scored twice in the first 17 minutes against Getafe, only being denied a hat-trick by the linesman's flag just after half-time.
“I'm very happy to have a night like that in the stadium, it was crazy, but first of all I have to thank the whole team because we made a huge effort,” man of the match Giuliano told Teledeporte.
“I'm happy for the goals, I think about the things I have to improve day by day, I still have many flaws and details that I want to improve to keep growing.”
“He's in a very good moment, the fans recognise it, they will demand a lot more from him and he has to maintain this level,” Simeone Senior said of his 22-year-old offspring who is enjoying a breakthrough campaign at the club.
As well as his in-form son, the attacking options at Simeone's disposal this season are impressive as they look to lift their first major trophy since securing the La Liga title in 2021.
Last summer saw the arrival of 1.94 metre-tall Sorloth for €32 million after a prolific year at Villarreal when the Norwegian striker scored 23 goals in 34 La Liga games.
Argentina's World Cup winning attacker Julian Alvarez completed a move from English Premier League champions Manchester City that was reported to be worth up to €95m.
They joined veteran striker and all-time club top scorer Antoine Griezmann in the Spanish capital and the trio have combined for 42 goals between them so far.
In midfield, England international Conor Gallagher arrived from Chelsea for €40m, while the defence was boosted by the €35m signing of classy Real Sociedad centre-back Robin Le Normand.
The French-born Spain international missed two months of the campaign following a clash of heads with Aurelien Tchouameni in the September draw with Real that left him with a brain trauma injury.
But he is back in the team and making a key contribution to Atletico's impressive defensive record that has seen them concede a miserly and Liga-best 14 goals, keeping a clean sheet in 10 of their 22 matches.
The bad news for Atletico – as they head into the game against a Real attack at the Bernabeu Stadium potentially consisting of Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Kylian Mbappe, is that their key centre-half will be missing through suspension.
“I'd give a lot [to play], but that's life, it is what it is, five yellow cards for defenders are few,” said Le Normand. “Bad luck, I would have liked to play, but now I trust my teammates, we'll get through it.”
Real, meanwhile, go into the derby in the middle of a full-blown injury crisis that resulted in them fielding a second-string line-up in their Copa del Rey win over Leganes.
They needed an injury-time winner from 20-year-old academy forward Gonzalo Garcia – making his first appearance of the season – to secure a 3-2 victory, despite taking a 2-0 first-half lead.
Real were forced to play youngsters Jacobo Ramon (20) and Raul Asencio (21) at centre-back, with Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba joining long-term defensive casualties Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal on the injured list.
In attack, 18-year-old Brazilian Endrick and 19-year-old Turk Arda Guler both started, with Bellingham and Mbappe nursing minor knocks.
It is a far from ideal situation ahead of what is a crucial few days for the reigning Spanish and European champions that sees them face Atletico and then Manchester City in the Champions League play-off first leg at the Etihad Stadium.
“At the back we struggled a bit, Jacobo felt the weight of playing his first game with us a bit, he was a little nervous but then he was more clinical as the game progressed,” boss Carlo Ancelotti said after beating Leganes.“We avoided extra time that would have cost more to recover. We've left players out to be ready on Saturday, so we'll be ready [for Atletico].”
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
THE SCORES
Ireland 125 all out
(20 overs; Stirling 72, Mustafa 4-18)
UAE 125 for 5
(17 overs, Mustafa 39, D’Silva 29, Usman 29)
UAE won by five wickets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is tokenisation?
Tokenisation refers to the issuance of a blockchain token, which represents a virtually tradable real, tangible asset. A tokenised asset is easily transferable, offers good liquidity, returns and is easily traded on the secondary markets.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
GRAN%20TURISMO
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Neill%20Blomkamp%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20David%20Harbour%2C%20Orlando%20Bloom%2C%20Archie%20Madekwe%2C%20Darren%20Barnet%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Race 3
Produced: Salman Khan Films and Tips Films
Director: Remo D’Souza
Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib Salem
Rating: 2.5 stars
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
