On a mild February night, Barcelona’s lowest weekend crowd of the season – 60,295 – came to see if Quique Setien’s team could close the gap on Real Madrid to three points. The late 9pm kick-off didn’t help the attendance, nor did the timing, only three days after another cup home game watched by just 43,216. Barca may court a global audience, but they shouldn’t forget their fans who go to games.
Opponents Levante weren’t expected to cause a problem since they’d lost all 14 of their previous visits to Camp Nou. And there was no option after the hosts' defeat of last week to Valencia, Levante’s city neighbours. Barcelona reacted well by beating Leganes 5-0 in the cup midweek, but the league matters more.
The Catalans were excellent in the first half, stretching Levante with the combinations between Lionel Messi and Ansu Fati the key. Messi set up the opening goal after 30 minutes with the most incredible move. Receiving the ball in his own half with his back to goal, Messi turned and hit a low left foot pass through the Levante defence. Fati ran onto it, brushed off his marker Miramon, sending the defender into a spin before shooting low past Fernandez into the net.
While Setien rightly praised his side’s defence for the way they brought the ball forward, it was the Messi-Fati partnership that made the difference. Two minutes after the 30th minute opener, Messi again set Fati up for the second.
At 17 years and 94 days Fati became the youngest player to score two goals in La Liga. He’s already the youngest player to score in Champions League history, the youngest ever to score for Barca, the youngest to score at Camp Nou, and the youngest to score and assist in a game in La Liga.
Fans who sing “Ansu Fati has arrived” about their child prodigy hope that he can go some way in replacing Messi, 32, when he retires.
Messi loves the young forward, with Fati repaying him by creating chances from the left for the Argentinian. Fati’s passing is accurate, he makes more passes in the final third of the field than any other player, he makes tackles high up the pitch to win the ball back which is demanded by Barcelona’s game. And he shoots – five against Levante with three of them on target and two resulting in goals.
The Catalans couldn’t reproduce their first half performance, Messi, Griezmann and Fati all missing chances in the second. Levante’s Rochina scored a 92nd minute goal which gave the match a 2-1 scoreline Levante didn’t deserve. For Barca there is no underestimating the importance of this win.
“I spent many years watching him play,” said Fati of his link-up with Messi. "It’s a dream to line up next to him. I dreamed of this moment and today it has come true.” Fati was man of the match, with right-back Nelson Semedo also impressive.
“He’s a player who is emerging,” was Setien’s verdict on Fati. “He is working hard. He gives us solutions.”
Barcelona’s new boss is still in his honeymoon period but he took over with Barca at the top of the league and if he fails to win the title, which would be the club’s ninth in twelve years, he’ll be criticised.
Fati gives him a much-needed attacking dimension which will help without the injured Luis Suarez and Ousame Dembele. Fati was used sparingly in the first half of the season but he’s started all five games since a match at Espanyol on January 4.
The Blaugrana now have two away games, at Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey quarter final on Thursday and at Setien’s former club Real Betis on Sunday. Their away form has been poor. They can’t afford to continue like that in their next two games against big clubs.
MATCH INFO
Alaves 1 (Perez 65' pen)
Real Madrid 2 (Ramos 52', Carvajal 69')
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”.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How tumultuous protests grew
- A fuel tax protest by French drivers appealed to wider anti-government sentiment
- Unlike previous French demonstrations there was no trade union or organised movement involved
- Demonstrators responded to online petitions and flooded squares to block traffic
- At its height there were almost 300,000 on the streets in support
- Named after the high visibility jackets that drivers must keep in cars
- Clashes soon turned violent as thousands fought with police at cordons
- An estimated two dozen people lost eyes and many others were admitted to hospital
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
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The Al Barzakh Festival takes place on Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm in the Red Theatre, NYUAD, Saadiyat Island. Tickets cost Dh105 for adults from platinumlist.net
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
MATCH DETAILS
Manchester United 3
Greenwood (21), Martial (33), Rashford (49)
Partizan Belgrade 0
