Jurgen Klopp says Borussia Dortmund must use their dazzling Champions League displays to fix their nightmare Bundesliga form after reaching the last 16 in Europe on Tuesday.
Dortmund brushed off five consecutive defeats in the German top flight to romp to a 4-1 Champions League win at home to Galatasaray on Tuesday to go five points clear at the top of Group D.
Alongside Real Madrid, they are one of the first teams into the Champions League’s knock-out stage despite the worst start to a Bundesliga season in the club’s history.
Bizarrely, Dortmund have now picked up nearly double the points, 12, in their four Champions League matches than the seven they have from their 10 Bundesliga matches.
Klopp says they must use the confidence-boosting win over Galatasaray to break their losing streak when they host high-flying Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday.
“I told the lads to enjoy this, it’s important,” said Klopp.
“We’ve got to feel the good things from this win, there are five days until the next game.”
Goals either side of half-time from Marco Reus and Greece defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos put 2013 Champions League finalists Dortmund on their way to the knockout phase.
Galatasaray’s Berlin-born defender Hakan Balta pulled one back for the visitors midway through the second half before the hosts scored twice more to put the result beyond doubt.
Italy striker Ciro Immobile made the difference when he came off the bench for Reus just after Galatasaray scored.
He netted Dortmund’s third just 3 minutes and 26 seconds after coming on to kill off the away side’s fight-back, then compounded the Turks’ misery when his cross was deflected into the Galatasaray net by defender Semih Kaya.
“That was very disciplined, the team had things under control from the first minute,” said Klopp.
“We defended well and, when our tactical measures didn’t quite work, we compensated with passion and scored some great goals.”
Galatasaray can expect a Uefa fine after their fans repeatedly let off fireworks at the Westfalenstadion.
The game was held up twice in the second half as Galatasaray fans threw fireworks onto the pitch, then set off a flare in the stands in the closing few minutes, in a repeat of scenes when they played Arsenal away a month ago.
“Everything was done in terms of security, but they still get this stuff through. It’s remarkable. I hope it calms down,” fumed Klopp.
Galatasaray’s former Bayern Munich and Schalke midfielder Hamit Altintop said they had come up well short of their pre-match expectations.
“Sadly, we lost the game because of individual mistakes,” said the 31-year-old.
“We knew that Dortmund had the talent and skill in attack. Dortmund didn’t play that well, but we built them up.
“I contributed my part to the defeat,” he added having failed to prevent the Immobile goal despite a desperate tackle.
Galatasaray coach Cesare Prandelli said his side had improved from their 4-0 defeat to Dortmund in Istanbul a fortnight ago, although they have just one point from their four group games and prop up the section.
“It was not a fair result when you look at our display,” he said.
“The guys had been working very hard, but we have improved compared to our first game in Istanbul.
“We conceded the goals because of some little mistakes, which we’ll improve on.”
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MATCH INFO
Karnatake Tuskers 114-1 (10 ovs)
Charles 57, Amla 47
Bangla Tigers 117-5 (8.5 ovs)
Fletcher 40, Moores 28 no, Lamichhane 2-9
Bangla Tiger win by five wickets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kinetic 7
Started: 2018
Founder: Rick Parish
Based: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Industry: Clean cooking
Funding: $10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
Brief scores:
Everton 2
Walcott 21', Sigurdsson 51'
Tottenham 6
Son 27', 61', Alli 35', Kane 42', 74', Eriksen 48'
Man of the Match: Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
Company Profile
Company: Astra Tech
Started: March 2022
Based: Dubai
Founder: Abdallah Abu Sheikh
Industry: technology investment and development
Funding size: $500m
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