Imperious France have all the tools to deliver a second World Cup trophy


Ian Hawkey
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There is an ominous sense of purpose about the France who have just booked their place in the country’s third World Cup in their last six attempts. Because this is France, the order and professionalism of their football, the way they have paced themselves though the tournament will be particularly praised and noted. Because this is France, the World Cup peaks seem all the higher because they are set against deep troughs.

Suffice to report that the new favourites to win Sunday’s World Cup final are nothing like the rabble who went on strike eight years ago in South Africa, or the gifted, but limp defending champions who wheezed home with one point from three matches from the 2002 World Cup.

Their dispatching of perhaps Belgium’s best-ever team in Saint Petersburg was utterly efficient. France absorbed early pressure, nullified Romelu Lukaku, the most menacing goalscorer of the so-called Belgian "Golden Generation", kept Eden Hazard largely in check, and either found Kevin de Bruyne on a night when his radar was slightly wonky, or hassled and restricted him enough that he had to reset his radar. And, just as significant, French players won many aerial duels against Marouane Fellaini.

For that, applause to Paul Pogba, who lent his authority to France’s defensive work and to the central defensive pairing who have through the past month provided a large body of evidence that whoever meets the French in Moscow on Sunday will need to be nimble, strong and ingenious to find a way past Samuel Umtiti and Rafa Varane. The Barcelona man, who scored the winning goal, glancing in an Antoine Griezmann corner early in the second half, and the Real Madrid commander of the back four, are beginning to look as authoritative as the Barca-Madrid pairing of Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos used to when Spain were winning all the major titles with defenders picked from either side of the Catalan-Castille rivalry.

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Read more:

France to use Euro 2016 heartache to spur them on to World Cup glory, says Deschamps

Roberto Martinez says Belgium must 'regroup' for one final game to try and clinch World Cup bronze

Report: France reach World Cup final as Samuel Umtiti's goal sinks Belgium

2018 World Cup as it happened: France beat Belgium

Free Modric, shackle Sterling and limit Trippier: How Croatia can beat England in the World Cup semi-final

Ian Hawkey: Croatia must quell England's set-piece threat to reach final

Richard Jolly: Gareth Southgate - from England fall-guy to national hero

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If it is to be the Croatia of Real's Luka Modric and Barca's Ivan Rakitic that France take on in the final, then the Croatian creators will certainly have to up their game; if England come through the second semi-final, then they will be aware that, however efficient they imagine they are from set-pieces, France also have a knack with them. Umtiti connected with his header ahead of the formidable Fellaini to put France ahead; Varane had scored the opening goal in the previous round, a header to crush Uruguayan hopes by connecting with a Griezmann free kick.

Hugo Lloris made an outstanding save to keep out a Toby Alderweireld drive. The goalkeeper’s form is strengthening as well, after a spectacular intervention against Uruguay.

All this will give Didier Deschamps, who is now 90 minutes from joining a very select group who have won a World Cup as a player and manager, reasons for optimism. He was the captain in 1998 for his country’s only triumph in the competition; he is the coach who can now trace a steady rise from the nadir of 2010, two different managers ago. Deschamps reached the quarter-final in Brazil in 2014 with a young, emerging Pogba and Griezmann in his squad; his France then finished with a silver medal two summers ago at the European Championship.

They were hosts then, and favourites. They will be favourites on Sunday unless England or Croatia produce something epoch-defining effort in the second semi-final.

France also have a footballer who may define an era to come. The 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe provided perhaps the most thrilling moment of a taut contest. His manoeuvre, combining a double backheel, from one foot to the other, and then a pass played behind him with the sole of his boot to Olivier Giroud was extraordinary, an innovation that really needs its own fresh term of description. He had also set up two the best first-half chances with passes to Giroud and Benjamin Pavard.

There were his habitual bursts of searing pace, too. And at the end, a teenager’s exuberant declaration of intent. “I don’t care about Ballons d’Or,” Mbappe said. “I just want the World Cup. I want to sleep in bed with that trophy.”

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The Pope's itinerary

Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport


Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial


Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Pharaoh's curse

British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.

F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

Squad: Majed Naser, Abdulaziz Sanqour, Walid Abbas, Khamis Esmail, Habib Fardan, Mohammed Marzouq (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai), Khalid Essa, Muhanad Salem, Mohammed Ahmed, Ismail Ahmed, Ahmed Barman,  Amer Abdulrahman, Omar Abdulrahman (Al Ain), Ali Khaseif, Fares Juma, Mohammed Fawzi, Khalfan Mubarak, Mohammed Jamal, Ahmed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Ahmed Rashid, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Wahda), Tariq Ahmed, Mahmoud Khamis, Khalifa Mubarak, Jassim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Yousef Saeed (Sharjah), Suhail Al Nubi (Baniyas)

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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
The nine articles of the 50-Year Charter

1. Dubai silk road

2.  A geo-economic map for Dubai

3. First virtual commercial city

4. A central education file for every citizen

5. A doctor to every citizen

6. Free economic and creative zones in universities

7. Self-sufficiency in Dubai homes

8. Co-operative companies in various sectors

­9: Annual growth in philanthropy

The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump and Other Pieces 1986-2016
Martin Amis,
Jonathan Cape

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The biog

Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology

Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India

Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur

How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993

Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters

Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo

First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus 

Business Insights
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Company name: Yeepeey

Started: Soft launch in November, 2020

Founders: Sagar Chandiramani, Jatin Sharma and Monish Chandiramani

Based: Dubai

Industry: E-grocery

Initial investment: $150,000

Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

What can victims do?

Always use only regulated platforms

Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion

Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)

Report to local authorities

Warn others to prevent further harm

Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence

The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra by Eliot Weisman and Jennifer Valoppi
Hachette Books

The Year Earth Changed

Directed by:Tom Beard

Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough

Stars: 4

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.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Opening day UAE Premiership fixtures, Friday, September 22:

  • Dubai Sports City Eagles v Dubai Exiles
  • Dubai Hurricanes v Abu Dhabi Saracens
  • Jebel Ali Dragons v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit

As he spoke, Mr Aboul Gheit repeatedly referred to the need to tackle issues affecting the welfare of people across the region both in terms of preventing conflict and in pushing development.
Lebanon is scheduled to host the fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in January that will see regional leaders gather to tackle the challenges facing the Middle East. The last such summit was held in 2013. Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki told The National that the Beirut Summit “will be an opportunity for Arab leaders to discuss solely economic and social issues, the conference will not focus on political concerns such as Palestine, Syria or Libya". He added that its slogan will be “the individual is at the heart of development”, adding that it will focus on all elements of human capital.

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THE SPECS

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Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

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Sam Smith

Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi

When: Saturday November 24

Rating: 4/5

How to wear a kandura

Dos

  • Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion 
  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
  • Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work 
  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Price, base / as tested Dh525,000 / Dh559,000

Engine: 3.0L V6 biturbo

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic

Power: 369hp at 5,500rpm

Torque: 500Nm at 1,800rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 8.0L / 100km