Robert Lewandowski warms up during a Bayern Munich training session ahead of their Uefa Champions League quarter-final first leg match against Benfica at Saebener Strasse training ground on April 4, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Adam Pretty / Getty Images
Robert Lewandowski warms up during a Bayern Munich training session ahead of their Uefa Champions League quarter-final first leg match against Benfica at Saebener Strasse training ground on April 4, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Adam Pretty / Getty Images
Robert Lewandowski warms up during a Bayern Munich training session ahead of their Uefa Champions League quarter-final first leg match against Benfica at Saebener Strasse training ground on April 4, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Adam Pretty / Getty Images
Robert Lewandowski warms up during a Bayern Munich training session ahead of their Uefa Champions League quarter-final first leg match against Benfica at Saebener Strasse training ground on April 4, 2

It would be folly for Bayern Munich to not think far ahead in Champions League


Ian Hawkey
  • English
  • Arabic

Bayern Munich v Benfica, Tuesday April 5, 10.45pm (UAE)

It is one of the oldest phrases in the dictionary of manager-speak. You take games “one at a time”, eyes on only the immediate 90 minutes, never further.

It is a contagious cliche.

Players endlessly trot it out in front of microphones, especially at this stage of the season, while chasing titles, “each day as it comes”, or battling relegation, when every fixture is “just like a cup final”.

But something else, something refreshing, and candid, was heard from Pep Guardiola, the Bayern Munich coach, on Saturday evening, when he picked over his team's 1-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt.

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It was a result that kept Bayern five points clear of Borussia Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga, but a performance that lacked verve.

“I was a player myself,” Guardiola told reporters, “so I know how hard it can be to not be thinking about the next game, looking ahead.”

He detected symptoms in some of his men of distraction against Eintracht, their minds telescoping to three days later, and a Uefa Champions League quarter-final. “That was a problem for some of them. But you need to be fully focused or things don’t work.”

So much for the one-game-at-a-time platitude.

Fact is, Bayern Munich’s players have been so accustomed, over the past three years, to wrapping up their domestic title by early spring that it would be to imagine them robots if they did not cultivate mechanisms to preserve their adrenalin for tasks they know to be more demanding than the challenges they usually confront in the Bundesliga. It is also likely they think well beyond the remaining games of 2015/16, given Bayern’s managerial situation.

Because Guardiola is leaving in June, to join Manchester City, and Bayern’s players know his successor, Carlo Ancelotti is watching each of them as he plans his version of the German champions, they sense what their big audition dates are. And a last-eight European Cup clash with Benfica, with the first leg on Tuesday night in Bavaria, is bigger than a routine home win over relegation-threatened Eintracht.

Which is a pity for Franck Ribery, whose spectacular volleyed goal on Saturday eased Guardiola a step closer to his third consecutive Bundesliga Shield. Ribery’s return to fitness, and form after a long lay-off, has increased competition for places in attack. He competes with Douglas Costa, Arjen Robben and Kingsley Coman for two spots on the wings.

Meanwhile, Robert Lewandowski, the centre-forward, looked disgruntled when he was substituted against Eintracht. He had not put comforting distance between his 25 league goals so far this season and the 23 of Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Lewandowski cannot help but project ahead to his target of finishing with the Bundesliga’s top goals total, advertising himself to Ancelotti or any of the several suitors he will hear from ahead of, and during, the summer transfer window.

Then there’s Mario Gotze, superb for Germany in the international break at the end of March, still struggling to get many starts for Bayern.

This jostle to find favour with a coach, Guardiola, whose mind also wanders – if only on his days off – beyond the next 90 minutes, to his own plans for City, may turn out to be Bayern’s strongest motor over the rest of a European campaign in which they have amends to make, for the successive, heavy semi-final defeats in the Champions League of the previous two seasons. But the jostle needs careful managing.

So do Benfica, top of the Portuguese Primeira Liga, with the leader of the race for Europe’s Golden Shoe up front – striker Jonas has five more league goals this term than Lewadowski – and eager to play on a recent black spot in the memory of Guardiola’s Bayern.

At this stage a year ago, Bayern played Porto. It was widely thought, by getting Portuguese opponents, they had landed in one of the easier quarter-finals. Porto blitzed them 3-1 in the first leg – from which Bayern recovered in style in the return game at home – giving a sharp reminder that you really do need to focus on the immediate task, not project too far ahead.

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RESULTS

Women:

55kg brown-black belt: Amal Amjahid (BEL) bt Amanda Monteiro (BRA) via choke
62kg brown-black belt: Bianca Basilio (BRA) bt Ffion Davies (GBR) via referee’s decision (0-0, 2-2 adv)
70kg brown-black belt: Ana Carolina Vieira (BRA) bt Jessica Swanson (USA), 9-0
90kg brown-black belt: Angelica Galvao (USA) bt Marta Szarecka (POL) 8-2

Men:

62kg black belt: Joao Miyao (BRA) bt Wan Ki-chae (KOR), 7-2
69kg black belt: Paulo Miyao (BRA) bt Gianni Grippo (USA), 2-2 (1-0 adv)
77kg black belt: Espen Mathiesen (NOR) bt Jake Mackenzie (CAN)
85kg black belt: Isaque Braz (BRA) bt Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE), 2-0
94kg black belt: Felipe Pena (BRA) bt Adam Wardzinski (POL), 4-0
110kg black belt final: Erberth Santos (BRA) bt Lucio Rodrigues (GBR) via rear naked choke

Our legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

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

THE DETAILS

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Dir: Ron Howard

Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson

3/5

RESULT

Brazil 2 Croatia 0
Brazil: 
Neymar (69'), Firmino (90' 3)    

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RESULTS

6.30pm Handicap (TB) US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,400m

Winner Golden Goal, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)

7.05pm Dubai Racing Club Classic Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,410m

Winner: Walton Street, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.

7.40pm Dubai Stakes Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,200m

Winner Switzerland, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar

8.15pm Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m

Winner Lord Giltters, Adrie de Vries, David O’Meara

8.50pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) $228,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner Military Law, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.

9.25pm Al Fahidi Fort Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,400m

Winner Land Of Legends, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor

10pm Dubai Dash Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,000m

Winner Equilateral, Frankie Dettori, Charles Hills.

Ticket prices

General admission Dh295 (under-three free)

Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free

Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets

Points Classification after Stage 1

1. Geraint Thomas (Britain / Team Sky) 20

2. Stefan Kueng (Switzerland / BMC Racing) 17

3. Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus / Team Sky) 15

4. Tony Martin (Germany / Katusha) 13

5. Matteo Trentin (Italy / Quick-Step) 11

6. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 10

7. Jos van Emden (Netherlands / LottoNL) 9

8. Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland / Team Sky) 8

9. Marcel Kittel (Germany / Quick-Step) 7

10. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway / Dimension Data) 6

Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

UAE v Gibraltar

What: International friendly

When: 7pm kick off

Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City

Admission: Free

Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page

UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting

2. Prayer

3. Hajj

4. Shahada

5. Zakat 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets