World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo looks set to make his comeback from injury for Real Madrid when Bayern Munich visit the Santiago Bernabeu for their Champions League semi-final, first leg on Wednesday.
Ronaldo has been sidelined for the past three weeks due to a hamstring injury and will be desperate to make up for lost time by building on his record-equalling 14 goals in the competition this season.
Real are set to be at full strength as left-back Marcelo has also overcome a hamstring problem. Gareth Bale missed training on Monday due to flu-like symptoms, but the Welshman is expected to take his place alongside Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in attack.
Real will need Ronaldo and Bale firing on all cylinders if they are to overcome their historic hoodoo against Bayern in the last four of Europe’s premier club competition.
In five previous semi-finals, the Germans have come out on top four times, with a 3-2 aggregate victory in 2000 on their way to winning the competition for an eighth time Real’s only success.
However, Madrid’s previously awful record against German opposition has been salvaged this season as they saw off Schalke and Borussia Dortmund on their way into the last four.
And Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge believes an away goal is the key to his side reaching the final for a third consecutive season.
“We need to score at least one goal. That’s what we learned from Dortmund’s meetings with Real Madrid,” he said.
“We’re known as the ‘la bestia negra’ (bete noire) down there. We need to show them la bestia negra is back.”
By their own lofty standards, Bayern have struggled to maintain their focus after sealing the Bundesliga title in record time a month ago.
Saturday’s 2-0 win over bottom club Eintracht Braunschweig was their first in four league games, a run which included two consecutive defeats after a 53-match unbeaten streak.
Bayern boss Pep Guardiola enjoyed an impeccable record of five wins and a draw in six visits to the Santiago Bernabeu in four years in charge of Barcelona.
However, the Spaniard has accepted responsibility for his side slacking off in recent weeks and will be hoping meeting the nine-time European champions brings out the best in them, having previously described playing in Europe as “like a good meal in a nice restaurant” compared to the “everyday pizza or hamburgers” of the Bundesliga.
And captain Philipp Lahm admitted the European champions need to be at the very top of their game when they visit the Spanish capital, where they triumphed on penalties in the semi-finals two years ago.
“On Wednesday we’ll show we’re always up for it in the important games, but it’s still 50-50,” he said.
“I am sure that everyone will put in a top performance on Wednesday because if they don’t we have no chance.”
Other than the absence of former Barcelona midfielder Thiago Alcantara, Bayern should also be at full strength with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and David Alaba returning to the side after missing Saturday’s win at Braunschweig due to injury and illness respectively.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
A cheaper choice
Vanuatu: $130,000
Why on earth pick Vanuatu? Easy. The South Pacific country has no income tax, wealth tax, capital gains or inheritance tax. And in 2015, when it was hit by Cyclone Pam, it signed an agreement with the EU that gave it some serious passport power.
Cost: A minimum investment of $130,000 for a family of up to four, plus $25,000 in fees.
Criteria: Applicants must have a minimum net worth of $250,000. The process take six to eight weeks, after which the investor must travel to Vanuatu or Hong Kong to take the oath of allegiance. Citizenship and passport are normally provided on the same day.
Benefits: No tax, no restrictions on dual citizenship, no requirement to visit or reside to retain a passport. Visa-free access to 129 countries.
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Abdul Jabar Qahraman was meeting supporters in his campaign office in the southern Afghan province of Helmand when a bomb hidden under a sofa exploded on Wednesday.
The blast in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah killed the Afghan election candidate and at least another three people, Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak told reporters. Another three were wounded, while three suspects were detained, he said.
The Taliban – which controls much of Helmand and has vowed to disrupt the October 20 parliamentary elections – claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mr Qahraman was at least the 10th candidate killed so far during the campaign season, and the second from Lashkar Gah this month. Another candidate, Saleh Mohammad Asikzai, was among eight people killed in a suicide attack last week. Most of the slain candidates were murdered in targeted assassinations, including Avtar Singh Khalsa, the first Afghan Sikh to run for the lower house of the parliament.
The same week the Taliban warned candidates to withdraw from the elections. On Wednesday the group issued fresh warnings, calling on educational workers to stop schools from being used as polling centres.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
More on Quran memorisation:
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.
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
