Jeff Hendrick and his Republic of Ireland teammate Shane Duffy look dejected after defeat to Denmark. Mike Hewitt / Getty Images
Jeff Hendrick and his Republic of Ireland teammate Shane Duffy look dejected after defeat to Denmark. Mike Hewitt / Getty Images
Jeff Hendrick and his Republic of Ireland teammate Shane Duffy look dejected after defeat to Denmark. Mike Hewitt / Getty Images
Jeff Hendrick and his Republic of Ireland teammate Shane Duffy look dejected after defeat to Denmark. Mike Hewitt / Getty Images

Football

Republic of Ireland will bounce back after huge defeat to Denmark in 2018 World Cup play-offs

Manager Martin O'Neill puts on brave face after team crash out of qualification for Russia 2018

Agence France Presse

November 15, 2017

  • English
  • Arabic

Martin O'Neill has vowed that the Republic of Ireland will bounce back from the worst defeat of his four-year reign when they begin their quest to reach a third European Championship finals in a row.

After holding Denmark scoreless last Saturday, Ireland were crushed 5-1 on Tuesday before a home crowd expecting a first World Cup qualification since 2002.

Ireland now have a long wait until their next competitive fixtures because the qualifiers for the 2020 European Championships do not begin until March 2019.

"We've lost a play-off game and we'll come back again," O'Neill promised. "This is hard work and we've only been beaten four times in 24 competitive matches since I came in."

The manager received plenty of flak of leaving Wes Hoolahan out in order to put the returning David Meyler back into a midfield diamond formation which played to the strengths of Denmark's hat-trick hero Christian Eriksen.

"We were well beaten in the end. Although we got off to a great start by scoring first, a second goal for us might have made a difference," said O'Neill who lamented the poor defending that enabled Denmark to take control of the second leg.

"We gave away two sloppy goals in the space of a few minutes and it was a long way back after that," said O'Neill.

"For their first goal, Harry [Arter] got beaten but we still be able to clear the ball and the second goal is just a comedy of mistakes.

"The whole mindset changes because six or seven minutes earlier, we could have been two goals up.

Denmark boss Age Hareide admitted he was hoping Ireland would adopt a diamond formation, and paid tribute to Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Eriksen.

"I'd like to thank to you to Ireland," he said of O'Neill, Hareide's former teammate at Norwich City.

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"Although they shut Eriksen out in Copenhagen, I couldn't believe the amount of space they gave him to exploit here in Dublin.

"The World Cup is about teams but also great players. It is beamed to a worldwide audience and Christian deserves to be on that stage showing the people what a world-class talent he is. Christian led the way tonight."

The Norwegian-born manager said he was always confident his team would recover from conceding an early lead to Shane Duffy's header.

"Our players kept their heads after going a goal down and their work paid off," he said.

"Conceding in the first five minutes is far better than conceding in the last five minutes... we had plenty of time to come back."

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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI

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.”

Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut

Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”

We Weren’t Supposed to Survive But We Did

We weren’t supposed to survive but we did.      
We weren’t supposed to remember but we did.              
We weren’t supposed to write but we did.  
We weren’t supposed to fight but we did.              
We weren’t supposed to organise but we did.
We weren’t supposed to rap but we did.        
We weren’t supposed to find allies but we did.
We weren’t supposed to grow communities but we did.        
We weren’t supposed to return but WE ARE.
Amira Sakalla

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