Harry Kane hails ‘special night’ for England as Eric Dier gets late winner against Germany

Berlin // Roy Hodgson insists England are still “a work in progress”, but goal-scorer Harry Kane hailed a ‘special night’ after the Three Lions’ stunning 3-2 fightback win away to Germany.

Toni Kroos and Mario Gomez had put the world champions 2-0 up at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday with an hour gone before the game turned England’s way.

Photo gallery: England stun Germany with late fightback in international friendly

The Three Lions roared back with three unanswered goals from Kane and Jamie Vardy, then Eric Dier headed the winner on 91 minutes to stun the World Cup winners.

“It’s important to remain humble in these moments. We have an awful long way to go before we can claim to be like the Germans, after what they have achieved in the last few years,” said England manager Hodgson.

“But it was a good performance and we can take a lot of pride and encouragement from it.

“It was good to see the players play their way back into the game. It showed character to come from 2-0 down.

“What pleased me most was quality in our passing and movement, we ended up scoring three goals from an awful lot of chances.

“I am pleased to have been able to pick up from where we left off in November having played well against France.”

Nevertheless, Hodgson conceded this was his best night so far with England since taking charge in May 2012.

England’s goal-scorer Kane was thrilled to have beaten the world champions in Berlin.

“It’s a special night. When you’re 2-0 down to the world champions, to then turn it around in their backyard shows character,” said the Tottenham Hotspur striker.

“We dug in and got the goals. It will be a night many of us won’t forget.

“You dream about scoring against teams like Germany on the big stage, but to have gone and won makes it all the more special.

“We have a great mentality about us, we never stopped playing and things were working.

“It was about staying focused, not just kicking long balls, and staying patient enough to wait for our chances.”

Online poll: Spain, France, England or Italy – which country is favourite to win Euro 2016?

Hodgson played down expectations on England, who host the Netherlands on Tuesday, before their opening Euro 2016 match against Russia, having also drawn Wales and Slovakia in Group B.

But he was pleased with the performances of inexperienced wingbacks Danny Rose, who was making his debut, and Nathaniel Clyne, who won his 10th cap.

“The result won’t do any harm, but it’s a friendly match and you have to be careful of attaching too much importance to it,” he said.

“I’m pleased with the progress the young lads are making.

“It was a good step forward in terms of the work we are doing, but there is an awful lot we can still do better.

“We still have four more friendlies and two months of work before we play the first game which will count which is the group game against Russia in Marseille.

“Jamie (Vardy) and Harry Kane have had wonderful seasons with their clubs and are playing with confidence.

“But Clyne and Danny Rose are also playing with a degree of confidence.

“I’ve felt for a while that this is the start of something.

“Let’s keep these players feet on the ground and more importantly, I want them to stay hungry to learn.”

International friendly results from Saturday

At Antalya, Turkey

Azerbaijan 0 Kazakhstan 1 (Bayzhanov 8)

At Moscow

Russia 3 (Smolov 41, Golovin 61, Glushakov 72) Lithuania 0

At Vienna

Austria 2 (Janko 6, Harnik 13) Albania 1 (Lenjani 47)

At Wroclaw

Poland 5 (Grosicki 18, 85, Wszolek 20, 66, Starzynski 33) Finland 0

At Budapest

Hungary 1 (Dzsudzsak 79) Croatia 1 (Mandzukic 29)

At Berlin

Germany 2 (Kroos 43, Gomez 57) England 3 (Kane 61, Vardy 74, Dier 90+1)

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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.”

Harry Kane hails ‘special night’ for England as Eric Dier gets late winner against Germany

The Three Lions roared back with three unanswered goals from Kane and Jamie Vardy, then Dier headed the winner on 91 minutes. “It’s important to remain humble in these moments," says England manager Roy Hodgson.