AS Roma failed to strengthen their grip on second place in Serie A after goals from Marco Van Ginkel and Mattia Destro saw struggling AC Milan win 2-1 to blow the race for the Champions League wide open.
Van Ginkel’s first Serie A goal five minutes before half-time and a close range header from Destro just before the hour mark were enough for Milan to win for the first time in six games, despite a Francesco Totti penalty letting Roma back into the game 17 minutes from time.
“It was a special game for me and I really wanted to do well in front of our fans,” said Destro, who is on loan from Roma and has an uncertain future at Milan.
“The important thing was to get a goal, as I hadn’t scored for a while and strikers need goals. What will happen next season? I don’t know, we are all waiting for the end of the season and then we’ll see.”
Rudi Garcia’s Roma stay second on 64 points but they are only a point ahead of local rivals Lazio, who host Inter Milan on Sunday night, after a disastrous display that puts their Champions League credentials in doubt.
His side could also find fourth-placed Napoli only two behind them at the end of the weekend should Rafa Benitez’s side win at already-relegated Parma as expected.
“At the end of the game I saw my players ask the referee why there were 30 seconds less played than there should have been, but we lost an hour of the game. This is the problem,” said an angry Garcia.
“We started well in the first 20 minutes, created a couple of chances, but after that we fell into a lazy rhythm, and sat back too much for a match this important. Maybe they didn’t realise that there were still four games to go.”
Roma have three games left and in theory have the easiest run-in, with the Rome derby on the penultimate round of the season sandwiched between winnable home games against Udinese and Palermo.
Lazio meanwhile have got to face Europa League-chasing Inter and Sampdoria, with a potentially crunch clash with Napoli coming on the last day of the season. Napoli for their part also have to travel to Juventus the evening before the two capital clubs face off against one another.
“We’ve got three cup finals that we have to play in a different way compared to tonight if we’re to win,” added Garcia.
In Saturday’s earlier game, Cagliari spoiled Juventus’ home title celebrations and Paul Pogba’s goal-scoring return after two months out by snatching a late 1-1 draw to keep their slim Serie A survival hopes alive.
Defender Luca Rossettini struck five minutes from the end in Turin, pouncing on the rebound off the post of his own header to cancel out Pogba’s 45th-minute opener, and close the gap between third-from-bottom Cagliari and Atalanta, who travel to Palermo on Sunday, to five points.
Pogba was the best player on the pitch before being substituted an hour into the match, but coach Massimiliano Allegri said that he was undecided whether he would start against Real Madrid on Wednesday when Juve try to a defend a 2-1 Champions League semi-final first leg lead.
“I will assess the situation between now and Wednesday, but I’ve seen in training that he’s in good physical condition. He’s a young lad and he’s in good shape,” said Allegri.
“We know that the Madrid game will be difficult because they have players with great technique, and we will have to play much more offensively. We have to score, because if we don’t it will be really hard to go through.”
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FIXTURES
Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan
The top two teams qualify for the World Cup
Classification matches
The top-placed side out of Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong or Nepal will be granted one-day international status. UAE and Scotland have already won ODI status, having qualified for the Super Six.
Thu Mar 15 – Netherlands v Hong Kong, PNG v Nepal
Sat Mar 17 – 7th-8th place playoff, 9th-10th place play-off
Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
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Essentials
The flights: You can fly from the UAE to Iceland with one stop in Europe with a variety of airlines. Return flights with Emirates from Dubai to Stockholm, then Icelandair to Reykjavik, cost from Dh4,153 return. The whole trip takes 11 hours. British Airways flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Reykjavik, via London, with return flights taking 12 hours and costing from Dh2,490 return, including taxes.
The activities: A half-day Silfra snorkelling trip costs 14,990 Icelandic kronur (Dh544) with Dive.is. Inside the Volcano also takes half a day and costs 42,000 kronur (Dh1,524). The Jokulsarlon small-boat cruise lasts about an hour and costs 9,800 kronur (Dh356). Into the Glacier costs 19,500 kronur (Dh708). It lasts three to four hours.
The tours: It’s often better to book a tailor-made trip through a specialist operator. UK-based Discover the World offers seven nights, self-driving, across the island from £892 (Dh4,505) per person. This includes three nights’ accommodation at Hotel Husafell near Into the Glacier, two nights at Hotel Ranga and two nights at the Icelandair Hotel Klaustur. It includes car rental, plus an iPad with itinerary and tourist information pre-loaded onto it, while activities can be booked as optional extras. More information inspiredbyiceland.com
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Company Profile
Company name: Big Farm Brothers
Started: September 2020
Founders: Vishal Mahajan and Navneet Kaur
Based: Dubai Investment Park 1
Industry: food and agriculture
Initial investment: $205,000
Current staff: eight to 10
Future plan: to expand to other GCC markets
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 290hp
Torque: 340Nm
Price: Dh155,800
On sale: now
The biog
Hobbies: Writing and running
Favourite sport: beach volleyball
Favourite holiday destinations: Turkey and Puerto Rico
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Awar Qalb
Director: Jamal Salem
Starring: Abdulla Zaid, Joma Ali, Neven Madi and Khadija Sleiman
Two stars
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Rating: 1 out of 4
Running time: 81 minutes
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Read more about the coronavirus
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
