Roberto Soldado’s two-year stint at English club Tottenham Hotspur was widely considered a failure, but the former Spain forward appears to have rediscovered his scoring touch on his return to the Primera Liga with Villarreal.
Soldado struck in Villarreal’s 1-1 draw at Real Betis on the opening weekend of the season and was also on target in Friday’s 3-1 comeback win at home to Espanyol.
The 30-year-old, who last played for Spain in September 2013, his 12th appearance, joined Tottenham from Valencia but only managed 16 goals in 76 games for the London club.
Preview: Rafael Benitez out for first Real Madrid win on Bernabeu bow + Liga match times in UAE
Villarreal’s assistant coach Ruben Uria said after Friday’s match that with Soldado, Congo forward Cedric Bakambu, who netted a double against Espanyol, and Brazilian Leo Baptistao, the club had plenty of talent up front to help them in their Europa League campaign.
“The club made a big effort too look for players with finishing ability,” Uria said.
“I think that right now we have three forwards of a very high level and we have to make sure they adapt as soon as possible,” he added. “Villarreal showed it has firepower in attack.”
Villarreal were drawn in Europa League Group E with Viktoria Plzen, Rapid Vienna and Dinamo Minsk.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Film: Raid
Dir: Rajkumar Gupta
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'cruz and Saurabh Shukla
Verdict: Three stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Thursday (All UAE kick-off times)
Sevilla v Real Betis (midnight)
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
RESULTS FOR STAGE 4
Stage 4 Dubai to Hatta, 197 km, Road race.
Overall leader Primoz Roglic SLO (Team Jumbo - Visma)
Stage winners: 1. Caleb Ewan AUS (Lotto - Soudal) 2. Matteo Moschetti ITA (Trek - Segafredo) 3. Primoz Roglic SLO (Team Jumbo - Visma)
