Thirty minutes into Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg between Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, the Olympic Stadium’s scoreboard showed a statistic that the home team had completed 225 passes against 69 from Dortmund.
Barcelona’s constant unified pressing and their persistent forward passing helped bring about a 4-0 win with one of their best performances of the season. It’s becoming a trend.
A decade after Luis Enrique led Barcelona to their last Champions League title, and half a decade since they last reached the semi-final stage, Barcelona are clear favourites to make the last four after demolishing Dortmund.
The visitors were missing senior players Marcel Sabitzer, Pascal Gross and Nico Schlotterback, and they’ll have a raucous 81,000 crowd behind them for next week’s second leg, but it would be the surprise of the season if they overcame a four-goal deficit.
Hansi Flick’s side assaulted the Dortmund goal from the first minute, with Lamine Yamal almost scoring twice in the first 10 minutes.
Barcelona have a mixture of youth and experience and Flick has brought the most exciting football to the city in the post-Lionel Messi era.
They’re unbeaten in 2025, have already won the Spanish Super Cup, face Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final, lead La Liga by four points, and are advancing in Europe after four below par seasons in continental competition.
They could lift a quadruple and return to Camp Nou in what could be an epic 2025 - but Flick keeps his players in check in a way in which Dortmund struggled to.
The contrast between Yamal, 17, and Robert Lewandowski, 36, delights and occasionally frustrates. The Pole pleaded for the ball from the youngster early in the game, and while Yamal’s decision-making often belies his years, he’s still got much to learn, and Flick was often in his ear with intense instructions. Both would eventually be among the goals.
Lewandowski left Dortmund in 2014 and had played against his former team 28 times since. On Wednesday he scored his 28th and 29th goals in those games. The stats are staggering at either end of the career spectrum. At 17 years and 270 days, Yamal became the first player under the age of 18 to make 20 Champions League appearances.
Dortmund, finalists against Real Madrid last year, have suffered this season. Eighth in the Bundesliga, they were underdogs against a team who’d already defeated them 3-2 at home in a wild October group game. Barcelona have learnt from then, their defence is less leaky and they dominated the early exchanges, yet Dortmund, backed by a vocal 3,000 following among the 49,760 crowd, had two excellent first-half chances from Serhou Guirassy.
By that time, home captain Raphinha had given the Catalans the one-goal lead they’d take into the break as he touched a ball that was already going in, preventing Pau Cubarsi from earning a first ever Champions League goal.
Raphinha, who apologised to Cubarsi, has scored a ridiculous 12 goals in 11 Champions League games this season. The Raphinha, Lewandowski, Yamal forward trident is sublime.
Yamal got his side’s fourth after 77 minutes, prodding past Gregor Kobel with the type of instinct Lewandowski had earlier shown when he swept the third goal in. It was Lamal’s 14th of the season, Lewandowski now has 40.
“I play with teammates of such a high level here, it makes things a joy,” said Raphinha “We all know each other well and that relationship level helps us as a team. Our stats are spectacular this season and I just hope that continues.”
Barcelona are having so much fun, but it’s not only about their front players. Frenkie de Jong is back in the team and, alongside Pedri, helping them dominate and control. Right back Jules Kounde marauds into the midfield.
"We’re not through yet,” said Flick after the game. “Winning by this many goals is important and, when a team plays as well as that, goals normally do flow. We aren’t thinking we are through because you simply never know what might happen. Football is madness. We’ll be determined to play like this again next week.”
“Dortmund are a good team so we are already aware that we need to travel over there and commit as few errors as possible. Our three guys up front are terrific and very important but so is our defence. And our guys who come off the bench and somehow manage to hit the same performance level as the players they replace.”
It’s daunting for Dortmund. “We need to defend together,” said their coach Niko Kovac after the game. “We face Bayern [on Saturday] and they’re at a similar level to Barcelona. All in all, over our next two games we need to position ourselves much better defensively. If we don’t do that with intensity against a team like this, who have more than one world-class player, then it’s too difficult.”
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
Our legal consultants
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
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Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
Gully Boy
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Producer: Excel Entertainment & Tiger Baby
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi
Rating: 4/5 stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.”
MEFCC information
Tickets range from Dh110 for an advance single-day pass to Dh300 for a weekend pass at the door. VIP tickets have sold out. Visit www.mefcc.com to purchase tickets in advance.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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9.
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Saudi Arabia
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10.
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South Korea
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Company%20Profile
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THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
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