With a 100 percent record in the Champions League and 11 wins from 12 games in La Liga, Atletico Madrid have been one of the revelations of European football this season.
A 4-0 hammering of Austria Vienna on Wednesday meant Atletico joined holders Bayern Munich as the only sides to have won all four of their group games and ensured simple passage into the last-16 on their return to the Champions League for the first time in four years.
Diego Simeone’s men also split traditional powerhouses Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga, a point behind the Catalans and five ahead of their city rivals.
However, the high they are currently riding is no flash in the pan. Since Simeone’s arrival at the club in December 2011, the man who was a star player the last time Atletico won the league back in 1995/96, has completely turned around what was an underachieving sleeping giant.
Whilst world class talents like Fernando Torres, Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan came and went from the Vicente Calderon, the overall organisation of the club and lack of balance on the field prevented them from ever truly punching their weight over the past decade.
Simeone’s arrival brought about an instant change in fortunes. In his first six months in charge the team shot up the table to just miss out on Champions League football on the final day of the season and stormed to the Europa League by winning every single game in the knockout stage.
That was followed by more silverware as they hammered Chelsea 4-1 in the European Super Cup thanks to a Radamel Falcao hat-trick and, powered by the Colombian, they started last season in similar fashion winning 11 of their opening 13 games before being defeated, as the always did, to Real in the Madrid derby.
Simeone’s powers of motivation and tactical nous even managed to end that curse though, as Atletico eventually beat Real for the first time in 14 years at the best possible time, in the best possible scenario. A Copa del Rey final at the Santiago Bernabeu, 40,000 Atleti fans there to witness them break down the biggest psychological barrier on enemy territory.
“Before his arrival we were all a little floored because things weren’t going well, we had been fairly eliminated from the Copa del Rey by (second division) Albacete,” admitted midfielder Koke, the man christened the “new Xavi” by certain sections of the Spanish press.
“The manager arrived and he totally changed this mentality. He showed us how to have a positive mentality and since then everything has gone well.”
The continued rise of Atletico’s stock this season is arguably Simeone’s greatest achievement as they have taken on the extra rigours of Champions League football and coped with Falcao’s departure to Monaco without any sort of stumble.
Young players that he has blooded like Koke and Mario Suarez have become regulars in the Spanish squad, whilst Diego Costa’s transformation under his tutelage saw Spain and Brazil squabble for the services of the striker who has now scored 16 goals in as many games this season.
Simeone has continued to play down his side’s chances of winning La Liga, repeatedly dismissing the competition as a “boring league” which only the big two can win due to the financial disparity between them and the rest.
Therefore, it could on the biggest stage of all where Atletico truly make their mark; the Champions League.
“We trust in our coach because he knows how to draw the maximum from every one of us,” full-back Juanfran told the media ahead of the Vienna return.
“It is clear that Atletico has always been a cup team, the elimination format suits us. I am one of those that believe that the Spanish league continues to be the best, the strongest and most competitive, and perhaps it will be harder to win the league than the Champions League.”
Unbeaten in their last four meetings with Barca and Madrid, they have already shown they can compete with the continent’s best when the distance is reduced to two games rather than 38.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Company%20Profile
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Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
RESULT
Al Hilal 4 Persepolis 0
Khribin (31', 54', 89'), Al Shahrani 40'
Red card: Otayf (Al Hilal, 49')
MATCH INFO
Burnley 0
Man City 3
Raheem Sterling 35', 49'
Ferran Torres 65'
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
Engine: 4 liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous electric motors placed at each wheel
Battery: Rimac 120kWh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power: 1877bhp
Torque: 2300Nm
Price: Dh7,500,00
On sale: Now
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Company%20Profile
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ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5