Gonzalo Higuain's arrival as the big-money replacement for Paul Pogba, has helped keep Juventus ahead of their title rivals. Valerio Pennicino / Getty Images
Gonzalo Higuain's arrival as the big-money replacement for Paul Pogba, has helped keep Juventus ahead of their title rivals. Valerio Pennicino / Getty Images

Juventus far from imperious but still lead the chasing pack — Serie A winter break review



As Serie A enters its winter break, Ian Hawkey looks at how the Italian league season is shaping up so far.

From the warmth of Doha as they awaited Friday night’s Qatar-hosted Italian Super Cup final, Serie A champions Juventus surveyed with mild satisfaction a cracker of a contest back home that closed the Serie A year.

Fiorentina versus Napoli, on Thursday, had six goals, terrific see-saw drama right to the very close, and by the end, two of the top division’s most entertaining sides had one point apiece.

Gripping though it may have been, third-placed Napoli missed out on two points in their pursuit of Juventus at the top.

Roma meanwhile stand four points off the leaders in second place, still ruing last weekend’s narrow defeat to Juve that ensured the champions would sit happy at the top going into 2017.

Read more:

■ Ligue 1 winter break review: End of Paris Saint-Germain monopoly provides refreshing change

■ Bundesliga winter break review: RB Leipzig lead nouveaux riche challenge of the Bayern-led establishment

■ Premier League team of the season so far: Chelsea provide the spine, Liverpool the attacking verve

Chasing Juve’s serial winners can be a dispiriting business, and the indications already are that Juventus, with a game in hand over Roma and Napoli, are minded to give fewer teasing glimpses of their vulnerability to all the rest than they did when they made their very patchy start to the defence of their 2015 title.

Sure, Massimiliano Allegri’s team have suffered three defeats in their 17 matches so far this season. Sure, Napoli and Roma are outscoring them, but there is steel in those black and white stripes that is hard to bend.

Juve are accustomed to looking over their shoulders at either Roma or Napoli, and knowing they can cope with either.

Meanwhile, a future time where Inter Milan or AC Milan recover lost ground in terms of prestige, and become the most muscular challengers still appears a while away. Inter have had a turbulent year, and are on their third manager of 2016, Stefano Piolo.

They lost Roberto Mancini in the summer and then dismissed Frank de Boer, the Dutchman lasting just 11 Serie A games.

Inter, without a league title since their 2010 treble, have not, it can be safely reported, yet provided quite the yield their various foreign owners anticipated since the club turned to courting significant investors four years back.

AC Milan are looking that way now. They took their biggest stride away from the governance of president Silvio Berlusconi, although their proposed takeover by a Chinese consortium will not be completed before March.

By then, Milan’s prospects of displacing Roma and Napoli from the top three, the Uefa Champions League-eligible positions should be clearer.

Under Vicenzo Montella, Milan have looked bright, and, in a break from some of their recruitment habits of recent years, rather youthful and with a broader spread of Italian talent.

Some of the younger club members of Serie A have less to feel positive about.

Take Sassuolo, who followed up their historic place in European competition with a falling away, both in the Europa League and domestically, as if the air has been let out of their gravity-defying balloon.

As for the champions, they said goodbye to Paul Pogba in the summer, but, right now, would back the quality of the buy made with a large chunk of the proceeds of that sale, Gonzalo Higuain.

He is helping Juventus maintain their high standards, domestically at least.

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Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
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The specs
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PROFILE OF SWVL

Started: April 2017

Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh

Based: Cairo, Egypt

Sector: transport

Size: 450 employees

Investment: approximately $80 million

Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now

Profile of Whizkey

Date founded: 04 November 2017

Founders: Abdulaziz AlBlooshi and Harsh Hirani

Based: Dubai, UAE

Number of employees: 10

Sector: AI, software

Cashflow: Dh2.5 Million  

Funding stage: Series A

 

 

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
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The Facility’s Versatility

Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
 
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
 
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
 
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
 
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
 
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket

England World Cup squad

Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

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The currency conundrum

Russ Mould, investment director at online trading platform AJ Bell, says almost every major currency has challenges right now. “The US has a huge budget deficit, the euro faces political friction and poor growth, sterling is bogged down by Brexit, China’s renminbi is hit by debt fears while slowing Chinese growth is hurting commodity exporters like Australia and Canada.”

Most countries now actively want a weak currency to make their exports more competitive. “China seems happy to let the renminbi drift lower, the Swiss are still running quantitative easing at full tilt and central bankers everywhere are actively talking down their currencies or offering only limited support," says Mr Mould.

This is a race to the bottom, and everybody wants to be a winner.

The stats

Ship name: MSC Bellissima

Ship class: Meraviglia Class

Delivery date: February 27, 2019

Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT

Passenger capacity: 5,686

Crew members: 1,536

Number of cabins: 2,217

Length: 315.3 metres

Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
Where to submit a sample

Volunteers of all ages can submit DNA samples at centres across Abu Dhabi, including: Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), Biogenix Labs in Masdar City, NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City, NMC Royal Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi, NMC Royal Women's Hospital, Bareen International Hospital, Al Towayya in Al Ain, NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain

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