For Barcelona on Saturday night, it was Thomas Vermaelen, of all players, who succeeded where Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar failed in a 1-0 victory over Malaga.
The former Arsenal defender scored past Carlos Kameni 18 minutes from time at the Camp Nou to give Barca their second narrow victory of the new campaign.
The Belgian defender endured a nightmare debut season with Barca in 2014/15 despite being part of a treble-winning squad. Injuries limited him to a single league appearance.
“It is a great reward for him for the fight he had last year,” said Barca defender Javier Mascherano.
“I am happy for him because last year he couldn’t show his best football.
“The goals from the front three will come. The team generated a lot of chances, but we didn’t have much luck.”
Neymar was starting for the first time this season, after overcoming a bout of the mumps, and was reunited with Messi and Suarez up front.
Suarez was the first to have the ball in the net after just four minutes, but his headed effort was ruled out for a foul beforehand by the Uruguayan.
Malaga had stunned the Camp Nou with a 1-0 victory last season and they came within inches of taking the lead in extraordinary style as Juan Carlos’s effort from 60 yards flew just inches over the stranded Claudio Bravo’s goal.
Mascherano came close to being the unlikely man to break the deadlock when he headed against the crossbar moments later.
The home fans were incensed when referee Santiago Jaime Latre turned down two penalty shouts as Miguel Torres appeared to handle the ball inside the area before Marcos Angeleri brought down Suarez.
Kameni produced a trio of fine saves to deny Messi after the break.
Yet, for all his good work, Kameni was partly at fault for the goal. He could only parry Suarez’s cross from the left and the ball fell invitingly for Vermaelen to fire home from close range.
Gareth Bale, meanwhile, scored twice as Rafa Benitez got his first victory as Real Madrid coach with a 5-0 thrashing of Real Betis.
Madrid remain two points behind Barcelona.
Benitez’s side had been held to an embarrassing 0-0 draw by newly promoted Sporting Gijon last weekend, but there was to be no repeat as Bale headed home James Rodriguez’s cross inside two minutes.
Rodriguez fired an audacious free-kick from a narrow angle into the far corner of the net to double the advantage seven minutes before the break.
Bale turned provider at the start of the second period for Karim Benzema to head home the third before Rodriguez produced another spectacular effort with an overhead kick to make it 4-0.
Betis had a great opportunity to at least mark their visit to the Bernabeu with a consolation when Raphael Varane was penalised for upending Jorge Molina.
However, Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas made the most of his opportunity, despite the ongoing speculation that Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea could join the side in the coming days, by diving low to his left to save Ruben Castro’s penalty.
Bale had the final word with a fierce, left-footed effort that clipped the post on its way into the net.
Elsewhere in La Liga, Celta Vigo went top of the table as Nolito scored twice in a 3-0 win over 10-man Rayo Vallecano.
David Moyes’s Real Sociedad failed to find the net for a second consecutive game as they played out a 0-0 draw with Sporting Gijon.
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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The specs: Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Price, base: Dh1 million (estimate)
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12
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Power: 563hp @ 5,000rpm
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The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
Specs
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The biog
Profession: Senior sports presenter and producer
Marital status: Single
Favourite book: Al Nabi by Jibran Khalil Jibran
Favourite food: Italian and Lebanese food
Favourite football player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Languages: Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and some Spanish
Website: www.liliane-tannoury.com
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
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Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
SPAIN SQUAD
Goalkeepers Simon (Athletic Bilbao), De Gea (Manchester United), Sanchez (Brighton)
Defenders Gaya (Valencia), Alba (Barcelona), P Torres (Villarreal), Laporte (Manchester City), Garcia (Manchester City), D Llorente (Leeds), Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
Midfielders Busquets (Barcelona), Rodri (Manchester City), Pedri (Barcelona), Thiago (Liverpool), Koke (Atletico Madrid), Ruiz (Napoli), M Llorente (Atletico Madrid)
Forwards: Olmo (RB Leipzig), Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Morata (Juventus), Moreno (Villarreal), F Torres (Manchester City), Traore (Wolves), Sarabia (PSG)
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
MO
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
