Anybody who can remember watching a World Cup that did not have Cristiano Ronaldo taking part in it would have to be well into their 20s by now. Those a little older might even remember vividly how leaderless his national team, Portugal, looked the last time they had to go to a World Cup without him.
That was way back in 2002, when two defeats in the group stage, to the USA and to South Korea, put the Portuguese on an early flight home, and one their key strikers, Joao Pinto into a four-match ban from all football for plunging his fist into the stomach of a referee.
Happily for Portuguese pride, a 17-year-old with magical gifts and a fierce will to win was shortly to make his senior debut with Sporting and, although the national team were not immune to losses of temper in the two decades that followed, they would be accompanied to every major tournament after 2002 armed with the footballer who has set peerless standards for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
Ronaldo, 37 last month, is still doing it for Manchester United. He scored a hat-trick in his most recent Premier League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur that needed a late goal from the veteran to secure a 3-2 win. He was doing it for Portugal on the opening weekend of the 2018 World Cup, when the last goal - in the 88th minute - of his hat-trick against Spain earned his team a 3-3 draw.
This week, Portugal present him with another challenge of brinkmanship. They are one of the 11 teams in the new-format play-offs that will determine the last three European places at Qatar 2022. He knows the drill but not the novel system.
In the Ronaldo era, Portugal have twice before faced play-offs to reach World Cups, but both the format and the opposition in 2009 and in 2013 looked kinder than the scenario facing Ronaldo’s team now.
Against Bosnia - for a place at the 2010 tournament - Portugal triumphed in the home and away legs without needing Ronaldo, who had an ankle injury at the time.
They played Sweden for a place at Brazil 2014, again over a conventional two legs, and won both matches. A Ronaldo goal sealed the home leg. He scored the second and third goals of a hat-trick in Solna after Sweden took the lead in the second leg - courtesy of a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic - as Portugal ran out 4-2 winners on aggregate.
The map for Path C of Uefa’s play-offs for Qatar 2022 is quirkier. First, there’s Thursday one-leg semi-final in Porto against Turkey. Win that and either Italy or North Macedonia, who meet each other in Sicily this week, will come to Portugal to face Ronaldo and what probably ranks as the best set of supporting forwards he has known through his 184-cap international career. They include an in-form Joao Felix, along with Bernardo Silva, Diogo Jota and Bruno Fernandes.
That alone is a quartet of players who would enrich any World Cup. But Qatar 2022 can not accommodate every star. Across the various play-offs and last mini-league matches over the next 10 days, several notables will say farewell to their World Cup dream.
In Path B of the Uefa play-offs, where Poland meet either Sweden or the Czech Republic in the ‘final’, it will be either Robert Lewadowski or Ibrahimovic. And it may be both out, if the Czechs win their semi and then beat Poland, who are straight through to the final due to the suspension of Russia from all football competitions.
In South America, where there are two matchdays remaining, two qualifying spots and one intercontinental play-off berth are still open. Ecuador, third behind already-qualified Brazil and Argentina, will at the very least gain the play-off slot, if not better, which means at least one country from James Rodriguez’s Colombia, Alexis Sanchez’s Chile or the Uruguay of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani will not be in Qatar.
Africa’s brutal sort-out – five simple home-and-away duels to decide all the continent’s World Cup entrants – has either Mohamed Salah or Sadio Mane making the cut, Egypt having drawn Senegal in what will be a repeat of last month’s Africa Cup of Nations final, won on penalties by Senegal.
No less highly-charged is the Ghana-Nigeria joust, while the 2017 African Champions, Cameroon, meet the 2019 Afcon winners, Riyad Mahrez’s Algeria, in a scenario that Ronaldo, for one, would recognise as uncomfortably stark. His Portugal were European champions in 2016. Italy became the European championship’s next holders last summer. Only one of them can make it to Qatar.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Liverpool’s fixtures until end of 2019
Saturday, November 30, Brighton (h)
Wednesday, December 4, Everton (h)
Saturday, December 7, Bournemouth (a)
Tuesday, December 10, Salzburg (a) CL
Saturday, December 14, Watford (h)
Tuesday, December 17, Aston Villa (a) League Cup
Wednesday, December 18, Club World Cup in Qatar
Saturday, December 21, Club World Cup in Qatar
Thursday, December 26, Leicester (a)
Sunday, December 29, Wolves (h)
Super 30
Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /5
THE BIO
Favourite author - Paulo Coelho
Favourite holiday destination - Cuba
New York Times or Jordan Times? NYT is a school and JT was my practice field
Role model - My Grandfather
Dream interviewee - Che Guevara
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: CVT
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 220Nm
Price: Dh98,900
More on Palestine-Israeli relations
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Shahi
Emirate: Sharjah – Khor Fakkan
Education: Master’s degree in special education, preparing for a PhD in philosophy.
Favourite activities: Bungee jumping
Favourite quote: “My people and I will not settle for anything less than first place” – Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid.
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
MATCH INFO
Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium (Malacca, Malayisa)
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia scheduled for October 10
The biog
Favourite colour: Brown
Favourite Movie: Resident Evil
Hobbies: Painting, Cooking, Imitating Voices
Favourite food: Pizza
Trivia: Was the voice of three characters in the Emirati animation, Shaabiyat Al Cartoon
Jebel Ali results
2pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 50,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner: AF Al Moreeb, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
2.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Shamikh, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
3pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 64,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: One Vision, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
3.30pm: Conditions (TB) Dh 100,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Gabr, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson
4pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 96,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner: Just A Penny, Sam Hitchcock, Doug Watson
4.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Torno Subito, Sam Hitchcock, Doug Watson
5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 76,000 (D) 1,950m
Winner: Untold Secret, Jose Santiago, Salem bin Ghadayer
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
