At the 2019 Champions League final, Serge Aurier sat two seats along from Juan Foyth among the Tottenham Hotspur substitutes.
No footballer wants to be on the bench for the highlight match of their club career, but, in the opening minute of that final, as Liverpool’s Sadio Mane latched on to a pass and accelerated into precisely the channel that Foyth, or Aurier - both right-sided defenders - would normally patrol, they might have felt momentarily spared.
Mane immediately won a penalty and Mohamed Salah converted it for the first of two unanswered Liverpool goals.
On Wednesday, Foyth and Aurier will likely contest one starting place in an XI on the brink of another Champions League final. Neither would have anticipated that when they swapped North London earlier this season for a small, unfashionable town just off the highway that links Castellon to Valencia.
Villarreal, who take on the Liverpool of Mane, Salah and company in the first leg of their semi-final, are the clear outsiders in this European Cup’s last four. But the diverse past experience spread around their mix-and-match squad means they will not be arriving at Anfield with wide-eyed awe.
If Foyth and Aurier know only too vividly how the Liverpool juggernaut can crush an underdog’s dream, Etienne Capoue, anchor of a Villarreal midfield that tamed Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals and held firm through a last-16 tie against Juventus won via a late flourish, would testify that Anfield intimidates even more than Turin or Munich.
Capoue, one of four ex-Tottenham players in the Villarreal squad, played four times at Anfield during his longer spell at Watford. He lost all four. Three of those defeats were by five-goal margins.
Francis Coquelin scarcely has happier memories of Anfield. The French midfielder lost on his last two visits there as an Arsenal player, 3-1 and 4-0, at a time - in 2017 and 2018 - that, as Villarreal coach Unai Emery described it on Tuesday: “The Liverpool project under Jurgen Klopp was developing its identity.”
Emery prefers to think of the varied backgrounds of his senior players as “proof of their credentials”.
“Many of them know English football,” he stressed, deeming it an advantage. Most also now know what it is to triumph in Europe. Emery guided Villarreal to victory in last season’s Europa League.
The same manager won the same trophy against Klopp’s Liverpool in 2016, when Emery was coaching Sevilla. “Since then Liverpool have gained greater intensity and important players have come in, like Virgil van Dijk, Thiago, Fabinho and more recently Luis Diaz,” Emery said.
“We are going to be facing the best version of Klopp’s Liverpool, because they have added patience to all their running, and to their ability to gain possession high up the field.”
Emery, like many of his ex-Premier League players, used to analyse Liverpool’s progress under Klopp from nearby, while he was managing Arsenal for 18 months from the summer of 2018: “I know how hard it is to play against them. I lost some games there.” One finished 5-1 to Liverpool; another 3-1, and Emery’s Arsenal exited the League Cup at Anfield via a penalty shoot-out following a wild 5-5 draw just a month before Emery was sacked.
Against what he calls the “best” Liverpool, Emery may not quite be able to field his best Villarreal. There are significant fitness doubts over Spain centre-forward Gerard Moreno and the winger Yeremy Pino, and Emery admits that, after the unexpected eliminations of Juventus and Bayern, “our surprise factor has reduced”.
Liverpool will fully expect a deep-lying, well marshalled Villarreal defence and an attacking strategy focused on the counter-attack in the first leg. It was Emery’s successful formula through the previous rounds.
But key individuals, reflecting on how close they are to a European Cup final, cannot help but still feel a surprise factor at how far they have come in such a short time. This time two years ago, winger Arnaut Danjuna, who scored against Juventus and Bayern, was heading towards relegation from the Premier League with Bournemouth. So was Capoue at Watford.
Gio lo Celso, meanwhile, began his European adventure this season as part of a Tottenham team defeated in a Conference League pre-qualifier at Pacos de Ferreira.
Seven months later Lo Celso was putting in a man-of-the-match display to steer Villarreal, who he joined on loan in January, past Bayern. “We all have plenty of motivation,” warned Emery, “to take the next step.”
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
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Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
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Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
