Gloves, gaffes and a generational shift
There was a touching scene at the end of Manchester United's 1-0 win at Benfica on Matchday 3.
Romelu Lukaku, the United striker made a point of giving an encouraging pep talk to his Belgian compatriot, Mile Svilar, who had a testing Uefa Champions League debut.
Svilar is 18, and his goalkeeping error, misjudging how close he was to his line when he clutched a Marcus Rashford free-kick, caused the game’s only goal.
By starting ahead of the veteran Brazilian Julio Cesar, a former European Cup winner, Svilar broke the record for the youngest keeper to play in the competition, held since 1999 by the great Iker Casillas.
Ironically, Casillas, now at Benfica’s rivals Porto, has been dropped by his Portuguese club, having just set his own record of appearing in the Champions League for 19 successive seasons, most of them during his decorated career with Real Madrid.
Casillas, 36, still harbours ambitions of going with Spain, who he captained while they were and European champions, to the next World Cup. He will not achieve that from the bench at Porto, who like Benfica face a fierce fight to even make the knockout stages of this Champions League.
At least Svilar, as Lukaku reminded him, has many attainable targets in his long future – perhaps even Russia 2018 – with Serbia, where his father comes from, trying to entice him away from Belgium, for whom he is a youth international.
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From Andy Mitten
Mourinho's side a far cry from class of '66
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Conte’s Roman Remains
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has mixed memories of Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, where he takes his Blues for a potential red-carpet evening.
The last time Conte, a Juventus hero as player and manager, was involved in a Champions League match at the Olimpico was the 1996 final, playing for Juve against Ajax.
Conte finished that night with a gold medal, although he was in excruciating pain, substituted when his leg swelled up after a collision with Ajax’s combative Edgar Davids. Conte ended up in hospital, in – as he put it – “the worst pain I ever experienced as a player".
His Juve reached the next two finals, lost both, and lost another in 2003.
The Champions League felt just as bittersweet for him in three seasons as Juve manager. Roma, who came back from 2-0 down to lead at Stamford Bridge in a topsy-turvy 3-3 draw 13 days ago, have already tantalised him in his first stab at Europe with Chelsea.
Monaco downsized
Monaco, thrilling semi-finalists last season, are in serious danger of crashing out at the first hurdle, as they travel to group leaders Besiktas. The evidence of how weakened their squad was by summer sales is spread out before them.
Kylian Mbappe, who left for Paris Saint-Germain, is breezing to the next round, where he may well be joined this week by Bernardo Silva, sold to Manchester City, and Tiemoue Bakayoko, who departed Monte Carlo for Chelsea.
Premier League pacesetters
Still celebrating the fact that England are the new Under 17 world champions and holders of the U20 World Cup, English football contemplates another boost to self esteem.
By Wednesday night, it could have four clubs – the two Manchesters and both Londoners, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur – assured of a place in the last 16 of the Champions League, with two matches to spare.
Liverpool also top their group.
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From Richard Jolly
The Premier League team of the week
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Catalans Empowered
Might Uefa soon be making space for a new country?
Events in north-east of Iberia have been interpreted by campaigners for a Catalonia national football team – recognised by Fifa and independent of Spain – as a step towards their dream.
Catalonia, where political secession has become a defining issue, would certainly be competitive on the pitch and could field a useful XI just from eligible players at Champions League clubs.
Try this line up: In goal, Kiko Casilla, of Real Madrid; a back four of Aleix Vidal, Gerard Pique (both Barcelona), Marc Bartra (Dortmund) and Jordi Alba (Barca); the Barcelona pair Sergi Roberto and Sergio Busquets alongside Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas in midfield; up front, Barca winger Gerard Deulofeu, plus the Monaco duo of Keita Balde, the ex-Lazio speedster who was born and grew up near Girona, and Jordi Mboula, the 18-year-old signed from Barcelona and now pressing for his senior Monaco debut after four goals in his last three Uefa Youth League matches.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
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Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport - the specs:
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Our family matters legal consultant
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The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
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The years Ramadan fell in May
match info
Southampton 0
Arsenal 2 (Nketiah 20', Willock 87')
Red card: Jack Stephens (Southampton)
Man of the match: Rob Holding (Arsenal)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The five pillars of Islam
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Key facilities
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- 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
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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