When the fixtures were announced for 2015/16, the second clasico at Camp Nou at the start of April looked like it could be title-defining.
Played six weeks before the end of the season in a vital month for both clubs (they met each other four times in the same month in 2011), La Liga hoped it would be an ace card in their battle with England's cash-rich Premier League for global supremacy.
Read more:
Luis Enrique: ‘Win the points necessary’ and then talk of Barcelona greatness
Cristiano Ronaldo: ‘If we were all at my level, maybe we would be leaders’ after Madrid derby
But when the clasico was confirmed this week for Saturday April 2, the game began to appear as irrelevant as that of 2008 when Barcelona went to the Bernabeu and formed a guard of honour to welcome champions Real Madrid onto the pitch. Madrid hammered them 4-1. Pep Guardiola was appointed Barcelona coach a few months later and since that 2008 title, Madrid have been crowned champions of Spain only once, in 2012.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who won three consecutive titles at Manchester United, has only won one league in Spain since moving seven years ago and joining a club who've spent €800 million (Dh3.1 billion) on players since then.
Though their 23 titles is still some way behind Madrid's 32 haul – all of which are being celebrated by Madrid's principal cheerleader, Marca, with reproductions for fans who have had to turn to nostalgia – Barca have won the title five times since 2008 and are on target to retain La Liga this term.
Sunday's 2-1 victory over a Sevilla side which Luis Enrique described as the best to visit Camp Nou this season, combined with Real Madrid losing at home again to neighbours Atletico, means leaders Barca are 12 points clear of Madrid with 12 games to play. The best team in the world by a distance, they are going to win the league again. Madrid are not, and that is a big problem for the white half of the capital.
Blame is being apportioned to several parties. The fans are not happy with club president Florentino Perez and his lack of strategy. A decade ago, Perez quit Madrid when his “galactico” project fell apart and his team were 10 points behind Barcelona. Now, they are even farther behind and the white handkerchiefs were out in force after Saturday’s third successive home derby defeat, just as they were when Barca put four past them in November.
Perez is not the only one receiving criticism. Coach Zinedine Zidane has not been in the job long enough to get blame, but some of his players have. Isco and James Rodriguez have disappointed and both were booed on Saturday. Their Madrid futures are in doubt. Rodriguez, the star signing of 2014, has become a peripheral player this season, starting less than 50 per cent of games.
Injuries have not helped Madrid either. While Barca have been fortunate in that department so far this season, Karim Benzema being substituted at half time on Saturday brought more groans. The French striker has suffered trouble with his hamstring this season. Gareth Bale’s injuries are also causing concern and while Barca’s “MSN” front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez make headlines every week, Madrid’s “BBC” trio of Gareth Bale, Benzema and Cristiano have played together in only 37 per cent of the minutes available on the pitch since 2013 when Bale arrived.
The Welshman is the one who is absent most, with a persistent calf problem causing him to miss an astonishing 44 games in the last two-and-a-half years. He has not been available for 17 games this season, more than any other player. Ronaldo has been available for every single game and pointed out what Madrid are losing when their top men are out.
"I like playing alongside Karim and if he's not available, it's more difficult," said Ronaldo at the weekend. But it was his comments that "If the rest of the guys were at my level, then we'd be at the top of the league right now," which caused a stir. They were taken to be egocentric, destructive and unfairly critical of his teammates.
He claims they were twisted out of context, yet he is actually correct. If only the rest of the players were at his level physically and in terms of form, then Madrid would not be 12 points behind their great rivals.
Making it 35 game sunbeaten in Madrid will taste even sweeter for Barcelona
Despite the enmity between Barcelona and Madrid, several of the rival players are close friends from their time together with the Spanish national team. Iker Casillas and Xavi, two mainstays of those teams for 15 years, are great friends.
Casillas and the most Catalan of Barca players, Gerard Pique, also get on well. This became evident in a social media exchange on Monday, but when Casillas invited followers to put questions to him, he probably did not expect one from Pique.
“Any predictions for the Champions League final, Iker?” asked Pique. The Porto goalkeeper, a Madrid legend, replied: “We could watch it together at the RFEF [Spanish football federation] with some snacks?”
“Well,” replied Pique to the player who is famed for being thrifty and was accused of having “little crocodiles in his pockets” by teammates, “if you’re going to pay for it, it will be an even bigger feat than winning the Champions League!”
Casillas, a Madrileno, hopes that anyone but Barca will be in the final. Pique, from Barcelona, will hope it is anyone but Madrid. He is intelligent, witty and not a player to conform to clichés. Asked if he planned to join up with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City after Sunday’s win over Sevilla, he said: “My love for Manchester United is too big to let me even consider signing for City one day, even with Guardiola in charge.” He was fond of United and Alex Ferguson, if not Manchester and the English food.
Read also: Five must-see matches: Boundless Barcelona; Roma-Fiorentina tangle for third
Pique’s also playing in a team which is currently far superior to either Manchester club. Barca’s victory over Sevilla, a side they will meet in the Copa del Rey final in May and who were the last team to beat them, at the start of October, made it a joint-record 34 games unbeaten. It moved them level with Real Madrid from 1988-89 when their great side featuring Emilio Butragueno, Hugo Sanchez, Michel and Bernd Schuster won four-straight La Liga titles.
Barca have Lionel Messi, who scored his sixth direct free kick of the season against Sevilla, more than any other La Liga player. And he has Luis Suarez and Neymar alongside him.
During that run, Madrid won 25 and drew nine games, scoring 84 and conceding 34. Barca’s record is even more impressive: won 28 and drawn six, scoring an incredible 102 and conceding only 19.
Barca will delight in setting the record Thursday in Madrid when they play Rayo Vallecano, usually a game full of goals: Barca won 5-2 earlier this season and 6-1 last season at Camp Nou. In the last 10 games between the pair, Barca have won all 10, scoring an incredible 45 goals.
It would be better if Barca could win in Madrid, but they have got enough going for them at present and Madrid have got enough going against them, that a draw will suffice. Just breaking the record will be a huge achievement, and doing it in the capital will make it a little sweeter.
Not that Casillas will be inviting Pique for celebrations.
Player of the week
From December, when Romanian coach Constantin Galca took charge, until mid-February Espanyol were woeful, tumbling from 12th down to 17th in the standings. They showed that they could play well when they went down 2-1 at Mestalla against Valencia two weeks ago. That defeat galvanised them; they have won both games since, the latest a 4-2 triumph at Sporting Gijon. Gerard Moreno, with two goals, was their best player. They are back up to 14th.
Game of the week
There is a full list of midweek Primera Liga fixtures. The Rayo v Barcelona encounter always sees lots of goals, in part because the pride of Vallecas think that if they are going to lose against Barca then they might as well do it trying. Rayo were superb at Camp Nou early in the season and took the lead before losing 5-2.
What else?
Getafe, from southern Madrid, were watched by a crowd of just 5,652 as they went down 1-0 at home to Celta Vigo. Getafe have lost their last six league games and have slipped to 15th, two points above the relegation zone.
At least some Madrid clubs have reason to cheer. Atletico were hugely impressive in beating their rivals through a Antoine Griezmann goal, while Leganes from southern Madrid went top of the second division with a 2-0 home win over the previous leaders Alaves. In the second division Catalan derby between two neighbours who pushed for promotion last season, Girona won at bottom of the table Llagostera. It is going to be a struggle for the league’s smallest club to stay up.
In the first of three meetings between Athletic Bilbao and Valencia in three weeks, the other two being in the last 16 of the Europa League. Athletic triumphed 3-0 in Valencia with three late goals inside seven minutes. It ended Valencia's four-match winning run, with manager Gary Neville, who had seen his side denied two penalties, describing the referee as "a joke".
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
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.
Maestro
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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
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Landfill in numbers
• Landfill gas is composed of 50 per cent methane
• Methane is 28 times more harmful than Co2 in terms of global warming
• 11 million total tonnes of waste are being generated annually in Abu Dhabi
• 18,000 tonnes per year of hazardous and medical waste is produced in Abu Dhabi emirate per year
• 20,000 litres of cooking oil produced in Abu Dhabi’s cafeterias and restaurants every day is thrown away
• 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s waste is from construction and demolition
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,200m
Winner: Shafaf, Sam Hitchcott (jockey), Ahmed Al Mehairbi (trainer)
5,30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,200m
Winner: Noof KB, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: The President’s Cup Listed (TB) Dh380,000 1,400m
Winner: Taamol, Jim Crowley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
6.30pm: The President’s Cup Group One (PA) Dh2,500,000 2,200m
Winner: Rmmas, Tadhg O’Shea, Jean de Roualle
7pm: Arabian Triple Crown Listed (PA) Dh230,000 1,600m
Winner: Ihtesham, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: AF Mekhbat, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
Bawaal%20
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'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
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Points tally
1. Australia 52; 2. New Zealand 44; 3. South Africa 36; 4. Sri Lanka 35; 5. UAE 27; 6. India 27; 7. England 26; 8. Singapore 8; 9. Malaysia 3
A meeting of young minds
The 3,494 entries for the 2019 Sharjah Children Biennial come from:
435 – UAE
2,000 – China
808 – United Kingdom
165 – Argentina
38 – Lebanon
16 – Saudi Arabia
16 – Bangladesh
6 – Ireland
3 – Egypt
3 – France
2 – Sudan
1 – Kuwait
1 – Australia
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Other promotions
- Deliveroo will team up with Pineapple Express to offer customers near JLT a special treat: free banana caramel dessert with all orders on January 26
- Jones the Grocer will have their limited edition Australia Day menu available until the end of the month (January 31)
- Australian Vet in Abu Dhabi (with locations in Khalifa City A and Reem Island) will have a 15 per cent off all store items (excluding medications)
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.
Results
5pm: UAE Martyrs Cup (TB) Conditions Dh90,000 2,200m
Winner: Mudaarab, Jim Crowley (jockey), Erwan Charpy (trainer).
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh70,000 1,400m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Richard Mullen, Hassan Al Hammadi.
6pm: UAE Matyrs Trophy (PA) Maiden Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Salima Al Reef, Jesus Rosales, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Apprentice Championship (PA) Prestige Dh100,000 1,600m
Winner: Bainoona, Ricardo Iacopini, Eric Lemartinel.
7pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Ladies World Championship (PA) Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: Assyad, Victoria Larsen, Eric Lemartinel.
8pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Jewel Crown (PA) Group 1 Dh5,000,000 1,600m
Winner: Mashhur Al Khalediah, Jean-Bernard Eyquem, Phillip Collington.
SQUADS
India
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur
New Zealand
Kane Williamson (captain), Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wicketkeeper), Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, George Worker, Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Trent Boult
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
The%20specs
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
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
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
The biog
From: Ras Al Khaimah
Age: 50
Profession: Electronic engineer, worked with Etisalat for the past 20 years
Hobbies: 'Anything that involves exploration, hunting, fishing, mountaineering, the sea, hiking, scuba diving, and adventure sports'
Favourite quote: 'Life is so simple, enjoy it'
