England are not the world’s best, but they beat the team who officially hold that status and now find themselves in pole position to take on Europe’s finest again.
Defeating Belgium, who have topped Fifa’s rankings for the past two years, may have brought England a modicum of revenge for two defeats to Roberto Martinez’s men at the World Cup. It puts them top of Group A2 in the Nations League and on course to reach a second successive semi-final in the tournament.
The result was better than the first-half performance but England, who beat Spain and Croatia in the inaugural Nations League, came from behind to claim another notable scalp as Belgium lost for only the third time in 46 matches. They did so in a game of two penalties, with Marcus Rashford cancelling out Romelu Lukaku’s spot kick, and that was decided by Mason Mount’s deflected goal.
If the Chelsea midfielder had not always excelled on the right of Gareth Southgate’s front three, he did emerge victorious. In that respect, he epitomised his side. Mount scored after wandering over to the left and England found a way to win despite Belgium’s superiority for much of the first half. The jury is still out on Southgate’s 3-4-3 system, but England prevailed without Raheem Sterling while Harry Kane was confined to a cameo in which, uncharacteristically, he missed a golden chance.
Belgium were without Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and Jan Vertonghen. They showed they still possessed two champion players in Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne. The Inter Milan forward’s goal capped his terrific display as the focal point of the attack, showing the pace to run in behind England’s defence, the physicality to hold the ball up and the invention to release Yannick Carrasco with a lovely flick. The winger’s wayward finish was altogether less impressive.
Carrasco also denied De Bruyne an assist, angling a second effort wide when the Manchester City midfielder’s wonderful pass seemed to have set up an equaliser. It was a day of near misses for him – Carrasco appeared to have drilled Belgium ahead with a clinical finish, only for the goal to be chalked off. His supplier, Thomas Meunier, had been offside seconds earlier, but perhaps Timothy Castagne was deemed offside when he obstructed Jordan Pickford’s view.
Yet England’s reprieve was only temporary. A sliding Eric Dier brought down Lukaku and Belgium’s record scorer converted the penalty. England had kept six successive clean sheets but, a year to the day since they had conceded, it was unsurprising they were breached again.
Initially they were subdued as they struggled to contain De Bruyne, who highlighted the lack of creativity in England’s ranks. But Southgate’s side have often prospered at set-pieces and they did again as they scored from their first shot on target.
Meunier tugged at a theatrical Jordan Henderson as a corner came in and, without Kane, Rashford scored from the spot for his fourth goal in as many internationals to shift the balance of power.
England emerged thereafter with greater solidity and purpose. Rashford produced a couple of bright bursts and almost scored a late third. Dominic Calvert-Lewin had few chances to claim a second international goal, but Mount got his.
Two of the three right-backs in England’s starting XI combined, Trent Alexander-Arnold delivering a deep cross that Kieran Trippier headed back to Mount. The Chelsea midfielder’s shot looped up off Toby Alderweireld and over the luckless Mignolet. It was scarcely as stylish as David Platt’s volley against Belgium in the 1990 World Cup, but they both go down as winners.
What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Motori Profile
Date started: March 2020
Co-founder/CEO: Ahmed Eissa
Based: UAE, Abu Dhabi
Sector: Insurance Sector
Size: 50 full-time employees (Inside and Outside UAE)
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Safe City Group
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Hotel Data Cloud profile
Date started: June 2016
Founders: Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok
Based: Dubai
Sector: Travel Tech
Size: 10 employees
Funding: $350,000 (Dh1.3 million)
Investors: five angel investors (undisclosed except for Amar Shubar)
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.
Emergency phone numbers in the UAE
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlexander%20Payne%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Paul%20Giamatti%2C%20Da'Vine%20Joy%20Randolph%2C%20Dominic%20Sessa%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
