REAL MADRID 3 BARCELONA 1
Real Madrid - Ronaldo 35', Pepe 50', Benzema 61' Barcelona - Neymar 4'
Man of the match - Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Another classic clasico. So many football matches fail to justify the hype, but games between Real Madrid and Barcelona consistently deliver drama, goals and greatness.
They are played at a breathless pace, full of counter-attacks and an unrelenting desire to go forward. Little wonder the world watches enthralled.
Despite Real Madrid leading 3-1 after an hour, coach Carlo Ancelotti insisted that his team continue to push forward.
There would be no easing off, no defending a lead, no soaking up the “Oles” from the 80,000 Bernabeu crowd.
When the referee dropped his can of white spray used to mark out the defensive wall at free kicks, it took more than a minute for him to get an opportunity to pick it back up as he officiated the heavyweights going toe-to-toe.
Madrid were worthy of their win, worthy of becoming the first team to score past Barcelona in a league game this season.
Their game plan was shot to pieces when Barca took a fourth-minute lead, debutant Luis Suarez hitting a cross-field ball to Neymar.
Unlike Madrid’s defenders, with their suspect positioning, the Brazilian kept a cool head, cutting inside right-back Dani Carvajal and curling in a shot past Iker Casillas from the edge of the box.
Ancelotti will not have been happy to see Pepe keep his distance, nor his midfield.
Barcelona had not lost a clasico in 26 years when they have taken the lead, but while Madrid were behind they were still the better team. It was 20 minutes before the Catalans enjoyed a spell of possession to disrupt Madrid’s dominance.
Suarez looked what he is – a great player short of match practice. Luis Enrique gambled in starting him, banking on the element of surprise: Madrid had never faced Suarez.
He is not a defender, but his inability to defend on the right wing left his side exposed.
No player on the pitch enjoyed as much space as Madrid left-back Marcelo and the home side drew level with a penalty after Gerard Pique, making the first of several errors, handled on the ground to block a cross from the Brazilian.
Ronaldo stepped up and calmly sent Claudio Bravo the wrong way for his 19th goal in his past 11 games.
It was the first goal Barcelona had conceded in eight league games this season.
Bravo laughed. He has had a fine start to his Barcelona career but was used to conceding at the Bernabeu with his former club, Real Sociedad. In four games he saw his side beaten 5-1, 4-3, 5-1 and 4-1.
Suarez was a side story and he was unable to become the first man since Scottish striker Steve Archibald to score while making a league debut in a clasico.
The Uruguayan did cross to Messi, who produced the game’s best save from Casillas. It was a key moment for which the much-maligned goalkeeper should be credited, just as Madrid’s outfield players will be. They started the second half much stronger and went ahead in the 50th minute when Pepe headed in a Luca Modric header from a corner.
Barca’s defending was as culpable as Madrid’s for the first goal, their historic weakness at set pieces again exposed, though the deficit would have been worse had Javier Mascherano not made two key blocks.
Madrid made it 3-1 just 10 minutes later after a superb counter attack, Karim Benzema with his sixth goal in four games from a shot that went in off the post. Crucially, the Frenchman has scored in the past four home clasicos.
After nine league games, Madrid have closed the gap and sit one point behind Barcelona in second in the table, though Sevilla can squeeze between the pair if they beat Villarreal on Sunday. Not that anyone is talking about Sevilla after another epic clasico.
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
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
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km
Price: From Dh796,600
On sale: now
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The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE cricketers abroad
Sid Jhurani is not the first cricketer from the UAE to go to the UK to try his luck.
Rameez Shahzad Played alongside Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett in Durham while he was studying there. He also played club cricket as an overseas professional, but his time in the UK stunted his UAE career. The batsman went a decade without playing for the national team.
Yodhin Punja The seam bowler was named in the UAE’s extended World Cup squad in 2015 despite being just 15 at the time. He made his senior UAE debut aged 16, and subsequently took up a scholarship at Claremont High School in the south of England.
