Xabi Alonso made his Bayern Munich debut and Robert Lewandowski scored his first goal for the club as the defending champions drew 1-1 at Schalke in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Alonso was handed his first start at Bayern a day after completing his transfer from Real Madrid and he watched ex-Borussia Dortmund striker Lewandowski open the scoring after 10 minutes in Gelsenkirchen.
Shortly before being substituted, the Spanish midfielder was involved when Schalke equalised on 62 minutes. Alonso attempted to execute a sliding goal-line clearance only to see the ball bounce into the net off Benedikt Howedes’ arm.
Despite Bayern’s protests, the goal stood and the home team comfortably held on to end a run of seven defeats in a row against the Bavarians.
“I thought the first 20-25 minutes were really good,” Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. “In these games you have to keep possession and after 25 minutes we didn’t manage that. That was the problem.”
Bayern almost got the opening goal after only four minutes when Ralf Fahrmann saved from Thomas Muller but Guardiola’s side did not have to wait much longer.
Sebastian Rode was the architect, playing a one-two with Lewandowski inside the penalty area to leave the Polish international with an easy finish.
A rash clearance from Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer almost gifted Schalke an equaliser before half-time, but Schalke full-back Kaan Ayhan was unable to hit the unguarded goal from the halfway line.
Bayern seemed content to sit on their lead and Schalke eventually drew level when a Sidney Sam free-kick was poorly dealt with. Alonso did his best to prevent a header across goal finding the net and there was little Howedes could do to prevent the ball going in off his arm.
“We definitely didn’t come out of the starting blocks well,” Schalke manager Jens Keller said. “But my team deserves great credit for the way they reacted to the early goal.”
The result meant that Bayer Leverkusen sit top of the Bundesliga after Roger Schmidt’s side came from behind twice to beat Hertha Berlin 4-2 earlier on Saturday.
Following an impressive win in Dortmund last week, Leverkusen made it two wins from two thanks to late goals from Julian Brandt and Karim Bellarabi.
“This was a very tough game for us and because of that it was very valuable,” Leverkusen manager Schmidt said.
“At half-time we saw it as a challenge to grow into such a game. In the end we deserved to win so hats off to my team.”
Tin Jedvaj turned into his own net as visitors Hertha took the lead in the first half but the Croatian defender made amends when he levelled on 50 minutes.
Hertha made it 2-1 on the hour when Julian Schieber nodded in his third goal of the campaign but two minutes later Emir Spahic headed home from a free-kick.
Brandt then smashed home with 16 minutes left after Bellarabi had struck the bar and Bellarabi rounded off the scoring with the best goal of the game.
Meanwhile, Paderborn earned their first ever win in the Bundesliga with an excellent 3-0 victory at Hamburg.
After 29 minutes, Elias Kachunga pounced on the rebound for his second goal in as many weeks. Mario Vrancic then intercepted a pass to double Paderborn’s advantage with 21 minutes left before Moritz Stoppelkamp added a third.
“Paderborn fully deserved to win,” Hamburg coach Mirko Slomka said. “Our performance, overall, was shocking for us – a bitter result. We’ve really disappointed our fans.”
Cologne also got their first victory since returning to the top flight by beating Stuttgart 2-0 thanks to first-half goals from forwards Yuya Osako and Anthony Ujah.
Hoffenheim were unable to keep pace with Leverkusen after they were pegged back in a 1-1 draw at Werder Bremen, while Wolfsburg are still without a win after being held to a 2-2 draw by visitors Eintracht Frankfurt.
On Friday, Borussia Dortmund held off a late comeback to beat Augsburg 3-2 in what was their first league win of the new campaign.
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Tottenham's 10 biggest transfers (according to transfermarkt.com):
1). Moussa Sissokho - Newcastle United - £30 million (Dh143m): Flop
2). Roberto Soldado - Valencia - £25m: Flop
3). Erik Lamela - Roma - £25m: Jury still out
4). Son Heung-min - Bayer Leverkusen - £25m: Success
5). Darren Bent - Charlton Athletic - £21m: Flop
6). Vincent Janssen - AZ Alkmaar - £18m: Flop
7). David Bentley - Blackburn Rovers - £18m: Flop
8). Luka Modric - Dynamo Zagreb - £17m: Success
9). Paulinho - Corinthians - £16m: Flop
10). Mousa Dembele - Fulham - £16m: Success
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.
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
Company%20Profile
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Spare
Profile
Company name: Spare
Started: March 2018
Co-founders: Dalal Alrayes and Saurabh Shah
Based: UAE
Sector: FinTech
Investment: Own savings. Going for first round of fund-raising in March 2019
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20profile
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
IF YOU GO
The flights
FlyDubai flies direct from Dubai to Skopje in five hours from Dh1,314 return including taxes. Hourly buses from Skopje to Ohrid take three hours.
The tours
English-speaking guided tours of Ohrid town and the surrounding area are organised by Cultura 365; these cost €90 (Dh386) for a one-day trip including driver and guide and €100 a day (Dh429) for two people.
The hotels
Villa St Sofija in the old town of Ohrid, twin room from $54 (Dh198) a night.
St Naum Monastery, on the lake 30km south of Ohrid town, has updated its pilgrims' quarters into a modern 3-star hotel, with rooms overlooking the monastery courtyard and lake. Double room from $60 (Dh 220) a night.
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The Penguin
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz
Creator: Lauren LeFranc
Rating: 4/5
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
