A late glancing header from defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa earned AS Roma a stunning 2-1 victory over Lazio in a fiery Rome derby on Monday to secure their automatic entry to the Champions League.
Hosts Lazio looked to have salvaged a share of the spoils at the Stadio Olimpico when late substitute Filip Djordjevic headed Miroslav Klose’s headed cutback past Morgan Da Sanctis in the Roma goal to level Juan Iturbe’s 73rd minute opener for the visitors.
A draw would have secured at least a Serie A third-place finish for Lazio and a place in the Champions League play-offs.
But Yanga-Mbiwa turned the match on its head with a glancing header from a free kick five minutes from time to secure the points for Rudi Garcia’s side.
The result leaves Roma in second place, 16 points behind recently-crowned champons Juventus but four ahead of Lazio with one game remaining this season.
“Our objective this season was to qualify directly for the Champions League, and we’ve achieved that,” Garcia told reporters.
“Obviously when you win like this, having conceded a late leveller like we did, it only adds value to all the work we’ve done in recent weeks to prepare for this game.”
Lazio remain third but Stefano Pioli’s men, who sit three points ahead of Napoli, now require a point from their trip to Naples in their final game of the campaign next week, when Roma host Palermo.
“Today it’s only right we should hang our heads. We lost the game when we had ample opportunity to score goals,” Pioli told reporters after the match.
“Roma were better than us in the decisive moments. If we’d taken the lead when we had the opportunity to, it would have changed things tactically for us.
“We tried to play our game, and we put our opponents into difficulty but in the end we conceded to a team that were superior in terms of scoring goals.”
If unsuccessful, it would be a spectacular fall from grace for Lazio, who have been playing some of the best football in Italy’s top flight since January.
But Pioli added: “We’ll go to Napoli to fight for the result that we need.”
Lazio came into the derby with tired legs after a 2-1 Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) final defeat to Juventus last week and had a lightning start only to spurn two clear chances for an early lead.
Italy international Antonio Candreva forced a reflex save from De Sanctis from a tight angle and Roma survived a bigger scare moments later when a poor Vasilis Torosidis clearance fell to Candreva, who delivered a perfect ball into the box as Klose ghosted in only to power a header wide of the right post.
Roma had little to offer in a shaky opening half and Lazio started just as strongly after the break, Dusan Basta pouncing on a poor headed clearance from Torosidis to fire low inches past De Sanctis’s far post.
A Senad Lulic challenge on Francesco Totti which left the captain rolling on the ground was the first flash point of the second half and the defender, issued one of his side’s three yellow cards in a feisty opening half, was lucky to escape a second caution.
He was replaced by Luis Cavanda soon after as Lazio kept the momentum, threatening just before the hour when Klose headed back into the area for Stefano Mauri to see his overhead kick blocked.
A tiring Totti came off for Victor Ibarbo, a move that would pay dividends for Garcia’s men, the Colombian holding off his marker to sweep across goal for Iturbe to stab the ball past Federico Marchetti at the back post.
The stadium erupted eight minutes later when Djordjevic, who had replaced Mauri after 76 minutes, ran into the box to head Klose’s header from the right byeline past a flailing De Sanctis after Felipe Anderson’s cross in deep.
But with five minutes on the clock, Roma were given a lifeline when they won a free kick to the right of the Lazio area.
Miralem Pjanic stepped up to deliver and Yanga-Mbiwa rose unchallenged to see his glancing effort roll past Marchetti at the keeper’s far post.
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Sri Lanka World Cup squad
Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Isuru Udana, Milinda Siriwardana, Avishka Fernando, Jeevan Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal.
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
