Bayern Munich became the first team to win their opening nine games of a Bundesliga season on Saturday as a first-half Thomas Muller strike proved enough for Pep Guardiola's side to beat Werder Bremen 1-0.
Muller stole in front of Alejandro Galvez to control a Thiago Alcantara cross at the near post and stab past Felix Wiedwald for the only goal of the game, his ninth of the season, at the Weserstadion as Bayern made more Bundesliga history.
That was despite in-form Robert Lewandowski, having netted 15 times in his previous six games for club and country, for once failing to score.
The win, their 999th in the Bundesliga, set Bayern up nicely for their trip to face Arsenal in the Champions League in midweek and saw them once again move seven points clear at the top of the table from nearest challengers Borussia Dortmund, who won 2-0 at Mainz on Friday.
But despite the win Guardiola indicated that he was not happy with the display by the reigning champions.
“It wasn’t easy to find the necessary spaces. Let’s say we won a difficult match,” said Guardiola, who left Brazil winger Douglas Costa on the bench with one eye on Arsenal.
“This time the performance was enough but we will need to do more in the coming weeks.”
Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel returned to face his former club in Mainz and saw Marco Reus put the visitors in front in the first half.
The Germany star then had a second-half penalty saved but Henrikh Mkhitaryan made sure of the three points late on as Dortmund bounced back from their 5-1 hiding at the hands of Bayern in their last outing to register a first win in five.
Germany striker Max Kruse scored his first career hat-trick as Wolfsburg climbed up to fourth with a dramatic 4-2 win at home to Hoffenheim at the Volkswagen Arena.
Dieter Hecking was taking charge of a Bundesliga game for the 300th time and saw his side open the scoring with just 41 seconds played when Julian Draxler squared for Kruse to score his first goal since signing from Borussia Monchengladbach in the summer.
Draxler then crossed for Bas Dost to head in the second goal inside seven minutes but Hoffenheim fought back, Jeremy Toljan reducing the deficit before Jonathan Schmid converted at the second attempt to level matters on 54 minutes.
But Kruse, who came off the bench to score the winner for Germany against Georgia in Euro 2016 qualifying last weekend, put the Wolves back in front from a Luiz Gustavo assist just after the hour mark and then completed his hat-trick late on.
Schalke are third, just a point behind their Ruhr rivals Dortmund, after Max Meyer struck a stoppage-time winner to see off Hertha Berlin 2-1.
Benedikt Howedes had earlier headed Schalke in front but Salomon Kalou’s 73rd-minute header looked set to earn Hertha a share of the spoils.
Meanwhile, Gladbach continued their revival since Andre Schubert replaced Lucien Favre in the dugout as they romped to a 5-1 win away to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Raffael put the visitors ahead at the Commerzbank Arena only for Alexander Meier to equalise from the penalty spot.
However, the Syrian-born Mahmoud Dahoud put Gladbach back in front and Raffael scored again before Andre Hahn added a late double, including one penalty, as Gladbach made it four straight league wins following five successive defeats to start the season.
Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 0-0 draw at Hamburg and promoted Darmstadt's good start to life in the top flight continued with a 2-0 victory at Augsburg.
Sandro Wagner and Peter Niemeyer both netted in the first half as Darmstadt climbed into the top half of the table and left Augsburg, who are in this season’s Europa League, third from bottom.
There are two games on Sunday, with Cologne entertaining Hannover and Ingolstadt at bottom club Stuttgart.
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Specs
Price, base: Dhs850,000
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 591bhp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 11.3L / 100km
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"
'C'mon C'mon'
Director:Mike Mills
Stars:Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann, Woody Norman
Rating: 4/5
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
What is type-1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is a genetic and unavoidable condition, rather than the lifestyle-related type 2 diabetes.
It occurs mostly in people under 40 and a result of the pancreas failing to produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugars.
Too much or too little blood sugar can result in an attack where sufferers lose consciousness in serious cases.
Being overweight or obese increases the chances of developing the more common type 2 diabetes.
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
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
Results
United States beat UAE by three wickets
United States beat Scotland by 35 runs
UAE v Scotland – no result
United States beat UAE by 98 runs
Scotland beat United States by four wickets
Fixtures
Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland
Admission is free
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.”
