Following the Uefa Champions League quarter-final draw on Friday, Ian Hawkey anlyses the match-ups and predicts which teams will progress to the final four.
Atletico Madrid v Real Madrid
If anything will put the buzz back into Atletico Madrid’s faltering season, this will.
After the dramatic victory by penalty shootout over Bayer Leverkusen in the previous round, they now have the opportunity to avenge last May’s Uefa Champions League final defeat.
The details of that contest inform this rematch. Atletico led until very late in the 90 minutes and lost 4-1 only in extra time.
Manager Diego Simeone’s team will remember the fine margin that took the game into the extra half-hour, not the eventual scoreline. They will feel emboldened by the 4-0 thrashing they inflicted on their city rivals in their most recent Primera Liga derby last month and the fact they knocked Real out of the Copa del Rey, over two legs, in January.
That is some momentum for Atletico in neighbourhood squabbles. And Real are under huge pressure to restore what they regard as the natural hierarchy.
Forecast
Real to go through, despite Atletico’s strong recent record against them
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Paris Saint-Germain v Barcelona
Barcelona are under no illusions that the PSG whom they meet next month are much improved as a European force from the Parisians they played and beat at the same stage two seasons ago.
Then a veteran David Beckham was the French club’s temporarily imported star and the experience hastened him to retirement. When the clubs met in this season’s group stage, they shared the points, PSG winning the first match, Barca the second in a pool Barcelona ended up topping.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marco Verratti are both suspended for the first leg, as is Barca’s Dani Alves. They are each significant losses, but PSG showed in the last round, while knocking out Chelsea, that their dependence on Ibrahimovic is anything but absolute.
Barca will certainly be wary of the set-piece excellence that produced PSG’s decisive away goals against Chelsea, both headers from corners, a traditional defensive frailty for the Catalan team.
Forecast
Barcelona to go through, after a tight first leg
Porto v Bayern Munich
Get set for some trips down memory lane. In 1987, Porto and Bayern met in the final of what was then the European Cup. A close affair, featuring a memorable goal – a backheel from the gifted Algerian, Rabah Madjer – to help Porto win 2-1.
There will be moments of nostalgia for the two coaches, Bayern’s Pep Guardiola and Porto’s Julen Lopetegui, who only last Tuesday sat together to watch the Atletico Madrid-Bayer Leverkusen last-16 tie. Guardiola and Lopetegui were teammates as players at Barcelona in the 1990s.
There is a special memory for Manuel Neuer, the Bayern goalkeeper. Porto won the first Champions League final he was involved in – as a ballboy at the 2004 event in Gelsenkirchen.
The German champions are clear favourites, winners of the competition in 2013 and armed with experience, up against a Porto who have the youngest squad left in the competition.
Both qualified emphatically for this stage, Bayern putting seven second-leg goals past Shakhtar Donetsk, Porto scoring four times at home against Basel.
Forecast
Bayern to progress, by a comfortable margin
Juventus v Monaco
Monaco have many of the attributes of what is traditionally admired in Serie A: a defence that can go for hours looking impermeable, a rapier sharpness on the counter-attack, and the capacity to eke out extra seasons from veteran players.
The Monaco of Dimitar Berbatov, 34, and Ricardo Carvalho, 36, have a know-how of the latter stages of Champions League campaigns in their squad. They also have a rearguard that has let in just four goals in eight matches in Europe so far, and some clinical moves on the break.
Whether the side who ambushed Arsenal so effectively in London in the previous round can surprise the Serie A champions who overwhelmed Borussia Dortmund is doubtful.
Juventus, chasing a first Champions League semi-final since 2003, have the firepower of a soaring Carlos Tevez, although they nurse some concerns over the availability of injured midfielder Paul Pogba.
Forecast
Juventus to go through, though Monaco will keep them at bay for long phases of the tie
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
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Place of birth: Kalba
Family: Mother of eight children and has 10 grandchildren
Favourite traditional dish: Al Harees, a slow cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled cracked or coarsely ground wheat mixed with meat or chicken
Favourite book: My early life by Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah
Favourite quote: By Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's Founding Father, “Those who have no past will have no present or future.”
School counsellors on mental well-being
Schools counsellors in Abu Dhabi have put a number of provisions in place to help support pupils returning to the classroom next week.
Many children will resume in-person lessons for the first time in 10 months and parents previously raised concerns about the long-term effects of distance learning.
Schools leaders and counsellors said extra support will be offered to anyone that needs it. Additionally, heads of years will be on hand to offer advice or coping mechanisms to ease any concerns.
“Anxiety this time round has really spiralled, more so than from the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Priya Mitchell, counsellor at The British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi.
“Some have got used to being at home don’t want to go back, while others are desperate to get back.
“We have seen an increase in depressive symptoms, especially with older pupils, and self-harm is starting younger.
“It is worrying and has taught us how important it is that we prioritise mental well-being.”
Ms Mitchell said she was liaising more with heads of year so they can support and offer advice to pupils if the demand is there.
The school will also carry out mental well-being checks so they can pick up on any behavioural patterns and put interventions in place to help pupils.
At Raha International School, the well-being team has provided parents with assessment surveys to see how they can support students at home to transition back to school.
“They have created a Well-being Resource Bank that parents have access to on information on various domains of mental health for students and families,” a team member said.
“Our pastoral team have been working with students to help ease the transition and reduce anxiety that [pupils] may experience after some have been nearly a year off campus.
"Special secondary tutorial classes have also focused on preparing students for their return; going over new guidelines, expectations and daily schedules.”
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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
What to watch out for:
Algae, waste coffee grounds and orange peels will be used in the pavilion's walls and gangways
The hulls of three ships will be used for the roof
The hulls will painted to make the largest Italian tricolour in the country’s history
Several pillars more than 20 metres high will support the structure
Roughly 15 tonnes of steel will be used
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
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