Gerard Pique and THAT hair-do

This is an old pic of Pique, I had to post it because his hair looks Ridonk! We still love him though http://i01.bdbphotos.com/7L/63/0001355763-36870L.jpg

They mocked Higuain when he first joined Real - Casillas

http://www.tribalfootball.com/casillas-they-mocked-higuain-when-he-first-joined-real-madrid-447131
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Real Madrid have nothing to be jealous of at Barcelona- Marcelo

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/11/15/1626526/real-madrid-have-nothing-to-envy-at-barcelona-full-back "Real MAdrid have nothing to envy at Barcelona" are the scathing words issued by RM fullback Marcelo. He believes that the Trichampions are not in any way better than Real Madrid. He believes that the addition of the stars to the club as well as the new manager will help the club prise the title away from the Catalan Giants. 29 November is the date the two will meet.
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Testing Mobile Blogging

Just to test if my posts are coming through
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Champions League Preview!

Wednesday, 04 November 2009

Arsenal v AZ Alkmaar

Dynamo Kiev v Inter Milan

Fiorentina v Debrecen

Lyon v Liverpool

Rubin Kazan v Barcelona

Sevilla v VfB Stuttgart

Standard Liege v Olympiakos

Unirea Urziceni v Rangers

It’s the big one for Liverpool. Tonight’s match will pretty much tell us how the rest of the season will pan out. The Reds are well and truly out of the Premier League, Carling Cup ambitions are over (it didn’t seem like there were any ambitions for that in the first place)and the Champions league may be the only way to salvage a trophy this season. Is Rafa trying to repeat what he managed in his first season with the Reds? Two weeks ago, Lyon came back in the dying moments of the game to break Kopite hearts, will Liverpool be able to go to Lyon tonight and inflict similar damage? I am still finding it difficult to accept the situation at Liverpool. ..

Torres was pulled off early in the weekend’s slump to Fulham; he was taken off to be rested for this match. He is likely to start despite reports that he’s suffering from Hernia (???). Almost all of Liverpool’s entire first team are carrying injuries: Gerrard is unfortunately, still recovering from that groin injury, so he’s definitely not going to play. Riera, Kelly, Aurelio, Johnson and Skrtel are all harbouring injuries; and there are doubts over Agger and Ngog’s fitness. Aquilani was struck with a virus, but seems to have recovered in time. Hopefully he will start today.

The ideal situation for Liverpool would be a win, and for Debrecen to beat Fiorentina... very tough indeed for either to happen! Lyon heads the group with full marks (9points), Fiorentina on 6, and ‘Pool on 3 points. Debrecen is pointless. If Liverpool lose tonight and Fiorentina win, a miracle will be needed for Liverpool to qualify for the next round. YNWA


Meanwhile Barca takes on surprise package Rubin. The Catalan giants travelled to Russia a couple days ago, to be met with icy weather which forced their training to be called off, as well as their usual “tour” of the city. How are they to play a 90 minute match when they couldn’t manage a training session? This is going to be a true test of Barca’s will. Having dropped points over the weekend to Osasuna (remember Pique’s own goal?), and they lost their last CL match to Rubin at Camp Nou, I imagine Pep would put together his strongest side for this one. A 19 man squad made the trip to Russia, Milito and Chygrynsky were not included. “Chysy”, because he’s cup tied; and Milito is still recovering from that injury (it feels like it’s been forever!). Dani Alves should make a return to the team sheet, but it’s still not certain whether Henry will start. Rumours having been floating around that Pep and Titi don’t see eye to eye. If this is true, could this mean it’s his last season with the Blaugrana?? Word has it that Rubin is in top form (I cannot confirm this, I do not watch Russian football, duh!) and they are out to do a double over Barca. They also have the advantage of being acclimatized to the blistering cold. I think this is going to be a tough one for Barca, hopefully they can come away with the win, if not, they could find themselves in hot water, trying to get out of what’s turning out to be a tough group F. As it stands, Rubin, Dynamo Kiev and Barca are all tied on 4 points whilst Inter are bottom with 3. If Barca were to lose tonight, and the other match produces a result, Barca will drop to 3rd/4th place, placing extra pressure on them for the next 2 ties. Hopefully, this won’t happen! Visca Catalunya!

Champions League Results: Matchday4 - Tuesday

AC Milan 1-1 Real Madrid
Apoel Nicosia 0-1 FC Porto
Atletico Madrid 2-2 Chelsea
Bayern Munich 0-2 Bordeaux
Besiktas 0-3 Wolfsburg
Maccabi Haifa 0-1 Juventus
Man Utd 3-3 CSKA Moscow
Marseille 6-1 FC Zurich


Although I was fixated on the Milan-Madrid tie, I did flip over to the other matches to see what was going down. I was shocked to see that Man U had come back from 1-3 down to equalize. So they’re practically through. I did manage to catch CSKA’s first goal, and it was sublime! It kinda of reminded me of Roberto Carlos’ “impossible goal” (see my post: http://wp.me/pGB6F-2F ). I suppose it’s exactly that which separates the mediocre teams from the big boys. One team can’t hold onto a 2 goal cushion, while the other can recover from being two goals down.


Atletico Madrid managed to salvage a point. Aguero came on in the second half despite carrying an injury, and the game livened up. Braces from him and Drogba saw the scoreline finishing 2-2. I feel, despite Atlectico’s poor run of form, they would’ve backed themselves to come away with 3 points. Nevertheless, a draw against Chelsea is always a good result.


It was a display of good attacking football at the San Siro. I feel Madrid created the better chances and Milan initially gave them too much room, which is what I felt, led to the goal. Referees seem to be making the headlines as much as players lately and German ref Felix Brych made a few controversial decisions. First the awarded a penalty to Milan for a handball that Pepe really couldn’t do anything about. Then a couple minutes later, he disallowed Pato’s goal, for reasons I’m not entirely sure about. Milan took longer to settle into the game and Madrid were playing with purpose, going forward, while Milan tried to counter. Whilst Dida looked shaky yet again (sigh), he did pull off a save from Raul’s strike in the dying moments of the match, so all is forgiven. But the Milan backline, once they found their rhythm, really were outstanding. Madrid were attacking from all angles and they did well to not concede more than the one. Pato, the “baby-face assassin” put on a good show, but he goes too easily to ground, maybe he’s not physical enough? (Come on he’s only 20!) He did however manage to get Arbeloa and Pepe booked, so job well done! But Milan’s true star was Ronaldinho (well, for me at least)! Ahh, hopefully the comeback to his best is on! He had a couple of good tricks up his sleeve today, and put away the penalty with ease. He was however limited by Ramos, another solid performance by the Spaniard. Other Madrid players that shone were Marcelo, who complemented the attack; and Diarra! The disappointments were former Liverpool boys Alonso (I barely saw him the 90mins) and Arbeloa who struggled to deal with Pato.


Tomorrow’s the crucial Lyon-Liverpool and Rubin-Barcelona ties. Thankfully they’re at different times, so I’ll be able to watch both.

Weekend Football Roundup: Premier League, La Liga, Serie A

Weekend Round-Up

Premier League Results:

Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham

Bolton 0-5 Chelsea

Burnley 2-0 Hull

Everton 1-1 Aston Villa

Man. United 2-0 Blackburn

Portsmouth 4-0 Wigan

Stoke 2-2 Wolves

Sunderland 2-2 West Ham

Birm’ham 0-0 Man. City

Arsenal’s north London supremacy was instilled in their emphatic win over rivals Tottenham. It was a thrilling match and Arsenal put on their usual display of beautiful possession football. Tottenham too, did well to close down in the midfield. With half time approaching, it took Robin van Persie’s excellent read on Sagna’s cross in the 42nd minute to break the deadlock. And seconds later, from the kick-off, Cesc Fabregas run from the half-way line through the somewhat stunned Spurs defence. “Fab” easily put it past Spurs keeper Gomes to make it 2-0 after 45 mins. In the second half, Sagna set up Van Persie again, 15 minutes into the second half. It was a day of poor defending on Tottenham’s part; and excellent play from Arsenal...you can deduce who the better side was.

Chelsea saw off Bolton 0-4, again. It really could’ve been more, had they not been wasteful with some of their chances. But nobody can complain about a 4 goal win. Chelsea’s dominance in the English game was maintained with goals from Lampard, Deco and Drogba and an own-goal from Knight.

The partnership of Berbatov and Rooney finally paid dividends in the second half of their match. United looked shaky throughout. They were without Vidic and Ferdinand, and relied on Wes Brown and Jonny Evans to hold fort at the back. However Berbatov and Rooney got the job done, but it was by no means a good display of football, United were made to work for their 3 points.

Birmingham held Man City to their 4th league draw in a row on Sunday. The Eastlands club may have more stars in their line-up, but if anything, Birm’ham outplayed the Manchester Club. Keeper Shay Given saved McFadden’s penalty in the second half to ensure that Man City didn’t drop three full points. City didn’t do much upfront, but their defence was put to test. The match ended goalless, the Citizens would know they were lucky to escape a loss.

For my thoughts on the Fulham-Liverpool fiasco, see my earlier post.

La Liga Results:

Real Madrid 2-0 Getafe

Xerez 0-2 Sevilla

Osasuna 1-1 Barcelona

Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Atletico Madrid

Villareal 5-0 Teberife

Espanyol 1-1 Real Valladolid

Real Mallorca 1-0 Racing Santander

Real Zaragoza 2-1 Almeria

Malaga 0–1 Valencia

Deportivo La Coruna 1-1 Sporting Gijon

Real Madrid recovered from the early loss of Raul Albiol (who was shown red for bringing down Soldado just outside the box) to secure a win over Getafe. A brace from Argentine Gonzalo Higuain was enough to give Los Galacticos the 3 points. They were without Cristiano Ronaldo again. Under fire coach Pellegrini will breathe a sigh of relief and look to the much anticipated clash with Milan midweek.

Los Che edged out bottom of the league Malaga thanks to a sole goal from Navarro. Malaga however can take comfort from the fact that they pushed Valencia and were in no way walked all over. Valencia sits in 4th position and has closed the gap between themselves and leaders Barca down to 5 points.

Elsewhere in La Liga, Sevilla maintained their 3rd position with superb strikes from Negredo and Luis Fabiano against Xerez. And Atletico Madrid has dropped more points and has slumped to 18th position. Javi Martinez’s header in the first half was enough for Bilbao, leaving Atletico in the relegation zone.

For the Osasuna-Barcelona match review, see my earlier post.

Serie A Results:

Juventus 2-3 Napoli

Milan 2-0 Parma

Fiorentina 3-1 Catania

Sampdoria 0-0 Bari

Cagliari 3-0 Atalanta

Livorno 0-2 Inter Milan

Chievo 1-1 Udinese

Roma 2-1 Bologna

Siena 1-1 Lazio

Palermo 0-0 Genoa

Inter won their away tie against Livorno, in what turned out to be an important weekend in Serie A. With Juventus losing to Napoli, the gap between the two stretch to 7 points. Goals from Maicon and Diego Milito secured Mourinho’s side the win. Milan also secured a crucial win against Parma, and is now back in the big time as they sit in 4th.