Archive for August, 2009

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Tottenham v Birmingham City

August 28th, 2009

High flying Spurs are enjoying the best start they have had to a Premier League season in years and currently sit proud at the top of the league table, albeit on goal difference from London rivals Chelsea. Alex McLeish’s Birmingham side travel to White Hart Lane on Saturday afternoon happy in the knowledge that they have made a solid start to their season, accumulating four points so far from one victory, one draw and one unlucky opening day defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United.

Watch The Match Live!

Click Here To Watch Tottenham v Birmingham City Live


Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham side have started the season in fine style. They saw off the challenge of Liverpool in the first game of the season and haven’t looked back, following that up with a resounding 5-1 victory at Hull and a 2-1 win at Harry’s old stamping ground Upton Park against West Ham.

Throw in a 5-1 demolition of Doncaster in the Carling Cup this past Wednesday for good measure and you see that not only are the team churning out the victories, they are also scoring masses of goals in the process. Lanky striker Peter Crouch also grabbed his first Tottenham goal in the victory over Doncaster, removing that particular chalice from around his neck.

When Birmingham were drawn to play Man Utd at Old Trafford in the opening game of the season, everybody expected them to lose; just not in the manner they did. They more than matched United that day and were unlucky to lose. They followed up with a 1-0 win over Pompey and a scoreless draw against Stoke.

Watch The Match Live!

Click Here To Watch Tottenham v Birmingham City Live

No comments »

Posted in Birmingham City, Football Pre Match Review, Premier League, Premiership, Tottenham

Tags:

Manchester United v Arsenal

August 28th, 2009

This season’s first big four clash takes place at Old Trafford on Saturday evening, when Man Utd play host to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. Fresh from Champions League qualification to the group stages thanks to a two-legged victory over Scottish side Celtic, Arsenal travel to Manchester in fine fettle, happy in the knowledge they are playing well and at the same time pouring scorn on those who doubted them at the beginning of the season.

Watch The Match Live!

Click Here To Watch Man U Vs Arsenal Live


Before last weekend’s rout of Wigan at the DW (formerly JJB) Stadium, United hadn’t been playing with their usual pizzazz or verve, with many footballing “experts” questioning the wisdom of selling both Ronaldo and Tevez.

When they lost the Charity Shield to Chelsea a couple of weeks ago, the doom-mongers where predicting all sorts to go wrong for the Red Devils, and the first couple of games of the new Premier League season seemed to give credence to these mutterings. But cometh the hour, cometh the team and Sir Alex Ferguson’s men put on a devastating second half performance against Wigan to not only prove all the doubters wrong, but to also give Arsenal something to ponder.

Arsene Wenger’s side, fresh from Champions League success, head to the north-west intent on resurrecting the Manchester United doom theories, and if any team can accomplish this, then surely it has to be the Gunners?
One thing is for sure though, the game promises to be one to savour, so all those who can sit and watch it on TV on Saturday evening, should.

Watch The Match Live!

Click Here To Watch Man U Vs Arsenal Live

1 comment »

Posted in Arsenal, Football Pre Match Review, Man U, Premier League, Premiership

Tags:

Final Playoffs for Champions League Season 2009-10

August 28th, 2009

Danish club F.C. Copenhagen was visiting Cyprus to play against APOEL FC with a one goal advantage from the first leg. The home seemed to be in a hurry to nullify the first leg score and Kamil Kosowski scored the first goal in the 2nd minute. In the 18th minute APOEL FC were awarded a penalty, which 32 year old Chrysostomous Michail converted into a goal. The home fans were already singing and dancing as they saw their side qualifying the group stage of the top European competition. But F.C. Copenhagen is a strong and experienced side.

Four minutes later 24 year old Senegalese Dame Ndoye pulled one back for F.C. Copenhagen. The score was again 2-2 on aggregate but according to the away goals rule, F.C. Copenhagen was going to qualify. Home support proved motivating for APOEL FC and home hero Chrysostomous Michail netted his second for the night in the 41st minute. Somehow APOEL FC defended all attempts from F.C. Copenhagen, and pulled through the 90 minutes and in doing so joined the elite group of teams that qualified for the Champions League.

German VfB Stuttgart had no trouble in holding Romanian club FC Timişoara. The score from the first leg being 2-0, a draw was enough for the German club to qualify and that is what Markus Babbel’s side did on Wednesday night.
Portugese club, Sporting Lisbon visited Italian side ACF Fiorentina. Each team had scored two goals in the first leg; ACF Fiorentina’s job was just to make sure that the Portugal club did not score any goal. This was not to be the case as in the 35th minute João Moutinho converted a free kick much to the shock of home fans.

Sporting deserved to lead as they were playing better but football is not a game where a team playing a better game always wins. Substitute Stevan Jovetic scored in the 54th minute, and that was enough to send the home team into the group stage according to the away goals rule.

No comments »

Posted in Champions League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A

Tags:

Champions League Playoffs – Wednesday night

August 28th, 2009

Wednesday night playoffs saw the final five teams joining 27 teams from Europe in the elite competition. The five teams that joined were Olympiacos FC, APOEL FC, Arsenal FC, VfB Stuttgartt and ACF Fiorentina. The first match saw Greek giants Olympiacos FC visiting Moldovian club FC Sheriff with a two goal advantage from the first leg. The Greeks looked comfortable throughout the match and were awarded with a goal in the 82nd minute. Kostas Mitroglou scored the only goal of the match and the match ended 0-1 to the Greek visitors. Olympiacos FC won the playoffs with a 3-0 aggregate score and qualified for the group stage of the Champions League.

In London, at the Emirates stadium, Scottish side Celtic had to score at least three goals to qualify for the group stage. Their hopes of qualifying were tarnished when Spanish referee Manuel Mejuto González awarded a penalty to the visitors when Eduardo dived in the penalty area. Television replays clearly showed that the Celtic keeper Artur Boruc had made no contact with Eduardo and he had dived unnecessarily. Eduardo converted the penalty and at half time the score was 1-0.

Eight minutes into the second half Eboue scored another one for Arsenal. Nothing was heading Celtic’s way and soon Arshavin scored the third of the night for Arsenal in the 74th minute. The night was looking gloomy for Celtic but they got a consolation goal in the injury period. Massimo Donati scored a stunner from nowhere with a cross from Andreas Hinkel.

No comments »

Posted in Arsenal, Celtic, Champions League, Scottish Premier League

Tags:

Champions’ league nearing the end of play offs

August 26th, 2009

Tuesday night saw some old and new faces enter the Champions League qualifying stage. In Hungary, in the city of Debrecen, local club Debreceni VSC was about to enter the history books. Beating Bulgarian club Levski Sofia 2-0 on the night and a 4-1 aggregate over two legs, Debreceni VSC made a place for themselves in the group stages. In doing so, they became the first Hungarian club in fourteen years to qualify for the Champions’ League group stage. The last Hungarian team to do so was Ferencvrosi in the 1995/96 season. The first goal was scored by Jozsef Varga in the 13th minute, and the second was scored by Gergely Rudolf in the 35th minute to give them a strong lead early in the game.

The final match of the night was between Belgian club R.S.C. Anderlecht and French giants Olympique Lyonnais also known as Lyon. The first leg ended in a thumping 5-1 win for Lyon and as such, the second leg was expected to be no different. Argentine striker Lisandro Lopez scored three goals on the night, thus spoiling the home team’s dream of qualifying for the group stages.

In a matter of fifteen minutes Lisandro Lopez scored his hat-trick.  All the goals came in the first half. There was nothing much to admire in the second half except for the penalty awarded to R.S.C. Anderlecht in the 51st minute. The spot kick was successfully converted by Matias Suarez, another young Argentinian. Over the two legs the Lyon defeated R.S.C. Anderlecht by an astonishing 8-2.

No comments »

Posted in Champions League

Tags:

Champions League Play offs Second Leg

August 26th, 2009

Spanish club Atletico de Madrid defeated Greek club Panathinaikos by 2-0 and now lead with a 5-2 aggregate. It didn’t take long for the first goal to come. In the 3rd minute Panathinaikos defender Loukas Vyntra put the ball through his own net. Their chances of winning were shattered when Djibril Cisse was shown a red card. The Greeks continued creating chances, and even came close to scoring on one or two occasions. However, any trail that could lead to a historical comeback was cleared in the 82nd minute when Sergio Aguero scored for Atletico.

Another match between Israeli club, Maccabi Haifa and Austrian club SV Salzburg was won by Maccabi Haifa in some style. The final score for the night being 3-0 for the Israeli side with goals from Vladimer Dvalishvili, Eyal Golsa and Mohammed Gadir in the 32nd minute, 57th minute and 90th minute respectively. Over the two legs Maccabi Haifa won 5-1.

The match between FC Zürich from Switzerland and FK Ventspils from Latvia went to the wire. Both teams started well by scoring a goal each in under 10 minutes. The first goal was scored in the 6th minute by Johan Vonlanthen. The feat didn’t last long and FK Ventspils replied soon as Igor Tigirlas scored within two minutes. The match was slow but pulsating as the home team was losing on the away goals rule as the first leg ended in a 0-0 draw. In the 90th minute Almen Abdi scored a winner and made sure that his team qualified for the group stage of the most prestigious European competition.

No comments »

Posted in Champions League

Tags:

Spanish league updates

August 26th, 2009

Barcelona added another piece of silverware to their collection last night when they won the Spanish Supercup by beating Athlitico Bilbao 3-0. Two goals from Messi and another from Bojan in the second half made sure that the cup was going nowhere from Camp Nou. The Barca team looks good and this will make it interesting to follow the Spanish League this season since many stars from around the world have joined Spain.

The list includes the likes of Ronaldo, Alonso, Benzema, Abrahmovich and now it is rumored that Vidic wants to play for a Spanish team which according to his manager will be Barcelona. It will surely be not possible this season as Manchester United have already lost two of its stars this season and losing another would throw the title hopes out of the window for boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

Chygrynskiy, an Ukranian striker is set to join Barcelona from Shakhtar Donetsk. Barcelona has reportedly offered €30 million for the 22 year old striker. Alvaro Negrado has successfully joined Sevilla from Real Madrid for a reported €15 million for five years. There is a buy back option for Real Madrid according to which the club can avail the services of Negrado only if they pay €17 million to Sevilla within the first two years.

With Real Madrid’s super expensive transfers, the world is again witnessing the rise of the Galácticos. This weekend is certainly going to be a full stadium event with Real Madrid playing against Deportivo la Coruna.

No comments »

Posted in Barcelona, Champions League, Real Madrid, Spanish Primera Liga

Tags:

Liverpool defeated at home

August 25th, 2009

Liverpool’s 31 games undefeated streak at home finally came to an end. Liverpool lost 3-1 to a Villa side which was desperately looking for a win. Before this match Villa had won only 2 of their last 18 matches, so, this win would give them the much needed confidence especially at the start of the season.

It all started well for Liverpool, Benayoun almost drew first blood in the first minute itself. They kept creating chances in the first 30 minutes but nothing was converted, luck didn’t seem to be favoring them. Finally the breakthrough came from a Liverpool player, but he scored for the away team.  Lucas headed Ashley Young’s cross into his own net in the 34th minute. Aston Villa added another just before half time, again from a set piece. This time the goal scorer was Davies who headed at the near post from a Nicky Shorey’s corner.

Liverpool looked dangerous in the second half. They kept pushing Villa’s defense to the limits. Finally in the 72nd minute Torres netted one back for Liverpool and suddenly it seemed that Liverpool might win it. Three minutes later Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard provided a penalty to Villa through a reckless tackle on Nigel Reo-Coker, allowing Young to make the score 1-3.

Liverpool still kept creating chances here and there but nothing proved significant. The match leaves Liverpool at 10th place in the league table. Liverpool has already lost two of its first three games in the current season, and interestingly they lost only two games in entire season last year.

No comments »

Posted in Aston Villa, Liverpool, Premier League

Tags:

Inter start with a draw

August 24th, 2009

This summer’s signing, Samuel Eto scored on his debut for Inter Milan. Despite their undaunted reputation that precedes them having been the Italian champions for the fourth consecutive year, they were held to a draw by the newly promoted Bari side. The match ended with the final scores standing at 1-1.

It wasn’t as slow for Juventus, who look stronger this season with their new signings. Juventus won their first match with a 1 goal lead which was enough to give them the much needed points at the end of game play. Italian world cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro returned to his old club after having left in 2006 for Real Madrid. Fans were still seemingly upset about his departure though. However, the Juventus side looks better this year with the arrival of Brazilian playmaker Diego.

For AC Milan, it was like starting a life after Kaka. Their season start didn’t look bad as they started with a win against Siena. The final score was 2-1, with both Milan goals coming from another Brazilian, Alexandre Pato. It was important for Inter boss Jose Mourinho to get a win against Bari as next weekend they play their city rivals, AC Milan. Mourinho believes his team is lacking a genius in the midfield. He has said that his players are doing the best they can but the lack of a playmaker rids the team of creativity. Just the start of season and everyone’s awaiting the weekend game to see who emerges the early winner.

No comments »

Posted in AC Milan, Inter Milan, Italian Serie A, Juventus, Real Madrid

Tags:

Sylvinho returns to England

August 24th, 2009

Brazilian defender Sylvinho, who helped Barcelona clinch the Treble last year has agreed to play for Manchester City this year. Although it’s a free transfer, and the contract is for only a year, signing Sylvinho gives City the much needed experience in their defense. City had already signed the likes of Tevez from Manchester United, Adebayor and Toure from Arsenal and Gareth Barry from Aston Villa. These signings makes City’s attack dangerous but this wasn’t enough until they add some experience in their defense, and Sylvinho certainly fits in perfectly.

The last match Sylvinho played for Barca was the Champions League final against English champions Manchester United. Sylvinho played the full 90 minutes of the game and saw him tackling the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov and Tevez effectively. Sylvinho has already played in England. In 1999 he joined Arsenal, and became the first Brazilian to do so. He did well the first season but eventually lost his place to Ashley Cole, the next season. This made him leave the club in 2001 for a Spanish second division Celta Di Vigo before joining Barcelona in 2004.

Manchester City now looks a complete team which has a mix of creativity and experience in their players. It all depends on Mark Hughes now to get the best out of his players and ensure that Sylvinhos addition is used to optimum. Everyone will be waiting to see how well the team gets along now and what newer moves they can try having signed on a strong name in defense.

No comments »

Posted in Arsenal, Barcelona, Champions League, Manchester City, Premier League