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FIFA Qualifying Matches – European Leg 5th September Part 2

September 6th, 2009

Group 5 saw Spain defeating Belgium in the qualifier tonight and making it 7 wins out of 7 in the qualifiers. David Silva opened the scoring for Spain in the 41st minute. Two goals in two minutes from Villa and Pique in the 48th and 50th minute took the match away from Belgium. Silva and Villa again scored one goal each in the 67th and 84th minute making the score 5-0 at final whistle. Other matches in the group saw Turkey defeating Estonia by 4-2 and Bosnia defeating Armenia by 2-0.

In Group 6, Ukraine defeated Andorra 5-0 at home with goals being scored at regular interval. Croatia defeated Belarus 1-0 at home and looked better. England play Croatia at Wembley on the 9th September in another qualifier and if England manages to win, it will become the second team from Europe to book a berth at the main event in South Africa.

World Cup 2006 runners up, France failed to score 3 points as they drew 1-1 at home against Romania in Group 7. In another game, Austria defeated Faroe by 3-1. Group toppers Serbia play France on the 9th September in Serbia. France needs to score 3 points in that match, if they want a direct entry to the 2010 finals.

World Champions Italy, look well on course for the 2010 finals as they defeated Georgia by 2-0 and remained on top in Group 8. In another match, Ireland defeated Cyprus 2-1 which allowed them to close the gap between them and Italy to a mere 1 point.

Scotland defeated Macedonia by 2-0 goals and took the second place in the group after Netherlands. If they remain second they will qualify for play off’s. Another match between Iceland and Norway ended in a 1-1 draw.

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FIFA Qualifying Matches – European Leg 5th September Part 1

September 6th, 2009

Today 42 European teams played their Qualifying games and tried to get closer to the 2010 fWorld Cup finals in South Africa. So far only the only country from Europe zone to qualify is Netherlands.

Group 1 saw Denmark playing Portugal in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. To the despair of Portugal, the match was ended in a draw and it saw Portugal drifting away from a place in the 2010 finals. Arsenal’s Bendtner scored a goal in the 42nd minute which saw Denmark leading by 1 goal at half time. Second half saw Portugal not able to score which made them frustrated as a loss would make sure that they will not qualify for the 2010 finals. In the 86th minute Liedson scored the equaliser which gave Portugal a chance to still remain in the completion. Another match in the group saw Sweden defeating Hungary by 2-1.

Group 2 had Moldova playing Luxemberg at home. The match ended in a 0-0 draw. Israel was defeated 0-1 by Latvia at home. Switzerland maintained the top spot in the group with a 2-1 win over Greece.

Group 3 saw two matches being played which both resulted in a draw. Slovakia drew 2-2 at home against Czech Republic and Poland drew 1-1 at home against Northern Ireland. Slovakia maintained the top spot in the group.

In Group 4, Russia were playing at home against Liechtenstein. Two goals from Pavlyuchenko and a goal from Berezutskiy made sure that Russia were on course to South Africa. Azerbaijan was defeated 1-2 at home by a more experienced Finland side.

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Posted in Arsenal, Football Results, General, World Cup

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Will Manchester City enter top four in England

September 3rd, 2009

After spending £118 million this summer, Manchester City has kind of announced that they are serious contenders for this year’s title. But spending money is different than building a team. Though they have got the some of the best players available in the game, it will be interesting to see if City can even break the Premier League top 4 dead lock.

So far City has won all the three games they have played. But the next two matches will probably decide whether Manchester City is an actual contender. Their next two matches will be against Arsenal and Champions Manchester United back to back.

The start of the season saw Liverpool losing two games of the four they played. Pundits have already written off Liverpool’s chances of winning the title this year. Arsenal’s perfect start to the season was ruined by Manchester United when the latter defeated the former by 2-1 at Old Trafford. This left Arsenal with 6 points from three games.

Chelsea look good to go and win trophies this season but they have been banned by FIFA according to which they will not be able to sign any new player for the entire 2010 calendar year.

The only team that lack depth in the squad this season is Liverpool. After losing their star midfielder Xabi Alonso, the reds have found themselves pondering over the field without any game plan. So according to most it will be Benitez’s red army that will be toppled by Hughes’s blue army of Manchester.

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Posted in Arsenal, Chelsea FC, Football Transfer Market, General, Liverpool, Man U, Premier League, Premiership

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Chelsea face big trouble

September 3rd, 2009

Today FIFA, governing body of football has punished the London based club Chelsea with a punishment which will not allow them to sign new players for the next two transfer windows. This means Chelsea will not be able to make any new signings during the entire 2010 year.

The transfer window in which Chelsea will not be able to get any players to North London will be the winter transfer window and the summer transfer window. The winter transfer window which remains open from 1st January 2010 to 31st January 2010 and the summer transfer window from 1st August 2010 to 31st August 2010.

This ruling can prove fatal for Chelsea’s dream of winning trophies this season as well as the next season. FIFA has reasons to believe that Chelsea encouraged 18 year old Gael Kakuta to leave his old club and sign a contract with the blues.

In 2001 at the age of 9 years, Gael started playing for RC Lens, a French League 1 club. Chelsea scouts saw the potential this young kid had and tried according to FIFA it was at this time Gael betrayed his club RC Lens and joined Chelsea.

According to FIFA, Chelsea will have to pay a fine of €130,000 to RC Lens and Gael will be banned for four months from playing any competitive matches. Along with that Gael will also have to pay a fine of €780,000 to his old club RC Lens for breaching contract.

Chelsea has denied the accusations by FIFA and are preparing to appear to the Court of Arbitration of Sports for justice. Chelsea feels the punishment will simply ruin their chances of winning any trophies this season and next season as well.

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Posted in Chelsea FC, French Ligue 1, General, Premier League, Premiership

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Italian Serie A Updates

September 3rd, 2009

Gianluigi Buffon believes that his team is capable of winning back to back World Cup. He says that it entirely depends on what players we select and how fit they are to survive the month long tournament. He also believes that the Italian players are susceptible to swine flu and should be vaccinated as soon as possible. Losing a player due to swine flu will not be acceptable.

Milan Vice President Adriano Galliani believes that losing the derby 4-0 to Inter does not mean that they have lost the Serie A title. He believes they are as much contender as Inter even after losing.

Ex Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri has revealed that coaching AS Roma was always a dream cherished by him. He was appointed as the new AS Roma coach few days ago after Luciano Spalletti resigned due to a bad start for the current campaign.

Alessandro Del Piero has paid tribute to Gaetano Scirea, regarded as one of the best defenders the game ever had by breaking record attendance mark for Juventus.

The transfer window has just closed and talks about winter transfer have already begun. Milan is in talks with Tottenham Hotspur for a possible swap of Marek Jankulovski and Gareth Bale. 32 year old Marek is a left back in the Milan side and 20 year old Gareth too playes in the same position. Milan would like the services of young Bale as the club is planning to build a new squad to replace its ageing players with younger counterparts. Milan has also offered €5m to Spurs for the swap.

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Posted in AC Milan, Football Transfer Market, General, Inter Milan, Italian Serie A, Juventus, Tottenham

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Groups and Standings for FIFA World Cup 2010

September 2nd, 2009

The African continent has a total of 54 countries fighting each other to take make it to the allotted 6 places of 32 in the 2010 finals. 1 of the 6 places has already been awarded rather easily to South Africa by virtue of them being the host nation. The remaining 53 countries will go through three qualifying rounds at the end of which only 5 nations will get a ticket to the finals.

The third qualifying rounds in progress as of now, and only 20 countries remain from the total of 53. These 20 teams are divided into 5 groups, and the topper of each group gets a ticket to play in the 2010 finals.10 teams will play from the Oceania leg for a possible place in the finals. After two rounds of qualifying games, New Zealand have emerged winners of the Oceania leg and will play against the winner of 5th ranked team from the Asia leg, for a place in the finals.

From the Asia leg, a total 43 teams have been fighting for 4 rounds for 5 possible places in the 2010 finals. The top 2 finishers from group 1 and group 2, Australia, Japan, Korea Republic and Korea DPR respectively have already booked their berth in the 2010 finals. The 3rd ranked team from both the groups, namely Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will play each other over two legs, and the winner will play against New Zealand for a place in the 2010 finals.

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Arsenal v Celtic – Champions League Play-off 2nd Leg

August 24th, 2009

Arsenal host Scottish Premier League giants Celtic at the Emirates Stadium this coming Wednesday evening for the second leg of their Champions League play-off match, with the Gunners enjoying a two goal advantage from the first leg.

This so-called “Battle of Britain” play-off tie had all the ingredients laid out for a tasty treat, but the first leg at Celtic Park in Glasgow last week turned out anything but. Although it took two rather fortuitous goals for the London side to earn their victory, the Scots never really offered anything in return, bar a couple of half-hearted chances.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was rightly delighted with the way his team coped with the intimidating Celtic Park atmosphere at the start of the match, reducing the Glasgow din to a mere murmur the longer the game progressed.

In the lead up to this coming Wednesday evening’s game, both Arsenal and Celtic enjoyed convincing victories in their domestic league campaigns – Arsenal dispatching Portsmouth 4-1 at the Emirates, while Celtic saw off hapless St. Johnstone 5-2 at Celtic Park. With Arsenal also facing Manchester United in the league next weekend, Arsene Wenger will be sweating over the fitness of captain Cesc Fabregas who failed to return for the second half of the Pompey game due to a hamstring problem.

His participation on Wednesday evening’s game against Celtic is in serious doubt but apart from that the team have no other worries. Celtic manager Tony Mowbray has no injury worries ahead of the game in London.

Watch The Match Live!

Click Here To Watch Arsenal v Celtic Live

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Posted in Arsenal, Celtic, Champions League, Football Fixtures, Football Pre Match Review, General

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Latest From The Premier League

August 22nd, 2009

Latest from the premier league coming from the Chelsea bench, with the premier £18million ace striker Zhirkov dispelling all the rumors surrounding his knee injury by clearly stating that he wont be going under the knife for fixing his injury.

He is supposed to have incurred this injury during the leagues pre season tour to America.

More news from the league with Fulham finally making the deal with Jonathan Greening, joining from West Bromwich Albion on a loan deal.

Also coming straight for the Manchester city striker Santa Cruz, his much awaited return is finally over as the player has recovered from his injury and is expected to return back to first class football in September.

The celebrated footballer is expected to make his return with the Manchester Derby staring from the 20th of September.

The star Paraguayan performer was advised complete bed rest after a serious knee injury in April and has been out of action ever since. This was the reason for his not being able to participate in any of the matches with the Citizens ever since his £15million pound arrival from the Blackburn.

With all the big transfers going on Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero has ruled out any possibility of his leaving Spain.

Well, with the Premier league heating up and all the teams gearing up to put together there best. The soccer fans across the world are in for a treat.

Hope the teams don’t disappoint there fans and put up a great show.

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Posted in Chelsea FC, General, Manchester City, Premier League

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Football fever on a high

August 22nd, 2009

With the football fever on a high and spread like wild fire among all the soccer fans in the world, the Premier league that began from 19th august surely was more than welcomed.

The league kick started with one of the top favorites Arsenal taking on Stoke city and as expected from the star studded team they took it as it came and swept the game away from Stoke City by a stunning 4-0 win.

The game was filled with surprises and a little ruff play from Dean Whitehead of the stoke city landed them in a little trouble with him getting booked for unsporting game play.

The goal scorers from Liverpool were Torres, Johnson, Kuyt, Ngog.

Well the team surely have kick started there league with a bang and sent thrills down the spine of many other teams in the league.

The next match for the in form team is due on 24th august and in this game Liverpool will be taking on Aston Villa at Anfield.

It will be a very crucial match for both the teams but especially for Aston Villa who are already down the table with 1 game played and lost and are currently standing at the 16th position were as the Liverpool are inching towards the top of the chart with 3 points to there tally and are currently standing at 4th position in the table were as the chart leader Chelsea and Tottenham are each standing at the 2nd and first positions respectively with 6 points each.

Well the Liverpool bench will be really working hard to keep up the form and take this opportunity to make there way into the top 3

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Posted in Arsenal, General, Liverpool, Premier League

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Argentina’s Carlos Tevez Will Be Playing For Man City

August 13th, 2009

Argentina’s Carlos Tevez Will Be Playing For Man City

The wealthy Eastlands club (Manchester City) have signed on former Manchester United’s forward striker Carlos Tevez and speculations indicate that Tevez may not be the only high profile player being signed on to Manchester City. Talks are being held to acquire John Terry who happens to be Chelsea’s captain as well as Arsenal’s striker, Emmanuel Adebayor.

Carlos Tevez seems to be happier at Manchester City and this he communicated through an interpreter. He is quoted having said the following after signing what is believed to be a five-year contract with Man City, “I was there [Manchester United] for two years and Sir Alex never called or sent me any text messages in that time.” His remarks seemed heartfelt and albeit bitter, continuing to say that there wasn’t really much communication with him while in the club and that was no way to treat a player who’s been there for two years. He however thanked the entire Manchester United Club and the fan base for his time there.

Mark Hughes, City’s manager admittedly said that having the 25 year old Argentinean on the team was a great value added and they would pose a great challenge in the coming season. Hughes however refused to comment about plans of acquiring other high profile players for the club, stating that “it’s not the place, nor time – to discuss players they haven’t signed on yet.”

All people can do is wait and see what will become of the aspiring club!

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Posted in Chelsea FC, Football Transfer Market, General, Man U, Manchester City, Premier League, Premiership

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