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Today in Bundes Liga

September 26th, 2009

Match day 7 saw Hamburg continuing to top the league table with a win over Bayern Munich. Petric scored the only goal of the match in the 72nd minute. The defeat left the 4 time European Champions, Bayern Munich in 6th placed in the league table.

Bayern Munich possibly has the strongest line up in Bundes Liga with the likes of international players like Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, Miroslav Klose, and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Winning today was important for them as they have already lost twice and drawn twice this season.

Nürnberg were playing VfL Bochum at home. The match ended in another one goal affair. Diego Fernando Klimowicz scored in the 7th minute to give VfL Bochum 3 points.

Eintracht were defeated at home 0-3 by VfB Stuttgart. Schieber scored twice, once in the 17th and then in the 32nd minute while Hitzlsperger added a third in the 54th minute making sure the team goes home with a win tonight.

Werder Bremen defeated Mainz 3-0 and stayed on the 4th spot in the league table. Hunt opened the scoring for Bremen in the 38th minute. One goal was not enough to secure the 3 points with 52 minutes of play still left. Pizarro made sure that his team wins tonight with a goal each in the 71st and 82nd minute.

VfL Wolfsburg defeated Hannover 96 4-2. Hannover 96 was always found chasing the game. They never came in front. Schalke 04 stayed third on the table with a 0-1 win against Borussia.

Bayer Leverkusen was visiting FC Köln. The match ended 0-1 to the visitors and the win gave Leverkusen 17 points from the 7 matches played so far this season. Hamburg and Leverkusen are tied with 17 points but Hamburg occupies the top spot in the league table on goal difference. Hertha BSC remained at the bottom of the table with 3 points from their 6 games played.

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Posted in Football Post Match Review, Football Results, German Bundesliga

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Today in Premier League

September 26th, 2009

Cheslea faced defeat for the first time this season at the JJB stadium playing against Wigan Athletic. Wigan opened score in the 16th minute with a header from Bramble. Chelsea equalized two minutes into the second half with a goal from Drogba but Wigan’s attempt to score in the 52nd minute saw Petr Cech bringing Rodallega down in the box. Cech was shown a straight red card which left reserve keeper Hilario with the job of saving the penalty. Rodallega stepped up and took the penalty which he netted comfortably, making the score 2-1.

Chelsea tried attacking, but with a man down there was always a fear of counter attack. Chelsea did not capitalize on the opportunities that came their way and were punished again in 90+2 minutes when Paul Scharner scored, giving Wigan their first win ever against one of the top 4 English clubs.

Manchester United defeated Stoke City 0-2. First half saw United making sloppy passes but soon Ferguson replaced Nani with Giggs which proved to be a master stroke as Giggs helped United to score both the goals. With assists from Giggs in both united goals, Berbatov and O’Shea scored a goal each in the 62nd and 77th minute.

Liverpool defeated Hull at Anfield with a thumping 6-1 lead. Torres took 3, Babel 2 and a goal from Gerrard saw Anfield live with action. 4 goals from Keane saw Spurs defeating Burnley 5-0 at home. Portsmouth continued their losing run as they faced their seventh consecutive defeat this season, this time at the hands of Everton.

Blackburn won against Aston Villa 2-1 in front of home fans. Birmingham and Fulham were not able to capitalize on their home advantage and lost 1-2 to Bolton, and 0-1 to Arsenal respectively.

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Posted in Arsenal, Articles, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton, Burnley, Chelsea FC, Everton, Football Post Match Review, Football Results, Hull City, Liverpool, Man U, Portsmouth, Premier League, Stoke City, Tottenham

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Juventus draw away from home

September 25th, 2009

Old lady of football; Juventus lost their top spot in the Serie A following a draw with Genoa at their away game. The match started well for Juventus as they drew first blood in the 5th minute with a goal from Iaquinta. The world cup winning Italian footballer’s powerful strike from outside the box towards the far post left the Genoa keeper, Marco Amelia out of sync.

All seemed to be going well for the old lady but this is where the problem is. In football you can’t relax during those 90 minutes. Sculli was allowed to lob a cross inside the box in spite of two Juventus players defending closely. Sculli’s cross was crafted beautifully by Mesto into the net which left Italian keeper Ganluigi Buffon still. The score at half time remained 1-1 much to the disbelief of Juventus fans.

Marchisio’s volley into the box was collected superbly by Iaquinta but he was unable to capitalize on this opportunity, and failed to score for Juventus in the 55th minute. Again in the 72nd minute Grosso’s free kick into the box was netted beautifully by Iaquinta’s header but the goal was disallowed as it was an offside attempt. By now Iaquinta must have felt miserable for not converting these chances into goals.

Two minutes later Juventus were made to feel sorry for not scoring, as half time substitute, Argentine Hernan Crespo heads the ball into the net from a Mesto cross. In the 85th minute, four minute old substitute, Trezeguet found the net but again the goal was ruled as offside, and Juventus still trailed the home side by a goal. Next minute Grosso’s free kick into the box was netted in again by the French striker Trezeguet and finally Juventus equalized in the 86th minute. The score remained 2-2 at the final whistle.

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Posted in Articles, Football Post Match Review, Football Results, General, Italian Serie A, Juventus

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Inter regain top spot in Serie A

September 25th, 2009

Inter players pleased their boss Jose Mourinho who was serving a touchline ban by defeating Napoli at home. Mourinho was red carded in Inter’s last match against Cagliari and was also fined €15,000 for protesting the referee’s decision.

As such, Mourinho was not with his team during the match against Napoli. The scoring started early in the 3rd minute with Eto’o scoring the first goal. Certainly, not the most stylish of goals with too many players huddled around the goal post; one can say this was a goal almost waiting to happen. It sure seems to be an era of quick goals, and the next goal for Inter came within 2 minutes. Well this one certainly raises quite a few eyebrows in terms of whether or not the pass made to Milito was an offside pass or not. However, the assistant referee didn’t see any flaw and didn’t draw the flag presumably because from his perspective, Milito had cleared the offside trap successfully, gone one on one with the goalkeeper and converted brilliantly.

Not much was left of the game from this point on as it already seemed as though Inter was taking this one home. There were a few attempts from both teams in the next 25 minutes, and finally Lucio headed a 3rd for Inter. In the next 2 minutes Lavezzi scored the lone goal of the night for Napoli. The second half was bore testimony to many more goal attempts, but the days’ play ended at 3-1, with Inter bagging a few more points early on in the season.

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Posted in Articles, Football Post Match Review, Football Results, Inter Milan, Italian Serie A

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Big Four through

September 24th, 2009

The renowned big four of the Barclays Premier League are through to the last 16 of the League Cup. Liverpool and Arsenal were already through the previous night, while Manchester United and Chelsea joined them the following tonight.

United were playing newly promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford in front of 51,000 supporters. Sir Alex Ferguson started the match with a 4-3-3 formation. Macheda, Welback and Owen had been allotted strikers positions. Carrick, Nani and Gibson covered the midfield, and the defense was formed by Neville, Brown, Evans and Fabio and Kuszczak adorned the goalies position.

The win didn’t come easy for United as they were left with 10 men in the 30th minute when Fabio was shown a straight red card for a foul on Kightly. Kightly was running straight towards the United goal post when Fabio came from behind and slipped in front of Kightly. Fabio was then seen bringing Kightly down with his hands and was red carded by referee Peter Walton. Ferguson soon replaced his young striker Macheda with young defender Ritchie De Laet to make the defense strong.

United kept attacking and finally the breakthrough came in the 66th minute with a superb one-two between Welbeck and Owen which saw Welbeck scoring his first goal in his first match this season for the club. The match ended at 1-0 for the home team.

In London, Kalou scored the only goal of the match in the 52nd minute which was enough to see Chelsea through to the next round. Neighbors, Tottenham Hotspurs defeated Preston North End 5-1, and Everton won 4-0 against Hull City. Extra time was needed to decide the result between Fulham and the big spenders of Premier League, Manchester City. The match ended 1-2 to City with Toure scoring the winner in the 111th minute. Villa is through to the next round as they defeated Cardiff City 1-0.

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Posted in Arsenal, Articles, Aston Villa, Chelsea FC, Football Post Match Review, Football Results, General, Hull City, Liverpool, Man U, Manchester City, Premier League, Tottenham, Wolverhampton Wanderers

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Ronaldo Shining

September 24th, 2009

Cristiano Ronaldo continue his dream run at Real Madrid. In doing so, he became the first player in the history of Real Madrid to score goals in the first 4 games of the season for the club. Last night Real were visiting Villareal who were hoping to stop Real’s unbeaten run in this seasons campaign, but football is not predictable. Villareal, and probably all of Spain got to know of Ronaldo’s intentions this season when in the second minute of the match, he dribbled the ball from his half, and scored a goal for Real Madrid single handedly.

Throughout the match Real looked strong, and Ronaldo looked stronger. He was simply unplayable tonight. Gonzalo was shown a 2nd yellow card of the match in the 34th minute for a foul on Kaka. This left Villareal with 10 men on the pitch for the remainder of the game. The score remained 0-1 at half time.

The second half was no different as Real kept attacking, and Villareal kept defending with 10 men. In the 71st minute, Marcelo Silva’s cross in to the box was handed by Villareal defender Lopez. This landed Lopez a yellow card, and Real Madrid was awarded a penalty kick. As Kaka had not scored a single goal in the La Liga this season, Ronaldo who is the first choice penalty taker, allowed Kaka to take the spot kick. Kaka who has a reputation of a silent killer, finished the job in the same manner and Real went up, 0-2 in the 73rd minute. The match ended 0-2 for the visitors.

Other matches of the night saw Atletico Madrid drawing 2 – 2 against Almeria, Espanyol winning 2 – 1 against Malaga, Valladolid losing 1 – 2 against Osasuna. Xerez continued their poor run this season as they lost 0 – 3 against Deportivo La Coruna in front of a home crowd, Tenerife defeated Athletic Bilbao 1-0, and Getafe won 3– 1 against Valencia.

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Posted in Football Post Match Review, Football Results, General, Real Madrid, Spanish La Liga, Spanish Primera Liga

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League Cup Updates

September 23rd, 2009

The third round of the League cup saw the big England teams, Arsenal, and Liverpool, going through to the next round. Arsenal defeated West Brom 2-0 at the Emirates stadium. Ex gunner, Jerome Thomas of West Brom was shown a red card by referee L Mason in the 37th minute for slapping Jack Wilshere of Arsenal. This left West Brom with 10 men to play the remaining 53 minutes.

The score at half time remained 0-0 but the outnumbered West Brom squad were not able to hold the gunners for long. A goal each from Sanchez Watt, and Carlos Vela made sure that Arsenal goes through the next round. Arsene Wenger had promised a young Arsenal team would start for the League cup encounter, and accordingly the average age of the team for the night was 20 years.

Elsewhere, Leeds United was hosting Liverpool. The match ended with a 0-1 win for Liverpool. 20 year old French striker David Ngog scored the only goal of the game in the 66th minute. Newly demoted Newcastle United lost against Peterborough United 2-0. The Newcastle fans faced a big question of whether their side will again play in the Premier League next season. Sunderland defeated newly promoted side Birmingham City 2-0 in an encounter which saw two Premier League clubs clashing for a place in the next round. Elsewhere, Bolton Wanderers defeated West Ham 3-1.

Other matches of the night saw Barnsley defeating Burnley 3-2, Carlisle United losing 1-3 against Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest losing 0-1 against Blackburn Rovers, Stoke City defeating Blackpool 4-3, and Scunthorpe United winning 2-0 against Port Vale.

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Posted in Arsenal, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton, Burnley, Football Post Match Review, Football Results, Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Premier League, Stoke City, Sunderland

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Spanish La Liga

September 23rd, 2009

Midweek matches in La Liga saw Barcelona regaining top spot from Real Madrid. Barcelona visited El Sardinero, home ground of Racing Santander for a league encounter. The match ended 1-4 to the visitors with two goals from Messi and a goal each from Ibrahimovich, and Pique.

Barcelona was awarded a free kick in the 20th minute, which Xavi took, and passed the ball towards Messi whose cross in the penalty box was headed home by Ibrahimovich in the 20th minute, thus drawing first blood. A minute later Ibrahimovich almost scored another goal but his shot hit the far post.

By now the Catalans were striking towards the Racing goal area like huge waves hitting the beach. Messi showed his wonders two minutes later in the 24th minute with a little help from Xavi. Messi was successful in making the score 0-2.

A defensive error in the 27th minute by the home team saw Barcelona scoring another goal. Five defenders tried tackling Ibrahimovich in the box who was successful in passing the ball to Pique who was left unmarked. Pique held his nerves in front of the Racing keeper and placed the ball in the net in a neat finish.

At the stroke of half time, the score remained 0-3. 18 minutes into the second half saw another brilliant goal from Messi. He just played around with the defenders in the penalty box, passing through them and striking the ball elegantly into the net, making the score 0-4.

Óscar Serrano scored in the 73rd minute giving Racing a consolation goal. The match ended 1-4 with the final whistle. Another match in La Liga saw Sevilla winning 2-0 at home against Mallorca. Squillaci and Perotti scoring a goal each in the 16th minute and 25th minute respectively.

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Posted in Barcelona, Football Post Match Review, Football Results, Real Madrid, Spanish La Liga, Spanish Primera Liga

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