BAYERN MUNICH VERSES SPORTING LISBON.

In the match between Bayern Munich and Sporting Lisbon , in the group of 16 ,in the first leg, the game was a complete one sided affair with the German club winning with a score of 5-0. It was a complete German washout of Lisbon.They failed to make the game intresting and tamely surrendered to the Mighty Germans.
The goals came from Mark Ribery , who scored two goals , one was a penalty and the other two goals was scored by the Italian Lucas Toni. And the fifth goal was scored by Miraslav Klose.
Now in the second leg Bayern Munich can very well rest their top players, and send a second team , As Sporting Lisbon will have to score 6 goals to move up.

CHELSEA VERSES JUVENTUS.

This was Chelseas first champion league game after the sacking of Luis Scolari as coach. And Juventus The OLD LADY was back in the champion league after a years gap , due tobeing relegated to the lower division for a scandal.
This was a evenly matched team and the game was well balanced . But the goal came in the 12 , twelth minute of the match , when Dider Drogba used his strength and sped to score an early goal . The Dutch coach of Chelsea was a releaved man as Drogba in the past few games was not scoring as he was out with an injury. And as the match was played at Stamford Bridge , the Italian team failed to score a goal and take the advantage of a away goal
Below are the stastics.
CHELSEA JUVENTUS
1 Goals scored. 0
3 Shots on target. 4
6 shots wide. 8.
5 shots blocked. 5.
1 Yellow card. 3.
18 Fouls. 13.
5 corners. 9.
4 Offsides. 1
50 % Ball Possession. 50 %.

REAL MADRID VERSES LIVERPOOL.

In the group of 16 matches first leg . Real Madrid played Liverpool. The two clubs have won 14 champion league trophies between them. Real Madrid has won nine , and Liverpool has won five trophies . But this match when you consider the past rich history, this match played at the Bernabeu., Raul had a early chance, that gave the Liverpool fans a scare.But after that the Madrid side found chances difficult to come and were a little jaded at the end.
The only goal was scored by the Liverpool substitute Yossi Benayoun who popped up suddenly to a free kick and headed the ball into the net. in the 82nd minute of the match.
It was a big win for Liverool who last beat the Spaniads in 1981 final when Liverpool in the Ian rush era beat Real Madrid in the 1981 final.IT has been 28 long years for the win. And it was all the more sweeter, because The future of Rafael Benitz has coach hasnot yet been settled and Steven Gerrard was out , and came as a substitute only.
Below are the stastics.
REAL MADRID LIVERPOOL.
0 goals scored. 1
5 shots on target. 4.
8 shots wide. 3
0 shots blocked. 2.
2 yellow cards 3.
13 fouls. 19.
7 corners. 1.
2 offside. 3.
56% ball possession 44%.

ARSENAL VERSES A.S.ROMA.

In this match played in the Emirate stadium in group of 16 in the champion league was the only match with got a clear result , the rest were all drawn out games either 0-0 scores or with the same score.
The winner was scored by Arsenals Dutch striker Robin Van Persie with penlty in the 37th minute.
It was a game well won by Arsenal all the three points will be very well welcomed since they were drawing all their last three games in the E.P.L.
But this match was very important win for Arsene Wenger as Arsenal played the entire second half with only nine men on the pitch. As both William Gallas and Kolo Toure were late to enter the pitch in time and Kolo Toure was booked for trying to play the match. When a team is one down the opposie side take full advantage , but Roma failed to take a two men advantage.
The game ended in 1-0 win for ArsenThe stastics are a s follows.
ARSENAL. ROMA.
1 0. goals
3 1 . shots on targert.
10 4. shots wide.
2 1 . shots blocked
2 3. Yellow cards.
16 12.fouls.
1 2. corners.
5 4 . offside.
54 % 46. % ball possession.
Arsene Wenger was angrrry with the players as they missed chances some were sitters , If you look they had 10 misses and the main person who was guilty was Niclas Betdner.

MANCHESTER UNITED VERSES INTERMILAN

In the champion league in the group of 16 clubs. There was a clash between the English giants and the Italian Giants Inter Milan verse Manchester United.
We also saw the clash of the two old foxes, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho.
The game was a cagy game right from the start . And the Brazilian goalkeeper of Inter Milan Julio Ceaser was by far the more busy and active player on the field. Even when Edwin Vandersar was called into action it was far fewer saves he had to make. Mainly because the Manchester defence is a very strong one.
The match ended in a tame 0-0.And Alex Ferguson said I hope this draw will not come to haunt us as we all know a away goal is very important to a team.
It was an very evenly fought match as the stastics will show.
INTERMILAN MANCHESTER UNITED.
0 0. goals.
2 5.shots on target.
6 7 . shots wide.
4 3 . shots blocked.
20 18. fouls.
3 6. corners.
2 2. offsides.
4 2. yellow cards.
50 % 50 % ball possession.
There was a funny incident when the InterMilan rserve goalkeeper Fransesco Toldo got himself needlessly booked with a yellow card in the 43rd minute of the game when he was not on the pitch even , he got it for a scuffle , which was spotted by the refewree.

KNOW YOUR ENGLISH FOOTBALL..

1) Ryan Giggs the Welsh and Manchester United winger who has played for Manchester United from 1990 when he first joined them. Infact he had a contract all ready at Manchester City, and only had to sign on the dotted line. But Sir alex ferguson flew down to his hometown and convinced him and his mother that it was Manchester United , where he should play his football. He has been a loyal player to the club and has won the most medals in E.P.l. history.
He has been the only E.P.L player ever to score a goal in each year of the E.P.L. when it started in 1992. He has also been a one club player .
2) David James the Porthsmouth goalkeeper has created a new record for the most games played by one player in the E.P.L. history of 569 games so breaking the previous record set by Gary Speed, who played 568 games in the E.P.L. But Gary Speed is now playing in the second division and those games he plays are not counted..
3) Paul Scholes the Manchester United midfielder is one player who does not employ the service of an agent. He always negociates his new contracts by himself.
4) Wayne Rooney is the youngest player to score a goal in te E.P.L. He was just 16, sixteen years and 356 days old. He scored that goal for Everton his first club.

U.E.F.A. TO CAP CLUB SPENDING.

The U.E.F.A president Mr Michel Platini has come strongly agaist clubs who are spending far to much and making ridiculous bids for footballers. He was mainly refering to Manchester City, with their failed bid for the Brazilian Kaka from A.C.Milan. The amount was 108 million euros , plus another 108 million euros for h iis salary plus a few million for the salary and agents fee..
We must bear in mind that the world faces a severe recession and to spend moneythis way is madness. Arsene Wenger the shrewd manager of Arsenal made it very clear that Manchester City are not living in the real world and real times this is ridiculous spending no matter how rich the club is.
Infact many clubs came forward to ask U.E.F.A to do something as all the clubs can not keep pace with a few lucky rich clubs.
In the long run a capping of salary and buying of players will help football in a long way. And Platini s decission must be suported.

COMETH THE HOUR COMETH EDUARDO

Eduardo the Brazlian born but who plays for Croatia and his club football for Arsenal.
Eduardo made triumphant return to football as last year the Birmingham footballer Martin Taylor broke his leg after stamping on it with all studs showing and got a straight red card. Because of this Eduardo missed the EURO 2008, for Croatia.
In the F.A.cup replay verses Cardiff city. he scored two majestic goals including a well taken penalty with Robin Van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner adding the other goals for Arsenal. Eduardo showed no signs of being rusty at all. .After all he last played for Arsenal 358 days ago..
Eduardo has brought smiles onthe faces of the Arsenal fans and as Emanuel Adeboaor is now injured Eduardocould very well fill those shoes , as well as scoring goals he is a good poacher and finisher of the ball.
So now we can see Arsenal back in the top four clubs and do well in the hampion league again.

ALFREDO DI STEFANO RECORD AT REAL MADRID IS BROKEN.

Raul the Real Madrid skipper has now scored 309th goal for Real Madrid , and so has broken the long standing record set by Alfredo Di Stefano.
Raul who is now 31 years old and had joined Real Madrid as a boy in the year 1994 of age.at seventeen years.
He has played all these years at Real Madrid only, even when Fabio Capello wanted to give him on a loan as he was not in form for a year.
Raul hasalways orn the number 7 jersey, even when Luis Figo joined Real Madrid from Barcelona., and Figo had the number 7 jersey at Barcelona. Figo then worethe number 10 jersey vacated by Clarence Seedorf, in his move to A.C.Milan.
Raul at his time at Real Madrid has won three champion league medals 1998,2000, and 2002.And he has also won the Spanish league in 1995,1997, 2001,2003 and 2007.

DAVID BECHAM EQUALS BOBBY MOORES RECORD.

David Becham has now equaled the record for an outfield player for england and so has equaled the record set by Sir Bobby Moore with 108 games for england. But the all time record for an English player is 126 games set by the goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

20 RICHEST CLUBS IN THE WORLD 2007-2008

The Deolite company has brought out the list of the richest twenty clubs in the world. But as the auditting was done before the recession realy did take hold , this year it may not be so bad. But next year it will not be so rosey.
Clubs like Valencia, Celtic and Werdher Bremen dropped from the top twenty this year. And a Turkish club comes for the first time in the history. And we must take into account that English clubs use the pound which has depreciated against the euro, so the earning is also less.Real Madrid also suffered as their sponseres Benq mobiles were bankrupt. And David Bechams move to Los Angles Galaxy had their comercial sale down by five million pounds.
Thelist is as follows.
1) Real Madrid . Spain . 365.8 million Euros.
2) Manchester United. England.324.8 million Euros.
3) Barcelona . Spain. 308.8. million Euros.
4) Bayern Munich. Germany.295.3. Million Euros.
5) Chelsea. England. 268.9. million Euros.
6) Arsenal. England. 264.4. million Euros
7 ) Liverpool. England. 210.9. million Euros.
8) A.C.Milan . Italy. 209.5. million Euros.
9)A.S.Roma. Ital 175. 4 million Euros
10)Inter Milan. Italy. 172.9 million Euros.
11) Juventus. Italy. 167.5. million Euros.
2) Lyon . France. 155.7. million Euros.
13) Schalke04. Germany. 148.4. million Euros.
14) Tottenham Hotspur. England. 127.9. million Euros.
15) Hamburg. Germany. 126.8. million Euros.
16)Marseille. France.
17) NewCastle. England. 125.6. million Euros.
18)Stuttgard. Germany. 111.5. million Euros.
19) Fenerbache. Turkey. 111.3. million Euros.
20) Manchester City. England. 104.00. million pounds.
The grand total of these twenty clubs would be a neat ammount of 3.3. billion Euros..

AFRICAN FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR.2008.

The African footballer of the year has been announced ,and the winner was the Arsenal and Togo striker Emanuel Adebayor .
1) Emanuel Adebayor.. Togo.
2) Mohmed Aboutrita. Egypt .
3 ) Michel Essien Ghana.

SOMEMORE E.P.L.RECORDS.

There have been several records over the years, and here are some of them.
1) Arsenal went 42 games on a winning trot . And they were called The Invincibles. And the last time a E.P. L team went a complete season without a loss was way back in 1889. The clubwas Preston.
2) The most goals scored in a E.P.L match were 11 , eleven goals. Scored by Tottenham Hotspur.With Jermaine Defoe scoring a hat trick and Robbie Keane scoring two goals.
3) Crystal Palace has been demoted five times from the E.P.L.. This is the most times any club has been demoted.
4) The most points won by a club in one year has been 95 points won by Manchester United,
5) Manchester United have won the E.P.L. title the most times since it started in 1992 , a total of 10 ten times.
6) In the year 2004 Chelseas goalkeeper Petr Cech conceeded only 15 goals in that year. The least in E.P.L. history

THE NEW COACH OF CHELSEA IS MOST LIKELY GUSS HIDDINK.

The most likely new coach of Chelsea will be the sixtytwo year year old Dutch man Mr Guss Hiddink. The former manager of P.S.V Eindhoven, Australia, south Korea and now Russian natinal team. He has many years of experience as a manager.As the world cup 2002 and Euro 2008 showed.And his biggest plus pointis that he is a very close friend of the owner of Chelsea, The Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich.
In fact the Chelea owner Roman Abramovich is paying half the salary of Guss Hiddink as the Russian coach as Roman was very keen that Russia qualify for the 2010 world cup in South Africa.
But he will be a manager till the end of the season, and he will also be the Russian manager at the same time.
Hiddink has also said this, had it been any other club or country he would have said NO long ago.

THE E.P.L. managers sacked in 2008, 2009.

1) Luiz Felipe Scolari. from Chelsea.
2) Tony Adams . from Porthsmouth.
3)Alan Curbishly. From West Ham.
4)Kevin Keegan. From West Ham.
5) Roy Keane .From Sunderland.
6 ) Harry Redknapp. Left Portsmouth
7) Juande Ramos.. From Tottenham Hotspur.
8) Paul Ince . From Blackburn Rovers.

LEE MASON THE GUILTY REFEREE>

In the match between Chelsea and Hull City. There were a few bad calls made by Mr Mason, the worst one was not giving Chelsea a penalty . Dawson clearly handled the ball in the box, not only did he touch the ball Dawson also pushed his hand up and so making a clear handball, which was clearly done on purpose. The rules clearly say when this happensit is a clear cut penalty. Even the comentators said it was a penalty.
That penalty disallowed and those three points for Chelea were clearly stolen by Lee Mason and the English F.A. for apointing such stupid idiots as referees. Or Mason must be staying in Hull City or played for Hull in his playing days.
The cost was heavy for Chelsea they sacked Scolari after that match. And payed Scolari a compensation of 7.5 million pounds , that is a huge amount , something mr Le Mason will never see in his life if he lives his life five times over.
He also should have given Hull a corner when the ball came of Bosingwa..
The F.A. must make it compulsry to conult a linesman as well as the fourth referee as these referees are making to many major errors.

CHELSEA SACK SCOLARI. BUT WAS IT RIGHT.

The English club Chelsea have sacked their Brazilian coach Fil Scolari. After they drew another match, which was with Hull City.
But why are Chelsea doing badly sudenly ? The reason is that the departure of Arjen Robben to Real Madrid , has left the left wing in a bad way, as his replaement Floran Malouda has failed to fill those shoes.Claudia Makalelee, the hard working midfielder who did all the hard work and kept the midfield strong has retired , and John Obei Mikel has failed to fill those very big shoes. Michel Essiens long term injury to has played a big part in Chelseas results.
As Sir Alex Ferguson has said people now have no patience , clubs give managers six to eight months and expect a miraxcle in that time.Which is not possible.
Scolari also wanted Robhino at Chelsea and was willing to give Malouda an Mikel in exchange.
Now the talk is that the fans want the old darling of Chelsea Gianfranco Zola as coach. We must not forget that Joe ole is out for a long time with a injury, and he always scored goals. Also Ricardo Carvalho is still injured.

MIKE RILEY MAKES ANOTHER HOWLER.

The referee who has repeatedly made a bad decission after another as a referee , in the years he was a referee.
The latest was in the match between Chelsea verses Liverpool. It was a very important matchfor both these clubs for the race to catch up with Manchester United.
Mike Riley gave Frank Lampard a straight red card , when Frank Lampard got the ball first and then only d id he bring Xavi Alonso down. For this no yellow card is shown leave alone a red. The absence of Lampard was clearly shown, with a one man advantage Liverpool scored the goals by Fernando Torres.
The F.A. have now reversed the red card shown to Frank Lampard.
This is not the first time Mike Riley has done this. I will give you a few examples to clearly show that he is not fit to be a referee now.
1) When Arsenal was going on a winning run , he Mike Riley gave Manchester United a penalty , he claimed Sol Cambell had brought down a manchester United player. But slow replay clearly show with the player. Cambell did not make any contact. with the player.So Arsenals winning run came to a suden and sad end. Thanks to Riley.
2) Mike Riley once even gave Emanuel Adebayor a red card when the culprit was not Emanuel Adebayor but Emanuel Eboie.
Such blunders are not right as Mike Riley has never ever apologided for his mistakes, but the other gentlemen referee Paul Durkin and Rob Styris did admit that they have made a mistake.

THE WINTER TRANSFER RECORD.

The 2009 winter transfer was a record sale the amount. was a hooping 149 million pounds. Beating last years record .
But the strangest thing is that this record sum was spent even at a time when the world is facing a global economical meltdown and a credit crunch. These clubs went on a spending round. But some wise ones only brought a player like Arsenal did. Liverpool did not buy anyone.Some clubs have even fallen into the hands of an adminastrator.

WHO BENIFITED FROM THE WINTER TRANSFER.

During the winter transfer of 2009 , we saw a great deal of transfer from al l over the world made.
But the biggest suprise in the transfer market was those of Jermaine Defoe and Robbie Keane. Jermaine Defoe was sold to Porthsmouth from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer sale for a big amount . But in the winter transfer he was sold back to Tottenham Hotspur for15 million pounds.
In the same way Robbie keane was sold to Liverpool for 20 million pounds and in the winter transfer he was sold back to Tottenham Hotspur for 12 million pounds.
Now the person who made the most money are the two agents of the footballers.For selling the players to a club and then selling for another club.

WINTER FOOTBALLERS ON LOAN.

1) David Becham . L.A Galaxy to A.C.Milan.
2) R.Querasma. Inter Milan to Chelsea.
3) Jo. Manchester City to Everton.
4) O Dacourt. Inter Milan. to Fulham.
5)J.Faubert. West Ham. to Real Madrid..

THE WINTER TRANSFERS FOR 2008-09.

This years winter transfers were realy tough one, with the winter weather being very seveare this year.
The biggest and longest transfer talks was for the Russian Anderi Arshivan , the star of Euro 2008. Anderi Arshivin was so keen to join ASrsenal that he even charted a private jet plane to fly to London and toget his tranfer done at the last minute.His club Zenith St Petersburgh wanted 20 million pounds , but Arsene Wenger was willing to pay less, and finaly he got his man for 12 million pounds.
Here are the other transfers in january.
PLAYERS CLUBS AMOUNT.
1) Lassana Diara. Porthsmouth to Real Madrid. 20 million pounds.
2)K Huntelear. Ajax. to Real Madrid. 17 million pounds.
3)K Tosic. Partizan Belgrade. to Manchester United..
3) A Ljalic. Partizan Belgrade. to Manchester United. 16 millon pounds, for both these footballers combined.
4)J. Defoe. Porthsmouth . to Tottenham Hotspur. 15 million pounds.
5) Nigel Jong. Hamburg. to Manchester City. 14 million pounds.
6) Craig Bellamy.West Ham. to Manchester City. 14 million pounds.
7) R. Keane. Liverpool . to Totenham Hotspur. 12 million pounds.
8) W. Palacios. Wigan. to Tottenham Hotspur. 12 million pounds.
9W. Bridge. Chelsea to Manchester City. 12 million pounds.
10) S. Nesekero.Brescia to West Ham. 9 million pounds.
11) C.N.Zogobia. Newcastle to Wigan Athelatic. 6 million pounds.

JAMIE LAWRENCE .

Jamie Lawrence a Jamaican born footballer ,and has also played for a few English clubs such as Sunderland,Bradford, Leicester City .
But when he was nineteen years old he was sent to jail for armed robbery, for a peroiod of four years.While he was in jail and playing football for his prison team he was spotted by Cowes sports and the Sunderland manager Terry Butcher.
Well as the saying goes There is a silver lining on every dark clowd.After the four years he becamea footballer . But today he has started a football accademy for boys who like him were in prison , and are caught in drugs and crime.Other footballers to have come forward to help and coach these boys and girls.
I am sure oneday one of these boys will play in the E.P.L for a club oneday.

MANCHESTER UNITEDS NEW RECORD..

Manchester United have made a new record in the E.P.L.this season.
Edwin Vandersaar their goalkeeper has kept 12 cleansheets and has not let a goal in, for 1122 minutes so breaking the record set by Steve Death the former Reading goalkeeper way back in 1978-79who s record was11103 minutes. The last goal let in by Van der sar was the two goals scored by Sameer Nasri.