Soccer Blog|Football News, Reviews, Quizzes

If news in the press are to be believed, Roman and Chelsea are willing to make a mockery of all previous football transfer records to bring Barcelona forward Lionel Messi to Stamford Bridge.

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As you all might be knowing, Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg will meet Rangers in the final of the UEFA Cup 2007-08 (this season). Zenit upset FC Bayern, while Rangers beat Fiorentina on penalties. Zenit are coached by Dick Advocaat.

Here is a look at Zenit’s path to the final. A similar article for Rangers will follow.

Road to CoMS for Zenit St. Petersburg

Second Qualifying Round

First leg - Vion Zlate Moravce 0-2 Zenit St. Petersburg ( Erik Hagen, Alexsei Ionov)

Second leg- Zenit St. Petersburg 3-0 Vion Zlate Moravce (Pavel Pogrebnyak,Ilya Maksimov, Kim Dong Jin)

Zenit win 5-0 on aggregate

First round

First leg- Zenit 3-1 Standard ( Andrei Arshavin *2, Kim Dong Jin)

Second leg- Standard 1-1 Zenit St. Petersburg (Oguchi Onyewu/Pavel Pogrebnyak)

Zenit win 4-1 on aggregate.

Group Stage- Group A

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Date : May 30

Venue : Telstra Dome, Melbourne, Australia

Fixture : Melbourne Victory vs Juventus.

It is a game that has Victory officials licking their lips in anticipation, with the A- League side rumoured to get around 40% of the gate receipts. Apparently, the Newcastle Jets also made an attempt to bring Juventus Down Under for a friendly, but failed.

While several Juventus players like Buffon, Iaquinta and Del Piero may not make the trip because of national team commitments, one can be sure of seeing players like Pavel Nedved and Mohammed Sissoko in action.
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Football’s world governing body FIFA has allowed the Swiss Football Federation to register Essam El Hadary as a FC Sion player. The Egyptian goalkeeper, 35, has been the subject of a tug of war between Al Ahly and the Swiss club. The FIFA ruling however does not stop the Egyptian giants from taking legal action against the player or the club.
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Gary Megson’s Bolton Wanderers were saved by a Kevin Davies goal as they beat West Ham United 1-0 at the Reebok. Davies’ goal came just after the break, and was the 100th goal of his career. Unfortunately, Davies also earned a booking for unsporting behaviour in the second half, which means Bolton will have to do with his services for a while as they fight to stay afloat in the Premiership.
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The Portuguese BWINLiga may have already have been won by Porto, but drama is still unfolding in the Iberian nation. According to news reports, the players of Boavista, who are currently 10th in the league with 32 points, have not been paid for the last two months.

The players have reportedly asked for their pay cheques to be handed over to them by Friday, April 18, failing which they will not play the league game against Nacional on Sunday. Portuguese law demands that employees give five days’ notice before striking.

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Liverpool 4-2 Arsenal

Abou Diaby (13)

Sami Hyypia (30)

Fernando Torres (69)

Emmanuel Adebayor (84)

Steven Gerrard ( p) (86)

Ryan Babel (90)

*- Bold indicates Liverpool player.

Even if you are a Liverpool supporter, take a moment to clap for Arsenal. Arsene Wenger’s young guns played extremely well, and were the better side over the two legs. But as it so often happens, the better team does not necessarily progress; the luckier team does. And that, precisely, is how I’d describe Liverpool getting into the last four of the Champions League.

Benitez chose to start with both Crouch and Torres, thereby forcing Gerrard to play on the left.

And for the first thirty minutes, it was all Arsenal. Liverpool did not have the time to get settled as Arsenal pounded away relentlessly in search of the crucial away goal. After all, Liverpool had drawn 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium, and they were quite capable of enforcing a shutout.

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Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool ( Adebayor/ Kuyt)

Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool ( Bendtner/ Crouch)

Liverpool ?- ? Arsenal

Yes folks, Arsenal and Liverpool meet for the third time in a week, and this one is probably the most important of them all, with a spot in the last four of the Champions League at stake.

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Cardiff City, the only non English club to win the FA Cup, may be able to play in Europe next season if they can lift the trophy by beating Portsmouth in Wembley. The Championship side eliminated giantkillers Barnsley, who had knocked out both Liverpool and Chelsea earlier, in the semifinals by beating them 1-0, with Joe Ledley scoring. The Bluebirds had also beaten Middlesbrough in the sixth round. Under FA rules, the winners of the FA Cup get a UEFA Cup spot. But as Cardiff are a Welsh side, the Football Association are apparently not willing to accept them as one of England’s representatives.

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Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia has signed an extension to his contract at the Emirates Stadium. The duration of the extension is not known, but it is rumoured to be long term  and not a short one. Arsenal do not reveal information about player contracts.
Almunia has become Arsenal’s No.1 under the sticks, relegating German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann to the bench.

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The Burkina Faso Football Federation have appointed Paulo Duarte as the country’s new manager. Duarte succeeds Didier Notheaux, whose contract expired last October. Duarte has signed a two year contract, and his first task will be to ensure that the Stallions qualify for the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola.

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Graham Seatter, the chief executive of New Zealand Football, has announced that he will not  associated with the body from April 18. Seatter has been in charge for the last three years, and was instrumental in the birth of the Wellington Phoenix team that plays in the A-League. The Phoenix team was born from the ashes of the the New Zealand Knights who were once in grave danger of losing their A-League licence.

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We begin our countdown to Euro 2008, by having a quiz on previous editions of the tournament.

Here is a quiz on Euro 2004. Please post your answers as comments, or e-mail me using the contact page, and I’ll let you know how well you have done.

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All you Red Devils, do not get angry at the headline. It is not Luis Carlos Almeida da Cunha who is heading to Upton Park, but Brescia sporting director Gianluca Nani.

The Italian, 45, will begin his role as West Ham’s technical director in June.  The appointment of Nani signals the end of a six month long search by the Hammers for the right candidate.

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On the shores of Lake Geneva lies the Swiss municipality of Nyon. And it was in this place that the UEFA Champions league quarterfinal draw was announced. With four English teams, one Spanish, one Turkish, one Italian and one German team in the fray, this is what the draw threw up.

Arsenal vs Liverpool

AS Roma vs Manchester United
Fenerbahce vs Chelsea
Schalke vs Barcelona.

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If reports in the press are to be believed, Manchester City are reportedly wanting to sign Croatian starlet Luka Modric from Dinamo Zagreb. Modric, 22, currently wears the No.10 at his club and is considered to be one of the hottest players in his native Croatia.

The Times suggests that Sven will have to fork out £17 million to bring Modric to the City of Manchester Stadium.

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This year’s FA Cup features only one Premiership team in the last four- Portsmouth. The exits of Chelsea and Middlesbrough at the hands of Barnsley and Cardiff respectively have thrown the tournament wide open, and Harry Redknapp’s boys must consider themselves as favourites to win the Cup. But, as the Cup has proved time and again, reputation is nothing- the better team on the day wins.

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Here are the results from the sixth round of the FA Cup. Some stunning upsets, but that is what the FA Cup is all about- give the smaller teams an opportunity to shine on the big stage.

Manchester United 0-1 Portsmouth ( Sulley Muntari)

A repeat of last year’s fourth round clash which ended up 2-1 in favour of the Red Devils. The result this year was not the same. It left Sir Alex Ferguson furious.

The win ended United’s chance of a treble and propelled Pompey into the semifinals.

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This happens to be my first post on the A-League. One might ask how it came about ? To be honest, I was doing a bit of research on FIFA World Cup qualifying. As I was doing the 2006 edition, I saw that John Aloisi was the man whose penalty kick sent the Socceroos into the World Cup. Aloisi as a footballer is not a new name- he has after all played for Coventry and Portsmouth in the Premiership, and Osasuna in the La Liga.

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Leicester City have signed Kelvin Etuhu on loan from Manchester City till the end of the season. Kano born Etuhu can play both as a striker and a right winger. If Kelvin’s surname seems familiar to you, it is because his elder brother is Dickson Etuhu, currently representing Sunderland in the Premiership.

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