Real Zaragoza have appointed Manolo Jimenez as their new coach until the end of the season.
Jimenez replaces Javier Aguirre, who was dismissed earlier this week with Zaragoza rooted to the foot of the La Liga standings having lost eight of their last nine league games.

The 47-year-old Jimenez, who will be presented on Sunday evening, has spent most of his career at Sevilla, representing the Andalusian club as a player from 1983 until 1997, then becoming reserve team coach for seven years until 2007, when he took over as first-team coach for three years.

Anderlecht vs Lokomotiv Moscow 5-3 Highlights 2011 Europa League Video Goals Kljestan Sychev Wasilewski is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Anderlecht vs Lokomotiv Moscow 5-3 Highlights 2011 Europa League Video Goals Kljestan Sychev Wasilewski is a post from Soccer Blogger.

It's do or die for a number of teams across Europe as the UEFA Europa League winds down.

Half of the teams in the field play their final group games of the tournament today, including Clint Dempsey's Fulham, which can cement a place in the knockout round and set the tone for perhaps another deep tournament run with a win or by getting some help.

Images: Amazon, fcsochaux.fr, Tumblr.

The stocking stuffer display's have come out big and bad in the past week. Can't figure out what to get your family and friends this year? Or do you want to make the special recipient feel incredibly awkward in front of a large crowd?

Well, three professional footy clubs have just what you're looking for.

By Chris Wright

Here you go, Pies' pick of the ten best still exposures from the past two day's worth of Europa League action...

FC Vaslui supporters are silhouetted by burning flares during their game against Lazio in Piatra Neamt, Romania

FC Vaslui's Mike Temwanjera and Lazio's Modibo Diakite hit an isolated hotspot of weak gravity

Fulham's Bryan Ruiz waves to the Twente fans after receiving a hero's welcome on his return to the Dutch club

AEK Athens vs Anderlecht quickly descends into an all-out gurn-fest as a corner is swung into the Greek side's penalty area

Schalke 04′s Kyriakos Papadopoulos throws up the big twos after scoring against Steaua Bucharest in Gelsenkirchen

Ibrahim Toroman is not exactly enamoured with the view as Besiktas celebrate scoring against Maccabi Tel Aviv

Billy Conolly and Rod Stewart turn up at Parkhead to watch Celtic take on Atletico Madrid, and are seen here presumably discussing exactly why Beram Kayal felt to need to duck and let Arda Turan's shot fly in over his head

Hapoel Tel-Aviv's Abbas Mahmmoud watches on while Rapid Bucharest's Iulian Apostol endulges in a spot of light turf rotivation

Hannover 96 fans do their thing ahead of the German side's game against Standard Liege in Belgium

A lone Tottenham fan taunts the travelling PAOK Salonika supporters by holding a tenner aloft to mock Greece's debt crisis.

AEK Athens vs Anderlecht 1-2 Highlights Video 2011 Europa League Goals Sialmas Gillet is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

AEK Athens vs Anderlecht 1-2 Highlights Video 2011 Europa League Goals Sialmas Gillet is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter AEK vs Anderlecht 2011 ( AEK Athens Anderlecht Video below) Score and result:- AEK vs Anderlecht 1-2 ( Sialmas/ Gillet*2) Athens, Greece- 1st December, 2011- Europa League Guillaume Gillet scores a [.

By FRANCO PANIZO

If Liverpool is to overcome its less-than-stellar start to the season and get back in contention for a Champions League spot, it will have to do so without one of its top players.

Lucas Leiva has been ruled out for the remainder of the Premiership campaign after sustaining a knee injury in Liverpool's 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Chelsea in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.

Occurs to me that anyone chancing across the blog might wonder what the Nora Batty is going on.
Well, I'm rambling on about football and a few mates are joining me here and there. But we're doing it to help out Alzheimer Scotland and the Homeless World Cup. If you can help please do. The links to do just that are all over this page.

By Chris Wright

Pies' pick of the 15 best photos from last night's Europa League action...

Lokomotiv Moscow's Felipe Caicedo celebrates his injury time goal against AEK Athens as he passes AEK keeper Giannis Arabatzis

The Britannia Stadium sits empty an hour or so before Stoke City kicked off against Maccabi Tel Aviv

Besiktas' Filip Holosko and Dynamo Kiev's Betao gurn away while tussling in the air over Kiev

Birmingham fans decorate the square in the centre of Bruges before kick-off

Standard Liege's Yoni Buyens almost has his face pummelled by Vorskla Poltava goalkeeper Serhiy Dolganskiy

Club Brugge 'keeper Colin Cooseman celebrates his side's early lead against Birmingham, though it didn't last with Brum eventually winning it 2-1 in the 9th minute of injury time

Kenwyne Jones celebrates in customary style after scoring the opening goal for Stoke against Maccabi Tel Aviv

Legia Warszawa's Maciej Rybus gets crumpled in a pile-up with Rapid Bucharest duo Rui Duarte and 'keeper Danut Coman

Tottenham's Danny Rose is fouled on the edge of the box by Rubin Kazan captain Roman Sharonov.

Cover your Modesto

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- QPR -Fulham Stats/Shared Players/Previews: Photos from the Bushman Archive Collection
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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

Several of the U.S. National Team players were in action for their clubs as the group phase of the Europa League kicked off Thursday. Here's a recap:
Jozy Altidore continued his blistering scoring pace for AZ Alkmaar, netting his sixth goal in eight matches in all competitions when he fired home the opening goal in the 4-1 win against Malmo.

By Chris Wright

Pies pick of the ten best photos from yesterday evening's round of Europa League tomfoolery...

Birmingham mascots Belle and Beau brave the darkness to salute the St Andrews crowd before their 3-1 defeat to Portuguese side Braga

Shamrock Rovers' Craig Sives launches into an unorthodox tackle on Rubin Kazan's Salvatore Bocchetti at the Tallaght Stadium, Dublin.

Anderlecht opened the next chapter in their Europa League campaign at home with a convincing win over of AEK Athens in Brussels.

The draw for the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League group stage was made in Monaco today. 2009 winners Atlético de Madrid are arguably the biggest club involved in this season's competition and they will have been relatively pleased with a draw which placed them in Group I alongside Italian Champions League drop-outs Udinese Calcio, French side Stade Rennais and Swiss side FC Sion.

One more player leaves Liverpool while rumours swirl about potential replacements. Plus Aquilani's agent doing what he does best, papers rehashing year old stories, and all the rest of the week's fun as the rumour mills hit top gear again with the window heading to its close...

Sotirios Kyrgiakos

The big Greek defender left for Wolfsburg on a free transfer late on Monday, the player eager to get more playing time than seemed likely at Liverpool and the club happy to get his wages off the books.

Kyrgiakos Leaves Liverpool

Sotirios Kyrgiakos has left Liverpool to join Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, the club have confirmed. The Greek is not thought to feature in Kenny Dalglish's plans for the forthcoming campaign and departs Anfield in search of regular first team football.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos leaves Liverpool for Wolfsburg

• Greece international signs two-year contract • Defender had fallen out of favour at Anfield Liverpool have confirmed that defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has joined Wolfsburg. The Greece international has signed a two-year contract with the German club although no fee has been announced.

Liverpool's no-nonsense defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has moved to Wolfsburg in a two-year deal.
The popular defender who was signed from AEK Athens by former Manager, Rafa Benitez as a then replacement for Sammi Hypia.
Soto endeared himself to Liverpool fans with his rugged, battling displays, but he is deemed to be surplus to Kenny Dalglish's requirements.

This morning I was looking back through the archives to see if I could do an 'On this day', kind of feature. I think I picked a bad day.

My choices were: the day after Thierry Henry left (2007), us being linked very heavily with Alexander Hleb (2005), Jens Lehmann talking about how we should sign Miroslav Klose (2006), Barcelona talking about wanting to sign Thierry (2003), vaguely hoping Igors Stepanovs might cripple Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Euros (2004) and a quote from Chris Waddle talking on 5Live about the Swedish back four at the 2002 World Cup:

The Swedish back four is amongst the tallest in the world cup.

Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has earned himself a 12-month contract extension at Anfield.
The former Greece international, 32 next month, originally joined on a two-year deal from AEK Athens at the start of the 2009-10 season.
However, written into that agreement was an option for a further year and Press Association Sport understands Kyrgiakos has qualified for that having played the required number of matches last season.

Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has earned himself a 12-month contract extension at Anfield.
The former Greece international, 32 next month, originally joined on a two-year deal from AEK Athens at the start of the 2009-10 season.
However, written into that agreement was an option for a further year and Press Association Sport understands Kyrgiakos has qualified for that having played the required number of matches last season.

This is Mike (AEK Baltimore). I haven't posted since our 2010/11 Europa League campaign came to an end. But summer's here and its time for some summer reading suggestions for the thinking footballer!

Jonathan Wilson, genius football historian and analyst and author of the brilliant Inverting the Pyramid (yes, I'm a fan), is the editor of a new football journal named The Blizzard.

Djibril Cisse's two goals against AEK secured Panathinaikos the second Champions League spot

Panathinaikos have won the end of season play-offs, which determine who will be the second team to represent Greece in next season's UEFA Champions League, having defeated AEK Athens by two goals to nil in tonight's match.

Djibril Cisse's two goals against AEK secured Panathinaikos the second Champions League spot

Panathinaikos have won the end of season play-offs, which determine who will be the second team to represent Greece in next season's UEFA Champions League, having defeated AEK Athens by two goals to nil in tonight's match.

Lech Poznan fans take a cue from AEK Athens fans and celebrate a cup victory a little too aggressively.

• Coach Nietzsche. (Fisted Away)
• On the race quota. (The French Connection)
• The snitch outs himself. (Guardian)
• Pachuca is easy shopping right now. (Dirty Tackle)
• Staying young.

It'd been nine long years for AEK Athens, one of Greece's biggest and historical best, since a trophy haul, so the fans were allowed their celebrations upon victory in the Greek Cup over the weekend.

And then celebrations turned into rioting.

At some point a country is going to get really smart and fiscally irresponsible (Qatar 2022) and install trap doors in and around football pitches, both for rioters and red cards, sending the guilty parties into an unsuspecting free fall into a dungeon of housing insulation.

It'd been nine long years for AEK Athens, one of Greece's biggest and historical best, since a trophy haul, so the fans were allowed their celebrations upon victory in the Greek Cup over the weekend.

And then celebrations turned into rioting.

At some point a country is going to get really smart and fiscally irresponsible (Qatar 2022) and install trap doors in and around football pitches, both for rioters and red cards, sending the guilty parties into an unsuspecting free fall into a dungeon of housing insulation.

It'd been nine long years for AEK Athens, one of Greece's biggest and historical best, since a trophy haul, so the fans were allowed their celebrations upon victory in the Greek Cup over the weekend.

And then celebrations turned into rioting.

At some point a country is going to get really smart and fiscally irresponsible (Qatar 2022) and install trap doors in and around football pitches, both for rioters and red cards, sending the guilty parties into an unsuspecting free fall into a dungeon of housing insulation.

It'd been nine long years for AEK Athens, one of Greece's biggest and historical best, since a trophy haul, so the fans were allowed their celebrations upon victory in the Greek Cup over the weekend.

And then celebrations turned into rioting.

At some point a country is going to get really smart and fiscally irresponsible (Qatar 2022) and install trap doors in and around football pitches, both for rioters and red cards, sending the guilty parties into an unsuspecting free fall into a dungeon of housing insulation.

Greek football fans are a fascinating lot, they bring a huge amount of passion to club matches and videos of the pyrotechnics uses by their Ultras tend to show up on sites like Deadspin and The Big Lead. Unfortunately, that passion can get a bit out of control, can get a bit ugly.
The dark side of Greek football passion was on display this weekend during the Greek Cup final when AEK Athens fans stormed the pitch with a minute left in the match.

Greek football fans are a fascinating lot, they bring a huge amount of passion to club matches and videos of the pyrotechnics uses by their Ultras tend to show up on sites like Deadspin and The Big Lead. Unfortunately, that passion can get a bit out of control, can get a bit ugly.
The dark side of Greek football passion was on display this weekend during the Greek Cup final when AEK Athens fans stormed the pitch with a minute left in the match.

When I saw this video and saw it is about Boca Juniors, I thought this should be at one of the craziest and most passionate places on the planet of football, in Argentina. I directly recalled clips showing 1978 World Cup finals and the "paper rain" from the fans. I thought it must be one of the most crazy derbies or Libertadores finals.

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Year Flashback: NB Reynolds Contribution for the Guardian's "The Galleries:"
"Photoshop the great and the not so good of football to within an inch of their lives...Next we'd like to see your takes on Neil Warnock. Send them...complete with a CAPTION." ---All Nineteen Guardian/Warnock Photoshop Entries published
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- Throughout the day, updates, comments and perspectives re QPR and football in general are posted and discussed on the QPR Report Messageboard.

Tony Pulis will renew his interest in Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos once the transfer window reopens this summer reports The People.
The Potters boss tried to bring the Greece international to the Britannia stadium in the January window in a bid to strengthen his defensive line, only for the move to break down in the final hour.

January Transfer Window 2011 done deals (Premier League) is a post from: Just Football

Here, as a handy resource for you to browse over, is the full list of completed Premier League deals that took place in the January transfer window 2011. The total spending, some £215.5 million, is a league record.

24.01.2011 - Como los hijos que retrasan la partida del nido paterno, bajo la sombra del marketing las grandes estrellas brasileñas retrasan la partida del fútbol para volver al nido: Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos y ahora Rivaldo (38).
El Sao Paulo anunció el fichaje (a préstamo por seis meses y opción a un año) y así Rivaldo deja al club de sus inicios, el Mogi Mirim, sin presidente (10 goles en 30 partidos).

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For QPR and Football Latest Updates and perspectives throughout the day, visit the QPR Report Messageboard. All QPR and football perspectives welcome...Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
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- Next: QPR vs Coventry
- Past QPR Video Snippets: Crushing Spurs, Partisan Belgrade, AEK Athens and Chelsea
- DEADLINE TODAY: Nominate for QPR The Mitre Goal of the season (can see the selection videos)
- The Fate of Lower League Managers
- David Conn/The Guardian: Three Part Series re Agents
- Marking Half-a-Century Since the Cap on Football Wages was Ended
For now rumours, gosspip and Media stories (some conflicting with others!