Its been said by wise men for many, many years how Football is afluctuating game of CRAZY luck, spirits & results. Who would haveimagined two weeks ago with the Real Madrid institutional pillars"crumbling" & Coach Pellegrini´s position on the edge, that REALMADRID would be at the Top of the "La Liga" ladder? Click to continue reading...

Thank goodness for the Sunday papers. So hellbent on printing shit they have focused more on Lionel 'I'm another Barcelona cunt' Messi's pleas to Cesc to join him at Barca and become the world's greatest midfielder than our defeat at Sunderland. Not only is this yet another insult to Cesc, it is another one to Arsenal and I for one can't wait to get them in the Champions League so the World's greatest midfielder can slam their lack of respect into the back of their net three or four times. Click to continue reading...

A week ago it was reported that Cristiano Ronaldo was about to begin running on that repaired ankle that the star player injured over nine games back and earlier� this week� Ronaldo began doing individual workouts with the team's trainer.� As of Tuesday Ronaldo began doing ball dribbling and skill workouts still without the squad and by the end of the week Ronaldo was expected to begin training with Real Madrid once again.

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Darren Fletcher's first goal was reminiscent of Zidane's classic strike in the Champions League final of 2002.Man U went on to kill the game 3 - 0

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Didn't Sir Alex just finishing lecturing the FA on their media overexposure of Wayne Rooney? Apparently, shedding a little bit of limelight his way isn't much of an issue at all. The Scot didn't mince words when picking his favorite to win the 2010 World Cup.

"I can't see past Brazil, actually," Ferguson was quoted in the Daily Mail.

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UPDATE: According to Simone Bargellini at Sky Sports News, Standard Liege striker Milan Jovanovic will not be leaving the club in January. His agent Torsten Weck told calciomercato.it,

"The only contacts I have had are with the Germans and the Spanish club, Valencia, in the first place.

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Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez insisted his side will finish in the Champions League places following their 2-2 home draw with Manchester City.
The Reds have lost five and drawn two of their opening 13 Premier League matches and are now 13 points adrift of Premier League leaders Chelsea.
But a defiant Benitez said: "When we have all our players coming back I am confident we will start winning games. Click to continue reading...

Rafa Benitez needs to drop the handbrake and throw in Alberto Aquilani to put Liverpool's season into top gear.
This is a crossroads fixture for both teams and already seen as crucial for Liverpool and Manchester City.
But City have missed the chance to put daylight between themselves and Liverpool in recent weeks. Click to continue reading...

Steven Gerrard has had a second painkilling injection to ensure he leads from the front as Liverpool begin another pivotal week.
The Kop skipper returned to the starting line-up for yesterday's Premier League clash with Manchester City after recovering from a groin injury.
Now he's hoping to inspire a Champions League revival against Debrecen on Tuesday. Click to continue reading...

Mark Hughes will make another audacious bid to prise Fernando Torres away from Anfield if Manchester City replace Liverpool in the Premier League's so-called Big Four this season.
Manchester City had a £70million offer for Spain striker Fernando Torres rejected last summer but will go back for him if they qualify for the Champions League for the first time. Click to continue reading...

Hands up who didn't see that coming? At about 20 minutes I said to Garantia this has 0-0 or 1-0 Sunderland written all over it. Maybe it's my current medical state which actively discourages getting passionate about anything lest I fall on my arse even from a sitting position, but a defeat such as this has not overly concerned me. Click to continue reading...

I opened up my preview for this match with the following paragraph:

Back in action at the Stadium of Light tomorrow, for what I expect to be a very tricky match. Seriously–this match scares the hell out of me. For one thing, it's a road match against a top half side with a very good home record–those matches are always tough, no matter what.

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AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

The H1N1 virus is taking its toll on FC Barcelona with both Eric Abidal and Yaya Toure out of commission after contracting the virus.

You can now add Rafa Marquez to that list, though test results have not yet been confirmed, but the Mexican defender is displaying all the common symptoms.

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Is this the "new" mass threat to World Football (Soccer)?Dodgy referee decisions, intencional red cards to leave your team with less men, own goals, off-sides not called, goalkeeping mistakes...theoptions are long as "betting" money has entered as a possible factor ingame results. In Germany they are investigating up to 200 games; local,Europa League & Champions League. Click to continue reading...

As the Thierry Henry story rumbles on into its fourth day, a story is starting to break which might begin to put it into perspective. It is a story that is breaking from Germany and involves the arrest of seventeen people in connection with what would be the biggest, most systematic match-fixing ring that European football has ever seen.

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Prizes, thats what points mean, and today we are going for the Brucie Bonus

I am still smiling from a comment London made yesterday. The wise man had found out that our game against Sunderland was being shown live on Italia television and that all we have to do is find a good Italian bar, sit down with a few beers and watch the game.

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The last two times Barca returned from international break, we failed to win our away games and subsequently had a bad result in the Champions League encounters. We always have struggled after an international break, but this time it is a make or break time for Barca. We cannot afford to lose or draw against Bilbao as it will definitely show in our all important encounter against Inter on Tuesday. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool v Manchester City
English Premier League
Saturday, 21 November, 2009
Anfield

The team most likely to drop out of the Big Four this season goes up against the team most likely to replace them in the Champions League next season. Saturday's first act of Manchester v Liverpool (Manchester United host Everton later in the day) sees 'skint' Liverpool host 'moneybags' Manchester City.

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Lo último que faltaba en esta semana de gran polémica. La UEFA está envuelta en uno de los peores escándalos de su historia.

Se dice que una mafia de apostadores habrían manipulado alrededor de 200 partidos en este año. Entre la Europa League y la Champions League se sospecha de 15 partidos.

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Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has hailed the clinic that has got four of his top men fit for Saturday's crunch Premier League encounter with Manchester City.
Benitez defended the use of a controversial Serbian clinic to get Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera all fit. Click to continue reading...

Alright well I promised it so here it is: Manchester United vs Everton preview (fancy pictures included):

This match marks the return of the EPL after one hell of an international break. We saw Russia fail to qualify for the World Cup in 2010, and Ireland being cheated defeated out of a birth.

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It's difficult to answer that question with any precision. But seems the answer is "a lot more corrupt than we realized". Because German prosecutors think it's corrupt enough that 200 games of European football need to be investigating. Including 12 in the Europa League and at least three in the Champions League. Click to continue reading...

Big Story
UEFA yesterday revealed more information about investigations into over 200 individuals alleged to have fixed matches in nine different countries with a press conference. This revealed that the vast majority under suspicion are domestic matches, with the German authorities having requested information from UEFA's Betting Fraud Detection System in a number of cases, making 17 arrests yesterday.

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It's always awesome returning to league action after a week of World Cup Qualifying shenanigans, so I'm amped and ready to go for the weekends matches... unlike Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who our amigos over at Heads or Tails warn may miss this weekend's match, the crucial mid-week Champions League belter against . Click to continue reading...

It is Friday, which means it is time to prepare for non-stop action from Spain with La Liga back in the fray.� After an intense week of World Cup qualifying playoffs, the focus turns back to the domestic responsibilities.

The times listed are Eastern Standard Time (EST) and include the pregame pleasantries, although sometimes the matches on the DIRECTV La Liga specific channels may not go to match coverage until right before kickoff.

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That's an expression I really dislike!

Being the sufferer of bad bones as I am, in the days when I lived with my Mother and would be in dreadful pain and discomfort, she would often say, well think youself lucky, look at so and so up in the village, she's in a wheelchair with her Arthritis!

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After an extended vacation, I am back writing the blog. The coming week could turn out to be the most important week for FC Barcelona this season. After achieving a historic treble, no team would like to be thrown out of UEFA Champions League in the group stage, but the chances are pretty high for that to happen. Click to continue reading...

On this episode of the EPL Talk Podcast, host Kartik Krishnaiyer and French Football expert Dave Trotter discuss one of the most controversial football stories of the year — the Thierry Henry handball incident for France against Ireland which ended up knocking the Republic Of Ireland out of the World Cup qualifying match while France will be making their way to South Africa next summer.

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For many, cheating is an ugly blight on the beautiful game. Players who break the rules are regularly vilified and criticized. But cheating, when used effectively, can be a great way to help your team out. It is� so much easier to score from the penalty spot than from open play with all those pesky defenders around.

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Bad news for Barcelona today as they revealed that striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will miss this weekend's game against Athletic Bilbao due to a hamstring injury.

Barcelona says the injury was discovered following medical tests Thursday after the Sweden striker felt discomfort on Wednesday.

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Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti has admitted his surprise at Liverpool's Premier League struggles this season.
Rafa Benitez's men were expected to mount a serious title challenge this term but are already badly off the pace after losing five of their opening 12 games.
The Anfield outfit is already 11 points adrift of Ancelotti's league leaders, who have a five-point cushion over Arsenal and Manchester United following their 1-0 victory against the champions before the international break. Click to continue reading...

First off, answers to the first edition of Interlull fun

1)� � � � � Gone with the wind

2)� � � � � The Good, the bad and the ugly

3)� � � � � PSYCHO it is.

4)� � � � � Slumdog Millionaire

5)� � � � � The Great Escape

6)� � � � � There will be blood.

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How to begin making sense of this week?� We start out with the crazy happenings between Ireland and France today - if ever there was a case to be made for instituting replay, this was it.� Sadly, the case of the Irish is not likely to be sufficient to make it happen.� Until a major team (that draws major crowd and sponsorship support) misses out on the World Cup or Champions League because of a Click to continue reading...

Después de que el Tribunal de Arbitraje Superior (TAS) le levantara el castigo al Chelsea en este periodo de transferencias, se han escuchado muchos rumores sobre la llegada de jugadores de alta efectividad.

Recordemos que el castigo solo se levantó durante este periodo de transferencias, ya que el Chelsea estará castigado hasta 2011 por un contrato indebido con una joven promesa.

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I was just about to compare our current left back conundrum to the one of the 2005 -2006 season. You know the season where like 9 different players played in that position. And just as I was about to research the names the news came up about Gibbs. Incidentally if you are feeling a little curious, feel free to post the names below of those elite band of players.

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