Wayne Rooney contributed what looked like a good all round performance for Man Utd vs Blackburn on Saturday, featuring some nice link play and a sweet sweet goal which he swept home to make it 2-0 (around 4:10 in the above video).

I saw about 15 minutes of the game live, and there was also a magic little inside-of-the-foot-with-back-to-goal pass that somehow didn't make the Match of the Day cut.

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On paper, this shouldn't even be much of a matchup. France has the players with the big names and the big money.

You know. The ones who get all the press.

Too bad you can't play a match on paper.

Gardiens de but
Shay Given (Manchester City, Ang)
Keiren Westwood (Conventry City, Ang)
Joe Murphy (Scunthorpe United, Ang)

Défenseurs
John O'Shea (Manchester United, Ang)
Richard Dunne (Aston Villa, Ang)
Stephen Kelly (Fulham, Ang)
Kevin Kilbane (Hull City, Ang)
Eddie Nolan (Preston North End, Ang)
Sean St.

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United have once again been linked with January moves for Valencia's star men, David Villa and David Silva. The future of both Spanish Internationals was the focus of much media attention over the summer with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool keeping tabs on the situation to name but a few.

Valencia managed to hold on to their prized assets in the summer but as their financial troubles show no sign of letting up, it looks increasingly likely they will lose one if not both in the winter.

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Dire financial circumstances could force La Liga side to sell up sooner rather than later, so says club's director.

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A Bola online publicou uma notícia referente ao acerto da hora de inverno. Curiosamente a foto que a ilustra é de um relógio criado por uma marca de relógios suiça que quis comemorar a estadia em Neuchatel, da Selecção Nacional, durante o Euro 2008, e que se tornou um êxito rápido e inesperado de vendas. Click to continue reading...

At the Euro 2008 Semi Final, I love this picture! Thanks to whoever who took it.

Two of Arsenal's holy trinity have been nominated for this prestigious award. The third component of this trinity, Robin van Persie  curiously has been ignored. Since November 2008, Robin has been the most consistent Gooner full stop.

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BeÅŸiktaÅŸ had their UEFA Champions League dreams look like a nightmare, at least in the first two games. Although they had played well against Manchester United, and were average against CSKA Moscow, they could not find ways to win, or even get a draw. The Black Eagles travelled up to Germany to take on defending champions of the Bundesliga, VfL Wolfsburg. Click to continue reading...

On Monday, it was revealed by our sister site EPL Talk that the legendary Martin Tyler of Sky Sports will be joining ESPN for next summer's World Cup as the lead announcer. While I have nothing personally against Tyler (In fact, I like his style, and have seen him present two matches this weekend, since I am currently in India and here the Sky or TWI feed is given for every live match.

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It's official. France's playoff opponent is Ireland.

And Raymond Domenech is kissing the boots of UEFA for deciding to seed the draw.

France, the 1998 world champions, 2000 European champions and beaten World Cup finalists in 2006, will have the advantage of playing the second leg on home soil against an Ireland side coached by Giovanni Trapattoni.

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This is one of the most hilarious goals of recent times, unless you're a Liverpool fan.
And, of course, by any standards of common sense it shouldn't have been a goal at all. (I just tested this on my wife, incidentally, who is conversant with the rules of the game and considered the awarding of the goal an outrage. Click to continue reading...

A long time ago I wrote that the name Howard Webb won't make it into this blog anymore. However, I think that the last year's emotions are already gone and that the occassion is good to draw your attention to a particular film. "Kill The Referee" is a documentary about the referees flmed during the Euro 2008.

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Introducing a new series of features on national teams travelling to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. We start with Switzerland.
Stealth technologists would do well to examine the characteristics of the Swiss national team. It seems that despite their successful qualification for the World Cup, no-one seems to be paying any attention to them. Click to continue reading...

Think for a moment about the organisation of tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League or the European Championships. How do you decide how many teams are eligible for entry into each competition, when those teams should enter the competition or what about the fixtures of those competitions?

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France are finding a bit of form.

And none too soon.

Domenech has pulled a rabbit out of the hat in Gignac.

Gignac put the match to rest with a sumptuous third.

Benzema got the start up front along with ever-presents Thierry Henry and Sidney Govou.

Stalwarts like Toulalan and L.

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This is it! The final World Cup qualifier! Are you excited?

Yeah, neither is anybody else. Let's still hope for a good showing.

As Jeff discussed, Serbia's win over Romania means France has no chance to go top of the group. France's win over Faroe Islands means that France is guaranteed the second-place playoffs.

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The Beauty: A Spanish actress nearly as hot as Penelope Cruz? No, impossible. But wait, here is Miss Nagore Aranburu, a truly tasty WAG and one of the most tremendous looking thespians I have ever seen. She is a beautiful woman with a husband who is one of the finest players of the beautiful game in the world.

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As declarações Cristiano Ronaldo, são claras quanto ao desejo do atleta em ter representado a Selecção Nacional. Para quem tem duvidado constantemente da sua atitude, aqui está um exemplo, mais um, a ter em atenção. Relembro que o atleta realizou o Euro 2008 com notória dificuldade, não divulgada para o exterior, mas sentida, compreendida e elogiada dentro da equipa. Click to continue reading...

Terim has managed Turkey since 2005 and took them to the semi-finals of Euro 2008, where they lost narrowly to Germany.
Happier times... Click to continue reading...

So FourFourTwo have released their list for the top 100 players in the world today. We all know who the top two will be but in which order? And how many spanish players will make the top 20 following their Euro 2008 triumph and 100% World Cup qualification record?

I cant be bothered to put the full list on here because personally I couldn't give a toss if Darijno Srna is the 66th best player in the world.

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From FIFA:

"Serbia secured qualification in style, with Nikola Zigic, Marko Pantelic, Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Milan Javanovic (2) on target in a 5-0 win over Romania in Group 7."

Ouch.

We were bettered in the group, but we also won 5-0.

Goals from:

Gignac
Gignac
Gallas
Anelka
Benzema

5-0, and it was almost convincing.

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The curtain comes down on England's World Cup qualification campaign and, no matter the result on Wednesday 14th November against Belarus; Fabio Capello will be looking ahead to the World Cup with confidence. The road to South Africa has been uncannily smooth for a side that couldn't make it to the Euro 2008 starting line; with spread punters who got with Don Fabio's side generally happier than those who didn't.

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Fatih Terim, the coach of the Turkish national football team, will put in his papers after his side's final World Cup 2010 qualifying game against Armenia on Wednesday night. Terim will step down as coach of the team he has managed for nearly the last four years, having taken over the reigns from Ersun Yanal [. Click to continue reading...

Dünya Kupası'na gidememizin baş sorumlusu elbette Terim'dir. Oyuncu seçimlerinde adaleti sağlayamaması, kimi oyuncuyu her halde kadroya alıp kimisini ağzı ile kuş tutsa hatırlamayışı başlıca yanlışları. Sürekli yaydığı sinir dalgalarından ise bahsetmeye gerek yok. Lakin bu başarısızlık belki de Milli Takım'ımızın gerçek potansiyelini görmemiz açısından hayırlı oldu. Click to continue reading...

LES ÉQUIPES PROBABLES

FRANCE: Mandanda - Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra - Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Henry (cap.) - Anelka, Gignac
ILES FÉROÉ: Mikkelsen - Danielsen, Gregersen, Eliasen, Davidsen - A. Olsen, S. Olsen, Benjaminsen, Loekin - Jakobsen - Hansen

I was willing to bet my house yesterday that we'd be playing two DMs, and guess what?

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Duas personalidades, dois pontos de vista, duas opiniões. Valem o que valem. A diferença é que um é grande e outro pequeno. Um tem dor no sítio, outro não. Rooney «Era bom que Portugal não estivesse lá, porque nos últimos dois torneios eles eliminaram-nos», afirmou Rooney, que além disso não esconde um certo sentimento de desforra em relação a Cristiano Ronaldo, seu ex-companheiro no Manchester United: «Quando não nos qualificámos para o Euro 2008, o Ronaldo gozou muito connosco. Click to continue reading...

Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all missed their penalties in the last World Cup quarter finals against Portugal. Owen Hargreaves was the only man to find the back of the net.

The game had finished 0-0 after extra time, with Wayne Rooney getting sent off for an incident involving Ricardo Carvalho.

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Could Serbian hooligans solve all our problems?

From Prost Amerika Soccer:

FIFA have already fined the Serb FA $40,000 for incidents in all their previous world cup matches against France, Austria and Romania, and now they have finally lost patience.

Once more, the authorities have stepped in ahead of a match with Romania.

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is hot on the heels of Barcelona captain Carles Puyol. The Frenchman believes that Puyol would be an excellent defensive partner for Thomas Vermaelen, but Premier League rivals Manchester City are also jumping in to the chase.

City manager Mark Hughes looks to continue to bolster his defense, even after signing Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott over the summer.

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Hi Guys, I'm here with my first post. I'm going to be doing a weekly post on the reasons why I love the beautiful game so much. This week I will be starting, ironically, with last gasp goals.

It doesn't matter how they are scored, whether it's a tap in like Aaron Lennon in last seasons dramatic 4-4 in the North London Derby and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer winning the treble at the Camp Nou, or beautifully crafted like Beckham lighting up Old Trafford once again to send England to the 2002 World Cup and Gerrard smashing home against Olympiakos in the 86th minute, giving them the 2-goal lead they needed to progress past the group stage of the 2004 Champion's League, a competition they would go on to win.

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Recommended reading from Met:

Here's a must-read from Amy Lawrence, especially for the comments that follow:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/07/raymond-domenech-france-world-cup

And also:

Has anyone else noticed that Fox Soccer Channel is advertising that they're carrying both of France's upcoming matches?

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Valencia striker David Villa will miss Spain's final World Cup qualifying matches against Armenia and Bosnia later this month after tearing his right thigh muscle in a weekend league match, the club said Monday. The 27-year-old, the top scorer at Euro 2008 and currently the leading marksman in La Liga with . Click to continue reading...

France are currently second in their qualifying group, four points away from top side Serbia and four points clear of third place Austria.

Patrice Evra claims that avoiding the piss-taking that would come from his United team-mates, particularly considering he laughed at all the England players after they failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

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Hope for the best and prepare for the worst, I always say.

And thank goodness for Group 9, because the worst, if France can earn a point at home against the Faroe Islands, will be advancing to the playoffs.

Serbia's last two matches are against Romania and Lithuania, and there's certainly a possibility that they'll blow their chance of winning the group.

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Fernando Torres admits it would be a "massive blow" if Liverpool finished this season with no silverware.
The Spain striker, who scored the winning goal in the Euro 2008 final to secure his country's first major trophy for 44 years, arrived at Anfield two years ago from Atletico Madrid but has yet to claim any honours with the Reds. Click to continue reading...

The Fabregas to Barcelona rumours have been circulating for some time now and they appear to be showing no signs of going away after Xavi claimed that the Arsenal player has "Barca DNA".

Fabregas joined Arsenal from La Liga club Barcelona in 2003 aged just 16 and with the Gunners enduring a difficult few years, he may just be ready to make the return journey.

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