Barcelona's controversial win over Milan secured a fifth consecutive semi-final appearance in
the Champions League to tie the record set by bitter rivals Real Madrid over 50 years ago.
Ironically, the Spanish giants might end up clashing in the final in a European version of the
famous El Clasico.
Inter Milan, Bayern Munich and Benfica all advanced to the knockout stages tonight, while Ajax
and Napoli took huge strides towards joining them. Meanwhile both Manchester teams, City and
United, are in real danger of being sent to the Europa League.
Inter knew before their game against Trabzonspor that all they needed was a point to win the
group after Lille surprised CSKA Moscow and won 2-0 in Russia.
Will it be Chandler's forehead vs. Ribery's....face?
France head coach Laurent Blanc has named a 22-man roster for the upcoming match against the
U.S. Men's National Team on Nov. 11. Blanc calls in a formidable squad for the countries' first
meeting since 1979, with Ballon d'Or nominees Eric Abidal and Karim Benzema among the
headliners.
Euro Qualifying Group D Standings
France – 13 points from 6 matches
Belarus – 12 points from 7 matches
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 10 points from 6 matches
Romania – 8 points from 6 matches
Albania – 8 points from 6 matches
Luxembourg – 1 point from 7 matches
France's Remaining Qualifiers
Friday, September 2, 2011 Away to Albania
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 Away to Romania
Friday, October 7, 2011 Home against Albania
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 Home against Bosnia and Herzegovina
Here is the call-up for next week's qualifiers away to Albania and Romania:
That's a squad of 24, which is already one more than France can take to official tournaments,
but I still find it curious to see Gael Clichy dropped after having started the previous match in
the friendly against Chile.
With France's next Euro Qualifier a week from today, let's a take a look at where things
stand:
France's Upcoming Matches
Friday, June 3, 2011 – Qualifier 6 of 10 – Away to Belarus
Monday, June 6, 2011 – A friendly away to Euro 2012 co-host Ukraine
Thursday, June 9, 2011 – A friendly away to Euro 2012 co-host Poland
Euro Qualifying Group D Standings
France – 12 points from 5 matches
Belarus – 8 points from 5 matches
Albania – 8 points from 5 matches
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 7 points from 4 matches
Romania – 5 points from 5 matches
Luxembourg – 1 point from 6 matches
Here are the players called up to face Belarus, who defeated France 1-0 in Paris in
September.
With weekend and midweek games in the Bundesliga, the prospect of being able to earn six points
in as many days would have been an appealing one to not only those clubs who have started well but
those who have struggled in the opening weeks.
The conclusion after Wednesday night's results: Mainz, Borussia
Dortmund and Wolfsburg will be pleased with earning maximum points.
Three games played in the Bundesliga and the unfashionable duo of HoffenheimÂ
and Mainz 05are the only teams with perfect records – and of the clubs who have
won the Bundesliga in the last decade, only Borussia Dortmund are in the top half
of the table.
Considering France were on an unwelcome streak of eight matches without a win in tournament
football, a run that goes back to the cataclysmic moment when Zinedine Zidane suddenly slammed into
Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final, Laurent Blanc looked impressively indifferent when
his team seized control in Donetsk.
The United States is set to face its biggest test of the Klinsmann era with a visit to France on
Friday in an international friendly. This is just the third meeting between the two teams with
France winning the previous two games 6-0 and 3-0 in 1979.
France France has already qualified for Euro 2012 so expect France coach
Laurent Blanc to give some younger players much needed experience.
By Jon Levy The Yanks are over in Europe for a long weekend with their cool Uncle Jurgen;
supposedly he's going to take them out to discotheques, let them drink and talk to girls, and
really help them find themselves. Meanwhile, they're tasked with making some sort of progress as a
national team in the [.
By Connor Walsh The United States has finalized its next pair of matches with double European dates
in November. The team will travel to France for a match with the 1998 World Cup Champion Les Bleus
at the Stade de France on Nov. 11, followed four days later with a trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia for
[..
Una vez mas Cristiano Ronaldo es el jugador mejor pagado en el mundo solo asà puede superar a
Lionel Messi quien en la cancha y en los premios de este 2010 le ha ganado todo.
Según un estudio realizado por la revista belga «Sport Foot Magazine». La actual estrella
madridista, con un salario de 12 millones de euros al año.
Natürlich sage ich etwas zu ihm, wenn er einen zu langsamen Pass spielt, aber ich bleibe dabei
immer positiv. Das braucht er auch und das ist sehr wichtig.
Franck Ribery, Mittelfeldspieler des FC Bayern München, erzählt, wie er den Mentor für den
19-jährigen David Alaba spielt.
Wenn ich nun wieder hundertprozentig fit und frei im Kopf bin, dazu ein gutes Verhältnis mit
dem Trainer habe, kann ich das Niveau von Messi erreichen. Das steht für mich außer Frage.
Franck Ribery, Mittelfeldspieler des FC Bayern München, ist sich trotz einer nicht gerade
überragenden Vorbereitung sicher, was sein eigenes Niveau anbelangt.
Gourcuff padre
Antiguo centrocampista del estilo tiqui-taquero que estilaban hace treinta años los Tigana,
Platini y compañÃa, Christian Gourcuff decidió pronto que lo suyo era el banquillo.
Profesor de matemáticas, papá Gourcuff fue de los primeros en utilizar los ordenadores para
programar sus entrenamientos.
England 1:2 France - International Friendly, Wembley, Att 85,495.
Another false dawn for England. Another French dressing-down. The euphoria following the Three
Lions' impressive Euro 2012 qualifying wins over Bulgaria and Switzerland has been replaced by a
familiar torpor.
A dismal 0-0 qualifying draw at home to Montenegro followed by last
night's 1-2 friendly reverse to France have sharpened the Fleet Street knives once more for Fabio
Capello.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so we hear they say.
More often than not, as you can probably attest, we prefer taking the easier way out. We do
wonder, though, if in a year from now, we'll find ourselves agonising over all the times this site
fell short of your skin expectations.
Reality called us this weekend, but we sent him straight to voice mail. We definitely had better
things to do, like collect the three convertible bra straps that we hung on our neighborhood pub's
walls, which was our drunk membranes' unsuccessful attempt at telling the 'last call' minder to go
kick rocks.
The last we saw of Raymond Domenech, he was immersed in a witness protection program
masquerading as some sort of poker crash course. Now that the money's dried up from that little
venture, he's back for more cash with his very first exclusive post-World Cup meltdown interview to
be released amidst pomp and several forms of circumstance tomorrow.
