Alessandro Del Piero has admitted he was "surprised" by Liverpool's interest in signing him this
summer, after being unveiled by Sydney FC on Wednesday.
The forward saw his 19-year allegiance with Juventus severed earlier in the summer, but will now
continue his career with the A-League club, where he has agreed a two-year deal worth around €2
million [£1.
Alessandro Del Piero has signed a two-year, €2 million-a-year contract with Sydney FC, thus
making the Australian A-League team only the third club side that the Italian footballing demi-god
will have represented throughout his 22-year professional career.
The first round of the tournament has just come to an end with Poland, Russia, Holland, Denmark,
Ireland, Croatia, Sweden and Ukraine all knocked out. Teams through to the Quarter Finals are
Greece, Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and England. I've made a few
observations from the Euro's so far, and here they are:
Italy know how to defend
This applies to both Croatia and Italy really, and partly Germany too.
I know we're not technically out yet, but the Champions League was fun wasn't it? Topping our
group, beating the top 2 Italian teams and announcing ourselves on the European stage. It's been a
laugh. I'm proud of what we've achieved in our debut season. In terms of an actual match report, I
don't think I can find words that:
a) would summarise last nights match without descending into incoherent babbling
b) you would want to read
That, and in a game where you only have 28% possession, spend 76% of the time in your own half, and
lose four nil, player ratings and all that are pretty pointless
So the question is, last night's 4-0 defeat was mainly a result of:
a) Not buying a striker in January - Currently zero Spurs goals in 410 minutes
bi) Lennon feeling poorly before the match - bii) Forcing us to play Jenas and a messed up
midfield
c) Conceding an early goal
d) Crouch making two mental and identical tackles with identical outcomes
e) Simply being beaten by a better team - it would have happened even if all of the above
didn't
Use the vote box in the right column to cast your vote.
Italian teams wearing the jailhouse black and whites just cannot win these days. (Unless you
count Juventus' scudetto of last season. That's a win of sorts.)
The Calcioscommesse verdicts have been thrown down, with Juve coach Antonio Conte acquiring a
ten month ban for his part in no reporting match fixing while he was with Siena, another team which
happily sports the stripes.
Juventus has been very busy this summer, something we are all used to by now, but it seems their
business is not yet concluded. Earlier this week club director Giuseppe Marotta revealed the Turin
giants are looking to sign at least two more players before the transfer window closes next week,
an enticing revelation for supporters.
Can Spain continue their form against France and advance to the semifinals? (Getty Images)
By Geoff Reid
Spain vs France
Mentality is everything in professional sports, and this is no different. Both the Spanish and the
French are coming into today's quarter final clash in different places mentally it seems.
Roy or "Woy" Hodgson is barely 24 hours into the job of England manager and the
pressure has already sunk in. He officially assumes the grand position on May 14 and his first
uphill battle will be to oversee John Terry and co' at the EURO
2012.
Valencia's left back, Jordi Alba, has been strongly linked with Barcelona recently but
apparently the Catalan must compete with other teams, mainly Serie A giants Ac Milan and possibly
even Napoli for the signature of the left back.
According to Alba's representative, Vicente Fores, the two Italian teams, mainly Milan are
making serious attempt for his client adding that he will meet with the Red and Black squad's
director, Ariedo Braida, soon.
[caption id="attachment_5059" align="alignleft" width="399" caption="The artist
Piskyarov."][/caption]
Circumstance is once again smiling on Italy. Despite the loss of the fourth Champions League
berth, and despite the loss of Udinese, Italian teams have been ploughing along with relative ease
in the Champions League this season.
When the Champions League draw of sixteen took place nearly three months ago, Inter were deemed to
have the easiest match-up of the three remaining Italian teams. Napoli drew Chelsea, Milan had
Arsenal, and Inter were facing Marseille. Both Napoli and Milan finished second in their group and
the showdown between the two remaining powerhouse Premier League teams left everyone salivating.
The Christmas break is over. This can only mean one thing: it's now time to put down the
panettone and get back to calcio! The Serie A season resumed this weekend – and no
holiday hangovers here; there was no shortage of action!
Perhaps still recovering from jet-setting-induced jet lag, Milan and Juventus, the league's
joint leaders, both seemed to be struggling to get back into the swing of things with difficult
wins against Atalanta and Lecce, respectively, on Sunday.
Arsenal will play AC Milan in the Champions League knockout stages after the draw was made in
Nyon this morning.
 That is a toughie, Jeez.
Arsene Wenger's side finished top of Group F and were seeded and now face the prospect of a
mouth-watering tie. Prior to the draw for the last 16, AW said: "You cannot avoid anybody so the
wishes you have are useless anyway.
Arsenal will play AC Milan in the Champions League knockout stages after the draw was made in
Nyon this morning.
 That is a toughie, Jeez.
Arsene Wenger's side finished top of Group F and were seeded and now face the prospect of a
mouth-watering tie. Prior to the draw for the last 16, AW said: "You cannot avoid anybody so the
wishes you have are useless anyway.
Arsenal will play AC Milan in the Champions League knockout stages after the draw was made in
Nyon this morning.
 That is a toughie, Jeez.
Arsene Wenger's side finished top of Group F and were seeded and now face the prospect of a
mouth-watering tie. Prior to the draw for the last 16, AW said: "You cannot avoid anybody so the
wishes you have are useless anyway.
Arsenal will play AC Milan in the Champions League knockout stages after the draw was made in
Nyon this morning.
 That is a toughie, Jeez.
Arsene Wenger's side finished top of Group F and were seeded and now face the prospect of a
mouth-watering tie. Prior to the draw for the last 16, AW said: "You cannot avoid anybody so the
wishes you have are useless anyway.
One year after his £28 milion transfer from Inter Milan to Manchester City, Mario Balotelli
doesn't looks in the center of Roberto Mancini's project for the season 2011-2012.
The Italian manager left "Super Mario" in the bench in the first three appearences of
Mancehester City in Premier League and during the summer the forward complained about the city of
Manchester, saying that he would prefer to go back to Italy.
If you happen to have a free weekend to watch as much soccer as you want, then you picked the
right weekend to have off.
Manchester United takes on Chelsea and the Los Angeles Galaxy faces the New York Red Bulls in
this weekend's headliner matches. The Premier League title could very well be decided by the Red
Devils-Blues clash, while we'll see five Designated Players on the field at the same time for the
first time in MLS history when the Red Bulls battle the Galaxy.
Maarten Stekelenburg Stekelenburg 28-years-old playing for Ajax in Eredivise
league, is still waiting for offers from Arsenal and other big clubs such as AC Milan and
Manchester United.
The Dutchman has appeared in 36 games for Ajax this season.
I personally think that the Gunners do not need Stekelenburg at the moment since we have Szczesny
as our first choice goalkeeper, but adding him to the squad would not be a problem.
Over the last few seasons, the Champions League has been accused of becoming predictable. With
pretty much the same teams qualifying every year, the list of realistic winners could be reduced to
three or four teams before the competition had even kicked off. UEFA even made some sweeping
changes to the qualifying format in 2009/2010 in a bid to broaden access to the competition and
loosen the grip that the English, Spanish and Italian teams had established.
The Italian Serie A since yesterday has an unexpected leader: Udinese Calcio. After the amazing
4th place of the last year Francesco Guidolin's team is now at the top of the league despite the
selling of many foundamental players during the last summer market.
Players like Gokhan Inler, Alexis Sanchez and Cristian Zapata have been sold for more than £ 60
millions and replaced with less expensive players such as Gabriel Torje ( £ 5 millions from Dinamo
Bucaresti) and Danilo Larangeira (form Palmeiras).
It's Monday... which means it's time for La Liga Lunes! The sad news, of course, comes
from the Barca camp where they have announced their new Chilean signing,
Alexis Sanchez, will be sidelined for two months. He suffered a torn hamstring in
his right leg which is the most common injury among runners.
While the Serie A has lost its next season fourth Champions League spot to the German Bundesliga,
next season will be the last one in which we'll have the chance to see four Italian teams in
Europe's top competition. Udinese have made it to the Serie A's fourth Champions League spot, just
edging ahead of Lazio thanks to a superior goal difference.
EDITOR'S NOTE: It's Friday and we could do with a little more
discussion. Don't agree with all these estimations, but that's why it's a good conversation. -
Jeremiah
The silly season is here! While taking a break from designing my customized Xavi in Rave Green
jersey, I thought the following might be a good discussion topic: What are our players "worth" on
the open market, and where are they most likely to go?
Oh look... more rain. How lovely. Well, happy Wednesday just the same. I can't think of anything
witty to say this morning, so I'm just not going to even try. Here's some links to help get you
over the hump.
Revolution Links
Revs break new ground with successful Cardenas appeal - MLSSoccer.
It has been nearly eight months since Samir"le
traître"Nasri made his £23m move to Manchester
City. But all everybody wants to know (at every bloody interview) is how he feels about leaving
Arsenal.
Rumours of Serie A's death greatly exaggerated and the truth about the great Del Piero
mystery revealed!
For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers
to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Today it's our new Serie A blogger,
footballitaliano.
Today is a celebration to all of the people in Libya by the death of one of the worst criminals,
not just in Libya, but in the whole Middle East. I remember once, I heard a historian describing
him as craziest leader ever been in the Arab world in several hundreds of years. As I join
celebration with the rest of world, I share few stories I heard either from TV, or read about them,
on Gaddhafi family madness and crimes in football:
- 1982: Libya organized African Nations Cup, and Libyan team did the best in their history,
reaching the final, only to lose to Ghana by penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie.
The legend of Catenaccio is one the most enduring legacies of Calcio. Wildly successful, it has
become almost synonymous with Italian Football in certain people's minds. Unfortunately, it has
also been miscast as the Ultimate Evil, the monument to Anti-Football so as to speak by certain
sections of the media.
Which are the best games of the season? Well, to me they have always been the Autumn  midweek
night games. The games start in sunshine and finish under floodlights, it is early season so the
fans are excited, the team has gone through pre-season and are all fit and raring to go. Â These
are nights that live long in the memory.
