They say that lightning doesn't strike twice but both Equatorial Guinea and Gabon scored late goals in their matches to make the last eight of the African Cup of Nations.. Then again many experts said that Equatorial Guinea and Gabon shouldn't be hosting the African Cup of Nations as neither country has any real football pedigree.

Chelsea's recent winning streak was halted by a 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic, Jordi Gómez capitalising on a horrible mistake from Petr Čech to equalise two minutes from time.

The Blues were on course for a fourth consecutive Premier League win when Daniel Sturridge collected a long, diagonal ball from Ashley Cole and drilled a shot across Ali Al-Habsi after 59 minutes.

Raining on his parade One of the things we sadly miss about the commercialisation of our beautiful game is games played on awful pitches. It was football's greatest leveller, and made two things much easier: 1. Non-league sides causing amazing giantkillings 2. The creation of 'comedy' football videos However, when Tonga met the Cook Islands [.

By Chris Wright

Unsurprisingly, Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo has been forced to issue a grovelling apology for letting a little chuckle slip out during a pre-game minute's silence for the victims of the recent flash-flooding in and around Genoa...

After the game against Chievo on Sunday afternoon, Montolivo apologised profusely for his lack of tact, saying:

"I am ashamed of my smile during the minute's silence.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has warned his players that they will be in for a tough test against Villarreal on Wednesday.
City travel to Spain with their hopes of qualification still intact after Sergio Aguero's late, late leveller against the same opposition two weeks ago.

Goals from Jack Dunn and Adam Morgan could not prevent Liverpool U18s slipping to their first defeat of the season against Derby County on Saturday lunchtime.
Mike Marsh's youngsters now have four points from their opening three games after the 3-2 loss - but it might have been more had a clutch of decent opportunities been converted.

10-man Liverpool Reserves began the 2011-12 Barclays Premier Reserve League season with a 2-1 defeat at Swansea City.
The Reds capitalized on a positive start by taking an early lead through Conor Coady at Parc-Y-Scarlets in Llanelli.
However, Scotland international Craig Beattie drew the hosts level on 31 minutes before Liverpool had Emmanuel Mendy sent off shortly after for bringing the striker down inside the box.

By KEITH HICKEY

CHESTER - The Philadelphia Union twice fought back from one-goal deficits to earn penalties and a point at home against FC Dallas. Dallas finished the first half with a 2-1 advantage courtesy of Maicon Santos and Brek Shea against a Sebastien Le Toux spot kick, but had no answer for Le Toux's second effort late on.

COPA AMERICA 2011
COLOMBIA 0-2 PERU aet
ARGENTINA 1-1 URUGUAY aet; 1-1 at 90mins; Uruguay won 5-4 on penalties.

Peru and Uruguay are the surprise semi-finalists after Colombia and host nation Argentina fell by the wayside yesterday.
The Peruvians needed two extra-time goals in Cordoba to overcome Colombia, who hit the woodwork twice adn missed a second-half penalty through Falcao.

Group B - England v Ukraine 20:45 MCH Arena, Herning, Denmark
Both teams enter tonight's clash in Herning in need of points.
Ukraine lost their opening clash 2-1 to the Czech Republic, while England scraped a 1-1 draw with Spain with Danny Welbeck's late leveller.
England coach Stuart Pearce insisted his side had been more skilful in training than they were against Spain, but must have been worried by the lack of guile in midfield.

There was heartache for five Liverpool youngsters as an unbeaten England crashed out of the European Championships on goal difference following a 1-1 draw with Spain on Sunday afternoon.
Despite winning their opening two group games, the Three Lions needed a victory to reach the last eight due to Spain's superior goal difference.

Jonjo Shelvey fired as Liverpool Reserves ended the season with a 2-2 draw against Manchester United on Thursday night.
Shelvey was one of a clutch of senior stars on show at Anfield and his spectacular effort was the pinnacle of an excellent individual performance.
Nikola Saric was the other scorer after deflecting a Joe Cole effort into the goal.

Norwich City 4-1 Ipswich Town, November 2010: Ipswich Your boys took one hell of a beating is a post from: Just Football

Time for the start of a new series on Just Football 'Your boys took one hell of a beating' in which memorable derby beatings are revisited by fans who experienced it most passionately.

Abhinav's Note: Don't get me wrong, but I'm pretty tired of reading so much about Arsenal being ousted in an unjust manner at the Camp Nou. Sport is a great leveller, and trust me on this everything evens out itself in the end. There was so much else that happened in that match.

Have you ever walked on a cloud? Sitting in the TGV is like walking on a cloud. Well, sitting on a cloud rather, without getting wet. Look at the velvety floor carpets, better than most people's beds. Look at the stretch windows, spotlessly looking out to a blithe, green landscape.

LONDON, England — Edin Dzeko opened his goalscoring account for Manchester City to salvage a 1-1 draw with Notts County as Tottenham were sent crashing out of the FA Cup in a humiliating 4-0 rout by Fulham on Sunday. Bosnian striker Dzeko netted in the 80th minute to rescue City, who were left staring down [.

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands FC Twente progressed as the top two in the Eredivisie met in the last eight of the KNVB Beker, securing a 7-6 triumph over PSV Eindhoven in a penalty shootout after the game had ended 1-1. Midfielder Theo Janssen put Twente ahead from the penalty spot after 70 minutes but a last-gasp [.

The 17 year old Sunderland fan who was arrested after shoving Newcastle keeper Steve Harper after Asamoah Gyan's late leveller in the Wear-Tyne derby yesterday turned up at Newcastle training this morning.

The 17 year old accompanied by his father turned up to apologise to Harper and the club as a whole early this morning to give his sincere apologies to both Harper and the club.

Big week in Europe as the Bundesliga returned the action, Barcelona extended its unbeaten run to a club-record 28 games, while in Italy the Serie A title race got tighter.

Spain
A four-point gap has opened up at the Liga summit after Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw by bottom club Almeria, while Barcelona beat Málaga 4-1.

BLACKPOOL, England Liverpool's woes are still to be alleviated by their change of manager as they lost 2-1 to Blackpool in their vital Premier League clash at Bloomfield Road. Kenny Dalglish's first league match in the dugout for 12 years got off to a dream start when Fernando Torres opened the scoring after just [.

Cristiano Ronaldo kept Real Madrid within two points of La Liga leaders Barcelona as his hat-trick helped Madrid beat Villarreal 4-2, on a day when Espanyol boosted their European ambitions by downing Real Zaragoza 4-0.

José Mourinho's men twice had to come from behind against third-placed Villarreal and on both occasions it was Ronaldo who restored parity, the Portuguese forward cancelling out Cani's cool seventh-minute opener just two minutes later before heading in on the stroke of half-time after Marco Ruben (18) had chipped the Yellow Submarine back in front.

Cristiano Ronaldo kept Real Madrid within two points of La Liga leaders Barcelona as his hat-trick helped Madrid beat Villarreal 4-2, on a day when Espanyol boosted their European ambitions by downing Real Zaragoza 4-0.

José Mourinho's men twice had to come from behind against third-placed Villarreal and on both occasions it was Ronaldo who restored parity, the Portuguese forward cancelling out Cani's cool seventh-minute opener just two minutes later before heading in on the stroke of half-time after Marco Ruben (18) had chipped the Yellow Submarine back in front.

ROME, Italy — AC Milan grabbed an injury-time leveller to share a 4-4 draw with Udinese at the San Siro on Sunday in a thrilling game that gave them a six-point lead at the top of Serie A. Udinese had led 3-1 at one stage and also moved into stoppage time with a 4-3 lead [...]

Chelsea launched a great late fightback against Aston Villa and went 3-2 up with two minutes to go, but then threw the game away when Villa scored a stoppage-time equaliser.

Striker Didier Drogba and captain John Terry had scored goals in the last six minutes for Chelsea and Terry's goal looked to have wrapped tup all three points for the champions.

LONDON, England – Chelsea's bid to retain the Premier League title suffered another blow as struggling Aston Villa snatched a dramatic 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Carlo Ancelotti's side were on course for a crucial win after late goals from Didier Drogba and John Terry, but Ciaran Clark equalised in stoppage time and [.