#AupaMirandes (Come on Mirandés!)

Miracle is the word that comes to mind as Mirandes go to Bilbao in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final. Marcelo Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao won 2-1 at Mirandes' Estadio Anduva last week, and the odds are overwhelming leaning towards them to reach the final, where they'll play Barcelona or Valencia.

With Arsenal currently sitting 7th in the Premier League Table, it's now truly inevitable that Robin van Persie will choose a new club come summertime, barring some miracle. Because it seems so predestined, the notion doesn't trigger anxiety levels of Fabregas proportions in summers past, where you just really didn't know what was going to happen.

The rematch of last week's el clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid will be played out tonight and amigas y chicos, the bloody war has already begun! Although both sides are trying to express solidarity among themselves, it's absurd to be all calm and polite when we know the outcome of tonight is going to make either Mourinho or Pep tear up their team sheets at the press conference.

Neil Warnock says he lost his Queens Park Rangers job as his reputation was "slowly poisoned" by critics both inside and outside the club. He claimed a "lack of football experience" in the hierarchy left QPR open to "manipulative" people.

The 63-year-old said he was unhappy fans and players were able to talk to owner Tony Fernandes through Twitter.

Neil Warnock says he lost his Queens Park Rangers job as his reputation was "slowly poisoned" by critics both inside and outside the club. He claimed a "lack of football experience" in the hierarchy left QPR open to "manipulative" people.

The 63-year-old said he was unhappy fans and players were able to talk to owner Tony Fernandes through Twitter.

The abuse I've seen thrown at Aaron Ramsey lately has been a sick joke.
Some of it has even bordered on things I wouldn't even wish on my worst enemy.
I couldn't believe my eyes at some of the stuff I've seen. I mean death threats?! Over a game of football?! Come on behave yourself.

Having already knocked out Villarreal and Real Racing Club in this years Copa del Rey, Mirandés, are bow looking to knockoff another of La Liga's big names, Espanyol, in the quarter-finals.

The Spanish third division side are currently enjoying the experience of a lifetime – playing and beating the elite.

How does one go from a miracle to synthetic grass? This sums up the problem faced by the Lyon squad just a few days after an heroic and historical game that took everyone by surprise.

For that's the big question mark tonight : in what condition will the heroes of Zagreb be in Lorient : back down to earth (or rather to the synthetic pitch with artificial grass of le Moustoir stadium), or still floating somewhere with their minds still in Zagreb, with a heavy hangover after days of partying night and day?

After so many years in the European doldrums, Ajax finally had another chance of surviving the group stages and hope for a miracle in the draw. They did have to get something of a result against Real while Lyon was supposed to be tamed by Zagreb.

Ajax could lose and would [read more]

A miracle. That's exactly what Lyon needed to go through to the knockout stages of the Champions League after disappointing in the five first games and scoring only on two occasions. To qualify, Les Gones not only needed Ajax to lose, but also had seven goals to catch up on the Dutch side.

It's amazing what a change in coaches can do. Just three weeks after Thomas Rongen (yeah, the same guy who coached the Mutiny, Revolution and Chivas in MLS and the US U20s) took over for American Samoa, they notched their first win... ever. And to follow up that 'miracle', they drew Cook Island 1-1 after they scored an own goal in a game which they dominated for extended periods of time.

Roberto Martinez plays guerrilla football. Sure, he seems a decent guy – mild-mannered and well-behaved on the sidelines – but underneath beats the heart of Che Guevera. The Latics have been in trouble every season they have played in the Premier League. Yet, once more, Martinez's Latics narrowly escaped relegation last year, returning to the DW Stadium to play another day.

Ah. The nerves are a-jangling.
Scotland on the road again. At stake a place in Euro 2012, a boozed up tour of Poland and Ukraine with all the fun and futile expectation that goes with a major championship.
And then we wake up.
Scotland aren't in the play offs.

Most of the people remember the great goals of the Ronaldo Nazario in WC 2002, or in CL with Real Madrid and some moves and goals with Inter Milan. These memories are mixed with the over-weight Ronaldo, with the lazy Ronaldo, with the Corinthians Ronaldo, where he will score once in a while, but he was not really that efficient.

MLS 2021 Playoff brackets are set... Go Oklahoma!We have never made any bones about it - we don't like playoffs in football... unless you're trying to get promoted to the Premiership (hello West Ham). Playoffs that decide a "champion" after a long, hard season is wrong on many levels but such is life in North America.

Saturday night's game against Real Salt Lake was a case study in ratcheting down expectations. Before the match kicked off, we were hoping for a repeat victory in Sandy and the opportunity to defend the lead from an advantageous position in the second leg at home. But it quickly became clear that Seattle was not going to play as well as RSL.

Their fifth straight victory and a 5 point lead. Goals from Edin Dzeko, Aleksandar Kolarov and Adam Johnson made it 36 goals for Man City in their first 10 games.Levante's miracle run in the La Liga have put a spanner in the works of the two horse theory there.The EPL now looks that it might become a 2 horse race instead.

Well, it's good to finally be able to report some good news regarding the NBA lockout. According to both the players and owners, Wednesday's 15-hour negotiating session led to some progress.

"We can't say that major progress was made in any way," said Derek Fisher, the president of the players union, "but some progress was made on system issues.

La Liga blog: Inside the miracle of Levante

MirrorFootball has teamed up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Wednesday is La Liga day, and here's www.spanishfootball.info's David Cartlidge with his take on the week's big issues in Spain.

Tomorrow sees the Arsenal step on the Stade Velodrome and take on the mighty Olympique Marseille, for what is due to be an exciting clash for 1st place in Group F. With Olympiakos winless and Dortmund disappointing, the Arsenal-Marseille clashes will likely dictate the final standings of our group, so it's important to go and get a result out there tomorrow.

Since the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo to the Spanish La Liga, the Premier League was searching for a new world class player who could be as brilliant as the phenomenal Portuguese. Fernando Torres threatened briefly until he started sulking more than scoring, Didier Drogba could never be that star face as he is all brute force but Carlos Tevez could have been that world class marquee player that the Barclays Premier League needed.

I get miserable when Fulham aren't winning. The odd game is OK but the longer a winless run continues the more I begin to brood on it. Pretty sure I'm not alone in that.

The Blackburn game was a chance to put everything right, start finding that missing 10%, that final killer ball, that clinical finish in the box.

The Houston Dynamo's playoff hopes took a severe hit, but were not completely killed, Saturday night in Kansas City where Teal Bunbury's brace helped give Sporting Kansas City a 3-0 victory and first place in the Eastern Conference.

Bunbury's first goal came in the 9th minute and, although it would prove to be unnecessary for the win, Bunbury picked up his second goal in the 73rd minute.

The Houston Dynamo's playoff hopes took a severe hit, but were not completely killed, Saturday night in Kansas City where Teal Bunbury's brace helped give Sporting Kansas City a 3-0 victory and first place in the Eastern Conference.

Bunbury's first goal came in the 9th minute and, although it would prove to be unnecessary for the win, Bunbury picked up his second goal in the 73rd minute.

.At 12 midnight, after watching Liverpool go down 0-1 to Stoke, I decided to take a nap prior to Real Madrid's match which would be at 2am Singapore time: deciding to give Real Sociedad- Barcelona a miss. Before dozing off though, Barca was already 2-0 up with just over 15 minutes into the game.

Vyacheslav Malafeev must feel a little sheepish when he looks at his latest Russian cap. For the 32-year-old barely deserved it.

That isn't a slight on his efforts, but merely a reflection on the game against Ireland, which saw the home side attack for the entire 90 minutes, meaning Malafeev could have had a little sleep and still kept a clean sheet.

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With less than a year to go until the European Championships kick off in Poland and the Ukraine the qualifying rounds in Europe are starting to hot up.

Hats off to England for finally out-Americaning us. Watching sports on TV while shopping for chemicals disguised as food is pretty much the end-all, be-all of modern, information-age excess so I applaud Sainsbury's and Sky Sports for making this miracle happen just in time for the final day of the transfer window.

Gazzetta dello Sport Don't strike! Udinese almost complete miracle, Arsenal punish them Di Natale is the principal figure scores a great goal, but misses a penalty. Keeper Handanovic with a great game. Guidolin's team leaves field to the applause of the fans. Milan, low cost Aquilani: "Great quality" Milan, low cost Aquilani: "Great quality" City risk for Milanese and Napoli Juve, the surprise of.

Imagine, if you will, a meticulously tended field of grass carved into the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains in the northeast of Mexico. It is home to the champions in the sport of soccer for all the lands from the far tundra of Nunavut to the sweltering jungles of Guyana - a team of millionaires and superstars who each bear a household name in a land where their sport is king.

Ignore the good and focus on the bad.
So the likes of the BBC and the Guardian are publicising people protesting over the cost of World Youth Day in Madrid, it must a modern day miracle. Two million people descending on a city and not putting a single penny into the local economy. Perhaps the protesters are expecting the Pontiff to perform the feeding of the two million?

Spurs all but booked their passage into the group stages of the Europa League with a display that left Harry Redknapp declaring it as the best he'd seen Tottenham play.

Goals from VDV, Defoe, Livermore, Bale and Lennon sealed an emphatic 5-0 win on the night and barring a miracle, Tottenham's name will be in the draw after next week's return leg.

Not that I was expecting much of a lazy international friendly just before the start of the season, with a call-up list plagued with absences and injured (Sergio Ramos and Xavi had to abandon the team before they left Spain and Nacho Monreal, called up instead of Ramos, got injured during the last training session), but I did expect better than this.

Check out the trailer for Jay Demerit's story, Rise and Shine. It'll remind you of what's important and inspire you to do great things. It's kinda like Miracle...except soccer...and with Jay Demerit.

Odense BK were celebrated around Europe in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup for what came to be known as the 'Miracle in Madrid' as they overturned a 3-2 third round home defeat with a 2-0 win against Real Madrid CF at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Danish reporters are calling Odense BK's 4-3 win at Panathinaikos FC the 'Miracle in Athens because their stunning come from behind victory brings them one step away from the group stages of the Champions League.

In a move that is only surprising by the timing of the announcement, the United States Soccer Federation announced today that Bob Bradley has been relieved of his duties as coach of the United States Men's National Soccer Team. The move ends weeks of speculation after USSF President Sunil Gulati failed to publicly back Bradley when the United States lost to Mexico in the Gold Cup final.

No Istanbul miracle for Liverpool this time

Ex-Red Baros scores twice as understrength side lose to Galatasaray

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-07-28 20:50:09 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Three cheers for Sepp Blatter...'hip-hip', actually forget about that. Anyway, a miracle has happened; the International Football Association Board have actually decided to listen to football fans and commentators the world over and have decided to seriously consider the use of goal-line technology in football.

Mario Balotelli has done it again. He has manage to make a bigger fool of himself by disrespecting Los Angeles Galaxy fans in a friendly with his current club, Manchester City. It's a miracle he is still playing for this side or that Robert Mancini hasn't encouraged mafia Italian fans to deal with him, if you know what we're saying.

We are still hoping that a miracle can still happen, and Joey Barton gets offered a new contract at Newcastle either this summer, in January or even next summer, when he could become a free agent. A pop star? no it's Joey Barton with his new haircut But there's no doubt about it, that [...]