Almeria do just fine with 9, and Real score 4 as top draw
- Details
-
Created: Tuesday, 17 February 2009 23:33
-
Written by Benjamin Cullen
Real Madrid, Almeria and Sevilla were the big winners in this week's round of fixtures. In fact, amazingly, they were the only teams inside the the top 16 to win at all!
Raul, with his 308th club goal, put Madrid one up at Sporting Gijon on Sunday, and in doing so edged past Di Stefano's long standing all-time scoring record. An achievement the Asturian fans met with chants of 'Raul retire now'. Unfortunately for them he obviously didn't feel like hanging his boots up quite there and then, instead going on to score Madrid's 4th in the 76th minute after cool finishes from Huntelaar and Marcelo (both assisted by Higauin) had put the game out of reach for Gijon.
Read more...
UEFA Cup a load of this - Preview & Predictions!
- Details
-
Created: Tuesday, 17 February 2009 03:00
-
Written by The Rome
Whilst most people, including the Champions League-centric media, are creaming themselves about the return of Europe's 'elite' competition next week, I'm far more excited about the return of the UEFA Cup over the next couple of days.
I'm sure the fact that I have a vested interest in it as an Aston Villa fan plays a large part in that, but by and large I find the UEFA cup a more interesting and unpredictable tournament. The CL will generally provide you with the same familiar faces from Western Europe's top leagues, whereas the UEFA cup knock out stage provides a far more diverse range of teams representing countries from all over the continent.
Now that the grind of the lame group stage phase is over, we have reached the exciting business end of the contest. Here is a preview and some predictions.
Read more...