Swiss Super League
THE ROAD TO ROME - CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCHDAY 2
GROUP A
Chelsea sat on top of the Premier League as well as this qualification group prior to their visit to Romania and at the end of the evening were still there thanks to a goalless draw against surprise package CFR Cluj-Napoca. Even the bookings were level with two apiece in a forgettable clash. AS Roma meanwhile, travelled to France knowing that a defeat to Girondins Bordeaux would effectively end their hopes of qualification. As it was, they unleashed The Beast and ran out comfortable 3 - 1 winners. It was not without a scare as Youann Gorcuff gave the French side the lead on eighteen minutes, the game changing with the dismissal of Henrique eight minutes before half-time. Vucinic brought the Italians level with a quarter of the game remaining leaving the stage set for Julio Baptista to revive memories of the form that made him one of Sevilla’s prized assets. He scored twice in the last nineteen minutes to allow the Romans to dream of being in the final.
GROUP B
In a match laden with political overtones, Anorthosis Famagusta entertained Panathinaikos and ran out comfortable 3 - 1 winners to maintain their top spot. A Sarriegi own goal after eleven minutes set the rot for the Greeks, Dobrasinovic doubling the Cypriots lead five minutes later. Salpigidis pulled one back with barely half an hour on the clock but defeat was assured when Mulla Mohammed scored with twelve minutes of the match remaining. Internazionale were second on alphabetical order as they were held to a 1 - 1 draw by Werder Bremen. Maicon gave the Italians the lead with a quarter of an hour played only for Pizarro to level the match with a second half equaliser.
GROUP C
Barcelona maintained their 100% start to the competition with a late win in the Ukraine. Shaktar Donetsk took the lead through Ilsinho on the the stroke of half-time before Argentenean wonderkid, Lionel Messi, scored twice in the last three minutes. Controvesy followed the win with Barca accused of lacking sporting grace by not kicking the ball into touch with a Shaktar player injured in the build-up to the equaliser. That the ruling was abandoned by FIFA a couple of seasons ago has done little to help ease the Ukrainians pain.Sporting Lisbon recovered from their mauling in the Camp Nou to ease past whipping boys Basle in Portugal. Romagnoli and Derlei the scorers in a 2 - 0 victory.
GROUP D
In the Vicente Calderon, the headlines were garnered by crowd trouble for which Atletico de Madrid were hastily punished by UEFA. A two-match home ban was subsequently suspended until a full appeal hearing could be heard on October 30th. It did not stop the Spaniards enjoying a 2 - 1 win over Olympique Marseille, Kun Aguero opened the scoring on four minutes only for Niang to level twelve minutes later. The winner came with barely a quarter of the match played, Raul Garcia the days hero. Liverpool followed their win in Marseille with a comfortable 3 - 1 victory over PSV Eindhoven at Anfield. Hold the front, back and centre pages! Crack the champagne, break out the bunting, have a sausage roll in celebration for Robbie Keane scored!!! Dirk Kuyt started the party mood, air guitaring through Agadoo after his fifth minute opener and L’ilStevie Gerrard finished it all off. The Dutch consolation coming from Koevermans.
GROUP E
Bruce Rioch locked horns with an English club once more and found his AaB Aalborg side on the wrong side of a double from Dimitar Berbatov and a Wayne Rooney goal as Manchester United cruised to a 3 - 0 victory in Denmark. Celtic’s abysmal away record in Europe continues, a Marcos Senna goal sending them to defeat at Villarreal. The last time that The Bhoys won in Europe, Gladstone was still Prime Minister of Britain or at least that is the way it feels to Gordon Strachan.
GROUP F
Bayern Munchen‘s indifferent start to the season continued with a 1 - 1 draw at home to Olympique Lyonnais. Juninho gave the visitors the lead midway through the first half before his compatriot, Ze Roberto, levelled proceedings seven minutes into the second half. Steaua Bucharest could not hit the backside of a cow with a banjo nor the back of the net in a goalless draw in Florence. Nor could cFiorentina so that made a mockery of all the claims that the Champions League is the pinnacle of club football.
GROUP G
Having surrendered their unbeaten home record at the weekend to Hull City, Arsenal might have expected a sterner test from FC Porto. Whilst the Portuguese giants may not be fallen, they are certainly slumbering. Having spurned a golden chance minutes before Robin van Persie opened the scoring just past the half hour, Porto crumbled when faced with Arsenal’s attack. Emmanuel Adebayor doubled the lead before the interval before the duo got their braces in the second half, Arsenal’s 4 - 0 victory sending them to the top of the group. Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kyiv failed to hit the target in Istanbul, leaving the Turks with a tall order to qualify.
GROUP H
BATE Borisov shocked Juventus by racing into a two-goal lead through Krivets and Stasevich before a quarter of the game had been played. Such fairytales could not last as Iaquinta scored twice before half-time to level matters. A goalless second half meant the match finished 2 - 2. Zenit St Petersburg are finding life at Europe’s top table considerably more difficult to stomach than the UEFA Cup was last season. A Hubocan own goal gave Real Madrid the lead after six minutes, Danny equalising twenty minutes later. When Ruud van Nistelrooy struck on thirty-one, the Russians had no reply as Real ran out 2 - 1 winners in Russia.
Champions League Matchday 1
ROAD TO ROME – CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCHDAY 1
GROUP A
All roads lead to Rome so the old saying goes but for AS Roma the pressure of being the club whose ground will host the 2009 final proved too much to bear in their encounter with CFR Cluj-Napoca of Romania. Christian Panucci gave the Italians the lead on seventeen minutes before their world turned upside down, the Romanians reversing the deficit to win 2 - 1. Culio scored once in thirty-two appearances in 2007-08; in Rome, he doubled that tally in twenty-two minutes, the first on twenty-seven, and the second two minutes into the second half.
At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea ended the French resistance of Girodins Bordeaux, steamrolling through their defences at will. Frank Lampard opened the scoring after fourteen minutes, Joe Cole doubling that lead on half-an-hour. The comfortable 4 – 0 victory was sealed in the last eight minutes with goals from Malouda and Anelka.
GROUP B
Goals were in short supply in this group as Werder Bremen failed to break the stubborn defences of Cypriots Anorthosis Famagusta, the match ended goalless. Jose Mourinho took his Internazionale side to Greece to play Panathinaikos. No requirement to beware the Greeks bearing gifts as the Italian champions ran out comfortable 2 – 0 winners, Mancini and Adriano the scorers.
GROUP C
Barcelona may be stumbling in La Liga but they were positively purring in the Camp Nou, cruising to a 3 – 1 victory Sporting Lisbon. Marquez broke the deadlock midway through the first half, Samuel Eto’o increasing the lead on the hour, converting a penalty. Despite Tonel pulling a goal back on seventy-three, the win was in little doubt, a fact sealed with Xavi scoring three minutes from time.
Samba rhythms dominated the Swiss nightline as Shaktar Dontesk danced through their encounter with FC Basle. The boys from Brazil, Fernandinho and Jadson scored twice in the first half to give the Ukrainians a 2 – 1 win, Abraham scoring for the hosts with seconds remaining.
GROUP D
Atletico Madrid made their debut in the Champions League and had a night to remember in Eindhoven, blowing PSV aside in a 3 – 0 victory. Kun Aguero scored twice in thirty-six minutes before Maniche added the third on fifty-four, the Dutch helpless in their response.
In the south of France, Marseille might have fancied their chances against Liverpool, especially when Cana gave them a twenty-third minute lead. It was not to last as they succumbed to Steven Gerrard’s ninety-eighth and ninth goals for the Merseysiders, the equaliser a stunning shot from twenty-five yards three minutes after the French had scored. The winner coming from the penalty-spot six minutes later. Robbie Keane might not be finding the back of the in Premier League so it was entirely consistent that he did not trouble the French either.
GROUP E
Pointless playing the games really as none of Manchester United, Villarreal, Celtic or AaB Aalborg could hit a barn door, let alone find the back of the net. Indeed had they not kicked off at Celtic Park, Beauchamp of Aalborg would not have been sent off in the seventy-ninth minute.
GROUP F
A tight group on paper proved to be just that in reality with Steaua Bucharest succumbing to a fourteenth minute strike by van Buyten to give Bayern Munchen the points in the Romanian capital. In Lyon, the hosts gifted Fiorentina a two goal advantage with Albert Gilardino scoring in the eleventh and forty-second minutes. The French side fought back with two goals in twelve second-half minutes through Piquionne on seventy-three and Benzema on eighty-five, which probably makes his value €80.1m.
GROUP H
BATE Borisov may have thought that they had drawn the short straw with a visit to the Bernabeu but despite leaving the Spanish capital with ‘nil points’, better teams than they have been handed heavier defeats than the 2 – 0 scoreline inflicted upon them by Real Madrid. Pin-up of La Liga, Sergio Ramos, opened the scoring on eleven minutes but one of the less beautiful people gracing the top flight of any league, Ruud van Nistelrooy, made the Madrileños wait until the fifty-seventh minute for the second.
Juventus returned from the exile caused by the, ahem, dubious business practices that engulfed the club three seasons ago to beat UEFA Cup holders, Zenit St Petersburg by a single Del Piero goal fourteen minutes from time.
Blatter Battered But Not Beaten - Yet
Sepp Blatter was caught with straight to the chin earlier this week when the European Union scuppered his plan to regulate the flow of foreign nationals playing in domestic leagues. An EU spokesman unequivocally stated that in implementing such a ruling, FIFA would be in breach of the law. That Switzerland where the ruling would be passed is not a member of the EU matters not one jot; it is effectively an associate member of the ‘august’ body and its members are based in the zone under the control of the bureaucrats from Brussels.
To celebrate such a comment is to underestimate the FIFA President. He has not survived this long in his current position without a considerable amount of politicking behind the scenes. Next week he will meet with the English Premier League and Football Association. Both of these bodies have been less than supportive of his plans in the past yet they both have much to gain by working to his goal.
The EPL plans for matches to be held on foreign soil may yet find favour with the powerbroker if they were, for instance, to suddenly make themselves available as a ‘guinea pig’ for his ruling. The new wave of club owners will not bat an eyelid about jeopardising their clubs chances in European competition if they can double the revenue that the Champions League has to offer. Similarly, the FA want Blatter’s blessing for their 2018 World Cup bid. Such rewards are a small price to pay for backing his plans.
For Blatter, getting the most commercially successful and rapacious football economy on his side is a feather in his cap. Whilst the British government may not be popular with their continental counterparts, the horse-trading, commercial wealth and the chance to halt the dominance of English football in the money stakes may yet be too good an opportunity of Brussels to miss.
January Transfers Mount in England
Although January 1st saw the greatest number of transfers on a single day since the January window opened in English football, the moves are still predictably full steam ahead. In the past ten days 39 moves have been made in and out of the EPL alone.
Perhaps not surprisingly, struggling Derby County have been most active in transfers. Including those conducted on January 1st, Derby has seen 10 transfers to and from their club. With a new manager and more financial support, the club had promised to take full advantage of the transfer window.
The least active EPL teams thus far, with 1 transfer each since the 2nd, are Arsenal, Aston Villa, West Ham, Wigan, Everton, Middlesbrough, Liverpool, and Portsmouth. (For a list of January 1st transfer see this Corner Kick article.)
A list of EPL transfers between January 2nd and January 11th, 2008:
Steve Howard from Derby County to Leicester City for an undisclosed amount
Hogan Ephraim from West Ham United to Queens Park Rangers for an undisclosed amount
Matthew Connolly from Arsenal to Queens Park Rangers for an undisclosed amount
Leslie Thompson from Bolton Wanderers to Torquay United on loan
Michael Barnes from Manchester United to Chesterfield on loan
Stanislav Varga from Sunderland to Burnley on loan
Danny Mills from Manchester City to Derby County on loan
Neil Kilkenny from Birmingham City to Leeds United on loan
Jonny Evans from Manchester United to Sunderland on loan
Ryan Bertrand from Chelsea to Norwich City on loan
Mo Camara from Derby County to Norwich City on loan
Matthew Pattison from Newcastle United to Norwich City for an undisclosed amount
Fitz Hall from Wigan Athletic to Queens Park Rangers for an undisclosed amount
Scott Spencer from Everton to Yeovil Town on loan
Ben Alnwick from Tottenham Hotspur to Leicester City on loan
Ben Tozer from Swindon Town to Newcastle United for an undisclosed amount
Danijel Subotic from FC Basle to Portsmouth for an undisclosed amount
Neil Kilkenny from Birmingham City to Leeds United for £150,000
Sam Oji from Birmingham City to Leyton Orient (free)
Laurent Robert as free agent to Derby County
Marek Matejovsky from Mlada Boleslav to Reading for an undisclosed amount
Rowan Vine from Birmingham City to Queens Park Rangers for an undisclosed amount
Emanuel Villa from UAG Tecos to Derby County for £2,000,000
John Halls from Reading to Crystal Palace on loan
Chris Herd from Aston Villa to Port Vale on loan
Marc Laird from Manchester City to Millwall (free)
Robbie Savage from Blackburn Rovers to Derby County for £1,500,000
Lee Martin from Manchester United to Sheffield United on loan
Peter Enckelman from Blackburn Rovers to Cardiff City on loan
Ched Evans from Manchester City to Norwich City on loan
David Button from Tottenham Hotspur to Grays Athletic on loan
Andrew Davies from Middlesbrough to Southampton for an undisclosed amount
Phil Ifil from Tottenham Hotspur to Colchester United for an undisclosed amount
Lee Holmes from Derby County to Walsall on loan
Hossam Ghaly from Tottenham Hotspur to Derby County on loan
Mark King from Blackburn Rovers to Accrington Stanley (free)
Martin Skrtel from Zenit St Petersberg to Liverpool for an undisclosed amount
Andy Griffin from Derby County to Stoke City for £300,000
Nicolas Anelka from Bolton Wanderers to Chelsea for £15,000,000
Source:
ESPN
