Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Looks like Liverpool is up to their Champions league magic again. Their 1- 0 result over Real Madrid has all of Spain wondering, if they do in fact get past Real in the second leg, who will be their next victim from La Liga.
Could FC Barcelona get a rematch from a few years back with everthing on the line?
We will all have to wait and see.
Liverpool manager , Rafeal Benítez, admitts that it is just one game and the team will have to play better the second time around but for now they deserve to enjoy this moment for it was a pleasant game to the eye.
http://www.uefa.com
www.lequipe.fr
Tags: Champions League, FC Barcelona, Liverpool, Real Madrid
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Friday, May 9th, 2008
Few days before the opening of the Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland and just looking at the Euro Cup history it is easy to understand why it has become so popular. The European Championships were first held in 1960 and were originally called the UEFA European Nations Cup. Initially it was hard to get many teams to compete, but by 1968 the tournament when it changed its name to the European Football Championship becomes very popular.
Since its creation the team winners have been: 1960 USSR, 1964 Spain, 1968 Italy, 1972 Germany, 1976 Czechoslovakia, 1980 Germany, 1984 France, 1988 Holland, 1992 Denmark, 1996 Germany, 2000 France and 2004 Greece.Let’s go now through some remarkable facts along the 12 championships played until now. 1960: Spain was eliminated from the tournament when General Francisco Franco’s government refused to let the Spanish team travel to Moscow. 1964: Largest crowd in championship history — 125,000 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in the final match (Spain-USSR). 1968: Name was changed from the Nations Cup to the European Championship. 1976: Czechoslovakia won on penalties. 1980: The final field was increased to eight teams from four. 1984: Spanish ‘keeper Luis Arconada knocked the first goal over his own line. 1988:Only three of the eight finalists from ‘84 qualified, including France. 1992: U.N. sanctions forced out war-torn Yugoslavia. 1996: First Golden Goal in a major international championship. 2000: Sylvain Wiltord shocked Italy by scoring the game 3 minutes into injury time when the Italians were leading the whole match with David Trezeguet scoring the Golden Goal winner 13 minutes to win.
Tags: Italia, Santiago Bernabeu, UEFA
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Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Zenit St. Petersburg became the second Russia squad in the last four seasons to win football UEFA Cup, defeating Scotland’s Glasgow Rangers 2-0 in the final match at Old Trafford in Manchester, England.
Igor Denisov staked Zenit to a 1-0 lead in the 72nd minute and Konstantin Zyryanov completed the scoring in injury time.It marked the first UEFA Cup for Zenit coach David Advocaat, who, ironically, coached Rangers from 1998 to 2002. “I feel very happy winning the prize like this,” he said. “The way we played in this tournament, we really deserved this.”Glasgow Rangers has failed to win a European championship since capturing the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1972.”Over the tournament, we have worked very hard to get to the final,” Rangers coach Walter Smith said. “There was not that much in it overall and we had a few chances ourselves. Zenit looked the more offensive team. But obviously, at this stage, I’m disappointed to have lost.”Zenit controlled the first half, but Rangers goalkeeper Neil Alexander kept it scoreless with saves on Anatoliy Tymoschuk, Radek Sirl, Zyryanov and Alexander Anyukov. Zenit attacked more and when they were successful against their opponent’s goal, it was quite clear that they will maintain this advantage. Anyway was Zenit who controlled all the match from the very beginning and everybody was convinced that finally Zenit would win.CSKA Moscow was the first Russian team to win the UEFA Cup in 2005.
Tags: Old Trafford, UEFA, Zenit
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Monday, May 5th, 2008
When the European Football 2007/08 season is almost finishing, different things can be analysed to check how the season has developed and which have been the most relevant facts during the nine months of competition.One of the most important facts are the goals scored, both in the domestic leagues and in the Champions League. In this aspect there is a name leading both tables: Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United with a total of 37 goals scored followed by Fernando Torres from Liverpool with 29 goals scored. But let’s go to the tables to see all details of the goals scored: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) National LeaguesCristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United 30 3 88 38 33 20 3Daniel Güiza - Mallorca 24 0 115 38 34 18 1Emmanuel Adebayor - Arsenal 24 3 118 32 35 17 1Luis Fabiano - Sevilla 23 2 93 33 28 16 4Fernando Torres – Liverpool 23 0 106 35 32 17 4Luca Toni – Bayern Munich 21 0 117 34 29 15 3
Marco Borriello – Genoa 19 5 146 43 33 14 4
David Trezeguet – Juventus 19 1 152 27 34 14 2
Mario Gomez – Stuttgart 18 0 100 32 23 13 2
Alessandro del Piero – Juventus 18 2 143 26 35 13 3
Kevin Kuranyi – Schalke 04 15 0 171 28 30 10 1 Champions League Cristiano Ronaldo – Manchester United 7 1 128 36 10 6 3Steven Gerrard – Liverpool 6 2 182 20 12 6 0Didier Drogba – Chelsea 6 0 151 31 10 4 2
Fernando Torres – Liverpool 6 0 145 20 10 5 1
Lionel Messi – FC Barcelona 6 1 121 33 9 5 1
(1) Goals Scored
(2) Penalties
(3) Minutes per Goal
(4) % of Team Goals
(5) Appearances
(6) Games Scored
Crucial Goals
Tags: Liverpool, Manchester United, Messi
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Sunday, May 4th, 2008
Referees at Euro 2008 will come down hard on players who use excessive force or show dissent if they follow instructions they were given on Thursday. The 12 referees who will officiate at the June tournament in Austria and Switzerland were handed a six-point list of instructions at the end of a four-day workshop at their Euro 2008 base near Zurich. The instructions, compiled by European soccer’s governing body UEFA, order referees to ‘act firmly (red card) against challenges involving excessive force…including the illegal use of arms and elbows.’ UEFA said that players would also be expected to respect officials’ decisions. ‘Referees can accept a spontaneous expression of frustration from players,’ the instructions state, ‘but will firmly sanction players who show dissent to the referees by word or action.’ The referees have also been instructed to control holding or pushing in the penalty area prior to corners and free kicks and to punish ’simulation intended to deceive the referee’ with yellow cards. The list ends with a note to team coaches, advising them that they will be ‘left to do their jobs’ in the technical area immediately in front of the team bench provided they act responsibly. ‘If a coach openly criticises the referee, action will be taken to curb his behaviour,’ the instructions add. The list of the 12 Euro 2008 referees is the following: Konrad Plautz (Austria), Frank de Bleeckere (Belgium), Howard Webb (England), Herbert Fandel (Germany), Kyros Vassaras (Greece), Roberto Rosetti (Italy), Pieter Vink (Netherlands), Tom Henning Ovrebo (Norway), Lubos Michel (Slovakia),
Manuel Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain), Peter Frojdfeldt (Sweden) and
Massimo Busacca (Switzerland).
Tags: England, Spain, UEFA
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