The Centre Circle

In the early game at Villa Park, Wolves earned a creditable 2-2 draw with Aston Villa who missed the chance to put pressure on Man City, Spurs and Liverpool in the chase for 4th place. John Carew scored a brace of goals but Wolves earned the draw through a James Milner own goal and a  rare strike from Jody Craddock.
Sunderland hit Birmingham early at the Stadium of Light with Darren Bent scoring twice in the first 11 minutes. However Birmingham reduced the deficit in the 60th minute when Cameron Jerome broke the offside trap and finished sweetly. Sunderland wrapped up the three points with a goal from Frazier Campbell.
At Stoke after a scoreless first half, the game burst into life when Eidur Gudjohnson latched onto a Peter Crouch pass and he made no mistake. To make matters work for Stoke Dean Whitehead was then sent off after receiving a second yellow card after a tackle on Modric. Amazingly, Stoke fought back and levelled with a Matthew Etherington penalty, Assou-Ekotto fouling Kitson in the box but Spurs restored their lead through Krancjar.
In the battle of the teams at the bottom, it was 1-1 at half time at Fratton Park, Craig Fagan scoring for Hull and Tommy Smith for Pompey. Hull restored their lead with Caleb Folan poaching a goal after good work from Richard Garcia but Portsmouth levelled again through Jamie O’Hara and stunned Hull with a last minute winner from substitute Kanu. An amazing fight back!

At Wigan, there was not much to shout about for the first 75 minutes as there were few chances. Burnley were holding out for a welcome away point, which would have been only their second of the season with two fantastic late saves from Brian Jensen, but it was not to be. Wigan broke Burnley hearts with a last minute diving header from Hugo Rodallega.
Everton had a comfortable victory over Bolton, with Michal Arteta punishing Bolton severely after Grettar Steinssen was sent off for bringing down Yakubu. He struck the resulting free kick curling into the top corner. Stephen Pienaar completed the win in the 90th minute.
In the late game at the Emirates, Arsenal took an early lead against West Ham through a sharp finish from Denison after a one-two with Nicklas Bentner. Arsenal seemed to be cruising, but just before Tomas Vermaelen saw red after he brought Franco down in the box. Diamanti stepped up but saw his penalty saved by Almunia. The second half saw West Ham pressure without a cutting edge, and Arsenal slowly hauled themselves into the ascendancy, culminating with Matthew Upson handling the ball in the area. Fabregas made no mistake from the spot, taking Arsenal top of the premiership for at least 24 hours.

Aston Villa 2-2 Wolves
Sunderland 3-1 Birmingham
Stoke City 1-2 Tottenham
Portsmouth 3-2 Hull City
Wigan Athletic 1-0 Burnley
Everton 2-0 Bolton Wanderers
Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Fulham vs Wolfsburg

Hamburg vs Standard Liege

Valencia vs Atletico Madrid

Benfica vs Liverpool

The first leg ties to be played on 1st April and the second legs on 8th April 2010

Lyon vs Bordeaux

Bayern Munich vs Manchester United

Arsenal vs Barcelona

Inter Milan vs CSKA Moscow

The first leg on March 30/31, the second legs on April 6/7

The highlight of the round is Arsenal against Barcelona, a repeat of the 2006 final. Arsenal will be looking for revenge and although on paper it looks that Barcelona should go through, the Gunners record against non British teams in the knockout stages of the Champions League has been impressive. There is another repeat of a former final as Bayern Munich take on Manchester United. They famously met in 1999 when Man Utd came back from 1-0 to snatch a late dramatic victory. France is guaranteed a semi-finalist with Laurant Blanc’s Bordeaux facing Lyon, while Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan who impressively disposed of Chelsea face CSKA Moscow.

I’ve been thinking it for a while now. I kept saying to people I know, “ This Chelsea team is getting old, it’s gonna show at some point in time”. Last night it did. For the third time in the last five games, Chelsea failed to last the pace. Maybe the length and intensity of the season is catching up with Terry, Drogba and co.

Last night they looked as if they might break Inter down in the first half, but some fantastic defending from Samuel, Maicon and  Lucio kept Chelsea out. As the night went on Inter came more and more into the game, in fact I can think of just one save the Inter goalkeeper made in the whole second half and the drive from Malouda was going wide anyway. The longer the game went on, the more Chelsea looked one paced and predictable. Midway through the second half, Ancelotti gambled, showed his hand first throwing on the more offensive Cole and then Kalou. Immediately Mourinho countered bringing on Stankovic and switching to 4-4-2, moving Eto’o into the middle. Bang! Immediately Inter carved a tiring Chelsea open, Sneider making a defence splitting pass. The Eto’o goal in truth was nothing less that Inter deserved, indeed had they taken their chances it should have been more.

Chelsea has been one of the two most dominant teams in English football for the past 5-6 years. However together they are growing old – Terry 29, Lampard 31, Alex 28, Drogba 32, Ferreira 31, Ballack 33, Joe Cole 28, Anelka 31, Carvalho, 31, Ashley Cole 29, Deco 32 Malouda 29, Belletti 33. It is fact that players start to lose a yard of pace as they hit the 30 year old mark, the wears and tears of season after season start to show with niggling little injuries etc. At the start of the season Chelsea looked fresh and inventive winning their first eight games. In the last 8 games they have won four and lost four. A big difference. The beginning of the end of an era.

The return of Jose Mourinho and his Inter Milan team to play Chelsea tonight I think will be compulsive viewing. Inter lead 2-1 after a pulsating first leg game at the San Siro. This game tonight potentially has it all with two managers who openly dislike each other.  An early goal could turn this one into a classic.

Watching the first leg I was incredibly impressed with Inter’s work rate, with Lucio in central defence being particularly outstanding. The most talented bunch of players they may not be, but the zeal they showed in outrunning and out working Chelsea was something I hadn’t seen in an Italian side in a long time. Jose has obviously worked his magic again with this group of players and if they can boss the midfield and cut the supply line to Drogba and Anelka then they do have a chance of upsetting Chelsea in their own backyard. Chelsea have to score, so watch Mourinho and his team to try to frustrate Chelsea certainly for the first half and to try and pick them off on the counter. This is what Man City did in Chelsea’s last home game to great effect. Mourinho would have taken note.

My Prediction – Chelsea 2-2 Inter after extra time with Inter and Mourinho progressing 4-3.

16th March 21.50 - Chelsea 0-1 Inter (1-3)

I’ve got to say, the game panned out almost exactly as I thought it would – maybe I got the eventual score wrong but I read the script to perfection. Chelsea pushed hard in the first half, but some great defending kept them out. Inter were the better team in the second half and thoroughly deserved to win.

If you didn't see it on Sunday night, here’s a link to a phenomenal hat-trick by Lionel Messi verses Valencia. The opposing players were shaking their heads in disbelief – how on earth do you stop him in this form? Enjoy…

Oh my, Barcelona are going to take some stopping in the Champion’s League this season if they keep up the rampant form of the past week. Last night they destroyed Stuttgart 4-0 in a breathtaking display of attacking play, in truth it could easily have been 10. Yet again the star of the show was Messi turning in a 5 star performance, the first of his brace of goals a rising drive from 20 yards into the top corner after drifting past a couple of defenders, the second a smart shot on the turn past Jens Lehman. The thing that struck me however was the work-rate of the team from minute one.  "We were very, very intense in all facets, very aggressive. We played a great game." commented Pep Guardiola afterwards. Too true. Barca players hunted in packs hurrying the Stuttgart players into mistakes. The high pressing game takes they played takes great discipline and it earned Barcelona the opportunity to dictate the game the way they wanted too. It was spellbinding to watch. Stuttgart hard though they tried (and they didn’t play badly) were blown away.

All the other 7 teams in the Champion’s League quarter final draw tomorrow will be hoping against hope that they don’t get drawn again Barcelona, for in this form it would mean almost certain elimination.

In French (sorry it’s not in English) – anyway c’est manifique !!!!

Well done Fulham!! Isn’t football a wonderful game? This is why we love it. After David Trezeguet struck after 86 seconds of the tie, Fulham were all but dead and buried down 4-1 and having conceded a vital away goal. Not a bit of it. Fair play to the resolve of Roy Hodgson and his team. Bobby Zamora struck back seven minutes later to make it 1-1 and then the crucial moment of the game. Fabio Cannavaro was controversially sent-off for pulling back Zoltan Gera as he looked to be clean through on goal. Gera then scored twice either side of half time, the first after a pull back from Simon Davis, the second a penalty after Diego handled in the area. The best goal of the night, maybe one of the goals of the season, and one that will go down in Fulham folklore came from American Clint Dempsey. He chipped Antonio Chimenti with absolute precision into the top left hand corner of the goal – a peach of a finish that no keeper on the planet would have got near, truly worth of winning any game. Craven Cottage went into pandemonium, and the 5-4 aggregate win and progression into the last 8 of the Europa Leaue was sealed when Jonathan Zebina got his marching orders late on.

In the weeks that Portsmouth have gone into financial meltdown, one similar sized club in terms of support of potential resources has been taking on the football giant that is Juventus. That Fulham fans can enjoy such glamorous opponents is surely down to one man, Roy Hodgson.

What a shrewd appointment it was when in December 2007, Fulham appointed him as manager. I bet more Fulham fans were initially disappointed than pleased, but it has turned out to be a masterstroke. What people tend to forget is that Roy once managed Inter Milan for 2 years, nearly pushed Finland to Euro 2008 (as well as England did), took Switzerland to the World Cup and has a network of contacts around Europe as good as anyone. Plus he can spot a player. He has assembled a selection of players discarded by other larger clubs (Damian Duff, Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora) and cherry-picked the odd gem from the smaller European nations (Brede Hangeland, Erik Nevland) and formed a side that plays neat attractive football. Fulham are chugging along nicely in the middle of the premiership, still in the FA and UEFA cups and are always liable to turn over one of the big boys on their day as last Thursday proved. I don’t think they get half the credit they deserve, and that credit is entirely down to the quiet genius that is Roy Hodgson.

If reports I heard recently are to be true, Guus Hiddink is in talks to become the manager of the Ivory Coast for the FIFA 2010 World cup in South Africa. If he does take the helm, then Brazil and the rest of the potential favourites better watch out. The Elephants have so much talent in their ranks and all the have been lacking is a proper organiser ands a wise head who can guide them in the right direction after their shambolic showing in the recent Afican Cup of Nations. Hiddink could be that man.

If he hooks up with Drogba & Kalou again (who he worked with formally at Chelsea), they could turn out to be one of the most lethal strike forces at the tournament, determined to make a mark on African soil. In my view, and this is only if he accepts the challenge, they will be worth an each way bet for sure…

 

You know, fate is a fickle thing and some things are never meant to be. Maybe it was written in the stars that David Beckham was never to make his final World Cup appearance in South Africa. The horrible achillies tendon injury that David suffered yesterday (Sunday 14th March)  will take a long time to heal to all reports. Even when healed, he may have to adapt his playing style, especially the way he addressed and kicked the football, a style which was almost unique in his accuracy to deliver a football onto a virtual sixpence. At 34 going on 35 in just over a month’s time, Beckham’s magnificent career was always winding it’s way towards an inevitable end. It may be an irony that the injury came just a few days after a standing ovation from  the fans of the club  where he made his name, Manchester United, an ovation he truly deserved.  Maybe it is time for David to listen to his body,  and move on to pastures new. Whatever the future holds David, thank you for the footballing memories…