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The Weekend Football
Hi, guys an" gals, just back from a very, very cold Ukraine; Saturday morning on the way to the airport t"was -20C (yes, that is a minus sign!) and has to be the coldest I have ever been. Still, lovely trip and Kiev is a great city, but just go in the summer!
On to the footie, and last w/end saw the 4th Round of the FA Cup and a few shocks occurred, as usual, so well done to Crawley Town (League 2 formerly the old 4th Div.) who went to Hull City (the Championship, two divisions and 45 places above them) and came away with a fighting 1-0 win and Brighton (the Championship) who beat Newcastle Utd (6th in the Premier) 1-0 at home. The other ties, in general, went with form and position, with Premiership teams Bolton, Stoke, Liverpool, Chelsea, Norwich, Tottenham, Arsenal and Everton, Championship teams Leicester and Birmingham, and League 1 Stevenage all progressing to the next round and last 16. There are always replays and these involve Blackpool/Sheffield Wednesday, north-east neighbours Middlesbrough/Sunderland and Millwall/Southampton.The highlight of the w/end had to be Liverpool"s downing (as in Stuart!) of the once mighty Cup kings, Manchester Utd, at Anfield, by 2-1 with the winner coming 2 minutes from time. Whilst it"s been a great week for the "Pool it certainly hasn"t been for either of the Manchester clubs, as on top of their FA Cup win, the Reds booted out City mid-week from the Carling Cup semis and now face Cardiff City in the Final at Wembley next month; should be straightforward, then, with King Kenny picking up his first silverware since returning; mind you, don"t count your chickens yet, just remember odds-on favourites Arsenal last year when they were beaten by relegated Birmingham in the Final!
The Premier returns on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as this w/end, so next week"s report will be a double-header. Standout matches in the latter would have to be Liverpool/Tottenham on Saturday and Chelsea/Man Utd on Sunday.
Up in Scotland, Rangers took advantage of Celtic"s Scottish League Cup tie wih Falkirk (which the Hoops won 3-1 and now meet Kilmarnock in the Final) by pulling back 3 points in the Premier with a 4-0 home win over Hibernian and are now only a point behind.
Things are getting seriously good in La Liga with Real Madrid pulling 7 points clear of Barcelona, after Jose"s team"s home win and Pep"s team"s surprising goal-less draw at Villareal and altho" the latter knocked the former out of the Copa del Rey (just!) I know which of the League or Cup the Real fans would prefer to win! I must admit, if they do win it, it would be a fitting climax to Jose"s tenure at the Bernabeu, as, whisper it, but I hear on the grapevine that he may be back in England for next season; put it this way, if Mancini and Man City end up trophyless this season (after all, they only have the League and the Europa Cup left to go for) there could well be a vacancy in the north-west!
Daft Quotes: as you know, I only insert 2 a week, but this week I have to add a third, as I read today that Andy Murray said, after his majestic semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open, and I quote: “My aim this year is to become World No. 1!” Having watched an enthralling, lung-bursting and exciting 5-set Final (which, incidentally, at 5 hrs 53 mins is now the longest Grand Slam Final ever) between those two warriors, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, my only retort to our Andy is “you always have 3 problems and they are Novak, Rafa and Roger!”However, even I can see that he"s getting a lot closer to winning his first Grand Slam, so go for it, old son!
“Arsenal are just doing enough and that isn"t enough!” Martin Keown, ex- Arsenal defender and BBC pundit.
“Well done to the lady lineswoman!” Sky football commentator Chris Kamara - I didn"t know we had gentlemen lineswomen!
PS. Don"t mention cricket and England....please! Until next week.................J.P.