Euro Roundup

Premier League
A fantastic weekend in England saw a feast of goals and yet more twists in the title race. Arsenal again looked frail defensively as they did what seemed impossible as they failed to win against Newcastle after being 4-0 up at half time, with Diaby’s sending off the catalyst to a remarkable comeback. Newcastle had 2 penalties, one being very soft for handball, but Barton converted both anyway, Best grabbed a goal and Tiote scored a late sensational equaliser. Man Utd also stumbled away to Wolves as they were beaten 2-1 and resorted to underhand tactics as Scholes tried to punch in an equaliser near the end. Funny how some players can get away with that behaviour without getting mauled in the press, but when others, like Henry when he successfully cheated against Ireland,  he was made public enemy number 1. The top teams stumbling was the theme of the weekend as Chelsea succumbed at home to Liverpool, even with their two new signings worth 70 million taking part although Torres was ineffective and subbed and Luiz started as a sub and made little effect when he came on. It was down to a goal from the in form Merieles to decide the game. Man City and Spurs were the major beneficiaries of the weekend, with City downing West Brom thanks to hat trick from Tevez on his birthday in a game which saw Di Matteo receive his P45. Spurs scraped to a 2-1 win thanks to a late, late super striker from forgotten man Krankjar. Saha helped himself to 4 goals as Everton overcame Blackpool in a typically topsy turvy performance from the seagulls which eventually ended up 5-3 to the toffees. Villa and Fulham fought out a 2-2 draw with Walker scoring for the hosts to celebrate a call up to the England squad. Stoke staged a late comeback to beat Sunderland 3-2 to cue the typical moany press conference from the battered faced Bruce who is highly skilled at blaming everyone else for his own shortcomings. Birmingham kept up their good spell of form by beating West Ham and relegating them to bottom place thanks to a goal from lanky striker Zigic. In another thriller, Wigan defeated Blackburn 4-3 at the DW stadium which saw another eye catching performance from young midfielder James McCarthy.

Serie A
Italy also saw their league leaders stutter as Milan were held at Genoa thanks to new signing Floro Flores equalising Pato’s early strike. This gave Napoli chance to catch up and cut the gap to 3 points, an invitation which was snapped up  thanks again to the ‘on fire’ Cavani and a late strike from Sosa in a 2-0 win against Cesena. Lazio stuttered as well as they were held at home 1-1 against Chievo. Juventus finally put in a decent performance to stop the rot and won 3-1 at Cagliari, again seeing a new boy scoring as Matri put past his former employers twice along with a goal from fit again Toni. Udinese kept up their remarkable climb up the table as they beat Sampdoria 2-0 at the Fruili thanks to the exciting pairing of Sanchez and Di Natale and they now sit on sixth. Palermo recorded an impressive 4-2 away win at Lecce with Pastore again controlling the midfield. Parma and Fiorentina fought out a 1-1 draw at the Tardini. Down at the bottom, Brescia fought to earn a vital 2-0 win which leaves Bari 7 points adrift at the bottom with seemingly no hope of survival now. Bologna beat Catania 1-0 to push themselves further clear of the drop zone to mid table safety.  Inter and Roma met in the evening game with Leonardo’s men able to take third place with a victory. In a fantastic game which was like a basketball game with attack, defence, attack, Inter ran out 5-3 winners against the ten men of Roma but after being 4-1 up and seemingly cruising, Roma fought back to 4-3 before Cambiasso sealed the win right at the death. Milan will now be feeling very nervous as they look over their shoulder to see the Nerazzuri creeping up menacingly.

La Liga
Messi hit his 40th goal of the season in a 3-0 win over Athletico Madrid to stretch their consecutive wins to 16 in the league. They broke the record set by arch rivals Madrid in 1961 back when Di Stefano was leading the goal scoring charts. Madrid responded well to Barce’s victory with a convincing 4-1 win over Sociedad with Ronaldo grabbing a brace after Kaka’s first league goal for 5 months and Adebayor sealed it with a fine late finish. Villareal lost ground as they surprisingly lost at home to Levant 1-0 which might cement the idea that the best they could hope for is to hold onto the third position that they currently occupy. Sevilla were held at home 0-0 to Malaga who will probably be grateful that they didn’t lose for a change, despite being 3 points adrift at the bottom.  Bilbao are making a push for Champions League qualification and they beat Sporting 3-0 with Llorente again adding to his tally for the season. Getafe hammered Deportivo 4-1 at home to leave the visitors dancing at the wrong end of the table. There wasn’t too much movement at the bottom as Ossasuna and Mallorca drew 1-1, as did Zaragoza and Racing. Almeria impressively beat high flying Espanyol 3-2 which enabled them to come into touching distance of the safety zone. Valencia were able to get closer to Villareal following their slip up as they took on Hercules at home in the late game, and thats exactly what they did with a solid 2-0 win.

Bundesliga
League leaders Dortmund drew a blank against a hard working Shalke in a 0-0 draw on Friday evening to give the chasing pack hope of making up a couple of points on their huge lead. Luckily for Dortmund, none of their main rivals managed to rise to this challenge as Mainz were held at home by Werder 1-1, Leverkusen were beaten 1-0 at Nuremburg and Bayern were defeated 3-2 at Koln after leading 2-0 at half time. These results surely mean that no team has the stomach to rival Dortmund this season and the second half of the league looks playing out like a predictable teen romance where everything ends up lovely and everyone knew it a long, long time before the conclusion. Hannover were the only top 5 team to win as they dispatched Wolfsburg 1-0. Second bottom Stuttgart defeated bottom club Monchengladbach 3-2 in a vital win and Hoffenheim won 3-2 home to Kaiserlautern.

Elsewhere in Europe
Ajax forward El Hamadaoui, who is attracting a lot of attention across Europe was again on target in a 3-0 win over De Graafschap which allowed them to cut the gap at the top to 3 points as PSV were surprisingly beaten at home by Den Haag with a last minute strike by Verhoek. Twente failed to capitalise on this slip as they were held 1-1 at Utrecht. Groningen again bagged a load of goals as they cemented their fourth spot with a 7-1 win over doomed Willem.
PSG were beaten by rivals at Rennes 1-0 which allowed the hosts to draw level with the Parisian side on 37 points. Marseille made the most of this by beating Arles 1-0 with France international Gignac scoring the only goal to ensure they finished the weekend just a point behind PSG in second. Lille could only manage to draw 1-1 at Auxerre which now means their lead is only 3 points.
It was cup weekend in Scotland as the Old Firm met at Ibrox and fought, literally to a 2-2 draw. Both teams finished with 10 a piece and Commons again showed his eye for goal since moving from Derby as he equalised early on. It was surprising that Mr Unpopular, El Hadj Diouf, making his debut for Rangers, and booed on just about every touch wasn’t one of the players seeing red. A replay will have to be negotiated. In the other game, Hearts were very fortunate against Dunfermline Athletic as they needed a last minute own goal to see them through.


Back of the Net
To finish this week, I wanted to mention the rules of football. With FIFA meeting soon to discuss slight variations to some rules, I wanted to highlight some areas that are crying out to be sorted out. The first one is getting booked for over celebrating, a crazy rule which even though it doesn’t make sense, it isn’t officiated consistently at all. Football is all about goals, so when you score one, especially an important one, why are you penalised? Shirt off – yellow card? Ridiculous! If you jump over the advertisements, it’s a yellow, but in some stadiums which are set out differently, you can still get as close to the fans and actually come into contact with them, but when players do so, often no yellow, no consistency. Would FIFA prefer goals to generate a gentle round of applause with hearty shouts of ‘well done old chap’ and a firm pat on the back before continuing? Unlikely in this day and age and although I’m not condoning the inciting of riots, I think the fans should be held responsible for their own behaviour regardless of what happens on the pitch. When Adebayor sprinted the full length of the pitch to goad Arsenal fans when he scored for City, why was he punished when the fans started going mad? Is he their registered carer or responsible adult? No, he shouldn’t be held responsible if the fans decide to act like mindless thugs, they should be accountable for themselves.
The second thing that needs looking at is punishment for people feigning injury, violent behaviour and diving. These methods of cheating are a real cancer within the game and it is so simple to eradicate. Every week, the fans at home and commentators watching the game are privy to technology that the referee is not, video replays. How can it be that millions of people can witness an act of cheating which needs punishing, yet the only man that counts, the referee, does not. It defies all logic. How can we expect one man and his 2 friends (4 in European games) to see everything, especially as it happens in a split second and because now many players are coached to cheat. If an official can monitor the game as the fans do and when he sees a player cheating, he can inform the referee who can send the player off. Aside from the use of technology, the punishments need enhancing to suit the crime. Football now has a reputation within the sporting world as a joke with footballers known as over paid fairies. I am starting to agree, and it is a real shame that FIFA is allowing the reputation of the game we love to become so tarnished. If you want rid of cheating, punish the cheaters, simple. Hit them where it hurts, 3 game bans for diving or falling to the floor Cristiano Ronaldo style when you are hit by a gust of hard air. 10 game bans for 2 footed leg snapping challenges. Red cards for time wasting. All these sanctions would ensure the integrity of the game is restored and could result in footballers once again holding their heads high as professional athletes.