International sports, football
Anfield, Liverpool (GenevaLunch) - Liverpool may not win any titles this season but they might well have played a role in denying one to Manchester United. They deservedly beat their archrivals 3-1, with a hat-trick by Dirk Kuyt, 6 March. Man United fielded a side weakened in defense because of the absence of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, but they were comprehensively outplayed in all departments.
Arsenal could only draw 0-0 against Sunderland but are just three points behind United in the Premier League and still have a game in hand. Man City stay third after a 1-0 win over Wigan.
Tottenham travelled to Wolverhampton for the best game of the weekend: a thrilling 3-3 draw.
In the Spanish La Liga Barcelona and Real Madrid both won. Inter Milan beat Genoa 5-2 and AC Milan beat Juventus in Series A. In the Swiss Super League Basel are still on top after a 3-1 win over Zurich. Neuchatel lost 1-2 to Bellinzona while Thun-Luzern ended 3-3.
Links to other sites: Premier League, Guardian
International sports, European Champions League football
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The draw for the first knockout round of the European Champions League took place in Nyon from 12:00 Friday 17 December. Highlights include a re-match of last season’s final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, while the crowd pleaser is likely to be Arsenal against Barcelona, another rematch from last season. AC Milan play Spurs while Chelsea travel to Copenhagen for their first match. Manchester United meet Marseille. The full fixture list is:
Roma v Shakhtar Donetsk
Milan v Tottenham
Valencia v Schalke
Internazionale v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Real Madrid
Arsenal v Barcelona
Marseille v Manchester United
FC Copenhagen v Chelsea
In the Europa League FC Basel meet Spartak Moscow while Young Boys meet St Petersburg.
International sports, football
Wembley, London (GenevaLunch) - Chelsea completed their double of Premier League and FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Portsmouth. The victory seemed inevitable given the huge gap in resources between the two teams but Portsmouth, with the aid of the woodwork, made the London millionaires work more than anticipated. Pompey could have taken the lead when Kevin-Prince Boateng hit a feeble shot straight at the Chelsea goalie. Didier Drogba scored shortly afterwards and Chelsea controlled the rest of the match despite Frank Lampard missing a penalty.
The game was pushed out of the news by a sting operation lead by the normally conservative Daily Mail which taped a supposedly private conversation between Lord Triesman and his ex-assistant (and mistress) Melissa Jacobs. The FA Chairman accused Russia and Spain of trying to bribe World Cup referees. Triesman has resigned and the English 2018 bid committee sent off grovelling apologies.
Barcelona won La Liga with a 4-0 thumping of Vallaloid. Inter Milan won Serie A and are in search of their own double in the final of the European Champions League against Bayern Munich. In Switzerland FC Basel won their 13th League title by winning 0-2 against Young Boys.
Links to other sites: Daily Mail, Guardian
City of Manchester Stadium (GenevaLunch) - Tottenham Hotspurs scored a vital away win at Manchester City to qualify for the vital fourth Premier League place amongst the elite European Champions League teams next season. The high spending Manchester City will have to settle for a place in the Europa Cup. Spurs were deserving winners, with a late goal from Peter Crouch providing the 0-1 victory in a game where they had the better organisation and more chances, 5 May. Manchester United’s noisy neighbours will have to wait at least another season to compete with the top European clubs.
Inter Milan won the Italian Cup with a 1-0 over A S Roma to claim the first part of a potential treble. They lead Roma in the Serie A championship and are in the finals of the European Champions League against Bayern Munich. The match was an ill-tempered affair after accusations that Roma’s arch rivals Lazio had allowed Inter to win their last Serie A game in order to stop Roma from taking the title.
Links to other sites: Guardian, Premier league
Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain (GenevaLunch) – Barcelona started the evening needing to reverse a 3-1 deficit from their first leg match against José Maurinho’s Inter Milan side in the semi-final of the Eurpean Champions League. This meant they needed to win 2-0 or better to have a chance to achieve the double dream of retaining the Champions League trophy and doing so at the home of the hated Real Madrid. Inter held their own defensively, despite being reduced to 10 men after Thiego Motta was sent off for making contact with his flat hand against Sergio Busquet’s face.
In the second half the Barcelona team started to lose patience as they struggled to find a way through the well-organized Inter defensive wall. The first goal was scored in the 83rd minute: beautifully taken by Gerard Piquet from a possibly off-side position.The last five minutes were tense as the massed crowds of the Camp Nou urged their team to score the vital goal, and they thought their prayers had been answered as Bojan Krkic fired the ball into the net – only to find the goal had been disallowed for handball. José Maurinho’s men held out to achieve a special victory at the ground where their trainer once worked as a translator for the English coach Bobby Robson.
Inter Milan will play Bayern Munich in the final in Madrid 22 May 2010.
Lyon, France (GenevaLunch) – Bayern Munich had an easy path to the finals of the European Champions League with a convincing 0-3 win at Lyon. The Bavarian team won the first leg 1-0, so win 4-0 overall. All three goals were scored by Croatian striker Ivica Olic.
Bayern will play in the final in Madrid against the winners of the semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan. These teams play their return match on Wednesday 28 April. Inter took the first game 3-1.
San Siro, Milan (GenevaLunch) - Barcelona took a bus to Milan for their semi-final match for the European Champions League trophy, 20 April, but left some of their magic at home. Things started well for the Catalans, generally considered the finest team of the last decade, but things then went horribly wrong. Pedro scored the first goal for Barcelona after being set up by Maxwell but Inter kept pressing and were rewarded with a first half equaliser by Wesley Sneijder. Maicon made it 2-1 just after the pause as he toed the ball in from five metres and then Diego Milito headed the ball in from even closer to leave José Mourinho’s team with a two goal lead.
Lyon travel to Bayern Munich for Wednesday’s match. The return games will be played next week.
Emirates Stadium, London (GenevaLunch) - Arsenal faced the finest club team in the world in their Champions League match and were soon outclassed. Barcelona completely dominated the first half, with more than a dozen shots on goal compared to a solitary shot by the home team. Somehow the game was scoreless at half time but Barcelona’s Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic made up for a host of wasted chances with a neat goal in the first minute after the interval.
Fulham, London, England (GenevaLunch) - Manchester United lost another Premier League game when they were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by Roy Hodgson’s Fulham. The London manager, who once coached the Swiss national team, took full advantage of the shaky Manchester defense which was weakened by many injured absentees. Chelsea were only able to manage a 1-1 draw at West Ham, and this was thanks to a dubious penalty decision. Frank Lampard took it three times before the referee was satisfied. Chelsea now lead Man United by four points.
Manchester City won 4-3 against Sunderland but it was not enough to save the job of manager Mark Hughes, who is being replaced by Roberto Mancini, ex-manager of Inter Milan. Arsenal beat Hull 3-0 to take third place while Aston Villa are next after beating Stoke 1-0.
Links to other sites: Premier League, Times, UK
European Champions League, (GenevaLunch) - Eduardo da Silva scored the winning goal for Arsenal as they came back from 2-0 down against Standard Liege to win 2-3. In the big game of the evening Inter Milan and Barcelona seemed more concerned with defending than attacking and the final result of 0-0 looked inevitable. Liverpool beat Hungarian champions Debrecan but were not convincing.
Details: UEFA
