One-Two-7

Is There Hope For Celtic Yet…

oneone8 — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:11:25 +0000

Surely not, not a chance, can they really. There is yet still hope for Tony Mowbray’s Celtic to claw back the Scottish Premier League, as title leaders Rangers’ game was postponed against St Johnstone, which will give them a week’s break before next week’s Old Firm clash. Celtic, therefore had the chance to reduce the gap at the top to just 7 points, but it would be no means easy, as they would have to play against Dundee United with a patched up defence. However, as Robbie Keane slotted pass Nicky Weaver on 20 minutes for his first goal at Celtic Park, it has set-up an intense match next week, as Celtic can’t afford any more slip-ups, they’re lucky enough to have got this far with even a glimmer of hope of claiming the title, but Rangers will see it as the match which should confirm them the title. If Celtic were to win then the gap would be 4 points, but even with Rangers having a game in hand, the pressure would start to seriously build on Walter Smith’s men, who are aiming for a domestic clean sweep by winning the treble. Celtic do have enough quality in their squad to win this title, but due to their defensive woes, it cannot be seen that Celtic will win their 12 remaining games to give themselves hope. However, teenage centre backs, Josh Thompson and Thomas Rogne did manage to have a solid game against Dundee United, who are still a decent team, even since Craig Levein left. Surely, next weeks Old Firm clash could decide the destination of the SPL title, there is still hope for Celtic, the season isn’t over till all the matches have been played.

Will Chelsea’s Champions League Wait End Under Ancelotti…

oneone8 — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:55:15 +0000

Ever since June 2003, there has been one man, whom more eagerly than anyone else has been waiting for Chelsea to win the Champions League, and that is Roman Abramovich. Since he arrived, he has pumped an endless amount of cash into the club, and is the sole reason why Chelsea are such a formidable force in Europe. The man has witnessed almost every trophy apart from the premier club competitions trophy, nicknamed ‘Big Ears’, come to Stamford Bridge, but he has seen great managers try, and fail such as Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink. Abramovich must be getting unpatient with this long wait, as he has seen the side he owns, reach the semi finals on numerous occasions and even finish runners up in 2008. It is starting to look like an impossible task for the Londoners, it seems the UEFA Champions League trophy is one that they may never get their hands on. However, Roman Abramovich has picked ex-AC Milan manager as the man who will lead Chelsea to European glory, but he’ll have it work cut out as they travel to Milan to play Internazionale, where they will meet a familiar face in Jose Mourinho.

Wayne Rooney…”Unplayable”!

oneone8 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:59:05 +0000

If there is one man who has stood out recently in the world of football, it is definetly Wayne Rooney. With and outstanding 9 goals in his last 6 games, including 2 against AC Milan and 1 against Arsenal, and he also has now scored more goals for Manchester United than Ronaldo did, in less games. He has seemed to have single handlely brought Manchester United back into a title race where at one point Chelsea seemed as if they were about to run away with it, whereas Manchester United now find themselves only 1 point behind the Londoners. His form of recent has been noticed by Scottish teammate Darren Fletcher who said, Wayne Rooney “is unplayable at the moment” Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson also has noted Rooney’s form as “Devastating”. In my opinion this man will surely lead his team to glory come the end of the season, especially in England, as the difference between him and Chelsea’s Dider Drogba, is that Rooney plays with his heart on his sleeve and on his day he is the best in the world, however, should he get injured or suspended I can certainly see Chelsea comfortably securing the Premiership title.

Kyrgiakos close to Liverpool switch!

oneone8 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:06:37 +0000

Liverpool have agreed a £2 million deal with Greek side AEK Athens for their centre back Sotirios Kyrgiakos. The former Rangers man who is 30 years of age will undergo a medical this week. “He is a player with experience who can hopefully help us in defence,” was what manager Rafa Benitez had to say about him on the clubs official website and “He has experience in British football with Rangers.” The defender has also been capped 50 times for his nation and has come as an important time for Liverpool has they have two centre backs injured – Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel. He said, “This is the biggest challenge of my career. I have accepted Liverpool’s proposal,” upon the offer from Liverpool. Benitez is hoping his experience can help the development of younger defenders within in the squad like Martin Kelly and Daneil Ayala.

English Premier League Round-Up – Week 1.

oneone8 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:50:17 +0000

The Premier League finally started this weekend after a long intense wait, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a fantastic weekend of football as there was some great goals, some shock results and also many fans who have been eagerly waiting to see how the new talent was getting on. Unfortuantely for all the new boys (Birmingham, Burnley and Wolves), it was a winless infact pointless, wait infact goaless weekend for all them and the question, “Are these teams good enough for the Premiership?”, will surely arise. Now some of the goals were simply breath-taking especially Hugo Rodallega’s for Wigan against Aston Villa, also Benoit Assou Ekotto’s screamer against Liverpool. Well here is a simplified way of reading the results of this weekend: Saturday:Aston Villa 0-2 Wigan Athletic, Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Sunderland, Chelsea 2-1 Hull City, Everton 1-6 Arsenal, Portsmouth 0-1 Fulham, Stoke City 2-0 Burnley, Wolves 0-2 West Ham. Sunday: Manchester United 1-0 Birmingham City, Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Liverpool. After having a close look at the results and some of the highlights i can see Wigan being a shock contender for a top 10 spot as they played some nice football against a very good Aston Villa side, also Tottenham have shown the potential to fight for a top four finish as they beat one of the rivals for that position. Arsenal also showed that they are up for the fight to stay in the top four and even fight for the league, and Portsmouth look as if they’re going to be in trouble this season.

Who Will Make the Top 4?

oneone8 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:13:06 +0000

It is almost here! The long awaited 2009/10 Premier League season is about to begin this weekend. The question that springs to mind most often will be, “Who will finish in the top four?”, who will grab the position that gives them a shot at the UEFA Champions League? Well there’s four teams that instantly come to mind mainly because they have all been in the top four the last four seasons, these teams are Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. Also the top goalscorer in the league has belonged to one of these teams for the past nine seasons so it is really hard to look by these teams. The favourites for the league has to be between Manchester United who are going for four in a row and an all-time record of 19 league titles, Liverpool who are equal with Manchester United in all-time league titles will be determined to make sure they set the new record and win their first ever Premiership title. Finally, Chelsea look like serious contenders as unlike Manchester United and Liverpool, they have kept a hold of their key players and have also signed some good players but it will depend on how Carlo Ancelotti does. In my opinion Arsenal hold no serious threat to be considered title challengers, after the loss of key players Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor. They will most likely be fighting it out for the illustrious fourth place with a number of teams.

There is four main teams that could challenge the top four in my opinion, these are Manchester City, Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham. The team most likely to do so will be Manchester City as they have obviously strengthened their team seriously since last season and could even shock people by challenging for the title. Everton now, they have a great manager and have kept hold of all their key players so you can never count them out of pushing for that spot and they were the last team to break the top four and have been one of the most consistent teams outside the top four in the last few seasons. Aston Villa are a team you can’t count out but after the lost of captain Gareth Barry and replacement Stewart Downing being out till December, it looks like a season where Villa could end up 8th after finishing 6th place the last two seasons. Tottenham are also a team you can’t count out as they have quality within their squad but never seem to have any consistentcy but that might all change as this will be Harry Redknapp’s first full season incharge of the Spurs.

So, we will finally see this weekend what team could get their season off to a flyer, but I’ve seen before that it isn’t how you start it’s how you finish.

Carew: We Must Beat Scots!

oneone8 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:39:55 +0000

Norway are 90 minutes away from World Cup elimination, which has come as a shock to most people as they were expected to fight for a play-off place with Scotland in a group which consists of Holland, Macedonia, Iceland, Scotland and themselves. Even though they are bottom of the group they are still in with a shout of qualifying as Carew said, “Our position is a bit surprising, but we still have a theoretical chance to qualify. We have to try to get the result, although it is always tough against Scotland.”. It’s a strange group in a some respects as Holland have already qualified but the rest of the teams still have a chance of clinching that crucial play-off place. If George Burley’s Scotland (Who are currently second in the group) win in Oslo then it will put Scotland in a great position of clinching the play-off spot and will kill off Norway’s hopes. Aston Villa hitman Carew clearly see’s this as a must win as he said, “We have to win this game, so we’ll try hard,that means that we have to take bigger risks than normal.”. In my opinion this game will decide the outcome of who finishes second in the group as if Scotland win then that puts them out of reach from their hardest opponents, Norway, but on the other hand if Norway win then the play-off place will be achievable for any of the 4 teams still in contention.

Advocaats Time is Up!

oneone8 — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:07:26 +0000

Zenit St. Petersburg’s most succesful manager has been giving the sack after 4 consecutive league games without victory which leaves them with only 6 wins from 17 games and find themselves 7th in the league and 10 points behind leaders FC Rubin Kazan. The sacking will come to a shock to most people as the Dutchman lead the Russian side to UEFA Cup glory two seasons ago in Manchester with a 2-0 victory over his former employers Rangers. He also lead them to their first ever Russian league win and helped them win the UEFA Super Cup. Last month the Dutchman announced that he would take over the Belgian national team at the end of the season. Reserve team coach Anatoli Davydov has been made the temporary replacment as he has just over a week to groom his team in time for their UEFA Europa League play-off against CD Nacional of Portugal.

Aquilani Now a Red!

oneone8 — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:24:20 +0000

Liverpool have already quickly reinvested some of the money they gained from Xabi Alonso’s £30 million transfer to Real Madrid by signing Alberto Aquilani from Italian side AS Roma for £20 million. Aquilani also plays centre midfield and has been capped 11 times for his National team – Italy. The 25 year old has agreed to a five year contract where he is expected to make £80,000 a week. Aquilani had sugery on his ankle during the summer and will not be fit for 4-8 weeks and will continue his rehabilitation under the guidance of the Liverpool medical staff. When he was 16 years old Arsenal and Chelsea offered him fruitful contracts but he turned down their offers in order to play for his boyhood heroes Roma. He could be seen as quite a risky signing as he is very injury prone and has only made 147 appearances for Roma in 7 years, but he is undoubtedly a quality acquisition by Rafa Benetiz as Aquilani has been made Liverpools second major arrival this summer.

UEFA Champions League Play-Off Draw.

oneone8 — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:55:21 +0000

It has finally been made the draw that will let us see which other 10 teams will progress to the UEFA Champions League Group Stages, and I’m sure nobody will be able to wait for the ties that take place on the 18/19 of August for the first legs and for the second leg the 25/26 of August. There is two seperate routes into the Champions League – the Non-Champions Route and the Champions Route. The Non-Champions Route mainly consists of teams from Countries with a high coefficient but they’ve either finished 2nd, 3rd or even 4th. The Champions Route consists of teams who have won their respective league but in a Country with a not so high coefficient. The winner of each tie will be handed a illustrious place in the UEFA Champions League Group Stages but the losers will have a place in the first ever Europa League. The draws in the Non-Champions Route paired Lyon with Anderlecht, Arsenal with Celtic, Timisoara with Stuttgart, Sporting Lisbon with Fiorentina and Panathinaikos with Atletico Madrid. All look as if they will be tasty affairs especially the all-British match between Arsenal and Celtic. On the Champions Route draw FC Sheriff will meet Olympiacos, FC Salzburg will play Maccabi Haifa, Ventspils got FC Zurich, Kobenhaven got APOEL FC and Levski Sofia got Debrecen. To make it easier to understand:
Non-Champions Route:
Anderlecht – Lyon
Arsenal – Celtic
Timisoara – Stuttgart
Sporting Lisbon – Fiorentina
Atletico Madrid – Panathinaikos

Champions Route:
FC Sheriff – Olympiacos
Salzburg – Maccabi Haifa
Ventspils – FC Zurich
Kobenhaven – APOEL FC
Levski Sofia – Debrecen

So the winners of each tie will progress to the UEFA Champions League Group Stage and the loser will fall into the Europa League Group Stage.