Europa League talk. 10/27/11.

Well let's start in Group A where Tottenham Hotspur currently lead with an undefeated 2-1-0 record. PAOK FC are also undefeated in 2nd place, with a record of 1-2-0. Rubin Kazan have tallied one kind of every result while Ireland's Shamrock Rovers are without a point in 4th place. Next up is Group B where Standard de Liege and Hannover of Germany are at the top of the table. The former of these two sides leads on goal difference. Kobenhaven are in 3rd with a win, a draw, and a loss while Vorskla Poltava have taken just one point from their first three games. Over in Group C PSV Eindhoven hold sway with three straight wins while Legia Warszawa are 2nd after two wins  and a loss. Rapid Bucuresti have won once and lost their other two games while Hapoel Tel-Aviv bring up the rear with three losses from three matches played. Sporting of Portugal lead Group D while FC Vaslui, FC Zurich, and S.S. Lazio each have drawn twice and lost once meaning they must be separated by goal difference: Vaslui takes 2nd, Zurich are in 3rd, and Lazio are in 4th for some reason. Next up is Group E where surprise packages Stoke City lead the table with two wins and a draw. Dynamo Kyiv have a 1-2-0 record and a better goal difference than 3rd place competition Besiktas. Maccabi Tel-Aviv have yet to grab a win, but they have registered a point! That's all as they occupy 4th. In a relatively more star-studded group, Group F is held somewhat safely by Athletic Club of Spain who have won twice and drawn. PSG from France hold 2nd with a win, a draw, and a loss while FC Salzburg have a similar record but a less impressive goal difference. Last but not least comes SK Slovan Bratislava who have taken a point, but not much else. Metalist Kharkiv lead Group G with 7 points from their first 3 games while AZ Alkmaar have switched the results in that respect: 2 draws and a win. Austria Wien have amassed  4 points with a win, a draw, and a loss while Malmo FF of Sweden have yet to really make a result. Group H has another British team at the top with Birmingham City leading on goal difference over Club Brugge. SC Braga meanwhile holds 3rd with 4 points while NK Maribor have taken a point, but that's it as they are in 4th. Group I is yet another talent-filled group with Italian side Udinese Calcio leading after the first three games. Spain's Atletico Madrid are in 2nd with 4 points while Scotland's Celtic have gotten off to a slow start with two draws and a loss.They have fought for better results though which gives them an edge over Stade Rennais. Approaching Group J, is might seem heavily balanced in Germany's favor as Schalke 04  face the likes of Maccabi Haifa, Steaua Bucuresti, and AEK Larnaca FC. It hasn't been totally smooth sailing though as the Germans were held to a 0-0 draw in Romania when they visited Steaua Bucuresti. Maccabi Haifa have actually been quite successful at home, however they only have Schalke left visiting them so it might be expected that the Israelis will drop points if not places. Group K are led by the Dutch surprises FC Twente who are undefeated with 2 wins and a draw. Fulham of England have one of every kind of outcome while Odense and Wisla Krakow have each won one and lost two. Finally, in Group L Anderlecht are actually cruising with 3 wins out of their first 3 games. Lokomotiv Moskva have lost just once but won their other two matches. Sturm Graz meanwhile has lost two and won one while AEK Athens are in the doldrums with no wins in their first three matches. Hope you keep enjoying the Europa League!

League tables after the weekend.

Well it was a very exciting weekend of football that we have concluded and the Sunday matches were simply spectacular. In Sweden, Helsingborgs are at top and untouchable with 63 points from 30 games. With the title in the bag, celebrations were in order as AIK Solna were held to a 1-1 result by Malmo. That kept AIK Solna in 2nd with 58 points. IF Elfsborg finished in 3rd, a point behind Solna. After Elfsborg came Malmo FF who finished their 30 matches with 54 points. GAIS Goteborg rounded out the top five with 51 points. Interesting fact: Helsingborgs were unbeaten at home, winning 10 and drawing 5! Meanwhile, in Scotland, Rangers have gotten off to a fantastic start, a full 10 points separating them and their cross-town rivals Celtic. Having said that, Celtic have played one game less than 'Gers and currently lie beneath Motherwell who are a point above them with 23 points in 2nd. Celtic were lucky to edge Aberdeen earlier today thanks to a goal each from Ki Sung-Yong and Charlie Mulgrew putting them 2-1 above. Rangers won 0-2 at Hearts. Down south in England, today was full of surprises as Manchester United were hammered 1-6 by their cross-town rivals City. QPR were also upsetters, beating Chelsea thanks to 2 sending-offs for the Blues and a penalty in the 10th minute. Having said that, the league table looks like this: Manchester City have moved to the top with a 5 point lead over United who have 20 points in 2nd place. Chelsea are a point and a place behind Manchester United following their poor performance today. Newcastle are actually in 4th at the moment with 19 points from their first 9 games. Last but not least, Tottenham are the 5th position team, taking 16 points from the 8 games they have played. Expect them to move up the standings when they catch up with the rest of the pack. On the other side of the Channel in Germany, Bayern were edged by Hannover in their match today which halts what had been quite the run for the Bavarians. Still, with 22 points and 1st place, they are looking pretty good. Dortmund meanwhile are in 2nd with 19 points. Regional rivals Schalke are also looking good, playing today, they edged past Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 thanks to a goal from Jefferson Farfan in the 82nd minute. Hannover, having beaten Bayern Munich, grabbed 4th place, separating themselves from the 3-way tie that is beneath them. Of these 3 teams (Stuttgart, Bremen and Monchengladbach) Stuttgart have the best goal difference so they currently hold the honor of 5th position. Down in beautiful Portugal, Porto and Benfica are currently level at the top with 20 points each from their first 8 games. The Northern club, however, have the better goal difference having obliterated Nacional 5-0 today. Benfica meanwhile took the win 0-1 in their game this weekend against Beira-Mar on Saturday. Braga hold 3rd with 17 points following their 3-0 victory over Feirense today. Maritimo are also at 17 points but their goal difference puts them in 4th. Last but not least, Sporting Lisbon are in 5th with 14 points. The silver lining for them though is that they have a game in hand so they can theoretically earn themselves a better goal difference and leap-frog to 3rd themselves. Spain on the other hand is in shambles. Neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid lead the league following this weekend's round of matches: Levante are actually in 1st having beaten Villarreal 0-3! They have amassed 20 points from their first 8 games. Real Madrid are in 2nd with just a point less while Barcelona slipped over the weekend, falling to 3rd with "just" 18 points. Sevilla occupy 4th with 16 points while Valencia grab 5th with a point less. Fun fact: Levante and Sevilla are the only undefeated sides of Spain left! Last but not least, in Italy, Udinese actually lead the table after the first 7 matches with their 15 points. Lazio are in 2nd with a point less while Juventus are right behind them with 13 points. Cagliari are actually in 4th with 12 while Napoli, Roma, and AC Milan each have 11. The team from Naples has the best goal difference though so they take 5th! Hope you keep enjoying the league action!

Domestic Results 10/23/11.

I'd like to start in Germany with this post where Dortmund were very capable in their 5-0 steamrolling of Koln. Shinji Kagawa opened the scoring in the 7th minute with Marcel Schmelzer adding the 2nd in 25th. Just a minute before half time, Robert Lewandowski tacked on Dortmund's 3rd while he also scored their 4th in the 50th minute. The 5th, however, came from Sebastian Kehl in the 66th minute. Elsewhere, Hamburg and Wolfsburg tied 1-1 thanks to Mario Mandzukic's 2nd minute strike for the visitors and Mladen Petric's 56th minute equalizer for the hosts. Hertha Berlin and Mainz finished goalless in Berlin. An interesting match fact: there were 4 yellows handed out in the last 11 minutes of the game! 3 of these went to Mainz. Hoffenheim edged Monchengladbach in their match today thanks to a 56th minute strike from Vedad Ibisevic. Kasierslautern were also able to edge their guests, Freiburg, winning 1-0 thanks to a goal in the 75th minute from Itay Shechter. The last of the German games today was between Nurnberg and Stuttgart with the final score standing 2-2. Timmy Simons gave the hosts the lead in the 9th minute. This was not changed for the whole rest of the 1st half! However, in the 2nd half, things changed. Stuttgart were brought level through Zdravko Kuzmanovic's penalty in the 60th. Philipp Wollscheid gave Nurnberg the lead once more, in the 70th minute, but to no avail. Maza struck for Stuttgart in the 84th to split the points between the two sides. Down in Spain, Barcelona were denied anything by the superb goalkeeping of Sevilla's Javi Varas. Yes, the Catalan side allowed no goals into their own net, but that is just half the battle as the game finished 0-0! Real Madrid thus grabbed the top position of the table as they defeated their hosts Malaga 0-4. It was only done through Cristiano Ronaldo though. The Portuguese superstar struck in the 23rd, 28th, and 38th minutes to add on to Gonzalo Higuain's opener in the 11th minute. Racing were edged by their guests Espanyol who relied totally on Sergio Garcia's 59th minute shot. Finally, Sporting Gijon beat Granada 2-0 thanks to goals from David Barral (6th minute) and Andre Castro (42nd minute). Over in Portugal meanwhile, Beira-Mar were edged 0-1 by Benfica who scored through Oscar Cardozo in the 42nd. The second and final match in Portugal was between Olhanense and Vitoria. Here, the home side won thanks solely to a penalty in the 48th from Mateus. Onwards to England now where Aston Villa were edged by West Brom despite taking the lead through Darren Bent in the 23rd. Villa's loss of a player after Chris Herd was sent-off in the 35th may be blamed for their dismal conclusion though.Sunderland beat Bolton 0-2 while Liverpool and Norwich tied 1-1. Newcastle edged Wigan 1-0 while Wolves and Swansea  tied 2-2. Wolves were lucky not to lose 0-2 though! They only scored their first goal in the 84th. 2 minutes later they had made it 2-2. In Italy things carried a similar flavor as both Fiorentina v.s. Catania and Juventus v.s Genoa drew 2-2. Hope you enjoyed!

Men's World Rankings. 10/19/11.

Well, the top 4 remain the same with Spain holding on to the pinnacle, the Netherlands dropping some points but remain in 2nd while Germany have collected more points but not enough to move from 3rd. Uruguay have also earned more points to stay ahead of Brazil by a healthy margin. In 5th place, Brazil have slowly but surely risen while Italy haven't moved from 6th. England have risen one place to 7th while Greece now occupy the top 10 in 8th place thanks to jumping three places! Portugal dropped three places but remain in the top 10 as they are tied with Greece for 8th place. Finally, Argentina and Denmark are level for 10th place with the Danish side rising 7 places! Other big names and movers include Sweden's 11 place jump to 14th; France's drop to 15th; the Republic of Ireland's 4 position jump to 25th; Slovenia's 6 place move to 27th, and Egypt's rise to 29th.

Champions League update! 10/18/11.

Well, CSKA Moskva were quite successful in their Group B match against Trabzonspor thanks to 2 goals from Seydou Doumbia on either side of Aleksandrs Cauna's 76th minute strike. Meanwhile, in France Lille were just barely edged by Inter Milan who were saved by Giampaolo Pazzini's 21st minute strike. The French side tested their Italian visitors thoroughly, putting up more attempts and winning more corners by far than their guests. Nonetheless, experience won out as Inter move to the top of Group B. Meanwhile, in a far rougher match between Oţelul Galaţi and Manchester United, Wayne Rooney's 2 penalties in the 64th and 92nd minutes were all that separated the two sides. They each finished a man down as United lost Nemanja Vidic in the 66th while Milan Perendija received a 2nd yellow. There were a total of 5 other yellow cards shown with United taking just one of these. Benfica won by the same margin when they visited Basel to go to the top of Group C. Emerson's sending off in the 86th minute on Benfica's side gave Basel the opportunity to challenge for points, but Bruno Cesar's 20th minute goal and Oscar Cardozo's 75th were enough to undo the home side and put the Portuguese two points ahead of Manchester United in the table. Onwards now to Madrid where the Spanish giants Real dealt Lyon of France a hefty 4-0 defeat. Karim Benzema, Sami Khedira, and Sergio Ramos were the 3 Madrid players to score while Lyon's goalkeeper Hugo Lloris accidentally had the ball go into his own goal! With that result Real Madrid maintain their perfect record in the Group D standings. Ajax defeated their hosts Dinamo Zagreb by 2 unanswered goals as they have taken 2nd place in Group D by goal difference. Napoli v.s. Bayern was a very perplexing game on the other hand: Toni Kroos started things off very well for the visiting German side with a goal in the 2nd minute of play. Things began to fall apart though after Holger Badstuber put the ball into his own net in the 39th to the delight of the Naples crowd. Mario Gomez's missed penalty in the 49th was really the worst though, as he could have essentially won it all for the Bavarians but instead they are at 7 points in the Group A rankings. Still on top, but not as comfortably. Last but not least, Manchester City were able to edge Villarreal 2-1 to keep things close in Group A. True, Villarreal have yet to register a point, but City are now in 3rd place with 4 points while Napoli are 2nd with 5. The Spanish visitors actually looked very good throughout the game, scoring through Cani in just the 4th minute. However, Carlos Marchena's 43rd minute own goal gave City level terms just before the half. Admittedly, Gonzalo Rodriguez and Diego Lopez were the men who kept Villarreal in the game, but Sergio Aguero's 3rd minute of stoppage time goal in the 2nd half was simply lucky for the English side. Keep enjoying with more games tomorrow!

Domestic results 10/16/11.

How about we start in Sweden this time where 2nd-place side AIK edged 4th-place Hacken 2-1. Martin Kayongo Mutumba opened the scoring, putting AIK in the lead from the penalty spot in the 14th minute. Mohammed Ali Khan of Hacken was actually sent off so AIK might have been expected to win this one, but it was only in the 33rd minute when they scored their 2nd. Dioh Williams brought Hacken one back in the 1st minute of stoppage time of the 1st half. Norrkoping were also victorious hosts, against 3rd-place Elfsborg! Norrkoping were able to control the 1st half thanks to a goal from Christopher Telo in the 32nd and another from Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson 4 minutes later. Elfsborg were only able to bring themselves back by one, through Stefan Ishizaki in the 58th minute. Trelleborg on the other hand played the role of the unlucky hosts as they were edged by Mjallby 1-2 despite scoring the opening volley in the 3rd minute! Kristian Haynes was the man to strike in the 3rd but who knows what happened as David Loken Lofquist and Marcus Ekenberg each struck one for Mjallby to keep Trelleborg's season on the decline. Down in Germany meanwhile, Koln are actually leading Hannover thanks to a strike from Lukas Podolski in the 24th minute. Besides the one goal though, it's been a game of cards as Hannover have collected 3 while Podolski has been booked in the 65th minute. Still, 1-0 for Koln! Over in Freiburg, Hamburg were successful against their hosts: they scored first (through Heung-Min Son in the 12th) and last (a goal from Ivo Ilicevic in the 73rd minute) on either side of Papiss Demba Cisse's 47th minute goal for Freiburg. Yet more southerly though, in Spain, Levante persist in holding even with Barcelona at the top of the league table! They currently lead Malaga 3-0 thanks to goals from Barkero (14th), Juanlu (30th), and Arouna Kone (41st). It should be remembered that Malaga's Willy Caballero was sent off in the 27th minute though. It's still a great game for the surprise package of the Spanish league! In other news, Espanyol were successful when they visited Rayo thanks to a solitary goal from Romaric in the 56th minute. Despite the dirty conclusion of the game, it was a relatively uneventful game though enjoyable. Lastly in Spain, Zaragoza defeated Real Sociedad 2-0 thanks to the talents of Helder Postiga. He struck his 1st goal in the 11th minute while the 2nd came early in the 2nd half: in the 49th minute. Back north now, to England, Arsenal v.s. Sunderland was probably the biggest game of the day and the Gunners were kind of lucky to be able to edge their opponents 2-1. It was greatly due to Robin Van Persie's striking capabilities with the Dutchman scoring in the 1st minute of the game and the 82nd. Sebastian Larsson's 31st minute goal was problematic for Arsenal, but they persevered and won the 3 points. Newcastle v.s. Tottenham was a surprisingly good game as both sides struck twice and neither side could find the vital point. Things got off to a somewhat late start with Rafael Van Der Vaart only breaking the deadlock in the 40th minute. Demba Ba was the man for Newcastle who equalized in the 48th. 20 minutes later, Jermain Defoe gave Tottenham a potentially game winning lead. However, Spurs were unable to defend it and Newcastle leveled in the 86th minute through Shola Ameobi. Concluding England's day of matches, West Brom's 2-0 victory over Wolves was quite straightforward as Chris Brunt opened in the 8th and Peter Odemwingie closed in the 75th. Interestingly, despite the fact that the game wasn't going their way, Wolves still played respectfully - only receiving 1 yellow card. Last but not least, how about we visit Italy? Today was, well, very unexciting to be honest. Atalanta v.s. Udinese ended 0-0, so did Cagliari v.s. Siena, Cesena v.s. Fiorentina, Juventus' match with Chievo, and Genoa's game against Lecce. The only game to break deadlock was Bologna's visit to Novara. Here, Gaston Ramirez and Robert Acquafresca were the scorers. Cheers!

Domestic conclusion.

Well, in the south of the continent, Spain witnessed quite impressive results from powerhouses Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barca defeated Racing 3-0 thanks to an opener from Lionel Messi in the 11th minute. Xavi struck the 2nd in the 27th minute to put the 1st half, and the game, firmly in Barcelona's grasp. Messi struck a second in the 68th to conclude a rather one sided performance. Real meanwhile defeated Betis 4-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Gonzalo Higuain. Kaka also scored for the Madrid side while Jorge Molina did score for Betis in the 69th. Getafe and Villarreal finished as they started: 0-0. There were a lot of bookings though: a combined total of 9 with 4 yellows going to Getafe while the other 5 went to the Yellow Submarines of Villarreal. Mallorca and Valencia finished their match level as well, but with both sides scoring once. Adil Rami gave Valencia the lead in the 38th but Tomer Hemed converted  a penalty in the 3rd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half to salvage a point for the Mallorcans. Granada v.s. Atletico are still level 0-0 with 5 yellows handed out by the 53rd minute. Over in Italy, Catania upset Inter Milan 2-1 despite the giants taking the lead through Esteban Cambiasso in the 6th minute. Catania fought back with goals in the 2nd half from Sergio Almiron (46th minute) and Francesco Lodi (50th minute). AC Milan on the other hand were much better against Palermo who they defeated 3-0. Antonio Nocerino opened the scoring in the 39th while Robinho added a 2nd in the 55th to leave Palermo between a rock and a hard place. Antonio Cassano slotted home the finishing blow in the 63rd to leave Palermo essentially no chance at saving the game. Napoli, however, weren't so lucky when they hosted Parma as they conceded first: in the 57th from a strike from Massimo Gobbi. They equalized though, scoring through Giuseppe Mascara in the 76th to make it 1-1. Francesco Modesto undid the home side's work though, with a goal in the 82nd minute that really sank the Naples side. Moving north to Germany, Bayern had a great game against Hertha Berlin who they thrashed 4-0 with 2 goals from Mario Gomez, and 1 each from Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Keep in mind, it was 3-0 by the 13th minute so Bayern took their foot off the gas and Hertha tried to allow as few goals as possible. Augsburg were able to score late from the penalty spot against Mainz to edge their hosts 0-1. However, Monchengladbach dropped some points when they only were able to draw with Leverkusen 2-2. Leverkusen did well to score first (in the 20th through Stefan Reinartz) but 'Gladbach were capable enough of striking back and even taking the lead thanks to goals from Marco Reus in the 65th and Patrick Herrmann in the 72nd. Unfortunately for them, they could not defeat Leverkusen even though they were down to 10 men: Andre Schurrle equalized for the visitors in the 87th and thus the game ended 2-2. Schalke were upset at home by Kaiserslautern who struck first and last to edge their hosts 1-2. Yes, Schalke did have Ralf Fahrmann sent off in the 28th which led to the goal from Christian Tiffert in the 30th but Schalke still had quality on the pitch. The Red Devils had Rodnei sent off in the 61st which resulted in Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's 62nd minute penalty conversion. And so, with 10 men each, Schalke may have been expected to win. Well, you are wrong! Kaiserslautern struck through Dorge Kouemaha in the 72nd to win it all. Stuttgart defeated Hoffenheim 2-0 while Wolfsburg were able to edge Nurnberg 2-1. On the other side of the Channel, in England, we had several titans doing battle as Chelsea beat Everton 3-1, Liverpool and Manchester United tied 1-1, Manchester City took the league apex with a 4-1 victory over Aston Villa while Norwich won over Swansea 3-1. QPR and Blackburn could only tie 1-1 while Stoke defeated Fulham 2-0. Wigan were defeated at home by Bolton 1-3. Last but not least, up in Scotland, Aberdeen took the 3 points in their game against Dundee United who they defeated 3-1. Dunfermline on the other hand were beaten by visiting Hearts 0-2. Motherwell remain in 2nd after a 0-1 victory over Hibernian courtesy of Jamie Murphy's 8th minute goal. Rangers were actually held 1-1 by St. Mirren despite taking the lead in the 48th minute through Nikica Jelavic. Steve Thompson equalized for St Mirren in the 5th minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half to halt 'Gers' dreams of further extending their lead over Motherwell and rivals Celtic. St. Johnstone beat Inverness 2-0.