Europa League Round of 16 match-ups!

Hey! Bored of hearing about the Champions League? Well, the action-packed Europa league's Round of 16 match-ups have been announced! AZ Alkmaar will be facing Udinese Calcio in their first match. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Italians continue their fantastic form. Meanwhile, Spain's Club Atletico de Madrid are going to be up against Besiktas JK of Turkey. While the Turkish side is talented, I have to tip the Spaniards to win this tie. Greece's envoy Olympiacos FC have FC Metalist Kharkiv on their slate for a set of matches that I could see going either way. However, I'll tip the Ukrainian side to win as they obliterated a decent FC Salzburg side 8-1 on aggregate in the Round of 32. FC Twente v.s. Schalke 04 should also be a good round of games with the Germans my favorites to win. Twente have been performing miraculously in recent activity but I get the feeling that their steam may be running out. Possibly the most lopsided draw for the Round of 16 is Manchester United FC's date with Athletic Club with the English giants sure favorites against a Spanish side that, while performing well, probably won't be able to compete effectively. R. Standard de Liege v.s. Hannover 96 is yet another tie with the Germans my pick to win: Standard's run of form will be hard-pressed by such a side as Hannover have. Sporting Clube de Portugal's date with death - Manchester City FC I mean - will be quite the event! After plummeting, City appear to have caught themselves in their domestic performances though I'll be interested to see if they can finally play internationally. The challenge that Sporting offer shouldn't be too insurmountable but the Lisbon side do have teeth. Last but not least, Valencia CF meet PSV Eindhoven on the field of battle with a chance in the next round up for grabs. The balance might slightly go in Valencia's favor but PSV can never be written off! Enjoy the games!

Champions League 2/21/12!

What an amazing day of football! I'd like to start with CSKA Moskva's 1-1 draw with Real Madrid. Honestly, Madrid should have scored one or two more after Cristiano Ronaldo got things started in the 28th minute. Despite their chances though, Real Madrid were only 0-1 up at half-time. The 2nd half brought no more goals for the longest time but all of the cards of the game were given out. Then, CSKA's debutant Pontus Wernbloom came out of no-where and plucked an equalizer in the 3rd minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half! The crowd went wild and Wernbloom was ecstatic. Congratulations to the guy and good luck to both sides in the return leg in Madrid. Meanwhile, in the other match of the day Napoli blew Chelsea out of the water! Admittedly, they allowed an away goal for the English side in the 27th minute from Juan Mata but to come back from that was exactly what they did: Ezequiel Lavezzi slotted home in the 39th minute before Edinson Cavani struck one of his own in the 2nd minute of stoppage time of the 1st half. Napoli weren't finished though and Chelsea no longer controlled the game as the 2nd half got underway. Committing 19 fouls in total, Chelsea tried to maintain themselves by pummeling their Italian opposition but to no avail - Ezequiel Lavezzi scored his 2nd goal in the 65th minute to give Napoli quite the lead to take to England. Enjoy!

Late Champions League Update 2/19/12.

Well, Zenit St. Petersburg were able to edge S.L. Benfica in their match in Russia! Having said that though, the Russian side didn't look nearly as iron-proof as normal. Maxi Pereira actually opened the scoring for the Portuguese side in the 20th minute. Jorge Jesus' men then conceded in the 27th minute to Roman Shirokov. That was the last goal of the 1st half. However, the 2nd half was much more explosive with Sergei Semak striking in the 71st minute to give Zenit the lead. Oscar Cardozo equalized, in the 87th, with a goal that further contributed to Benfica's good position for the return leg. Miraculously, Zenit were able to reclaim their lead just a minute later to give Zenit a well-deserved home win but quite the away goal margin for the Eagles of Portugal. In the other set of games, AC Milan faced Arsenal in Italy and hammered their guests by a 4-0 score line. Kevin-Prince Boateng gave the Italians the lead very early on: in the 15th minute. Robinho tacked on Milan's 2nd in the 38th minute with quite the shot as well. At this point, Arsenal were looking quite shaky. On the other side of half-time, Robinho added yet another in the 49th minute to make it 3-0. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's 79th minute penalty was really just the icing on the cake as Arsenal will have to seriously surprise us if they have any chance of winning at home and furthermore, progressing to the next round. First of all, they'll have to tighten up their defense. Scoring goal will be required as well though. Enjoy!

World Rankings Update. 2/15/12.

Well, Spain remained on top of the world but there was a lot of movement beneath them as Germany leapfrogged the Netherlands to push into 2nd position. The Dutch then were left in 3rd while Uruguay and England stayed in 4th and 5th respectively. Portugal actually passed their one-time colony Brazil in the rankings to take 6th while Italy rose to 8th place over Croatia and Denmark who rounded out the Top 10. Speaking of the Danes, they actually succeeded in kicking Argentina out of the Top 10 - down one position to 11th! Chile, Russia, and Greece maintained their positions while Ivory Coast moved up 3 places to land in 15th despite losing the African Cup of Nations Final. Switzerland maintained themselves in 16th while France and Sweden dropped to 17th and 18th respectively. The Republic of Ireland jumped 3 places to take 20th, just below Bosnia-Herzegovina in 19th. Ghana notably advanced 3 positions despite being kicked out in the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations to eventual winners Zambia who moved 28 places to rest at 43rd in the world: Gabon were probably the biggest movers though, going 46 positions up to 45th place! Congratulations to all the movers!

Champions League action today! 2/14/12.

We had Lyon v.s. APOEL and Leverkusen v.s. Barcelona today with the two sides who were expected to win winning two different ways. In France, Lyon edged their Cypriot guests 1-0 thanks to Alexandre Lacazette's 58th minute lucky goal. The players of APOEL kept it together very nicely as they held the French giants goalless through the 1st half before Cris found Lacazette inside. After taking a serious deflection from Paulo Jorge, Dionisios Chiotis could only watch as the ball flew over his head and into the goal. The fact that Lyon could not increase their lead bodes well for the Cypriot side when they play the second leg at home: I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to turn things around here. Their defense has been solid while their offense has done its job when it has mattered. Now then, over to Barca's match with Leverkusen now where the Spanish visitors controlled 78% of possession in the 1st half while only managing 1 goal. Admittedly though Alexis Sanchez's 41st minute strike was well-deserved and the Catalan side needed nothing more as they defeated their German hosts 1-3. Michael Kadlec gave the Spaniards something to think about though, and the Germans something to fight for as he slotted home in the 52nd minute from a beautiful cross by Vedran Corluka which he headed past Victor Valdes. The crowd literally went wild. Alexis Sanchez responded quickly enough though, toying with the Leverkusen defense after an incisive ball from Barca's workhorse Cesc Fabregas found him in space. He went around Bayer's goalkeeper Bernd Leno before passing the ball into the back of the net. Despite the 2nd goal, Leverkusen stayed active in the game, pressuring Barcelona and Valdes a handful of times. Nevertheless, things seemed to be winding down before Lionel Messi decided he wanted a goal from the match. Daniel Alves teed up Messi for a shot that the virtuoso never misses. Hope you enjoyed the matches!

African Cup of Nations Final: Zambia v.s. Ivory Coast.

It was a breathtaking ordeal. That is the best way to describe the final that took place between continental giants Ivory Coast and this years giant slayers Zambia who knocked out Ghana in their Semi-Final and won the Final. It was a tight affair to the end with the Ivorian's captain Didier Drogba missing an opportunity he had at the spot in normal time. The eventual title victory was in honor of the 18 Zambian players who were killed in 1994 in a terrible plane crash. The spirit and unity that the Zambians undoubtedly felt allowed them to play at the top of their game and lay claim to their first continental title in the country's history. And while the Ivory Coast did have an opportunity through Drogba that was missed; their goalkeeper, Boubacar Barry, made vital saves throughout the match as he stopped Nathan Sinkala's strike from a beautiful cross. Similarly, Barry also lifted a ball from Chris Katongo onto the post in extra-time. The rest of the star-studded line-up of Ivory Coast did have its chances though: Yaya Toure had a shot off target from about 10 yards out while other chances were stopped by the on form goalie of the Zambians: Kennedy Mweene. To be fair though, leading up to the Final, Zambia had allowed only 3 goals while Ivory Coast had allowed 0 - it was never going to be a high scoring match. But that isn't to say it wasn't exciting! The match was, however, decided by penalties as Tiote and Katongo each scored for Ivory Coast and Zambia respectively. Bony and Mayuka also scored. Bamba's first effort was ruled improperly taken with the Ivorian slotting home on the re-take. Chansa struck his in for Zambia. Gradel and F. Katongo each scored making it 4-4 for both sides. Drogba and Zambia's goalkeeper Mweene each converted their efforts while Tiene and Sinkala made their respective efforts. 6-6 then. One more for each side as Ya Konan and and Lungu each scored before the goalies finally got onto their games: Mweene saved K. Toure's effort while Kalaba blasted his over the crossbar. Things were finally settled though as Gervinho followed Kalaba's lead for Ivory Coast while Sunzu struck home to give Zambia the crown of Africa. Congratulations to the Zambians and thank you to all of the teams for making this a truly memorable tournament!

Mali v.s. Ivory Coast Semi-Final. 2/8/12.

Well, it was a good 1st half for the Ivory Coast and a mediocre 2nd half for both sides as the "Golden Generation" make it to the Final match of this African Cup of Nations tournament. Mali started poorly and never really got back into the game after they allowed a goal in the 44th minute - just before half-time! There were chances from the off for the Ivory Coast who really should have probably increased the margin of victory given the number of their chances. Also from the beginning were fouls with both teams committing at least 10 a piece. Despite the one-sided nature of the 1st half though, Mali were almost able to maintain themselves under the heaps of pressure. However, Gervinho collected the ball from Yaya Toure within his own half and (it was magic this was!) proceeded to dribble right into the Malian area before finishing into the far corner of the net with his right foot. Despite a half-time score of 1-0, it wasn't too outlandish for the Malians to have fought their way back into the match. The most they needed was an equalizer and they could have taken their chances with penalties. However, Ivory Coast were relentless and didn't allow the Malian side to do anything. The 2nd half was still controlled by the team from the Ivory Coast, but not nearly as effectively as the 1st half. A win is a win though so look forward to the African Cup of Nations Final Match this Sunday between Ivory Coast and Zambia! Enjoy!