Dutch Cup Final is 2-2 approaching the end of extra time between Twente and Ajax.
Waiting on a penalty shoot-out:
http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/63871/1/watch-fc-twente-vs-ajax-[extra-time].html
Bollox Twente just scored.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/2011/05/bluffers-guide-to-european-football-milan-scudetto/
[size=“5”]Bluffer’s Guide to European Football… Milan Scudetto
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<a rel=“attachment wp-att-2161” href="http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/2011/05/bluffers-guide-to-european-football-milan-scudetto/zlatan440/]
Italy
A 0-0 draw for Milan at Roma gave the Lombardy side another Serie A title. Zlatan Ibrahimovic secured his eighth league title (on the pitch) in a row, with five different clubs in three different countries. Mark Van Bommel’s personal haul is now a slightly-less-impressive-but-still-worth-mentioning eight titles in twelve years, this time courtesy of four different clubs in four different countries. A 3-1 victory for Inter over Fiorentina earlier on Saturday meant that Milan required a point from their visit to Rome to record their 18th Scudetto (if Wikipedia has been updated quickly enough to count this year’s one).
With two games remaining in Italy the focus shifts to the race for the final Champions League spot and the battle to avoid the drop at the other end of the table. Udinese’s victory over Lazio at the weekend (and Roma’s scoreless draw) leaves them in pole position (if fourth place can be a pole position). Goalkeeper Samir Handanovic saved his 10th penalty of the season in the process - a Serie A record. Udinese are two points ahead of the teams from the capital and enjoy a better head-to-head standing against Lazio. Juventus might still retain a hope of getting into fourth place also but they are an additional four points back, albeit with a game in hand that may or may not have taken place when you’re reading this. The final day of the season sees Roma at home to Samporia and Udinese at home to Milan. Two contrasting opponents in terms of form but the former may be playing for their survival, the latter will be playing for nothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--ofRoaU_pI
The fight to avoid the drop is where the real action is taking place. Bari are long since relegated and Brescia’s loss at home to Cantania condemned them to a season in Serie B. The third relegation spot was in Lecce’s hands at the start of the weekend but they were surprise winners against former title-chasing Napoli and hauled themselves out of the relegation zone. The Derby Della Lanterna in Genoa was Sampdoria’s chance to match Lecce’s result but they were beaten in dramatic circumstances. Nicola Pozzi had levelled for Sampdoria after Floro Flores had given Genoa a lead just before the interval and the game looked destined to end 1-1. Six minutes into injury time however the home side (down to 10 men by the end) regained the lead via Mauro Boselli to leave their bitter rivals two points adrift of Lecce and four behind Cesena who were also surprising winners.
Netherlands
It was Dutch Cup Final day in Holland so there were no Eredivisie games. The presence of Ajax and Twente in the Cup Final (they’re second and first in the league respectively) lent greater importance to the occasion which may have a psychological impact on next week’s matches.
<a rel=“attachment wp-att-2159” href="http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/2011/05/bluffers-guide-to-european-football-milan-scudetto/netherlands-europa-league-soccer/] Demy de Zeeuw fired the Amsterdam side in front after 19 minutes and the reigning champions were comfortably two goals to the good on 40 minutes with Lorenzo Ebecilio scoring the second. The match turned before half-time however with Wout Brama halving the deficit and TFK hero Theo Janssen made it 2-2 by the hour. Michel Preud’homme’s men (that’s Twente by the way) went on to steal the match late in injury time with Janko heading in a free kick from Janssen to win the cup for Twente.
The two sides meet again on Sunday intriguingly in a winner-takes-all-but-Twente-will-take-a-draw match in Amsterdam. League finishes don’t get much better than that.
France
There are still four games to go in Ligue Un so there’s still time for an exciting climax but it’s Lille’s title to lose after the weekend. A single goal victory at lowly Nancy extended their lead at the top of the table to four points on Saturday evening. Last night second placed Marseille travelled to third placed Lyon, hoping to reduce the gap back to a single point. The visitors had seen an early legitimate goal disallowed for handball and then a softish penalty gave Lisandro Lopez the chance to give Lyon the lead, a chance he took. By 70 minutes Marseille were two goals down and looked doomed. Less than ten minutes later it was all square at 2-2 and Marseille were in the ascendancy. Centre back Cris denied Marseille a fairytale comeback however with a late strike for Lyon, which keeps alive their own faint hopes of a title.
Turkey
Two games to go in the Superlig and it’s between Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor. The former famously lost the title on the last day of last season, celebrating their draw only to be told that Buraspor had beaten Besiktas to take the title. Their superior goal difference (by 3) is their only advantage over Trabzonspor and the two have been on the same points for the last couple of weeks. Both teams had narrow wins at the weekend – Trabzonspor looked to have dropped behind when conceding an equaliser with 3 minutes to play but Umut Bulut grabbed a goal of some sort to secure victory. Fenerbahce (with a much more stellar lineup, internationally anyway) were 0-1 winners at Karabukspor, thanks to Diego Lugano’s second half goal.
<a rel=“attachment wp-att-2160” href="http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/2011/05/bluffers-guide-to-european-football-milan-scudetto/bursaspor180/] Crowd trouble marred* the league once again with the Besiktas-Buraspor clash falling victim to a riot that prevented both teams from reaching the stadium.
* marred or made more exciting depending on your point of view
<span style="line-height: 20px;]Iberia
There’s not much left to be decided in Spain or Portugal other than records to be broken. Cristiano Ronaldo surged ahead in the Pichichi race, netting four times against Sevilla in Real’s 6-2 victory. Messi now lies 2 goals behind (on a mere 31) with 3 games to play. Ludicrous stats from both. The La Liga record is 38 (held by Hugo Sanchez and Telmo Zarra of olden times) so Ronaldo could surpass that.
Over the border in Portugal, I’m not sure what the record points total for a 30 game season is but Porto slipped up at home on Sunday. Two goals from Falcao (18 in 23) and a third from Hulk (22 in 25) had given Porto the sort of lead they’ve enjoyed all season but they dropped points for only the third time in 2010/11 with Pizzi grabbing a second half hat-trick for Pacos Ferreira to snatch a draw – the only points Porto have dropped at home all season.
Partizan won the Serbian Cup Final tonight 2-1.
Vojvodina put the match back 30 minutes because their supporters were running late and left the pitch before the end of the game in protest at the refereeing.
Last 15 minutes of Ajax v Twente in the Dutch final day decider, Ajax up 2-1, they have to win to overtake Twente
http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/64976/2/watch-ajax-vs-fc-twente-.html
3-1 Ajax, should be their title
Ajax win 3-1
Not European but fuck it… Boca Juniors just gone 2-0 up against River Plate:
http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/64882/3/watch-boca-juniors-vs-river-plate.html
I never for a second thought Ajax would win the league when I attended their home defeat to Utrecht in October.
The Bombonera is rocking.
This is funny. Check out Stekelenburg dropping the cup / plate thing from the bus, like Sergio Ramos recently. Supporter goes running down the road with it. :lol:
Unfortunately there will be no bluffer’s guide this week. So instead a quick synopsis:
[list]
[]Ajax won the league (as everyone knows) with a 3-1 victory over Twente
[]Ajax were much the better team in the bit of that match I watched though TFK forum favourite Theo Janssen scored again for Twente
[*]PSV’s draw at Groningen meant that Twente did manage to finish second however. PSV win a coveted Europa League spot instead.
[]In Spain Ronaldo scored twice again. Frustratingly there is still some dispute over the number of goals he has but he’s either on 38 or 39 which leaves him either with the record ever number of La Liga goals on his own or joint top.
[]Spain is all about the releagtion battle though. A bit of the bottom of the league table with one game left is:
Mallorca 44
R. Sociedad 44
Osasuna 44
Getafe 43
Deportivo 43
Zaragoza 42
So it’s 1 from 6 to go down. Fixtures are as follows:
Mallorca - Atlético
R. Sociedad - Getafe
Deportivo - Valencia
Osasuna - Villarreal
Levante - Zaragoza
AS newspaper have worked out that there are 243 possible permutations and the chances of relegation for each side are: Osasuna (2.47%), Mallorca (2.47%), Zaragoza (48.155), Deportivo (27.16%), Real Sociedad (3.29%) and Getafe (16.36%). The head-to-head method for deciding who stays up (and the further complications of 3-way minileagues) makes the whole thing very complicated and/or interesting.
[*]In Italy a late goal for Palermo at Sampdoria relegated the latter with one game left to go. Lecce’s win at Bologna was the final condemnation.
[]Lille won the French Cup Final with a late goal against Paris Saint Germain.
[]Marseille could only scramble a late draw in their pursuit of Lillle in the league so remain 3 points adrift having played a game more.
[*]Wolfsburg won at Hoffenheim to stay safe in the Bundesliga. Moenchengladbach managed a draw to give themselves a chance of survival in the relegation playoff, while Frankfurt’s loss sees them down.
[]Trabzonspor won 3-1 to keep up their challenge at the top of the Turkish league but Fenerbahce managed to widen the gap (on goal difference) thanks to a 6-0 win.
[]There is only one game left and both sides are level on points but goal difference now looks out of the equation with a 7 goal differential in favour of Fenerbahce.
[/list]
It’s actually 1 from 6 Rocko, Hercules and Almeria having already been relegated.
Indeed it is. I’ve made the required amendment. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Congratulations to Morten Wieghorst for guiding FC Nordsjælland to their second Danish Cup victory in succession. One of the good guys. 
Udinese sealed the last Champions League spot in Italy tonight after a scoreless draw at home to Milan. Roma secured Europa League football with a 3-1 win over Sampdoria - yet another goal for Totti.
A quick reminder of Ireland’s opponents on Saturday ahead of the eagerly anticipated TFK Tactical Preview which will appear later in the week.
<a rel=“attachment wp-att-2198” href="http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/?attachment_id=2198]
Macedonia have no suspensions for the visit of Ireland and their sole injury concern is to recent call-up Bajram Fetai. The ex-Rangers and Inverness player has been enjoying a productive first season in Denmark with Lyngby but picked up a knock in their final league game and is now doubtful for the Irish match. He was unlikely to play anyway, despite the public calls for his inclusion, he has only been capped twice and has been absent from most squads under manager Mirsad Jonuz.The home team are highly likely to play a variation on 4-3-3/4-5-1 again with three forward players interchanging ahead of a narrow three in midfield and a conventional back four. The good news is that goalkeeper Edin Nuredinoski remains in the squad and should start against Ireland. His ungainly attempts to parry efforts from McGeady and Gibson were instrumental in both Irish goals in Dublin and similar ineptitude would be welcome on Saturday.
The back four that started in Dublin are all available again so there’s no reason to believe they will be changed. Vance Sikov will once again fill in at right back, in the absence of a natural full back in the squad, and the impressive Goran Popov will play on the other flank of the defence. Noveski (of Mainz) and Grncarov of APOEL in Cyprus will probably make up the heart of the defence, though the latter may be under pressure from Daniel Mojsov who has impressed in Serbia this season and is attracting interest from elsewhere.
There will be at least one change in midfield from the trio that lined up against Ireland in March. Darko Tasevski has been left out of the squad altogether for this game so his place will go to either Despotovski of Inter Baku fame or Mario Gjurovski who plays in Ukraine with Metalurh Donetsk. Otherwise the experienced Velice Sumulikoski will continue in midfield and Demiri of FC Thun in Switzerland will complete the triptych.
Macedonia are strongest up front, which partly explains their attacking formations even away from home. Goran Pandev remains a class act and though he may be leaving Inter this summer his suitors include buoyant Napoli, indicative of Pandev’s current elevated status in European football. The threat of Pandev was superbly augmented by the movement of Ivan Trickovski two months ago and the APOEL attacker will fancy his chances of exploiting more gaps in a makeshift Irish defence. Completing the attacking trio is the rather more predictable Naumoski whose aerial threat caused few problems in Dublin. Stevica Ristic came off the bench to replace Naumoski in that game but his injury means that Aco Stojkov of Aarau in the Swiss second division will probably be the first substitute.
Macedonia remain a decent international side but no more than that. Their midfield is an obvious weakness, though unfortunately Ireland are hardly best placed to take advantage of deficiencies there. Any slim hopes they held of qualification are now merely memories so a properly motivated and well organised team should expect to take at least a point in Skopje, with aspirations for all three.
http://www.thefreekick.com/blog/2011/05/macedonia-the-bluffers-guide/]Read the full story here
PSG are being linked with a load of top names after their takeover by a Qatari investment group. Linked with the likes of Berbatov and Eto’o already. Another bad development for football in general but it may strengthen the French league a bit and bring it back to closer to the Bundesliga in terms of quality.
Not European but fuck it…
Argentinian season finished today. Velez Sarsfield had long since won the Clausura but the big story today is River Plate’s loss to Lanús which means River are in a relegation play-off with the 4th placed team from the second tier.
The Argentinians have a fairly unique league structure. They have two championships each season - an apertura and a clausura - that are of equal weight just to allow teams two chances to win a trophy. The aggregate performance over the two tournaments determines qualification for the Copa Libertadores and an aggregate performance over 3 years (6 “seasons”) decides who gets relegated. River Plate finished 4th and 8th this season but have been so poor in recent seasons that they’re now in a playoff.
Granada got promoted to the top flight in Spain after drawing 1-1 at Elche last night and progressing on the away goals rule.
Controversial game with Elche having a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside and Granada getting a soft penalty which was missed. A few tasty scenes afterwards with Elche fans running on the pitch to have a go at the Granada players (most of whom are on loan from Udinese) but ended up being closer to high jinx than a Vancouver style riot unfortunately.