Putin Cup - Match Day 9 Update

Match Day 9 in the Putin Cup was a night of Moscow derbies with top two Spartak and Dynamo going head to head in their final group games to try lay claim to the cup whilst Lokomotiv and CSKA locked horns battling to keep themselves in the hunt.




Lokomotiv Moscow  2  v  1  CSKA Moscow

A Loko side who’s recent form in the competition has been on the rise hosted a CSKA side who have in the past weeks seen theirs slipping and were hoping that their visit to the Lokomotiv Stadium would reverse that trend.

With honours even through the opening exchanges the deadlock was broken in the 36th minute Vucinic teed up Samedov who’s shot from the edge of the area beat the dive of the despairing Valdes to put Loko ahead.

It looked like they would carry that advantage into the interval until a teasing cross from Dos Santos was met on the full by Djuricic who’s header left Guilherme wrong footed and restored parity for CSKA on 42minutes.

In a nervy second half neither side were willing to push forward and expose themselves to the counter and with little in the way of attacking intent it looked like the game was going to fizzle out into a draw until the 83rd minute when Samedov was on hand to turn a ball from Zurutuza passed Valdes for the winner.

Smith will be gutted as CSKA’s quest for the cup and World Club qualification ended tonight and will be looking to correct the dip in form which has also effected recent league results, Owen on the other hand knows that this result puts Loko’s cup destiny in their own hands going into their final fixture against Spartak.



Dynamo Moscow  2  v  1  Spartak Moscow

Spartak came to the Arena-Khimki hoping to find a Dynamo side still recovering from the hangover of their brave cup final defeat to Bayern whilst Dynamo were hoping to brush that set back aside in their quest for another chance of silverware.

There seemed to be no sign of mental or physical fatigue for the hosts who started strongly and took the lead in the 9th minute when Denisov curled a free kick around the wall that Alvarado could only admire as it sailed past him and into the net.

Spartak were level on 28 minutes however when Popov laid a ball to Munoz who from fully 30 yards unleashed a thunderbolt that caught Victor completely off guard and out of his ground as it rifled over him and under the bar.

10 minutes into the second half and Dynamo regained the lead, Damari threading a neat ball through to Davis who struck the ball in his stride giving Alvarado no time to react.

The visitors pushed forward and began to dominate the closing stages as Dynamo tired, sensing the need to freshen things up Razzaque used his allocation of substitutions on the hour which did enough to inject the necessary energy to see out the final 30 minutes unscathed.


In a finely balanced game Spartak boss Houston will be bitterly disappointed to have come away without a share of the spoils and having relinquished their chance of winning the cup, for Razzaque this will have been the perfect tonic but knows that cup glory could once again be snatched away from him at the death and will hope tonight's visitors will do them a favour next week against Loko.


Match Day 9 Table P W D L F A GD Pts
Dynamo Moscow 8 5 2 1 9 4 5 17
Lokomotiv Moscow 7 4 2 1 8 3 5 14
Spartak Moscow 7 4 0 3 9 8 1 12
CSKA Moscow 7 3 0 4 5 6 -1 9
Zenit St Petersburg 7 0 0 7 5 14 -9 0

Match Day 9 Fixtures
CSKA Moscow  v  Zenit
Spartak Moscow  v Lokomotiv Moscow

Copa Del Burro Final 1st Leg - They think it's all over

Real Madrid v Athletic Club Att: 15,952

The first leg of the Copa Del Burro took place last night, and evebn with another 90 minutes still to come, one side looks an absolute shoe in to move onto the World Club Cup.

Second division Atletic Club must have feared the worst as they travelled south from their coastal base in Bilbao, but they made a bright start. So bright in fact that they took the lead on 16 minutes to stun the Bernebeau. 

Young Belgian starlet Ferreira Carasco played in Bueno who netted for the third time in this years competition. 

The lead was to last for just 10 minutes though. On 26, Neymar slammed home Cesc Fabregas' through ball. he Bernebeau erupted and Keane's men were visibally liftedfollowing a slow start.

Another 7 minutes later, and Hazard scored. To give an idea of Madrid's superiority during this spell, Neymar's goal on 26, and Hazards on 33 sandwiched misses from both Fabregas & Busquets. Essentially if it wasnt for Bravo, there is every chance that Madrid would have turned a 1 - 0 deficit into a 4 - 1 lead in just 7 minutes. As it was though, the visitors kept the score at 2 - 1, and that is how it remained until the break.

Madrid were keen to avoid a slow start in the second half, and just 2 minutes in Hazard forced yet another save from Bravo. 

60 seconds later though, Copa Del Burro top scorer Robert Lewandowski sent home a beautiful free kick to give Madrid some daylight, and grab his 9th Del Burro goal this season.

Just before the hour mark, Athletic Club were given a boost. Godin lunged wildly at Mbokani, and was given a straight red.

So with half hour to play, and a man advantage, could the north coast side get themselves back into the game? 

No is the answer. Aaron Lennon had a chance, but that was about all. Being a man short wasnt a huge issue for Real, and on 83 Sergio Ramos made it 4 - 1, effectively sealing Madrid's progression into the next round.

Gareth Crispcan be proud of his sides efforts however. Better sides than his will put in much worse performances against Madrid. And although it looks comfortable right now, if Athletic Club can get themselves a couple of goals to the good at home, the pressure will be backon Madrid.

It's a big ask, but its a challenge that must at least be accepted.

The draw for the World Club Cup was also made last night. Steven Beddows hosting iton Top 100 TV.

For the winners of the Del Burro trophy, a trip to France or Holland lies ahead. Given the way results went last night though, it is unlikely to be anything other than Real v PSG in the first round.The French side comfortably saw off Feyenoord 6 - 1 at home.

Although PSG are currently in div 2, they have an extremely strong first XI, and a game against Real couldpotentially be one of the ties of the tournament. 

We also know that the route for the Copa Del Burro winners would take them to either Italy or Russia should they see off Paris.

Juventus last night beat Napoli 1 - 0, and with it being tight they will know that next weeks journey south will be a tricky one.

In Russia, Dynamo beat Spartak 2 - 1 in the Moscow derby, but the expectation must be that whoever wins through in this encounter will be nothing more than cannon fodder should they face the likes of Real. 

TOTW Final Leg 1
Bravo A. Club - 6
Juanfran R. Madrid - 7
Marcelo R. Madrid - 7
Ramos R. Madrid - 9
Jucilei A. Club - 6
Busquets R. Madrid - 8
Fabregas R. Madrid - 8
Rodriguez R. Madrid - 8
Neymar R. Madrid - 10
Lewandowski R. Madrid - 8
Hazard R. Madrid 9




SM Top 100 Youth Cup Semi-Final AND World Club Cup "DRAW"

Today the draws for the Youth Cup Semi-Finals took place followed by the draw for the Quarter-Finals of the World Club Cup.




[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch



Achilles Cup - Match Day 6 Update

The final group games in the Achilles Cup pushed it all the way in the race to qualify for the Final to see who progresses to the World Club Cup.



Fenerbahce  2  v  1  Galatasaray

In a must win game Fenerbahce raced out of the traps looking fully intent on ensuring they did what was needed to secure 3 points and hope that the Olympiacos could do them a favour at Besiktas.

With barely 60 seconds on the clock Diego raced onto a through ball from Callejon and rifled a shot from the edge of the area that flew past a stranded Muslara and in off the post to put the Yellow Canaries ahead.

This set the tone for the game with Fenerbahce  constantly pushing for the cushion of a second but they had to wait until the 49th minute when Callejon was again the provider this time for Potuk who made no mistake from close range.

The home fans celebrations were somewhat subdued with news having come through from the Vodafone Arena that Besiktas were ahead meaning if that result stayed the same the score here was meaningless.

Then after the hour the news came through that Olympiacos had equalised sparking the home fans into life, but with their destiny in their own hands nerves began to creep in to the hosts and in the 82ndminute those nerves were put on edge when Pizarro set up Inan to finish sweetly and set up a tense finally.

Fenerbahce battened down the hatches determined to hold on to what they had and successfully saw out the final few minutes which culminated in an explosion of fireworks and flares as the home fans knew there team had just sneaked across the line at the death.

This tournament has never been a priority for Gala Boss Prince and he will be glad to be able to concentrate fully on league survival, Fenerbahce Chief Brown will now be hoping to see off their Greek opponents in the two legged final and take his side into the World Club Cup.


Besiktas  1  v  1  Olympiacos

Besiktas went into this game knowing a win was the only result that would definitely see them progress whilst Olympiacos had the comfort of being home and hosed, a point would be enough to ensure they topped the table and gained the 2nd leg home advantage in the final.

Olympiacos looked like they had the cigar on in a first half that saw all the threat coming from the hosts who must have wondered how they managed to go in at the interval level with Wolfswinkel spurning a hat-trick of chances.

The hosts finally got their reward on 52 minutes Vazquez turned and struck a shit from the edge of the area that Kapino managed to get a glove to but was beaten by the power.

The home crowd who had been edgy up to this point erupted turning the stadium into a deafening cauldron of noise but just after the hour they were silenced, Mogilvets split the defence with a ball through to Benitez who kept his composure one on one against Zengin to slide the ball under the onrushing keeper.

Besiktas had no reply and as the clock ticked away their resolve visibly ebbed. The news had filtered through from Fenerbahce and at the final whistle to a man they looked visibly distraught as their Greek opponents celebrated around them.

Vogeleer will be devastated to have failed to qualify after being in the frame for the majority of the group stage, his opposite number McLean will be looking forward to locking horns with his countryman Brown in Achilles Cup final with a Highland twist.


Group Final Standings
  

 P W D L F A GD Pts
Olympiacos 6 3 3 0 11 6 5 12
Fenerbahce 6 3 1 2 7 5 2 10
Besiktas 6 3 1 2 7 7 -3 10
Galatasaray 6 0 1 5 7 14 -7 1



Final 1st Leg – Weds 20th April

Fenerbahce  v  Olympiacos


Final 2nd Leg – Wed 27th April


Olympiacos  v  Fenerbahce

Churchill Cup & Von Trapp Cup Final Group Game Permutations

Tonight we head into the final group games to see who will head into the playoffs for the Top100 Club World Cup and with some groups pretty much done, there is still plenty to play for in other groups…




Churchill Cup Group A

Sunderland vs Celtic: A win for either side will mean they top the group and will have a home tie against Chelsea in the semi finals. A win for either side in the Man United v Newcastle game would spell elimination for Celtic, although a draw in that game would mean it’s as it was at the top with Sunderland as group leaders & Celtic as runners up.

Newcastle Utd v Manchester Utd: A win for either side would mean qualification, but either side would top the group with a win as long as there’s a draw in the Sunderland v Celtic game. Newcastle can also qualify with a draw as long as Celtic beat Sunderland.

Everton v Liverpool: Nothing to play for but PRIDE!


Churchill Cup Group B

Nothing can change, Spurs have won the group and Chelsea have finished 2nd thanks to Spurs 2-0 win over Chelsea they have a better head to head.



Von Trapp Cup Group A

Hamburger v Dortmund: With Dortmund already qualified, they only require a point to win the group and avoid Bayern (as long as Bayern take at least a point from Stuttgart). Hamburg on the other hand can win the group with a win, a draw would guarantee them 2nd place and even a loss (as long as Schalke get something at Wolfsburg) could be enough.

Wolfsburg v Schalke: Wolfsburg can finish 2nd in the group with a win but they have to hope that Dortmund can take all 3 points away from Hamburg. Schalke are out, even with a win their 3-2 loss to Hamburg means they cannot progress.


Von Trapp Cup Group B

VFB Stuttgart v Bayern Munich: Bayern will win the group with a draw or win. VFB can qualify with a win, but it might not be that simple, if Leverkusen win at Hoffenheim and VFB win then all 3 teams will be on 12 points meaning GD in those 3 games comes into play. If VFB draw and Leverkusen draw VFB will go out on H2H. Stuttgart can win the group with a win as long as Leverkusen don’t win.

Hoffenheim v Leverkusen: Leverkusen will probably need to win by 5 clear goals to guarantee promotion if VFB beat Bayern, so they will be hoping that Bayern can do them a favour by beating VFB. A draw or a loss would be good enough if VFB also draw or lose.

Monchengladbach v Basel: Wooden spoon game.





THE CHURCHILL CUP - MATCHDAY 1

The Churchill Cup got underway tonight (Wednesday) with the first round robin games in both the North and the South sections. Here is a round up of how the first games panned out.




NORTH SECTION


CELTIC ………. 1  MANCHESTER UNITED ……. 1

Celtic and Manchester United kicked off their campaigns with a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park. This was expected to be a comfortable win for United as they are doing reasonable well in Division 1 while Celtic are looking for promotion from Division 5 but although United dominated the possession, Celtic defended well and refused to buckle under pressure. The first half failed to produce a goal and it also failed to produce a Celtic shot on target but that didn’t concern the Glasgow side as long as the score sat at 0-0. The game looked to have turned Celtic’s way when on 48min Michael Carrick was shown the red card after having been booked just before half time but in true soccer manager style, the ’new’ match engine laughed in the face of referees and Rooney(53) got the breakthrough United had been searching for. The Celtic fans sang ‘one-nil to the match engine, one-nil to the match engine’ a Celtic tried to find a way back into the game. Celtic, at least, were starting to give the United defence something to think about it and they got their reward when Haraguchi(72) fired an equaliser. Ten-man United responded well and tried to find a winner but Celtic soaked up all they had to offer and the game finished 1 goal each and 1 point each. United boss, Joe Jordan, refused to shake ruts 66 hand at the end of the game in case the Celtic manager fell over in front of the referee, apparently a reference to the ordering off of Carrick.


LIVERPOOL ………  0  SUNDERLAND ………..  1

Liverpool boss Kinnear slammed his players after a disastrous start to their Churchill Cup exploits after they crashed 1-0 at home to Sunderland. Kinnear blamed his attack saying they looked uninterested and has promised to axe them (Sturridge and Destro) for the remaining games in the competition. It may all have been so different if Coutinho’s 7th minute strike had been allowed to stand but the linesman had flagged much to the annoyance of Coutinho who was clearly onside by more than a couple of yards. It is believed the linesman had failed to flag a goal offside last Sunday and was making up for it tonight. Sunderland didn’t complain and in fact boss Bullough was in stitches on the sideline and even held up a huge card with LOL written across it. The decision seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Liverpool players and Sunderland started to dominate possession. It was no surprise when Halilovic(29) struck a superb shot into the top corner, giving Szczesny no chance. Liverpool struggled to get through the solid Sunderland defence with only an Oscar shot that hit the outside of the post, coming close. Lallana and Gabbiadini came on at half time for the ineffective M’bia and Destro but while Gabbiadini gave it his all, he wasn’t getting the support needed to break Sunderland down. Neither keeper was worked hard but Liverpool were given a late boost when Baumgartlinger picked up a second booking with three minutes to go to reduce Sunderland to ten men but again they failed to take advantage and Sunderland held out for a famous 1-0 win.


NEWCASTLE UNITED …………  2  EVERTON ……….  1

Newcastle got off to a good start in the Churchill Cup when they beat fellow second division side Everton 2-1 at St James’s Park. It was a well deserved win for the Geordie outfit with some fans starting to wonder if boss Oran Robson is related to the great Bobby Robson. Newcastle were the better side throughout the 90 minutes and the only surprise was it took them until 42 minutes to open the scoring. The other surprise was that it was defender Mikel Gonzalez with only his second goal for Newcastle, that scored it. There was drama at the start of the second half when Newcastle won a penalty just 46 seconds in but Sissoko couldn’t even find his contact lenses in the dressing room before the game, never mind find the target. It was a let off for Everton and a chance for them to kick on and pressurise for the equaliser. Everton pushed forward and were all over the home side. Haha, only joking, it was Newcastle who kept pushing a listless looking Everton back and the second goal arrived when Cisse(64) knocked home a Ben Arfa cross. Everton at last came to life but it’s no good doing that after you go 2-0 down. Anyway, they hit back and on 68min Pereira struck an unstoppable shot that beat Krul to half the deficit. Pereira tried another unstoppable shot later on but it was stopped. The game was quite even after this but Newcastle were content to hold on to what they had and it finished 2-1 and three points to Newcastle.


SOUTH SECTION


ASTON VILLA ……………  0  CHELSEA ……………  5

Promotion seeking 3rd Division side Aston Villa would have been thinking they could pull off a shock win over 1st Division Chelsea but it turned into a nightmare as they shipped 5 goals for no reply. Chelsea showed how serious they were taking this tournament when they named an English player in the starting line up and it was that English player that gave them an early lead with Jason Henderson(4) finding the bottom corner from just inside the box. It was one way traffic as Chelsea pounded the Villa goal and with Rahul W considering filing several missing persons reports, Sanchez(19) added the second. The Villa Park side didn’t have an effort on goal until the 28th minute but Courtois made the save look easy by catching it with his teeth. There was controversy on 36min when Fabregas was adjudged to have caught Sanchez (the Villa one) with his elbow. Replays showed that Fabregas was very unlucky as he had quite obviously tried to catch him with his wrist. Down to ten men, Chelsea survived an Aston Villa corner before stringing together 429 passes before going up the tunnel for the interval. Ok, 419 of they passes were after the half time whistle but hey, who are we to judge. I don’t know what Rahul said to his team at half time but it made them worse. Two minutes into the half, Aranguiz made it 3-0 but there was more confusion on 62min when Sanchez was booked for a foul on Sanchez. We are not sure which Sanchez was booked but the tannoy started to play Me and Mr Sanchez by Blue Rondo a la Turk (one for the oldies there). So, yep, still none the wiser. Chelsea were now treating the match like a training game with Isco out wide running zig zag between cones. Costa made it 4-0 with 15 minutes remaining and with the Villa players wishing it was full time, Isco came inside from the cones to add the fifth with two minutes remaining. A great win for Chelsea and they have sent out a warning to the rst of the clubs that they want to win the World Club Cup at the end of all this. As for Villa, Liverpool boss Kinnear has been in contact asking if they fancy a game.


TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR ………..  3  WEST HAM UNITED ……….  1

Tottenham Hotspur got their cup off to a winning start by defeating fellow Londoners West Ham 3-1. Spurs had started heavy favourites against the 4th Division strugglers and it took only 8 minutes for Dembele to fire a low shot into the West Ham net but if they thought they were on their way to an easy win then they received a shock just 4 minutes later when Payet equalised after good work from Noble. To be fair, the West Ham players looked more shocked than the Spurs players and Reid had to be treated on the sideline. Tottenham were easily the better side but the Hammers were holding their own and they managed to get to half time with the score still at 1-1. In the second half we seen why they call Dave The Fox Piero, the squirrel. He must have went nuts at the Spurs team in the dressing room as they looked far sharper when they came out for the second half. I have in fact just been told that they call Dave The Fox Piero, the fox but we don’t know why. Maybe he goes round the gardens at night looking for food. Back to the game and Spurs’ dominance told on 66min when Icardi restored their lead with a shot that flew into the top corner. With the Spurs fans breathing a huge sigh of relief which, because of the freezing temperatures, almost caused the game to be called off for fog, Tottenham began to play the ball around and they finally sealed the points when Icardi (87) scored his second of the night to make the final score 3-1. Comfortable win for the North London side.


That’s all for the first night of the Churchill Cup and we, well I, will have a report next Wednesday night for Matchday 2


Ciao