Week In Review News Archives

The teams for the Blue Square Premier playoffs had already been decided ahead of the final day of the season but, although the final fixtures would just shakedown the final playoff pairings, there was still a decent smattering of last-day drama.

The expected pairings for the playoffs before kick-off were Torquay taking on Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion and Exeter City facing Cambridge United but, with typical footballing predictability, conventional wisdom went out the window.

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It’s been a rather exciting week for American soccer fans. For the benefit of those overseas (and all those in the US that are living under a rock), I have compiled some of the more newsworthy items in the past week or so:

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I won’t mention anything about what happened to Arsenal’s Eduardo over the weekend, since it’s been talked about plenty already, but I send my get well wishes towards him, and hope he’s back scoring goals (but not against Manchester United) again as soon as possible.

It was a pretty important weekend of football in the Premier League, with the race for the title and for European places getting ever tighter as we edge towards the home stretch.

At the other end, the relegation battle is ongoing, and though it’s almost a given that Derby will be playing Championship football next term, several other sides are fighting to not join the Rams in the second level.

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While the Premier League title race rages on, things are edging closer to completion below the top flight.

There are limited spots on the elevator up, but there are plenty of teams trying to throw some elbows and trip some others up to secure their place on the next level.

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It was a great night, for the most part, for British sides in the UEFA Cup on Thursday night, as four of the five British participants still in the competition advanced to the round of 16.

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‘Tis a little late, but here are the highlights from Wednesday night’s Champions League ties, in case you missed any of the action. And if you did, well, you missed some exciting moments, great finishes, and near misses, which is where we’ll kick off the highlights.

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Rather than structure this week’s review chronologically, as is the custom, I would like first to invite you readers to participate in the interactive part of our service by voting for which Arsenal player will be ejected from the pitch if/when the Gunners suffer humiliation at the hands of AC Milan this week. Read on to find out what I’m on about.

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Weeks during which we can find simultaneous quality fixtures are rare in any sport, but it would be fair to say that this year, the month of February has been spoiling football fans worldwide. We had Barcelona-Sevilla, Chelsea-Liverpool, and Cameroon-Egypt last week-end, it is now time for a fresh batch of footy awesomeness this week-end.

• Manchester United vs. Arsenal
• Juventus vs. Roma
• Marseille vs. Paris St. Germain

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Things are looking good for the English clubs in the UEFA Cup after Everton, Tottenham, and Bolton each won the first legs of their round of 32 ties.

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Hugo Steckelmacher returns with a somewhat late review for last week - excuses range from the fatigue from writing encyclopedia entries for Dave Penny and Tony Mowbray to waiting to watch Arsenal play at home on Monday night. Arsenal! A Spurs man!

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The top stories this week - Arsenal overtaking Manchester United at the top of the Premier League, the end of the january transfer window (questionable signings coupled with last-day shenanigans), Capello’s first England squad and life in the Championship.

Deal or no deal?

Whilst transfer deadline day generally passed in a haze of tiresome tedium – thankfully I didn’t have to endure the torture of Sky Sports News exclusive interviews as the window creaked painstakingly shut – some interesting transfers did at least eventually develop:

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Allegations of match-fixing approaches and resigning coaches have stole some of the headlines in the African Cup of Nations over the last several days, but while all of that’s going on, there’s a pretty entertaining football competition to turn your attention to at the same time.

The four groups are in the midst of wrapping up their final round of group stage matches, and several sides are still mathematically in the running to qualify for for the quarterfinals.

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Soccerlens’s Hugo Steckelmacher looks back at the week gone by in the slightly crazy and always entertaining world of football.

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Premier League sides have been dropping like flies in the last couple of rounds of the FA Cup, and two more fell on Sunday.

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It’s time to take a trip around Europe once again to see how some of the other leagues in the continent are shaking out as we head towards the new year (you did know that there was football beyond the English Premier League, right?).

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Grand Slam Sunday headlined Week 17 of the English Premier League season, with Manchester United edging Liverpool at Anfield, and Arsenal poking past Chelsea to remain on top of the league table.

But, that wasn’t the only action worth watching this past weekend, as there were eight fixtures on Saturday that preceded Sunday’s top-of-the-table showdowns.

Who came out of round 17 with reason to smile, and who was left to kick themselves? We’ve got the weekend’s winners and losers below, with a roundup of all of the action.

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After 12 enthralling nights of action, the Champions League group stage came to an end on Wednesday night, as the last two places in the round of 16 were decided.

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It seems that English clubs like taking the tough route in the Champions League, don’t they?

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Our European tour starts in France, where Lyon, as is to be expected by now, are standing alone atop the Ligue 1 standings, but aren’t running away with their seventh straight title just yet.

With their upcoming Champions League clash with Rangers in mind, Lyon manager Alain Perrin sat several key players for Saturday’s tie at Caen, and as a result, may have sacrificed three points, as the home side used an early goal to pick up a 1-0 victory.

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Echoing with my Europe’s Most Expensive Benchwarmers article, this week the Daily Mail thought about taking a look at the added values of players selected on the substitute bench, for last week-end’s English Premier League matches. Or, in other words: “How expensive was your team’s bench at the weekend”? The results are pretty frightening.

According to the Mail, “players who cost their clubs a total of £300.5m (€416m) in fees —including 58 internationals— were on the bench in last weekend’s 10 top-flight games. Shivering stuff. And those figures do not take into account Bosman free transfers or the value of players developed by a club’s youth system!!

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Barcelona-Real Madrid. Celtic-Rangers. Boca-River. Manchester United-Manchester City/Liverpool/Arsenal/your mother, sister, and cousins. Those are some of the most intense rivalries in the world of football. But, you can’t talk about intense rivalries without bringing up Fenerbahce-Galatasaray.

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The Thrill of Victory, and The Agony of Defeat

While the major European domestic seasons are just nearing their halfway point, a few leagues that I’ve previously mentioned in my world report have come to an end in exciting fashion.

Urawa Red Diamonds, recently crowned Asian champions just three weeks ago, must have worn down at the wrong time of the year, throwing away a seemingly secure lead in the J-League’s top flight in the final month of the season.

Urawa had a comfortable lead atop the league standings with only a handful of matches remaining, but while they were busy winning the Asian Champions League, they were also busy handing the league crown to Kashima Antlers.

With five matches remaining, Urawa held a 10-point lead over Kashima (67 to 57). Both had put together lengthy win streaks (Urawa five, Kashima four heading into the final five matches). But, Urawa picked up only three points out of the final 15, while Kashima didn’t have a single blemish, winning their final nine league matches.

The turning point was the penultimate match of the J-League campaign, when Urawa hosted Kashima, still holding a four-point lead. Kashima had a player sent off in the first half, but that didn’t hold them down, as a 66th minute strike held up for a 1-0 win, meaning the title would go down to the final day of the season.

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When will Arsenal’s bubble burst? They have been asking this for quite some time and the answer still remains buried in the mist. And it will at least till the next round of matches in the English Premier League rush upon us.

For the moment the scintillating Arsenal side conjured up by the wily old Professor, one Monsieur Arsene Wenger, remain top of the Premiership tree. Their 2-1 victory at Aston Villa on Saturday is their 11th in the league and takes them to 36 points from 14 matches with a game in hand with Manchester United still to play on Monday night against Fulham, Chelsea have stolen into the second position in the table while the other end of the tunnel is still heavily laden with traffic but not with goals with no fewer than 9 clubs battling one another to avoid the drop.

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While things are a little muddled in Groups A-D, the outlook in the other four groups in the UEFA Champions League is a little more defined, for the most part.

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After a long, long gap I am back on Soccerlens to do a small round-up of all things Manchester United. I hope I’ll be able to do this on a weekly basis. Let’s see how far I can go.

So here goes…

It’s been a very good week for Manchester United fans. In fact, if you see the results, it has been good for United for quite a while now. But this week one crucial win was eked out, and another side was thumped comprehensively. Let’s mention the two games very briefly before ending this with a few bits of news that we covered over the week.

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A quick review of the football news surrounding Barcelona in the last week or so.

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A quick look at the football news surrounding Manchester United in the last week.

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Here’s a roundup of the news surrounding Barcelona in the last week, as reported on the Barcelona blog:

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All the important Manchester United news from the week gone by, brought to you by Red Rants:

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I’m sorry, but there’s nothing remotely romantic about Newcastle’s current plight - they are in a mess, and it’s of their own choosing (the management and club, not the fans).

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