Today was such a weird day. Nothing really went the way it was supposed to.
United, 3 points, next game. That's really all that one should take with them from that game. It was never going to be pretty and it might be the most dull and unspiring performance from a United side since the 1-0 against Birmingham a good 4-5 years ago but dammit 3 points is still 3 points and we are hanging in there and not losing ground to... West Ham in 4th
Like I said.. nothing is the way it's supposed to.
Oh I watched the last 10 minutes of Liverpool-Chelsea and the last 25 minutes of Real Madrid - Vallacano. The first seemed like a good match, though Balotelli didn't do much and Chelsea deserved it. The Real one was good too and like usual another goalfeast (5-1)!
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Honestly, after seeing yet another lacklustre performance from Balotelli today, I think Rodgers should try starting Boroni instead. He at least seemed to move, whereas Balotelli was starting to collect bird droppings.
They'd do better with than 10 man than with Balotelli but yeah I can only agree. At least Borini will actually contribute something
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First, check out this El Shaarawy goal for AC Milan. They drew 2-2 with Sampdoria yesterday.
Now then, this is familiar; Alexis Sanchez conjures up some excellence to put Arsenal on top, only for catastrophic defending to undo all his hard work. Truth be told, there wasn't much anyone could do about Gylfi Sigurdsson's goal; that one was just pure jaw-dropping brilliance. However, Swansea's second goal was all terrible defending. Arsenal lost 2-1. Figures. After looking like they might at least have 3rd place all sown up at the beginning of the season, it's now open season for three Champions League spots, and only Southampton seem to want it.
Elsewhere, Newcastle's revival continues with a solid 2-0 win over West Brom. After excelling in the League Cup and the Europa League, Harry Kane finally got his due and started for Tottenham. Unfortunately, Pochettino forgot to back him up with a strike partner, a decent midfield to service him, and a back four that's not made of jelly and packing foam, allowing Stoke to rain on his parade 2-1. Sunderland drew 1-1 with Everton; Gareth Barry was stretchered off with an ankle injury.
In La Liga, Sevilla and Valencia both slipped up and dropped points, while Atletico Madrid lost 2-1 to Real Sociedad. Back to two-horse race? Speaking of Real Sociedad, word is they're about to hire David Moyes. In Serie A, Juventus thrashed Parma 7-0, while Roma beat Torino 3-0 to stay 3 points adrift. Inter Milan suffered a late sucker punch to draw 2-2 with Verona.
Next up, we have another international break. Friendlies starting Wednesday, then a single round of Euro qualifiers starting Friday.
All in all, 3 points from being so awful as United were yesterday is at least 3 more points than most of the other teams around us got. This season just doesn't make any sense
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Southampton should be used as the perfect example of selling players for more than their worth and taking in equal quality for far, far less. Brilliant really and they are completely worthy of their good fortune right now.
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That awkward moment when you change the channels and find out that it's the second extra time of Japan - Honduras (6-0), the match finishes and no recorded goal scenes is shown.
Faroe Islands beats Greece.......ouch! Was funny they were showing the Faroe islands roster in which they had 6 proffesionals and then they listed the other players, carpenter, lawyer, office clerk, brick layer. can't remember the last one.
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Managers. They're dropping like flies. A day after Georgia's coach rage-quitted after losing 4-0 to Poland, Serbia's coach Dick Advocaat followed suit and packed his bags. With both Ranieri and Hiddink already under pressure and the qualies continuing to throw up shock results, I don't think we've even seen the middle of these manager exits.
To the games themselves. Always eager to inspire to be uninspiring, England were lethargic for the first hour of their qualifier against Slovenia, before a Jordan Henderson own goal seemed to have the effect of a cattle prod to their collective backsides. Rooney, on his 100th game for England, earned and scored a penalty, before a late Welbeck double sealed a 3-1 win. England maintain their 100% record in a weak group, but who wants to bet they'll most likely get chewed up and spat out once they get to France? No, England, you do not get to blame the recent NFL game and the resultant pitch condition for your performance. Not this time.
Elsewhere, the upsets. They keep on coming. Austria shocked Russia 1-0 in Vienna. Fabio Capello joins the line to the guillotine. Slovakia beats Macedonia 2-0 to stay top of Group C, 3 points ahead of Spain and Ukraine, who were both 3-0 victorious. San Marino, the lowest-ranked team in the world, ends their 61-game losing streak with a 0-0 draw with Estonia. Congrats. Liechtenstein beats Moldova 1-0. Sweden drew 1-1 with Montenegro in Podgorica.
Next up, Netherlands vs Latvia, Czech Republic host red-hot Iceland, suffering Turkey attempt to get something going against Kazakhstan, Belgium vs Wales, Bosnia-Herzegovina travel to Israel sans Edin Dzeko, Italy take on in-form Croatia. Ooh, juicy.
Right now Sweden got two main things going for a probable qualification. That is that Russia is worse than us somehow and that it's now easier than ever to qualify. Otherwise we'd be out of luck by now and could just aswell grow crops and watch paint dry.
Watching the Iceland game right now and they are terrifyingly good with the old Swedish coach. They've been great for a long time now but what I'm seeing now is them really using all 11 players to the absolute max and I'd say Iceland is the best nation of all the nordic nations. Denmark and Sweden are much weaker than they used to be. Norway is about as awful as ever and Finland can never really get 11 decent players together more than a few times each decade.
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So I've heard Sweden will have a friendly match with Iran. Any ideas?
WTH? Bosnia is a great team (not as good as Serbia and Croatia though). How could they lose to Israel?
KnossosTNC, on 15 Nov 2014 - 11:31 PM, said:Managers. They're dropping like flies. A day after Georgia's coach rage-quitted after losing 4-0 to Poland, Serbia's coach Dick Advocaat followed suit and packed his bags. With both Ranieri and Hiddink already under pressure and the qualies continuing to throw up shock results, I don't think we've even seen the middle of these manager exits.
Temuri Ketsbaia was always a bit of a nutjob with a hot temper. One of his goal celebrations is quite iconic in Newcastle.
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So I've heard Sweden will have a friendly match with Iran. Any ideas?
WTH? Bosnia is a great team (not as good as Serbia and Croatia though). How could they lose to Israel?
If it's happening, I can't find it; maybe they haven't confirmed the schedule yet. Sweden are playing France on Tuesday.
Kinda hard to win a game when you literally have no strikers left.
Temuri Ketsbaia was always a bit of a nutjob with a hot temper. One of his goal celebrations is quite iconic in Newcastle.
Lol, that explains it.
Sweden Vs Iran happens march 31st 2015 so a while away. How the game goes really depend on how serious either nation is willing to take the match. lIke if Sweden bother taking Ibrahimovic along or it will be the B or heck even the C-squad playing.
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Oh yeah... Arsenal - Manchester United is 4 hours from now.
Damn. I watched the whole match. it was a classy match until injuries happened. We had lots of opportunities and played well but no luck could be found except Giroud's fantastic shoot. MCU wins 2-1, thanks to Gibb's own goal.
ARS 1 - 2 MCU
3 Shots on target 0
3 Shots wide 1
^lolwut
Wilshere and Szczęsny are injured. 
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Arsenal vs Man United was basically a battle to see who was the more wretched, and the winner was... ...Arsenal. Yay. The stats would make your eyes bleed: Arsenal had 61% possession, 23 shots to 12, 9 to 2 on target. At one point United had 0 shots on target and still managed to lead 1-0 after a Gibbs own-goal. Yes, there were injuries to Wilshere and Szczesny, but that was long after United were pretty much left with no defenders after Shaw went off in the 16th minute. Ineffective in attack, amateurish in defending, Di Maria had miles of space to counter into, which resulted in Rooney's goal and a subsequent chance which he should have... ...oh, bugger this.
That. Is. It. I've lost my patience and I'm hopping on the Wenger Out train. He's taken a team that's good enough to cruise to 3rd in a weak season and made them look like a bunch of amateurs. Enough is enough. Bring in Kloppy. Bring in Simeone. Bring in anyone! Just get this guy out of Arsenal!
Right, on to slightly less aggravating things. Costa was once again on target as Chelsea dominated West Brom and cruised to a 2-0 win, while Man City nervously survived a late Swansea surge to finish 2-1. Newcastle's renaissance continues with a 1-0 over QPR. Chelsea opens up a 7-point lead ahead of Southampton, who play Aston Villa on Monday.
In La Liga, Lionel Messi is proof that if you're going to beat your league's goal scoring record, your might as well do it in style, as he posted a hat-trick to smash Telmo Zarra's record of 251 goals to help Barcelona to a 5-1 win over Sevilla. The third goal was vintage Messi; dancing around defenders to play one-touch passes with Neymar, before finishing from 18 yards. Lionel Messi: 253 and counting. Elsewhere, Ronaldo scored a double as Real Madrid thrashed Eibar 4-0, while Atletico Madrid scrapped to a feisty 3-1 win over Malaga in which both sides collected red. David Moyes's Spanish adventure got off to a slow start, as Real Sociedad drew 0-0 with Deportivo La Coruna. Barcelona stay 2 points behind Real Madrid, while Atletico jumps up to 3rd, 2 behind Barca. In Serie A, status quo is retained after Roma beat Atalanta 2-1 and Juventus beat Lazio 3-0.
For Sunday, we have Crystal Palace vs Liverpool and Hull City vs Tottenham. In La Liga, Valencia will try to regain 3rd as they travel to Levante. The game of the night, however, will undoubtedly be in Italy; where Roberto Mancini will make his Inter return in the Derby della Madonnina - also known as the Milan Derby.
I'll continue to have nightmares of a United without De Gea. Easily the best player in United this seasons and it's disturbing just how much we rely on him right now but what else can we do? No defence to speak off and defenders that are more injured than not. The team can't really improve either until the defence can be the same for 2 matches in a row to start with. It's miserable to watch but it sure could be worse and that's terrifying!
Winning away against Arsenal is a great result in any case but if there's a team United should win against it's Arsenal. Arsenal hasn't been scary to face since the days of Viera and right now I can't see Arsenal becoming scary at all. Shame really since the United/Arsenal games in the early 2000s were some of the best moments of football in my life.
Didn't watch much else thanks to working late so will watch highlights of the other games!
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De Gea has been a giant this season. Those saves early in the game were incredible. Frustrating, but incredible.
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