Omar Momani cartoons: Puyol

Showing posts with label Puyol. Show all posts

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Ronaldo strikes again to put Mourinho in a league of his own

Real Madrid secured their 32nd La Liga title on Wednesday night with a 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao at San Mames.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 44th league goal of the season in just 35 starts, while Mesut Ozil and Gonzalo Higuain were also on target.

The victory meant Ronaldo - and his manager, Jose Mourinho - finally bowled over Barcelona, ending their dominance in Spain after three consecutive league championships.

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Didier leaves the Barca Boys trailing in his wake

In the wake of Bayern Munich's victory over Real Madrid on Tuesday, all eyes were on Chelsea to inflict similar punishment of their own in their semi-final first leg against Barcelona. The Blues were forced to adopt a counterattacking style against the competition holders, who unsurprisingly dominated possession for the most part, but in football you must grab your chances - something Barcelona appeared to take for granted, while Chelsea ensured their only shot of the evening counted for something.

However, their scalp over the Blaugrana would not have been accomplished without match-winner, Didier Drogba, who netted his third goal against Pep Guardiola's men. But arguably it will be his off-the-ball antics, rather than his goal, that will live longest in the memory. One criticism of the Ivorian is that he tends to fall to the ground a little too easily, despite his powerful physique, as evidenced by his countless trips to the Stamford Bridge surface. Still, the experienced forward had Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano trailing in his wake throughout the evening!

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Monday, January 16, 2012

Guardiola's jar of players bordering on empty

There must be another attacker in there somewhere... somewhere...

Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola might have scooped up the Coach of the Year award at the 2011 Fifa Ballon d'Or Gala in Zurich last week, but the Catalan trainer has little reason for optimism at the moment.

After previous injuries to Ibrahim Afellay and David Villa, the Blaugrana also lost Pedro and Andreu Fontas due to various physical problems last week.

Additionally, Brazilian full-back Maxwell left the club for Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the week, while Seydou Keita has been included in Mali's 2012 Afcon squad.

This has left Guardiola with selection problems ahead of Sunday's away game against Betis and the 40-year-old has to dig deep to find 11 players...

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