Plain sailing in Madrid and Turin ...

 

As the season enters its crucial period, individuals can become heroes in key moments.

That was the story in the Spanish capital on Wednesday night when Cristiano Ronaldo netted yet another hat-trick to guide Real Madrid past city rivals Atletico, and in Turin where Alessandro Del Piero came off the bench to seal a vital win for Juventus over Lazio to send his side to the top of the Serie A table.

However, in Germany it was a different state of affairs when Arjen Robben sunk his Bayern Munich side in the defeat at Borussia Dortmund. 

First the Dutchman played Robert Lewandowski onside for the only goal of the game, before he twice cost his team a point when he failed to convert a penalty and then missed from close range. It's sink-or-swim time for Bayern in the title race, but it looks like Arjen is doing both.

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Pele set to unleash his jinx online

 

Brazilian football icon Pele caused a stir in the Twittersphere on Monday by becoming the latest high-profile figure within the game to join the micro-blogging site, instantly amassing over 145,000 followers. The 71-year-old launched his account by tweeting: "Hello world, thank you for welcoming me to Twitter. I am very excited to share my life with you. Love, Pele."

So far, so banal. While widely regarded as one of the greatest to have ever played the game, the 71-year-old has also earned a reputation for quirky sound bites and dubious predictions. It is only a matter of time before he refers to himself in the third person, calls out Diego Maradona and predicts the USA to be the next superpowers in world football - although the 140 character limit might prove to be a bit of a hindrance.
 

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Di Matteo forced into juggling act in Chelsea fixture circus

 

Victory would have seen Chelsea rise to fourth position in the league, taking a huge step towards qualification for next season's Champions League. However, the result meant that the west Londoners remain in sixth position, two points behind the vital cut-off spot for Europe's premier club competition.

With the team still competing on three fronts, the pressure on Chelsea is increasing by the week. It will need to be a fine balancing act if Di Matteo is to mastermind his side to success in the FA Cup and Champions League, as well as a top-four finish.

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'Why always me?' Mancini ponders ...

 

Roberto Mancini was left asking: 'Why always me?' on Sunday, as his Manchester City side lost 1-0 at Arsenal to leave them eight points behind Manchester United in the race for the Premier League title.

A late Mikel Arteta goal sealed the three points for the Gunners, but it was the antics of Mario Balotelli that really grabbed the headlines after the Italian was sent off for two bookable offences, and was his usual petulant self throughout the game.

Having just dealt with the Carlos Tevez saga, Mancini must be wondering why he has to keep babysitting his players while fighting Sir Alex Ferguson for the Premier League crown.
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Conte snatches Scudetto shield from Allegri's grasp

 

After AC Milan suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina on Saturday, Juventus took the initiative in the race for the Scudetto by reclaiming top spot with a 2-0 win over Palermo in the early evening fixture.

With just seven games left to play, the unbeaten Bianconeri now lead the sprint for the Serie A title, and coach Antonio Conte will be hoping his side can hold on to their advantage and see off Massimiliano Allegri's reigning champions.

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Cisse at the double as Pardew hits the jackpot

 

This time last year, Newcastle United were struggling for goals in the wake of Andy Carroll's £35 million departure to Liverpool, but 2011-12 has been a different story. It was Demba Ba who won all the plaudits in the first part of the season, but January changed all that, as a certain Senegalese striker named Papiss Cisse arrived at St James' Park from Freiburg for a significantly lesser fee than was received for the much-derided England striker.

And Cisse hasn't looked back since, scoring the winner on his debut against Aston Villa. While Ba has struggled to replicate his early form following the Africa Cup of Nations, his countryman has continued to rake in the goals. His most recent double against Swansea meant he has now scored more than once a game - nine in eight matches - delighting manager Alan Pardew and leaving Harry Redknapp and Arsene Wenger to ponder what could have been ...
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Lost for ideas!

 

It has been a season to forget for Alexandre Pato. The AC Milan striker has scored just four times in nine starts this season, but for a moment it appeared his campaign had turned a corner after reportedly declining a big-money transfer to French giants Paris Saint-Germain, in what was hailed as a refreshing display of commitment to the Rossoneri cause.

However, a recurring muscle problem has thrown a spanner in the works and on Thursday, AC Milan announced Pato will miss the rest of the season following yet another knock, sustained during his brief cameo against Barcelona in the Champions League. Club doctor Jean-Pierre Meersseman admitted the forward's injuries have baffled him and his staff, but they now have a few more months to devise a new treatment!

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Beat Barcelona, then we'll talk ...

 

When Andre Villas-Boas and Chelsea went their separate ways, the Blues were on the brink of Champions League elimination. European domination has long been the dream of ambitious owner Roman Abramovich, who has dispensed with a host of coaches, including the Portuguese, for failing to deliver his most-coveted prize.

However, under the stewardship of Roberto Di Matteo, the Blues have had an upturn in fortunes, and edged ever closer to the Champions League final with a 3-1 aggregate victory over Benfica in the quarter-finals on Wednesday night. However, the Italian will have to win a few more games yet if he wants a permanent stay ...

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One for the history books!

 

Barcelona's 3-1 win over AC Milan on Tuesday night put the Catalans into the record books again as they became the first team to reach five straight Champions League semi-finals, while also equalling the mark set by the great Real Madrid side of the late 1950s, who did, however, win the European Cup five years in a row. Barca boss Pep Guardiola, who had claimed before the match that his team would "need a ladder" to stop Zlatan Ibrahimovic, will now be desperate for his side to become the first team to retain the trophy in the Champions League era, and lift the title for the third time in four years.

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Ferguson's side sprint for the finish

 

Momentum swung the way of Sir Alex Ferguson as his Manchester United side earned a 2-0 win over a relegation-embroiled Blackburn Rovers, moving them a step closer to his 13th Premier League title.

They left it late, but after Antonio Valencia broke the deadlock in the 81st minute, Ashley Young added a second in a performance which Ferguson stated 'typfied the history' of Manchester United. The Red Devils stretched their lead at the summit of the league to five points as their arch-rivals Manchester City slipped up at home to Sunderland.

Since losing their first game of the calendar year to Newcastle United, Ferguson has led the reigning Premier League champions to 31 points from a possible 33, putting them in the lead of the race for the title.

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Liverpool trip up after comedy of errors

 

It was a day to forget for Kenny Dalglish and his Liverpool side as they went down 2-0 to Champions League-chasing Newcastle at St. James' Park on Sunday.

In a comedy of errors that encapsulated the Mersysiders' entire campaign, Andy Carroll was booked early on for diving when he had already rounded Magpies keeper Tim Krul. Pepe Reina was then sent off late on for a headbutt on James Perch, which resulted in left-back Jose Enrique pulling on the gloves.

Dour Scot Dalglish was left exasperated at the final whistle, as his side look to have let Champions League football - much like Carroll - slip from under them for another year.
 
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Mancini left tearing his hair out as City, Balotelli & Aguero self-destruct

 

Eight points clear at the top of the Premier League at one point earlier in the season, Manchester City now find themselves two points adrift of Manchester United after Saturday's 3-3 draw with Sunderland, having played a game more than their city rivals.

Sergio Aguero reportedly ruled himself out of action for two weeks by slipping down the steps of the team coach, while Mario Balotelli and Aleksandar Kolarov had to be pulled apart by team-mates after squaring up over a free-kick during the Sunderland epic. Anything and everything seems to be going wrong for City at the moment. It's no wonder, then, that manager Roberto Mancini is currently tearing his hair out, while United counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson laps it all up. 

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Manchester City go fishing

 

With the summer transfer window fast approaching, Manchester City have started planning their next big-money moves, with some of the world's best players being linked with a switch to the Etihad Stadium.

Despite Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Robin van Persie reportedly being targets for the English club, an audacious plan to lure Cristiano Ronaldo to Eastlands is rumoured to be in place.

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Neymar looks up to his idols

 

Neymar's future has been the subject of constant speculation, as it becomes apparent that the Brazilian could move to either Real Madrid or Barcelona in due course. However, the tug-of-war between the Clasico rivals shows no signs of subsiding in the near future, with the Santos starlet admitting that he looks to both Los Blancos superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and Blaugrana icon Lionel Messi for inspiration.

"I have both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as my idols. If I can take a little of each player's game and make it my own, I would be very happy," Neymar stated in a recent interview. It's clear that the talented Santos star has set himself the target of walking in the footsteps of his heroes.

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Cry me a river!

 

Barcelona's 0-0 draw with AC Milan in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday was an entertaining spectacle, despite no goals being scored, but unsurprisingly the clash had more than a hint of controversy.

It centred around the state of the San Siro turf, which Barca coach Pep Guardiola and star duo Xavi and Javier Mascherano moaned was not suitably watered to allow them to utilise their tiki-taka passing style. The club have lodged a formal complaint to Uefa about the poor condition of the pitch, but the trio's tears would have been enough to moisten the surface ...

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Balotelli gatecrashes Stramaccioni's Inter unveiling

 

Mario Balotelli's off-field antics stepped up another notch on Tuesday afternoon when he barged in uninvited on new Inter boss Andrea Stramaccioni's first press conference. The Manchester City star parked his Ferrari outside the building, strode in unexpectedly, shook hands with the coach and the Inter directors, and then left just as abruptly as he came.

The incident is the latest in a long line of unpredictable shenanigans concerning the volatile 21-year-old, who has created more headlines off the pitch than on it in his short career.

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Ranieri the clown is fired from the Inter circus

 

After a string of sub-standard results, Claudio Ranieri was sacked as Inter coach on Monday night and was replaced by Primavera trainer Andrea Stramaccioni.

The final straw came when the Nerazzurri suffered a 2-0 loss against Juventus in the Derby d'Italia at the weekend.

Ranieri leaves Inter in eighth place in Serie A, eliminated from the Champions League and 10 points away from a qualification spot for next year's tournament. 'The Tinkerman' joins a list of 17 different coaches Massimo Moratti has gone through in the 17 years since he bought the club.


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Del Piero cements his place as the King of Turin

 

Alessandro Del Piero confirmed his place as the 'King of Turin' on Sunday as he scored his first league goal of the season in a 2-0 win for Juventus in the Derby d'Italia against Inter.

The 37-year-old forward will leave the Bianconeri at the end of the season after the club confirmed in October that the iconic No.10 will not be offered a new contract , but with his side now in the Coppa Italia final and chasing down AC Milan at the top of Serie A, could it be the perfect end to an illustrious career with 'The Old Lady' for His Royal Highness?

 

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بحبك دودل

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Masterful Messi gobbles up roly-poly Ronaldo's record

 

Lionel Messi made history again on Saturday night by breaking the record for most goals scored in a single La Liga season by a Barcelona player. The Argentine's first-half strike against Mallorca took his tally for the current league campaign to 35, thus securing him outright possession of a record he had been sharing with former Blaugrana forward Ronaldo. All and sundry were delighted by Messi's latest feat. Well, except perhaps for a certain burly Brazilian watching at home who has now been written out of the history books ...

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شو المشكلة؟

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Madrid and Mourinho batten down the hatches as media silence continues

 

Real Madrid have maintained their media silence ahead of Saturday's game against Real Sociedad. The Spanish capital club put a halt to the information flow coming out of Santiago Bernabeu in support of Jose Mourinho's decision not to hold a press conference after the 1-1 draw with Villarreal on Wednesday. The coach felt refereeing decisions of late have not been fair to the current Liga leaders, and is keeping his lips sealed for the time being.

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From Galacticos to Jurassicos - Real Madrid Island awaits

 

On Thursday afternoon, Real Madrid announced the ambitious news that they are planning to spend around $1 billion on a luxury holiday resort and theme park in the United Arab Emirates. 

Real Madrid Resort Island, as the project is known, will have a host of state-of-the-art facilities including a five-star hotel, and a water park. Club president Florentino Perez looks to be creating his very own Jurassic Park ...

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Mancini beckons Tevez off the naughty step

 

Carlos Tevez appeared to have played his last game for Manchester City after refusing to warm up as a substitute during his side's Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich back in September. 

However, against the odds, the Argentine came off the bench to make his first appearance since that incident on Wednesday night against Chelsea. 

And what's more, he then proceeded to provide a match-winning assist for Samir Nasri to secure a 2-1 win for City, and in the process reignited their hopes of a first-ever Premier League title. Football's a funny old game, isn't it?

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Mes(si) que un club

 

Lionel Messi made history on Tuesday night by becoming Barcelona's all-time record goalscorer with his eighth hat-trick of the season. The Argentine's latest treble, which came in a 5-3 Liga win over Granada, took him past Cesar Rodriguez's tally of 232 goals set in the 1950s. Aged just 24, the triple Ballon d'Or winner's latest feat is certain to cement his legacy as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, to have graced the Camp Nou turf.

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the queue of managers lining up to sign Hazard

 

Lille playmaker Eden Hazard is currently one of the hottest properties in European football with many of the Continent's top teams interested in acquiring his services. 

Roberto Mancini became the latest manager to watch the Belgian on a scouting trip at the weekend, following the example of rival Sir Alex Ferguson.

Chelsea are also intrigued by the prospect of Hazard, but claim to have pulled out of the race due to competition. 

Yet Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp warned that his side will fight the top sides to secure the Belgian's signature. It looks set to be a hazardous race to sign the 21-year-old, but who will come out on top?

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24 hours later ...

 

Chelsea's Fernando Torres finally got on the scoresheet on Sunday, after going an astonishing 1541 minutes without a goal. The Spanish striker bagged a double against Leicester City in the FA Cup sixth round to cap an impressive performance, in which his side won 5-2. The former Liverpool man had previously not scored in over 24 hours of football, and can finally lay to rest the quip, "he wouldn't score if he was there all day".

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Messi & Gerrard - Barcelona and Liverpool superstars forever

 

Lionel Messi revealed this week that he would like to finish his career at Barcelona and admitted that he still enjoys a child-like love of the game. Meanwhile, Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has claimed that Steven Gerrard's hat-trick against Everton shows that the 31-year-old midfielder can play for the Reds "for as long as he wants". With all of that in mind, one cannot help but suspect that these two great servants of their respective clubs will be around for many years to come ...

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Ibrahimovic gets ready to rumble in Champions League scuffle

 

The draw for the Champions League quarter-finals took place on Friday, and threw up some thrilling encounters. The competition's surprise package, APOEL, were pitted against the might of Real Madrid, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic will have a second opportunity to get one over on Pep Guardiola and Barcelona. Bayern Munich's star man Franck Ribery will have to face his former club Olympique de Marseille, and Chelsea's comeback against Napoli was rewarded with a tie with Benfica.
 

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Ferguson and Mancini join Wenger in hospital

 

Following Arsenal's valiant, yet unsuccessful, efforts to defeat AC Milan against the odds in the Champions League round of 16 last week and Chelsea's heroics against Napoli on Wednesday, the onus was firmly placed upon both Manchester clubs a day later to make similarly impressive comebacks, albeit in the Europa League.

However, it was not to be as United were alarmingly outclassed by Athletic Bilbao, crumbling to a 5-3 aggregate defeat at the San Mames, while City did not fare much better despite beating Sporting Lisbon 3-2 on the night. Furthermore, both Fergie and Mancini will now be consigned to joining Arsene Wenger in commiserating their European exits, rather than Roberto Di Matteo, basking his glory.

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Chelsea come back from the dead

 

Since taking over at Chelsea on an interim basis, Roberto Di Matteo has lead the Blues to a three-match winning streak, including a miraculous comeback victory against Napoli in the Champions League to make the quarter-finals of Europe's premier club competition.
The Italian coach's faith in the club's old guard seems to be paying dividends, as goalscorers Didier Drogba, skipper John Terry and Frank Lampard all showed they are not dead yet on Wednesday night, whilst Napoli star trio Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamsik appeared to let the occasion get to their heads.

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I Can't Dance!!

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Moratti clears out the old Inter garbage

 

Inter president Massimo Moratti may have dismissed suggestions that coach Claudio Ranieri will be sacked after the club's Champions League exit at the hands of Olympique de Marseille on Tuesday night, but the oil tycoon also conceded that he is considering overhauling his ageing, declining squad in the summer transfer market.
Senior players such as Maicon, Julio Cesar, Esteban Cambiasso and Wesley Sneijder have cause for concern with the Nerazzurri also out of the Coppa Italia, and needing a miracle to qualify for next season's Champions League.

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Hasta la vista, baby

 

Thomas Vermaelen's stoppage-time winner helped Arsenal move to within a single point of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.

Vermaelen, affectionately known as 'The Verminator', displayed the recent determination that has flourished among the Gunners and Arsene Wenger was full of praise as his side came from behind to win in their fourth consecutive Premier League game. They now also have a gap of three points over fifth-placed Chelsea and look likely to grab a spot in next season's Champions League, despite last week's elimination from the competition by AC Milan.

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The Premier League pendulum

 

After a truly monumental Sunday for the two title-chasers, it is now clear that the Premier League pendulum has swung Sir Alex Ferguson's way.

Whilst his Manchester United team were swatting West Brom aside 2-0, Roberto Mancini was sweating in South Wales. A late Luke Moore goal was enough to give Swansea a well-deserved victory over Manchester City, which could have a huge bearing on where the league title will be heading come May.

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The Strange Case of Dr Pep and Mr Mourinho

 

In the build-up to this weekend's La Liga action, Jose Mourinho voiced his opinion that he shared plenty of similarities with his Barcelona counterpart, Pep Mourinho. However in response, whilst admitting the pair are both hungry for victory, the Catalan trainer chose to distance himself from the Real Madrid coach's comments, stating that he would have to "revise his behaviour" if Mourinho's views were indeed, true. Is Pep turning into his own worst nightmare

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Neymar stills away from Europe

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Tom Waits

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I'm over here!

 

Wesley Sneijder was Manchester United's top transfer target last summer yet unfortunately for the English champions, no deal materialised.

The Inter playmaker now seemingly desires a move to the Premier League but with Sir Alex Ferguson focusing on other targets, Roman Abramovich and Roberto Mancini will surely be keeping an eye out on the latest developments from San Siro ...

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Bielsa & Guardiola grill Ferguson

 

Athletic Bilbao put a serious dent in Manchester United's Europa League aspirations on Thursday night, recording a 3-2 victory over Sir Alex Ferguson's men at Old Trafford. It was a familiar feeling for the English champions, who were convincingly defeated 3-1 in last season's Champions League final by Barcelona.

Perhaps Pep Guardiola and Marcelo Bielsa discussed strategies for beating United during their famous 11-hour football talk at a barbecue in Argentina before the Spaniard moved into coaching ...
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