Friday, February 22, 2013

The shape of the hole inside the heart

Hulk ruins Liverpool's Mission Impossible

Brendan Rodgers' side faced a difficult task in attempting to overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg of their Europa League tie against Zenit St Petersburg.

And that became all the more improbable when Brazilian striker Hulk popped up to latch onto a poor backpass from Jamie Carragher and slot past Pepe Reina to give them a 3-0 aggregate lead.

But to their credit, Liverpool fought back in astonishing style, and were tantalisingly close to an improbable result. However, they had left themselves just too much to do in the end, with the Russian side advancing to the next stage. 

Boateng & Milan knock Barcelona off their perch

The best team in Spain. The best team in the world. The best team in the history of football. Barcelona have certainly taken lots of plaudits over the past few years, and few would have thought the Blaugrana would be leaving San Siro empty-handed ahead of their Champions League tie against Milan.

But that's the funny thing about football: it never quite happens as you would expect it to. Former Portsmouth duo Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari put the team in yellow to the sword with two goals in the second half, the latter a fine move and finish that hands the Italian side all the momentum heading into the second leg, as the Prince went about ruffling the feathers of Puyol, Messi and co. 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Bayern steamroller sorry Gunners

Arsene Wenger's time at Arsenal has rarely been as fraught as it is currently. Out of the FA Cup to Blackburn, the Capital One Cup to Bradford, and a whopping 21 points shy of Premier League leaders Manchester United, the Gunners would have wanted to put up a strong display in the Champions Leaguge against Bayern Munich.

But early goals from Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller simply flattened Arsenal, as Jupp Heynckes' men rolled straight through the Gunners with the only blot on their copybook a second-half goal from Lukas Podolski in the 3-1 win at the Emirates Stadium.

It remains to be seen whether Wenger will be able to straighten out his side in time for the return leg...