31 December 2017

Happy New year to everyone

Some countries in the world are already in, some are about to enter in less than 15 minutes time and some will get into the New year. No matter where you are, we like to wish you a very healthy, prosperous and a happy 2018!

Reduced sentence

On 05 October, in a World Cup qualifying game against Argentina, Paolo Guerrero was tested for metabolite benzoylecgonine. In the middle of the month the world football association (FIFA) gave him a one year suspension and everybody feared that this great player will miss the biggest football event next summer.
Ten days ago FIFA cut this sentence in half. That means that the Peru captain will return on the pitch on 03 May, one month before the start of the World Cup. As the 33 year old striker is not pleased with the verdict, the Flamengo player announced that the fight will go on until completely clear his name.

30 December 2017

Ice cream + summer = perfect combination

If anyone of us think of summer, the first thing that comes on our minds is where to get some sweet milky product dedicated for this season. Plus, if each one of us is present to the World Cup, our satisfaction will be guaranteed. In these cold days it is maybe tempting to think about it, but nevertheless June is going to come quickly than we expected and surely an ice cream will be product number one to look for.
The world football organization has done a fantastic job connecting these two to be present on a world football event watched by millions of viewers. Nine days ago Mengniu group has signed a contract to advertise its products at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Besides our sweet and loving ice cream, this company is also making dairy products which is one of the biggest manufacturer and distributor in PR China. The agreement will be focused on three more items: yogurt, milk and powdered milk which are going to be promoted on all games, media platforms, tickets and spectators alone.

29 December 2017

Africa is searching its most prime players

Exactly seven days from now in the capital of Ghana Accra the African continent will know its players who achieved most this year, and last Monday the confederation announced trio of candidates for those various awards. The official name is 'aiteo CAF awards 2017' which will be divided in more than 6 categories (some for both genders). As always, here are going to be written only few of them.
To pick a team of the region all spectators will have to go on the facebook page to cast a vote. This time it will be 3-4-3 formation, voting process is already opened and will last until 02 January. For the first time fans will leave a 'historic votes' for best player on the website. So far only coaches and confederation officials voted on this category, who for this year are competing Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon) and Sadio Mane (Senegal). Either Cameroon, Egypt or Nigeria will win the title best national team. Contenders for club of the year are Al Ahly (Egypt), Tout Puissant Mazembe (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Wydad Casablanca (Morocco). One of the following three: Gernot Rohr (Nigeria), Hector Cuper (Egypt) or L'Hussein Amoutta (Wydad Casablanca) will be crowned best coach for 2017.

28 December 2017

There is always first time in life

Six days ago it was announced that RAI will not cover matches from the World Cup 2018 on its channels. This in fact is the first time ever at football World Cup events that Italian state television broadcaster will not transmit games on its platform. The right to show this spectacle in the country was 'stolen' by the private media company Mediaset which promised 'exclusivity and free' to all 64 games for its viewers. Allegedly the biggest sporting event on earth was purchased for 78 million euros.

27 December 2017

Football definitely is not for everyone

Just couple of days after the big match in Spain, commonly known as El Clasico, a dramatic news comes from Romania. At the western part of the country, in the city of Arad, a fanatic Real Madrid supporter burned his own house while he was still being inside. The fire was quickly spotted by his neighbor which called the firefighters who rescued him at the end. First reports was that he deliberately locked the door and lit the fire in his oven. After the suicide attempt, the 70 year old fan said that he did not regret what he did, was scheduled for psychiatric expertise.

Young player lost an important battle

The penultimate weekend for this year in Portugal, on Christmas eve, was shaken by a tragic death. Last year in November he was diagnosed with cancer, and past Sunday night Edu Ferreira has lost his life at Santo Antonio hospital in Porto. The striker played through all Boavista young categories, and few months before this terrible disease was revealed debuted for the A team. Sorrow and disbelief was present among his family, friends and colleagues, while the club, among other words, has issued a statement saying 'Edu has left, but he will never leave us!'. He was only 20 years old.

26 December 2017

CONCACAF announced its best players of the region

On Sunday, 17 December, CONCACAF has announced the best players (for both sexes) for 2017 in an specialized television show, and 48 hours later the complete list of other categories through its website. Here will be mentioned only few of them.
Form last Tuesday there was 6 winners in both, male and female categories (except for goal of the year). In a standard, 4-4-2 formation 11 players who distinguished 2017 are: Keylor Navas (Costa Rica) - Cristian Gamboa (Costa Rica), Hector Moreno (Mexico), Kendall Waston (Costa Rica), Roman Torres (Panama) - Bryan Ruiz (Costa Rica), Christian Pulisic (United States of America - USA), Hector Herrera (Mexico), Wilde-Donald Guerrier (Haiti) - Alberth Elis (Honduras), Hirving Lozano (Mexico). Award for an outstanding achievement deservedly goes for the Panama team, who for the first time will be present at the World Cup 2018, starting from June. Greg Vanney (USA) won the title for best trainer. He beat Colombia duo of coaches Hernan Dario Gomez (on second) and Juan Carlos Osorio (in third place). Jaime Penedo (Panama) and Andre Blake (Jamaica, who finished second) did not won the title goalkeeper for 2017. With his magic saves for its country and club, that award went to Keylor Navas (Costa Rica).
Two days earlier main categories were revealed in front of television cameras. The best female player is Alex Morgan (USA) for second consecutive year. From the male side this title belonged to the goalkeeper Keylor Navas (Costa Rica). Mexican striker Hirving Lozano was second, while another keeper of the nets Andre Blake from Jamaica third.

25 December 2017

Big help for referees

Middle of November the Spanish FA has introduce it on its championships for next year and now another country is following those footsteps as well. Nine days ago the French football federation revealed that from 2018/19 season video assistant referee technology will come into effect. This initiative was accepted from club presidents and the referee organization.
For the current season this system is installed and already running in Serie A and the Bundesliga.

24 December 2017

Another record falls from El Clasico

We all know what is the final result between the two Spanish giants. On the earlier (and rather unusual) time slot on Sunday afternoon, second goal for the visitors meant another record broke from the 237 El Clasico derby.
From 1965 to 1979, the great Gerd Muller in the Bayern Munich shirt scored 525 goals from 572 appearances. Today the pride from Argentina Lionel Messi celebrated his 526 goal from 608 matches for Barcelona, while he debuted in September 2004. These two players first have 'met' in 2012 where the legendary German with 81 goals scored was the best for more than 40 years. This sounded like a joke to the little wizard who gave 10 more (91) in one calendar year.
Scoring goals 'out of nothing' and knowing his abilities, the Catalan striker does not end here. The 30 year old next targets are: Josef Bican with 534 and the king of football (the unreachable) Pele who scored 643 goals for one club.

23 December 2017

Mysterious signal

On the second round of the World Cup qualifiers, European zone, one play-off pair was Croatia and Greece. Last Wednesday, the world football association has decided to punish Croatian FA with 30.000 Swiss francs (25.728 euros) due to racist chants and throwing objects onto the pitch from its supporters. With this financial fine they also got a warning, but it is not very clear what it implies.

22 December 2017

Deducted World Cup points

All World Cup qualifying matches for the next big event in football in 2018 are over past month, but suddenly has become actual again. Last Tuesday, from two regions, the world football association annulled 8 duels from just 2 teams. Both of them are guilty of fielding players which did not has the right to participate in the games.
Alarm in one game in Africa caused Nigeria where is accused because of Shehu Abdullahi, who played against Algeria in last leg. He was earlier suspended with two yellow cards, and due to the omission this duel is registered 3:0 for Algeria, although it finished 1:1 in 90 minutes. With this new situation, it does not change anything as Nigeria remained the leader, dominating group B. Also the team has been handed a financial fine of 6.000 Swiss francs (5.135 euros).
However, worst case of subtraction comes from the Asian continent. Due to 9 Brazilian players, which did not get citizenship (on time), Timor-Leste has been heavily penalized with 70.000 Swiss francs (59.906 euros). On top of that, their opponents are now 3:0 victorious in 7 games without a play: from the first round Mongolia is now the actual winner, but with this extremely late decision they did not go through to second stage. Because the guilty side won both games from previous phase, on the second they are additionally punished for 5 more duels: Malaysia (home and away), United Arab Emirates (home), Saudi Arabia (away) and Palestine (home game) from group A.
With this, final figures and overall statistics of all World Cup qualifying games are changed as well.

21 December 2017

'If you defend the trophy, we will reward you greatly'

The World Cup trophy is an award that everyone wants to raise, and next big chance is in summer 2018. Also with this trophy, teams get a good financial boost from its own associations, and one of them is from the defending champions. 
Eight days ago, the German FA has decided to give an additional bonus, if players will defend the title, with 350.000 euros. In a back-up scenario, for losing the final game each one will be rewarded 200.000, and third place brings stimulus of 150.000 euros.

20 December 2017

Timer resets to zero

From last year, Celtic is the first team which stayed undefeated for the whole season. Last defeat for them was in May 2016 from Saint Johnstone, and their fantastic run unexpectedly ended past Sunday against Hearts (this time with a big difference). During these two seasons the Scottish champions did not record a loss in 69 matches at the national championship, Cup and League Cup.
According to the European football association, a continental record holder and absolute leader on consecutive matches without a loss is Steaua (nowadays goes by the name FCSB) from Bucharest (Romania) with (unbelievable) 104 duels. Behind them is the Gibraltar club Lincoln Red Imps with 88 plays.

19 December 2017

Useful game creator that every team should have

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) is an association that notes history and records in the football game. One list has been issued last Monday for the best creative play(er) for the past season. Interesting thing here is that 91 football experts from all continents, between first and second place have done a big difference from even 157 points.
For the third year in a row, best football playmaker is the Argentine magician Lionel Messi, who gathered 247 points. Toni Kroos from Germany collected 90, while third place are sharing Brazilian Neymar and Luka Modric from Croatia with 81 points. Those are followed by: Kevin de Bruyne on fifth, Isco, Andres Iniesta, Philippe Coutinho, Paolo Dybala, Christian Eriksen and Cristiano Ronaldo collecting 12 points. This IFFHS listing has 20 names, and after the Portuguese, from twelfth player until last each have one digit.

18 December 2017

Dangerous politics

For 26 months Kuwait was absent from international football scene. The country could not play nor club nor team competitions abroad due to Governmental interference. After over two long years, finally, that nightmare ended last Wednesday when the world football organization lifted the suspension.
Staying on the same subject, last Friday that same organization is threatening Spain of throwing out from the World Cup which starts in June. Main reason: Spanish Government is interfering with the presidential race on the association. Nevertheless, kicking out one of the contenders for the title is almost impossible to happen in reality.

Player who will miss the greatest sporting event on earth

Every player is dreaming to compete to the biggest football show on the earth, but for this south American player this will slowly fade away. One of the best Peru international and captain Paolo Guerrero for certain is going to miss the World Cup which starts in June. Last Friday the world football organization suspended him for 12 months for using drugs. The 33 year old Flamengo striker tested positive on cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine before qualifying game against Argentina on 05 October. After being provisionally banned for 30 days after that match, now the record goalscorer for Peru is going to watch his team on television next summer.

16 December 2017

Catastrophic numbers

Football has always been a sport playing for the fans. However, most players (and coaches nowadays) do not think that way and in their mind is only enough to give one goal for passing through to the next stage or win the title (with a boring play). From what we have seen in this last tournament of the year it has been disastrous.
Goals: In percentages barely two goals, from 16 in total, were given in 90 minutes on 8 matches at the fourteenth edition of the Club World Cup competition. Six were given in the first 45 minutes, while 10 was in continuation. It looks like classification duels were the most interesting to watch as highest number of goals was 5, which was scored on 2 such games. Three matches finished with a single goal. Three players scored two goals, while 12 got single ones. From those 15 names no one has been honored scoring 2 goals or hat-trick in one game.
Copy/paste matches and red cards: Maybe it was agreed before to play like that, but 2 duels were identical copies from one another as both of them went into additional time, and both of them experienced same thing only in reverse order. In those 30 plus minutes we had two yellows and a goal, which were the only red cards and goals in the extra time: in the first quarter and first semi final. Four nasty tackles (two each) from Brahim Nakach (Wydad Casablanca) and Victor Guzman (CF Pachuca) received marching orders for the dressing rooms.
Punishments plus technology: Penalties are inevitable in every duel. Two of them were awarded (which were scored later) by the referees, who had the easiest job at the competition. Thanks to the technology, the video assistant referee system had to decide for one penalty and canceling two goals due to offside.
Awards: If there were less goals in matches, players always have big a smile when receiving achievements for the competition (although they have done little in it). Thus, the Adidas Bronze ball received Jonathan Urretaviscaya (CF Pachuca), Silver went to Cristiano Ronaldo and Golden goes to Luka Modric (both from Real Madrid).

Six goals are enough for this night

Classification for third/fourth place:
Al Jazira - CF Pachuca 1:4

Scorers: 0:1 36 Jonathan Urretaviscaya
              1:1 57 Khalfan Alrezzi
              1:2 60 Franco Jara
              1:3 78 Roberto de la Rosa
              1:4 84-pen Angelo Sagal

Final:
Real Madrid - Gremio 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 53 Cristiano Ronaldo

Hosts for multi-EURO project

Almost six years ago the European football association, under its old president, came to this silly idea to organize its football championship in different locations throughout the continent. The sixteenth edition of EURO 2020 will be held in 12 countries, and last Thursday UEFA has decided which are going to be the cities for this event. Earlier the organization wanted 13 nations to be hosts for the event, but after a 'great consideration' one country was thrown out.
For each of the six groups there will be two host venues: A is going to be the home in Rome (Italy) and Baku (Azerbaijan), B is divided between Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Copenhagen (Denmark), C will be played in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Bucharest (Romania), cities for D are London (England) and Glasgow (Scotland), hosts for E are Bilbao (Spain) and Dublin (Republic of Ireland), while F will be welcomed in Munich (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary).
Every host country is guaranteed to have minimum two games in the group stages. Opening match will be 12 June in Olimpico stadium at the Apennine peninsula, whilst one month later the English capital, who will also host most (seven) games in the whole competition, has been chosen to finish these 'nightmare of voyages' for all teams.

15 December 2017

Annual award in Portuguese hands

December is that time of the year when various organizations and magazines awards the most valuable players. Seven days ago, France football gave its yearly Ballon d'Or award to Cristiano Ronaldo for the second consecutive time. With this title, the 32 year old striker is leveled himself with his hot rival Lionel Messi for the fifth time, putting the Argentine counterpart for second place.
In the top five list for 2017 are also Neymar, Gianluigi Buffon and Luka Modric.

13 December 2017

Last couple of duels are now known

Second semi final:
Al Jazira - Real Madrid 1:2

Scorers: 1:0 40 Romario Ricardo da Silva (also known as Romarinho)
              1:1 53 Cristiano Ronaldo
              1:2 81 Gareth Bale

Additional information: On Saturday, 16 December from 15.00 CET, CF Pachuca will fight against Al Jazira for the right to be third at the competition, while 3 hours later is going to begin the final match between Gremio and Real Madrid for the title best club in 2017.

12 December 2017

Rain of goals stopped after 'non-important' game

Classification for fifth/sixth place:
Wydad Casablanca - Urawa Red Diamonds 2:3

Scorers: 0:1 18 Mauricio de Carvalho Antonio
              1:1 21 Ismail el Haddad
              1:2 25 Yosuke Kashiwagi
              1:3 60 Mauricio de Carvalho Antonio
              2:3 94-pen Reda Hajhouj

First semi final:
Gremio - CF Pachuca 0:0, 1:0 after extra-time

Scorer: 1:0 94 Everton Sousa Soares

Additional information: Video assistant referee was used for the first time at this event for awarding justified penalty decision against the Japanese club.

11 December 2017

Europa league draw for last 32

Mixed 32 teams are going to resume play for the never exciting Europa league in couple of months. Eight clubs which finished third, from the 'strongest' tournament are transferred and will meet with 24 teams, who were here from the group stage (and even some survivors from qualifiers). With seeded and unseeded procedure of 16 clubs, the European football association today have made same number of pairs for first knockout phase.

Borussia Dortmund - Atalanta.

Nice - Lokomotiv Moscow.

FC Copenhagen - Atletico Madrid.

Spartak Moscow - Athletic Bilbao.

AEK - Dynamo Kyiv.

Celtic - Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Napoli - RasenBallsport Leipzig.

Crvena Zvezda - CSKA Moscow.

Olympique Lyon - Villarreal.

Real Sociedad - Red Bull Salzburg.

Partizan - Viktoria Plzen.

Steaua - Lazio.

Ludogorets Razgrad - Milan.

Astana - Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Ostersunds - Arsenal.

Olympique Marseille - Braga.

We will have two dates and standard time slots for this competition: 15 and 22 February at 19.00 CET and 21.05 CET.

Pairings for first knockout phase

From summer, to winter and then (again) spring / summer or from qualifiers to group stages and the last part: knockout. The third piece for the 'strongest' Champions league today was drawn for the first time. Sixteen clubs divided in two bowls have find out who will play who.

Juventus - Tottenham.

Basel - Manchester City.

Porto - Liverpool.

Sevilla - Manchester United.

Real Madrid - PSG.

Shakhtar Donetsk - Roma.

Chelsea - Barcelona.

Bayern Munich - Besiktas.

Whole round is going to be played on 8 dates. February is reserved for the first 90 minutes - 13, 14, 20 and 21, while 06, 07, 13 and 14 March are the return games.

Club quartet chasing the final title

Three continental champions plus the hosts are competing for the best club in 2017. It has been disappointing tournament so far, but in the last five games it must be room for improvement. Players must score more than one goal in a match, otherwise this event will be remembered as the worst Club World Cup ever in history. Besides the final four duels of the year, there are also two classification games which are all going to be played next week.

Classification for fifth/sixth place:
Tuesday, 12 December at 15.00 CET: Wydad Casablanca - Urawa Red Diamonds.

Semi-finals:
Tuesday, 12 December at 18.00 CET: Gremio (Brazil, CONMEBOL Champions league winner) - CF Pachuca.

Wednesday, 13 December at 18.00 CET: Al Jazira - Real Madrid (Spain, European Champions league winner).

Classification for third/fourth place:
Saturday, 16 December at 15.00 CET: losing clubs from both semi-finals will play each other for the bronze medal (to be third at the competition).

Final:
Saturday, 16 December at 18.00 CET: winning teams from both semi-finals will play each other for the Club World Cup 2017 title.

With this event official football games for this year are going to be over, while local championships would continue to give us at least some fun for the upcoming holidays and beyond. Thus next first big official tournament on the football calendar is going to be resumed from middle of February. So see you all in 2018!

09 December 2017

More than one goal its forbidden to be scored

CF Pachuca - Wydad Casablanca 0:0, 1:0 after extra-time 

Scorer: 1:0 112 Victor Guzman

Al Jazira - Urawa Red Diamonds 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 52 Ali Mabkhout

Quickly was found new replacement out of nowhere

Almost unbelievable and very rare thing happened in a official football game last week at the Belgian Cup between Mechelen and Genk. The ending result was not that important as it was the real situation on the pitch.
Its unlikely to think that two referees will be injured during the match. Exactly that occurred last Wednesday night where everyone in the stadium experienced a shortage of only one 'man in yellow'.
When main referee Christof Dierick was heavily injured, then the fourth official Nicolas Laforge replaced him. But when the linesman was also injured during the game, in that case all you have to do is ask for help: from the fans. When the speaker had plea for an experienced referee, luckily in the stands there was an retired official who saved the night. Thus Luc Bosmans was promoted by taking the role as linesman.
Although his Mechelen team did not progress through to the next stage, the 40 year old spectator professionally did his job until the end.

08 December 2017

Winter part is officially over at European league competitions

Zlin - Lokomotiv Moscow 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 69 Aleksey Miranchuk
              0:2 74 Jefferson Farfan

Young Boys Bern - Skenderbeu 2:1


Scorers: 0:1 51 Enis Gavazaj
              1:1 54 Guillaume Hoarau
              2:1 90+5 Roger Assale

Basaksehir - Braga 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 10 Edin Visca
              1:1 54 Raul Michel Melo da Silva
              2:1 76-pen Emre Belozoglu


Hoffenheim - Ludogorets Razgrad 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 25 Philipp Ochs
              1:1 62 Wanderson

Dynamo Kyiv - Partizan 4:1

Scorers: 1:0 06 Mykola Morozyuk
              2:0 28 Junior Moraes
              3:0 31 Junior Moraes
              3:1 45+4-pen Marko Jevtovic
              4:1 77-pen Junior Moraes

Villarreal - Maccabi Tel Aviv 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 60 Nick Blackman

Slavia Prague - Astana 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 38 Marin Ancic

FC Copenhagen - Sheriff Tiraspol 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 56 Pieros Sotiriou
              2:0 59 Michael Luftner


Austria Vienna - AEK 0:0

Apollon Limassol - Everton 0:3

Scorers: 0:1 21 Ademola Lookman
              0:2 27 Ademola Lookman
              0:3 86 Nikola Vlasic

Hapoel Beer Sheva - Viktoria Plzen 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 28 Lukas Hejda
              0:2 83 Tomas Horava

Arsenal - BATE Borisov 6:0

Scorers: 1:0 10 Mathieu Debuchy
              2:0 36 Theo Walcott
              3:0 43 Jack Wishere
              4:0 51-own goal Denis Polyakov
              5:0 64-pen Olivier Giroud
              6:0 74 Mohamed Elneny

Hertha - Ostersunds 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 57 Sotiris Papgiannopoulos
              1:1 61 Peter Pekarik

Vitesse - Nice 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 84 Luc Castaignos

Zulte-Waregem - Lazio 3:2

Scorers: 1:0 06 Nill de Pauw
              2:0 59 Michael Heylen
              2:1 66 Felipe Caicedo
              2:2 76 Lucas Leiva
              3:2 83 Aaron Iseka Leya

Zorya Luhansk - Athletic Bilbao 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 69 Aritz Aduriz
              0:2 86 Raul Garcia

Crvena Zvezda - Koln 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 21 Slavoljub Srnic

Steaua - Lugano 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 03 Fabio Daprela
              0:2 31 Balint Vecsei
              1:2 60 Harlem-Eddy Gnohere

Olympique Marseille - Red Bull Salzburg 0:0

Vitoria de Guimaraes - Konyaspor 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 15 Mehdi Bourabia
              1:1 77-own goal Ali Turan

Real Sociedad - Zenit Saint Petersburg 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 35 Aleksandr Erokhin
              1:1 57 Da Silva Wllian Jose
              1:2 64 Branislav Ivanovic
              1:3 84 Leandro Paredes

07 December 2017

Below zero temperatures was heated when these players scored 33, also some fantastic goals

Maribor - Sevilla 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 09 Marcos Tavares
              1:1 75 Paulo Henrique Ganso

Feyenoord - Napoli 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 02 Piotr Zielinski 
              1:1 33 Nicolai Jorgensen
              2:1 90+1 Jeremiah Saint Juste

Porto - Monaco 5:2

Scorers: 1:0 09 Vincent Aboubakar
              2:0 33 Vincent Aboubakar
              3:0 45 Yacine Brahimi
              3:1 61-pen Kamil Glik
              4:1 65 Alex Nicolao Telles
              4:2 77 Radamel Falcao
              5:2 88 Tiquinho Soares

Liverpool - Spartak Moscow 7:0

Scorers: 1:0 04-pen Philippe Coutinho
              2:0 15 Philippe Coutinho
              3:0 18 Roberto Firmino
              4:0 47 Sadio Mane
              5:0 50 Philippe Coutinho
              6:0 75 Sadio Mane
              7:0 85 Mohamed Salah

Real Madrid - Borussia Dortmund 3:2

Scorers: 1:0 08 Borja Mayoral
              2:0 12 Cristiano Ronaldo
              2:1 43 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
              2:2 48 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
              3:2 80 Lucas Vazquez

RasenBallsport Leipzig - Besiktas 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 10-pen Alvaro Negredo
              1:1 87 Naby Keita
              1:2 90 Anderson Talisca

Tottenham - APOEL Nicosia 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 20 Fernando Llorente
              2:0 37 Son Heung-Min
              3:0 80 Georges-Kevin N'Koudou

Shakhtar Donetsk - Manchester City 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 25 Bernard
              2:0 32 Ismaily Goncalves dos Santos
              2:1 90+2-pen Sergio Aguero

06 December 2017

Small advantage enough for quarter finals

Al Jazira - Auckland City 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 37 Romarinho

Additional information: This Saturday, from 17.30CET, the second duel will be clash between Asian representatives: the hosts (Al Jazira) and Champions league winner (Urawa Red Diamonds).

Disastrous first halves

Benfica - Basel 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 05 Mohamed Elyounoussi
              0:2 64 Dimitri Oberlin

Celtic - Anderlecht 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 62-own goal Jozo Simunovic

Manchester United - CSKA Moscow 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 45 Alan Dzagoev
              1:1 64 Romelu Lukaku
              2:1 65 Marcus Rashford

Chelsea - Atletico Madrid 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 55 Saul Niguez
              1:1 74-own goal Stefan Savic

Roma - Qarabag 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 53 Diego Perotti

Barcelona - Sporting Clube de Portugal 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 58 Alcacer Paco
              2:0 90+1-own goal Jeremy Mathieu

05 December 2017

Latest player on tax evasion list

Lying to state authorities nowadays has become a bad habit and one of the dirtiest business overall. To this endless list has joined one of the best midfielders.
Together with his wife and agent at the same moment Vanja, the Real Madrid player Luka Modric are accused of not donating money to the state. Last Wednesday, the Spanish state prosecution office indict the Croatian couple for not giving 870.728 euros tax money. The prosecution believes that this amount may be higher and that the footballer has opened an separate account on island Man, placed between Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.
They did not pay whole tax from 2013 and 2014. Income from advertisements and sponsorship deals the player received in Luxembourg, where the couple opened Ivano S.A.R.L. a company named after their son, said the prosecutors.

04 December 2017

Which region is playing best club football?

Two cities, seven teams, eight games, ten days. In short this is the introduction of the fourteenth edition for the Club World Cup in United Arab Emirates which is making the headlines next week. We hope that Zayed sports city and Hazza bin Zayed stadiums are going to present world class football. Unlike Europe where teams will be freezing for last leg for the European league competitions, the Arabian peninsula state is expecting warm weather. Thus, six continental club champions will have to adapt to the weather which nowadays are having in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, apart from the home team which perfectly knows these hot conditions (at this time of the year). In this mini-tournament we will find out which team has so much knowledge to be crowned the best in this year.
Next week there are three scheduled games for starting this event:

Play-off match:
Wednesday, 06 December at 18.00 CET: Al Jazira (United Arab Emirates, host) - Auckland City (New Zealand, Oceania Champions league winner).

Quarter finals:
Saturday, 09 December at 14.00 CET: CF Pachuca (Mexico, CONCACAF Champions league winner) - Wydad Casablanca (Morocco, African Champions league winner).
Saturday, 09 December at 17.30 CET: Winner from the opening match - Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan, Asian Champions league winner).

Freezing end to second part

European club tournaments maybe are facing its difficult task: playing matches on freezing temperatures below zero. If November was (slightly) cold, this month is very chill at night, thus players has to be extremely good prepared. Qualifying games for both competitions are over and this is the second part which is ending in 2017. The knockout stages and final part is going to start next year, but before that one last leg has to be played. All times for both competitions are standard ones as there are no deviations like earlier.

For the 'strongest tournament' even the groups are in order: first night it starts with A, while the following night is ending with H. There is no point saying that some clubs already booked their passage to next round, and some are fighting to get there. What is more interesting is that from all 8, one group (E) needs more attention from the others as three teams are fighting for two places to get to the next phase.

Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Barcelona - Sporting Clube de Portugal.
Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Bayern Munich - PSG.
Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Benfica - Basel.
Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Celtic - Anderlecht.
Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Chelsea - Atletico Madrid.
Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Manchester United - CSKA Moscow.
Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Olympiacos - Juventus.
Tuesday, 05 December at 20.45: Roma - Qarabag.

Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: Feyenoord - Napoli.
Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: Liverpool - Spartak Moscow.
Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: Maribor - Sevilla.
Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: Porto - Monaco.
Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: RasenBallsport Leipzig - Besiktas.
Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: Real Madrid - Borussia Dortmund.
Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: Shakhtar Donetsk - Manchester City.
Wednesday, 06 December at 20.45 CET: Tottenham - APOEL Nicosia.

Over at the excited Europa league, 24 games are divided in two time slots. With 12 games equally we are expecting lots of goals, and here too there are some calculations as the previous tournament.

Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Apollon Limassol - Everton.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Atalanta - Olympique Lyon.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Austria Vienna - AEK.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Basaksehir - Braga.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Dynamo Kyiv - Partizan.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: FC Copenhagen - Sheriff Tiraspol.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Hoffenheim - Ludogorets Razgrad.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Rijeka - Milan.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Slavia Prague - Astana.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Villarreal - Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Young Boys Bern - Skenderbeu.
Thursday, 07 December at 19.00 CET: Zlin - Lokomotiv Moscow.

Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Arsenal - BATE Borisov.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Crvena Zvezda - Koln.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Hapoel Beer Sheva - Viktoria Plzen.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Hertha - Ostersunds.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Olympique Marseille - Red Bull Salzburg.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Real Sociedad - Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Steaua - Lugano.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Vardar - Rosenborg.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Vitesse - Nice.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Vitoria de Guimaraes - Konyaspor.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Zorya Luhansk - Athletic Bilbao.
Thursday, 07 December at 21.05 CET: Zulte-Waregem - Lazio.

Closing 2017 club competitions

December is usually the month where officially we will have two tournaments for every current year. Both of them are club competitions, will be played in different continents, are going to be played on various weather conditions, and while one is ending the other one is starting. Luckily, football lovers can breathe easily, as these two will not collide with each other (due to the time difference), so can jump from one to the other. According to the order of play this schedule is going to look like the following:

1. Champions league, leg 6 from (various places in) Europe.
2. Club World Cup 2017 in United Arab Emirates.
3. Europa league, leg 6 from (various places in) Europe.

03 December 2017

Searching for best performers at CONCACAF region

It is that time of the month where every confederation is looking the best performers for the current year. CONCACAF zone is one of them and on its website is inviting you to place your vote in six main categories, for both males and females (except for goal of the season): best 11, referee, goalkeeper, football coach, goal and best player of the year. Results will be calculated in three ways: from spectators, media and football associations. Votes are going to be counted until 13 December, while four days later (local time) the winners will be announced on a specialized television show.

Argentinian wizard added one more award

The little player out from space got himself one more title. However, the most interesting part is that with only three goals difference are separated the following three footballers.
For his achievement and with 37 goals in 2016/17 season, last Friday Lionel Messi won the European Golden shoe (Golden boot) award. Received from his Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez, the Argentinian striker beat Bas Dost from Sporting Clube de Portugal who gave 34 goals, while in third place with 31 scored in Bundesliga is the Borussia Dortmund player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The new title winner got equaled with his hot rival from Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo for the fourth time.

02 December 2017

Pick your team for 2017

Last Wednesday the European football association started a game inviting all football lovers to pick their team for 2017. Every fan can pick the most preferable formation of 4-4-2 from 50 offered players in total. Voting comes only from the UEFA website, which proposed 5 goalkeepers and 15 defenders, midfielders and forwards.

01 December 2017

Football stars conducted World Cup draw

After lots of preparations and simulations, the draw for the main sporting event has been finished today. Football lovers around the world waited this day for so long to find out the 8 groups of 4 teams who will entertain us six months from now throughout Russia. Lots of football stars at the hall and on the stage saw anxiously the draw procedure by the 8 assistants accompanied with the main host duo who pulled up the following:

Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay.

Group B: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, IR Iran.

Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark.

Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria.

Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia.

Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea.

Group G: Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England.

Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan.

All teams are known for Club World Cup

Al Jazira (as hosts), Pachuca, Auckland City, Real Madrid, Wydad Casablanca and Urawa Red Diamonds are going to entertain us in a mini tournament which will last for 10 days known as Club World Cup. To these 5 continental champions is joining the CONMEBOL winner from this morning and last participant - Gremio. With two victories in the final the Brazilians earned the right to represent its region in the last official competition of the year which begins on Wednesday in United Arab Emirates.