28 February 2022

Knockout layout one (with all clubs involved) made for two competitions

Immediately after all play-off duels teams were known for next stage, on Friday it was performed the draw for the second knockout round for the last two European club competitions. Pairs were equally distributed for both, and from this phase are joining the teams who won their groups last fall or who were free (did not play) this Thursday. Until now these two tournaments were exactly the same with each other, but this time one minor detail will differentiate them.

First in line was the layout of Europa league. The first 90 minutes of the last 16 are going to be played on 09 and 10, while 17 March have to be the return matches with the following duels:

Glasgow rangers - Crvena zvezda.
Braga - Monaco.
Porto - Olympique Lyonnais.
Atalanta - Bayer Leverkusen.
Sevilla - West ham.
Barcelona - Galatasaray.
Rasenballsport Leipzig - Spartak Moscow.
Betis - Eintracht Frankfurt.

Only two dates will have kick-off in here: leg number one would be on 10 March and the decisive games has to be played seven nights later. Knockout phase two or the eight pairs for phase of 16 in Conference league are:

Olympique de Marseille - Basel.
Leicester - Stade Rennais.
PAOK - Gent.
Vitesse - Roma.
PSV - Kobenhavn.
Slavia Praha - LASK.
Bodo/Glimt - AZ.
Partizan - Feyenoord.

27 February 2022

Validated last three phases of the confederation

Next month it will be the end of the North, Central American and Caribbean qualifying duels for the World Cup event which commences in November. The 12 matches were confirmed 8 days ago by the confederation, thus the schedule for the last 3 elimination dates is 24, 27 and 30 March. Plays from the last round are expected to kick-off at the same time.
After the completion of the octagonal tournament three secure travelers is going to represent this region in the finals, while the fourth team would have to go through another additional game in the summer.

26 February 2022

Performed draw for final elimination phase

The first 2 phases of these qualifiers were joint with another event, then came the play-off duels, so that on 24 February it was done the layout for the last part.
Yesterday was made the last qualifying schedule for Asian Cup 2023 competition, when the 24 teams have learned their opponents. Divided in six groups, each of them will not travel throughout the continent, but instead games are going to be staged on one place, which means that: the first group will be played in Kuwait, second is in Mongolia, Uzbekistan welcomes group number three, India is going to be the host to group four, teams of the fifth will compete in Malaysia, while six matches is going to happen at Kyrgyzstan for the sixth group. The provisional layout has already been made ; all are missing for now are the kick-off times and stadia ; every pair is known ; dates for the elimination number three are 08, 11 and 14 June, whilst the teams are split at

Group A: Jordan, Kuwait, Indonesia, Nepal.

Group B: Palestine, Philippines, Yemen, Mongolia.

Group C: Uzbekistan, Thailand, Maldives, Sri Lanka.

Group D: India, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Cambodia.

Group E: Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh.

Group F: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Myanmar, Singapore.

In the outcome of these duels played at the three nights period this summer, is that 11 more teams have to reveal themselves so they can travel to the finals next year or the group winners are secured participants together with the five best second placed teams. They will be joined with the already qualified (lucky) 13 teams who had done their job in the previous (second) round.

25 February 2022

Couple of games have completed longer than expected

Conference league 2021-22 season, knockout stage 1 (last 32), leg 2:

Maccabi Tel Aviv - PSV 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 84 (83.55) Yorbe Vertessen
               1:1 90 (90.03) Enric Saborit

- From 57 (56.44) until 63 (62.45) there was a brief interruption of this match due of crowd trouble.

Randers - Leicester 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 02 (01.41) Harvey Barnes
               0:2 70 (69.43) James Maddison
               0:3 73 (73.15) James Maddison
               1:3 83 (83.11) Stephen Odey

Partizan - Sparta Praha 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 07 (06.23) Ricardo Gomes
               2:0 24 (23.53) Ricardo Gomes
               2:1 85 (84.47) Adam Hlozek

- The double goal scorer for the home club 'managed' to get his second yellow card at 65 (65.02).

Bodo/Glimt - Celtic 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 09 (08.27) Ola Solbakken
               2:0 69 (68.40) Hugo Vetlesen

Slavia Praha - Fenerbahce 3:2

Scorers: 1:0 18 (18.14) Ivan Schranz
               2:0 26 (26.17) Yira Sor
               2:1 39 (38.30) Mert Hakan Yandas
               3:1 63 (62.38) Yira Sor
               3:2 90 (89.30) Mergim Berisha

Vitesse - Rapid Wien 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 03 (02.43) Adrian Grbic
               2:0 19 (18.55) Matus Bero

PAOK - Midtjylland 2:1 ; on penalties: 5-3

Scorers: 1:0 20 (19.53) Andrija Zivkovic
               2:0 26 (25.25) Andre Vieira
               2:1 80 (79.26) Daniel Hoegh

Qarabag - Olympique de Marseille 0:3

Scorers: 0:1 12 (11.36) Pape Gueye
               0:2 77 (76.50) Matteo Guendouzi
               0:3 90+2 (91.24) Konrad de la Fuente

Additional information 1: overall victories have made PSV, Leicester, Partizan, Bodo/Glimt, Slavia Praha, Vitesse, PAOK, Olympique de Marseille who have qualified into the next phase.

Europa league 2021-22 season, knockout phase 1 (last 32), leg 2:

Real Sociedad - Rasenballsport Leipzig 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 39 (39.08) Vilmos Orban
               0:2 58 (58.09) Andre Silva
               1:2 64 (64.02) Martin Zubimendi
               1:3 89-pen (88.36) Emil Forsberg

- On 39 (39.06) the penalty from Andre Silva was perfectly saved out of which the guests have scored the first goal two seconds later.

Lazio - Porto 2:2

Scorers: 1:0 19 (18.22) Ciro Immobile
               1:1 31-pen (30.40) Mehdi Taremi
               1:2 68 (67.21) Mateus Uribe
               2:2 90+4 (93.58) Danilo Cataldi

Dinamo Zagreb - Sevilla 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 64-pen (64.04) Mislav Orsic

- The visitors has finished this match with 10 men on the pitch at 90 (90.19) because Thomas Delaney received his second yellow card.

Napoli - Barcelona 2:4

Scorers: 0:1 08 (07.44) Jordi Alba
               0:2 13 (12.49) Frenkie de Jong
               1:2 22-pen (22.08) Lorenzo Insigne
               1:3 44 (44.18) Gerard Pique
               1:4 58 (58.11) Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
               2:4 87 (86.27) Matteo Politano

Braga - Sheriff 2:0 ; on penalties: 3-2

Scorers: 1:0 17 (16.24) Iuri Medeiros
               2:0 42 (42.03) Ricardo Horta

Betis - Zenit Saint Petersburg 0:0

Glasgow rangers - Borussia Dortmund 2:2

Scorers: 1:0 21-pen (21.17) James Tavernier
               1:1 30 (30.10) Jude Bellingham
               1:2 41 (41.17) Donyell Malen
               2:2 57 (56.27) James Tavernier

Additional information 2Rasenballsport Leipzig, Porto, Sevilla, Barcelona, Braga, Betis, Glasgow rangers have all entered into the last 16.

24 February 2022

Second halves 'guilty' on a night of stalemates

Champions league 2021-22 season, knockout round 1 - last 16 (part 4 of 4), leg 1:

Benfica - Ajax 2:2

Scorers: 0:1 17 (17.07) Dusan Tadic
               1:1 25-own goal (25.01) Sebastien Haller
               1:2 29 (28.41) Sebastien Haller
               2:2 71 (71.09) Roman Yaremchuk

Atletico Madrid - Manchester united 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 06 (06.15) Joao Felix
               1:1 80 (79.46) Anthony Elanga

23 February 2022

Everything points at one: first appearance for the guests in the event, first strike (and goal) at minute one, score, leg

Champions league 2021-22 season, knockout round 1 - last 16 (part 3 of 4), leg 1:

Villarreal - Juventus 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 01 (33 seconds) Dusan Vlahovic
               1:1 66 (65.45) Daniel Parejo

22 February 2022

Three hosts are welcoming five groups

Because the pandemic situation is still causing plenty of havoc on the Asian continent, unfortunately, for the third consecutive year all group plays from the Champions league competition are being staged on one place (hosts for five more groups are yet to be decided).
Five days ago the Asian football organization has nominated three countries that will welcome participants of the East region at five groups. Thailand is going to be host to groups F (Buriram), G (Bangkok) and J (city is yet to be confirmed). In between: H is going to be staged in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam, while the four clubs from group I will travel at the Malaysian town of Johor Bahru. When this sub-region is concerned, every group match starts on 07 and ends 27 April.
The first 5 groups (A - E) from the West part would have to commence from 15 April until 01 May, and cities are going to be known in the following days.

21 February 2022

Last quartet and second duels

The three club tournaments continues with 4 new games and 16 old ones (who this time will be played in reverse order). As the first event still is going to be 'stuck' at the first knockout stage, the last two will finish one round (that has the higher number).

Finally the following quartet is going to close the last 16 phase. All pairs are staged to kick-off at the same time where this month we will see the last games from the Champions league competition.

Tuesday, 22 February at 21.00 CET: Chelsea - Lille.
Tuesday, 22 February at 21.00 CET: Villarreal - Juventus.

Wednesday, 23 February at 21.00 CET: Atletico Madrid - Manchester united.
Wednesday, 23 February at 21.00 CET: Benfica - Ajax.

Unlike its predecessor (who is hardly 'moving' at a speed of a turtle) the next two events completes its first knockout phase. Otherwise, this stage is the last 32 and what is more exciting is that there are eight duels from each competition which is divided in:

Conference league...

Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Bodo/Glimt - Celtic.
Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Maccabi Tel Aviv - PSV.
Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Partizan - Sparta Praha.
Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Qarabag - Olympique de Marseille.
Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Randers - Leicester.

Thursday, 24 February at 21.00 CET: PAOK - Midtjylland.
Thursday, 24 February at 21.00 CET: Slavia Praha - Fenerbahce.
Thursday, 24 February at 21.00 CET: Vitesse - Rapid Wien.

...and Europa league.

Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Dinamo Zagreb - Sevilla.
Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Lazio - Porto.
Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Olympiacos - Atalanta.
Thursday, 24 February at 18.45 CET: Real Sociedad - Rasenballsport Leipzig.

Thursday, 24 February at 21.00 CET: Betis - Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Thursday, 24 February at 21.00 CET: Braga - Sheriff.
Thursday, 24 February at 21.00 CET: Glasgow rangers - Borussia Dortmund.
Thursday, 24 February at 21.00 CET: Napoli - Barcelona.

20 February 2022

Derby duel that has to be replayed from scratch

Currently the last 8 teams have 16 games played, but the first 2 are on one less. It is like this, as Brazil and Argentina had to kick-off last September, and when they did that, their match was suspended after just five minutes by the health officials.
The pandemic situation was the main cause for the abandonment, however the under-cause remained a real mystery. Four visiting footballers were not supposed to be on the terrain because the alleged quartet had to follow quarantine measures. But on the other side, the Brazilian authorities did not explain how they have entered the country in the first place.
Because of this so called incident the two rivals were punished this Monday from the world football organization: the home team had to deliver 500.000 Swiss francs (476.293 euros), while 200.000 Swiss francs (190.517 euros) penalty was for the Argentinian team (for the order and security troubles). And on a 'genuine greeting' from the affiliation, both member associations were fined with additional 50.000 Swiss francs (47.629 euros) as this football-holiday game got suspended in only 293 seconds.
No new date or place had been designated so far. Until the end of the World Cup 2022 qualifying campaign for the South American region two duels have to be staged which means that these two opponents are occupied on 24 and 29 March. Because Argentina is already booked in a game at Europe on 01 June, this derby (more likely) has to be played earlier than that. Another (less likely) possibility is that both teams could entertain us some elsewhere in the summer, but then it would be staged outside the confederation borders.

19 February 2022

Awarding the spectators with something very precious

In the beginning of this week it was announced that in the future four finals on the international club scene the organizer of the events have prepared one special surprise for the fans.
For a gratitude that spectators were loyal to this sport during the pandemic period with an unconditional support, the European football organization decided to give away 30.000 tickets. These free golden 'entry papers' are going to be divided to the last two clubs that will play from 18 until 28 May in the following way: to each Europa league finalists belongs 4.000 tickets, exactly 3.000 'entry papers' are for the last two clubs at the Champions league for women together with the Conference league, with two rivaling spectators from every team of the Champions league competition (that will conclude the season on the last weekend of the fifth month) who are awarded with 5.000 tickets. An only condition is that they can not be shared with the sponsors or among members within the club.

18 February 2022

Quickest opening of the youngest competition occurred after 33 seconds

Europa league 2021-22 season, knockout phase 1 (last 32), leg 1:

Sheriff - Braga 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 42-pen (42.12) Sebastien Thill
               2:0 82 (81.56) Adama Malouda Traore

Borussia Dortmund - Glasgow rangers 2:4

Scorers: 0:1 38-pen (37.45) James Tavernier
               0:2 40 (40.19) Alfredo Morelos
               0:3 48 48 (16) John Lundstram
               1:3 50 (50.08) Jude Bellingham
               1:4 54-own goal (53.30) Dan-Axel Zagadou
               2:4 81 (81.16) Raphael Guerreiro

Zenit Saint Petersburg - Betis 2:3

Scorers: 0:1 08 (07.25) Guido Rodriguez
               0:2 18 (17.24) Willian Jose
               1:2 25 (24.21) Artem Dzyuba
               2:2 28 (27.50) Malcom Filipe
               2:3 41 (40.38) Andres Guardado

Barcelona - Napoli 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 28 (28.15) Piotr Zielinski
               1:1 58-pen (58.09) Ferran Torres

Porto - Lazio 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 22 (22.09) Mattia Zaccagni
               1:1 37 (36.46) Antonio Martinez
               2:1 49 (48.23) Antonio Martinez

Sevilla - Dinamo Zagreb 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 13-pen (12.42) Ivan Rakitic
               1:1 41 (40.51) Mislav Orsic
               2:1 43 (43.05) Lucas Ocampos
               3:1 45 (45.04) Anthony Martial

Rasenballsport Leipzig - Real Sociedad 2:2

Scorers: 0:1 08 (07.56) Robin le Normand
               1:1 30 (29.57) Christopher Nkunku
               1:2 63-pen (63.12) Mikel Oyarzabal
               2:2 82-pen (81.37) Emil Forsberg

Conference league 2021-22 season, knockout stage 1 (last 32), leg 1:

Rapid Wien - Vitesse 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 01 (33 seconds) Ferdy Druijf
               2:0 15 (14.58) Marco Grull
               2:1 73 (73.03) Lois Openda

- Home defender Filip Stojkovic departed from this game on 64 (64.15) because of two yellow cards.

PSV - Maccabi Tel Aviv 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 11 (10.51) Cody Gakpo

Midtjylland - PAOK 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 19 (19.13) Joel Andersson

Fenerbahce - Slavia Praha 2:3

Scorers: 0:1 44 (44.03) Ibrahim Benjamin Traore
               1:1 57 (57.05) Dimitris Pelkas
               1:2 62 (61.24) Oscar Dorley
               1:3 63 (63.00) Ondrej Lingr
               2:3 83 (82.32) Ferdi Kadioglu

Celtic - Bodo/Glimt 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 06 (05.59) Runar Espejord
               0:2 54 (54.13) Amahl Pellegrino
               1:2 79 (78.47) Daizen Maeda
               1:3 80 (80.13) Hugo Vetlesen

Olympique de Marseille - Qarabag 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 40 (40.01) Arkadiusz Milik
               2:0 43 (43.12) Arkadiusz Milik
               2:1 85 (84.43) Kady Malinowski
               3:1 90+1 (91.01) Dimitri Payet

Sparta Praha - Partizan 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 77 (77.15) Queensy Menig

Leicester - Randers 4:1

Scorers: 1:0 22 (22.08) Wilfred Ndidi
               1:1 44 (44.11) Vito Hammershoy-Mistrati
               2:1 49 (48.35) Harvey Barnes
               3:1 54 (53.29) Patson Daka
               4:1 73 (73.20) Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

17 February 2022

First historic win in knockout for the home side squandered 56 seconds before normal time

Champions league 2021-22 season, knockout round 1 - last 16 (part 2 of 4), leg 1:

Red bull Salzburg - Bayern Munich 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 21 (20.48) Chukwubuike Adamu
               1:1 89 (89.04) Kingsley Coman

16 February 2022

Visiting advantage acquired in first 44 minutes

Champions league 2021-22 season, knockout round 1 - last 16 (part 1 of 4), leg 1:

Sporting - Manchester city 0:5
.
Scorers: 0:1 07 (06.23) Riyad Mahrez
               0:2 17 (16.50) Bernardo Silva
               0:3 32 (31.33) Philip Foden
               0:4 44 (43.37) Bernardo Silva
               0:5 58 (57.50) Raheem Sterling

PSG - Real Madrid 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 90+3 (93.13) Kylian Mbappe

- At 61 (61.12) the home club had a penalty, however the shot from Lionel Messi was beautifully saved.

15 February 2022

Joint bid for one event has been dropped in favour of another

'Welcoming the best teams of the planet might not be a good idea, but to host the continental championship sounds way better'. The preceding sentence can be interpreted in other words, and that what is following next in this text.
Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England (which are all part of United Kingdom) together with Republic of Ireland has quit plans to be host for the World Cup in 2030, and instead the above five countries wants to bring the European championship 2028. This announcement was made seven days ago where their study has revealed to drop the global competition and in return to try and bring the best teams of the continent on its soil. Simply, hosting the European championship in six years time "offers a similar return on investment, but carries a far lower delivery cost and the potential of the benefits being realised sooner." has been said in an mutual statement of the member associations.
Opponents of the above bid for the 2028 tournament are competing with one other joint 'package' of nations plus one alone (which are already confirmed by now): the Balkan quartet (Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece) for the first time, together with Turkey who have lost in five previous occasions. Another nine countries (of those, two are joint bidders and one alone: Scandinavian nations, Iberian peninsula, Russia) are considering to enter into this process and those have to act quick because 23 March is the deadline of submitting the documents, while the final decision will be revealed on 05 April.

14 February 2022

Part three ready to begin

After qualifiers and group stage, the European international club competitions returns with knockout. From the second half of this month 20 duels will be played, and what connects them all is that the first 90 are going to be served.

Champions league as always is first with two consecutive nights. The last 16 is going to be a real torture because it will haunt us exactly one month (where everything finally is going to be over). First quarter of pairs have this schedule:

Tuesday, 15 February at 21.00 CET: PSG - Real Madrid.
Tuesday, 15 February at 21.00 CET: Sporting - Manchester city.

Wednesday, 16 February at 21.00 CET: Inter - Liverpool.
Wednesday, 16 February at 21.00 CET: Red bull Salzburg - Bayern Munich.

Phase of 32 (also called the play-off stage) is what band together the following two competitions. Both are having exact eight duels, two kick-off times, playing on one night, however their names are very different.

Europa league...

Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: Barcelona - Napoli.
Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: Borussia Dortmund - Glasgow rangers.
Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: Sheriff - Braga.
Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: Zenit Saint Petersburg - Betis.

Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Atalanta - Olympiacos.
Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Porto - Lazio.
Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Rasenballsport Leipzig - Real Sociedad.
Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Sevilla - Dinamo Zagreb.

...and Conference league.

Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: Fenerbahce - Slavia Praha.
Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: PSV - Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: Midtjylland - PAOK.
Thursday, 17 February at 18.45 CET: Rapid Wien - Vitesse.

Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Celtic - Bodo/Glimt.
Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Leicester - Randers.
Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Olympique de Marseille - Qarabag.
Thursday, 17 February at 21.00 CET: Sparta Praha - Partizan.

Incredible efficiency

On the last 6 playing nights at the just finished Club World Cup 2021 (2022) tournament 26 goals were scored in regular time (90 minutes). From those, 14 were given in the first half, two less have appeared at the second which means 3.25 has been celebrated in each game. If we add one more goal (when was scored in extra time) then the 7 (lucky) clubs gave 3.375 per match. After the ninetieth minute (stoppage time) two teams have rolled the ball into the nets twice. The hosts (Al Jazira) were very generous when they gifted their own rivals with two effective own goals (against Pirae and Monterrey).
Couple of punishments were awarded in this mini-competition, and both of them was converted in the second half.
Without two yellow cards being issued, 'the men in blue' gave four direct red cards in 3 different duels. In negative point of view, Al Hilal was recorder for getting two direct red ones in the first 27 minutes of play.

13 February 2022

Nine men lost with four goals

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), classification duel for place 3 - 4, night 6, game 7:

Al Hilal - Al Ahly 0:4

Scorers: 0:1 08 (07.54) Yasser Ibrahim
               0:2 17 (16.36) Yasser Ibrahim
               0:3 40 (39.51) Ahmed Abdelkader
               0:4 63 (63.06) Shahat Amer al-Sulaya

- Nervousness have cost Al Hilal to be left with nine footballers on the pitch, and both of them were given direct red cards: first to wave for goodbye on 13 (13.14) was Matheus Pereira after a terrible foul together with Mohamed Kanno who followed him in the dressing room in an off the ball incident at 27 (27.14).

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), final, night 6, game 8:

Chelsea - Palmeiras 1:1, after extra time 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 54 (53.59) Romelu Lukaku
               1:1 64-pen (63.31) Raphael Veiga
               2:1 117-pen (116.31) Kai Havertz

- The last thing that happened on this event is a direct red card for the Palmeiras defender Luan Garcia on 120+5 (125.04).

12 February 2022

Official who got punished can resume activities

From 2014 until 2017 Issa Hayatou gained personal profit of media and marketing rights and therefore he got punished. Because the former African confederation president violated those rules and was suspended on corruption charges, the world football organization in August 2021 removed him from the post on one year. However, the Cameroonian official may be back earlier than that, after the Court of arbitration for sport has already cleared the 75-year-old of every indictment. Last Saturday the tribunal rejected all those claims because of "insufficient evidence".

11 February 2022

Meal which was controversial for having in its name additional letters

Lots of people are trying to invent something new, but when they do that on stage comes big affiliations to discourage that. In the next lines there will be a tale of everyone favourite food: pizza.
The marketing was very good, however the name for it proved to be 'wrong' after a restaurant in Germany (Pizza Wolke) at the beginning of this month have introduced to the public its (special and) tasty product - Champignons league pizza. A meal that is delicious in its own way raised the alarm with the European football organization as the organizer of a tournament that has similar name, and who did not like this idea (at all). In fact, their Champions league competition have coincided with the product food where the first part of the name which translated from German means - mushrooms (and in reality pizza without this ingredient is not a real thing).
Certain trademark question came into force where at the end was dropped by the affiliation, justifying that "some people are making a meal of this story. The European football organization obviously take the protection of its intellectual property seriously, but this instance seems to be a case of an over-zealous local trademark agent acting too hastily. The Champions league can happily live alongside this delicious-sounding pizza." Shortly after this was in the news, lot of support was on social media where a user out of many commentaries wrote (one of the best): "Free pizza Champignons!".

10 February 2022

Game of classification had dominated with excitements

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), classification duel for fifth - sixth place, night 5, game 5:

Monterrey - Al Jazira 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 03-own goal (03.10) Zayed Sultan
               2:0 11 (10.32) Rogelio Funes Mori
               3:0 25 (24.37) Cesar Montes
               3:1 90 (90.14) Bruno Conceicao de Oliveira

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), last 4 (semifinal 2), night 5, game 6:

Al Hilal - Chelsea 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 (31.12) Romelu Lukaku

09 February 2022

Red card issued for the first time

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), last 4 (semifinal 1), night 4, game 4:

Palmeiras - Al Ahly 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 39 (38.49) Raphael Veiga
               2:0 48 (48.19) Eduardo Rodrigues

- For a nasty foul on 81 (80.34) Al Ahly defender Ayman Ashraf deservedly received a direct red card, first on the tournament.

08 February 2022

Single given goal was the most popular result

There was a new champion of the Africa Cup of nations 2021 (2022) edition, that has concluded last night and after finishing it is time for statistics.

Goals, own ones and results. In 52 duels we saw 99 targets or players gave 1.9 per game. Out of those 41 were given in the first half with 58 in the second. Because one more goal was scored in extra time it means that every duel had 1.92 goals. Four of them were given in stoppage time of first half plus five after the end of 90 minutes. Balls that footballers have rolled into their own nets were three where two of them were in favour of Gabon who had most gifts received. Zero one or one zero has been repeated 18 times, followed by 0:0 that was ended on 9 occasions.

Converted, missed and saved punishments. Cameroon, Mali and Morocco had the most penalties in the tournament - two. At the opening game for the host was awarded two 11 metres shots and both of them got realized in the first 45 minutes. We saw three in the first together with seven at the second half which means there was 10 goals scored from penalties. Three of them were missed, and seven more got perfectly saved by goalkeepers. In the end adding it all together: referees in total has awarded 20 punishment where half of them have shaken the nets.

Nasty boys. Players of four different teams has received of two yellow cards that automatically means sending off, and all of them were issued in second 45 minutes. Eight footballers received an even stronger punishment: a direct red card. Out of this number four of them got rewarded equally: at first and second half. Cape verde was an absolute recorder here because two of its players have received direct red cards at the first and second 45 minutes each.

07 February 2022

Introducing the last two clubs

We have arrived to the second and last week of the Club World Cup 2021 (2022) event. Until now five clubs have been introduced to the public which means there are two more left together with two pairs who are unavailable at this moment so the mystery just rises and rises. The fact is that new champion awaits us next weekend, and by that the five remaining duels have this layout:

Semi - final 1
Tuesday, 08 February at 17.30 CET: Palmeiras (winner of the South American continent) - Al Ahly.

Classification game for fifth - sixth place
Wednesday, 09 February at 14.30 CET: Monterrey - Al Jazira.

Semi - final 2
Wednesday, 09 February at 17.30 CET: Al Hilal - Chelsea (European champion).

Classification duel for third - fourth spot
Saturday. 12 February at 14.00 CET: losing teams between semifinals 1 and 2.

Final
Saturday. 12 February at 17.30 CET: winning clubs between semifinals 1 and 2.

King of Africa crowned

Africa Cup of nations - Cameroon 2021 (2022), knockout phase 5 (final), night 22, match 52:

Senegal - Egypt 0:0 ; on penalties: 4-2

- On 06 (06.10) Senegal could have taken the lead, but the 11 metre shot from Sadio Mane was beautifully saved.

Additional information: congratulations to the team who absolutely deserved to win its first ever title of in the tournament. For now Senegal can enjoy ruling the continent at least until summer of next year (when new edition will be played) or will extend to defend the trophy in Ivory coast 2023.
One other interesting thing is that it was proved once again (and after so many times) that in these events the classification match for third - fourth place have much better excitements than the final (like it was here staged 24 hours earlier).

Champions of the continent better than hosts

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), round 2, night 3, game 3:

Al Hilal - Al Jazira 6:1

Scorers: 0:1 14 (13.35) Abdoulay Diaby
               1:1 35 (34.34) Odion Ighalo
               2:1 39 (39.13) Matheus Pereira
               3:1 57 (56.43) Mohamed Kanno
               4:1 77 (76.55) Salem al-Dawsari
               5:1 88 (87.23) Moussa Marega
               6:1 90+1-pen (91.09) Andre Carrillo

06 February 2022

Bronze medalists awarded after a crazy game

Africa Cup of nations - Cameroon 2021 (2022), knockout phase 4 (classification duel for place 3 - 4), night 21, match 51:

Burkina faso - Cameroon 3:3 ; on penalties: 3-5

Scorers: 1:0 24 (23.31) Steeve Yago
               2:0 43-own goal (42.39) Andre Onana
               3:0 49 (48.43) Djibril Ouattara
               3:1 71 (70.43) Stephane Bahoken
               3:2 85 (84.24) Vincent Aboubakar
               3:3 87 (86.50) Vincent Aboubakar

- This game was originally scheduled for Sunday, 06 February at 17.00 CET. But as the importance of the last two matches at the continental championship, the organizer has decided the play-off match to be played 21 hours earlier (20.00 CET) because of security reasons.

Minimal result enough for entering first semi-final

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), round 2, night 2, game 2:

Al Ahly - Monterrey 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 53 (52.29) Mohamed Hany

05 February 2022

Announced date of draw for season two

Yesterday the youngest competition of North, Central America and the Caribbean confederation has learned when its three leagues would be known. Details about the Nations league of this region were revealed where in one year everything is going to be finished: the first 4 rounds will be staged from 02 - 14 June, last two are expecting to be played in March 2023, together with the semi-finals, classification match for third - fourth place and final scheduled three months later (June 2023). To determine the groups itself, the 41 member nations are going to be divided in 10 pots: three of them is going to be used for league A, four are destined for the middle one, plus in league C will be the last three pots. Promotions and relegations had been calculated during the performances from season one which at the end looks like this:

League A (counts 12 teams): Canada, Costa Rica, Curacao, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Suriname, United States of America.

League B (counts 16 teams): Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.

League C (counts 13 teams): Anguilla, Aruba, Bonaire, British Virgin islands, Cayman islands, Dominica, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos islands, United States Virgin islands.

The above names are going to find out who are travelling where on 04 April when the draw would be made or just two months before the main (league) phase commences for the second edition of this 2022-23 tournament.

04 February 2022

Nets were extremely happy to be sleeping for 120 minutes, but after that...

Africa Cup of nations - Cameroon 2021 (2022), knockout phase 3 (last 4), night 20, match 50:

Cameroon - Egypt 0:0 ; on penalties: 1-3

Debutants have celebrated their first goal in this competition which they did not give

Club World Cup - United Arab Emirates 2021 (2022), round 1, night 1, game 1:

Al Jazira - Pirae 4:1

Scorers: 1:0 05 (04.23) Zayed al-Ameri
               2:0 25 (24.27) Ahmed al Attas
               3:0 40 (40.01) Milos Kosanovic
               3:1 47-own goal (47.01) M'hammed Rabii
               4:1 63 (62.29) Abdoulay Diaby

03 February 2022

Six names have scored, one did not succeed

Elimination duels for World Cup 2022 - North, Central America and Caribbean region, phase 3, play 11 out of 14:

Jamaica - Costa Rica 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 62 (61.39) Joel Campbell

- On 61 (60.55) Celso Borges could have scored for Costa Rica, however his penalty shot was beautifully saved.

United States of America - Honduras 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 08 (07.32) Weston McKennie
               2:0 36 (36.07) Walker Zimmerman
               3:0 67 (66.57) Christian Pulisic

El Salvador - Canada 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 65 (65.06) Atiba Hutchinson
               0:2 90+3 (92.57) Jonathan David

Mexico - Panama 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 80 (79.21) Raul Jimenez

Last 20 minutes most exciting than first 70

Africa Cup of nations - Cameroon 2021 (2022), knockout phase 3 (last 4), night 19, match 49:

Burkina faso - Senegal 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 70 (69.34) Abdou Diallo
               0:2 75 (75.15) Idrissa Gueye
               1:2 82 (81.52) Ibrahim Blati Toure
               1:3 87 (86.34) Sadio Mane

02 February 2022

Cheerful players: 17 goals given from 5 duels

South American World Cup 2022 elimination games, round 16 of 18:

Bolivia - Chile 2:3

Scorers: 0:1 14 (13.59) Alexis Sanchez
               1:1 37 (36.28) Marc Enoumba
               1:2 77 (76.25) Marcelino Nunez
               1:3 85 (84.48) Alexis Sanchez
               2:3 88 (87.44) Marcelo Martins Moreno

Uruguay - Venezuela 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 01 (50 seconds) Rodrigo Bentancur
               2:0 23 (22.30) Giorgian de Arrascaeta
               3:0 45 (45.13) Edinson Cavani
               4:0 53-pen (52.22) Luis Suarez
               4:1 64 (64.09) Josef Martinez

Argentina - Colombia 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 29 (28.37) Lautaro Martinez

Brazil - Paraguay 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 27 (27.06) Raphael Belloli
               2:0 62 (61.52) Philippe Coutinho
               3:0 85 (85.17) Antony dos Santos
               4:0 88 (87.42) Rodrygo de Goes

Peru - Ecuador 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 02 (01.52) Michael Estrada
               1:1 69 (68.44) Edison Flores

Additional information: just from this region - out of ten, the seven teams (three of them finished on zero) have shaken the nets 3,4 times per game, while some of the goals were absolutely outstanding. Also, the fastest opening was achieved (in this confederation).

Result did not change from stoppage time

Qualifying games for World Cup 2022 - region Asia, round 3, play 08 out of 10:

Japan - South Korea 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 31 (31.06) Takumi Minamino
               2:0 50 (49.30) Junya Ito

Lebanon - Iraq 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 39 (38.58) Ayman Hussein
               1:1 45+2 (46.41) Maher Sabra

Vietnam - People's Republic of China 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 08 (08.20) Ho Tan Tai
               2:0 16 (15.39) Nguyen Tien Linh
               3:0 76 (75.51) Phan Van Duc
               3:1 90+7 (96.34) Xu Xin

Syria - South Korea 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 53 (52.37) Kim Jin-su
               0:2 71 (70.44) Kwon Chan-hoon

Islamic Republic of Iran - United Arab Emirates 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 44 (43.37) Mehdi Taremi

- Because of two yellow cards the home team has left without Sadegh Moharrami from 49 (48.30).

Oman - Australia 2:2

Scorers: 0:1 15-pen (14.32) Jamie Maclaren
               1:1 54 (53.25) Abdullah Fawaz
               1:2 79 (78.36) Aaron Mooy
               2:2 89-pen (88.25) Abdullah Fawaz

01 February 2022

Play off team forced to withdraw from qualifying competition

Currently the epidemic situation is causing lots of headaches to everyone in the world, and on 15 January one other phenomenon has happened: this time in the South Pacific island state of Tonga. On this date there was an underwater volcano eruption where the consequences were catastrophic: everything was covered in dust, debris, drinking water got poisoned, the agricultural land was affected, at least two villages was wiped of the chart plus massive waves of tsunami was triggered. Because of this (very rare) natural disaster something was telling that the national team may not compete for the World Cup elimination matches, where sadly later this news got only certified.
At 13 March Tonga supposed to open the play-off stage, so that finally games of the Oceania region would kick-off (in peace) on neutral place. But after the catastrophe last month it was just impossible to appear so the country has officially pulled out its participation from the event three days ago. This means that their rivals (Cook islands) has automatically joined group A who will play together with Solomon islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu.