Official Football Thread

Yeah I think the Premier League is very much over-rated. Probably because they have the most raucous fans and the Primera Division is basically just two teams (Real and Barcelona). But it looks like the Italian Serie A is finally starting to get some more recognition.

England - Netherlands @ Wembley: 2-3

What a match! England didn't bring the strongest team on the pitch (at least 4 big names were missing) but they had some younger guys giving 100%. Holland came 0-1 ahead via Robben and the second goal was a header by Hunterlaar but "The Hunter" got into a head-collision with an English defender (sorry didn't remember the name) and both had to leave the field. I believe Huntelaar missed a tooth and the other had to be carried away, so that looked serious as well. Then England came back. 2-2 in extra time. And then Robben (man of the match) made the winning goal, almost from a stand-still position.

This was the first Dutch victory vs England on Wembley since 1977.

And this was the 19th time that Engeland and the Netherlands met each other.
England: 5 wins / Netherlands: 5 wins / draws: 9

I caught the last three goals of that match live. Both Young's 2-2 goal and Robben's winner were very fine goals.

Norway finally got a good result again. Since last summer things haven't been going our way, but a 3-0 win away against Northern Ireland should give some of the young guys in the team confidence. We had some abscentees as well, most notably Brede Hangeland, but the replacements did well.

Chris Smalling.

It was an entertaining game, I'll give you that. First victory at Wembley since '77. Interesting.

Germany - France: 1-2!
Italy - USA: 0-1

Van Persie rules

Sieg! They won.

Van Persie is a great club player, I am glad we have other guys in the national team when he is not doing that well.

Fuck yeah.

Holy crap. I didn't think Arsenal v Milan was going to be exciting at all, considering Milan won their home match 4-0. But at 3-0 to Arsenal with one half still to be played, it's wide open again. Who would have thought that?

I wonder who's the idiot that brought Mesbah to Milan. What a dumbass player... I hope Milan manages to prevent Arsenal from scoring, just 20 more minutes.

I must admit, that was edge of the seat stuff. The problem is that the Arsenal faithful are all spouting on about how passionately they played and played Milan off the park. Well, why was that not there in the first leg?

And the tale goes on and on.APOEL made it to the quarter-finals!!!!

Awesome

I wonder, does Lionel Messi have something personal against Bayer Leverkusen? What he did yesterday was brutal. 5 goals!

Lionel Messi is the best player in the world, no question. I don't even see how there can be a debate between him and Cristiano Ronaldo. He single-footedly dismantled the entire Bayer Leverkusen squad. Incredible, a beauty to watch.

It's not lonely at the top in the Dutch league:

1. AZ 24 15 4 5 49 51-25
2. FC Twente 23 14 6 3 48 65-25
3. PSV 24 14 6 4 48 62-34
4. Heerenveen 25 13 9 3 48 56-36
5. Ajax 24 13 7 4 46 63-33
6. Feyenoord 24 13 5 6 44 48-31

I thought you might like to see this below, an opinion on Vaagen Moen from a QPR website which I read. I can't really comment much on him myself because I think I only ever saw him as a substitute once or twice. Before he signed I saw a video of his goals in Norway, and he looked like a very exciting signing, but maybe the difference in class between those two leagues was just too great. Or maybe he would have adapted given more of a chance.

LEAGUE TABLE

1 -Southampton 36 69
2 - West Ham United 35 66
3 - Reading 35 66

A lot of games still to play but i hope they climb to the Premiership this year.