FIFA will launch an investigation into Wednesday’s friendly between Bulgaria and Estonia, which finished 2-2 with all four goals from penalties.
The game was staged in the Turkish resort of Antalya by the Thailand-based sports agency Footy Sport International, and suspicions have been aroused by some irregular betting activity on the match, prompting FIFA to launch the probe.
Latvia defeated Bolivia 2-1 at the same venue earlier on Wednesday, and all three goals in that game also came from the penalty spot.
Also causing confusion is the choice of officials for the Bulgaria-Estonia match, with reports from the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) and Estonian Football Association citing the referee as Hungary’s Krisztian Selmeczi.
But Hungarian referees’ boss Laszlo Wagner said the man who actually refereed the game was another Hungarian official, Kolos Lengyel.
Estonian FA spokesman Mikhel Uiboleht said on Thursday that his organisation had been warned about the possibility of the match being interfered with.
“The friendly was organised by an agency with whom we will not work anymore,” Uiboleht said.
“We received information of possible manipulation even before the game as the same agency also organised the match between Latvia and Bolivia and there was the same scenario there.”
Bulgaria coach Lothar Matthaus said the experience of playing Estonia was one he was not keen to repeat in the near future.
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“I do not want more matches like the one against Estonia,” Matthaus said.
“It is very hard to motivate the players in such a gloomy atmosphere especially when they play before some 100 spectators.”
“From now on, I hope that Bulgaria will play friendlies against big teams and I am ready to assist with my contacts for the fixing of such matches.”
Manchester United will aim for their 13th successive victory against Wigan when they travel to the DW Stadium on Saturday.Since the Latics were promoted to the Premier League for the first time in 2005, the two sides have met on 12 occasions with Sir Alex Ferguson’s men victorious on every occasion.They have won 11 league meetings and thumped Wigan in the 2006 Carling Cup Final 4-0, having scored 39 goals in the matches including two 5-0 victories last season.Amazingly, last year’s Premier League runners-up have conceded just four goals to Wigan in those 12 matches and will be keen for another victory to open up a four-point lead on championship rivals Arsenal in the hunt for this season’s title.With Arsenal not in league action this weekend due to their Carling Cup final meeting with Birmingham on Sunday, the match takes on extra significance and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney admitted Saturday’s fixture is vital.”There are three massive games for us coming up now, Wigan, Chelsea and Liverpool, and then maybe Arsenal after that in the (FA) Cup,” Rooney said. “It’s a massive time for us in the season and we’ll have to keep going and trying to create chances in those games. If we can get through those games, with a good amount of points, I’m sure we’ll be up there.”The visitors are likely to make several changes to their side that drew 0-0 with Marseille in a dull Champions League affair on Wednesday, with Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Rafael all in contention to return to the first-team.Rio Ferdinand is still out with a calf injury which he suffered in a shock 2-1 defeat at Wolves, Manchester United’s only league defeat of the season.Wigan defender Emmerson Boyce revealed that his side were taking inspiration from Wolves’ upset win at Molineux and hopes his side can do the same.”Games like Manchester United are the games you want to play in and are great occasions to experience,” Boyce said.”Wolves showed a couple of weeks ago that United can be beaten, and we fancy our chances of doing the same.””People probably won’t fancy us to get anything off United, but Wolves picked up a bonus three points and we need to take heart from that. Anything, even a point, would be a massive boost for our survival chances.”Wigan, who sit 18th in the Premier League and inside the relegation zone, could drop to the bottom of the table if West Ham and Wolverhampton record victories on the weekend.And with four of their next five fixtures against top-five sides in the Premier League, Roberto Martinez’s side will be desperate to break their losing record against Manchester United and gain at least a point on Saturday.
There’s always something, isn’t there? Always. Bloody. Something. In fact, that something has been getting more and more extraordinary (with the exception of 2008/09) as the seasons go by. It’s almost like somebody is watching from above and going “I wonder what stupidly unlikely event or decidedly infuriating happening can upset Manchester City at Old Trafford this season…”
The earliest I remember was City having to rescue a game after the suspiciously offside van Nistelrooy scored despite a fantastic David James save from a free kick that shouldn’t have been. A year later, it was two offside goals. The season after, City actually won at Old Trafford, before they then went on in the next year to an abject performance not helped by an Ireland challenge that was penalised for winning the ball earning a free kick from which United scored. Then there was the two last minute goals.
And now, this season, not only do City go and make United look like the away side for large spells of the game… Not only do they go and dominate the play (despite Sky’s statistics saying otherwise, after Opta had confirmed the ball possession)… Not only do they put in the best performance a lot of City fans have ever seen from a City team at Old Trafford… But a deflection sends a cross to what you would expect to be a safe area and Wayne Rooney, a player who had spent the game getting nothing from the best defender in the league and had recently looked like a man aiming for annoying members of the crowd rather than the goal, pulling off a piece of skill that he probably won’t do again in his career.
I eagerly await next year’s defeat to a ricocheted own goal from the halfway line going in off Joe Hart’s back via both posts. I’m being facetious, obviously. It’ll probably be off the bar.
The sad thing is, it took that Rooney moment of magic to beat City on Saturday. And, if I’m being honest, as a City fan, had that game meandered to a 1-1 finish as had seemed likely with fifteen minutes to play, I’d probably have been disappointed not to have won. While the number of shots were similar for both sides, most of United’s were courtesy of Nani and his long range efforts at getting the ball out of the stadium. City, on the other hand, preferred to miss the target from much closer through Silva, Kolarov, Richards and Dzeko.
And while that disappointment at not winning a game that the team was dominant in exists, there are many more positives we can take from the game, especially since Chelsea drew last night. For one, Chelsea now can’t climb above City on games-in-hand alone (though Tottenham still can).
The biggest upside is that it took a wonder goal from absolutely nothing to beat City and there aren’t many teams that will do that in the remaining eleven games. Added to that, should City be able to replicate Saturday’s performance, few, if any, teams will beat them. Vincent Kompany showed there was still room in his pocket, after Torres, Drogba and Anelka have been slotted in there – if Smalling was the best defender on the pitch, then Ian Holloway is a Scotsman called McTavish. Though, I would get David Silva practising one-on-ones inside the six-yard box, just for maximum impact.
The truth is, while City have caught up to United in so many areas recently, the biggest thing they don’t have is what the manager spotted in his pre-match press conference. Roberto Mancini said the different between City and United was the “winning mentality” – United didn’t have the better of the game, they just took their chances. Albeit one of the chances they did take I doubt they would be able to take again, but that hardly matters now three days after the ball hit the net.
The former City legend Mike Summerbee was the butt of all United jokes on Saturday for his “outburst” on Sky, the usual rebuts being displayed all over Twitter – 35 years, Bitter Blue, City still the lesser of the teams because they lost, etc etc. But it’s all too easy to come back with that because, actually, Summerbee had a point. And it’s easy to make someone look a fool by putting the wrong statistics on screen.
City are closer to United than they have been in decades. It took a moment of brilliance to win the game and that moment of brilliance won’t happen every week or in every derby. United’s experience is the only thing that won the game; in terms of a player-for-player match up and the performance, City are at virtually the same level and, on the day, looked the more likely winners.
I’ve never seen a City side go to Old Trafford and play possession football. And actually keep possession, too, along with carving out some decent chances. Not bad for a side that is too negative. The best players on the pitch were wearing Blue: Silva and Kompany. Nani and Smalling were United’s best, so Lord knows how Rooney won man of the match – a successful overhead kick can’t be all that it takes, surely? Kerry Dixon suggested that a man of the match had to come from the winning side and that’s why Rooney was picked. Baffling.
Though, at least it’s not Tony Gale being constantly mystified as to how Kompany keeps getting selected because (and I quote) “Lescott is a far better defender”.
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City’s title ambitions are over. Though, in truth, they were never really there, were they? While we may have sat top of the league for a while, the games played column was always higher than everybody else’s and that was where the illusion of being ahead came from. It’s not impossible for City to win the title this season, but it’s very implausible and, to be honest, shouldn’t really have been the aim. Steady progress is the order of the day and a first ever top four Premier League finish (third or above, preferably) would do nicely.
Sometimes we just have to hold our hands up and say there’s nothing that could be done about a winning goal and last Saturday is one of them. The positives, though, far outweigh the negatives and the City team that lost that game is much better than the City team that lost twice at Old Trafford last season.
There are 33 points to play for, not to mention the two cup competitions we’re still in. Aris tonight will be difficult – they’re unbeaten at home in Europe in over 40 years, including beating reigning champions Atletico Madrid earlier this season – and Notts County and Aston Villa won’t be walks in the park, either. But there’s still a lot left in this season.
Liverpool will be without injured captain Steven Gerrard for Thursday’s Europa League round-of-16 first-leg clash with Braga in Portugal.
Gerrard, 30, has suffered a recurrence of his groin problem and will not travel with the rest of the squad.
Gerrard missed both legs of the round-of-32 clash with Sparta Prague and the 1-1 English Premier League draw with Wigan last month after initially suffering the injury in Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on February 6.
Although he returned for Liverpool’s 3-1 loss to West Ham on February 27 and then the 3-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday, it now appears as though the England midfielder has been struck down again.
Gerrard joins the injured Fabio Aurelio, Martin Kelly and Daniel Agger on the sidelines. But, in better news for boss Kenny Dalglish, 35 million-pound striker Andy Carroll looks set to make his European debut for the Reds after coming on as a substitute against United.
Carroll is over a groin problem of his own and Liverpool club doctor Peter Brukner said the former Newcastle forward will be eased steadily back into action.
“It’s been a long process rehabilitating him – about eight or nine weeks – but we are happy with the result,” Brukner said.
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“We’ve seen steady improvement over that time; he’s much stronger in that tendon and in general as well.”
“We still need to keep working with him and we want to build his training and playing load up to the level required. He’ll play some more minutes against Braga and hopefully he’ll be involved more and more with each game. Overall, we are really happy with his progress.”
Matt Jarvis has finally completed the ultimate footballing U-turn this week.
After being released from Millwall at just 16 years-old, nobody would have guessed that the winger would be getting an International call-up in just 8-years time.
Jarvis found his feet again with Gillingham and completed four seasons there before Wolves snapped him up for a mere £600k in 2007.
The somewhat surprising inclusion completed a perfect weekend for the 24 year-old, after his fantastic volley gave Wolves a precious 3 points at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.
As aforementioned, the inclusion would be surprising to some; but to Wolves fans, we expected nothing less. His fine form this season has previously landed him in two provisional England squads earlier in the season, so it was only a matter of time before he finally got the official call-up.
Despite going slightly off-form midway through the season, he has really come into his own this season and has been a constant threat to every defender he has come up against.
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In my opinion, he isn’t just there to make up the numbers. If given the chance on the pitch with England in the coming week, Fabio Capello will realise that Jarvis offers something that England currently doesn’t have. He is an out and out winger who is comfortable playing on either side of the pitch.
In his regular position on the left-wing, he often enjoys cutting in onto his stronger right-foot and putting a cross in. However, he is more than willing to beat a defender down the line and deliver a cross with his supposedly weaker left-foot. There are no other players in the England squad who are as capable as Matt Jarvis in overall wing-play.
He has always been known for his pace and acceleration, but this season his crossing has strongly improved. As well as this, after recently admitting him and Kevin Doyle have been partaking in extra shooting practice, he’s scored two in the last three games. He’s slowly turning into the complete, perfect winger. England have been crying out for a left-winger for years now, and if given the chance he will undoubtedly prove that he is the man for the job.
Jarvis is the first Wolves player to earn an International call-up since Steve Bull back in 1990, so there is a real sense of pride within every fan of the club at the moment. However, I believe he could be the first of a few Wolves players to make the step up to the next level.
Richard Stearman and Jamie O’Hara have both recently admitted that they are considering taking up the option to play for the Republic of Ireland. Personally, I believe they should both bide their time and an England call-up will eventually come.
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Stearman has always been regarded as a very good player by the fans, but yet someone who is prone to mistakes. Even earlier this season he was playing well but making regular errors. However in recent weeks he has been putting in solid performances and he has seemingly weaned these small mistakes out of his game. If he continues, only good things can come. He has pace, he’s strong, and he’s very passionate; he has England material written all over him.
At the same time, there has been nothing but praise for Jamie O’Hara since he joined the club on loan in January. He’s confident, he’s good on the ball and he is brilliant at picking out a pass or gliding past an opposing player. He too is full of desire, and if he can stay fit I don’t see any reason why he won’t get a call-up in the foreseeable future.
The future looks bright for Wolves and their young stars, and full credit needs to be given to Mick McCarthy and his backroom staff for getting the best out of the players.
Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier will forget all about his friendship with Aram Grant when the two managers’ sides meet on Saturday.Villa are still under threat of relegation as they are only five points above the drop zone, with West Ham currently third from bottom.
But Houllier insists he cannot afford to do his old friend Grant a favour at Upton Park.
“I know Avram well. I have met him through football because obviously he was in charge of Chelsea at one time,” Houllier said.
“But the job of a manager is to be a realist and you always have to look after your own club first – it will be the same for every manager in the league even if they are your friend.
“We fight for points and for places although we are also man enough to remain friends. But for those 90 minutes we cannot be friends and do favours for each other.”
And Houllier has played down the influence of Glenn Roeder on his plans for the game.
The former West Ham manager has been scouting for Houllier, but the Frenchman insists that Roeder will have little impact.
“Glenn just does little bits for me. He goes the games and I ask him about a few things,” Houllier said.
And although Villa arrested their slump in form with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle last weekend, Houllier insists his side have to maintain their focus to ease any lingering relegation fears.
“We have to focus on getting the points at West Ham and getting points from all of the remaining games we have left,” he added.
“Sometimes it will be the team that shows the most desire that wins and we must show that.”
The Aston Villa squad has a clean bill of health and Houllier is expected to name an unchanged side.
Easter Sunday’s old firm game was a match that stood out for all the right reasons. The match was absorbing and the game was played in an excellent spirit. It was clear that the players and management had taken on board the advice of the police and other security officials and got on with producing a game of football. This allowed some of the players to showcase their abilities. This Monday morning, Rangers fans may be a little worried.
Goalkeeper Alan McGregor produced an outstanding display; one world class stop as well as a stunning penalty save that kept Rangers in the game. Yet, it was not just Sunday’s game, Ranger’s fans will tell you their goalkeeper has been outstanding all season, and after yesterdays performance, Ally McCoist’s first job might be to fend off some very serious interest from the Premier League.
There is a joke among English football fans that you should not buy Scottish goalkeepers. To be totally honest, I have never understood the joke because when I was growing up, Scotland had goalkeepers like Andy Goram and Jim Leighton, who in my opinion were every bit as good as anything England had to offer. Alan McGregor looks like a goalkeeper that would thrive under the pressure of the English Premier League. He is a very confident keeper, excellent at claiming crosses in his area and his distribution is fantastic. He is a goalkeeper that looks confident, that expects to save every shot and a confident keeperr is normally the best type. After his performances this season, Rangers will have a very tough job keeping their man.
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A host of English Premier League sides will be on the hunt for a top class goalkeeper this summer. Manchester United and Arsenal will definitely be in the market and I see little reason why McGregor couldn’t slot into either side. He is that good. Alan McGregor has been subject to much media speculation over the past year, with rumours in the January transfer window that Arsenal were set to make a move. English clubs may now be looking at taking a gamble on the Rangers goalkeeper. Media agencies have suggested that the Rangers stopper would cost around £5m, and after yesterdays performance that looks a bargain. If one of the top English clubs do not make a move for McGregor, a club from Europe most certainly will.
Read more of Tom’s articles at This Is Futbol
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Seattle enjoyed a 1-0 win over Colorado in Friday’s MLS action, in a match marred by a broken leg suffered by USA striker Steve Zakuani.The incident occurred in the third minute of Friday’s match when Zakuani was scythed down by Colorado midfielder Brian Mullan, and replays showed his right leg hanging at an unnatural angle.
Seattle players were visibly upset by Mullan’s challenge and referee Silviu Petrescu had no choice but to show the 32-year-old a red card.
Zakuani remained on the ground for several minutes before being replaced by Alvaro Fernandez, and was taken to hospital for further examinations.
Seattle made their numerical advantage count in the 19th minute when Colombian striker Fredy Montero struck his first goal since August last year, though the Sounders could not score again against a resolute Colorado defence.
Veteran goalkeeper Kasey Keller kept his first clean sheet of the season as Seattle moved into fourth place in the MLS Western Conference, with two wins and three draws from their opening seven games.
Reigning champions Colorado stay in third, with three wins and three losses.
Juventus gave up a two-goal lead as their hopes of claiming a European spot took a blow after a 2-2 draw with Chievo in the Serie A.Luigi Del Neri’s team had gone 2-0 up in Turin on Monday when striker Alessandro Matri found the net 10 minutes into the second half, only to concede twice in as many minutes to settle for a point.
Veteran forward Alessandro Del Piero opened the scoring from the penalty spot on 13 minutes, days after signing a one-year contract extension with the club.
He set up Matri for the second as Juventus looked set to narrow the gap on sixth-placed Lazio to one point.
But goals from Colombian striker Fernando Uribe and defender Gennaro Sardo had Chievo level after 69 minutes.
Juventus could not find a winner, leaving them three points adrift of Lazio and five from fourth-placed Udinese with two games remaining.
The point means Chievo are guaranteed to be in the top flight next season after shooting seven points clear of the drop zone.
Arsenal need a win to ensure that they qualify automatically for the Champions’ League group stages and not fall into the lottery that is the qualifiers. Arsene Wenger couldn’t understand the reasons behind last week’s limp performance and he will be hoping for a positive response tomorrow afternoon.
At FFC this week we have seen a mixed bag of Arsenal blogs that includes Ivan should ignore ticket farce at his peril; Wilshere makes a new acquaintance, while the real reason Walcott hasn’t hit the heights.
We also look at the best Arsenal articles around the web this week.
*
Caption Competition: Jack Wilshere makes a new acquaintance
Would Arsenal welcome back old boy with open arms?
Would anyone care if Wenger were to cash in?
Arsenal should ignore this ticket farce at their peril
The real reason why Walcott hasn’t hit the heights… yet
Arsenal’s NEW No.2?
Starting to realise what Wenger has been on about all these years
Harry and Arsene on transfer alert as a fire sale looks likely
An ideology that the likes of Wilshere and Carroll would be key to
Ramsey proving that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Arsene Wenger weighs up double swoop
Arsenal braced for £9m Cham bid
*Best of WEB*
Why Arsenal don’t need a Plan B just two Plan A’s – Gunnersphere
It’s not us, Arsene. It’s you…It’s definitely you – Online Gooner
Arsène, It’s Easy. Sign & Motivate – Just Get On With It – A Cultured Left Foot
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Is Arsene Wenger a bad manager? – Le Grove
Diaby is to blame! Two young keepers have a great future!…… – Highbury House