Metal Reviews

United proved that they're not addicted to Ronaldo, and can play brilliant football without. Barcelona has been disapointing the last couple of games, and I hope they will keep that up.

Barça have been disappointing but you're right... they have a game winner in Messi. players like him can change a game in a matter of seconds.

my pick for the final is Liverpool x Manchester, with Manchester winning. Liverpool, despite their excellent recent European performances, have a poor record against United, who have been excellent this season (and in Tevez, Rooney and the unstoppable Ronaldo have more than enough game winners). it'll be hard but i think United will take it home in the end.

Liverpool x Arsenal looks like it was an awesome game... great goals from Fernando Torres, Babel and Adebayor (though 90% of that goal was Theo Walcott's work).

YYYYYYAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!


Sporting Lisbon 0-2 Rangers

UEFA Cup semi final! I never thought I'd see the day!

C'mon the Gers!

man, i can't believe Sporting screwed up. i didn't see the second half, but i heard it up to Darcheville's goal on the radio and it seemed like Sporting was dominating until Rangers scored.

anyway, is Simon Vukcevic great or what? i hope he got noticed, can't have good players at our rivals now, can we?

Screwed up nothing! We controlled the first half comfortably. Sporting had a 20-minute period of ascendency in the second half - like you'd expect a home team to do in a European tie - before we caught them with a superb break. They had most of the ball after that but we never looked in danger of conceding. Our defence and midfield were solid and well-organised and they never looked like getting past us. Our second goal was just a sucker punch really.

hmm, i guess so. still haven't seen any of the match.

Benfica lost 3-0 at home to relegation-threatened Académica (though now they're a bit more comfortable over the line...). we didn't play that badly, but we committed 3 huge errors in defense and Académica capitalized on all 3. also a note to Académica, most teams go to Lisbon playing a 10-man defense, these guys came in with the usual 4 but highly organised and concentrated. they should force OUR defenders to watch this last game over and over and over and over and over again until they learn something.

WO-fucking-HO!:D

We beat Arsenal on a bad day. this was awesome!

You guys are getting ass raped by Fiorentina.

GAME OF THE FUCKING CENTURY

Sporting Lisbon 5 x 3 SL Benfica

Benfica starts off in great style, making it 2-0 before 30 minutes.

cue second half... and Sporting come roaring back in, turning the game around to make it 3-2 at 79'. at 82' Benfica tied it through Rodriguez, but to no avail - Sporting score again at 85' and 90'.

on Benfica: again... what.. the.. fuck.. is wrong with you? WE WERE WINNING 2-0, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!
we let Sporting push us against the wall, and got royally fucked in the ass in the second part.

caretaker manager Chalana is showing some shit attittude in the press conference, which at least is consistent with what we've seen of Benfica this season. he's talking about a penalty in the first half that would have "killed the game". stop making stupid excuses and face it, Sporting came roaring back and Chalana had no idea how to react, until it was too little and too fucking late.

on Sporting and the match in general: manager Paulo Bento either gave the best half time team talk of all time or threatened to brutally rape and murder the players' entire families, because that was one hell of a comeback.

Sporting showed incredible determination, and as a supporter of a rival club i have to take my hat off to the players.

EDIT: and on the weekend we face FC Porto away... i'd get the lube ready, because FC Porto fucking hates us (and we hate them) and will give 200% next weekend to make sure Benfica gets humiliated like never before. considering our recent shape, i wouldn't be surprised if it ended 3 or 4-0.

That's what they said about Panathanaikos.

And Bremen.

And Sporting.

We'll see.

Moving on, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK we lost 2-1 to Celtic in the 94th minute! Bastards!

Let me set the scene:
-Celtic are all over us but creating little in the way of chances
-Nakamura hits a wonder goal from 30 yards in the first significant contribtuion he has made to an Old Firm game in 3 years
-We improve in the second half Nacho Novo levels on 55 minutes with a lovely finish
-60 minutes approx. Ourt keeper Allan MxGregor injures his ankle making a save from a shot that proves to be offside anyway
-70 minutes. Nakamura hits a shot that passes the keeper and is stopped on the line by Carlos Cuellar. Unfortunately he used his hand and is red carded.
-McGregor saves the penalty but after receving several minutes treatment goes off injured.
-Venegoor of Hesselink scores 3 and a half minutes into 5 minutes of stoppage time.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

so i was bored and wasted around an hour to collect and arrange pics to make a new background for my computer. imo it's quite awesome:
http://xs126.xs.to/xs126/08173/lindo103.jpg

clockwise from top-left: cannavaro dives to intercept the ball, puskas shoots, zidane, eusébio celebrates a goal, higuita and the scorpion, benfica's players carry the massive ramon carranza trophy, maradona vs belgium in 1982, crowd at a benfica x porto game (spelling "i love you, benfica"), manuel bento, josé águas lifting the champions' league trophy, eusébio and lev yashin face to face, johann cruyff atacks. middle: the first game at the new estádio da luz, eusébio shoots, rui costa in action and a massive celebration after Benfica's 2005 title.

Yay go John Arne Crisis!

yeah, what the fuck? i know he's a let footer, but i don't see how using his head to intercept a ball coming in under the knee would work better than using his right foot. massive brain fart there.

what about today's match? 45 minutes in and it looks like it could go either way. Barcelona spent a lot of time in the opposing midfield, but United's defense was doing a solid job to keep them from going all the way.

Ronaldo has been a bit disappointing. a missed penalty and several bad free kicks, but he's also the one creating the most danger up front. and Paul Scholes is everywhere!

United got what they came for... a draw, maybe a narrow win....

0-0

Not bad result for Rangers. One goal in Italy may be enough...hopefully.

0-0 it's a good result for Barça... We'll see tuesday what happens, but Manchester has to do a lot more to win.

(And today lost 2-1 with Chelsea can hurt them a lot)

Now there is a general consent among a portion of the Celtic support that the referees in Scotland are biased towards Rangers.

Today, when Celtic beat us 3-2, they opened the scoring with an offside goal, avoided conceding a penalty after their defender clearly handled in the box, didn't have a player sent off for a lunge (and follow-through kick) on one of our players' groin.

so Man United are through to the final.

on both games Barcelona were the better team, but on this final match they made one big mistake and paid dearly for it, while man united, even when pushed into their own box, always stayed solid through Van der Sar and the defense. also, Barcelona have been quite shite this season and i didn't want to see them go through on the basis of just 2 games.

i'm rooting for Liverpool tomorrow!

Was barca the better team today? sorry man, gotta disagree... United had all the chances, and were tactically genious. The whole team was just one level above in every situation, except Messi.... he is just sick.

I agree about Barca being the better team today. But United defense was fucking solid, Scholes is inhuman.