Mourinho’s Masterclass Defeats Barca’s Beautiful Football[My Arse!] To Set Up Final With Mentor Van Gaal

April 30th, 2010 by The Editor, EF24/7

Just when the world thought Barcelona could never be defeated and that they epitomised beautiful football, Jose Mourinho - who can now be hailed as one of the top four managers in the world(others being Sir Alex, Guus Hiddink and Don Fabio) - showed the world exactly how any team can be conquered by sheer logic.

Yes, what Mourinho did wasn’t tactical genius but implication of simple and pure logic. It’s obviously easier said than done, and you need good defenders every bit as much as good attackers. Luckily, Inter have them in abundance.

Last week Barca had to take the bus to Milan. Last night, Inter drove theirs to Catalonia and parked it in front of the goal. If you have two tall centre-backs jumping for headers against Bojan and Pedro, you’re going to make it hard for the opposition to cross the ball effectively.

If you have the excellent Esteban Cambiasso (the man dumped out of the Argentine national side by Diego Maradona) patrolling in front of the back four then it will be hard to thread passes through the middle. And if you have three players hovering over Lionel Messi every time he picks up the ball, then he’s unlikely to have much impact even if he is the best player in the world.

It musn’t be forgotten that the theory of total football that Barca so dearly claim to be their own and use it to act as the game’s moral defender was actually started and made famous by the legendary football club AJAX. It should be remembered that Barcelona actually started implying this theory after they hired a dutch coach from AJAX in the 70’s and their dream team of the early 90’s was led by an AJAX youth system product and legend Johan Cryuff, who, btw, earned 90% of his accolades in Holland itself.

Their constant tripping over, like the grounds had a butter layer, against Arsenal and then Inter really makes me feel sick. All their claims and drama of being so holy only makes you hate them more. I won’t even mention Busquets ridiculous play-acting!

Obviously for Mourinho this was a dream come through. After being shown the door by the Barca bosses very shabbily, he’s definitely had his revenge. The Translator jumped and celebrated hailing it his greatest ever victory. It’s quite surprising though, that a man - who was mentored at Barcelona who play the free flowing game, by the Dutch coach Van Gaal and England’s Bobby Robson, both of whom play/ed a fairly attractive brand of football - has such a tactical yet dull, boring style of football.

And what Mourinho has done is book himself a seat at the Madrid dug-out. Real Madrid FC must have loved every bit of what he has done - defeated Barcelona, defeated Barcelona in the Champions League, jumped and celebrated wildly in front of the 90,000+ Barca fans at Camp Nou, publicly emphasized his hatred once again for Catalonians, declared that he’d never, ever coach Barcelona and not to mention his previous achievements which include 2 Portuguese League titles and a Champions League with minnows Porto , 1(possible 2) Serie A title(s) and a UCL final after nearly 30 years and 2 UCL semis for Chelsea along with 2 BPL titles(something they craved for over 50 years!).

This means there’s only one way Mourinho’s heading, unless the much speculated resignation of Sir Alex Ferguson stops him at the crossroads …

Posted in Barcelona, Inter Milan, UEFA Champions League | No Comments »

Chelsea’s Horrible Defending Helps Inter Take a 2-1 Into The Second Leg

February 25th, 2010 by The Editor, EF24/7

Big talks but with a cock! That was the story of last night’s CL Round of 16 tie between the special one and once upon a time his unbeatable Chelsea. That wasn’t just it, Chelsea GK Petr Cech went limping off with a bad looking injury.

However, all said and done, Chelsea did play the better and more creative football right after conceding withing 3 minutes of the start after Milito cut Terry and shot the ball past Cech into the Chelsea net. Chelsea dominated right after conceding. Drogba unleashed a fabulous free-kick in the first half from almost 35-yards out which hit the post. Close to the end of the first half, Kalou was, according to him, fouled in the 6-yard box by the wrong footed Walter Samuels. No penalty was awarded.

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Posted in Chelsea, Inter Milan, Latest News, UEFA Champions League | 1 Comment »

Real, Barca Continue Goal Fests / Juve Continue Serie A Dominance

September 20th, 2009 by The Editor, EF24/7

Barcelona 5-2 Atletico Madrid

Juventus 2-0 Livorno

Real Madrid 5-0 Xerex CD

Cagliari 1-2 Internazionale

AC Milan 1-0 Bologna

Barcelona - Ibrahimovic 2’ / Messi 16’, 90’ / Dani Alves 30’ / Keita 41’

Atletico Madrid - Agüero 45’ / Forlán 84’

Juventus - Iaquinta 8′ / Marchisio 30’

Real Madrid - Cristiano Ronaldo 1’, 75’ / Guti 79’ / Benzema 82’ / van Nistelrooy 89’

Cagliari - Jeda 16’ (p)

Internazionale - Milito 51’, 56’

AC Milan - Seedorf 75’

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Posted in AC Milan, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, La Liga, Outside England, Serie A | No Comments »

CL Begins! All English Teams Register Usual Wins As Ronaldo Shows His ‘Real’ Worth!

September 18th, 2009 by The Editor, EF24/7

16th September, 2009

Liverpool 1-0 Debreceni

Inter Milan 0-0 Barcelona

Dynamo Kiev 3-1 Rubin Kazan

Sevilla 2-0 Unirea Urziceni

Stuttgart 1-1 Rangers

Olympiakos 1-0 AZ Alkmaar

Standard Liège 2-3 Arsenal

Lyon 1-0 Fiorentina

17th September, 2009

Juventus 1-1 Bordeaux

Wolfsburg 2-0 CSKA Moscow

Maccabi Haifa 0-3 Bayern Munich

Basiktas 0-1 Manchester United

Zurich 2-5 Real Madrid

Chelsea 1-0 Porto

Marseille 1-2 AC Milan

Atletico Madrid 0-0 APOEL Nicosia

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Liverpool - Kuyt 46′

Dynamo Kiev - Yussuf 71′ / Magrao 79′ / Gusev 85′

Rubin Kazan - Dominguez 25′

Sevilla - Fabiano 45′ / Renato 70′

Stuttgart - Pogrebniak 18′

Rangers - Bougherra 77′

Olympiakos - Torosidis 79′

Standard Liège - Mangala 2′ / Jovanovic 5′(p)

Arsenal - Bendtner 45′ / Vermaelen 78′ / Eduardo 81′

Lyon - Pjanic 76′

Juventus - Laquinta 63′

Bordeaux - Plasil 75′

Wolfsburg - Grafite 36′ 41′(p) 86′

CSKA Moscow - Dzagoev 76’

Bayern Munich - Buyten 64′ / Muller 85′ 88′

Manchester United - Scholes 77′

Zurich - Margairaz 64′ / Aegerter(p) 65′

Real Madrid - Ronaldo 27′ 89′ / Raul 34′ / Higuain 46′ / Guti 90′

Chelsea - Anelka 48′

Marseille - Heinze 49′

AC Milan - Inzaghi 28′ 74′

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Posted in AC Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Latest News, Liverpool, Manchester United, Outside England, Real Madrid, UEFA Champions League | No Comments »

Spurs Sign Peter Crouch For £10m / Eto’o, Zlatan Agree 5-Year Deals With Inter, Barca

July 28th, 2009 by The Editor, EF24/7

The world is going insane. The footballing world that is. Tottenham Hotspur have signed ex-Spur, Liverpool player/tower Peter Crouch for £10m from Portsmouth. The Spurs have known to be smart/lucky businessmen. They sell a player for a high price and buy him back in a season or two at nearly half the recieved amount (point in case - Keane, and they even got £30m for a certain Berbatov).

But this time they have done exactly the opposite - they’ve bought a player who in my opinion, isn’t even worth half his weight in ash!

Also, the story of Eto’o and Zlatan switching clubs, which in my opinion was a bad joke has turned out to be absolutely true with both of them signing 5 yr contracts with their new clubs. It’ll be interesting to see How Zlatan - the self proclaimed North South East West will fit into the best squad of the world. Being the most over hyped striker in world football can have its repercussions, and Zlatan in my word Will suffer.

Talking about Eto’o, it’s quite certain that Jose wanted someone to bang in some goals rather than keep yapping about himself. Also maybe because he was missing Drogba. But a great deal for the special one - a striker who just banged in 30 goals and was part of a treble winning squad And a wonderful gifted creative midfielder Alexander Hleb.

Posted in Barcelona, Barclays Premier League, Inter Milan, Serie A | No Comments »

Barcelona Crowned Spanish Champions As Inter Win Italian League

May 18th, 2009 by The Editor, EF24/7

Barcelona were crowned Spanish champions for the 19th time on Saturday as holders Real Madrid gifted the title to their rivals after a 3-2 defeat at Villarreal.

Anything other than a win for Real would have made Barcelona lift the title but Juande Ramos’s side crashed to a third straight loss to hand the title to Barcelona.

It’s their second trophy in four days, following their Kings Cup win over Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday, as they notched a league and cup double for the first time since 1998.

The Catalan giants can become the first Spanish side to win the treble if they can overcome Manchester United in the Champions League final in Rome on May 27.

Can they win a treble?

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Lying seven points behind their city rivals Inter with three games remaining, Carlo Ancelotti’s men knew anything less than victory at Udinese would hand the title to Inter.

But Udinese had their own ambitions to fulfill - a win would maintain their hopes of a European League place next season, and they achieved a well deserving victory.

Thus Jose Mourinho continued his magic and won the first Italian title of his career. Surely he must be looking forward to make a statement in the Champions League now!

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Posted in Barcelona, Inter Milan, La Liga, Latest News, Outside England, Serie A | 7 Comments »

What Do United Fans Have To Say To Jose Mourinho? In FIVE Words Only!

March 13th, 2009 by The Editor, EF24/7

After having lost to Sir Alex for the second time, Jose Mourinho’s dream of taking revenge from Chelsea by defeating them in the Champions League, at least for this year, has been shattered. SAF’s men defeated Jose’s Inter side 2-0 last night and cruised into the quarters of the Champions League, throwing Inter out of the competition. Jose Mourinho who made his famous run at Old Trafford a few years back, when he celebrated Porto’s late goal, was obviously a disappointed man last night. Porto then went on to win the Champions League under Jose, following which he was signed by the billionaire owner of Chelsea. Jose must surely have been shattered, considering he was signed by the Italian champs to win the UCL as they were winning the Serie-A since three years anyway!

The 2-0 scoreline may sound like a comfortable one but it was nothing even close to that. As described by Sir Alex himself, the game was a suicidal one. Even after scoring the goals United were extremely nervous and had Inter knocking at their defence-line more then a few times. Unfortunately they failed to score, even after hitting the woodwork twice.

Now your work is to tell us what you would like to tell Mr. ‘Special One’ if you are a United fan. However, you only have FIVE words to do the same. Fortunately, we do provide you with our excellent Hints!

HINT: Jose said a week back that United will try to chase him after Ferguson retires, never mind.

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Posted in 5 words ONLY!, Inter Milan, Manchester United | 1 Comment »

Rubbish Arsenal Get Lucky / Defending Champs Beat Inter / B.Mun Thrash,Beat,Humiliate Sporting / Liverpool Register Emphatic Win / Barca Ease Through Lyon

March 12th, 2009 by The Editor, EF24/7

Panathinaikos 1-2 Villarreal

Juventus 2-2 Chelsea

Liverpool 4-0 Real Madrid

Bayern Munich 7-1 Sporting Lisbon

Manchester United 2-0 Internazionale

FC Porto 0-0 Atletico Madrid

Barcelona 5-2 Lyon

AS Roma 1-0 Arsenal
[Pen:6-7]

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Panathinaikos - Mantzios 55′

Villarreal - Ibagaza 49′ / Llorente 70′

Juventus - Iaquinta 19′ / Del Piero 74′(p)

Chelsea - Essien 45′ / Drogba 83′

Liverpool - Torres 16′ / Gerrard 28′(p), 47′ / Dossena 88′

Bayern Munich - Podolski 8′, 34′ / Anderson Polga(og) 39′ / Schweinsteiger 43′ / Van Bommel 74′ / Klose   82′(p) / Muller 90′   

Sporting Lisbon - Joao Moutinho 42′

Manchester United - Vidic 4′ / Ronaldo 49

Barcelona - Henry 25′, 27′ / Messi 40′ / Eto’o 43′ / Keita 90′

Lyon - Makoun 44′ / Juninho 48′

AS Roma - Juan 10′

Penalty Shoot-Out:

AS Roma:                          Arsenal:

Pizzaro - Scores                        Eduardo - Misses

Vucinici - Misses                       Van Persie - Scores

Baptista - Scores                       Walcott - Scores

Montella - Scores                      Nasri - Scores

Totti - Scores                            Denlison - Scores

Aquilani - Scores                      Toure - Scores

Riise - Scores                           Sagna - Scores

Tonneto - Misses                     Diaby - Scores

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Villarreal (Agg:3-2)

Chelsea (Agg: 3-2)

Liverpool (Agg: 5-0)

Bayern Munich (Agg: 12-1)

FC Porto (Agg: 2-2)(away goals)

Manchester United (Agg: 2-0)

Barcelona (Agg: 6-3)

Arsenal (Agg: 1-1)(penalties)

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Posted in Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid, UEFA Champions League | No Comments »