Review of Tuesday’s (19th Feb 08) matches.

Total Whitewash !!!

None of yesterday’s prediction came true and heavy loss incurred !

The Young Lions vs Sengkang match was almost a money earner as the Young Lions were unlucky to have hit the crossbar on three occasions and Sengkang’s new custodian, Adi Salleh saving a few goal bound efforts. The Cubs clearly missed Harris Harun in midfield and will definitely struggle this season. Sengkang, on the other hand, started well but were out of steam in the second half. New foreign signings fail to impress but local signings, Ali Imran Lomri, Adi Salleh and Razali Johari were impressive.

Champions League games were also unpredictable yesterday night. Liverpool – Inter Milan game was as predicted heading for a draw till the 85th minute and Liverpool scoring two goals in the last 5 mins was not on the script. Materrazzi’s early red card did not help either and Patrick Viera, who came on as a second half substitute, was simply awful.

Anyway, as they say, you can’t win them all !! … Better luck next time !!

UEFA Champions’ League – Knockout Stages

Champions’ League is back with some key matches to be played. Four matches are played today with Chelsea and Liverpool in action against Olympiakos and Inter respectively.

Today’s matches

• Liverpool vs Inter Milan – Draw
• Olympiakos vs Chelsea – Chelsea
• Schalke vs Porto – Porto
• Roma vs Real Madrid – Draw

FA Cup 5th Round – Review

Three words come to my mind if I had to summarise last weekend FA Cup matches. Delighted, Delirious and Devastated.

Delighted

I am sure every Man Utd fan would have felt the same way after watching Utd totally humiliate Arsenal 4-0. Yes, Adebayor and Flamini were rested for the Milan match but they still had enough players of international calibre that did not warrant such a final score ! .. For all the praises that is heaped on Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney is the heartbeat of this team and if he is on fire, the team plays exceptionally well.

Delirious

Liverpool’s loss against Barnsley should have made every Man Utd fan delirious. Rafa Benitez had total disregard for a prestigious competition llke the FA Cup when he named Itandje as the keeper for this match. The moment I saw the first team list, I sure knew and upset was on the cards. I would be lying if I tell you that I had expected Pool to lose but a draw was definitely possible. Just before Howard’s goal, Barnsley even had a legitimate claim for a penalty !!

Benitez knows his time is up and he is just waiting for the owners to sack him so that he gets compensation for the remaining period of his contract. Champions’ League, where Lady Luck has smiled on him a couple of times, is out of the question this time. And with the way Everton and Aston Villa are playing this season, I have only one advice to Liverpool … start applying to play in the Inter Toto Cup !!

Devastated

Devastation has to be the Sunday matches .. Had a big bet on both matches finishing as Draws and with final whistle appraoching in the Portsmouth game, was wondering that this was my best betting performance. All it needed to bring me back to earth was an OWN GOAL DEEP IN INJURY TIME !! .. what the F$%& !!

FA Cup 5th Round – 16th Feb 2008

After the disaster at Manchester (the recent one !!), Man Utd owe it to their fans to put out a solid display this weekend against Arsenal. It would have been ideal if both teams has met in the finals but that is the beauty of FA Cup.

Let’s first take a look at Saturday’s games and I am not going to talk abt the Chelsea and Liverpool matches as they are quite straight forward. But knowing Benitez, he would tempted to rest some of his players in anticipation of the imminent arrival of Inter Milan for the Champions League tie midweek.

Most Confident Bet 

Bristol Rovers vs Southampton – Bristol Rovers Win

• Bristol Rovers to nick this match against the Saints who are still managerless since George Burley dumped them for the Scotland Manager job.
• Bristol Rovers are unbeaten in their last 10 matches at home (all competitions), winning 6 and drawing 4.
• Southampton have not won their last 4 games since Burley left (Lost 3, Drew 1).
• Southampton are deep in financial troubles and are looking for a buyer to bail them out. They have loaned out two of their players, Grzegorz Rasiak and Rudi Skacel, to save money.
• Moroccan Youssef Safri will not be available for Southampton as he is suspended.

Others

Coventry vs West Brom – West Brom

Managerless Coventry await the arrival of fellow League Championship side, West Brom in this FA Cup tie. Though they are struggling in the league (6th from bottom), they hv had a pretty cup run this season defeating Blackburn (away) and Millwall (home). If your memory serves you right, Coventry also defeated a 2nd string Man Utd at Old Trafford in this season’s Carling Cup.

 Tony Mowbray’s West Brom are just three points off league leaders Watford in their quest for promotion to the Premier League but have dropped 5 points in the last 2 games. They have had a mixed run of results in the last few matches and are very inconsistent.

Both teams met earlier in the season at The Hawthorns and the visiting Coventry emerged as victors beating their hosts 4-2. West Brom will be seeking revenge and though they have won the last 2 games at Coventry, this is the FA Cup and the hosts will not go down without fight.

Prediction – Draw

World Cup 2010 Qualifiers

First of all, congratulations to all who had followed my tips for yesterday’s ACN quarter-finals.

The first matches in the Asian World Cup of Qualifiers begin tomorrow and we will look at a few selected games.

Australia vs Qatar

Australia will have almost a full squad to choose from and will want to make amends for the disastrous asian debut at the Asian Cup in South-East Asia. Kewell has been dropped by Coach Pim Veerbek as he has just recovered from long-term injury but Tim Cahill is expected to play. Mark Viduka is still absent as he has not made up his mind whether to continue playing internationals.

Winning all their home matches will be the mantra for Australia and they are well poised to do that against a Qatar team which is not known for playing well in away matches. In their last competitive away match 4 months backs, Qatar struggled to beat Sri Lanka 1-0 at Colombo. Though they do not have any star players, they have 3 naturalised citizens (Soria – Uruguay and 2 Brazilians) in the team.

Qatar will be playing for a draw and will be happy to soak-and-strike. Australia are very strong at home and should see off Qatar comfortably … 2-0 to the Ozzies !! 

Other matches

• Japan vs Thailand – Home, -1.5, 2-0
• Korea Republic vs Turkmenistan – Draw , +1.5, 0-0
• Iraq vs China – Home, +1.5, 1-0

African Cup of Nations – 2008 (Quarter-Finals)

African Cup of Nations – 2008

Quarter-final stages of the ACN in Ghana with host Ghana and Ivory Coast already securing the places to the Semifinals. Today’s games see defending champions Egypt taking on 1st time quarter-finalists Angola and Tunisia taking on Samuel Eto’s Cameroon.

Egypt vs Angola

Egypt have a full squad to choose from with the return of their injured players and their experience will be a key in this tie. For all those who believe in superstitions, Egypt players sacrificed a cow in today’s venue to bring them more power to overcome the Angolans.

Angola, who will host the next edition of ACN, have so far had a great tournament and have remained unbeaten with win over Senegal and draws with Tunisia and South Africa. Angola pride on their teamwork and do not have any stars in their team (except for Man Utd bound Manucho).

Gonna be a tough game with Black Antelopes frustrating the Pharoahs (Narrow win for Egypt) !!!

Tunisia vs Cameroon

Match between two former champions .. Tunisia, under coach Roger Lemerre, are the underdogs against the Samuel Et’o inspired Cameroon. Lemerre has created a team which puts more emphasis on teamwork and will let Cameroon attack and will depend on counter attacks. Cameroon are the highest goal scorers in the group stages of the tournament with 10 goals but they have also conceded 5 so far (4 against Egypt).

Looks like a draw game with Tunisia frustrating Cameroon !!