Football Dispatch

Tuesday Football
01 April 2008
by Jerrad Peters

Most compelling viewing

Real Madrid 3-1 Sevilla
Real Madrid ended a two-game losing skid, Saturday, and extended their lead atop La Liga to six points. Taking advantage of Barcelona’s 3-2 loss at Real Betis, the Meringues delivered one of their strongest performances of the season and widened the gap between themselves and their archrivals to an all but insurmountable seven-points. Nevertheless, it remains conceivable that the eventual Spanish champion will win the domestic title despite losing a quarter of their matches.

Through 30-rounds, frontrunners Madrid and Villarreal have each lost on seven occasions. Barcelona, hardly any better, lost for the sixth time at Manuel Ruiz de Lopera at the weekend. The Catalan side has struggled mightily since late-February – winning just two of eight matches.

Madrid, despite pacing the league, have fared no better. With just four wins from their past nine outings in La Liga, that the reigning champions remain firmly atop the standings speaks more to their opponents’ incompetencies than their own success. Having said that, they will be mightily encouraged by the weekend’s display at home to Sevilla.

The hosts were in an enterprising mood from the get-go. Wesley Sneijder was particularly dangerous. His superb passing carved open the Rojiblancos’ defense time and again. After just seven minutes, his free-kick from the right of goalkeeper Andres Palop was met by the head of a lunging Gabriel Heinze for the opener.

It should have been 2-0 three minutes later. After Sneijder had released Guti in front of goal, the 31-year-old was halted by a last-gasp tackle from David Prieto. Raul and Gonzalo Higuain were equally wasteful throughout the opening half-hour. By the time Fredi Kanoute equalized in the 38th-minute, Madrid should have been two or three-goals ahead.

Immediately after the Mali international restored equality with a header, Raul finally converted a chance – finishing a lovely chip from Sneijder for his 16th-goal of the season. And while the visitors made a game of it after the restart, Higuain’s conversion of a Guti cross in the 65th-minute put the match out of reach for Sevilla. It was the Argentinean’s fifth-goal of the season and seventh since arriving in Spain from River Plate in 2006.

Notable results

Tottenham Hotspur 1-4 Newcastle
Cue the overreaction. Newcastle have won twice on the bounce. And they've looked good doing it. As a matter of fact, they've been playing relatively good football for well on a month now.

Michael Owen has scored in three consecutive matches. Moreover, the 28-year-old striker has looked quick, fit, and interested in his performances. Mark Viduka, since being recalled into the squad following a string of injuries and questionable benchings, appears as spry as ever. And Obafemi Martins, after a substandard showing at the African Nations Cup, is playing his best football of the season. Thanks largely to the three forwards, Kevin Keegan's champagne football philosophy is finally worth a toast.

That said, Tottenham Hotspur presented the three points on a platter at White Hart Lane on Sunday. After Darren Bent's opener in the 26th-minute, the hosts were nothing short of diabolical. They were on the back foot from the get-go. Goalkeeper Paul Robinson had to be sharp in preventing two early Newcastle chances from Martins and Barton. And while Bent's goal – a header from Steed Malbranque's right-footed cross from the left flank – came decisively against the run of play, the visitors were not to be denied for long.

After playing themselves firmly into the ascendancy after falling behind, Nicky Butt finally notched the equalizer when he latched onto a Geremi pass on the stroke of half-time. Indeed, Geremi was one of the outstanding players of the weekend. His free-kick goal in the 52nd-minute proved the match-winner; and he played a vital part in Owen's strike 13-minutes later – passing to Viduka who flicked the ball on to the England international for a two-goal lead. Martins finished the job in the 83rd minute after some fine work from Joey Barton.

With 35-points, Newcastle have climbed to 12th-place in the Premier League and are now nine-points above the drop-zone. Spurs, meanwhile, appear slotted for an 11th-place finish. With six rounds to go, they are four-points ahead of Newcastle and five-points adrift of 10th-place West Ham.

Manchester United 4-0 Aston Villa
Wayne Rooney's six-match goalscoring drought was put to the sword on the eve of United's third trip to Rome in twelve months. The 22-year-old might well have scored three or four against Aston Villa on Saturday. But after a frustrating first half of missed opportunities, he finally made good on 53-minutes after being splendidly put through by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Indeed, the two attackers, as well as Carlos Tevez, were at their collaborative best on this night. And Roma, despite a decent run of form in Serie A, must surely be quaking in their boots. Barely a quarter-hour had passed before Ronaldo opened the floodgates at Old Trafford with a cheeky piece of wizardry. After Villa had failed to clear Ryan Giggs' cross, the ball came to Ronaldo who subsequently stroked a nifty back-heel between the legs of Martin Laursen and past goalkeeper Scott Carson. Neither were at fault; and the world's best player celebrated his 35th-goal of the campaign.

A finger could be pointed, however, at either Nigel Reo-Coker or Martin O'Neill concerning United's second goal. With the Villa boss suffering a dearth of full-backs – a deficiency for which he only has himself to blame, after failing to spend a nickel during the winter transfer window – he opted to tab Reo-Coker for the role. And while he performed admirably, the 23-year-old was horribly out of position when Ronaldo received Paul Scholes' pass on the right flank and chipped the ball to the oncoming Tevez.

It was Ronaldo, again, who made United's third of the evening. His cultured through-ball found Rooney who cleverly rounded Carson before slotting the ball home. The two connected again in the 70th minute when Rooney completed the scoring.

With 76-points, United are five points ahead of Chelsea and six in front of Arsenal. Villa, meanwhile, have had their European aspirations dashed in little over a month. Currently in eighth-place, they went winless in March – scoring two goals – and are four points adrift of sixth-place Portsmouth.

Cagliari 1-1 AS Roma
AS Roma squandered another chance to pull within striking distance of Inter Milan, Saturday. With the Nerazzurri shaving a 1-1 draw against Lazio at the weekend, and having claimed just two of a possible nine points in recent matches, the Giallorossi required an equalizer from Francesco Totti in order to scrape a point from Cagliari in Sardinia.

In truth, Roma should have had the three points sealed by the interval. Instead, Totti’s goal in the 45th-minute merely leveled a scoreline that had been tipped in the hosts’ favor after Matteo Ferrari’s own-goal just after kick-off. In all, the visitors directed 20-attempts on goal to Cagliari’s 10 and hit the target eight times to the Rossoblu’s one.

Totti’s goal increased his haul to 17 on the season. And while he played the entire 90-minutes, he is far from fit and is unlikely to feature in the first-leg of Roma’s Champions’ League quarterfinal against Manchester United on Tuesday.

Rangers 1-0 Celtic
With a game in hand, Rangers’ six-point lead atop the Scottish Premier League table looks to be too much for Celtic at this point in the season. Granted, the Old Firm rivals have yet to play a pair of fixtures at Parkhead. But even if Celtic won both of those contests, their archrivals would have an extra game to play. Of course, any Rangers fan will remind you that the Bhoys have yet to register a single point against them since Walter Smith resumed the top post at Ibrox 15-months ago.

On this night, however, they nearly nicked it. The visitors started brightly. Aiden McGeady was particularly menacing and Jan Venegoor of Hesselink should have done better when he headed wide from point-blank range in the opening minutes.

On the other side of the ball, the quartet of Barry Ferguson, , Lee McCulloch, Christian Dailly, and Allan McGregor were included in Smith’s squad after pulling out of George Burley’s Scotland camp earlier in the week. Still, Celtic were in the ascendancy throughout much of the first half. Scott Brown might have given the visitors the lead after some good work by Georgios Samaras.

With the tide turning as the opening period came to a close, Rangers finally broke the ice. After a good run from the centre of the pitch, midfielder Kevin Thomson played a neat series with Ferguson and Jean-Claude Darcheville before beating Artur Boruc from seven yards.

The goal was the 23-year-old’s first for Rangers since signing from Hibs in January, 2007. But his dream performance was cut short when he had to be stretchered from the park in the 77th-minute. Celtic’s chances were few and far between in the second-half; and Rangers played-out the final, cagey moments before claiming the full complement of points.

Juventus v Parma (postponed)
For the second time in just over four months, an Italian football match was postponed after the death of a supporter. And, not unlike the last time, or the time before that, or the time before that, you can expect the Italian authorities to do absolutely nothing about the problem.

Matteo Bagnaresi, a Parma fan, was killed after being run over by a Juventus supporters’ bus on Saturday. Firms of the rival clubs, set to clash in Turin that evening, had briefly skirmished before the incident – tossing insults and back and forth as they filled their vehicles at a petrol station. As the tension escalated, the Juve coach pulled out of the lot and, inadvertently, fatally struck Bagnaresi. As a gesture of repect and to prevent further violence inside the stadium, the fixture was aborted.

“Juventus and Parma, with the approval of the relevant authorities, have jointly decided to postpone the match as a mark of respect for the accident involving the Parma fan who was traveling to the stadium in Turin,” read a joint statement.

The necessary authorities have been looking into the matter in the interim and are expected to take preventative measures against traveling fans in the future. Italy’s anti-hooliganism organization stated that “The security plan for the transit of supporters on the motorway network...will be enhanced.” What that means, exactly, remains predictably ambiguous.

A likely scenario will see the authorities monitor the movement of fans on a case-by-case basis. For example, Inter Milan supporters can expect to be prevented from attending their club’s match against Atalanta on Sunday. An identification card for football supporters is also in the works. The technology would aid police in determining which fans posed a particular danger, and which had a history of trouble-making in the past. Bagnaresi, for what it’s worth, had just completed a three-year traveling ban after similar battles with Juve supporters in 2005.

In November, a handful of Serie A fixtures were suspended after a Lazio fan was shot and killed by police outside a filling station near Arrezzo. The incident kicked-off a series of riots which further tarnished the reputation of Italian football. Should similar events occur during AS Roma’s Champions’ League quarter-final match against Manchester United on Tuesday, UEFA will pull the 2009 European Cup final from the Stadio Olympico.

Key contributors

Mauro Zarate
You have to wonder just what, exactly, Alex McLeish said to Mauro Zarate. The young Argentinean, after all, claims that the Birmingham City boss convinced him to make the move to St. Andrew's in January. Given the 21-year-old's success, the former Rangers and Scotland manager may want to try his silver tongue on one or two more transfer targets in the summer.

With his brace against Manchester City on Saturday, Zarate notched his second and third goals in two matches. And with just eight Premier League appearances under his belt since joining City on loan from Qatar's Al-Sadd, he seems to have rapidly adjusted to the rigors of English football.

With three, crucial points on the line, Zarate drew first blood after 40-minutes when he lobbed goalkeeper Joe Hart after running onto Franck Queudrue's pass. On the other side of the break, he put the hosts two goals ahead after blasting from 15-yards following some good work from Mikael Forsell and Gary McSheffrey. Of course, Zarate is no stranger to big, meaningful matches. At the Under-20 World Cup in Canada last summer, he fired the tournament-winning goal in the final against the Czech Republic in Toronto.

Achille Emana
A pair of late goals claimed a vital three points for Toulouse on Saturday. Both came from Cameroon international Achille Emana and pulled Le Tef to brink of safety. With 34-points from 31-matches, Toulouse are 18th in Ligue 1 and level with 17th-place Lens.

Emana has been one of the few bright lights at the club this season. After a top-three finish in 2006-2007, Toulouse has struggled to put any sort of positive run together. Still, the 25-year-old has played his heart out. He has notched an impressive seven goals in the league and also paces his side in bookings. His performance at Stade Saint-Symphorien has Toulouse just three points back of 15th-place Monaco.

Ervin Skela
With goals on either side of the interval, Ervin Skela fired Energie Cottbus out of the relegation zone, Sunday. The 31-year-old Albania midfielder struck in 41st-minute – canceling Mineiro’s opener for Hertha Berlin – and scored the match-winner just after the hour-mark. Now 15th in the Bundesliga, Cottbus are a single point above the drop and will battle Duisberg and Arminia Bielfeld in critical matches over the next two weeks.

Cottbus are Skela’s 11th-club in a career that has spanned 16-years. Since arriving in Germany via Ascoli in January, 2007, he has been one of Bojan Prasnikar’s more reliable strikers. His five goals this term are level with Dimitar Rangalov and Dennis Sorensen atop the club’s charts. Skela has also scored nine goals in 49-appearances for Albania.

Kahveci Nihat
Quietly and without any fanfare whatsoever, Villarreal have leap-frogged Barcelona into second-place in La Liga. With two goals in a 3-0 drubbing of Atletico Madrid, Saturday, Kahveci Nihat vaulted his side above the Catalans and to within six-points of leaders Real Madrid.

With 18-goals in 34-matches so far this season, Nihat is enjoying his best campaign since 2002/3003, when he finished joint-second with Ronaldo in the Spanish goal-scoring ledger with 23-goals – six shy of Roy Makaay’s league-leading tally.

This time around, the 28-year-old Turkey international is merely a part of a quality group of forwards at El Madrigal – not the spearhead of the attack. Manager Manuel Pellegrini has had the luxury of platooning Nihat with the likes of Jon Dahl Tomasson, Guillermo Franco, and Guiseppe Rossi.

Man of the weekend

Xisco
Deportivo La Coruna are making an assault on the top half of the Spanish table. With just one loss in their past six matches, the Blanquiazules have breathed new life into their domestic campaign. Currently 15th in La Liga with 37-points, they are just three points back of ninth-place Mallorca and five points adrift Almeria and eighth.

At the outset of Sunday’s match against Murcia, however, it appeared as though another disappointing result was in the offing. It took 20-minutes for the hosts to settle after Enrique De Lucas’ quick opener. But when they did, it was Xisco throwing open the floodgates.

But for the superb displays of Fabian Carini in the Murcia goal Xisco might have scored four or five. As it happened, he opened his account on 23-minutes – a neat effort from the side of his foot after Christian Wilhemsson’s cross.

The 21-year-old used his head on each of his next tallies. Just moments after the re-start, he connected with Manuel Pablo’s cross to beat Carini at the far post. Three minutes later, he converted Sergio Gonzalez’ cross to complete the hat-trick.

Depor were dominating at this stage – assaulting the Murcia goal with provision from both flanks. Carini, however, stood stall and prevented a likely massacre.

Xisco, for his part, has now scored seven goals in 16-appearances. It is a dramatic turnaround for the young forward. Last season, he scored just once and was handed only a single start.