%image% A late equaliser by Konstantin Vassiljev denied Serbia victory in their Euro 2012 qualifier against Estonia.
Marko Pantelic’s poachers’ strike in the 39th minute put the Serbians ahead in the first half, followed by a handful of missed opportunities.
The Serbians would ultimately rue their squandered chances when their goalkeeper, Zeljko Brkic, allowed a low free kick slip under his body and into the net six minutes from time.
The result leaves Serbia stranded in third in Group C with Estonia a point behind them in fourth.
The group’s other game saw Northern Ireland and Slovenia play out a 0-0 draw which could prove a missed opportunity for both nations.
Northern Ireland will feel it missed out on a golden opportunity of joining Serbia on eight points, while the result denies Slovenia the chance of taking outright second place.
Slovenia dominated early leading up to the late surge from the home side, which saw them almost take the points.
Northern Ireland are still in the hunt for second place – currently occupied by Slovenia – with Italy charging ahead with 13 points and a game in hand.
Former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler has verbally accepted an offer to stay with A-League club Perth Glory next season.The Glory have been in discussions with Fowler since at least last December as the striker, who turns 36 on Saturday, weighed up whether to spend one more season in the A-League or head back to the United Kingdom to further his coaching ambitions.
With the A-League in a long off-season remission before the new campaign starts in October, Fowler has joined MK Dons as part of Karl Robinson’s backroom staff, while he will also spend the next week at Bury assisting caretaker manager Richie Barker.
But despite having taken some steps towards becoming a coach after retirement, Fowler has given the clearest indication yet that he wants to play out one more season in Australia, having already spent two years in the country with the now defunct North Queensland Fury and then Perth but is yet to sign a contract with the Glory.
“As you know we have made an offer to Robbie Fowler on reduced terms for next season,” a Perth Glory spokesperson said.
“Robbie has verbally confirmed his commitment for the 2011-12 season but the club will make a formal announcement once the contract is signed.”
The Glory are probably wise to not count on Fowler staying, as the club has been betrayed in the past, when midfielder Paul Reid made a verbal agreement to join in 2008 only to change his mind at the last minute and head to Adelaide United.
Fowler was the Glory’s international marquee player during the 2010-11 season, although he was slightly disappointing, scoring nine goals during a campaign where Perth came second-last, with five of those coming in two matches.
With the Glory fielding a big offer to Gold Coast and New Zealand striker Shane Smeltz to head west as their international marquee, Fowler’s wages will have to be incorporated into the club’s general salary cap.
Despite club chief executive Paul Kelly maintaining that the Smeltz deal is close to being finalised, it’s been reported the Kiwi international is still considering another lucrative offer from China.
Bolton manager Owen Coyle was left to rue a poor performance as his team slumped to a 5-0 loss against Stoke City in the FA Cup semi-final.The Wanderers conceded three times in the opening half an hour at Wembley on Sunday before a second-half double from Jonathan Walters sealed their fate.
Coyle was upset about his team’s output on the big stage as defensive errors cost them any hope of progressing to the final against a ‘terrific’ Stoke.
“There is no getting away from it – it was a below-par performance,” Coyle said.
“When you come to this stage and this arena and you are out performed by going toe to toe and you are beaten by the better team then no problem.”
“But for Bolton Wanderers, we under performed today.”
“I thought we were the architects of our own downfall at times, but I don’t want to take anything away from Stoke.”
Matthew Etherington and Robert Huth both beat Jussi Jaaskelainen from range before Kenwyne Jones struck to end the game as a contest after 30 minutes.
Walters joined in the procession in the second-half with two fine finishes.
Coyle said he too was prepared to accept criticism for the way his team performed.
“A few players didn’t perform to their best but I am the manager charged with the job of looking out for the team,” Coyle said.
“Nice things have been said along the way this season when we have played well but you have to take the rough when you don’t perform.”
“As a manager you are open for criticism and I have to accept that.”
Potters boss Tony Pulis hailed his team’s improvement as they helped the club qualify for their first ever FA Cup final, to be played against Manchester City on May 14.
“We knew we would be criticised for certain things we do and we don’t do. But if you look at the team today compared to the team that started for us in the Premier League, we have improved,” Pulis said.
“We have more quality players and we are more expansive, but we had to do it gently because we haven’t got the finances other clubs have got.”
“The big aim is to do it over a period of time. We’ve done it for two and a half years and we have got into a final.”
Pulis said he had been eager to mark tightly against Bolton and free up space for wingers Etherington and Jermaine Pennant, insisting it worked to plan in the victory.
“We are very pleased. We worked very hard all week on nullifying what Bolton do well,” Pulis said.
“Bolton score a lot of goals from second phase football of Kevin Davies and we made sure we dealt with that.”
Yaya Toure scored the only goal as Manchester City won their first trophy for 35 years after deservedly overcoming Stoke City at Wembley.Roberto Mancini’s side went into the game as firm favourites against Stoke, who had never reached the final before, and it appeared they would regret failing to make the most of numerous first-half chances.
But Ivorian Toure, who scored the winner in City’s semi-final victory over local rivals Manchester United, blasted home when a loose ball fell to him with just 16 minutes left to give City the win that their performance merited.
Both managers fielded their strongest line-ups as Carlos Tevez came through a late fitness test for City, as did Matthew Etherington and Robert Huth for Tony Pulis’ Stoke.
And it was the favourites who started the stronger.
Tevez took just five minutes before he tested Thomas Sorensen in the Stoke goal with a low drive, with Ryan Shawcross was fortunate not to score an own goal as he deflected a low Aleksander Kolarov cross into the side netting.
It was all City in the opening half-hour as Toure fired a shot inches wide from 35 yards, before Sorensen produced a sensational save, somehow pushing Mario Balotelli’s curling effort past the far post when it appeared the Italian had surely scored from just inside the area.
Yet City should have taken the lead after 35 minutes.
Tevez started the move, playing the ball over the top for Balotelli to chase, and when the Italian was denied by Sorensen it seemed David Silva had to score, only for the Spaniard to volley the ball into the ground and watch in horror as it bounced over the unguarded net from just seven yards out.
It was a poor miss, and City must have wondered if they were going to regret their profligacy, especially when Silva failed to even have a shot at goal when Tevez played him through on goal early in the second-half.
Stoke were much improved, though, and City were indebted to Joe Hart for saving well when Kenwyne Jones had a shot from six yards out after chasing a long ball and getting the better of Joleon Lescott.
It appeared certain that the game was going to go into extra-time as neither side was able to make any real impression going forward as full-time drew near.
But with 16 minutes left, City made the breakthrough.
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It was a scrappy goal in truth – not that City will mind – as Silva looked to combine with Tevez down the left.
When the ball was played into the box Balotelli’s effort hit Marc Wilson and fell perfectly for Toure to run on and smash a left-footed effort past Sorensen from eight yards.
The goal sparked scenes of wild celebration in the City end and appeared to knock the wind out of Stoke, who never looked likely to recover as Mancini’s men hung on to claim the first trophy of the Sheikh Mansour era.
So how do Manchester City fans feel about their first taste of success in years – HAVE YOUR SAY!
Australia manager Holger Osieck has excluded star midfielder Tim Cahill for friendlies against New Zealand and Serbia.The Socceroos boss also left out Mark Schwarzer and Harry Kewell, but included Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson in the 23-man squad.
Cahill and Kewell were both expected to miss as they recover from long European seasons, but the absence of Schwarzer due to ‘injury reasons’ was a shock.
The Fulham shot-stopper’s absence gives Adam Federici, Nathan Coe and Mitchell Langerak a chance to fight for the spot of Schwarzer’s successor. David Carney is the other first-choice player to sit the matches out.
Lucas Neill will captain the team in the matches in Adelaide (New Zealand on June 5) and Melbourne (Serbia on June 7), with much of the squad likely to get a chance given the tight scheduling.
Thompson gets an opportunity to prove himself having been in international exile since he played in an Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait in Canberra in 2009.
“These opportunities for me don’t really come around much due mainly to my age. Age is only a number really, I’m feeling good and he wouldn’t have picked me if he didn’t feel I could offer something,” Thompson told Sportal.
“It was a little bit unexpected. You don’t get many opportunities like this. I’m excited. I haven’t been part of the Socceroos for a long time.”
Emerging talents James Troisi, Dario Vidosic and Michael Zullo are also recalled, while Rhys Williams returns following a successful recovery from a groin injury, while Josh Kennedy is also back in calculations after missing the past few matches.
Thompson and Matt McKay are the only A-League-based players in the squad, while Fortuna Dusseldorf-bound striker Robbie Kruse has also been named.
Love him or hate him, no man divides opinion on Merseyside more than Rafa Benitez. He was ruthless, hard to please, tactically astute, made quite a few enemies for his style of management and conduct but I want to explore why to one person Benitez is considered one of Liverpool’s greatest managers and to another he is considered a failure. In his 6 years with the Anfield club Liverpool won a Champions League, an F.A. Cup, reached a further Champions League final, were Premier League runners up on one occasion and had a further four top-four finishes.
He presided over arguably Liverpool’s most successful period since the late eighties but in his final season Liverpool slumped to a disappointing 7th position – “and this is a fact”. So what do Liverpool Football Club owe this man, while many idolised him and would love to see him back at some point, he is vilified by others who were delighted to see the back of him in June 2010.
It’s fair to say that during Benitez’s tenure, inconsistency was a presiding theme as Liverpool had some fantastic highs and some baffling lows. In his first season Liverpool won the Champions League but in the league they finished in 5th place, behind city rivals Everton and lost in the League Cup final to Chelsea. In the 2005-06 season Liverpool’s league form improved, finishing in 3rd place and winning the FA cup, however their Champions League performance wasn’t what they had hoped and they were dumped out in the 1st Knockout Stage by Benfica.
The 2006-07 season saw the arrival of the calamity duo of Hicks and Gillett. Liverpool did reach another Champions League final and finished the season in 3rd once again, however they were 21 points off winners Manchester United.
Liverpool were even worse the next season, finishing in 4th and there were rumours that Benitez’s time was coming to an end as his relationship with the owners became strained. Benitez survived and the 2008-09 season saw them push Manchester United all the way, finishing in 2nd place just 4 points behind the winners, losing only 2 games all season. His final season saw Liverpool completely slump under the pressure of trying to mount a serious title challenge and they eventually finished in 7th place and dropped out of the Champions League at the group stages.
The result: Benitez had his contract terminated. So 2 major trophies, 4 top-four finishes and a further Champions League final… Oh and of course a famous Community Shield win in 2006, get in! I would argue that although his final season in charge was a complete flop, Liverpool made great strides forward in the League and 2 Champions League final appearances re-established them as a European Super-Power once more.
One of the key misconceptions of Benitez’s reign at Liverpool was that he was a bit dense when it came to the transfer market. In fairness, in six seasons he brought in around 80 players including a disproportionate amount of expensive flops which became a stick with which to beat Benitez with when things went badly. For every Reina, Mascherano, Alonso, Torres, Luis Garcia, Arbeloa and Kuyt he signed – there was a Robbie Keane, Kromkamp, Nunez (Legend!), Dossena, Bellamy, Morientes or Josemi. In total, Rafa Benitez spent £229.3m during his stint in charge, contributed too by the expensive signings of Aquilani (£17m), Johnson (£17.5m), Keane (£19m), Torres (£20m) and Mascherano (£19m).
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However, as Rafa was so keen to point out, despite his huge expenditure the club did manage to recoup much of that money back. In total Liverpool recouped £151m from player sales during his reign and overall Rafa’s NET spend was £78.3m which is not a huge deficit in Premier League terms (Also Liverpool have profited further from big money sales of players Benitez brought to the club, notably Torres and Mascherano). Meanwhile in the same period Fergie’s United have posted a NET spend of £27m, helped by the £80m gained from the sale of Ronaldo, Chelsea have NET spend of £186m , Manchester City’s spending in the same period doesn’t even bear mentioning whilst Arsenal have made a profit of £27m in the same period. So in comparison (other than Arsenal who are renowned for their tight-fisted approach to the transfer market) Rafa Benitez didn’t actually do that badly so the argument that he was a bit of a pudding in the transfer market actually carries little weight in comparison with their rivals.
Although his impact during his time in charge is up for debate, what cannot be denied is his visionary work behind the scenes. He was often criticised for not bringing through any young local players but how could he if the talent was not there. He brought in a lot of young players to the academy to raise the standards of the youth team which in turn saw a return of 3 FA Youth Cup final appearances and 2 wins and weaned a couple of youngsters in the League Cup.
Meanwhile he brought in both Jose Segura, the highly regarded former Barcelona Youth coach, as technical manager at Liverpool’s Youth Academy and he brought back ‘King’ Kenny Dalglish in 2009 to oversee the Academy with the aim of raising the standards of the youth and local talent so they could challenge for a first team place.
This work is now beginning to bear fruit as in recent months the likes of Jay Spearing, Jack Robinson and John Flanagan have broken into the first team and performed very well, whilst the academy boasts 5 England U-19 internationals and a hatful of England U-17 internationals. This would not have been achieved without Benitez’s determination to invest in the youth team.
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Overall, I think Benitez did a fairly good job given the resources available to him and the boardroom struggles that went on. He converted Jamie Carragher from utility man to one of Europe’s best centre-backs whilst adding a lot of quality to the team and for a period in 2008-09, Liverpool had probably the best first-eleven in the league. His legendary ‘Rafa Rant’ about Sir Alex Ferguson, although with hindsight probably wasn’t well judged, though it wound Fergie right up and that’s always nice to see. Memorable victories against AC Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United demonstrated his excellent tactical nous and will live comfortably in the memories of Liverpool fans.
With Kenny Dalglish at the helm Liverpool will hopefully go from strength to strength and build on the work done by Rafa whose tenure should be considered on the whole, as a positive one for Liverpool Football Club, despite his poor last season in charge.
The Korea Republic stretched their unbeaten run to 11 matches with a 2-1 friendly win over Serbia in Seoul on Friday.Despite a penalty shootout loss in the Asian Cup semi-final at the hands of Japan back in January, Cho Kwang-Rae’s side entered the match without having tasted defeat in 90 minutes since a 1-0 friendly loss to Iran in September 2010.
They continued their impressive form against Serbia, who had their own unbeaten run of four matches broken.
Park Chu-Young’s 10th minute opener handed the hosts the initiative at the Seoul World Cup Stadium and when Kim Young-Gwon found the back of the net nine minutes into the second half, a victory for the Korea Republic seemed a formality.
Serbia worked their way back into the match as manager Vladimir Petrovic made a host of changes, yet it was one of the four players who remained on the pitch for the entire match, Radoslav Petrovic, that grabbed their goal with three minutes to play.
It led to a nervy final few moments for the hosts but they hung onto their victory.
In the day’s other friendlies, two goals in six second-half minutes saw Hong Kong’s clash with Malaysia finish 1-1.
Siu Ki Chan scored for Hong Kong after 60 minutes but the 586 home fans were disappointed when they allowed the visitors to score a quick reply, courtesy of Abdul Yahya with 24 minutes remaining.
Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien has picked up a knee injury in pre-season training, and will undergo scans to determine the severity of the knock.
Stamford Bridge medical staff are concerned that the Ghanian may have suffered a relapse of past ailments that have blighted his career; the 28-year-old has had two long spells on the sidelines due to anterior cruciate and medial knee ligament injuries over the last three seasons.
Despite this, the London club will not panic, or further discuss the situation, until the full extent is revealed by scans.
“Michael Essien suffered an injury to his right knee during training this week. He will undergo tests over the next few days to determine the extent of that injury. Until we have the full results of those tests we will not be commenting further,” a club statement read.
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The 2010/11 Premier League runners up start pre-season fixtures with a game against Portsmouth next Saturday, before travelling to Asia for a number of friendlies- the former Lyon midfielder is a doubt for inclusion in both.
Whether Manchester United ever get round to signing Wesley Sneijder remains to be seen, but you can’t help feel that this current squad is certainly good enough to retain their title this coming season. The fringe players have certainly stepped up in pre-season and given Fergie some genuine food for thought.
At FFC this week we have seen a mixed bag of Manchester United blogs that includes Fergie’s prospective gamble; Scholes makes a valid point, the ideal solution to the Nani problem.
We also look at the best Manchester United articles around the web this week.
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‘Suits you sir!’ – The Premier League club’s Kit collection for 2011/12
An expensive gamble by Sir Alex Ferguson?
Why United’s transfer plans shouldn’t be influenced by others
Does Paul Scholes make a valid point?
How will pre-season shape this Manchester United team?
What next for Jonny Evans?
The ideal solution to the Nani problem?
Manchester United’s REAL transfer priority at this moment?
Any room at the Inn for United’s strike trio?
Manchester United transfer stalling over price tag
*Best of WEB*
Pressure now on Hernández to deliver – United Rant
What if United don’t sign anyone else? – The Busby Way
Ferguson’s Strategical Squad Rotation Plan For United –The United Religion
United’s Rivals Clash Before Season Even Begins – Red Flag Flying High
Forever Young – 1993 – RoM
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Click on Wayne Bridge’s misses below to see her in all her glory
Real Madrid have eased to a 7-1 win over Chinese Super League side Guangzhou on Wednesday to continue their unbeaten pre-season.Karim Benzema hit a brace, while Mesut Oezil, Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel di Maria, Sami Khedira and Jese were all on the scoresheet at the Tianhe Stadium.
Guangzhou are unbeaten in 17 league games this season, but they were outclassed by the La Liga outfit.
Germany midfielder Khedira needed just six minutes to open the scoring before Oezil and Benzema also netted before the interval.
Even Argentine attacker Dario Conca, who signed a CSL record deal reportedly worth US$10.4 million a year, was powerless to stop the rout in the second half.
France striker Benzema completed his brace shortly after the break, beating the offside trap to place home a cross from Rafael.
Having threatened on several occasions, captain Ronaldo finally got on the scoresheet with a delightful finish, producing a backheel from an angle to beat advancing Guangzhou goalkeeper Yang Jun.
Youth team striker Jese, 18, also found the net with his first touch following a wonderful pass from di Maria, before the Argentine scored their seventh.
Yang Yihu got Guangzhou’s consolation on 86 minutes, cleverly rounding Real reserve goalkeeper Antonio Adan before placing home.
Jose Mourinho’s team complete their Asian tour against Tianjin Teda on Saturday, ahead of the Supercopa de Espana against Barcelona, which begins with the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu on August 14.
In other friendlies, newly promoted Premier League club Swansea City defeated Celtic 2-0 at the Liberty Stadium.
Goals in the second-half to Angel Rangel and Stephen Dobbie sealed the victory against Neil Lennon’s side, who have already started their Scottish Premier League season.
Elsewhere, Championship outfit Derby County beat Aston Villa 2-0 thanks to a Steve Davies brace while Norwich City drew 1-1 with Real Zaragoza.