On this week’s good, the bad and the ugly English teams dominate in the Champions League while giants Real Madrid and AC Milan crash out at home. Here are some of the stories featured on this week’s show.
The Good
English clubs do well in the Champions League as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United make it to the last 8 where they will be joined by Roma, Barcelona and dark horses Fenerbahce and Schalke.
The Bad
Barcelona star Lionel Messi is out for 6 weeks and will miss the quarter finals of the Champions League, the semi-final of the Spanish King’s Cup and up to 7 La Liga matches. This will be a big loss to the Catalans in their chase for a treble. But at least they are still in the Champions League unlike their Spanish rivals Real Madrid who were beaten at home by Roma. Madrid have lost 7 matches in 2008 and there are question marks hanging over coach Bernd Schuster.
No question marks over Tottenham’s coach, Juande Ramos but it was bad for Spurs after being hammered 1-4 by Birmingham City. A hangover after the Carling Cup win? Quite possibly because I still had one up until yesterday! Spurs play West Ham in a fierce London derby on Sunday and the Hammers will be hoping their two successive 0-4 defeats are not the start of a losing streak, one that Newcastle most definitely are on. Another defeat, once more at home and yet again no goals scored. Crisis? Most definitely!
Ugly
Crowd trouble after a poor refereeing display is something we might expect to hear about in Argentina or Italy. But Japan? The season’s opening game between Hiroshima and Antlers saw a lamentable refereeing performance and over 100 fans invading the pitch. What next, hooligan gangs fighting on the shinkansen?
