Around the English Premier League - Round 36

The Manchester derby gave us 90 minutes of thrilling football that ended up returning City to the Premier's throne with a single goal from Kompany.

The last match of this round was the Manchester derby that everyone was waiting for and as expected it was a rollercoaster of emotions at a packed Etihad Stadium. Both clubs fought hard and although the teams had almost 50/50 ball possession the Sky Blues certainly did a better job attacking its rivals. Manchester City even could've earned at least a couple of goals more, since there were some shots to David De Gea's goal that passed by really close from the frame.

The Sky Blues gave a wonderful performance, especially Zabaleta and Yaya Toure, which were defending all around the field, assisting their partners, recovering and blocking every time the Red Devils were near the hosts' box. Mancini's men even tripled the total shots from MU; nonetheless the victory arrived with a headed goal. Starting the injury time for first half, David Silva took a corner that barely escaped from Chris Smalling and instead was intercepted by Vincent Kompany, who headed it over an anxious De Gea.

At the return of the break, even with Ferguson's side aware of what losing meant for them, still they couldn't do much against the attack from their strengthen neighbors in light blue. In fact it was during the second half that the Citizens got the best chances of scoring, with shots from Toure and the Frenchmen Samir Nasri and Gael Glichy. On the other hand, the coaches had their own dispute at 76', when Nigel De Jong tackled Danny Welbeck and Sir Ferguson accused the Italian coach of trying to influence the officials. Luckily it didn't get worst then a discussion that lasted a couple of minutes, but some of the people around they get in between to stop the clash.

Chelsea Vs Liverpool: A Tale Of Modern Rivalry

In the past "70's and 80's" anything called rivalry between these two teams can only be greeted with great contempt as these teams are world apart. Their rivalry surely lacked the history of the Merseyside derby and the bite of Liverpool vs Manchester United. I would explain these with the words of Tim Rolls of Chelsea fanzine CFCUK: "In the past Chelsea was basically rubbish" wow, that is cold isn't it? Well the truth hurts but it is still true. Liverpool won four European cups between the 70's and the 80's and were a much bigger team to reckon with at that time.

However, the rivalry can be traced to 2003 "the arrival of big money for Chelsea". So many things have changed since then and again the words of Tim Roll gives us a clear insight: "In the last ten years Chelsea have been far more successful, Liverpool are obsessed with singing about history but I think it is time they move on"... Another cold truth if you ask me.

The first chessman was moved and the game started as far back as May 2003 when these two team clashed in the European cup semi-final. At that time Chelsea were 30pts ahead of the Reds in the premiership, and have beaten Liverpool in both league games. And to further fuel the rivalry there were rumours of Steven Gerard joining the revolution of Jose Mourinho at that time as the arrival of Roman Abramovic meant that money was available to spend for the blues. However the Reds carried the day to reach their first final in 20years and it would be an immortal encounter when Garcia scored what was called the ghost goal to seal the win for Liverpool 1-0. It was on ever since then.

Who Says Dalglish To Get Sacked?

Kenny Dalglish is a Scottish former footballer and Liverpool legend player. He was second striker for Liverpool and scored 118 goals in total 335 matches he played for Liverpool. Till since he has been showing his full effort for Liverpool as after getting retired in games, he is now managing the team. Kenny is present manager of Liverpool Football club appointed on 2011.

There have been lots of rumors and backbiting on Liverpool FC manager due to team's poor performance in the English Premier league. Some LFC supporters are asking for Dalglish's resign while some Fans shows pure faith on the Scottish legendary man. Dalglish has already managed the team back in 1985 for 6 years time where he assigned as the player-manager of the team.

Current 2011-2012 season has not been great for Liverpool. They suffered many defeats in the Premier league and stand in the eight position of the league table. They were just able to win 13 out of their 36 games played till now. Their loss and draws mostly included the home game. The team was not able to meet the satisfaction of their followers in the home which made them think about Dalglish.

Chelsea Defeat Liverpool To Win the 2012 FA Cup

Chelsea beat Liverpool in the 2012 Football Association (FA) Cup Final in a dramatic game at Wembley Stadium in London. Chelsea veteran Didier Drogba again proved to be the match winner as he scored the decisive second goal for the Blues which was enough for them to survive a late Liverpool fight back after a controversial goal line decision, which could have seen Liverpool equalise.

Drogba set a record to become the first player to score in four separate FA Cup finals, as Chelsea, who's season seemed to be in turmoil just a few weeks ago, have been rejuvenated under the guidance of interim manager Roberto di Matteo and picked up the silverware which is now the seventh time the Blues have won the trophy. Interim coach di Matteo, who now must be a serious contender for the permanent mangers job at Stamford Bridge, also joined the elite club of those who have won the FA Cup both as a player and as a manager, after his cup successes as a Chelsea player in the 1997 and 2000 seasons.

Despite a disappointing Premier League seasons for both teams, this was an excellent opportunity to win a major trophy. After a cautious start to the game by both sides, the game burst into life in the eleventh minutes when Ramires broke clear and beat Pepe Reina at the near post to give the Blues an early lead. The Liverpool goalkeeper was clearly disappointed to be beaten by a shot he should probably have saved. Drogba who is now synonymous with the big occasion scored Chelsea's second goal early into the second half after a sublime pass from Frank Lampard, slotting the ball coolly passed Reina into the corner of the goal.The second goal and a the introduction of Andy Carroll finally roused Liverpool from their slumber as they attempted to make yet another cup final fight back. Chelsea had been relatively untroubled for the first hour of the game as the usually inspirational Steven Gerrard was kept quiet and inform Luis Suarez was kept quiet, but a poor clearance from Blues captain John Terry gave Liverpool their chance and some clever footwork from Carroll allowed him a shot on goal which gave Petr Cech little chance. The Reds could now sense a second goal and laid siege to the Chelsea goal for the remainder of the game.

The Euros 2012 Championship In Poland And Ukraine

Qualification took place over the course of 18 months with countries playing home and away in small leagues. Including Ukraine and Poland, just 16 teams remain, and will battle it out to be champions over the course of around a month from 8 June to 1 July 2012.

The sixteen teams that qualified, were earlier drawn together in four groups of four. Each team will play the other teams of their group in a small league format, with the top two teams progressing to the knock out stages. Quarter finals, semi finals and then the final will result on 1 July 2012, and we will finally know who is the champion.

The four groups are labelled A, B, C and D.

Group A

Poland, Greece, Russia and Czech Republic

Group B

Holland, Germany, Denmark and Portugal

Group C

Spain, Italy, Croatia and Rep of Ireland

Group D

Ukraine, Sweden, France and England

What If 'The Magpies' Play Champions League?

It's been not less than a miracle season for the Newcastle fans who were left fuming when Newcastle were relegated from the premier league in 2008/09.

A run of brilliant form is now getting them to the next level. The dream of playing European football is almost sure watching their current form. But whether it will be Champions League or Europa League remains a question! It's just a matter of 4 big games.

A winning streak of 6 games has kept them just above 5th placed Tottenham, and with Tottenham's poor run of form continuing with the defeat to Norwich City at home and QPR away, anything is possible. However, they can still catch up the third place if it goes like this. Arsenal was not called to be a contender for the fourth place when the season started. But they have come from outside to displace Tottenham at third and are three points clear from Newcastle and six from Tottenham with an extra game played.

This Newcastle team seems to be of entirely different mentality than that of 2 years back. They struggled through the sole effort of Kevin Nolan for the last few years, who is now not even in the team. The controversial sacking of manager Chris Hughton and the sell of players like Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll, Joey Barton and Jose Enrique, made everyone sure of Newcastle finishing in the lower half of the table. But with manager Alan Pardrew's hard work, some young signings and strong defense, they have put a stamp on mouth of those who were predicting the worst sitting on their chair.

The Notes of Madrid

Here are the notes of Madrid players after they were eliminated in the semi-final of the Champions League on Wednesday at the Bernabu, by Bayern Munich. In lane left, Marcelo will forget a catastrophic Coentrao to go, while on the opposite wing, Arbeloa has not been at his Brazilian teammate.

Iker Casillas: 7

San Iker had yet watched the grain. After taking a bullet strikes a dubious Gomez (12th), Captain of Real multiplied critical interventions throughout the meeting. Not far out Robben's penalty (27th), it is shown twice before deciding Gomez (34th, 36th) and Robben (45th, 67th). During the shooting session goals, Casillas thought he had done the hard part by diverting attempts Kroos and Lahm. But it would have taken a more...

Alvaro Arbeloa: 3.5

The weakest link in the Madrid defense. Overtaken by Alabama from the eighth minute, then gave a lot of hits, including Franck Ribery. His rough treatment led to his being warned logically (59th). As for his offensive contributions, it has been virtually nonexistent.

Sergio Ramos: 4

He had a difficult first half, leaving Gomez including spinning twice in his back (34th, 43rd). In his defense, he had the world against him. But if he was stronger in the second half, despite some corners of the head granted, we note that his match penalty kick missed, sent in the clouds. The third failure of the Merengue. One too many.