Fergie's Chewing Gum - March 25
This is the first of a brand new weekly segment, where we chew over the latest and greatest from the major footy leagues, providing a quick wrap of the latest Get there.
Champions League
Harold Cunningham/Getty Images Europe
The Holy Grail of European footy got a little closer for eight teams this week. The draw for the quarter finals of the Champions League was conducted Friday night (NZT) by a bunch of UEFA suits and ambassador Luis Figo (now there was a player...). It was Figo who drew the little plastic football's out of the bowl, and so by his hand we have the following, mouthwatering clashes. First legs are on April 9th & 10th NZT, and we cannot wait!
Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona
Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund
Paris Saint-Germain vs Chelsea
Manchester United vs Bayern Munich
England
Arsene from back in the day... (Stu Forster/Allsport)
Congratulations to Arsene Wenger, who in his 18th year of managing Arsenal, reached the 1000 games in charge mark this week. Opponents Chelsea have been through 12 managers in the time since Arsene was appointed. The next longest serving manager in the Premier League is Alan Pardew, who’s been at Newcastle only since December 2010, and in the entire English FA, League Two Exeter’s Paul Tisdale (June 2006) has the second longest active tenure – almost an entire decade shorter than Wenger, who this year also broke the record for the most Premier League matches as Manager (although Fergie’s reign preceded the formation of the EPL):
- Arsene Wenger 666 Premier League matches
- Alex Ferguson 638
- Harry Redknapp 530
- David Moyes 455
- Sam Allardyce 389
Things didn’t go to plan in the milestone game though. In fact, they couldn’t have gone worse. After 17 mins, Chelsea were 3-0 up, and Arsenal reduced to ten men. Kieran Gibbs was sent off for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s handball (because… they look alike?) in a refereeing howler. Ox even admitted it was his foul, but at least neither will face suspensions. This was a match with massive title bearings, and Arsenal could not have faltered worse, losing 6-0 in the end. Meanwhile fellow challengers Liverpool and Manchester City both had huge wins, Liverpool riding a Suarez hattrick to a 6-3 win over Cardiff, and City putting 5 past Fulham (5-0). Manchester United beat West Ham 2-0 thanks to perhaps the goal of the season from Wayne Rooney, while Spurs beat Southampton 3-2 despite giving them a 2-0 head start. There were big wins at the other end of the table for Hull and Norwich (check out Alexander Tettey’s stunner for the Canaries!), but the rest of the relegation pack all lost. With a midweek round of games coming up, this could be a decisive week for the likes of Fulham, Sunderland and Cardiff.
Spain
El Clasico. Or as it’s known en Inglais: The Classic. Things sound better in Spanish, don’t they? Well, if you judge your footy games by goals scored, this was a thriller. Andres Iniesta opened the scoring early, before some slack defending let Karim Benzema in for a double, putting league leaders Real Madrid well in the box seat. Lionel Messi popped up to equalise however, before the referee took a hold of proceedings. First, Ronaldo (expected to lead Madrid to glory here) won a penalty for a foul that was probably outside the box, but stepped up to make it 3-2. Then Neymar got some revenge, taking an untouched tumble in the box, for which Sergio Ramos was sent off. Messi converted the spot kick, and with just over 5 mins left on the clock, he repeated the dose after Iniesta won a penalty trying to squeeze between a couple of defenders. 4-3 final score, and Barca win back three valuable points. Messi is now the all-time leading scorer in El Clasico, with 28 derby goals. With Atletico Madrid winning 2-0 away to Real Betis, there is now just a single point separating the top 3 clubs in La Liga. Atletico sit on 70, as do Real Madrid, with Barca just an equaliser away in 69. Atletico Bilbao are next in line on 55 points. Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Valencia are all hoping to catch Bilbao for that final Champions League spot. With 9 games remaining, this one’s bound to go down to the wire. Could we see a non-Clasico team winning La Liga for the first time since Valencia a decade ago?
Italy
It's all Juventus in Italy with the man who everyone in England loves - Carlos Tevez leading the way. Tevez has 16 goals for the season and once again netted a goal in Juve's 1-0 win over a 10 man Catania side. It's hard to see anyone pipping Juve for the Scudetto. Below them, AS Roma continue to look a certainty for second place as they beat Chievo 2-0. Fourth place Fiorentina managed to get up over third placed Napoli 1-0. It was a late header from Spanish winger Joaquin which gave Fiorentina the win as they battled to break down a 10 man Napoli. Both Milan clubs are struggling mid table but a clash between Fiorentina and AC Milan is definitely one to watch, same with Juventus taking on Parma who are four spots below the league leaders.
Germany
Eight games remain in the Bundesliga, but it won’t take that long for the mighty Bayern Munich to seal the deal on another domestic championship. It’s not even close. A pair of late goals (To Schweinsteiger and Gotze) gave them a 2-0 win on the weekend, meaning they travel to Hertha Berlin midweek knowing that a win will mathematically end the title race. Dortmund won comfortably away, but too many dropped points in the midseason malaise has cost them any chance of hunting down the German Juggernauts of Bayern, who in 26 league games, have dropped just 4 points and are completely unbeaten in the Bundesliga. In fact their only two losses in all competitions have come against Dortmund in the German Super Cup, and Manchester City in a meaningless Champions League group stage game. A little further down the table, Schalke are fighting hard for second place, their 3-1 win over Braunschweig made it 3 in a row, while Bayer Leverkusen are now just clinging to the final Champions League spot, having now gone 9 games without a win in all comps.
Courtesy of the legends at WhoScored.com
France
It's a similar story in France with PSG likely to emerge champions as they are 10 points clear. They beat a mid table Lorient team 1-0 and appear to have the title sealed. Below them Monaco and Lille sit second and third with a 1-1 draw being played out between the two over the weekend. This means that Monaco dropped back in the race to catch PSG while also allowing Lille some hope in catching Monaco.