A menu for the curry-house I visited two nights back. A packet of chewing gum. Two £1 coins, and a 10p piece. Those items are the contents of my trouser-pockets. Far more interestingly, SC Freiburg's former Northwich Victoria, Halifax Town and Chesterfield left-back Felix Bastians had Arjen Robben in his pocket on Saturday.
FC Bayern Munich may well have prevailed by a 2-1 scoreline, but boy were they made to work for it. Although my criticism of Robben seemingly contradicts his scoring of a brace, both strikes were from set-pieces: he was marginalised for long periods of this clash. Facing a side content to kick, press and/or sit, Bayern spent too much of the game passing aimlessly amongst the defence and the dropping midfield pairing of van Bommel and Pranjic.
As the frequently bobbing pair of Olic and Klose grew more frustrated by the lack of leather in the final third, they dropped deeper in search of the ball. Thus, any quick, incisive attempts at through-balls bobbled harmlessly to the Freiburg goalkeeper, Pouplin (strong, brave, and agile: might he be France's no. 3 GK at the World Cup?). 2-8-0 vs 4-6-0 isn't the stuff dream-games are made of.
If you had been told at the beginning of January that Manchester City's biggest transfer window signing would be a 22 year old Englishman from the Championship you would have been forgiven for laughing out loud, but that's exactly what happened.
The acquisition of the flying winger raised eyebrows with many predicting nothing more than bench warming duties at City, but Johnson has made quite an impression in the first team so far.
The fee was rumoured to be in the region of £8.5 million as City were forced ...
Last week's action saw Manchester United, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Lyon make their way safely through to the quarter finals. Tonight two more teams will be added to the list as Chelsea take on Inter Milan and CSKA Moscow and Sevilla do battle.
Chelsea ...
Wednesday morning and it's AC Milan time, you just got to love these days. Today will be a long one. I leave the house about 11 in the morning and head for Rathmines to collect tickets for a friend who is already over there. The demand for this game is huge and for some reason, I have found myself in the situation where I will have to meet 12 different people today with tickets. Be it swaps for this game or bringing the season cards back for Sunday's Fulham game, it is going to be a busy day too....
With an astonishing 89 days before South Africa and Mexico kick-off the 19th World Cup in Johannesburg on June 11th, BPF hand pick fifty players everyone will have to keep an eye out for in a four-part series. From some of the world's top players, to some emerging talent, to some national favourites, these fifty players will be a must-watch bunch this summer.
50 Shinji Okazaki Japan
We kick-off the Top 50 with a virtually unknown striker in this side of the world, Shinji Okazaki. The 23-year-old plies ...
Normality resumes this weekend as once again we have a full offering of fixtures to keep fans (and Neil Sherwin's fantasy football team) happy. We take a closer look at some of this weekend's more interesting games below.
Last weekend's FA cup commitments meant that Chelsea had to sit back and watch as their position at the top was first matched and then overtaken. The current situation at the summit of the league promises for one of the most interesting title run-ins in years: Manchester United are the ...
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