The business end of the Champions League got underway last night and both of the English teams on show were to find their ties hanging very much in the balance by the evening's end... The results of Arsenal and Manchester United's labours may have both ended in draws but such is the nature of a two-legged knock out competition that their prospects for continuing into the semi-finals are looking markedly different.
Portugal is one of the most unequal countries in the world, where the rich are obscene and the poor have to survive on a minimum wage of €450 a month.
Nowhere is this inequality more evident than in the Liga Sagres, with the top teams playing in state of the art 50,000 seater stadia while the league’s lower sides play at grounds that would barely pass muster in the conference.
Estrela Amdora’s Estádio José Gomes reputedly holds 12,000, but it doesn’t look like it could and it very rarely holds more than 1,000. Even this weekend’s local derby with Benfica saw only 3,000 fans show up, a piss poor figure considering the grounds are only about two kilometres apart.
Spot the Ball went off on international duty last week but failed to report back for training this morning.
So we’ve suspended it for two weeks and fined it two weeks’ wages.
Filling in for it this week is Spot the Footballer, a promising product of the 90minutesonline youth academy.
Witness Barry Ferguson and Alan McGregor sneakily flicking V-signs at the cameras during Scotland’s World Cup qualifier against Iceland on Wednesday.
Benched for the game after an all-night drinking session, the plucky duo set out to exact revenge with this cunning ruse.
Unfortunately, the joke was on them. The pair have been banned from playing for Scotland ever again and suspended by Rangers for two weeks without pay. Ferguson has also been stripped of the club captaincy.
Alan Shearer’s decision to take the reins at Newcastle makes him the 7th member of England’s Euro96 squad to step up into management. Unfortunately for the Toon the omens aren’t good. Every other member of Terry Venables’ squad to try their hand at management has found the going pretty tough at the top.
Perhaps there’s such a thing as thinking too much. From no-nonsense centre-back to reasoned philosopher via Caprice and alcoholism, Adams has won a combined total of 16 games in 75 attempts at Wycombe and Portsmouth.