Posts Tagged ‘Blushes’

Bolton 2-3 Liverpool

Managerial criticism for Steven Gerrard is as rare as sunshine this barbecue summer and, after a week in which Rafael Benítez reminded him of his talismanic responsibilities, it was probably inevitable that the captain should spare Liverpool further blushes with an 83rd-minute winner to settle a match in which battling Bolton led twice.

After suffering two defeats in their first three games, Liverpool knew this was one they could not afford to lose if their title hopes were not to suffer irreparable damage. They professed themselves happy enough with the points, but their response was hardly irresistible.

Bolton, who had failed to score in their opening two games, deservedly broke their duck and felt they would have had a point, at least, had they not lost Sean Davis after 55 minutes for the second of two yellow cards. They were leading 2-1 when the midfielder, already cautioned for kicking the ball away in protest at a free-kick, was banished after fouling Lucas.

Unhappy with Liverpool’s performance in their 3-1 defeat at home to Aston Villa last Monday, Benítez gave Sotirios Kyrgiakos, the Greek recruit from AEK Athens, his debut in central defence. The newcomer is more mobile than Sami Hyypia, whom he has been bought to replace, but whether he is as reliable remains to be seen.

On the evidence of an unsuccessful spell with Rangers, it must be open to question. A more notable change saw Gerrard moved back from the auxiliary striker’s role he has been performing for club and country, into an orthodox midfield position. For the time being, at least, he is filling the void left by Xabi Alonso’s departure. The wise money is on the Gerrard returning to the more attacking role once Alberto Aquilani is fit to play.

Bolton, still without a point, applied themselves with a spiky vigour reminiscent of the Sam Allardyce years, denying their more celebrated opponents the time and space to assemble the passing game that is their preferred modus operandi. Consequently, stalemate was the way of it for a long time, with Liverpool restricted to potshots from distance, Bolton struggling to get out of defensive mode and the first save delayed until the 32nd minute. The corner it produced brought the hosts the first goal, Kevin Davies bundling the ball home after Johan Elmander, at the far post, had nodded down a Matt Taylor corner.

Liverpool’s zonal marking had been found wanting, with Kyrgiakos nowhere (a Greek bearing gifts?), but they were level before half-time, Glen Johnson stepping inside Tamir Cohen on the edge of the penalty area before shooting powerfully past Jussi Jaaskelainen. As if to atone for his defensive inadequacy, it was Cohen, son of the former Liverpool player Avi Cohen, who restored Bolton’s lead within two minutes of the resumption, scoring left-footed from 10 yards.

Briefly, it was anybody’s game – until Davis’s premature removal from the fray. Given a numerical advantage, Liverpool made the most of it, Fernando Torres equalising from Dirk Kuyt’s neat, chested lay-off and Gerrard settling it with a characteristically emphatic finish after Torres had knocked down Johnson’s cross. It was Gerrard’s seventh goal against Bolton, his favourite opponents from a goalscoring perspective.

Gary Megson suggested Lucas had “bought” the foul that saw Davis sent off, a comment born of the post-Eduardo mood, which also had the home fans screaming “cheat” at Torres after he had fallen under a legitimate, last-ditch tackle by Zat Knight. In both cases the complaints were entirely unconvincing.

The Bolton manager, who has lost his last six games against Liverpool and has failed to win in 10, said: “It goes on all the time, referees get sucked into giving the foul, and it seems we have to accept players chucking themselves all over the place and maybe start doing it ourselves.” It was a comment that came with the unmistakable whiff of sour grapes. Much more apposite was Benítez’s rapprochement with Gerrard, of whom a grateful manager said: “He is a key player for us and showed how he can lift the others.”

Sid Lowe: Divine intervention may save Espanyol

A religious pilgrimage has been followed by an upturn in Espanyol’s form meaning their new stadium may not have to host second division football

Five colossal cranes still tower over it, glinting as the sun sets behind the hills, but work is virtually finished, contracts exchanged and keys handed over. After a decade as a tenant rattling round someone else’s neglected gaff, RCD Espanyol finally have a home of their own. It’s time to bid goodbye and good riddance to a cold, grey athletics arena where you need binoculars to see the subs’ bench let alone their team-mates on the pitch. A cold, grey athletics arena that, despite its beautiful, almost mystical location on top of Montjuic, never felt quite right, that has a pitch that’s cut to bits and a dressing room where the paint peels off the walls.

Time to say a big hello to Cornellà-El Prat: a proper football stadium, steep stands up against the pitch, decked in blue and white. At Montjuic Espanyol have an average attendance of just over 20,000 (in a stadium with over 55,000 seats), huge tarpaulins covering their blushes and thousands of seats at each end. At Cornellà, things will be different. A €53.4m arena, Espanyol’s new home occupies 81,163 square metres, has 40,500 seats breathing down the players’ necks, solar panels on the roof, and even a cemetery for pericos who have passed away. Dead parrots, in other words.

With an “Elite” rating from Uefa, it is the kind of ground they proudly insist will be worth 10-15 extra points a season, once it’s been inaugurated against Liverpool on 2 August. No wonder it’s been building to that moment pretty much ever since they departed the Sarrià in 1997. No wonder it’s been at the centre of everyone’s thoughts, even to the detriment of the team, the director general describing this season as “a journey across the desert”, the end in sight; the director of marketing insisting: “I was essentially brought to oversee the move.” A new home that brings new hope.

There is just one big problem. Cornellà will be the newest and best stadium in the division but that division might well be the Second. They wait 11 years for a fresh start, the opportunity to take a step up, build on a fifth place, two Copa del Reys and a Uefa Cup final, becoming a real force with a clearer identity than ever before. And instead, they face a first relegation in 15 years. As the Barça fans’ joke goes, Espanyol’s new ground will be called the SEAT stadium because, never mind Madrid, Barcelona or Sevilla, it’s more likely to host Córdoba, Ibiza or Toledo.

The collapse has been dramatic. Halfway through last season, Espanyol were third, Uefa Cup runners-up, unbeaten in 14 games and with three players in the Spain squad. Then suddenly, the wheels came off and the divisions between players, coach and club surfaced; the uneasy truce was broken. Raúl Tamudo, Dani Jarque and Iván de la Peña suffered injuries and Carlos Kameni went to the African Nations Cup. Espanyol lost three on the trot. The worst implosion in La Liga history was about to happen. In March they were still hanging on to a European place; by the end of the season, they were 12th, closer to the drop. They didn’t win one of their last ten matches and scored only three goals – two of them penalties, the other a deflected fluke.

Albert Riera left for Liverpool, Pablo Zabaleta for Manchester City and the coach, Ernesto Valverde, went to Greece, his frustration with the club eating at him. Although they won their first two games – Steve Finnan joined them as league leaders – poor results followed. Under coach Tintín Márquez they collected 12 points in 13 games, under his replacement Mané just three in six. Former player Mauricio Pochettino became the club’s third coach, taking president Dani Sánchez Llibre’s total to five director generals, six technical secretaries and 13 coaches in 11 years.

Pochettino got three draws but his side were then beaten by Sevilla. Espanyol still couldn’t score. Luis García hasn’t scored in six months. Raúl Tamudo started the season nine goals off the all-time La Liga record for a Catalan and is still six away. The absence of the injured playmaker De la Peña was particularly felt. With him starting, they lost once in seven, winning three; without him they were winless in 17. De la Peña returned and unbelievably Espanyol beat Barcelona. Two goals made him the side’s top scorer with four goals. “We’ve been liberated,” Pochettino declared.

They hadn’t. Three defeats and a dramatic draw with Mallorca followed. With ten weeks left, Espanyol were bottom on just 22 points, eight from safety. Even four wins in ten games – as many as they’d managed in 28 – might not be enough, leaving them two short of the 40-point mark. It was, cruel culés cackled, going to take a miracle for Espanyol to survive.

But if that was what it was going to take, that was what Pochettino was bloody well going to get. He packed his bag, rounded up his wife and his No2 and hiked 12km to Montserrat, a religious mountain and shrine with restaurants, gift shops and the Morenata – the black virgin, supposedly found in the ninth century. A shrine rescued from anarchist looting during the civil war, where Catalan intellectuals barricaded themselves away from Franco’s police and Jordi Pujol’s political party Convergència was founded. Where FC Barcelona celebrate their successes and where a puffing Pochettino, continuing a long tradition of footballing superstition, pleaded with the virgin to save the region’s other, often forgotten club.

And so she did. Last night, Iván Alonso’s header gave Espanyol a 1–0 win over Racing and carried them off the bottom for the first time in over a month. Since his pilgrimage, Pochettino’s side are unbeaten, have clinched seven points and back-to-back home victories. They have climbed to four points from safety and Sporting de Gijón, who have won just two in ten, face Espanyol on Thursday. Survival remains difficult but their run-in isn’t as bad as it could be – Betis, Valencia, Athletic and Málaga at home, Sporting, Atlético and Almería away. Like the Bride of Frankenstein, Espanyol are, incredibly, alive. “The Miracle,” cheered AS, “is possible.”

When Pochettino hiked to Montserrat, Sánchez Llibre’s eyes darted about shiftily. “I can’t join him because I’ve got two hernias,” he claimed, fumbling for an excuse. “If someone gives me a lift I’ll do half of it. Or maybe I’ll walk from Montjuic to Cornellà instead.” Yeah, maybe. And thanks to a puffing Argentinian and an obliging virgin maybe, just maybe, he’ll do it as a First Division president after all.

Results and week 31 talking points:

Another week on and nothing changes at the top. Real Madrid and Barcelona both won 1–0. Does anyone really need telling how they did it? Nice to see that anti-Madrid refereeing conspiracy in full flow.

Atlético Madrid’s club shop was broken into on Thursday night. Someone threw a manhole cover through the window and stole hundreds of shirts. It’s a good job they didn’t break into the trophy room. They might have made off with a carpet.

Tough choice for goal of the week, with Emana, Arango and Apoño scoring absolute belters for Betis, Mallorca and Málaga respectively.

La Sexta have come up with the bright idea of putting the yellow cards on the screen in graphics underneath the team’s names, as if they were goalscorers. Which is fine normally but on a night like last night when Sevilla face Valencia, you end up not being able to see a thing. There were 15 yellows (or at least there were when this column lost count) in a game that was a cheat-fest, packed with scything challenges, dreadful dives, utter lunacy, appalling refereeing, and some shameful play-acting. It was fantastically entertaining in a comically dirty sort of way, but also pretty awful. Cor, who’d have thought it with Carlos Marchena, David Albelda, Diego Capel and Fernando Navarro playing?!

All should become much clearer over the next few days, with midweek fixtures as well as weekend ones. And thanks to those geniuses at the league, the big – really big – run of games is about to crank up for the second time this season, starting with Barcelona v Sevilla on Wednesday night.

Results:

Getafe 0–1 Barcelona, Atlético 3–0 Numancia, Athletic 0–1 Deportivo, Málaga 1–1 Mallorca, Recreativo 0–1 Real Madrid, Valladolid 0–0 Villarreal, Almería 2–1 Osasuna [Now that's a header], Espanyol 1–0 Racing, Valencia 3–1 Sevilla, Betis 2–0 Sporting

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Last-gasp Vidic spares United blushes

An injury-time goal by Nemanja Vidic made sure Manchester United kept pace with their Premier League title rivals, all of whom had won earlier in the afternoon. But it was tough on Sunderland, who, for 90 minutes, played as though they wanted to teach their former manager a few lessons in stickability and refusing to give up the ghost when the odds seem stacked against you.

United, who seemed to be on their way to their first goalless draw at home in the league in a season and a half, struck in the first of four added minutes when Michael Carrick beat goalkeeper Marton Fulop with a shot from outside of the penalty area. The ball rebounded off a post and Vidic could not miss.

There does not seem a lot wrong with the Wearside fighting spirit. Far from turning up at Old Trafford as a disorganised, demoralised rabble, Sunderland displayed a compactness and willingness to work for each other that should serve them well in their attempts to climb the Premier League table. Either caretaker manager Ricky Sbragia has hitherto unsuspected talents as a motivator of men or Roy Keane just might have been part of the problem.

United could not afford to lose any more ground at home and, after a goalless first hour, the strain was beginning to tell. Once again, their much-lauded attack failed to live up to its billing and, when Carlos Tevez was sent on after 57 minutes, it brought a roar of approval from the United fans, the biggest cheer of the evening thus far. By that stage, the home supporters were beginning to groan as attack after attack hit a brick wall - whereas, had he been present, Keane could only have been proud of his team's doughty display of defending.

Having been hit with a four-match suspension for a post-match scuffle at Chelsea that had few witnesses and caused no injury - heaven knows what the FA might have done to him had he cracked anyone's skull during a game - Patrice Evra made possibly his last domestic appearance of the year at left-back. Sunderland brought Dwight Yorke and El-Hadji Diouf back for their first starts since October, the former doubtless making a strong case for himself in his temporary role as a member of the selection committee.

Yorke stationed himself just in front of his back four and attempted to make Sunderland hard to break down. As Djibril Cissé was on his own in the United half, attempting to pose a threat to Rio Ferdinand and Vidic, this was always going to be a high-risk strategy. United simply had too much of the ball, and too much time to build attacks, to be kept waiting for long, although - as has been the case on a few occasions this season - they were not at their most incisive and tended to overcomplicate their attacks with flicks and feints that surrendered possession.

When Sunderland were opened up, Fulop made a good save to deny Dimitar Berbatov after a backheel by Cristiano Ronaldo and came to his side's rescue again when Park Ji-Sung almost poked through a shot. In between, Fulop dived full length to stop a shot by Wayne Rooney, from a free kick that was intentionally diverted, at the last second, by Berbatov, and it took a good block by Dean Whitehead to cut out a dangerous cross from the right by Rafael da Silva.

The exciting Brazilian right back was one of the few players offering United any width. With Park and Ronaldo constantly cutting inside from the flanks, the home side were playing pretty much as Sunderland wanted them too and, inevitably, finding it difficult to go through the middle against a nine-man defence.

Every time Da Silva found space on the right, he posed a threat, yet United could not profit from a stream of decent crosses. By the end of the first half, without ever causing much of a problem for Edwin van der Sar, Sunderland were playing with a bit more style and confidence, possibly because a couple of their key players were feeling their way back to match fitness.

On one occasion, Andy Reid whipped the ball smartly and fairly from Ronaldo, and advanced 60 yards upfield, but the move fizzled out because of a lack of attacking support. When United regained possession and came straight back down the pitch, they found Ronaldo still lying down, pretending to be injured, when, in fact, he was only embarrassed. At least it looked that way from the speed by which he leapt to his feet.

Carrick brought the first save of the second half with a long shot, then Ronaldo skied an attempt under pressure from Reid after an inviting cutback by Berbatov. Ronaldo possibly injured himself in the collision because he departed the action shortly afterwards clutching his ribs. By his standards, the winner of the Balon d'Or had not been particularly effective or influential.

On 70 minutes, just after Kenwyne Jones had arrived to bulk up the Sunderland front line, Diouf brought the first save of the game from Van der Sar with a deflected cross-cum-shot that the goalkeeper did well to clear with his legs. When Ryan Giggs volleyed a mile wide at the other end, it began to look as if it might not be United's day. But then Vidic struck to steal the points.

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