Posts Tagged ‘Far Corner’

Celtic 3-1 St Mirren

In reaching the top of the Scottish Premier League, Celtic, at times, appeared to be climbing a rickety ladder. It was not until Scott McDonald delivered the third goal in the second half – adding to a Chris Innes own goal, Georgios Samaras’s effort and St Mirren’s counter from Michael Higdon – that Tony Mowbray’s side shrugged off their uncertainty and began to look reasonably convincing. McDonald contrived to deny himself another by allowing Paul Gallacher to save his penalty in stoppage time after Innes had handled.

The two-goal burst from McDonald and Samaras late in the first half, however, provided a much-needed fillip for Celtic players who had spent the preceding 36 minutes as bland and unthreatening as they have been for much of this season. Even Rangers’ first defeat of the season, inflicted by Aberdeen earlier, seemed insufficient to inspire a home side that seem to take ever longer these days to establish pace, rhythm and incisiveness.

Instead, even opponents as unfancied as St Mirren are frequently allowed to settle into the kind of comfort zone that nourishes belief in their ability to frustrate their hosts and take away a souvenir of the party.

It is unlikely to have helped that Barry Robson, the midfielder widely recognised as Celtic’s most efficient player in their previous fixture, the defeat at Tannadice, was on the bench for this one. Robson’s absence may not have been entirely to blame – he would eventually replace Zheng Zhi in the 85th minute – but there was certainly a lack of cohesion and a general lopsidedness about the home side which, until the opener, seriously reduced their prospects of inflicting damage on the visitors’ goal.

When the strike came, it was simply worked. Samaras took a pass from Aiden McGeady and held the ball until his little partner scampered into position. The tall Greek rolled the ball into his path and McDonald, from the right side of the area, found the far corner with a shot that was deflected over the line by Innes.

The second goal was similar, McGeady on this occasion breaking through the middle before leaving Samaras with only Gallacher to beat and the striker drilled the ball low and far to the goalkeeper’s right.

Celtic, though, seem incapable of completing a game without at least one slip and it came right on the interval when Marc Crosas, from a cross by Billy Mehmet, stabbed the ball towards his goal, but palpably short, allowing the substitute Higdon to drive the ball past Lukasz Zaluska.

The two-goal advantage was restored when McDonald scored unaided during a period when the Celtic players produced some of their most pleasing football of the season and appeared, for a change, to be enjoying themselves. The execution of the goal was the hallmark of men happy in their work.

Gary Caldwell’s long pass out of defence fell from the sky and was brilliantly killed and moved on in one dazzling piece of skill by McGeady. As he moved to the dead ball line, McDonald bolted to the near post, put in a perfect cross and the Aussie striker had merely to stretch out his right foot to direct the ball past Gallacher from six yards.

McGeady’s unusually mature performance had much to do with Celtic’s overall impressiveness during the second half, the Republic of Ireland winger often finding team-mates with telling passes and crosses from the right. Such productivity has been a rarity with him over the years.

Blackburn 3-2 Burnley

Andy Hunter Burnley’s desperate longing goes on. Thirty years they have waited for victory over Blackburn Rovers and there was no end in sight to the Clarets’ suffering against their fiercest rivals this afternoon. This proved not so much an anti-climax for Owen Coyle’s side as torture.

The first top-flight derby between the teams in 43 years could not have started any better for the visitors. Only four minutes had elapsed when Andre Bikey instigated a swift counter-attack that Wade Elliott enhanced with a pass to Robbie Blake and then a run that distracted two Blackburn defenders. Instead of forcing the veteran onto his weaker left foot, Lars Jacobsen and Keith Andrews tempted Blake inside and discovered the folly of that decision when the midfielder struck a venomous shot beyond Paul Robinson from 20 yards.

Rovers were level just five minutes later and no one inside the ground could have savoured the moment more than the goalscorer, David Dunn. The Blackburn forward was born between the two towns, grew up a Rovers fan, spent a year at Burnley’s academy as a youngster and had his only previous goal against the enemy credited as an own goal in 2001. This time there was no disputing Dunn’s goal, stroked nonchalantly into Brian Jensen’s far corner after Franco Di Santo cushioned Morten Gamst Pedersen’s cross into his path.

The on-loan Chelsea striker had an outstanding game and nodded Rovers deservedly ahead when Jensen and Graham Alexander made a complete hash of clearing Dunn’s free-kick. Blackburn’s third, like their first, was another fine team goal. Andrews sprayed a pass out to Pedersen who headed onwards into the path of Pascal Chimbonda, making a devastating run from left-back. Having found Steven Fletcher wanting with the initial foray, Chimbonda then cut easily inside the Scotland striker and finished superbly into the far corner.

Chris Eagles struck Burnley’s second in the 92nd minute, but it was too late for Coyle’s side to mount an unlikely comeback.

Apoel Nicosia v Chelsea – live!

Hit refresh or the auto update button for the latest posts. Email Barry.Glendenning@guardian.co.uk and tell him how nice he smells. If that doesn’t do it for you, you can follow Rob Smyth’s Manchester United v Wolfsburg minute-by-minute, while here’s tonight’s full Champions League scoreboard

26 min: Apoel win a corner, which is played short to the near post, where Frank Lampard heads clear.

22 min: Despite having gone a goal down, Apoel seem happy enough sit back, let Chelsea have the ball and do it what they please until they make their way into the final third.

21 min: “My old landlord wouldn’t give me my deposit back because the carpet in one of the bedroom’s had a tiny speck of paint on it (ex was an artist),” writes Peter Corway. “Instead of dealing with this maturely and logically, I decided it would make much more sense to get drunk, find a brick and smash the windows of the house on two separate occasions. If he wasn’t going to give me my deposit back, he was going to have to pay for it in spilled glass.”

GOAL! Apoel FC 0-1 Chelsea (Anelka 17) That’s a great goal. Juliano Belletti jinks his way down the right wing to the end-line, cuts inside, and pulls the ball back to Anelka, just inside the penalty area. From 20 yards out, he eschews the power option and deftly passes the ball into the far corner of the goal.

15 min: This is fairly turgid, scrappy stuff. Neither team are playing particularly well, but you get the feeling that an Apoel goal would liven things up no end. There doesn’t seem much hope of them getting one, as they’re happy to sit back and try to soak up anything Chelsea can throw at them, then take their chances on the break.

14 min: From the centre of the park, Ashley Cole pings the ball out to Nic Anelka on the left touchline and continues his run into the penalty area. The Frenchman ambles onwards and inwards, before sending a lazy cross into the penalty area that neither Cole nor Kalou have a hope of getting near.

12 min: Another offside flag after good work from Apoel. The refereee played the advantage after Essien had fouled Mirosavljevic on the edge of the box, the ball broke for Alexandrou who tried to thread it through to Pinto, only for the linesman to flag the Apoel player for offside.

9 min: For a moment it looked like it could be the dawning of the age of Nectarious, as the Apoel No29, Nectarious Alexandrou looked to have sprung the Chelsea offside trap, latched on to a pass from midfield and got through on goal. After a short delay, the linesman flagged. There wasn’t much in it.

8 min: Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien tries a right-footed drive from distance. Wide.

6 min: Apologies to anyone who was looking in vain for the auto-refresh button and couldn’t find it. It should be there now, just above the photograph. Whatever workshy idiot set up this minute-by-minute report (ie it isn’t my fault it wasn’t there) this afternoon forgot to click the relevant box.

4 min: Apoel win a free-kick wide on rthe right about 40 yards out from the Chelsea goal after Branislav Ivanovic brings Nenad Mirosavljevic to ground with a cynical tug. He’s lucky to escape a booking. The ball is curled across the edge of the six-yard box at chest-height, prompting Petr Cech to rush off his line and punch clear.

3 min: Not much going on. Apoel have won a couple of free-kicks but have been content to stroke the ball around at the back rather than launch the ball forward and risk gifting possession to Chelsea.

1 min: Chelsea kick off at 9.45pm local time. Christos Kontis immediately concedes a corner. Lampoard swings it in, goalkeeper Dionisios Chiotis attempts to punch clear and the referee blows for a free-kick to Apoel.

Pre-match niceties: The teams line up in the tunnel, with Apoel’s players wearing yellow shirts with blue trim, blue shorts and yellow socks. Chelsea are dressed in all white, with thin blue lines across their shirts. There appears to be a paucity of children’s kit in Nicosia, as most of the mascots dressed in the home team’s duds appear to be wearing shorts that reach down to their ankles. Not long to go now.

An email from Colin Greer to get the ball rolling: “I had a landlord (Greek, not Cypriot) who liked to let himself in too,” he writes. “He was fat and wheezed a lot – nearly passing out any time he reached our second floor flat. One day, when I was sleeping one off, I heard him enter the flat (wheezing heavily) and turn on the TV. He must have been deaf, too, because he had the TV on very loud. He then had the audacity to switch over to one of those adult entertainment channels (scrambled, no less)! His wheezing progressively got louder the longer he stayed. I tried making noises of my own, in the hopes he’d discover he was not alone, but the TV was so loud he couldn’t hear me. I was forced to ‘wait him out’. I handed him my notice soon after.”

Tictacs corner: While I wholeheartedly agree with BBC Five Live boadcaster Danny Baker when he says that football is chaos and anyone who waffles incessantly about formations and tactics should be soundly thrashed with a big stick, it would be a gross dereliction of journalistic duty to ignore them completely. So, to keep the nerds happy …

Apoel look likely to line up – minute-by-minute reporter shakes head wearily and rolls eyes to heaven – in a 4-2-3-1, with Chrysostomos Michail and Nuno Morais sitting in front of the back four, Nectarious Alexandrou looking peachy on the left side of midfield, Constantinos Charalambides on the right and Helio Pinto operating in the hole behind striker Nenad Miroavljevic.

Chelsea will forego their diamonmd formation and play Juliano Belleti in front of the back four behind Michael Essien and Frank Lampard in the centre of midfield, with Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda on the right and left flanks respectively. Nicolas Anelka will paddle his own canoe up front.

Apoel Nicosia: Chiotis, Poursaitides, Kontis, Grncarov, Haxhi, Charalambidis, Morais, Michael, Alexandrou, Pinto, Mirosavljevic.
Subs: Kissas, Papathanasiou, Kosowski, Satsias, Elia, Jean Paulista, Breska.

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Belletti, Essien, Lampard, Kalou, Anelka, Malouda.
Subs: Hilario, Joe Cole, Zhirkov, Deco, Sturridge, Hutchinson, Bruma.

Referee: Bertrand Layec (France)

Unconvincing reasons why Chelsea might not have it all their own way tonight

• Tonight is Apoel’s home debut in the Champions League, so they’ll be fired up for a game against glamourous opposition. In their away debut, they held Atletico Madrid to a scoreless draw.

• Apoel are no slouches at home, having won all three of their games at the GSP in the preliminary qualifying rounds.

• Chelsea failed to win on their travels in last season’s Champions League group stages.

• Eh … Apoel manager Ivan Jovanović’s star sign is Cancer and his horoscope for today reads: “You should know by now that your side paths lead to some amazing places.” (Translation: play with two wide men attacking Chelsea’s full-backs down the flanks.)

• Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti, by contrast, is a Gemini and his horoscope for today reads: “Ambiguity rules the day, so misunderstandings are that much more likely.” (Translation: expect more of the comedy defending by John Terry and Ricardo Carlvaho that kept Wigan’s fans so heartily amused last Saturday afternoon.)

• Im a Pisces, by the way. My horoscope reads: “With two Champions League matches to choose from tonight, expect to end up reporting on the rubbish one.” (Translation: Smyth’s sleeping with the boss.)

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the coming together in footballing rivalry of Cypriot champions Athlitikos Podosfairikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias (translation: Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia) and Premier League runners-up and serial Champions League chokers Chelsea in tonight’s Group D set-to at the Pancyprian Gymnastic Association Stadium (GSP Stadium) in Nicosia, Cyprus.

First, a confession: my knowledge of Cypriots is negligible, restricted as it is to occasional snippets gleaned from a former landlord of mine in Clapham, London. What I can tell you is that, in my very limited experience, they take great umbrage at being referred to as “Greeks”, but enormous pride in renting out flats heated by boilers that haven’t been serviced by a Corgi card-carrying professional for 16 years.

They also have no problem letting themselves into these flats at any time of day or night to violently hit the these death-trap boilers with a large spanner and consider one £3.99 bottle of corner-shop piss to be a perfectly acceptable Christmas gift, even though they’re trousering nearly £20,000 a year tax free in rent from the three people expected to share it. I feel a riff coming on – please feel free to help embellish tonight’s report by sending in your landlord horror stories.

But I digress, back to tonight’s match. Despite coming into it on the back of a hiding at the hands of Wigan Athletic, Chelsea are 1-3 favourites to win this evening, even without Didier Drogba and Jose Boswinga, who are sitting out the second game of the respective three- and two-match bans handed down by Uefa for their petulant tomfoolery at the end of last season’s semi-final defeat against Barcelona.

Argentina 1-3 Brazil

Argentina 1-3 Brazil

Brazil ruthlessly sealed their qualification for the World Cup in South Africa tonight, but Argentina’s fate is looking ever more uncertain after this crushing defeat. Diego Maradona came into this match promising to attack Brazil, yet he could not have anticipated his side’s defence rendering his team’s threat so irrelevant. Argentina were woeful at the back and Brazil barely had to work for their goals.

Argentina are safe in fourth place for now as their nearest challenges, Ecuador, lost 2-0 in Colombia. Only two points separates Argentina from both of those sides, and they cannot be sure of keeping them at arm’s length for much longer. Dunga’s Brazil have drawn criticism for favouring solidity over flair. Yet all Dunga need do now is point to the sheer ineptitude of Argentina’s defence.

They wilted at the mere sign of a high ball into their box and Elano’s deliveries in particular seemed to induce Argentina into a state of paralysis. After a high-octane start in which Argentina snapped the ball around efficiently and gave Brazil little time to play, the visitors took the lead after 24 minutes. It was a goal of unerring simplicity, Luisao, with barely a marker within six yards of him, heading Elano’s free-kick into the far corner.

Brazil barely deserved the lead, Argentina having made all the running. They might have led early on when Cesar had to be alert to deny Tevez. Set pieces change games though and an inability to clear them is fatal. A few minutes after the first, another Elano effort squirmed through the wall for Kaka to pull the ball back from the goal-line. Felipe Melo’s shot was saved by Andujar, only for Luis Fabiano to sweep up the rebound. No Argentina defender had reacted.

Maxi Rodriguez might have reduced the arrears shortly afterwards when Tevez’s persistence earned the midfielder a sight of goal. Cesar blocked brilliantly however and soon Argentina were flailing at another set-piece, Andujar just about denying Fabiano a second and Brazil a third.

By now thoughts were turning to just how many Brazil might rack up. After all, Argentina lost 6-1 in Bolivia not long ago. The high altitude was blamed then but a worrying 2-0 defeat in Ecuador in June was a new low. That signalled that Argentina, twice winners of the World Cup, might not make it to South Africa.

Maradona sent on his son-in-law, Sergio Aguero, at half-time to support Lionel Messi and Tevez but Brazil were more threatening on the break. Fabiano flashed a shot wide and only a last-ditch tackle stymied Robinho. Then as the game appeared to be trundling to a meek conclusion, Jésus Datolo dragged Argentina back into it. Gilberto Silva and Melo had swarmed over any Argentinian midfielder foolish enough to get near Brazil’s area, but this time Datolo was afforded the time and space to crack in a superb 30-yard effort into the top corner.

Brazil swiftly poured cold water on any flickering hopes of a comeback however. A minute later, Kaka, otherwise quiet directed a sumptuous pass into Fabiano’s path and he cleverly dinked the ball over the advancing Andujar. Argentina at least showed some fight, Messi, whose runs constantly induced panic in opposing defenders, was denied by Luisao before he set up Diego Milito with a clear chance, only for Cesar to save.

At the final whistle Brazil celebrated in a mass huddle, while Maradona could only trudge off the pitch disconsolately, perhaps wondering just how long he has left in what was meant to be his dream job. It’s all turned very sour very quickly.

Rangers 4-1 Hamilton

Rangers strode virtually unchallenged back to the top of the Scottish Premier League and, barring a wide-margin victory for either Hibernian or Celtic when those two meet at Easter Road today, the champions are likely to remain there.

The Ibrox side’s ascendancy was made on the back of goals from Steven Whittaker and Kris Boyd, each having delivered a brace, but their general superiority over largely hapless Hamilton Academical made the contest something of a mismatch. By the time Mark McLaughlin scored a consolation with a late header from a corner kick, the stadium was almost empty.

Visits to venues such as Ibrox by teams like Hamilton almost invariably carry undertones of damage limitation, and this latest example of the genre conformed precisely to the convention.

The Lanarkshire side demonstrated hardly any inclination to operate in the vicinity of the home goalkeeper, Allan McGregor, seemingly preferring to swarm in numbers in front of their own, Tomas Cerny, in an attempt to minimise Rangers’ score.

It was an approach that simply encourages champions to flex their muscles, and Rangers had bullied their opponents into submission before a third of the match had been completed. What is also common to these occasions is that the odds-on favourites will get their goals cheaply. The two with which Whittaker and Boyd sent the Ibrox side on their way could be called complimentary.

David Weir began the move for the first with a pass to Steven Davis in the inside-right position and while the midfielder’s low through ball to Whittaker was admirably measured, the full-back did not meet a challenge as he strode into the area on the right and drilled the ball low into the far corner.

If the Hamilton defenders were guilty of lethargy then, they were quite shocking in the way they conceded the second. Kenny Miller tried to raid on the left, but was dispossessed by Martin Canning. In his pathetic attempt at a clearance, the right-back simply passed the ball straight to Stevie Naismith. His cross was headed into the air and looped towards Boyd, who did not even have to jump as he sent a free header dropping over Cerny.

In truth, Rangers should have been even further ahead, but a number of players, notably Miller and Davis, had squandered earlier opportunities. This failure to convert their superiority during that oppressive period seemed to encourage Hamilton in a second half in which they were appreciably more ambitious.

There was only the occasional moment of menace in the Rangers defence, but it was enough to create a pleasing difference in the visitors’ performance and give their small coterie of supporters something to cheer.

James McArthur tested McGregor with a drive to the goalkeeper’s near post from the left side of the box after he had coasted past Madjid Bougherra with some slick footwork. That moment came soon after Derek Lyle had forced the goalkeeper to scramble a save at the same post with a low, curling free-kick from the left.

While those episodes might have lifted the spirits of the visitors, however, they also prefaced a raising of tempo and pressure by the home side, who would double their advantage within a few minutes, as Boyd and Whittaker each grabbed a second goal.

Boyd’s came from a powerful left-foot drive after Naismith had bolted down the left and played a perfectly-measured cut-back, and Whittaker played a 1-2 with Davis before beating Cerny with a curling, left-foot drive from 22 yards.