Venetian School, Francesco Guardi
“From Ashley Young’s unpopular testing of Newton’s theory of gravity at Old Trafford to some Chelsea fans’ ugly chants and Juan Mata’s ‘ghost goal’ at Wembley, Sunday demonstrated graphically how much the match-going experience has been transformed by the social-networking revolution.” Telegraph – Henry Winter
“Mario Gomez scored very late to give Bayern a slender advantage going into the second leg. Jupp Heynckes’ major decision was as expected – Toni Kroos played in the advanced midfield role, with Bastian Schweinsteiger deeper. Jose Mourinho played Fabio Coentrao at left-back, rather than Marcelo. Bayern were the better side over the course of the game here – Real started poorly, got better in the second half, and then conceded a late winner when the game seemed to have died.” Zonal Marking
The Question: how did Bayern Munich outflank Real Madrid?
“There can be tactical errors and miscalculations, of course, but it’s rare that things are as black and white as that. More often there are options, choices of emphasis and at times what is usually a strength can become a weakness. Even the very best players can, on occasion, become a liability.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
“On the 25th March 2012, Alessandro Del Piero scored his 288th goal for Juventus. The diminutive forward wheeled off and celebrated as if he was a novice to the art of goalscoring, performing his traditional celebration; tongue out of mouth with an almost crazed look on his face, running towards a section of the adoring Juventus’ public.” In Bed With Maradona
“This has been a pretty good season for teams promoted from the Championship with Swansea City and Norwich City attracting many plaudits, so it is a little strange that Queens Park Rangers have not received much praise, especially as they actually won that division last year, playing some thrilling football en route to the title. In many ways, this is understandable, as they have been involved in a relegation battle for much of the season, but there’s more behind the lack of warmth than results on the pitch.” Swiss Ramble
“It was a great weekend for football headlines in South America’s southern cone. In particular in Argentina, which we’ll get to in just a moment, but no piece about the weekend just gone would be complete without at least a passing mention of Salvador Cabanas, who turned out for his boyhood club in Paraguay’s third division on Saturday to make his return to professional football 26 months after he was shot in the head in a Mexico City nightclub. An amazing comeback.” ESPN
“Chelsea will take the field at Stamford Bridge this evening for the first leg of a Champions League match against Barcelona which must surely rank amongst one of the more unlikely to be played all season. The sacking of Andre Villa Boas was supposed to draw a line below the competive side of Chelsea’s season, an acknowledgement of the failure on the part of the directors of the club in terms of their last managerial appointment. Roberto di Matteo, promoted from the shadows to shepherd what had given every impression of being a thoroughly dysfunctional team through to the end of the season before handing over the reins to the latest winner of the annual new Chelsea manager lottery.” twohundredpercent
Scissors Kick 