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Being a Champions League match day, it would be easy to forgive if one lost themselves in the thrilling match-up between Real Madrid and Manchester United.
Off the pitch however, it was bad news, as reports came in of a plane crash in Ukraine which ended up killing five Shakhtar Donetsk fans on their way to the match.
The plane skidded of the runaway and split open, killing five people, among the total 49 on-board. A minute’s silence was observed in honour of the deceased before the start of the match between Borussia Dortmund and Shakhtar Donetsk.
FILE PHOTO: Jeanvion Yulu Matondo (L)
In what is certainly set to be a record move, Belgian player Jeanvion Yulu Matondo has lasted just one day at new club, Bury, after he was unable to impress the club in the single match he started!
The striker signed for Bury just on Monday.
Manager Kevin Blackwell said, “If he had shown something in that game, I might have been able to throw him on the bench. He’s on the next flight to Brussels.”
Yulu’s previous claim to fame was a goal he scored against Juventus, while playing for Club Brugge, in the Champions League.
After this record, it’s unlikely anyone will bother about that.
In a sign of the worse economic conditions in Spain, Paco Gomez of little known Spanish club Cartagena has revealed how his club were thrown out of the Segunda division after six of the team’s own players bet against the club!
Speaking to a Spanish radio station, he said,
“I knew with ten games to go that Cartagena would go down, because some footballers were concentrating on betting,” Gomez said. “I reported it to the Liga de Futbol Profesional. But here [in Spain] those who do these kind of things, get away unnoticed.”
Going further, he adds,
“If I had spoken about Cartagena last year they would have had to put half the footballers in Spain in prison,” he said. “There are players earning between €40,000 and €50,000 per game and we had six of them last year, all starters. You cannot control that.”
After last night’s 1-1 home draw with Manchester United, the end seems to be drawing nearer for the Special One as manager of the ‘Galacticos’. But there seems no end to the pretence at least.
Seen becoming increasingly frustrated as the match progressed, shouting at every mistake his players made, Mou tried superbly well to convince everyone that the tie was still wide open.
“…We can definitely score at Old Trafford, many teams have done already this season and they will know that,” said Mourinho bravely.
“It’s easy to understand, if they score first we have to score, if we score we’re in the lead,” he went on to add, thus revealing the non-existent mystery about the second leg.
Meanwhile, Fergie is busy prancing around cloud nine after that particular result.
“I was disappointed at how deep we played, but the away goal is important, it is not finished but it gives us a good chance to go through” he said, with as much as of a straight face as he could muster.
Check out not one but two stunning saves by David De Gea to deny Fabio Coentrao from scoring twice last night in the Champions League. All his critics must surely have gone into hiding after this performance.
