There Is Only One Sinnacle

Samuel Eto’o Winner Puts The Skids On Lazio

The Cameroonian’s early goal warms up the home fans on an ice cold evening at the San Siro.

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Seems kinda fitting in a week for Jose Mourinho is paired up with his old Chelsea side in the Champions League his current Inter squad come up with an old school Chelsea like performance. It wasn’t pretty but thanks to Eto’o early goal Inter were given an advantage and unlike last week’s draw against Atalanta they held on to the early in a game Inter controlled from start to finish. Inter Milan now go into the Christmas break with an eight point lead over second place A.C Milan who do have a game in hand.

Juventus 1-2 Catania: Sicilian Steel Brings Down Struggling Juventus

Juventus were defeated 2-1 by last-placed Catania as their Serie A hopes go up in smoke and Sinisa Mihajlovic earned his first points as coach of the visitors.

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You know it wasn’t that long ago people where comparing Ciro Ferrara to Pep Guardiola after Juventus hot start to the season. Those comparisons are long gone now as Juventus loses again, this time to last place Catania. Injures to the likes of Mauro Camoranesi don’t help but something is really wrong with this team. Either these players don’t like Ferrara or even worse these Juventus players don’t like playing with each other.

Real Madrid 6-0 Real Zaragoza: Merengues Humiliate Woeful Visitors

Higuain and Van der Vaart got doubles, while Ronaldo and Benzema were also on the scoresheet as Madrid hit Zaragoza for six…

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What is there to say about this game? Real Madrid played really well and Real Zaragoza played really bad. I wanted to touch upon Rafael Van der Vaart with this post. Good for him is the first thing which comes to mind about his performance today. For an entire year he was moth balled and rumours of him being shipping out were common place. For a player who was the centre piece of his previous team, this must come as a shock to the system.

Van der Vaart did what all professionals should do and focus on what they can control, keep your opinions to yourself and hope for another shot. With Kaka out injured and Guti not Manuel Pellegrini cup of team at the moment, Van der Vaart has been given another crack and so far doing the best with his opportunity.

Got a chance to watch this game thanks to Fiorentina-AC Milan being postponed. Ever since beating Real Madrid, Sevilla form has slowly started to slip with two draws and now this defeat in their last three home matches. It’s also not a coincidence Sevilla loss of form also stems from all world striker Luis Fabiano being out of the lineup.

Despite having most of the procession and most of the scoring chances it was the in form Getafe striker Roberto Soldado who added two more goals and almost single handily gave Getafe the three points. On the other side of the pitch Sevilla striker Frédéric Kanouté never seemed to get it in gear and even when Álvaro Negredo come on in the second half and soon scored he was unable to lift his squad to a share of the points.

Barcelona had to come from behind to steal a 2-1 win against Estudiantes in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup. Pedro netted an 89the minute equaliser to cancel out Mauro Boselli’s surprise opener, but Lionel Messi struck in the second period of extra-time to etch the Catalan behemoths’ name into the record books.

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Can’t even image how awful these Estudiantes players must feel right now. They traveled half way around to the world only to come up a minute short against the best team on the planet in Barcelona. On the subject of Barcelona how do you top this season? It’s impossible as they have won everything there is to win. Six titles in one year is simply mind blowing. It says a lot to the character of these players who never take a game off or take an opponent lightly.

How great does Pedro feel right now? His goal took Barcelona into extra time where Messi was able to win it but with his goal in the semi final Pedro has scored in all six competitions in one year. (Liga, Champions League, Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, Club World Cup) What a story to tell your grand kids one day as no player in the history of football can boost this impressive feat.

Mancini to replace Hughes at City

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has been sacked, a source inside the club has confirmed to ESPN Soccernet. The club are expected to announce that former Inter Milan Roberto Mancini will take over as manager at a press conference at 1930 GMT.

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Much like the Manchester City itself, I struggle to lean one way or another when it comes to Manchester City pulling the trigger on Mark Hughes coaching reign. On one hand I do believe this Manchester City team was way too inconsistent from week to week. After 18 months into the job while the players are better the same flaws routinely appear when watching Manchester City. They let too many teams back into the game, at some point its on the coach to ensure his squad puts teams away when their down. Today’s 4-3 victory over Sunderland was a classic example of this. A two goal lead early and it should be job done, itself this team trends to ease off the gas petal.

Then again it’s not often a team sacks a coach following a win. Middlesbrough did it this season to Gareth Southgate, replacing him with former Celtic coach Gordon Strachan who in turn have only won once since. It’s one thing giving up leads but this wasn’t a case of the Manchester City players tuning out the coach. Yes you can look at the negative but even when they gave up the lead Manchester City seemed to find a reply.

If former Inter boss Roberto Mancini does take over more questions will be asked. First off I’d be expecting the Mario Balotelli to Manchester City rumours to start. I’d also be expecting Mancini to shore up a poor defensive unit, one whom Manchester City have spent a lot of money on. The elephant in the room is what to do with Robinho? Manchester City didn’t spend 30 million pounds to have Robinho on the bench and Mark Hughes could never seem to make him fit into the system. Now it’s Mancini turn to make a bunch of expensive parts work together as a collective unit.

Bayern’s attack was rampant today, and after today’s win, the men from Munich are just two points behind leaders Leverkusen.

For the first time since late November, Bayern coach Louis van Gaal changed his lineup. Following Mark van Bommel’s suspension, the Dutch tactician opted to grant Arjen Robben his first start since returning from injury, and Bastian Schweinsteiger deputized as holding midfielder in a 4-3-3 setup.

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Louis van Gaal must hate the upcoming winter break in German football. Right when van Gaal has finally got everyone on the same page in the last month he now must face a layoff til January 15th. Good teams beat up on bad teams and there are no worst team in German football than Hertha Berlin who have a lowly 6 points all season long with a horrid -26 goal differential. No surprise then Bayern made short work of Hertha Berlin in today’s 5-2 victory.

Bayern Munich now sit 3rd in the table on 33 points just two behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen who scrapped by with a 3-2 victory over Monchengladbach thanks to two goals from Toni Kroos who is currently on loan from drum roll please…….Bayern Munich

Chelsea have given up on signing Franck Ribery and will concentrate on signing his £25m-rated Bayern Munich team-mate Bastian Schweinsteiger in January instead. The Sun

Considering Bayern Munich got drawn up against Fiorentina a club they feel can be beaten it’s unlikely Bayern are going to sell a key player like Schweinsteiger mid season.

Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero expects to complete a £32m move to Chelsea next month. The Sun

Chelsea are also considering a £20m swoop for Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko. Daily Telegraph

Above are some more names linked with Chelsea.

Tottenham have made an £8m move for West Ham defender Matthew Upson but face competition for the England defender from Manchester City. Daily Mirror

Could see both clubs making a move for Upson with injures effecting both the Spurs and Man City back line. Despite Upson playing on one of the worst defensive units in recent memory everyone knows West Ham is willing to sell at anytime.

Manchester City could also renew their attempts to sign Hammers midfielder Scott Parker, one of their transfer targets last January, and are also eyeing Barcelona duo Carlos Puyol and Eric Abidal. The Independent

Good luck signing Carlos Puyol is all I can say to this rumour.

City boss Mark Hughes will also target Fulham defender Brede Hangeland and out-of-favour Tottenham winger David Bentley in January. The Times

If you are Fulham do you settle for a penny less than Manchester City paid Everton for the injured Lescott?

Burnley manager Owen Coyle asked Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger if he could sign teenage Gunners midfielder Jack Wilshere on loan when they spoke just before kick-off at Turf Moor on Wednesday. Daily Mirror

After Burnley’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal the answer should now be a no.

Manchester City want Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger as their next manager. Daily Star

Wenger didn’t leave Arsenal for Real Madrid, it’s highly unlikely he would even consider jumping ship to Manchester City.

Former England manager Steve McClaren, currently in charge of Dutch side FC Twente, does not want his next job to be in the Premier League and would prefer to work in another foreign country, preferably Spain, next. Daily Mail

Good for McClaren whose FC Twente side has won 12 games in a row.

Once you get outside of the top 10 European clubs any team can be another on any given day but Benfica drawing Hertha Berlin should be a draw Benfica can overcome. Below are all the ties.

Second Round

Rubin Kazan v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Athletic Bilbao v Anderlecht
FC Copenhagen v Marseille
Panathinaikos v AS Roma
Atlético Madrid v Galatasaray
Ajax v Juventus
Club Brugge v Valencia
Fulham v Shakhtar Donetsk
Liverpool v Unirea Urziceni
Hamburg v PSV Eindhoven
Villarreal v VfL Wolfsburg
Standard Liège v Salzburg
FC Twente v Werder Bremen
Lille v Fenerbahçe
Everton v Sporting Lisbon
Hertha Berlin v Benfica

Third Round

Hamburg/PSV v Bilbao/Anderlecht
Rubin/Hapoel v Villarreal/Wolfsburg
Atletico/Galatasaray v Everton/Sporting
Hertha/Benfica v Coppenhagen/Marseille
Panathinaikos/Roma v Liege/Salzburg
Lillie/Fenerbahce v Liverpool/Unirea
Ajax/Juventus v Fulham/Shakhtar
Brugge/Valencia v FC Twente/Werder Bremen

Not even Vince McMahon could draw up better storylines for the knockout stage of the Champions League. Not only do you get the return on Jose Mourinho to Chelsea which must be weird for all involved but David Beckham gets his wish granted by going back to Manchester as his A.C Milan side draw Manchester United.

As for Porto not exactly happy they drew Arsenal but such is life. Karim Benzema must have mixed emotions going back to face Lyon. Bordeaux and Olympiakos must be on cloud nine right now avoiding European giants and drawing each other. Below are all the match ups which I’m not going to be picking the winners for as last year I went 1-7 and the year before that 2-6. Horrible.

VfB Stuttgart v Barcelona
Olympiakos v Bordeaux
Internazionale v Chelsea
Bayern Munich v Fiorentina
CSKA Moscow v Sevilla FC
Lyon v Real Madrid
FC Porto v Arsenal
AC Milan v Manchester United

The matchdays are:

First Legs: February 16&17 and 23&24
Second Legs: March 9&10 and 16&17