TW3 #6

Rounding up last weekend's action.

Game on in Spain. Real Madrid were held by Valencia at the Bernabeu while Barcelona beat Zaragoza with something to spare. The gap is down to four with a game between the two contenders to come. Suddenly, games for El Real against city rivals Atlético and Athletic look potential deciders. Málaga go above Valencia who drop to fourth, but Levante refuse to go away in teh chase for that final Champions League place. Performance of the week though belongs to Rayo Vallecano. The perennially cash-strapped club thumped Osasuna 6-0, Michu with a couple. There's a full midweek programme this week with that Madrid derby the highlight. Barca are at home to Getafe.

Porto have taken charge of the Liga Zon Sagres after beating Braga 1-0, Hulk the goal-scorer, and seeing Benfica lose by the same scoreline to Sporting the following day. Ricky van Wolfswinkel got the Sporting goal from the penalty spot early on and Luisao was sent off in teh last minute. Porto lead by four from Benfica who remain a point ahead of Braga.

Juventus, still unbeaten, move back to the top of Serie A after beating Palermo 2-0 and seeing former player Amauri grab a late winner for Fiorentina in Milan. Zlatan had given the Rossoneri the lead, but Stevan Jovetic squared it up and Amauri struck with a minute to go. There's a midweek round of fixtures here too with Juventus at home to Lazio who remain third after Stefano Mauri's stunner helped them to a 3-1 win over Napoli. Milan are away to Chievo.

The gap at the top of the Bundesliga remains three points after routine wins for both Dortmund and Bayern. The two meet on Wednesday at the Westfalenstadion with Dortmund reporting that they've had 450,000 applications for tickets for the 81000 capacity ground. It should be a cracker. At the bottom, Lautern are toast.

Wins for Montepellier and PSG in Ligue 1 leaves the latter at the top on goal difference with their game in hand against Marseille to come on Wednesday. Lille lose pace after defeat in Brest which brings Lyon within striking range for third place and the final Champions League place.

Silverware in Holland where PSV beat Heracles 3-0 in the cup final in Rotterdam and in Scotland where Celtic finally got over the line after thumping Kilmarnock. There are midweek games in the Eredivisie with AZ v Twente and Heerenveen v Ajax the highlights. PSV are away to Waalwijk and Feyenoord at Roda JC. In the Ukraine, Shaktar won the big game and go ahead of Dynamo on goal difference.

Marking your card #4

A busy Easter schedule and here are our picks of what to look out for.

Starting in the Ukraine. The top four face each other this weekend with Metalist away to Dnipro on Monday, but the top two, the two big boys, play on Saturday as Dynamo travel to Donetsk to face Shaktar. Three points separate them with Donetsk playing catch-up (channelling our inner Henry Kelly there). This game is huge.

A similar thing happens in Portugal as well. Porto go the quarry in Braga with the hosts two points behind the leaders. Benfica, sandwiched between the two, are in derby action at the Alvalade against fifth-placed Sporting Clube de Portugal. Tasty.

The big game in Germany sees leaders Dortmund go to a resurgent Wolfsburg. With Bayern at home to Augsburg and having rediscovered their mojo, any slip-up by BvB will be sized upon.

A week off for the Eredivisie as it's cup final day in the Netherlands. Heracles are long odds to beat PSV, but the chances of Almelo's plastic pitch hosting European football next season may rest on the Eindhoveners making it to the top four. The top two in the Eredivisie make it to the Champions League, the next two go to the Europa League and one of the next four join the latter through the play-offs. With a genuine top six vying for those four top places, nothing is guaranteed.

More derby action in Poland's Ekstraklasa, this time in Łódź where Widzew are away to ŁKS. Given the lack of action in previous derby, especially the recent one in Warsaw, stick the farm on 0-0.

Finally, to MLS and a derby of sorts in an all-Canadian affair as Toronto go to Montreal. Just the 542km each way for TFC fans...

That was the (mid)week that was #3

It's now a fully blown crisis at Marseille as they were dumped out of the Coupe de France by third-tier Quevilly. The game was played in Caen rather than at the tiny, 2,500 capacity Stade Amable Lozai and Marseille needed a late Loic Remy equaliser to take it into extra-time. He scored again in the extra half-hour, but only in between two strikes from John Ayina, the last a couple of minutes from the end of the 120 minutes. An upset too on Corsica where 3rd division Gamélec Ajaccio beat Montpellier. PSG are also out, beaten by Lyon, and Rennes progressed against Valenciennes.

No such cup joy for Greuther Fürth of 2.Bundesliga, but they did give Borussia Dortmund a real fright. They dragged their semi-final through to extra time, but a last-miute goal from Ilkay Gundogan denied them at least a penalty shoot-out. A shoot-out was what we had in the other semi, Bayern edging out Gladbach.

The semi-final of the Coppa Italia between Milan and Juventus also went to extra-time having ended 2-1 to Milan after the 90 minutes which left it all square on aggregate. Six minutes into the additional period, Mirko Vucinic blasted in a stunner and Juve held firm for the remaining time in a heated game. Napoli join the Old Lady there after beating Siena.

PSV eased past Heerenveen for the second time in a matter of days to reach the KNVB Beker final. PSV are joined in the final by Heracles who beat AZ in extra-time. The little club with the plastic pitch are almost certainly in the Europa League next year. Twente struggled past ten-man De Graafschap in a delayed league game from the cold snap in January. Graafschap were extremely unlucky not to grab a point. Luuk de Jong was carried off after turning his ankle and that could be key to Twente's fortunes for the remainder of the season.

The NextGen series sees Ajax joined in Sunday's final by Internazionale after a 2-0 win over Marseille at Brentford's Griffin Park. The final is also in London, at Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road ground.

Finally, Spain. Lionel Messi. He's now scored three or more in a game on nine occasions this season. It's difficult to think of anything else to say about him. El Real finished with nine on the field and Aitor Karanka and Jose Mourinho sent from the bench at El Madrigal where Marcos Senna's wonderful free-kick denied Los Blancos a win. The gap is down to six points at the top. Game on? Levante continue to stake a claim for fourth place, but Málaga have kept it to one goal difference.

Dutch play-off news

The various play-offs in the Netherlands got underway this week.

In the race for Europa League football, Roda and Heracles drew 1-1 while Utrecht will take a 3-1 lead into the return leg against Groningen. The second leg games are this Sunday.

The promotion/relegation play-offs see eight sides trying to join De Graafschap - Eerste Divisie winners - in next season's Eredivisie. Willem II and Sparta are the current Eredivisie sides in there and Sparta went down 2-1 in the away leg against Helmond Sport. Willem II had better fortune, winning 2-1 at home to Eindhoven. Elsewhere, Excelsior beat Zwolle 1-0 and Cambuur Leeurwarden lost 2-0 to Go Ahead Eagles. Again, the return games are on Sunday.


In the KNVB Beker - the Dutch Cup to you and me - Ajax held a 2-0 lead from the first leg in Amsterdam, and thrashed Feyenoord in the return 4-1 for a 6-1 aggregate win. The scoreboard had a beautifully symmetrical look to it, Luis Suarez and Siem de Jong - the latter of whom got both of the first leg goals - putting Ajax 2-0 ahead before Jon Dahl Tomasson got one back. De Jong added his second before Suarez completed the rout eight minutes from time.

And now our Eredivisie team of the year and, given the way it panned out, it's no surprise that it largely revolves around two clubs. In a 4-3-3 stylee:

Maarten Stekelenberg (Ajax); Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax), Douglas (Twente), Jan Vertoghen (Ajax), Ronnie Stam (Twente); Siem de Jong (Ajax), Demy de Zeeuw (Ajax), Kenneth Perez (Twente); Luis Suarez (Ajax), Bryan Ruiz (Twente), Miroslav Stoch (Twente).
Honourable mentions: Kenneth Vorm (Utrecht), Marko Pantelic (Ajax), Jeremain Lens (AZ), Sandro Calabro (VVV Venlo), Balazs Dzsudzsak, Ola Toivonen, Ibrahim Afellay (all PSV), Ron Vlaar (Feyenoord). It's just that Ajax and Twente were far too good for you.

Twente fail to add cup glory

As a former England manager, Steve McClaren should be more than conversant with penalty shoot-out defeats. Well if not, he is now. His Enschede side twice came from behind against Heerenveen in the KNVB Beker final at De Kuip in Rotterdam. Goran Popov opened the scoring for Heerenveen on 26 minutes, slamming home unmarked at the back post after Sander Boschker could only palm into his path. Ten minutes into the second half, Twente were level. Blaise N'Kufo dragged Johannes Vonk out of his goal to challenge, but the Swiss striker slipped a neat ball back for Eljero Elia who surged into the box and smashed it past the retreating Vonk high into the net from a tight angle. And so it remained until full time, prompting an additional half hour. Again, the Frisians pressed ahead, Bonaventure Kalou's shot taking a horrid deflection to squeeze past the flailing Boschker. Two minutes from the end, substitute Youssef Hersi headed home Theo Janssen's cross and that meant penalties. Hersi took Twente's third penalty after the first four kicks had all gone it and blazed it over the bar and into the Heerenveen fans behind the goal. With no further misses, Gerald Sibon - once of Sheffield Wednesday - stepped up to take the tenth penalty and he sent Boshker the wrong way to take the cup for Heerenveen.
It's a bad way for McClaren to end what has been a successful first season in Dutch football, though he's talked down rumours linking him with the vacancy at Ajax.

In the Europa League play-offs, it was goals galore. A game of three penalties in Breda saw the home side take a 3-2 lead against Feyenoord for whom both goals came from the spot. Rob Penders put NAC ahead and Donny Gorter made it two with the first penalty of the match. Roy Makaay responded with a penalty of his own before Matthew Amoah made it 3-1 with ten minutes to go. But Jon Dahl Tomasson kept it alive going into the second leg converting another penalty after Tom van der Letge was sent off. At the Nieuw Galgewaard, Utrecht were ahead three times but were pegged back each time as they shared six goals with Groningen for whom Markus Berg was the hat-trick hero. Tim Cornelisse put Utrecht ahead on six minutes before Berg levelled it twelve minutes later. Leroy George restored the lead, but Berg had drawn his side level within a minute. Morten Skoubo put Utrecht ahead once again, only for Berg - this time from the penalty spot - squared it up yet again. The second legs are on Thursday while the relegation play-off get going on Friday.