SPURS REACH UEFA QUARTERS, NEWCASTLE AND RANGERS CRASH OUT, CITY CAN'T STOP CHELSEA AND UNITED GET TO PARTY

 

 

Well what can be said about the midweek football action this week? United were involved, but the game in question was meaningless, the Carling Cup finalists had a shot at making up lost ground and the remaining sides in the UEFA Cup had their moments of truth in terms of making the quarter finals. A mad batch of bits and pieces definately, making for a potentially eclectic viewing experience for English football fans best so here's a general run through.

Starting off with events in the UEFA Cup second knockout round, second leg. Whether you were in a good mood over events in the first leg, depended on which side of the border you were from. The competition was just getting to the stage where people start taking it more seriously, the last sixteen leading to the quarter finals from which a route to the final can be plotted and a European trophy maybe dreamed about. Everything to play for.

First up was Spurs facing Braga at White Hart Lane. Tom Huddlestone's own goal was sometthing that the English side certainly could have done without but Dimitar Berbatov was able to turn things round on the night before halftime. Braga then levelled things before halftime with a scorcher of a freekick from Andrade Joao Amaral only for Steed Malbranque to hit the winner on the night. Congrats to Spurs on what must be their most succsessful European campaign in ages.

Newcastle faced AZ Alkmaar at the Alkmarrder Hout. Shota Alvaladze opening the scoring for the Dutch side probably wasn't what the Geordie fans had in mind and neither was their weak performance in the first half. It never got better, Danny Koevermans made it two in the second half and the only good thing that came out of this game for the Magpies was a lack of red cards. The Dutch side did enough to knock the Geordies out, though credit where credit's due, Glenn Roeder's crew had been punching about their weight on the Continent this season.

Rangers faced Osasuna in El Sadar. The Gers may have been the only side left flying the flag for Scotland in Europe this season but they had few chances in the first half. The home side continued to run the show in the second half and sure enough Pierre Webo hit the net. The Gers then had to buy themselves extra time but despite one solid late chance it never really looked like happening and so Scotland's participation in European football this season has ended.

That leaves Spurs flying not only the English flag in this competition but the Union Jack. However in the quarter finals they've wound up against Seville with the first leg at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez. This is definately a tough tie for the London side given that the Spaniards won the competition last year. Having said that, given the scalps that Martin Jol's crew have claimed already this season, it's not impossible, just too close to call.

Heading to domestic concerns, Chelsea faced Man City in the Premiership in the City of Manchester stadium. A Frank Lampard penalty gave the Cocky One's crew the lead at half time. City had a good spell early on in the second half but the London side just turned up the heat again to stop them getting any idea, I suppose it was too much to ask to expect City to do us a favour. That win allowed Chelsea to cut the gap to United at the top of the Premiership to six points.

United in the meantime were staging a badly mis-scheduled celebration match against a Mercello Lippi gaffered Europe Select team at Old Trafford. It was meant to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the fouding of the EU combined with the 50th anniversary of United's first season playing in European football. Wayne and Brown put United 2-0 pretty quickly before Florent Malouda pulled one back for the opposition before United restored their two goal lead with a Ronaldo free kick. Rooney picked up his second goal to leave the visitors with a mountain to climb and though El Hadji Diouf hit two goals to give them a shout, United got the win, with Andy Cole making a guest appearance in the second half.

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