Daily Sports News

The difference between the top two in the EPL is just one point and both Manchester United and Chelsea are trying to win all the matches in order to keep the pressure on the other side. Chelsea trashed Stoke City with a comprehensive 7-1 win at Stamford Bridge. For Chelsea, Frank Lampard was simply superb. He played in a deeper role than normal. He had big roles to play in two goals, one of which was a penalty and showed how to keep your head calm during such high pressure games. Didier Drogba, Chelsea’s talisman striker was another amazing player for the Blues. He controlled the ball magnificently and really deserved a goal in the game. Salomon Kalou too was involved heavily in the game from the beginning and was stellar when in the box. He scored a hat trick in this game and showed fine persistence through out the match. Stoke City’s performance was lackluster. The only exception was Ricardo Fuller who gave Ivanovic nightmares a couple of times in the first half. Dave Kitson was substituted in the latter part of the game and he made no efforts to hide his displeasure. But the managers decision was justified considering he was anonymous for most of the game.

Manchester United rubbed salt in to the wounds of Liverpool by defeating them 2-1 at Old Trafford. This loss now seriously puts a dent in the chances of Merseyside’s qualification in next season of Champions league.

Chances looked weak for the Liverpool, as Manchester United attack was headed by Wayne Rooney who is currently enjoying the form of his life. Rooney was on a 10 match goalless streak against Rafa Benitez’s men and scored from a penalty rebound to end that streak. He was the only man up front and used his chances effectively.

Apart from Rooney, Ji-Sung Park was another hero for the red devils. He showed great support for Rooney by constantly feeding him with passes and also tried relentlessly to go in to the attack all the time.

Steven Gerrard who has been Liverpool’s talismanic leader had a lackluster display. He was quiet most of the time and couldn’t get on with the flow of the match.

Fernando Torres was the only player who was ruthless for Liverpool. He opened the scoring for Liverpool nodding off Dirk Kuyt’s pass. He was later booked for the tackle on Park but Torres was the only hope that Liverpool had in the match. All others looked like children who were lost in the park.

Rumors regarding Vidic’s exit from Manchester United were fuelled when the defender was pulled out at last minute citing an injury during the weekends match against Leeds United at Old Trafford. Manchester United went on to lose the game 1-0 and now are out of the FA cup.

Ferguson had no words when asked about situation of Vidic at the end of the match. All he could say was “I couldn’t tell you what the situation is with Nemanja. I couldn’t tell you at all”

The 28 year old Serbian defender wants to move out of England because his wife is unhappy with the climate. AC Milan and Real Madrid are both chasing the defender but according to latest reports Barcelona have also joined the hunt with their ace defender Carles Puyol skeptical over contract extension.

Reports say that Vidic will be out of Old Trafford by the end of the season with Real Madrid already bidding £30 million for the Serbian stopper. Manchester United meanwhile is resigned to losing the former Spartak Moscow defender; they are looking for options with Jack Rodwell from Everton being the favorite to replace him.

Mourinho has been asked by Inter Milan players Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder to bring José María Gutiérrez ‘Guti’ Hernández to Inter Milan to solve their mid field woes. The two players believe the attacking midfielder will provide great opportunities to the Inter strikers who are shy of scoring in Champions League.

Guti currently is out of favor at Real Madrid following a war of words with Coach Manuel Pelligrini, in which the trainer won the duel and now Guti has been left to warming the benches at Real.

Inter coach Jose Mourinho is currently facing the heat from owner Massimo Moratti, following their 2-0 deafeat at Barcelona at the Champions league. The “Special one” has done nothing spectacular since replacing Roberto Mancini in 2008. True, the have won a couple of Scudettos, but this was already achieved by Mancini. Moratti wants Champions League success and has gone public with his disappointment with Mourinho to which the latter replied by saying ‘I would like to coach in Spain’

Guti is expected to leave Los Merengues following the outburst against Pelligrini during the Copa Del Rey match against Alcoron. But both Real Madrid and the player have insisted that there will be no transfer. Pelligrini has other ideas; he is heard saying that Guti is not playing because he is ‘injured’.

The football world is still wondering how unlucky Ireland is for missing the World Cup qualifying spot. Some blame Henry for it; some say that the match should be replayed while some just point at the country’s lamentable luck.

The big question is what about Henry now? And will he get to participate in the World Cup? Again here there are differences of opinions, some say that he should be banned and some say he should be forgiven.

The Irish FA had asked for the match to be played again. That request was rejected by FIFA. Then the Irish FA asked for a place in the World Cup anyways. Yes, they wanted to be the 33rd team in the competition. FIFA president Sepp Blatter obviously thought this was some kind of a joke and went public with the matter.

The Irish FA has now come with all guns blazing and is severely criticizing Blatter for singing about something that was supposed to be confidential. While the Irish FA are doing all they to make an appearance in the football’s greatest competition, Blatter is ignoring their calls and pretending that he cares about it by saying ‘Henry matter will be discussed’

The Irish are refusing to believe they are out of the tournament and are doing all they can to put themselves back in. Maybe they are publicly critiscing Henry and are hoping that people will do the same and the team will get a place due to the public outcry.

But that isn’t working so they are trashing Blatter and screaming about what a bad president he is. And now we wonder what will Ireland do next?

Ireland is embarrassing itself, they should get over it. Maybe few people think they should be in the World Cup (and most of them are Irish) but rest all think that France should be in, they will entertain more than couple of Irish players that no one has ever heard of.

Ricky Ponting Australian captain uttered his team needs to be the best to beat New Zealand in the Champions Trophy. Australia won against England in the semi final.Ponting mentioned his team requires playing the best game in the final champion’s trophy.

Ponting added saying team will not be happy until they the peak the achievement. Australia has won three World Cups and the reigning Champions Trophy holder. This year tournament some of their revival team is out of the tournament so it would be interesting to watch as well as play the game against New Zealand. Ponting was fined 20% of his match fee for a slow over rate against England and his teammate fined 10%. Ponting uttered saying winning the game gives a lot of satisfaction. He said this is the first time in few years we have not been ranked the number one team as if for now we are probably world’s number three or four. Aussie team is happy the way we played one-day cricket over the last three to four weeks. The record in these events speaks for itself and expectation has always high. New Zealand beat Pakistan in semi final. Daniel Vettori the captain of New Zealand said his team is hungry to win the competition. He added saying once you reach the immense level you realize an immense desire to go all the way.

Yuvraj Singh Indian Batsman has been excluded from Champions Trophy after a finger fracture during the practice of fielding session in Johannesburg. He was injured just three days left before the teams opening match played against Pakistan.

Indian cricket board declared in a statement that Yuvraj singh would be out of the game for another six weeks. Virat Kohli will substitute Yuvraj in the tournament held in South Africa. India will plays against Pakistan on Saturday and later with Australia and West Indies. In one-day international, he has scored 7,098 runs and caught 76 wickets. India is the much loved among the eight-team tournament but the team by now has lost  two leading players opening batsman Virender Sehwag and pace bowler Zaheer Khan through injury however opener Gautam Gambhir has groin strain and is under fitness  worry.

Davide Grassi has been discarded for three months from Aberdeen after experiencing a triple cheekbone fracture. This accident happened when Co-Operative Insurance Cup defeated Dundee, his head clashed with defender David Cowan.

As a substitute to Sone Aluko on the left of midfield, Grassi was signed for this match. Sone Aluko will not play match for another month as he is in Nigeria squad for the Under-20 World Cup held in Egypt. This tournament will last for until the 16 October. Davide Grassi had signed a one-year contract with Aberdeen in the month of August. This injury happened just five minutes into the loss of 3-2 to the first division side.