And so it came to pass that Barcelona are the European Champions! This represents the third time in the history of the club to be so crowned. It was an anticlimax of a final! It was also one of the most one-sided finals of all times; it could have been tops save for the 4-0 [...]

After nine months of rigorous exertions on the field of play and more than a hundred matches, we are down to the finals of the 2009 UEFA Champions League. The date, May 27, 2009 will go down in history as either the day that Manchester United won their fourth European cup or the day that [...]

‘I want to knock them off their perch’! That was Sir Alex Ferguson’s (SAF for short) target when he was appointed as Manchester United manager 22 years ago and he was referring to Liverpool’s enviable position as England’s most successful football club.   As ambitious and ridiculous as that statement was all those years ago, [...]

The last round served up some scintillating matches and absolutely separated the men from the boys as we usually say. The titanic encounter between Liverpool and Chelsea will remain etched in the memories of football fans for a long time to come. The one sided encounters between Barcelona and Bayern Munich was a sore embarrassment [...]

I’ve seen matches both live and on television but ‘am glad I watched the Chelsea VS Liverpool second leg encounter at the Bridge today! What a cracker and outstanding advertisement for our beloved sport.   Could it have been better orchestrated? I don’t think so! Even a Nollywood blockbuster couldn’t have been better conceived; yes, [...]

When I did a piece on the last minute defeat suffered by Hull City against Aston Villa some months back, little did I know that the same thing is going to replay itself today. And true to the famed karmic law, Villa also suffered a last minute defeat to Manchester United in a game they [...]

A couple of weeks back, I wrote on our upcoming match against the Mozambicans and I titled it ‘No Excuse’. I made reference to the point that the players have a big role to play in deciding whether Nigeria will be at SA 2010 or not. I specifically appealed to their sense of patriotism and [...]

His broken leg was held together only by his skin and the socks he wore. It was a sickening challenge and a most unfortunate injury. Within a flash, the career that took off about five months earlier became threatened and a glorious dream suddenly at risk of death! This is the apt description of what [...]

During the EURO 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland last year, a small but highly skillful player emerged on the scene after a series of brilliant displays notably the defeat of the Netherlands. It wasn’t as if he was a nobody; after all, he was very instrumental in helping Zenit St Petersburg qualify for Champions [...]

  Prior to the arrival of Philippe Scolari to Stamford Bridge, the place was a fortress for almost five years. The last team to beat them at their ground was Arsenal. This remarkable run began under Claudio, the ‘tinker aman’ Ranieri and became a permanent fixture under Jose ‘special one’ Mourinho. Even the underrated Avram [...]