Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Sam Diss and Lars Sivertsen discuss FA Cup giantkillings, Spurs limping out of a second cup competition in a week, VAR and the absence of VAR – Schrödinger’s VAR and Notts CountyJoin the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.We look back at the weekend of football just gone, starting with Millwall and AFC Wimbledon booting out Premier League opposition in front of rapturous support. Continue reading...
It was Montilivi that watched it, that lived it, and that would have loved a different ending. Montilivi that deserved it, too“Welcome to Miami,” the sign said. Scribbled in black pen on white cardboard and fixed to the fence by the stadium where long lines of tables were laid out and the atmosphere was building, it greeted them as they arrived – football fans heading to the biggest game of the year. Mostly, they strolled from town, through narrow, old streets, yellow ribbons attached to every lamppost, along the river where the houses overlooking the water are brightly coloured, not pastel, across the bridge and up a gentle hill in the sunshine. There, past concrete police controls was another sign,...
Other matches featured seven goals, two penalties and red cards but Atalanta’s comeback against Roma beat the lotIt was one of those days in Serie A. Oh, you know the sort: when the lunchtime kick-off features seven goals, two penalties, and a red card, but turns out not to be the most entertaining game of the afternoon. Next up on Sunday came a pair of three-goal comebacks plus a 4-0 away win for a Frosinone team that had only scored 12 times all season.There was drama everywhere, from the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi – where Fiorentina blew a two-goal lead, then recovered to beat Chievo with 10 men – to the Tardini – where Spal ended an 11-game winless run after...
Even when things are going well with Schalke, you’re only ever half-a-mile away from getting a punctureSometimes you start out with the idea of a refreshing weekend away in Berlin – and end up tired and nursing a headache. Schalke may have arrived in the capital for Friday’s weekend opener with Hertha full of “new dynamism and new self-confidence”, according to their coach Domenico Tedesco beforehand, but their aim of snaring a third successive Bundesliga win didn’t go to plan.Not only that, but the hangover will be felt for most of this week, and perhaps beyond. Tedesco could have few complaints over his side’s efforts, which backed his assessment of an upturn towards the output of his debut season. His...
Right now, it’s not unrealistic to suggest Getafe’s well-travelled striker could contribute if he got the call to represent SpainJorge Molina set out in an old Seat 850, sitting proudly behind the wheel of a car that hadn’t come off the production line for 30 years and shuddered as it made its way down the road, so the journey was bound to take a while. It’s a long way from Alcoyano to Europe and the verge of the national team, after all, but he’s nearly there now. Looking up from the bottom of tercera division, the place where it all began around the turn of the century, 466 teams stand between you and the very top; looking up from the...