Nigeria Content Online

Tottenham Hotspur’s
debut Champions League season has been a story of unlikely comebacks
but even the staunchest believer will hold little hope they can recover
from Tuesday’s 4-0 thrashing by Real Madrid.

Way back in August,
Spurs dipped their toe into the Champions League so tentatively, that
within 30 minutes of their qualifying round first-leg match at Young
Boys of Berne, they were 3-0 down.

However, setting
their tone for the competition, they pulled two goals back and then won
the second leg with a convincing 4-0 scoreline.

In the group stage,
things were even more dramatic as they trailed Inter Milan 4-0 at the
San Siro, only for Gareth Bale’s spectacular hat-trick to make it 4-3
and give them the confidence to beat the holders 3-1 back in London.

At the Bernabeu on
Tuesday, the 15th-minute dismissal of Peter Crouch for two wild sliding
tackles made Tottenham’s task near impossible.

And even if they
were to play with 12 men at White Hart Lane next week, another
turnaround looks beyond the realms of possibility.

“You need a miracle
playing here with 10; better teams than us would have struggled,” said
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp after the club’s heaviest European defeat.

“We’ve got a mountain to climb but we’ll give it a go.

“It’s been a great
experience and we still have a game to play at White Hart Lane. It
won’t be tough to lift them -what’s tough is the injuries.”

Spurs have 13
players unavailable, not including Aaron Lennon, whose last-minute
withdrawal through illness on Tuesday did much to disrupt Redknapp’s
carefully designed game plan.

“I’ve got to try to find 11 for Saturday against Stoke City,” Redknapp said.

Spurs’ season,
though likely to live long in the folk memory in the pubs along the
Seven Sisters Road, is in danger of sliding towards an anti-climactic
end.

Learning curve

The Champions
League adventure looks over and, thanks to their poor Premier League
form of recent, the next one will not be coming around for at least
another year.

Since their famous
1-0 win over AC Milan in the San Siro on February 15, Spurs have lost
to Blackpool and drawn with Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Ham United
and Wigan Athletic -hardly the stuff of potential European champions.

They now trail
fourth-placed Chelsea by five points with eight games remaining and
need to pick up their domestic form to hold on to fifth and a place in
the Europa League next season.

Bale, however,
showing the same self-belief and enthusiasm as in his scintillating
wing play this season, has not given up on either front yet.

“We are not going to sit back and take another beating from them in the second leg,” he said after Tuesday’s mauling.

“Hopefully we will win and hopefully that win will be enough.

“We have to pick
ourselves up for the rest of the season. We can still finish fourth or
higher maybe. We have to keep going. We still have the second leg and
the league.

“We are a young team that is learning and I think we can definitely learn from this.”

The Nigerian U-23
team will be leaving Nigeria tomorrow for Malabo for the second leg of
the London 2012 Olympic Games qualifying match against Equatorial
Guinea.

The team comprising
six foreign-based players and 14 local players would see action for
Nigeria in Malabo this weekend, as they hope to repeat the form that
saw them wallop the Guineans 5-0 in Benin City recently.

Leading the pack
would be PSV Eindhoven’s midfielder Rabiu Ibrahim. Also in the line-up
are goalkeeper Dele Ajiboye, Ibok Edet, Michael Essang, Arinze Ikenna
and Uchechi Daniel. From the local scene, Ofem Inah, Emmanuel Anyanwu,
Otekpa Emergi, Femi Thomas, Udoh Kingsley and Salami Gbolahan are in
the squad. Others include Mba Chimeze, Ayo Saka, Theophilus Afelukan,
Usman Amoda, Madubuchi Josiah, Reuben Gabriel, Osas Okoro and Ekigho
Ehiosun.

Absent from the team are captain Lukman Haruna and Uchebo Okechukwu.

Chief coach, Austin Eguavoen explains why:

“Uchebo would have
been here for the Malabo game but he could not get a connecting flight,
so we have decided to leave him out for the game against Equatorial
Guinea but he will be available for the game in Monrovia”.

“For the team
captain, Haruna Lukman, he was eager to come for the game but his club
needed him for this weekend’s game against Lille in the French League”.
Eguavoen added.

Eguavoen has
expressed his confidence in the crop of players that has been
assembled, maintaining that they have what it takes to bring about the
desired result.

“We are going with
a 5-0 win from the first leg and I believe we will get nothing less
than victory in Malabo but the worst case scenario will be a draw,”
concludes Eguavoen.

The U-23 team, nicknamed Dream Team V would fly out to the
Equatorial Guinean capital on Friday ahead of the Sunday’s return leg
match. They will be travelling through Cotonou, Benin Republic to
arrive Malabo in the early evening.

The Chelsea match
against Manchester United turned out to be anti-climactic and was
settled by a Wayne Rooney goal in the 23rd minute. A cross-field pass
from Michael Carrick to Ryan Giggs was brought down superbly past a
floundering Jose Bosingwa and his cut back found Rooney who passed the
ball into the net via the post. This was Rooney’s fifth consecutive
goal in the Champions League quarter finals. in five years. The England
striker had also scored against Chelsea in the league in match, though
United went on to lose 2-1.

The match started
at a frenetic pace as Chelsea sought to take the game to Manchester
United and Fernando Torres almost got on a Bosingwa near-post cross but
it was brilliantly intercepted from a returning Rio Ferdinand.

Michael Essien in
Chelsea’s two-man midfield found it tough against the United trio of
Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Park Ji-Sung and the Ghanaian gave away
many loose passes. Chelsea almost got the equaliser in the 45th minute
but for a clearance from Patrice Evra on the line. Didier Drogba
crossed to Torres and his effort hit the post while Frank Lampard’s
rebound was cleared off the goal line by Evra.

The second half was
a cagey affair with Chelsea seeking the equaliser but whatever they
did, they just could not get past Edwin Van Der Saar in goal for
United. The outstanding save of the match was in the 75th minute and
Torres will have thought he had scored but a great save from the 40
year old rolled back the years.

The match almost
turned ugly in the last minutes as the centre referee, Alberto Undiano
Mallenco from Spain failed to spot an Evra foul on Ramires in the box
in added time and then gave Torres a yellow card for simulation.

So the first goal turned out to be the winner in this tie and who will bet against United in the second leg next week Tuesday.

Barcelona odds on to meet Real now

Barcelona kept up
their side of the bargain in the expected semifinal clash with fierce
rivals. Real Madrid by thumping quarterfinal debutants,

Shakhtar Donetsk
5-1, though it was surprising that Lionel Messi did not get on the
score sheet. Andres Iniesta started the rout in the second minute of
the first half with a lovely chip and created the second goal for Dani
Alves in the 34th minute.

The game was over in the 53rd minute when Gerard Pique scored for
the second consecutive game. Though Shakhtar pulled a goal back, Seydou
Keita and Xavi added further goals to make the second leg trip to
Ukraine a comfortable one for the Catalans.

In the last 10 meetings between Chelsea and Manchester United,
only once has the team that scored first, gone on to lose the game and that
happened very recently on March 1, 2011.

So if this skirmish results to time-tested variables between
these two club sides, then expect a very cagey affair and a score-line that
will likely read 2-1, 1-0 or 0-0 at the end of the first 90 minutes at Stamford
Bridge.

At the time that United beat Chelsea in that 2008 Moscow final,
the Red Devils were coasting home with the league title and were nine points
ahead of Chelsea, who had a game in hand. This season, United are 11 points
from Chelsea with a game in hand so do the omens favour a United win?

Also while Alex Ferguson’s men could still win the treble,
Chelsea can only realistically aim for the Champions League. Chelsea though,
boasts of a fine record against United, they are undefeated in their last nine
Premier League games with six of them being victories.

United have more
experience

All these matches are always hard fought and as Nemanja Vidic
said on United’s website, maybe United’s luck at the Bridge will change today.
“I think our performances in the last two or three years away were really good.
Now I’m thinking maybe we should play badly and win the game!

Maybe that’s the name of the game now!”

“Obviously, we’ve been unlucky in a few games and I hope this
time we have that luck and come back with a good result.”

Manchester United boasts the best defence in Europe this season,
having conceded only two goals but have been low scorers too with only nine
goals scored.

Also, the Red Devils can say that out of 16 quarterfinal
matches, they have won 11 and lost five, though Chelsea boasts of a good record
on the continent in the last five years -making the semi-final on four
occasions out of five. But Carlo Ancelotti believes it may be their destiny
that 2011 could finally be the year that Chelsea triumphs in Europe considering
the failure or ill-luck of Moscow.

Ancelotti said in today’s pre-match press conference, “John
Terry is not happy about what he lost in that game and that could be a good
motivation because this could be a destiny.” Enough has been said, let the
fireworks be lit.

Mohammed Bin Hammam received a boost to his campaign to become
FIFA president when he was backed by his former foe and ex-FIFA executive
committee member Chung Mong-joon Tuesday.

The 61-year-old faces a tough ask in ousting incumbent Sepp
Blatter, as head of soccer’s world governing body in the June election, with
the Swiss having held the position for 13 years.

Bin Hammam sat alongside as Dr Chung, who famously questioned
the Qatari’s mental health two years ago at the Asian Football Confederation
congress, said he was the right man for the job.

“We welcome the candidacy of Asian Football Confederation
president Mohammed Bin Hammam,” Chung told reporters at a media conference in
Seoul.

“Blatter has served as FIFA secretary general and president for
30 years. Now it’s time for him to give way to a new person.” Chung, who
surprisingly lost his FIFA vice-president seat to Prince Ali of Jordan at the
AFC Congress in January, remains an influential figure in world soccer having
been part of the FIFA executive committee since 1994 and his family owning the
giant Hyundai conglomerate.

The Korean, honorary chairman of the Korean Football Association
(KFA), was once considered a possible challenger to Blatter at the June 1 FIFA
congress in Zurich and his presence in Bin Hammam’s campaign could help sway
votes.

Bin Hammam, who is touring the world canvassing support,
launched his bid to become the first Asian president of FIFA two weeks ago in
Kuala Lumpur, when he revealed a manifesto based on making the organisation
more open to the public.

Chung questioned Blatter’s popularity.

“In terms of finances, FIFA is more successful than the
(International Olympic Committee) IOC and the president should be admired,
beloved and respected but Blatter is not.

“I can’t say Bin Hammam is perfect but he is the right candidate to bring
change and revolution to FIFA.”