A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

Final Result: Newcastle 1 City 1

Not too bad, but could be better. It's a point, and the players look like they're at least trying for Benitez.

Considering that howler of a missed call, definitely.

A decent result for Newcastle, at least Rafa has got you guys fighting to stay up, which is more than what Mclaren could do.

Going by form it looks very much like the two Tyneside clubs will end up in the Championship. All romance of football... well, you know by now if you've paid attention to this thread what I think about that, all of that aside, they deserve to if they've played that badly.

If they stay up, well done. If not? Tough.

"If you had the balls, Mourinho, you should come and manage Leeds. Bring Leeds into the Premier League and then the Champions League. That's balls"

It certainly takes more "balls" than brains to want anything to do with a batshit coot like Massimo Cellino.

There would be an interesting symmetry if Mourinho is aiming for the title of "Brian Clough of the 2000s".

Coincidentally, under Cellino's ownership, 44 days is roughly how long it takes on average for anyone managing Leeds to get fired.

Deportivo 0 - 8 Barcelona

Athletic 0 - 1 Atlético

Real Madrid 3 - 0 Villarreal

Things are getting incredibly exciting in Spain!

Last night's games: West Ham 3-1 Watford Liverpool 4-0 Everton (So happy with this one) Man UTD 2-0 Crystal Palace.

Down in Buenos Aires, the first half of the Huracán-San Lorenzo Clásico just ended with the score still level at 0-0. San Lorenzo playing at home has been the stronger, more attacking side, overall, but mighty Huracán came the closest to scoring with a sweet shot that hit the crossbar but juuuuust didn't quite make it all the way across the goal line.

Edit: Gol de San Lorenzo...

Huracán almost pulled what would've been a stupendous equalizer out of their asses mere moments later.

edited 23rd Apr '16 1:46:05 PM by SeanMurrayI

Rayo Vallecano 2 - 3 Real Madrid

Málaga 0 - 1 Atlético

Barcelona 6 - 0 Sporting

All three matches were awful. My eyes still hurt.

Sunderland 0 - 0 Arsenal.

I was sure that Arsenal would lose this. They actually played fairly well for the first half, but during the break they obviously realised that a win would take them to 3rd above Manchester City, and of course that's not the natural position for Arsenal so instead they opted to not play at all in the second half and stay 4th.

There was some consistency in the refereeing for once: Mertesacker got away with a handball in the penalty area, to huge protests from Sunderland; and then one of theirs committed an equally obvious one in their box, and got away with it.

Also consistency in refereeing from the entire season's perspective, as a late situation where 19 clubs out of 20 would have had an advantage went against Arsenal. Mannone came out of his area to head a ball, but he didn't hit it properly and it fell to Welbeck, who only had to control it to get a shot at the empty goal. A Sunderland defender blatantly pushed him down, and this all occurred between the goalkeeper and the goal, with no other players in the area. In other words, he was the last man defending and denied Welbeck the most obvious goalscoring opportunity you'll ever see by pushing him down from behind with both hands. As would happen in 99% of Arsenal's games and 1% of everyone else's the referee thought this was not a foul. To be honest I think Sunderland would have been shocked if a red card and free kick had been given, as everyone knows you can do that sort of shit against Arsenal.

Mannone was by far the best player on the pitch, as is usually the case when a former Arsenal 'keeper plays against Arsenal. I don't know what it is about them that makes them so brilliant (at least on par with Cech at his peak) every time they play Arsenal. When he (and Fabianski) were at Arsenal they were extremely inconsistent and error prone.

Arsenal are desperate to stay in the top-4, but they don't want to finish 3rd or above. It's a very curious club.

I can take "The Anfield Rap", that Village People anthem for Germany '94, dammit, I can get through and somehow enjoy whatever the hell this is...

But this... Shit, everything about this is so objectively wrong, even the video title is grammatically incorrect.

edited 24th Apr '16 6:53:38 PM by SeanMurrayI

I don't know how that could be any more horrible.Well, except if it was about Chelsea and they were winning the title again.

The River-Boca derby ended 0-0. Quite disappointing, if you ask me. =<

Tottenham could only draw with West Bromich Albion, 1-1.

Leicester City - the 5000-1 outsiders - could be champions on Sunday. They need just 3 points from their 3 remaining games.

Meanwhile, Juventus has won the Scudetto for the 5th straight season. This is the second time they've achieved the penta.

After the poor start that lasted until October, here was their run after October:

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDWWWWWWWWW (73 points out of 75).

I don't get it. ^_^;;

W stands for 'Win' (3 points), D stands for 'Draw' (1 point).

Thanks. :)

4x Would be way more impressive, if the other historical "giants" of Italian football could provide some halfway credible competition in Serie A.

Speaking of which, I completely forgot to mention AC Milan and the new low they've sunk to. Last Thursday, the club brought out 11 actors (dancers) wearing full team kits before the start of their match to perform a "special" Haka about the importance of washing one's armpits and applying face cream. The entire number was devised as a clumsy marketing campaign by skin care brand Nivea—one of the club's sponsors—whose slogans, hashtags were put on full display on all the advertising hoardings at the San Siro…

edited 25th Apr '16 10:01:33 PM by SeanMurrayI

Back to more important football related matters. After decades of official lies, backstabbing, victim blaming and victim shaming, in a court in Warrington, finally. Justice for the 96 Liverpool fans killed at Hillsborough in 1989. Delivered in verdicts of unlawful killing on the part of the emergency services.

FUCKING. FINALLY.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36138337

Hopefully the next steps will include the stripping of pension provisions from all the senior officers of those services who categorically failed in their duties of care to the public, and their individual prosecutions for manslaughter in either civil or criminal court. Just don't bring up any "innocent until proven guilty" utter bullshit on their parts. It won't fucking wash. Not after what they did for the past nearly thirty years to smear and vilify the dead and blame their friends and families for their own shameful failures. Fuck them all. Especially that cunt Duckenfield.

Could an American celebrity who likes Aston Villa just for their name have the foresight to put money down on Leicester?

Would Tom Hanks lie to us?

No. Tom is a good guy.