Sevilla, Racing Santander into Copa semis

January 28, 2010

Sevilla and Racing Santander booked their spots in the 2009-10 Copa del Rey semifinals on Wednesday with aggregate victories over Deportivo La Coruña and Osasuna, respectively.

Sevilla dropped a 1-0 result at home to the Galician side on Wednesday, but won 3-1 on aggregate thanks to a strong performance in last week’s opener at the Riazor.

Needing a strong performance to overcome the deficit, and they managed to open the scoring a minute before halftime as Rodolfo Bodipo got on the end of Pablo Álvarez’s cross for the finish past a helpless Javi Varas.

Bodipo missed another chance in the second half when the striker’s header missed the target, but he was forced off due to injury in the 67th minute, giving Depor no chance at the comeback.

While Sevilla coasted into the semis, Racing stormed into the last four with a 3-0 victory at Reyno de Navarra, completing a 5-1 aggregate thrashing of Osasuna.

Xisco bagged the opener after just six minutes when his sliding effort against Nacho Monreal beat goalkeeper Roberto.

The lead was doubled in the 23rd minute when Monreal was again beaten, this time by a Henrique header at the far post off a corner kick, and recent Real Madrid super signing Sergio Canales completed the rout with 12 minutes go with a phenomenal free kick.

Sevilla will play Mallorca or Getafe in the semifinal round, while Racing await the winner between Atlético Madrid and Celta de Vigo. The second legs of those quarterfinal ties take place on Thursday.

Tags: atletico madrid, celta, corner kick, del rey, deportivo la coruna, legs, MADRID, Navarra, Pablo Alvarez, racing santander, real madrid, Rey, reyno, riazor, Roberto, Rodolfo Bodipo, rout, santander, second half, Sergio Canales, SEVILLA, striker, target, Vigo, Xisco

Messi wins Ballon d’Or

December 1, 2009

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi beat last year’s winner Cristiano Ronaldo into second place in the poll for Europe’s footballer of the year, organized by France Football magazine.

Messi, 22, the first Argentine to win the prestigious trophy, becomes the sixth Barcelona player to take the award but the first for four years since Brazilian playmaker Ronaldinho.

Hailed by Argentina great Diego Maradona as his successor, Messi won an unprecedented treble in Spain last season, as the Catalan side swept the Champions League, the Spanish title and the Copa Del Rey. Messi was the top scorer in last year’s Champions League with nine goals, including his superb header in the 2-0 victory over Manchester United in the final.

Messi, who tallied 473 of a possible 480 points, largely dominated the voting and won with a record-margin of 240 points. Real Madrid winger Ronaldo had 233 and Xavi had 170.

Messi told France Football: “Honestly, I knew that I was among the favorites because Barcelona had a fruitful year in 2009.”

“But I didn’t expect to win with such a margin. The Ballon d’Or is very important to me. All the players who won it were great players, and some great players never won it.”

“For me it’s a big honour to win. I dedicate it to my family, they were always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me,” he added.

Messi will lead Argentina to next year’s World Cup in South Africa. He has recently signed a new contract with Barcelona through 2016 and has a buyout clause of 250 million euros.

Anurada Bhat

Tags: Argentina, Argentine, Barcelona, catalan side, copa del rey, cristiano ronaldo, del rey, diego maradona, Europe, footballer of the year, France, france football magazine, Lionel, Manchester, manchester united, new contract, playmaker, prestigious trophy, real madrid, record margin, ronaldinho, ronaldo, South Africa, spanish title, top scorer, treble, winger

Real president Perez backs Pellegrini

October 29, 2009

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has eased the pressure on manager Manuel Pellegrini requesting Real fans to give both the coach and the team time to gel and insists that results will soon arrive.

A dismal 4-0 Copa del Rey defeat at Alcorcon brought Pellegrini’s future at the Bernabeu into doubt with intense criticism flowing in from all sides. Although the situation that the team is entangled in is intimidating to the president, especially after the club splashed out around € 250 million on new signings this summer, he has called for calm and insists that the newly altered side need time to settle.

“There has to be calm and patience, even though the defeat in Alcorcon was humiliating. The history of Real Madrid is more than one game, which shouldn’t be exaggerated or create unrest,” Perez told AS.

”Of course it’s not nice for a president to see his team like that (against Alcorcon), but we are Real Madrid. The same as knowing how to win, we have to know how to lose and recognise that yesterday Alcorcon were better than Real Madrid. We need to congratulate the opposing players and try to turn the tie around.”

“We’ve only had two months of competition. The coach is new, he has a different system to last year and there are many new players.

You have to give the team time to fit together and I’m sure the results will arrive. Also, we haven’t been helped by injuries we’ve had 15 in a few months.”

Anurada Bhat