Thierry has had two days sat with his advisors no doubt telling what to say (to try and limit the backlash) before that statement came out, it means nothing.

Even IF the French football federation (whatever they're called) come out and say in agreement with Henry and the entire Irish camp that a replay would be the fairest option, i cannot see any way that FIFA would grant a replay.

There's no way FIFA will replay it, not in a million years. It's not in thier best interests.

What they might do is introduce a video referee into the game, they can no longer sit back and say it is bad for the game after the injustice of the other night.

There's that which is a valid point, but then there's the other side of the argument, which is are they prepared to stop the game every time an incident happens that is remotely doubtful? It's easier in other sports because they tend to stop themselves anyway. Like in between tackles at Rugby or between each ball in Cricket, but football is probably the most fluid sport that doesn't necessarily stop often. Maybe if they only introduced it for incidents that directly affect a goal?

Yeah that's what i think. Goal/goal-line decisions. It won't take much, just give the fourth official a monitor.
Football needs to move with the times and embrace the technology available.

Just allow 1, 2 or max 3 calls for video to each coach and that's it, I say. Also add a human ref behind each goal.


Ponrauil

Blackburn Rovers through to the next round of the Carling Cup after beating chelsea on penalties! Never though we'd beat em, but there ya go. Villa next in the semi finals. Come on you blues!!!! ;)

There was only one team who looked like they wanted to win in the Blackburn/Chelsea game. I think Chelsea underestimated them, Blackburn deserved the win.

Can't wait for the semi's! Well chuffed about getting Blackburn, but importantly i'm happy that we've got the second leg at Villa Park!

So here's the draw for the next WC in South Africa:


GROUP A

1. South Africa 2. Mexico 3. Uruguay 4. France


GROUP B

1. Argentina 2. Nigeria 3. South Korea 4. Greece


GROUP C

1. England 2. United States 3. Algeria 4. Slovenia


GROUP D

1. Germany 2. Australia 3. Serbia 4. Ghana


GROUP E

1. Netherlands 2. Denmark 3. Japan 4. Cameroon


GROUP F

1. Italy 2. Paraguay 3. New Zealand 4. Slovakia


GROUP G

1. Brazil 2. North Korea 3. Ivory Coast 4. Portugal


GROUP H

1. Spain 2. Switzerland 3. Honduras 4. Chile


So? Pretty cool draw for the big teams except maybe group G where North Korea will be in for a treat while Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast fight for the top two places.

What are your country's chances iyo?

As far as France is concerned, they should take first place of their group, if only to get their qualifcation drama out of their minds... Mexico and Uruguay are always tough to play though, and South Africa even if pretty weak are at home so surprises could happen. I think France and Mexico will go through.

Maybe the coolest mod on earth will make this the opening post of a sticky WC thread... just sayin' :)


Ponrauil

My bets on qualifiers from those groups...

Group A
Uruguay and France

Group B
South Korea and Greece

Group C
England and USA

Group D
Germany and Serbia

Group E
Netherlands and Cameroon

Group F
Italy and Paraguay

Group G
Brazil and Ivory Coast

Group H
Spain and Chile

I think Group B is only slightly less daunting than Group G tbh despite Argentina looking a mere shadow of their teams of old.

Some very good teams in there, although it's strange not seeing the likes of the Czech Republic or Croatia in the mix!

I'm quite pleased with England's group so fingers crossed we'll make it through to the knock-out rounds without any major drama... hang on a sec, this is England we're talking about - drama is the twelfth man! :D

Another poor performance from Liverpool.

We played much better once Riera went off. Shame that the ball bobbled and Ngog hit the bar. He's getting stick for that, but there was nothing much he could do.

Gerrard was non-existant, again. He doesn't look the same player this season. Fair enough, he's had his fair share of injuries, but before they all happened, he looked awful.

Yeah, my main worry for Gerrard is his form leading up to the World Cup.

Great results for United yesterday but we have a major defensive problems at the moment and chances are Carrick is going to have to fill in at centre-back again in the CL this coming week. Not good. :(

Good to see Chelsea's frailties being exposed though. Two losses in the space of a week - let's hope they suffer a minor crisis in confidence over the Christmas period! :D

Yeah, Gerrard just doesn't look himself. Usually, he's the one saving us.

Great game yesterday, though with City v Chelsea.

Stevie can't bail us out every time, I'm also not convinced he's 100% fit.

Rafa needs to pick a settled back five, which doesn't include Insua, for a few games consecutively.

He also needs to bite the bullet and drop Lucas so Aquilani can finally feature and hopefully fill the void left by Xabi's exit.

Oh, and in January we must bring in some kind of striker. We're being linked with that ex-Manc van Nistelrooy. Though I had initial reservations the fact is he's a goal getter and we are seriously lacking up top when El Nino is out (which he invariably is). Hopefully the sales of Babel and Voronin will generate a bit of cash ...

Exactly. That's the thing. Gerrard is usually the one to get us out of these hard times, but with the injuries and poor form, there's no chance he can do it.

Insua is decent, he's just lacking confidence. The only way he will get that is if he carries on featuring.

Yeah, Babel & Voronin will give us a couple million to get a fairly decent striker, hopefully.

Lucas has played well this season, but I really want to see Aquilani and with Rafa saying he will get his full debut on Wednesday, I'm looking forward to seeing him in action.

I think Liverpool are gonna continue to struggle. I'm not sure how far Torres is away from full fitness but it's a big loss for Liverpool. Gerard doesn't look fit to be honest and what the deal with Aquilani is I have no idea. You spend £25m on a world class midfielder and don't even play him. If he's not fit he shouldn't be on the bench, if he is fit then he should be playing. Liverpool lack speed and skill going forward. However the big issue with Liverpool is those american owners. I'm sure that everyone around Liverpool now knows that they will not have any money for transfers providing those two Yank clowns are in charge. They can barely afford to pay in the interest on their loans never mind pay them off. That will have a negative effect on the team and is probably a contributing factor for the recent run of bad form. Looks like Parry and Moores have sold the club down the river. It's a shame really because Liverpool is a great club and of all the big four teams I'd rather see them win the league.

As a Blackburn fan I'm also kinda disappointed we didn't win the match. McCarthy, Kalinic and Di Santo all missed good chances. Although I would probably settle for a point against Liverpool before kick off as they usually beat us. A point puts us ahead of Burnley at least so that's more bragging rights to us! ;)

As for The Carling cup then I think Villa is perhaps the best draw we could have got. Obviously they'll be favourates especially with having the second leg at Villa Park. I think it's important we can win the first leg and not concede, which will be difficult as they're good going forward.

Great World Cup draw for all European teams, except perhaps Portugal, but then I don't care about them anyway cuz they've got a side full of tossers. I think England should comfortably win their group. Can they win the World Cup? Well I'd say yes, but we're not favourates. I think it's perhaps our best chance for years because the majority of our team is still in it's prime while also having a lot of experience. My only fear is that in four years time Gerard, Lampard, Terry, Rio, A Cole, J Cole etc will all be like 33/34 and I think we'll struggle to replace them.

What's your prediction for Man Utd v Villa at the weekend???

I reckon if we are EVER going to beat Man Utd then it might be now, especially considering you are lacking experience at the back at the moment.
Also, in the two games since Downing has come into the team we have moved Milner into centre midfield to accomodate him (with Downing and Young constantly swapping wings) and have scored 7 goals. We look better than ever going forward now we can play Young, Milner, Downing, Carew, AND Agbonlahor together.
I'm hopefull, but we have not been good on the road so far this season and i think if Rooney has a good game and if Berbatov pulls his weight then we will get punished.
I'm expecting a few goals. I'd like us to win, but realistically im predicting 3-2 to Man Utd.

It's a tough one to call. Vidic may be back by then which would at least be something. He seems to play really well when Rio's not in the side, almost as if he puts in extra effort because of his absence.

If we get a few of our injured players back in time, I think we'll nick it 2-1. United just seem to have a habit of winning in the face of adversity (which is a nice habit to have) so I think they'll pull a home win out of the bag at the weekend. I do think that Villa will open the scoring though - we always seem to play better after going behind.

However, Villa are looking a much stronger outfit so an upset isn't inconceivable.

Lots of celebrating going on in Birmingham tonight :)

First time we've beat them this decade, and the first time at Old Trafford in 26 years. And Spurs and Man City slipped up again today too. Well happy!! :p

(means jack-shit though if we don't get a result in our games against Sunderland and Stoke this week!)

Absolute joke. Barring the Fletcher cock-up that should have seen Heskey score but for Kusczak's intervention and Dunne's well met header from a corner, Villa didn't have one other decent chance during the game apart from the goal. Kinda feels like we were mugged but that's football I s'pose.

The only saving grace is that Chelsea, Tottenham and City all dropped points too so it's just narrowed the gap between the top teams rather than seen anyone pulling ahead of the pack. It'll be an exciting second half to the season if it stays as close as this at any rate! :)

I love it when Fergie's face goes purple :)

That made me laugh when he started going on about there not being enough stoppage time to the fourth official. You can bet if United were leading 1-0 after 90mins, he would have gone off on one about 3mins being too much time. As an official at a United game, you're damned no matter what you put on the board. :D

Gutted with the score today.

We looked so much better with Gerrard, Torres and Johnson back. Gerrard looked a lot better today too. He looked good v Fiorentina. We didn't deserve to lose, though.

That was my first thought. It really doesn't do him any favours when he goes off ranting like a wee boy.

Rangers rocked up a fairly decent 3-0 victory of st johnstone

unfortunately despite having a team made up of barcelona, man utd and bayern munich's finest, my rangers squad in ultimate soccer manager 98 couldn't score in a barrel of fannies this season :D

Worst performance I've seen all season, and we've had some bad ones.

Insua has been poor most of the season, Gerrard doesn't want to know, Kuyt isn't the same, Carragher doesn't hit a ball forward. We've just lost it.

Man U lost as well, the time we could of got just a little bit closer!!

Rangers have racked up 12 goals for in their last 3 games and are looking awesome just now.

Let's hope they keep it going until the ne'er day game and give celtic a hiding.

United are gonna struggle big time without defenders. Fergie will no doubt look to the transfer market in January but other clubs, seeing United desperately short at the back, will hike their prices to cash in. There's not a chance we're going to retain the Premier League this season. The only positive from today's game is that Fulham played their socks off and put in a performance worthy of any of the top teams in the league.

As for Liverpool, it can't get much worse tbh. Beaten comfortably by the bottom of the league club and now as many points off the bottom of the table as they are off the top. It doesn't look good but the problem is with Benitez and all the while he's there, Liverpool aren't going to win anything else anytime soon - or even be in contention to win anything fo that matter.

Mark Hughes is sacked from Manchester City.

The main problem with Liverpool now is our creativity and our bench.

We've got no back up for anywhere on the bench. Spearing, El Zhar, Ayala are not going to win us games. With Babel being a cocky git, we've got no-one who can at least run at defenders. Aquilani has hardly played either.

I don't think Rafa should go. It will cost us more to lose him and no-one will want to manage us. Rafa has done a really good job and I really do think he can win us the league. Not this season of course, but eventually.

For some reason though, Rafa seems to want to play Mascherano & Lucas all the time. They're both holding midfielders. It's pointless. He needs to take some risks because they could pay off.

That's a disgrace, too.

Yeah I agree about Mark Hughes. To leave him in the dark all this time is out of order. He was a great manager for Blackburn, and I didn't blame him for trying to move on and better himself. I guess it's come back and bit him in the arse though.

So what about Rafa then? Will he get the sack? The problem is who do you replace him with? Now that the Yanks are in there will be no money available for transfers and I think Liverpool's squad is a bit weak. Your right with what you say about Lucas and Mascherano. They are both decent holding players but offer very little going forward. I guess when you had Alonso in that position then you had someone who was good at distributing the ball which kind of made up for it, but all Lucas and Masher do is pass either side ways or backwards. What the deal with Aqualani is I don't know? Maybe now Masher is suspended he might get a game, but knowing Rafa he'll probably pick Spearing or Aurelio there instead. Gerrard and Torres aren't 100% fit which is a major blow, and the whole team lacks creativity. I get the feeling anyone could beat Liverpool at the moment.

It will cost us too much to sell Rafa. With the very little money we have now, we can't afford to spend 20m on sacking the manager. I don't think it's his fault we're like this. It's the players. We're just not performing well. When we was 1-0 up against Arsenal, we ended up sitting back and they caught us on the break. Last season, if we was winning, we would try and get more goals. It's like we're scared and it's making us concede.

I'm not quite sure what the deal is with Aquilani, I know he was injured yesterday but Rafa just doesn't want to play him. Why? God knows. From what I've seen, he looks like he could fill the gaps. His passing is good, ok, not as good as Alonso, but it's something we need other than the ridiculous 'hoofing' Gerrard & Carra seem to be doing. He looks quick, has skill, and is good at getting back. For some reason, Rafa just isn't seeing this.

i'm pretty sure we'll get stuffed by villa tomorrow. that wolves victory was hardly convincing and our defence still looks scarily fragile. top four is lookin out of reach.

As fragile a team as Chelsea look at the moment, they have the habit that aspiring champions show each season and that's the ability to grind out wins by the odd goal, even if they're not playing well.

United used to have that too but are getting turned over far too easily nowadays. It's definitely shaping up to be a season where the smaller clubs ultimately decide where the title goes - I'm actually enjoying it even more this year despite the fact that United are facing stiffer competition than in previous seasons. :)

Agreed :p

Liverpool would not have beaten Wolves the other day if Ward hadn't got sent off.

I think we will get beat too.

I mean, if we do win, then hopefully our confidence will rise and we will go into the Spurs game with confidence, but I can't see it.

What will be the 'top four' next season? Man City are going to break into it and Spurs and Villa are seriously threatining Liverpool and Arsenal.

Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs.

Not in that order.

Man City
Chelsea
Arsenal
Man United

That's about it for me. Perhaps even in that order.

Chelsea, Arsenal (IF they keep Fabregas), Man Utd, Man City (i'd hope it was Villa, obviously)

I can't see the fuss about Spurs. Tipped for the top four every year by the press and always under-perform. Always too inconsistant.
Yeah, they have a strong bench on paper but it's full of underplayed great players probably unhappy at lack of chances. I'm mainly talking about Bale and Bentley.

Its pretty funny people saying about Arsenal being challenged for 4th, we're two points off 2nd with a game in hand...its up for grabs, especially with the way everyones been dropping points all over the place