Yorkie

Every watcher moaned tbh. In the stadium and those watching the TV.

Duff's was very neat and clever, but nothing beats that from Sibierski. He was off the ground and the accuracy to knock it through like that was sublime. It was a phenomenal touch to be honest. Off the ground, back to goal, with the heel, splitting the defense and putting the striker through on goal. It was great.

Game, set and match.

Get in! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL"

Pen... Goal. Formality now like.

Two zero.

Superb finish.

did you go? thought not. why the fuck do so many here complain about the attendance's, yet dont bother their arse to go. dont give me the " I would if I lived closer" shite either. or the "if it was keegan style football i would". Pathetic. we got just under 29000 for a midweek televised game, there's a lot of clubs that struggle to get that at their peak. saddo's Calm down.

Yeah i was surprised aswell. Really? I wasn't. Idiotic prices on a cold, rainy night when it's on tele anyway. Lower the prices and the crowds will come.

We can't be having Emre down the left. He just can't play there. Unless Babayaro's fit, i honestly wouldn't make any changes for the second leg. EDIT: Zoggy for Duff...

Hmm... they don't look like much so far do they. A bit surprising seeing as they've beaten both Benfica and Porto here.

OK. Shame you have such little faith.

'One of the top teams in Europe at the moment' is what i said. Which isn't far from the truth. They're playing fecking damn well nowadays. Say what you like Nate, pal. There's no pleasing some people.

Getting beaten 2-0 away from home by a better team and mananger isn't exactly unimaginable. Infact, I'd have AZ as slight favourites. i think we are a better team to be honest, its just that most of our players underperform can't believe that is up for debate tbh I disagree completely. We have a very poor 'team' and if it wasn't for the quality of our individual players, we'd be in a relegation battle. Ah i can't be fucked with this. Whatever mate. Beat one of the top teams in Europe at the moment 4-2 and we're still abnormally shit. Suit yourself pal.

Berbatov < Martins tbh.

Bad result. Osasuna will beat them over there.

Getting beaten 2-0 away from home by a better team and manager isn't exactly unimaginable. Infact, I'd have AZ as slight favourites. Fuck's sake. OK, i apologise. Basically, what i mean was that i can't bare to imagine it. It's just rotten to think of. AZ favourites though? You're giving them too much credit... Have faith.

i love the passion! i would love it if we won the cup... It's true. I've just grown a massive appetite for this competition - simply because we've looked capable of winning it each time. We just have to. Like i say, nothing hurt me more than the Sporting debarcle - i'm only 15 so didn't properly understand the 12-point-lead thing, so Lisbon was just heartbreaking. Then you look at what Boro did and i was just immensely bitter. I want this so much!

Thing is, and especially if we overcome Alkmaar, i feel that we deserve to win this competition. Or atleast get to the final. You look at the fucking shit that Boro played. Litex. Xanthi. Stuttgart. Basel. Steaua in the fucking semi-final. It's sickening really isn't it. And then you look at the teams that we've played, and beaten. Fenerbahce - best side in Turkey. Palermo - top of Serie A at the time. Celta Vigo - not great but a famous Spanish side. Then AZ Alkmaar - the top scorers of the whole of Europe. We've done remarkably well this year, when you look at our squad and our injury situation. We deserve this. GOD i hope we knock them out. I want this competition more than any other.

Hopefully that's all it will have been...

I can't face us getting knocked out now. It really, really will break my heart. From this position - it's unimaginable. But Alkmaar are a fantastic side on their home patch, without a doubt. Argh. I can't face even thinking about it. There's not an awful lot that hurt me more than when Sporting knocked us out, i can't bare to see it happen again. If we get past Alkmaar i'll be insanely confident.

Surprised by the Sevilla result. Didn't expect Benfica to lose either, but i'm confident they'll turn it around comfortably in Lisbon.

Shay Given - 8. Virtually flawless performance from Seamus, even a penalty save. It really must have been a special night. Kicking was decent aswell - he actually found our men. Some great saves aswell. Nolberto Solano - 8. Great performance from Nobby. His link up play with Dyer was constantly productive. He was everywhere in that first half; absoltely pinnacle point of our creativity then was always back to defend. Sloppy for the penalty but a superb performance. Titus Bramble - 9. Practically perfect performance from Bramble. He was an absolute rock. His sliding tackles, his headers, his marking, everything - was fantastic. Thought he was a bit wayward for their first goal but other than that, he was just fantastic. Steven Taylor - 7. Taylor had a good game aswell i thought. I can understand why it was given, but i still feel that he was desperately unlucky for the penalty. It was sod's law that it had to hit him there - he had his arms tucked right in. Stephen Carr - 7. Yep, a seven. Above average. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and have a go just because it's Carr, because he didn't have a particularly bad game at all. Lost his man for the first goal but was very tidy defensively. Kieron Dyer - 7. A constant menace in the first half, however faded in the second. The finish was inch perfect and his pressure play, combining with Nobby down the right, was very productive. Scott Parker - 7. A really decent performance from Parker. Cosntantly diving in with sliding tackles, though this time - winning the majority. Still slow on the build up, but i really feel as if he prevented goals tonight. Major tackle for one of ours aswell. Nicky Butt - 9. Outstanding. Cosntant battling - winning the ball and passing it. The good old English game at its best. He was a typical defensive midfielder tonight. He didn't miss a thing. Damien Duff - 6. Duff started well, obviously, with a fantastic touch for the first goal. But he really wasn't in it and was unsurprisingly withdrawn, for me. He huffed and puffed a lot, as usual, with little end product. Atleast he was beating his man, though. Can't think of a cross mind you. Sibierski - 6. Sibierski was fine for the first half. He got the ball and mixed it up. His grabbing of the ball, turning, and passing was very good at times and his touch for the Dyer goal was top class. However, slow and generally immobile and unreliable in the second period, as we've come to expect from Sibi. No problems with that, though. Obafemi Martins - 9. Awesome. The marks, on the whole, may seem a little high. But i don't think they warranted their second goal.

So gutted he didn't put that one away. Immense performance tonight, though.