Village Idiot

There's also been some messy pitch invasion and fisticuffs between Bilbao and Anderlecht fans. 4 Anderlecht fans were arrested before the game, too.

Not really a good day for Spanish teams in the competition. Atlético, Bilbao and Villarreal conceded at home and tied their games, Valencia lost away... Valencia can make it at home, and Atlético should really advance if they pull their finger out of their ass.

That game was turgid as f***. But yeah they're a great side, their Brazilian legion in particular are so good on the ball. That's what they are good at though, they sleep the game down and use their pacy forwards to drive counterattacks.

Shaktar are a great side, gave us a game for the European Supercup.

That's what I'm getting to. 60m isn't such a huge debt in the grand scheme of things, particularly for a PL team. Not one to threaten dissolution at least. Unless it's all (or most of it) short term for some reason.

They will probably need to raise enough to cover the club's debts, I presume.

I'm really curious to see their finances, if they are really going to be made public as said. I just can't see how badly this thing has to have been mismanaged to reach this kind of situation.

What business do have Danish fans owning an English club?

exactly. So, since the Top 4 can afford big strong squads they are allowed to rest players and other teams have always to field their first XI? Not a good logic. This decision opens a can of worms really, who says what a "full strength team" is? What about the cups?

Aye, keeping thinking that Every time he scores or makes an assist he takes one of your firstborn.

Somebody pointed to me that had they not split the last 16 CL round over two weeks, they would have had to have two games at San Siro on consecutive days. Has this situation happened before? (I'm sure it has but can't remember). It has also occurred to me that Campbell today scored his second consecutive goal in the CL... after the one in 2006's final!

Just saw the highlights. The ref didn't really do anything bad but he was a bit of a cunt for the second goal.

It's been reported here yes. Arshavin does really have a big mouth, doesn't he?

Xerez have good away following in Spanish terms. It's their first top flight season ever so they're all psyched despite their hopelessness.

Shambolic defending on both sides of the pitch, this can be an entertaining game!

A friend of mine that supports the parakeets sent me this article to brag about their ST growth, it includes a nice list of all La Liga clubs ST totals: http://elespanyol.com/articles/35865-espanyol-sexto-club-con-mas-socios I'm not that sure about Barça's number. I have seen 88,000 in other places as I'm not sure we are allowed to sell out the entire stadium as season tickets. Then again, this is an Espanyol news site and the last thing they will be doing is giving us reasons to brag

I think it was pretty obvious that Milan's aged legs just gave up after around an hour.

Fuck me, Real Madrid press a bunch of mongs as usual, Marca openly blaming Pellegrini of yesterday's defeat in their front page today

Found this bit in the stadium's wikipedia entry... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadio_delle_Alpi (First time I use this icon here, I think!)

Beckham hasn't had legs since pretty much his last seasons at Real, he's still got one of the sweetest right feet in the footballing world though. You pretty much field him for his deadball skills. And as you talk about him being old he's subbed by Seedorf, Milan is a joke

Benzema coming in for Higuaín, let's see what he manages against his former club. Also, Higuaín, as good as he is, has some really poor goalscoring form in the CL for some reason.

Come on Lyon, get a second and I'll start to believe in the miracle.

That's the ManU way of doing things isn't it? Lots of times they just don't look good yet they are able to grind the result. I always admired that from them, call it luck, grit, intimidation...

Never stops does it? One day we'll have a fit squad. You won't.

What kind of attendance did the Torino teams pull at the Delle Alpi? Can't believe a team that was playing in a 70k stadium (and is one of Europe's greats) can't even fill a 27k one at this time.