Liga Pundits articles

[yusuf]

Battles in Bilbao

By Phil Ball


It was a strange sensation, almost akin to nostalgia, when the Athletic Bilbao and Anderlecht fans fought a pitched battle on the hallowed San Mames turf last Thursday, after the Europa League first-leg tie.

I don't mean by nostalgia that I miss that sort of thing, but that it was a nod to a bygone age, one that I remember as a youth and as a young(er) man, and one that seemed as much a part of football as the games themselves.

The clip of the Bilbao fan emptying his bladder on the poor unfortunates below has of course been the YouTube pass-on of the week (it was announced on Sunday that he had been banned for 'the foreseeable future') but it paints an unfortunate picture of a collective of fans who can be the friendliest and most accommodating in Europe, just as long as the visitors haven't come with the intention of causing mayhem.

I'm no expert on Belgian football or on its fans, but the Spanish view is that the blame rests on the visitors' shoulders, given the reports of pre-match trouble throughout the day in Bilbao. But few arrests were made before the game (suggesting that urban riots were fewer and further between than reported), and Bilbao's president Fernando Garcia Macua seemed reluctant, as is his wont, to take any blame for the incidents.

Anderlecht's president claimed that the away fans were pelted and provoked throughout the game and in the end had no choice but to escape onto the pitch. Hmmm... right. The government also wheeled out its usual 'What's this about us being responsible for anything?' line, when the Basque Socialist Party's Rodolfo Ares claimed that the Basque police had acted 'efficiently'. Other political parties saw a chance to wade in, and claimed that the tiny amount of Ertzainas (as they're called in Basque) was ill preparation for a game branded earlier as high-risk. In short, somebody messed up.

It's a pity because I recall going to the 1994 UEFA Cup match between Athletic and Newcastle United which was one of the most wonderful games I've ever been to - not because of the match itself but because of the fraternising outside, before the game, between the rival sets of supporters. I wrote a piece on the game for an English newspaper, and quoted the astonishment of various Newcastle fans at the treatment they received.

'They keep buying us drinks man! This is paradise!' was one swaying fan's comment that I remember, as was another Geordie's tale of driving down through France in an old van with his mates, only for the vehicle's exhaust pipe to drop off when they reached Bilbao. Apparently, a group of home supporters had led them to a garage, where the owner fixed on a new pipe for free and then took them for a late lunch. 'He wouldn't accept any money man! We thought it was a plot to rob us or something, but they were just top blokes.' In fact, various Newcastle fans told me that night that they were quite happy to lose, because winning would have seemed a rude way to treat your hosts. After my article was published, various Newcastle fans wrote in confirming that what I had said was true, weird though it seemed.

It's sad that this kind of thing happens so rarely. Bilbao's Europa campaign has been sullied with other problems, as when the Austria Vienna supporters decided that the best way to provoke their Basque visitors was by unfurling Spanish flags and raising banners adorned with portraits of Franco. It was quite an imaginative act of inter-fan hostility, but its effects were predictably unfortunate.

This week's return leg to Brussels had seen 1,200 offered tickets to Bilbao, and far from the events discouraging a travelling presence this Thursday the tickets were snapped up in less than an hour. The travellers are either masochists, goons or both. The chances of the game in Brussels being played in peace and harmony are sub-zero. And of course, just off the beautiful Grand Place in Brussels the most famous symbol of the city, the Manneken Pis (little man urinating), can be found. Whether the now banned Bilbao supporter was aware of the symbolism of his urinary act is an open question, but if I were in on the Brussels Municipal Council meeting this week before the game, I would post a few local bobbies around the statuette, or else they might find that their most prized urban possession is missing a member in the morning, or worse still, has found its way onto one of the Iberian flights back to Bilbao.

There are various interpretations as to the historical roots of this curious statue, but one of them is fairly resonant. Apparently, in the 14th century the city was under siege and the attackers decided to blow down the walls with some explosive charges. As they were going about this heinous deed, a little boy named Juliaanske happened to see them light the fuses and high-tailed it, exit stage left. In a similar vein to the Dutch boy who popped his finger in the sandbags, this little chap popped his finger in a different direction and peed on the fuses, thus saving the city. His spirit may be required again this Thursday, as the siege of Athletic is unlikely to pass without incident.

Then, on Sunday night, Barcelona played Real Madrid in the King's Cup basketball final in the Bizkaia Arena, in Bilbao. Now that the Basque Country has a non-nationalist autonomous government for the first time in decades, a final such as this is a warmer for a possible visit of the Spanish national football team to play one of its World Cup warmers in San Mames, up to this year an unthinkable act. But of course, Bilbao kept itself in the news by booing the national anthem (the King was there) and generally making the Madrid-based travellers (amongst them his Majesty Florentino Perez) feel a little uncomfortable. Then again, some of them had also unfurled Spanish flags - not a very clever thing to do. To make them feel even worse, Barcelona won.

It's been that sort of week - with an edgy European flavour. Real Madrid's inept performance in Lyon on Tuesday night, in which they were let off the hook by an excellent home side, raised the rafters in Madrid and led to new rumblings about Manuel Pellegrini being unfit for office in the White House. Impeach! Screamed the ever-more hysterical Marca and its various copy-cats.

Pellegrini hit back, claiming that this was the best Real Madrid of the last 15 years, prompting Marca, who seem to have a strange loathing for the Chilean, to conduct a vox-pop survey which found that 70% of respondents 'disagreed' with Pellegrini. Well they probably did, but if you'd asked them the same question on the Monday night before the game, probably only 30% would have disagreed. But anyway - let's not try to plant any rational ideas into the madhouse.

The present Real Madrid side is potentially the best in the last 15 years, which is probably what the manager was trying to say. He would be better off keeping such statements to a minimum, of course, but in the end his team went out - with Xabi Alonso restored as the single pivot (Mahamadou Diarra kept getting in his way on Tuesday night), and everything went swimmingly, with the team registering its tenth home win in a row against the manager's old side Villarreal, and by a thumping 6-2.

Barcelona also won by four goals, stuffing Racing Santander 4-0 without breaking sweat, thereby certifying Pep Guardiola as the best-ever manager after 100 matches with the Catalans. The win over Santander was his 71st in his first 100, with 19 draws and ten defeats (none of the latter by more than one goal). This beats the (in)famous Helenio Herrera, who managed 70% with Barcelona in his first spell with them, but Pep's beaten even him now. What else is there to win? He could always try Gran Hermano (Big Brother) or something.

Whatever, during the game against Racing in the Camp Nou, the faithful whistled Sergio Canales' every touch (he'll have to get used to that, now he's a proto-Merengue) and witnessed a 'calling card' from Rafael Marquez who tackled the youngster rather in the style of Camacho's famous slide tackle on Johan Cruyff in 1974, the one that almost put him in the first row of seats in the Bernabeu. It showed a certain amount of respect and attention for the new star, but the yellow card should really have been a different colour altogether.

Stuttgart, Barca's hosts on Tuesday night, warmed up with a 5-1 win away to Cologne, and will be in a decent mood for the game. Zlatan Ibrahimovic looks unlikely to play, and Xavi and Dani Alves are doubtful starters. The third man, Sevilla, became the first side to beat Mallorca in San Moix this season, and will also be going off to CSKA in a more confident mood.

It looks like a busy week in general, because Monday football has returned to La Liga (it last happened in the mid 1990s), with a single game being reserved for the post-weekend fixtures. It's kind of annoying for the quiniela followers, but it's a popular move among the clubs, guaranteeing further TV revenue.

Talking of the quiniela, I'm to make my debut later this week, with the challenge of beating Ed Alvarez's personal best of 8/10, but it's going to be tough. Ed's kindly offered to do the column next weekend in a straight swap, since I'm taking my partner away to an exotic destination for her birthday and won't be back until Monday night. And no, it's not Brussels...

-------------------------------

good article but once again he rambles on about basque culture and i got totally lost in first half of the article

[Beast]

Thanks for helping Yusuf

Athletic`s Golden Shower Of A Season

Athletic Bilbao's weekend began with the publication of the fairly distasteful image of a San Mamés supporter quite literally p***ing all over visiting Anderlecht fans from a great height during Thursday's Europa League clash.

So it was only natural, perhaps, that the weekend end should end with Athletic's players performing the same action - but in a more metaphorical sense - over hapless Tenerife in Sunday's 4-1 Basque Country bashing.

The two incidents reflect everything there is to know about this most peculiar but treasured of clubs: politically potty fans whose big love of their semi-autonomous region too often leads to hatred of pretty much everyone else supporting committed footballers famous in Spain for their 'English' style of football - uncompromising, a little simplistic, fairly thuggish, passionate, frenetic but extremely effective.

After a few worrying seasons when Athletic were fighting relegation to la Segunda for the first time in the club's history, the Basque club are now enjoying some heady days indeed and continue to stand by their (admittedly, increasingly flexible) policy of only recruiting players with connections to the local Basque region that straddles Spain and France.

The starting XI in Sunday's victory were all born no more than a bus ride away from Bilbao (although those from Pamplona would perhaps require sandwiches for the journey) and included six who grew up in the club's youth system.

Although Barcelona's XI that beat Racing 4-0, on Saturday boasted seven products of La Masia, the Catalan club are able to poach prodigious players from Argentina to Albacete to fill their ranks, a truly impossible luxury for Athletic Bilbao who still insist that theres is a local club for local people.

However, despite all sporting logic, this policy is currently reaping fantastic rewards with Athletic Bilbao having featured in last season's Copa del Rey final - a match that pushed them into the Europa League - and the club sitting cheerfully in seventh, just a point away from the European places.

Their success has coincided with one of those cherished occasions in football when a crop of outstanding young players all come good at the same time.

Powerhouse midfielders Javi Martínez and Markel Susaeta - both absent on Sunday - have both been watched by some of the bigger boys of la Liga along with leading goalscorer Fernando Llorente.

The striker was once booed by the San Mamés support for his gangly, Big Bird, ball-losing ways, but Llorente has been outstanding of late, notching up 17 goals in all competitions this season,and is proudly waving his cutlass in the fierce fight to be a striker for Spain in South Africa, having already scored for his country against England.

If Athletic can keep their mitts on a forward whose strength in the air and bouffant hair has seen a fair smattering of interest from English clubs, then he could form an outstanding partnership with Iker Muniain, the youngest scorer in La Primera at the age of 16 and a scrappy, snarly, but truly gifted footballer in the mould of an early Alan Smith.

Such is the strength in depth of Athletic that Muniain's presence wasn't even required until the final 12 minutes of the tonking of Tenerife due to the home side clobbering their time-zone changing visitors 4-1 at the time.

Instead, the less glamorous figure of Gaizka Toquero was doing just fine having won a penalty for Athletic's opener and scored the second thanks to a classic Athletic move: a hoof from goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz, a flick-on from the towering Llorente and Toquero lashing home the free ball.

Toquero is a shining example of the other profile of Athletic player - lower-league background, a little rough around the edges, probably only getting a game in the big league because of his local origins but someone who will fight for the club to the death given the chance and is performing considerably above expectations.

Unfortunately, this scrapping spirit and Gordon Brown-esque bolshiness can get a little out of hand for Athletic with the side suffering eight red cards this season.

Two of those took place last weekend in a defeat to Villarreal. Javi Martínez lashed out in a scuffle with Diego Godín, whilst the ever-snarly Pablo Orbaiz tried to remove the scalp of the prostrate Marco Ruben - an action that saw him banned for two games.

The defender was in good company on the sidelines at the time having joined his manager Joaquín Caparrós, who was sent to the stands for trying to take on both the referee and Godín in what was a fantastically fiery encounter.

The slightly mad but wonderful Andalusian coach is a key factor in Athletic's current fine form and caused a great deal of relief throughout the region by recently announcing that he would be extending his contract with the club that was due to expire at the end of June.

The 54-year-old Sevilla-born coach, who is often mistaken for Michael Keaton when on holiday in America, is a loony-tunes bundle of energy full of inexplicable hand gestures, waves and incomprehensible touchline whistles to his players.

A TV company recently wired Caparrós up to a heart monitor before a game despite the Athletic manager's warning that "it's screwed, I'm going to break it".

He was quite close to delivering on his threat with Caparrós' heart hitting a peak of 170 BPM during the clash when it should have beating at a more sedate 80-110 for a man of his years.

Should Caparrós survive the season without Mr Creosote-ing then his years of experience, eternal enthusiasm and sneaky love of the dark arts could well push Athletic into a top-six finish.

Two of those spots are currently occupied by Deportivo and Mallorca, sides who probably don't have the porridge to continue their impressive campaigns into May, whilst other big hitters such as Villarreal and Atlético Madrid show little inclination to do much of anything this season, with both losing over the weekend and flailing about in mid-table.

One of Athletic's problems is that away from the hellfire of San Mamés, the side can be a tad flimsy and disinterested with a recent 1-0 defeat to Espanyol being a classic example.

The other issue is Athletic's current Europa Cup campaign, that has been shrouded in a little controversy of late due to hooligan incidents against Anderlecht on Thursday and away at Austria Vienna in December.

It is a competition the club is taking very seriously indeed but this is an approach that may have to be adjusted considering that the Basque club's domestic campaign is offering Athletic a fine chance of a top-six finish which would be just the club's second in the past 14 years.

The 1-1 home draw against Anderlecht means that a knockout to their Belgian rivals is entirely possible, but the Basque club's furious fighting spirit and desire to make a name for themselves in Europe could well carry them through, meaning a considerably busier end to the season that many Primera pundits expected.

Round 23 Results

Deportivo 2-1 Xerez
Barcelona 4-0 Racing
Mallorca 1-3 Sevilla
Zaragoza 1-3 Sporting
Osasuna 1-1 Valladolid
Athletic 4-1 Tenerife
Málaga 2-1 Espanyol
Almería 1-0 Atlético Madrid
Real Madrid 6-2 Villarreal
Valencia - Getafe (playing Monday)


Tim Stannard

[Beast]

Good Day, Bad Day - Round 23

Monday 22 February 2010 14:00
Good Day

Manuel Pellegrini

Cristiano Ronaldo may have been elevated into sun-shining-from-his-waxed-posterior deity status by the Madridista press after Sunday’s fine display against Villarreal, but La Liga Loca is so sick of the sight of the pouting ponce that it is going to give its Monday pat on the back to the more deserving Manuel Pellegrini, instead.

The Madrid coach has been through a heck of a week with his very absent superstars letting him down against Lyon and Marca doing their damnedest to poke the Third Choice Chilean in the back with a journalistic breadstick at every opportunity, since.

Sunday’s pre-match editorial blasted Pellegrini for responding to his critics by opining that, statistically speaking, he was leading Madrid’s finest team for 15 years and by noting quite rightly that “in the last six years, [Real Madrid] has changed coach seven or eight times and have not got past the last 16 in the Champions League and have only managed two titles from a possible 15.”
Marca responded to such uppity impudence from a manager that Florentino Pérez is desperate to see the back off by plonking José Mourinho’s face on Friday’s front cover and claiming two days later that calling for Pellegrini to be sacked “is not an insult, nor an attack on something so subjective as football.”

Sunday’s headline in the Pérez-run paper also called the Villarreal clash “Pellegrini’s Judgement.”

The six-goal reply is Pellegrini’s two-fingered response to his cretinous critics.
Real Madrid

The 6-2 win sees the side move to the top of Marca’s “Alternative League Table” with a two point lead over their Catalan rivals.

What’s more, the paper’s resident referee Rafa Guerrero writes that both of Madrid’s penalties against Villarreal were great decisions from the man in the middle, despite the second being a complete dive from Ronaldo and the first being more than a little questionable.

But La Liga Loca will allow it due to Gonzalo Higuaín's general brilliance.

Pep’s Goal-Shy Dream Boys

Racing may have shown as much resistance as Ever Banega watching a Giselle Bundchen bath time web cast on Saturday, but that should not prevent some kind words from the blog to support Barcelona’s four scorers.

Andrés Iniesta had not done it since May, Thierry Henry and Rafa Márquez had only managed it four times between them this season, whilst Thiago was doing it for the first time in his life on his debut - scoring goals for Barcelona, that is.

The latter was so excited by the event that he ran to the bench to celebrate with his Barça buddy Jonathan Dos Santos, an action that Guardiola has since punished by dropping Thiago from the squad travelling to Stuttgart in the Champions League.

“He should just embrace his colleagues and get on with the job,” warned the Catalan coach. “We have to bring him back to earth.”

Riki!!!!!!

For a moment, the Deportivo striker looked like he was going to fall into the biggest of Primera panics.

Due to a defensive slip-up, Riki!!!!!! was one-on-one with Xerez keeper, Renan.

But Riki!!!!!! remembered his training and did what he does best - close his eyes, hit the ball as hard as possible and hope for the best.

Normally, it is an approach to the art of striking that rarely works for the former Getafe man, but this time it put Deportivo into a 2-0 lead over their visitors after just seven minutes.

Jesús Navas

Another tremendous display from Navas who dragged his team through their 3-1 win over Mallorca - the first side to manage this in the Ono Estadi in the league this season.

Sevilla had been reduced to 10 men after the rather harsh sending off of Alvaro Negredo, but Navas pulled through by responding to Mallorca’s opener with a goal of his own and a late assist for Diego Perotti.

Málaga

Thanks to Espanyol being wetter than pretty much anywhere in Spain at the moment on their travels this season, Málaga grabbed their third victory in four and made it an admirable run of just one defeat from 14.

Gaizka Toquero

Cheered and championed by the Athletic Bilbao fans like a three-legged-dog fetching a stick, the former Alaves and Eibar man is a bit of cult hero in San Mamés.

Not exactly the most prolific of strikers with just one goal in the league last season, some crucial cup goals and the occasional brilliant finish sees Toquero as popular as big, floppy berets and peeing on Belgians at the Basque club, these days.

On Sunday, the forward won a penalty and scored his side’s second in the 4-1 win over Tenerife that moves Athletic tantalisingly close to the top six.

Sporting

Visiting manager Manuel Preciado claimed that he fancied his side to pick up a win against Zaragoza on Sunday.

And a win it was for Sporting with the home team going back to their pre-Gay hapless ways in the 3-1 defeat.

Pablo Piatti

The young Almería striker had been stuck in La Liga Loca’s shoe box marked “flimsy Argentinean that came far too early to Europe” and like Gonzalo Higuaín and Ever Banega before him, has scrambled out.

Piatti has benefited from new Almería boss Juanma Lillo taking advantage of his extra-ordinary pace and scored for the second successive game - this time the late winner in the narrow victory over Atlético Madrid.

Bad Day

Atlético Madrid

The poor old nearer-the-relegation-zone-than-Europe Rojiblancos expended so much luck and energy in last weekend’s 2-1 win over Barcelona, that the rest of the campaign could well see a string of ever-so-unfortunate events such as Diego Forlán turning into a block of Red Leicester - an improvement to his current form - and the Vicente Calderón stadium being buried under a glacier.

Atleti were passable and decent enough against Almería but fell to a late goal from Piatti and saw Quique Sánchez Flores being sent off for some rag-losing touchline action.

“I want to apologise to my team, the fans and the management,” blubbed Quique who normally has the phrase “on behalf of” rather than “to” in that particular statement to the press.

Villarreal

Weren’t as bad as the 6-2 scoreline suggested but appear to have done something, somewhere, to rub the referees up the wrong way this season, with Villarreal having conceded nine penalties in the current campaign.

Tenerife, Xerez

The former still can't win away. The latter still can’t win, although are by no means the worst bottom-of-the-table side to have graced the Primera in recent seasons.

Dudu Aouate

The Mallorca goalkeeper’s pre-match tactic of having his brain replaced with a yo-yo didn’t quite come off as well as Aouate was expecting.

The Israeli goalie had a shocker in Mallorca’s 3-1 defeat to Sevilla having coming flying out of goal only to miss the ball for Sevilla’s equalising effort and completely misjudge Ivica Dragutinovic’s floaty free-kick.

Didier Zokora

The red-carded Sevilla midfielder was unfortunate enough to come up against a linesman who fully understood his charming English insult of “f*ck your mother” after a contentious decision.

Racing

There must have been nothing so morale-boosting for the Barcelona players than the sight of Newcastle legend, Xisco, leading the line for Racing in the Camp Nou, on Saturday.

The Cantabrian club might as well have stuck Hilary Clinton in the number 15 shirt for all the good it did.

Gorosito

The Xerez coach managed a fine innings of four minutes before being sent off during the 2-1 defeat to Deportivo for ranting at the ref.

[Cule Angles]

I was unable to finish Sid's article due to feeling physically sick at his Ronaldo love fest. In actual fact I've been a bit bored by Sid's articles for a long time now, he seems to recycle a lot of his old jokes and themes.

[Super Pippo]

But he supports Real Oviedo.

[Cule Angles]

I don't believe it, I'm convinced he claims to support a small side like Oviedo just to cover up his madridismo.

[Super Pippo]

No he is, he has been to matches.

[Cule Angles]

I've been to Exeter City matches, it doesn't make me an Exeter fan!

[Super Pippo]

Well I assume you didn't go there for that specific purpose then? Or were an away fan?

He would have no reason to go to Oviedo many times.

[Beast]

I was unable to finish Sid's article due to feeling physically sick at his Ronaldo love fest. In actual fact I've been a bit bored by Sid's articles for a long time now, he seems to recycle a lot of his old jokes and themes.

i knew it

[Cule Angles]

Well I assume you didn't go there for that specific purpose then? Or were an away fan?

He would have no reason to go to Oviedo many times.

I was at University in Exeter so I used to go along just to watch some football.

[Super Pippo]

Exactly, you weren't going out your way to see them.

He clearly does go out his way to see Oviedo, so I think he genuinely supports them.

Good taste.

[Beast]

Will Barça stumble against Stuttgart?
Tim Stannard

Tuesday 23 February 2010 12:00
Cunning old goat that he is, Pep Guardiola has lowered expectations to such an extent that a Jens Lehmann hat-trick in a 3-0 defeat against Stuttgart on Tuesday would be a fine result for his Dream Boys.

The Barcelona boss’ press conferences post-Racing and pre-Stuttgart have contained more shrugs, sulks, tuts, and monosyllabic responses than La Liga Loca trying to explain the offside rule.

AS may have praised Barcelona’s “insulting superiority” over Saturday’s Cantabrian opponents, but Guardiola was having none of it – grumbling that the side “lacked rhythm” in the 4-0 win, gave the ball away too easily and were still in their apathetic Atlético Madrid funk.

Pep’s complaints have been echoed by Barcelona übermeister Johan Cruyff, who joins in what sports journalists love to describe as ‘mind games’ and writes in El Periódico that the Racing performance was “the worst under Pep Guardiola.”

The Dutchman sniffs that only one of the goals was fully deserved - that of Rafa Márquez - as the others were either defensive errors from Racing or a jammy deflection in Thiago’s case.

“Pep did appear to be the only culé who was not happy with the 4-0,” notes Joan Battle in Sport, responding to Cruyff’s criticism. “The players have been warned.”

Alexander Hleb, currently on loan at Stuttgart and enjoying another stunning post-Arsenal campaign of 19 league starts and zero goals, says that his current team have about a “10% chance” against Barcelona.

Jens Lehmann, meanwhile, is quite certain that the German side will prevail on the perfectly legitimate grounds that they are... well... German.

The goalkeeper’s expected inclusion in Stuttgart’s starting line-up has allowed Spanish TV to put together his best blunders over the years and his infamous in-match comfort break - all to a Charlie Chaplin-style soundtrack - ensuring that mad Lens is sure to play a blinder against Barcelona.

Over in Capital City the obsession with all things Cristiano Ronaldo shows no sign of going away anytime soon.

La Liga Loca once asked a friend whether he thought a Spanish player could be openly gay in La Liga. His response was to literally shudder, shake his head in horror and declare that there is not a cheesecake’s chance in Maniche’s fridge that any Spanish footballer could ever be gay. Ever.

This is certainly not the case with Spain’s football journalists who collectively have the biggest of man crushes of Real Madrid’s Portuguese ponce.

(And for the purposes of full disclosure, La Liga Loca’s own metrosexual obsessions in recent years have been Fabio Cannavaro, Pep Guardiola and a current worryingly weird thing for Joaquín Caparrós).

AS have plastered a graphic of Ronaldo in Tuesday’s edition with a detailed muscle-by-muscle breakdown of the forward’s physical supremacy, with particular attention afforded to his groin.

“I call it ‘The Tomahawk’,” says the paper’s headline with Ronaldo discussing the name of his free-kick against Villarreal. But it could well refer to something completely different and just as precious to the Portuguese player.

“Every day, his presence grows,” sighs Tuesday’s Marca as it skips through fields of petals. “Real Madrid have found in Cristiano Ronaldo a legendary footballer."

His other ‘legendary’ attributes of being preening, pouting, self-centred, sulky and to teamwork what Jesús Navas is to travel-writing grew ever stronger too on Monday, with footage broadcast of Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso squabbling over who would take the penalty with Madrid 5-2 up.

“Cris, let me take it,” pleaded the Spanish midfielder, “I haven’t scored yet.”

Eventually, Ronaldo relented, pouted like nobody’s business, walked off in a huff and ignored Alonso’s goal celebrations after he successfully converted the spot-kick.

CR9 – loved by the fans, adored by the media, hated by his team-mates. Except Kaká, probably.

[Lemmi]

I was unable to finish Sid's article due to feeling physically sick at his Ronaldo love fest. In actual fact I've been a bit bored by Sid's articles for a long time now, he seems to recycle a lot of his old jokes and themes.

did you hear him on football weekly? he just creamed into ronaldo's hair for like 3 minutes.

[Moe]

CR9 – loved by the fans, adored by the media, hated by his team-mates. Except Kaká, probably.