RONALDO WINS HIS THIRD BALON d'OR

The Portuguese and Real Madrid superstar striker Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona and Manuel Neuer, the FC Bayern Munich goalkeeper, to retain the Fifa footballer of the year (Ballon d'Or) he won in 2013.



Criatiano Ronaldo in action

This 2014 award made it thrice that the skillful and tantalizing footballer has won the highest individual honour that is awarded in the game of soccer.

Manuel Neuer is the second goalkeeper ever to make the final shortlist of three in the history of the award.

The three players had a wonderful season in 2014, but it could be said that Lionel Messi even though performed creditably, it was a bit below his usual standard.

In anyones standard the duminitive skillful and amazingly talented striker performed well but not to the level the whole world was acustomed to enjoy watching him.

Ronaldo the eventual winner and Manuel Neuer had an incredible 2014 with a couple of titles to show for it.

Cristiano Ronaldo won two major titles - Champions League and the Copa del Rey, while Neuer won Fifa World Cup, German league and the DFB Pokal.

Nadine Kessler of Germany and Wolfsburg club won the Women's footballer of the year, while her coach Ralf Kellermann won Women's coach of the year. 

Joachim Lowe, the German national coach who led his team to win their 4th world Cup trophy in Brazil, won the coach of the year. Read also: Africanfootie.blogspot.com

The Puskas Award, that is the goal of the year, was won by James Rodriguez. His wonderful strike against Uruguay in the World Cup was judged to be better than the piece of skillfull volley from Irish woman Stephanie Roche.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ROUND OF 16 DRAW

The Champions League round of 16 was drawn today at the city of Nyon. Some teams will be meeting each other again as they did last season. For some it will be an opportunity to revenge being knockout and for others to maintain their dominance.

The eventual winner of the trophy last season, Real Madrid met Schalke at this stage of the competition last season and they are drawn together once again.

Barcelona will be meeting Manchester City again, while Chelsea is once again drawn against Paris Saint Germaine. Chelsea met the Paris club at the quarter final stage, last season.

Without much ado, the following is the full draw for the round 16 and also the full schedule until the final.



Iker Casillas Of Real Madrid
 

February 17 and   March 11, 2015
    
Paris Saint Germaine    Vs     Chelsea
Sharktar Donetsk           Vs     Bayern Munich

Feb. 18 and March 10

Schalke 04               Vs       Real Madrid
Basel                        Vs       Porto

Feb. 24 and March 18

Manchester City       Vs      Barcelona
Juventus                    Vs      Borussia Dortmund

Feb. 25  and  March 17

Bayer Leverkusen     Vs    Atletico Madrid
Arsenal                      Vs    Monaco

The Full Schedule Until the Final

The Quarter-Final draw:  20th March
The Quarter-Final games: 14 &15 and 21 & 22 April.

The Semi-Final draw :   24th April.
The Semi-Final games:  5 & 6 and 12 & 13 May.

The Final will be played at the Olympiastadion, Berlin.

Date: 6th June
Time: 20.45 cet

Read also: Africanfootie.blogspot.com







 

SOME WEEKEND EUROPEAN LEAGUE RESULTS

Dutch Eredivisie

Ajax                   3   -   1     Utrecht
Feyenoord          2   -   2     AZ  Alkmaar
Ado Den Haag   2   -   2     Excelsior
Groningen          1   -   1     Vitesse
G. A Eagle         1   -   2      Cambuur
Heracles             1   -   1      Dordrecht
NAC Breda        0   -   2      Heerenveen
PSV                    2   -   0     Twente
Willem 11          0   -   1      Zwolle

EPL

Arsenal              4    -   1     Newcastle
Burnley              1   -    0     Southampton (Soton)
Chelsea              2   -    0     Hull
Crystal Palace    1   -    1     Stoke
Leicester            0   -    1     Man City
Sunderland         1   -    1    West Ham
West Brom         1   -    0    Aston Villa
Man United        3   -    0     Liverpool
Swansea             1   -    2     Tottenham
Everton                    -           QPR

Gareth Bale of Real Madrid

German Bundesliga

Augsburg          0    -    4     Bayern
Hoffenheim       3   -     2     E. Frankfurt
Hertha               1    -    0     Dortmund
W. Bremen        3   -     3     Hannover
Freiburg             0   -    0      Hamburg
Mainz                 1   -    1      Stuttgart
Schalke               1   -    2     Koln
Leverkusen         1   -    1     M'gladbach
Wolfburg            1   -    1     Paderborn

Spanish La Liga

Almeria              1    -    4    Real Madrid
Cordoba              0    -    0    Levante
Getafe                 0    -    0    Barcelona
Malaga                1    -    0    Celta de Vigo
Espanyol             2    -    1    Granada
Sevilla                 0   -     0    Eibar
Valencia              3   -     0    Rayo Vallecano
Atletico Madrid   0   -     1    Villarreal
Real Sociedad      1   -     1    Athletic Bilbao 

Italian Serie A

Palermo              2    -    1     Sassuolo
Lazio                  3    -    0     Atalanta
Cesena                1    -    4     Fiorentian
Genoa                 0    -    1     Roma
Juventus              1   -     1     Sampdoria
Parma                  0    -    0     Cagliari
Udinese               1    -    2     Verona
Milan                   2    -    0     Napoli

French Ligue 1

Bastia                  2    -    0    Rennes
Lyon                    3   -     0    Caen
Montpellier          3   -     3    Lens
Nantes                  2    -    1    Bordeaux
Lorient                 3    -    1    Metz
Reims                   3    -    2    Evian Thonon
Guingamp            1    -    0     PSG
Lille                      3   -    0     Toulouse
Nice                      0   -    0     St Etienne
Monaco                 1    -   0     Marseille


Portuguese Premeira Liga

Belenenses           0    -    1     Braga
Penafiel                2    -    1     Nacional
Gil Vicente           1    -    1    Academica
Vitoria Setubal     0    -    1     Boavista
Pacos  Ferreira     2    -    1     Arouca
V. Guimaraes          0    -    0     Rio Ave
Porto                     0    -    2     Benfica
Sporting                1     -   1     Moreirense
Maritimo               0     -   0     Estoril Praia

Read also: Africanfootie.blogspot.com

Sports News In Brief

Cristiano Ronaldo (29), the Real Madrid and Portuguese international has shown his appreciation of his club team-mates by giving each player a gift of expensive Swiss wrist watch valued at €8,200. The watch made by Bulgari had the inscription of 'La Decima' which is what the 10th Champions League trophy they won last season is popularly called. It has also the inscription of each player and Ronaldo's initials with shirt number (CR7) on it.

Cristiano Ronaldo

                       ****     ***     ****

Kasper Schmeichel (28), the number one goalkeeper for the English Premier League club, Leicester City, and the son of the Manchester United legend goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, was injured and will be out of action for at least 6 weeks.
The Denish goal tender broke the metatarsal in his foot in training on Thurday and will be having surgery on Friday.
His coach, Nigel Pearson said after the incident, "An optimistic view for Kasper would be four to six weeks, but it could be longer.''

                      ****    ***     ****

The former Newcastle United striker and Colombia international, Faustino Asprilla (45), said that he and his family had to leave his home city because they were threatened by armed criminal gang. Asprilla said that masked armed men entered his home in Tulua and requested for money. ''They threatened me. They told me to contact their chief because if I didn't they would kill my family and me," Asprilla said. He said that he decided that it was time for him to leave with his family. ''I took the decision to leave Tulua for the security of my loved ones. My family was threatened in my presence, my father and my sisters,'' the former striker said.

                         ****    ***     ****

The formula one team Mclaren has finally announced that Jenson Burton (34), and Fernando Alonzo (32) will be their drivers for the 2015 Championship competition. Jenson who was the 2009 champion has been with the team for some years now, but did not know whether he will be staying or leaving the team as his contract expired at the end of the season. The team executive took ages to decide whether to keep him or not. The Spanish driver, Alonzo a two time World Champion is joining Mclaren from the Italian giant team - Ferrari, where he has been their driver for some years.

THE LAST CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GAMES

The last Champions League group phase games were played this night with many of the big teams already qualified for the round of 16.

But the big surprise of the night was that Liverpool was knocked out by FC Basel, after they played a 1 - 1 draw, in group B. Liverpool needed to win the match in order to go through, but they came short.

In Group A, Juventus playing at home played a goalless draw with Atletico Madrid. The Spanish team topped the table with 13 points, while Juventus followed with 10 points.
Both are through to the second round.



Champions League Trophy

The defending champions, Real Madrid, defeated Ludogaret Razgrad 4 - 0 in the group B encounter, and finished on top of the table with 18 points and Basel finished second with 7 points.

In Group C, Benfica hosting Bayer Leverkusen played a 0 - 0 goalless draw while Monaco defeated the Russian Zenit St. Petersburg 2 - 0. Monaco finished on top of the table with 11 points while Bayer Leverkusen finished second with 10 points.

The last season finalist Borrusia Dortmund playing at home, played a 1 - 1 draw with the Belgian Anderlecht in group D, while Arsenal visiting Galatasaray defeated them 4 - 1. Both Arsenal and Dortmund finished with 13 points each, but the German team was on top of the table due to goal differences.

                 Group  A

Juventus           0  -  0      Atletico Madrid

Olympiakos     4  -   2     Malmo FF

                Group  B

Liverpool       1   -   1     Basel

Real Madrid   4   -   0    Ludogaret Razgrad

                Group  C 

Benfica          0   -   0    Leverkusen

Monaco         2   -   0    Zenit St Petersburg

                Group  D

B. Dortmung  1   -   1    Anderlecht

Galatasaray    1   -   4    Arsenal

Read also: Africanfootie.blogspot.com

PLATINI SAYS BLATTER SHOULD STEP ASIDE

The President of the European football governing body (UEFA), Michel Platini has called on the Fifa President Sepp Blatter to step aside and allow a fresh face to pilot the affairs the organisation.

The World football governing body has been labelled by many in the football community as very corrupt.

There have been many allegations of bribery and corruption, and on top of the list was the allegation that the Qatar World Cup Bidding Committee bribed some Fifa members to win hosting the 2022 tournament.

Michel  Platini (Uefa President)

Platini thinks that only a fresh face can bring in ''fresh air'' into Fifa. He believes that a new person will be able to clean what he termed the ''very very very bad'' image of Fifa.

Sepp Blatter, has been Fifa President since 1998, after winning his first term election. He has now served 5 terms and is contesting for the 6th term in May, 2015.

So far he has one challenger, another Fifa official, Jerome Champagne, but Platini speaking to the French Radio Station Europe 1, said that he will not support either of the two and wishes that other people will contest.

''I supported (Blatter) in 1998 because I thought he was the right person,'' he said.

''But after five terms it's time to have some fresh air and make room for someone else. I think the image of Fifa is very, very, very bad and that is why he must stop,'' Platini added.

The former Juventus top player also said that he thinks that another European candidate will find it difficult to win.

''Another European candidate would have very little chance of winning,'' Platini said.

Michel Platini had already said in August that he will not be contesting the election in May.

Read also: Africanfootie.blogspot.com

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RESULTS (25/11/14 & 26/11/14)

Wednesday, 26/11/14

Group A

Atletico Madrid     4   -   0   Olympiakos
Malmo  FF             0   -   2   Juventus

Group  B

Basel                      0   -   1    Real Madrid
Ludogaret              2   -   2    Liverpool

Group  C

Leverkusen           0   -   1    Monaco
Zenit Petersburg   1   -   0    Benfica

Group  D

Arsenal                2   -   0    Dortmund
Anderlecht           2   -   0    Galatasaray

Aresenal Players celebrating a goal

 

 

               ***    ****   ***   ****

Tuesaday,  25/11/14

Group  E

CSKA                  1   -   1    Roma
Man City             3   -   2    Bayern

Group  F

Apoel Nicosia     0   -   4    Barcelona
PSG                     3   -   1    Ajax

Group  G

Schalke               0   -   5    Chelsea
Sporting              3   -   1    NK  Maribor

Group  H

Bate Borisov        0   -   3   Porto
Shaktar Donetsk  0   -   1   Athletic Bilbao 

Read also: Africanfootie. blogspot.com