%image% Australia scored a surprising 2-1 victory over European heavyweight Germany at Borussia Park on Tuesday.

Despite Mario Gomez’ first half goal, the Australians rallied in the second half to topple the home side.

A neatly-taken goals by Blackpool’s David Carney, the 1000th goal conceded by Germany, and a penalty from Luke Wilkshire, consigned the Germans to defeat.

A late goal from Asamoah Gyan earned Ghana a 1-1 draw with England at Wembley.

Recent Liverpool signing Andy Carroll put the Three Lions ahead just before the interval but the English were denied a victory over the World Cup quarter-finalists when Sunderland forward Gyan curled in a fine goal for the Africans.

France and Croatia played out a scoreless draw at the Stade de France, in a rematch of the 1998 World Cup semi-final which saw Croatia coach Slaven Bilic controversially have his opposite number Laurent Blanc sent off.

World Cup semi-finalist Uruguay overcame a late comeback to grab an entertaining 3-2 win over Ireland.

A Shane Long headed effort cancelled out Diego Lugano’s goal but then strikes from Edinson Cavani and Abel Hernandez put the Uruguayans 3-1 ahead.

A Keith Faley penalty gave the Irish a chance but the Uruguayans held on.

The hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Russia and Qatar respectively, played out a 1-1 draw in Doha.

Qatar grabbed a surprise lead through Mohamed Kasoula, but they were denied a famous victory when Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko equalised with a shot that Qatari goalkeeper Meshal Mubarak got a hand to.

Former World Cup champions Italy beat Ukraine 2-1 in Kiev thanks to goals from Giuseppe Rossi and Alessandro Matri.

Greece was held to 0-0 draw by Poland in Piraeus despite a handful of scoring opportunities falling their way in each half.

Portugal beat Finland in Aviero thanks a brace from debutant Rúben Micael.

Canada edged out Belarus at a near-empty stadium in Antalya in Turkey courtesy of a 58th minute strike from Houston Dynamo defender Andre Hainault.

A Michael Krohn-Dehli winner saw Denmark come out on top against Slovakia. Denmark drew first blood after an own goal from Slovakia’s Kornel Salata although the Slovakians drew level Filip Holosko but it was the Brondby midfielder who had the last laugh for the Danes.

A solitary goal separated Bulgaria and Cyprus with the Bulgarians coming out on top courtesy of a contentious Martin Petrov goal.

In Asia, China resoundingly defeated Honduras by three goals thanks to a from goal from Huang Bowen, and a Yang Xu double – all of which were set up by Schalke midfielder Hao Junmin.

In Latin America, Ecuador were held 0-0 by Peru in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Peruvians, who were reduced to 10 men, managed to hold on after goalkeeper Salomon Libman’s saved Ecuador captain Walter Ayovi’s penalty in the first half.

A Matias Fernandez free-kick and Jean Beausejour strike saw Chile beat Colombia 2-0.

Manchester United’s search for Edwin van der Sar’s replacement has come to an end, well as far as the Daily Mail is concerned anyway. They have reported that ‘Atletico keeper De Gea to sign five-year contract with Manchester United as clubs agree £17.8m deal’.

Its common knowledge that the Spanish stopper is one of Manchester United’s top targets, but reports in The Daily Mail are way off the mark according to quotes from David de Gea published on dbs-football.blogspot.com.

“There is nothing, it is all lies. I know nothing about offers from any team, whether it is other clubs or a renewal from Atletico. I have given my all to this team since I have been here, and that will continue today and tomorrow, I will always fight for this team.”

The young Spanish keeper’s comments mean United have got plenty of work left to do if they want to pull off the signing of the 20 year old. There hasn’t been any public refusal from Atletico to do business with United over the highly rated Spanish keeper’s services, so there is still a strong possibility of a deal being carved out.

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A football fan will defend his team and its players till the cows come home against rival fans, because after all no-one likes to hear anything they love being slated; this doesn’t however stop the fans berating, criticising or judging his team’s own players. I believe the fans do have a divine right to highlight the flaws of players that aren’t justifying their starting eleven position, given the time, effort and money invested into the supporting of their club. There are players however who do appear to experience the anger of their own fans on a greater scale, where constructive criticism becomes a rant, but who are the top ten Premier League scapegoats?

Click on Darron Gibson below to see the top 10 scapegoats of the season

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Listen to the third episode of our brand new podcast – The Football FanCast. – Featuring Razor Ruddock, Gary O’Reilly and singer/songwriter Alistair Griffin, who performs a live version of his cult tribute to Mark Viduka, with Razor on backing vocals!

West Ham head to Eastlands on Sunday knowing the writing is on the wall for their future in the top flight.The Hammers are bottom of the league and have lost their last four matches.

City are fourth, four points clear of Tottenham. They maintained their push for a Champions League spot with a 1-0 win over Blackburn on Monday.

It was also their 15th clean sheet, the equal best in the division, with Manchester United and Chelsea. City have also conceded only 30 goals, just three more than Chelsea.

Spurs are at Chelsea on Saturday and Arsenal face leaders Manchester United on Sunday.
If all three games go to form, City would be seven points clear of Tottenham with four games to play and just two points behind the Gunners with a game in hand.

West Ham, meanwhile, are looking worryingly at relegation to the Championship following six seasons in the Premier League.

When the Hammers were last relegated, in 2003, they won three and drew one of their last four games but still went down.

They amassed 42 points that season but still could not avoid the drop. They have won just 13 of their 32 points away from Upton Park.

Manager Avram Grant cannot use Wayne Bridge at City as the defender is on loan from Eastlands and is ineligible.

Mark Noble, who damaged a stomach muscle in the 3-0 defeat at Chelsea, is out for three weeks while Scott Parker is also a likely absentee, meaning West Ham will be short of midfielders.

West Ham are hoping Matthew Upson recovers from the chest infection that ruled him out of the loss at Stamford Bridge.

Even owner David Sullivan fears the worst.

After City, West Ham face relegation rivals Blackburn and Wigan before finishing at home to Sunderland, who should have little riding on the game.

Sullivan added: “We still have at least a 25-30 per cent chance of staying up so all is not yet lost.”

City manager Roberto Mancini will have one eye on the FA Cup final at Wembley against Stoke City in two weeks.

Carlos Tevez is still receiving treatment for a hamstring injury and he has been given an ultimatum that he must return against Tottenham on May 10 if he is to be considered for the final.

One player keen to add to his match-winning performance against Blackburn will be striker Edin Dzeko.

The Bosnian will be keen to start against the Hammers and impress Mancini with the FA Cup showdown in mind.

Sporting Braga manager Domingos Paciencia was delighted with his side’s progression to the Europa League final on Thursday.The Liga Sagres outfit won through to their first European final after a 1-0 second-leg win against Benfica which gave them a 2-2 aggregate result, progressing on away goals.

They will face another Portuguese side, Porto, in the final in Dublin on May 18 and Paciencia sang the praises of his players after reaching the showpiece event.

“I’m happy for the squad, it’s a fantastic group,” Paciencia said.

“They are great professionals and have reason to be proud. It’s unique to be in a final.”

Braga defensive midfielder Custodio won the tie for his side with his 18th-minute header but afterwards he played down his personal performance, insisting it had been a team effort.

“I’m no hero. We all are heroes – those who played, those who stayed on the bench, those who stayed in the stands, the fans,” Custodio said.

“There are no words to describe how we are feeling. It’s fantastic. I want to dedicate this to our families. We will play to win the final. It’s our ambition. We are true warriors.”

Benfica boss Jorge Jesus blamed his side’s failure to convert their chances as the reason why they missed the chance to take on rivals Porto in the final.

Javier Saviola hit the post in the first half and missed a gilt-edged chance with 10 minutes remaining, while Alan Kardec had a header cleared off the line on the verge of injury time.

“We didn’t get lucky,” Jesus said.

“We had several chances and we couldn’t manage to score. The Braga goalkeeper (Artur) was inspired and denied us some chances. We are disappointed.”

Benfica defender Jardel said his side did not deserve to make the final as the disappointment of defeat lingered.

“We’re very sad. We didn’t deserve to go out like this for all that we achieved in the competition until now. Unfortunately we couldn’t score,” Jardel said.

Sergio Aguero , Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez , Juan Mata and Yann M’Vila are just some of the names that Liverpool have been linked with in recent months. For any Reds fan, such names sound exciting but I feel we have to be realistic about the sort of players that will arrive at Anfield in the summer.

Due to the fact that Liverpool will not be in the Champions League or possibly Europe at all next season, it means our sights have to be lowered somewhat. In the case of somebody like Kun Aguero who is expected to leave Atletico Madrid in the summer, the Argentine’s price tag alone of £40m+ will be enough to put off the Reds. On others such as Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez and Juan Mata, price would not be an issue but it will necessarily come down to the specific aims and desires of the players themselves.

For Eden Hazard for example, he has stated recently that he doesn’t want to move to Real Madrid because he fears he wouldn’t get a first team place at the Bernabeu. A potential opportunity for the Reds to exploit then, but Hazard then goes on to explain that Inter or Arsenal would be his preferred destination. Places where he can get first team football but also, crucially, play in the Champions League like he can with Lille next season.

A similar problem would most probably arise when trying to purchase Juan Mata. The Spanish playmaker is a player I have long admired, but if the reports are true that Manchester City are indeed interested, the Reds may have little chance of acquiring the Valencia midfielder. City can offer more money and Champions League football next season, while we would have to hope that our history and stature alone could attract the player. The same could be said of another winger Alexis Sanchez who is also attracting interest from Eastlands.

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At the end of the day, Director of Football Damien Comolli has been tasked with the responsibility of bringing players in who are good value for money. The task will be to find players, near to Hazard, Mata and Sanchez’s abilities, but who are valued at less money and are more likely to come. For that reason, the Reds have also been linked with the likes of Ashley Young , Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam, Marko Marin, Eljero Elia, Iker Muniain and Blaise Matuidi in recent months. Players not necessarily less sought after but more likely to move to Liverpool due to their own contract situations or the circumstances at their own clubs. Young and Downing’s Aston Villa are currently 13th, Adam’s Blackpool are 18th, Marin’s Werder Bremen finished 13th, Elia’s Hamburg finished 8th, Muniain’s Bilbao are in 6th with Matuidi’s St Etienne lying 8th in Ligue One.

Pepe Reina mentioned yesterday that he had spoken to Damien Comolli:

“Recently I have talked with Comolli, asking about the future, and I believe in the club and this project. I am happy here. We know how much work there is to be done, but I believe we are in the right place and we are going in the right direction. Next season will be more positive. The quicker we improve, the better for the club, but we cannot change overnight. The owners are preparing a big summer and hopefully the players that come in will improve the squad.”

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It is clear he wanted to be reassured about the targets the club were pursuing before committing his future. It would be interesting to know what Comolli and Dalglish have in store for the summer but my instincts tell me that the list more like resembles the ones I have listed second, rather the first list at the top of the article. What do you think?

Read more of David’s articles at Live4Liverpool

The news that Ewan Chester will leave his role as chief scout at Norwich City is disappointing news to fans of the club. However, clearly Chester is a very respected scout and was always likely to the attract the interest of bigger clubs. That I suppose is the problem with success with the manager, the players and backroom staff all attracting interest. Chester is rumoured to be moving to Chelsea in a role that he will begin with the London club at the start of September. However, there is a curious component to all of this; Chester suggested his new role involved international recruitment.

Now, without reading too much into such a statement it’s at very least the suggestion that Norwich are not heavily involved in looking at players outside the UK. However, without having an in depth understanding of the scouting process at Norwich; it’s a little bit difficult to draw many conclusions.

A quick look through the current Norwich City squad and the signings that Paul Lambert has made in the last two season shows that he prefers signing his players from England; not all of the players Lambert has signed – have been English in nationality. Simeon Jackson and Zak Whitbread play international football for Canada for the USA respectively. However, generally speaking Lambert has felt players need to prove themselves in English football first.

In many ways it’s a very commendable transfer policy and one that Norwich have done well with. It is also a policy that disputes the theory that value can’t be found with signing top quality players that are English and who play in the English leagues. However, does this policy need to change as the club enters the Premier League? Well it seems remarkable that Norwich is entering a division that has such an influx of foreign players; yet they won’t be considering looking at players that play in foreign leagues.

Paul Lambert looks keen to get his transfer business done early and so far the players he has signed have all played in English football their whole lives. However, Lambert did recently say that he was annoyed about the high prices that are being quoted for players that he has enquired about. Probably the best example of this was the £3.5m offer that was offered for Leeds winger Robert Snograss – but was told that they wouldn’t be prepared to accept an offer below £5m – for a player that has one season of Championship football under his belt.

These comments did cause some people to speculate that Paul Lambert might try his luck abroad – especially with his well known connections in Germany. However, there have been few possibilities linked with only the joke that Miroslav Klose would be a target for Lambert and a vague link to a Swiss international defender. But why wouldn’t Lambert want to buy an overseas player into his squad?

Well I would have thought he would if it was the right player – but Lambert will be conscious of the fact that bringing in players from foreign leagues is a significant risk. Yes, gems can be found like the one that West Brom found last season when they picked up Peter Odemwingie for a bargain price of £2.5m. But equally a lot of money has been spent on players from abroad of the years that have turned out to not have worked out in the Premier League

Norwich fans will also cast their minds back to when Norwich were last in the Premier League and recall a couple of Scandinavian players were signed that didn’t have the desired impact. So it is understandable that Paul Lambert may want to avoid a repeat. Therefore, it may not be a bad policy to use British players for Norwich’s first season in the Premier League. But if Norwich continues to progress then they will surely have to look at international recruitment seriously.

In order to make that a smooth transition then really the club should set-up international scouting system at this point; with Ewan Chester leaving his role then there seems to be an opportunity to do just that. Despite how well Lambert has done with the current squad – I strongly believe international recruitment will play an important part of any success Norwich have in the future – especially given the high price of top English players.

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Fulham are reportedly keen to bring ex-Liverpool defender John Arne Riise back to the Premier League, and are preparing an offer for the 30-year-old according to Sky Sports. The Norwegian international is entering the final year of contract with current club Roma, and the Italian side are believed to be eager to sell to avoid the Scandinavian leaving on a free transfer next summer.

New Cottagers manager Martin Jol is looking to strengthen his squad, with an extra option at left back needed as Carlos Salcido is expected to leave the club as he is homesick. A move for Liverpool fringe player Paul Konchesky was rumoured, but the London club’s interest has apparently waned in recent weeks.

Riise spent seven years in England with the Anfield club, and may be swayed to move the club as his brother, Bjorn Helge, already plays for the Craven Cottage side. His future in Rome is under threat, as new boss Luis Enrique is expected to bring his own players to the Italian capital, with Sporting Lisbon’s Jose Angel his preferred option at left back.

As the Luka Modric saga takes yet another twist with the player claiming he has been threatened with reserve team football it is now time for Daniel Levy to be bold once more.  This time in the transfer market.

The Tottenham Chairman insists he does not want to dismantle the current playing squad and is adamant that he will not sell the clubs best players at any cost.  But if Levy genuinely wants to build and maintain a team capable of challenging for top honors then now will become the defining time under his stewardship.  Other clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea are all investing vast sums of money towards improving their playing squads.  In order to maintain momentum Levy now needs to decide if Spurs are financially capable of doing the same, not just to keep up with the Jones’ but to surpass them.

Such intent in the transfer market is not required as contingency to Modric’s departure but to show the player and all of those around him that together they can achieve their footballing ambitions at Tottenham Hotspur.  The Chairman needs to forget for the moment about reducing the current squad size, fringe players can be offloaded as and when the right offers come in.   I say to Levy that Now is the time to show our ambition by identifying and securing the long-term targets that will take this club to where it wants to be.  Now is the time to be brave, to be bold, to truly define your time with our great football club – to dare is to do!

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So, another of this summer’s drawn out transfer window sagas came to an end last night when Aston Villa finally accepted Liverpool’s bid for left-winger Stewart Downing, for a fee of around £20 million. After rejecting the Anfield club’s previous bids, Villa were left with little room to manoeuvre as Downing made it clear he wanted to join the Red’s, handing in a written transfer request. The signing ends what Liverpool have seemingly craved for many a year; a genuine winger.

Much has been made about the apparent need of width at Anfield for a number of years now, but that need intensified once big centre-forward Andy Carroll walked through the Shankly Gates back in January. Wide-men became a necessity, if Liverpool were to take full advantage of their record signing’s main attributes.

Whilst Liverpool seemed to be in the market for their old school wide-man, instead they were linked with a steady stream of central-midfielders. Liverpool were already overstaffed in this department and the addition of Charlie Adam increased the numbers. They had already signed a wide-man of course…well sort of, in Jordan Henderson, but the lack of a genuine winger added to the fans frustrations. Who would supply the new strikers without any width? However, if Liverpool were to just sign wingers, they would risk themselves becoming too one-dimensional. Over the last few seasons, Liverpool have lacked creativity in wide areas – but to solely concentrate on improving that area would then run the risk of not increasing the quality and inventiveness from a central area also. That is what the signing of Adam brings. With the eventual arrival of a genuine winger in Downing, Liverpool are no longer reliant on just one method of attack – they now have two. Also, in Adam they have a new supply line to the wings, and to Downing; the man who they hope will, in turn, supply the strikers.

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But it is Downing’s price, that was (and still is) a major gripe for many Liverpool fans, during the pursuit (and now signing). It is too high for somebody who’s seen as only a ‘slightly above- average Premier League player’, in many a fans eyes. In the normal course of things, this may be true. However, we all know that when it comes to English players, the Premier League market is far from normal. That price-point is now (unfortunately) commonplace (especially when certain clubs are looking to buy), and such fees should now just be looked at as ‘incidental’ if a club really wants a particular player. Many fans also felt uninspired by the apparent interest in Downing, and instead yearned for a more exotic, exciting signing like Valencia’s Juan Mata, who Liverpool seemed to be chasing at one point, and is rumoured to be available for a similar price. Mata, a Spanish under-21 star, is indeed a quality player – creative, full of tricks and has outstanding technique. He can unlock many defences with his repertoire of skills from the advanced attacking roles he is given. However, there lies the main reason Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish chose to pursue Downing over the Mata, and the main advantage the Englishman has over the little Spaniard – he is a genuine wide-man; and Dalglish craved a winger. Mata is intricate in his build-up play and can operate anywhere across the frontline; left, right and centrally – in the ‘hole’, similar to say, Liverpool’s former Spanish bag of tricks, Luis Garcia. But Dalglish wanted a specialized winger – someone with pace, who is direct and whips-in crosses for the strikers; and that is Stewart Downing. Besides, with rumours that it is Comolli who wants to sign Mata, many fans wish may still yet be granted.

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It is also worth noting, and has already been pointed out in many a previous article, that Downing (who turns 27 on Friday) was Villa’s Player of the Year last season, scoring 8 goals from midfield and provided numerous assists, which earned him an England recall in the process. If Ashley Young, who left Villa a month before, cost £16 million, then the market would dictate that a player who was currently rated higher, go for more. The price will obviously be a talking point for months to come, as it is with every expensive purchase Liverpool make. The attraction to debate such things is not unwarranted. They are a club where lots of high-priced signings have been made, only to then see the said player not justify their hefty price-tag during their time on Merseyside. In that sense Downing is yet another expensive gamble – but if he delivers, it will be because he finally gave Liverpool wings.

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