Football (Soccer) Thread

[Admiral Yi]

Surely that Burnley goal was off side.

Bleh.

[FunkMonk]

Arsenal 5th in the table. Far cry from match week 3. 

Of course I was 'Arteta Out' back then. I am very happy to have been proven a dumbass. 

[The Larch]

Gerrard has been appointed as the new Aston Villa manager. Let's see how he does in the Premier.

[Agelastus]

Gerrard has been appointed as the new Aston Villa manager. Let's see how he does in the Premier.

Not a move I expected before the latest wave of rumours yesterday; I think he has made a serious mistake with his career. Better to stay in Scotland and try to rack up a couple more titles with Rangers to pad out his CV. There'll always be Premiership opportunities coming up - the average over the last 10 years is 44% of the clubs in the Premiership changing managers at least once during the season/year (roughly 9 of the 20 clubs.)

Even in the best years for managerial survival at least 8 of the clubs have changed their manager at least once.

Newcastle may be able to spend their way out of trouble in the Christmas transfer window; if they do so Aston Villa would be one of the favourites to replace them as relegation fodder.

Still, what do I know...I'm not a footballer or manager or even an avid fan so I could very well be wrong and this is simply the next step in what will be remembered as his illustrious career.

[Josquius]

Agreed. Swapping rangers for a relegation fight at this point of the season, for a generic Premier league team and not his dream job, is a weird move.
I can only guess/hope for his sake there were big promises for January and next summer.

[Josephus]

Not the first time Gerrard made a strange move.

[Duque de Bragança]

Last international qualifiers before the Qatari farce tonight!

Pepe fans in the British Isles:Hiberno-British Archipelago, will be happy to know he is to play tonight in Dublin for the Selecção vs the football squad of Éire.

[celedhring]

Not the first time Gerrard made a strange move.

He always dived into awkward positions.

[Duque de Bragança]

There are three games shown at the same time, so no way to get a feeling about the game.

For Josephus:

Malta 0 Croatia 1 with one goal for both Croatia and Malta (!) offside rejected by video refereeing.

[Josephus]

There are three games shown at the same time, so no way to get a feeling about the game.

For Josephus:

Malta 0 Croatia 1 with one goal for both Croatia and Malta (!) offside rejected by video refereeing.

It got a lot worse after that 

[Duque de Bragança]

There are three games shown at the same time, so no way to get a feeling about the game.

For Josephus:

Malta 0 Croatia 1 with one goal for both Croatia and Malta (!) offside rejected by video refereeing.

It got a lot worse after that 

Yeah, the coverage decreased dramatically after the later Croatian goals. I understand why they showed parts of Spain-Greece, still not decided (1-0 for Spain) but Croatia vs Malta puzzles me.

[Duque de Bragança]

Still 0-0 for Ireland-Portugal with a bit more than 20 minutes to play. Not a great display by Portugal though the last 2 subs improved a bit (Moutinho and Leão) but Irish fighting spirit is more than alive.

Danilo as central back is sad to watch, just got booked. Fernandes does nothing, as usual, in important Selecção games.

[Duque de Bragança]

Pepe just got booked. For a handball, sorry. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Red for Pepe. He could have just shot the ball for a throw-in but that's un-Pepe. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Worst game of the Selecção in a while and not just because Ireland was more than up for the challenge.
No Pepe for the decisive game vs Serbia in Lisbon which may be a bad thing, or not would say his haters. 

Spain 1 Greece 0

Spain more or less dominated the game and is first of the group thanks to an unexpected defeat of Sweden vs Georgia (!). Threviel jinxed them I guess.