Aston Villa won again. After a 1-0 defeat mid-week they were back to their clean sheet winning ways: 2-0 against Sheffield Wednesday. Last 5 matches: won 4, lost 1, conceded 1 goal. That's promotion form. Pity they left it quite late. Next year.
Arsenal couldn't beat Bayern Munich. Actually, they couldn't stop Bayern giving them a good hiding. But it's ok. They gave Lincoln a 5-0 lesson in the FA Cup today. Poor Arsenal though. They can't even get credit for winning 5-0. But what was expected when they were playing a team 88 places below them in the English league structure? A 10-0 win. Lincoln still got more attention for losing than Arsenal did for making it to the semifinals.
I need World Cup qualifying to start again on March 23rd. Aston Villa's season is over, in terms of there being any meaningless conclusion. The minnows are out of the FA Cup. Chelsea are good good for their to be much excitement in the Premier League. Juventus keep winning and will win the Italian league with such a comfortable margin that they might as well hand them next year's title as well. Spain is still fairly exciting with Sevilla doing an Atletico Madrid this season and challenging Real Madrid and Barcelona. But is is the same two again.
World Cup qualifying will throw up some surprises. The competition in Europe is a lot tighter now and Italy v Albania does not mean the one sided match that it used to be. Ireland v Wales is a match between two serious contenders for qualifying. Northern Ireland v Norway is not what it was not long ago. Norway are the underdogs now whereas in the 1990s they were the ones upstaging the traditionally strong teams.
And And Malta against Slovakia? Well, there's always hope right up until kick-off that this time it will be better.
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