European Football

[Joe King]

Barcelona enter the second part of the season ten points ahead of their nearest rivals. What can be said is that Pep Guardiola has created a monster of a side - they have everything.

[JohnDoe]

They have so many fantastic players, but they're just as hard working as they are talented. They're a great team, more than a collection of stars.

I never understood why people called Eto'o a lazy player, the truth can't be farther than that. Awesome player, and Henry still got it.

[Joe King]

Milan 5-1 Udinese

Commanding performance for Milan with Beckham watching in the stands after being presented in between the halves. Two goals each from Pato and Kaka further added by Seedorf. It will be interesting to see where Beckham would fit in the game against Roma after the winter break.

Atalanta 1-3 Juventus

Juve cut the gap back to six points thanks to goals from Del Piero, Legrottaglie and Amauri. Vieri pulled on back after the half but it wasn't enough for Ranieri's men. This can only be a good day for the neutrals watching this title race.

[Joe King]

Mallorca facing a battle with the banks and bulldozers

Sid Lowe Monday 22 December 2008 13.18 GMT [The Guardian]

"It is," says an insider, "one big reality show." A football club where striker Pierre Webó came to Europe sticky-taped to a better player as part of a Buy One Get One Free deal; where winger Fernando Varela prompted the most memorably disturbing match report ever, playmaker Juan Arango concedes he hasn't got the character to be a crack, and hardman Lionel Scaloni admits the squad are "as screwed as we are scared". A football club where the administrators have moved in and the banks and the bulldozers are itching to do likewise. And most importantly of all, a football club, in debt and in danger, where they've picked up four presidents in three days, but just two points in eight weeks.

It's the football club where one shareholder publicly appealed for Freddy Shepherd to take over. And, yes, he does mean that Freddy Shepherd — the Freddy Shepherd who took to a brothel to describe football fans as mugs, women as dogs and his No9 as Mary Poppins — but, no, he is not completely mad. Which says it all: so bad have things got, so unsuitable the club's suitors, that it's Shepherd not Shearer who looks like Mary Poppins right now. Because if you judge a football club by its results, Real Club Deportivo de Mallorca are not very good; if you judge a football club by the company they keep, they are an absolute disaster staggering into rotten relationships, as broken promise after broken promise drives them ever closer to a complete breakdown, teetering on the edge of the financial and football abyss.

How times change. Barely months ago, Real Mallorca signed off for the season by sulking over a sixth successive victory — a final day, 3–2 win over Zaragoza that secured their striker the Pichichi but proved agonisingly insufficient to secure a European place. Last night, they signed off for Christmas by celebrating a 0–0 draw whose TV "highlights" were introduced as "easily the worst game of the weekend".

It was worse than Arjen Robben's slaughtering of Asier del Horno, that's for sure. And Atlético's 3–2 win at Espanyol. And Barcelona's impressive comeback against Villarreal. It was worse than Numancia's three goals in six minutes to beat Valladolid 4–3 and Osasuna's barely credible 5–2 win against Getafe. And, however much Mallorca's website insisted it finished 1–1, it was even worse than the Sporting 1–0 Almería that cost Gonzalo Arconada his job and the Betis 0–1 Athletic that kept Joaquín Caparrós in his, propelling him, in his own words, "from whore to nun in five minutes". Hell, it might have been better going the same way as Murcia v Celta — the game that was postponed after sacked coach Javier Clemente took the squad for a fish supper as a "thank you" and poisoned the lot of them.

Yet still Mallorca coach Gregorio Manzano insisted he was "very satisfied". And the thing is, you couldn't blame him. Mallorca's opponents were second-placed Sevilla, the draw dragged them out of the relegation zone and, after the week Mallorca have had, even the coldest comfort is some comfort right now. On Tuesday, Vicenç Grande informed the club's administrators that he would step down as president (but not owner) and name Mateu Alemany his successor. On Wednesday, Alemany changed his mind and Joan Antoni Ramonell, former mayor of Montuiri, paraded round the island giving interviews as the new presidente. On Thursday, the administrators vetoed him and on Friday they named Joaquín García, a man whose first job is to find a new president by 30 January, preferably Alemany. His mission? To sell the club. Fast. And failing that, to pay off its creditors and prepare for life in the second division after 12 years in the top flight.

On the face of it, it's hard to believe this is the same club that finished seventh last season, losing just once in the final 10 matches and breaking their first division goalscoring record. Only, beneath the surface, the cracks were already growing; Mallorca were a mess — another footballing victim of the crisis in the construction industry. Last week was just the culmination of four badly managed years and six disastrous months in which two figures loom especially large: Grande and a podgy publicity-seeking pipe purveyor called Paul.

Grande's construction company — owners of 91.24% of Mallorca's shares — went into administration as the economic slowdown began. He could no longer afford to keep a club with the league's second worse average attendance afloat. Fifteen players departed and although miraculously Arango and goalkeeper Miguel-Ángel Moya weren't among them key players like Borja Valero, Jonas Gutiérrez and the league's top assist provider, Ariel Ibagaza, were. So too was Spain's top scorer Dani Guiza; two of the top three goalscorers, three of their top four providers. No wonder Mallorca couldn't repeat last season's form — and when Moya got injured in week nine, things went really wrong. Having collected 11 points in their opening nine matches, Germán Lux took the gloves and ran at a mistake a match, conceding 17 in six games and picking up just two points from 21.

Still, at least €22m of transfer fees solved their economic woes, right? Wrong. The institutional crisis rumbled on. With a €12m bank embargo preventing them from committing to transfers without permission, and the debt growing by the day, Mallorca and Grande needed someone to ride to their rescue. Alas, the man that turned up was more Michael Knighton than Michael Knight. Lancashire millionaire Paul Davidson offered €38m and Grande agreed. When due diligence revealed the real value was substantially lower, Davidson dropped his price only to raise it again amid rumours of interest from other investors, including Shepherd. Feeling suitably smug, Grande announced Mallorca were saved. Davidson said he'd keep the president on. He said he wouldn't interfere with football decisions, claiming: "I don't want to receive a dog turd in the post." And, most importantly of all, he said he'd pay €38m.

He didn't. One deadline came and went. Davidson pleaded for more time. A second deadline came and went — and this time he went missing. Having publicly declared Davidson the saviour, Grande had been thrown to the lions. So too had those unfortunate enough to be involved with him, from his prospective chief executive, now out of a job, to those handling the sale, tarnished by a man with a rubbish tache. Most of all, though, it was Mallorca who paid for the appearance of yet another self-satisfied, attention-seeker. Davidson calls himself The Plumber but he makes a pretty rubbish one. After all, called to an emergency, he turned up, had a look about, and departed, leaving poor Mallorca still up to their necks in ****.

Results: Deportivo 4–1 Recreativo, Mallorca 0–0 Sevilla, Numancia 4–3 Valladolid, Osasuna 5–2 Getafe, Racing 1–1 Malaga, Sporting 1–0 Almería, Villarreal 1–2 Barcelona, Real Betis 0–1 Athletic, Madrid 1–0 Valencia, Espanyol 2–3 Atlético.

[Joe King]

Beckham receives lukewarm welcome as Serie A enters its winter break

Paolo Bandini Monday 22 December 2008 14.06 GMT [The Guardian]

As usual David Beckham handled himself impeccably. From the questions about his ambition, to the slightly bizarre kiddies' guard of honour at San Siro and even the banner, hung by Milan's own fans, that read "From top of the world to top models. Poor Milan", Becks simply smiled and took everything in his stride. Which was, of course, not so hard to do after signing a deal that will guarantee him 50% of all revenue (including shirt sales and friendly ticket sales) Milan make from his image, among other perks.

The response so far has been lukewarm. San Siro did not sell out and there were some jeers and whistles as Beckham walked out, though they were mostly drowned out by polite applause. By and large people are happy to have him, but the fans would much rather have been welcoming a new centre-half or at least a younger, more dynamic alternative in midfield. There was also some grumbling over reports that Beckham's lawyers had waited until one day before his official unveiling to respond to a contract proposal the team had sent on November 4, and then demanded a raft of changes.

"David Beckham's arrival in Milan is fascinating," writes Beppe Severgnini in today's Gazzetta dello Sport, opining that the midfielder's impact on the team's performance will ultimately be fairly negligible. "Maybe not for Milan's surviving midfielders, who for three months will need to run for him, too. It's fascinating because it sums up and explains modern football. A sporting spectacle, rather than just a spectacular sport."

But Beckham's unveiling has already been discussed elsewhere in these pages, and there will be time to discuss his potential role at a later point. Of far greater immediate importance to Milan was winning this weekend's game against Udinese, especially given that Inter had already beaten Siena 2–1 on Saturday — leaving the Rossoneri points off the pace going into the match.

They did so with ease, Alexandre Pato and Kaká scoring a brace each in a 5–1 rout. Pato's perfomance stood out. Coming into yesterday's game he had scored just four times in 16 league appearances this season, and there was growing concern over his ability to play the lone striker in Milan's 4-3-2-1. Physically he may not be ideally suited to the role, but it must also be remembered that he is still just 19, and dips in form come with the territory.

It didn't hurt, of course, that Milan were up against a Udinese side in freefall. Their manager, Pasquale Marino, went back to 4-3-3 after his brief experiment with last season's 3-4-3, but Udinese's problems right now have far more to do with confidence than they do with tactics. They have now picked up just one point from their last seven games and, goalscorer Antonio Di Natale aside, look like they no longer know how to respond to any sort of setback. Marino's own job security has been called into question in the past week and he will be grateful that the winter break has finally arrived, giving his team the opportunity to regroup. That said, the transfer window brings its own hazards, with reports in the past week that Fabio Quagliarella's agent had hinted his client was keen on a move to Napoli.

Over at Inter, Jose Mourinho is less enthused about the break, but not because he is expecting any departures. "I don't think it poses a risk to our concentration, but to be entirely happy I need football," sighed Mourinho during the week. "The only thing I miss about England is the fixtures during the Christmas holidays."

Even if he does miss work, Mourinho will at least be satisfied at going into the break with his team's six-point lead intact. With 42 points, Inter are a single point worse off than they were last year under Roberto Mancini and their six-point lead over Juventus falls just short of last year's seven points over Roma. But Mourinho's Inter are "winter champions" (the title bestowed on the team who are top at the season's midway point) nevertheless and have now won eight games in a row.

No other visiting team had won in Siena so far this season, and Mourinho was honest enough to admit his side had been fortunate to do so. Maicon, along with two team-mates, had been in an offside position for Inter's winning goal, but while Mourinho would not apologise for that, insisting that "this is part of the sport", he did acknowledge that Siena had deserved more. "I say we didn't deserve to win because Siena played extremely well," said Mourinho after the game. "They are very organised, keep intense pressure on the ball and made it difficult for us to play."

Siena, understandably, were less ready to let the mistake slide, with the manager, Marco Giampaolo, calling it a "colossal" error, and Siena Cristiano Del Grosso adding: "I don't understand why the stronger sides are always given the advantage by the officials."

In the context it was particularly unfortunate that Juventus should benefit from a similarly poor decision the very next night during their 3–1 win away to Atalanta. Marco Marchionni was clearly offside in the build-up to Juve's opener and manager Claudio Ranieri was again quick to acknowledge as much in the aftermath, though he did add that he felt his team fully merited their win.

Sadly, while Calciopoli has been and gone, faith in referees is still fragile, and the perception that certain teams are treated better than others continues to linger. Sometimes, unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Round 17 talking points

• Napoli midfielder Marek Hamsik reassured fans he had no plans to ask for a transfer after he was robbed at gunpoint near the San Paolo on Thursday. "Don't worry, I am not leaving," said Hamsik, who has been linked with moves to England and Spain, after a series of Facebook groups sprung up apologising to him on behalf of the city. "These things can happen to anyone in all the big cities," insisted team president Aurelio De Laurentiis afterwards. "That is not all this place represents."

• Roma's run of eight consecutive wins in all competitions came to an end on Sunday with a bad-tempered 3–2 defeat away to Catania. Giallorossi coach Paolo Bertelli was involved in a slanging match with Catania manager Walter Zenga on the sideline, while Catania's striker Takayuki Moriomoto came in for some rough treatment after scoring twice and one section of Catania's home support chanted "you're not getting back to Rome" towards the away end. If defeat was a setback for Roma, who sit 11th, then potentially more damaging was the fact that Francesco Totti aggravated a thigh injury and will almost certainly miss the home game against Milan when the league returns in January.

• While Inter are sitting pretty atop Serie A right now, things are far less clear-cut in Serie B. No less than five teams — Livorno, Sassuolo, Parma, Empoli and Brescia — currently share top spot with an underwhelming 32 points each after 19 games. Livorno, who boast the best goal difference of the group, have actually only won seven times all season.

Results: Atalanta 1-3 Juventus, Cagliari 1-1 Reggina, Catania 3-2 Roma, Chievo 0-1 Genoa, Lazio 1-0 Palermo, Lecce 0-0 Bologna, Milan 5-1 Udinese, Sampdoria 0-1 Fiorentina, Siena 1-2 Inter, Torino 1-0 Napoli.

[Joe King]

Hoffenheim hobble to Winter Championship

Raphael Honigstein Monday 15 December 2008 15.01 GMT [The Guardian]

And that was that. One of the most intriguing and aesthetically pleasing first halves of the season went out with a bit of a whimper on Sunday, when Hoffenheim limped to the honorary title of Herbstmeister (autumn champion) against nine-man Schalke in Mannheim. The laboured 1–1 draw against the Bundesliga's defensive experts proved that even the mighty Hoff can have an off-day. But at least there was plenty of drama. S04 had come to contain their hosts with a myriad of holding midfielders and they did very well. In fact they almost won the match thanks to Gerald Asamoah's strike but didn't do themselves any favours by fouling all over the pitch like an incontinent police horse. Orlando Engelaar was rightly sent off and cemented his reputation as football's new Milan Baros: a 7ft moving warning sign against ever — ever — judging a player by a couple of half-decent performances in European championships (Andrei "Platini" Arshavin, anyone? But let's not disgress).

Youri Mulder and Mike Büskens also received their marching orders from the referee Peter Gagelmann, despite the fact they never once touched ball nor opponent. The two assistant coaches were dismissed for dissent on the touchline.

The Schalke midfielder Jermain Jones, who had played in a Rooneyesque funk all afternoon, felt hard done by after getting sent off for a second bookable offence, a patently silly lunge from behind. "I clearly got the ball," he insisted. "I know I can't jump into my opponent's legs when I'm already on a yellow. I'm not stupid." Of course not, JJ, of course not. Not at all stupid man that he is, Jones continued to berate Gagelmann and the 1899 bench on his way to the changing room and may be banned for more than one match as a consequence. "It was a bit emotional and over the top, perhaps I should apologise," he conceded later.

Hoffenheim, though, weren't really at their usual nippy best and needed a Manuel Neuer gaffe in goal to equalise. Selim Teber's rather tame free-kick should not have troubled a keeper who has eyes on Germany's No1 shirt.

All this pacy one-touch vertical football in recent months seemed to have tired the new boys a little bit. Maybe their late defeat away to Bayern had also left some psychological dents. The manager, Ralf Rangnick, who had allowed himself a bout of nostalgia before the game against his former club — "Schalke is still in my heart" — found little solace in the prospect of hibernation at the very top. "I would have preferred two more points", he said dryly.

It's exactly how you'd expect him to greet the most sensational Hinrunde (first half) ever played by a newly promoted team. "Autumn champion in December? It's a pseudo title," Rangnick insisted a few days ago. Technically he is right but benefactor Dietmar Hopp was not alone in noting the symbolic relevance. "I'm happy and proud," said the software billionaire with the cockatoo haircut. "We're level on points but still ahead of Bayern. We're no longer a village club, we're the club of the Rhein-Neckar metropolitan area." And a little more, as well. According to a poll by the respected Forsa institute, 63% of German football fans want them to win the championship next May, compared with 17% who prefer Bayern. TSG Hoffenheim 1899, who were despised for their money and success in the third and second division, and still widely dismissed as a "test tube club" back in August, have become more popular than they can have ever imagined. "We only had this one chance — to win people over with our football," said the general manager, Jan Schindelmeiser, yesterday.

TSG's fantastic home record — seven wins, two draws — coupled with devastating attacking football and the best scouting network in Europe have set the benchmark so far. Hoffenheim might be in middle of nowhere in the literal sense but they're at the same time precisely where the whole of German football needs to be in the future. In their first ever season in the top flight, they haven't merely coped with the step up, they've actually led the way. The message is both incredibly profound and encouraging: "On the football pitch, beauty is not something you're born with, it can be learned". Only Bayern managed to keep up with them, largely thanks to excellent fitness levels and the irrepressible qualities of Franck Ribéry.

The weekend had something of the last day at school about it — half the players were looking forward to a couple of weeks in the sun, the other half just plain knackered. Hertha, the biggest surprise success apart from Hoffenheim, trounced poor Karlsruhe 4–0 without ever working up a sweat. Hamburg (against Frankfurt), Dortmund (against Gladbach) and Bremen (against Wolfsburg) just about scraped wins while Leverkusen couldn't beat Cottbus, the masters of negativity, at home — they conceded a late, late equaliser by Jiyai Shao. The manager, Bruno Labbadia, was upset with a leaden, nervy performance that brought back uncomfortable memories of the Neverkusen years. "It feels like a defeat," he said after the 1–1 draw. "We were only hoofing it in the final minutes, that's not our game. I don't understand how we could lose our way so badly. Maybe it is immaturity". The draw saw them slump to fifth place and ensured that their Christmas will be spent worrying about the future. "Doubts about their progress and fear of losing will accompany them in the break," wrote Süddeutsche.

Bayern, however, don't do doubts. Another Michael Rensing howler in the final minute gifted the newly resilient Stuttgart a 2–2 draw on Saturday when an away win for the champions had looked a formality, but the visitors were quick to blame others for their inconvenience. Uli Hoeness was unhappy with the league schedule ("a joke") and couldn't understand why Bayern were not afforded another day of rest after their 3–2 win in Lyon. "I don't think Hoffenheim and Schalke were busy in midweek," he grumbled. Jürgen Klinsmann, meanwhile, was busy pleading the case of right-back Massimo Oddo who was rightly sent off for a badly executed kung fu kick five minutes before the end. "He never saw the opponent coming," claimed Klinsmann, unconvincingly. The furore about the "can't cross, can't tackle, can't pass" Italian on loan from Milan was obviously designed to deflect from Bayern's pedestrian showing in the absence of the Pink Panther. Halfway through the season, Klinsmann's "revolutionary" football is still as dependent on Ribéry as Hitzfeld's cautious, administrative system had been before.

The Swabian will have to show that he can really give credence to his reformist agenda. Otherwise, his detractors will feel even more emboldened. "Winning the title with Bayern is not an achievement," wrote Peter Ahrens in Spiegel Online. "The achievement is not winning the title with Bayern. I still have the confidence that Klinsmann might do just that."



We'll see, in 2009. Have a good one.



Results: Dortmund 2–1 Gladbach; Bremen 2–1 Wolfsburg; Hamburg 1–0 Frankfurt; Stuttgart 2–2 Bayern; Leverkusen 1–1 Cottbus; Hannover 1–1 Bielefeld; Hertha BSC 4-0 Karlsruhe; Bochum 1–2 Köln; Hoffenheim 1–1 Schalke.

[Joe King]

Hoffenheim are proving success is not always down to money

Gabriele Marcotti From [The Times]
December 8, 2008

By now, you’re probably familiar with Hoffenheim, the German upstarts from the tiny village of 3,732 souls, who, in their first season in the Bundesliga, sit atop the table. If you took a quick look at the results over the weekend, you would see that they were defeated, 2-1, by mighty Bayern Munich, who have now drawn level at the top of the German league.

Normal service has resumed, then?

Not quite. Because, even now that everyone has written the Hoffenheim feel-good story (replete with the customary caveats: this is not a pub team, Dietmar Hopp, the billionaire founder of SAP, the software giant, has invested heavily, etc.) there was nothing normal about Hoffenheim’s display on Friday night.

For a start, they deserved at least a draw, having outplayed Bayern for most of the game. “They were easily the toughest opponents we’ve played all year at the Allianz Arena,” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern chairman, said. “Nobody else has come into our house and pushed us around like that.”

The “pushing around” bit is an apt analogy, because it speaks to the way Hoffenheim play. Their 4-3-3 is not a cloaked 4-5-1; their wingers – Demba Ba and Chinedu Ogbuke (who made the journey with John Obi Mikel from Nigeria to Norway, was his flatmate for two years and nearly joined him at Chelsea) – stay up the pitch and furiously press and harass the opposition. Their midfield trio move like clockwork and the back four push right up, applying the off-side trap with maniacal precision.

“My football ideal is Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan,” Ralf Rangnick, their manager, said. “Be aggressive in the press, never pass the ball backwards, be quick and direct in possession, move in unison.” Indeed, Sacchi gave football its last real tactical innovation some 20 years ago.

Back then, Rangnick was working in German amateur football. He would tape every Milan game, edit and catalogue every sequence and build a database of how the side moved on the pitch. And this was years before ProZone. To do this, you have to be something of a football-obsessed workaholic, which Rangnick undoubtedly is. He never made it beyond the amateur game (in fact his playing career includes a stint at Southwick, in the Sussex County League) giving him plenty of time to study the game instead.

Of course, many have tried to emulate what Sacchi achieved in his first four years at the San Siro, without succeeding. And that’s why Rangnick has provided his own tweaks, starting with the formation (a 4-3-3, rather than Sacchi’s 4-4-2). But, like all great tactical systems, the result is that the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts.

Nobody embodies this more than Hoffenheim’s centre forward, Vedad Ibisevic. He has notched an outrageous 18 goals in 16 Bundesliga match-es and his story is as improbable as they come. A Bosnian refugee, his family escaped to Switzerland when he was fifteen. Ten months later, they gained a visa to the United States. After unsuccessful stints at Paris Saint-Germain, Dijon and Alemannia Aachen, he surfaced at Hoffenheim last season, where he was used mostly as a third striker.

Now he is flourishing. Tall (6ft 3in), strong and mobile, he is the offensive terminus for everything the side do and, beyond his scoring record, his runs and movement have become an integral part of Rangnick’s master scheme. With a contract expiring in 2010, he is sure to be on many clubs’ shopping lists next year, though the question of whether he can succeed away from Rangnick (or, indeed, if this season was just a freak occurrence) will remain for the time being.

From Hoffenheim’s perspective, the question also lingers, but, in some ways, it doesn’t really matter. They have already far exceeded their objectives. They’ve sold out every match between now and the end of the season (including the ones at the new 30,000-capacity ground they will move into in the new year) and they play a remarkable brand of football that is turning heads all around Europe. And, while Hopp’s millions played a part, his impact in the transfer market was negligible: just two of the club’s summer signings, Gustavo and Andreas Beck, are regulars.

Crucially, they have provided an alternative blueprint for success. One based on infrastructure, coaching and tactics. That alone makes them special, whatever may happen.

And another thing . . .

NHL's misplaced morality

It takes a heck of a lot for a footballer’s activities off the pitch to draw punishment or even censure from the league. Short of doing something criminal, the odds are that footballers generally won’t get punished for what they do or say in their private lives. Not so in other sports.

Take the case of Sean Avery, who plays ice hockey for the Dallas Stars. He is the former boyfriend of Elisha Cuthbert (you may remember her as Jack Bauer’s daughter in24, the hit television series). When Cuthbert began dating another National Hockey League player, Avery commented: “It’s become a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds.”

The NHL immediately stepped in for what it described as his “crude” comments and suspended him for six games. Yes, that’s right. Six games (which is what he might have received if he had split somebody’s skull open with his hockey stick). Maybe it’s just me, but I’m glad football doesn’t have a “morality” police like the NHL.

For sale: nice Spanish Villa

It is often said that top transfers don’t take place in the January window. This year may well be different, thanks to David Villa. Valencia are in serious financial trouble but since the player has recently signed a deal to 2014, they can get full transfer value for him. Manchester City (obviously) have already been linked to him. But it’s rare for a player who is fit and productive (30 goals in his past 40 La Liga starts ) to become available at this time of the year. Let the auction begin.

[Joe King]

Ligue 1

Teams P GD Pts
1 Lyon 19 11 38
2 Bordeaux 19 12 35
3 Rennes 19 11 34
4 Paris SG 19 7 33
5 Marseille 19 9 32
6 Lille 19 9 32
7 Toulouse 19 4 31
8 Nice 19 4 30
9 Lorient 19 2 26
10 Nancy 19 1 25
11 Grenoble 19 -4 25
12 Le Mans 19 -3 24
13 Caen 19 2 23
14 AS Monaco 19 -1 23
15 Auxerre 19 -5 20
16 Nantes 19 -10 20
17 St Etienne 19 -13 19
18 Valenciennes 19 -9 15
19 Sochaux 19 -7 14
20 Le Havre 19 -20 12

[Joe King]

Bundesliga

Teams P GD Pts
1 TSG Hoffenheim 17 19 35
2 Bayern Munich 17 15 35
3 Hertha Berlin 17 7 33
4 Hamburg 17 2 33
5 B Leverkusen 17 15 32
6 B Dortmund 17 8 29
7 Schalke 17 8 27
8 W Bremen 17 11 26
9 Wolfsburg 17 10 26
10 Stuttgart 17 3 25
11 Cologne 17 -6 22
12 Eintr Frankfurt 17 -6 19
13 Hannover 96 17 -12 17
14 Arminia B 17 -12 14
15 Karlsruhe 17 -17 13
16 Cottbus 17 -17 13
17 Bochum 17 -11 11
18 B M'gladbach 17 -17 11

[Joe King]

Serie A

Teams P GD Pts
1 Inter Milan 17 20 42
2 Juventus 17 17 36
3 AC Milan 17 10 33
4 Fiorentina 17 11 32
5 Napoli 17 9 30
6 Genoa 17 7 29
7 Lazio 17 4 27
8 Catania 17 -2 25
9 Atalanta 17 2 24
10 Roma 16 -2 23
11 Palermo 17 0 23
12 Udinese 17 -1 22
13 Cagliari 17 -2 21
14 Sampdoria 16 -3 19
15 Siena 17 -5 19
16 Bologna 17 -8 15
17 Torino 17 -11 15
18 Lecce 17 -10 14
19 Reggina 17 -18 13
20 Chievo 17 -18 9

[Joe King]

La Liga

Teams P GD Pts
1 Barcelona 16 38 41
2 Sevilla 16 9 31
3 Atl Madrid 16 15 30
4 Valencia 16 10 30
5 Real Madrid 16 8 29
6 Villarreal 16 6 29
7 Deportivo 16 2 27
8 Valladolid 16 1 23
9 Malaga 16 -2 22
10 Getafe 16 -2 21
11 Sporting Gijon 16 -11 21
12 Athl Bilbao 16 -4 19
13 Real Betis 16 -1 18
14 R Santander 16 -4 18
15 Numancia 16 -12 17
16 Almeria 16 -9 16
17 Mallorca 16 -12 14
18 Espanyol 16 -11 13
19 Recreativo Huelva 16 -15 13
20 Osasuna 16 -6 12

[dww]

Where is the Eredivisie report/table?

How mad is that Spanish report? - you have to love the fish poisoning story.

[Mattshark]

Did anyone see the Monaco - Bordeaux game? Monaco went 3-0 up after 50 minutes. At 88 minutes it was 3-2 at 90 it was 4-3 to Bordeaux.

[Joe King]

Did anyone see the Monaco - Bordeaux game? Monaco went 3-0 up after 50 minutes. At 88 minutes it was 3-2 at 90 it was 4-3 to Bordeaux.

Amazing wasn't it? Monaco have been absolutely poor for a few years now. I like the looks of Bordeaux - they have some real flair in that side.

[Joe King]

Eredivisie
Teams P GD Pts
1 AZ Alkmaar 16 25 38
2 Ajax 16 21 35
3 Twente 16 17 33
4 PSV Eindhoven 16 13 29
5 NAC Breda 16 3 29
6 Groningen 16 13 26
7 NEC Nijmegen 16 8 26
8 Heerenveen 16 -2 26
9 Utrecht 16 0 22
10 Willem II Tilb 16 -3 21
11 Heracles 16 -9 19
12 S Rotterdam 16 -10 18
13 Feyenoord 16 2 16
14 Den Haag 16 -4 15
15 Roda JC Kerk 16 -11 14
16 Vitesse Arnhem 16 -17 12
17 De Graafschap 16 -22 12
18 Volendam 16 -24 11