Rob Smyth's Blog, page 10
May 3, 2025
Championship final day: Leeds win title as Luton are relegated again – as it happened
Portsmouth (4-2-3-1) Killip; Devlin, Shaughnessy, Atkinson, Ogilvie; Potts, Lang; Blair, Pack, Murphy; Bishop.
Subs: Schmid, Poole, Bramall, Dozzell, Hayden, Gordon, Ritchie, Saydee, O’Mahony.
Hull (4-2-3-1) Pandur; Lewie Coyle, Egan, Hughes, McLoughlin; Crooks, Puerta; Kamara, Gelhardt, Joseph; Joao Pedro.
Subs: Lo-Tutala, Jones, Lincoln, Burns, Alzate, Drameh, Amrabat, Palmer, Burstow.
Football League heads for dramatic finale, Reading sale agreed and more – matchday live, as it happened
Our writers provided all the latest football news as we counted down to Saturday’s football action
The best dead rubbers in the world
The 2000-01 season is another contender for this dubious award. The biggest thing at stake on the last day of the season was whether Liverpool would qualify for the Champions League ahead of Leeds (they did).
Continue reading...Football League heads for dramatic finale, Bayern chase title and more – matchday live
The best dead rubbers in the world
The 2000-01 season is another contender for this dubious award. The biggest thing at stake on the last day of the season was whether Liverpool would qualify for the Champions League ahead of Leeds (they did).
Continue reading...April 29, 2025
Arsenal 0-1 Paris Saint-Germain: Champions League semi-final, first leg – as it happened
Ousmane Dembele’s early goal gave PSG a deserved victory at the Emirates and left Arsenal with a mountain to climb
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match thoughts
We’re excited: it’s a big game, a big night for us and a massive opportunity to take the next step.
[On the atmosphere] We have to generate one of the most amazing nights at this stadium [Theo Walcott, on Amazon Prime, whips out his boots in accordance with Arteta’s pre-match instructions]. Get ready, get ready just in case!
I tell them [the supporters], and I’m not exaggerating here: ‘Guys, bring your boots, bring your shorts, bring your T-shirts and let’s play every ball together. We want to do something special. The place has to be something special, something that we haven’t seen. I really hope that everybody that comes to the Emirates and is watching and following us, brings that energy with them.
Continue reading...April 27, 2025
Liverpool win Premier League title after 5-1 rout of Tottenham – as it happened
All the reaction on a famous day at Anfield, where Liverpool became champions of England for the 20th time
“Incredible! Incredible to win the Premier League with the fans is so special,” Mo Salah tells Sky. Asked whether this is different to five years ago, the Egyptian ace says: “Ah, this is so much better, 100%, because of the fans … To show you can do it again is something special.”
Quizzed about Slot’s style, Salah replies: “He very honest. He’s quite tough, but he makes our life easier – because he tells you what you want to do.” He cheekily adds: “Now I don’t have to defend much!”
Continue reading...April 25, 2025
Football Daily | So much football! This weekend, two screens might not be enough
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Some phrases are commonised so quickly that it’s easy to forget how new they are. The concept of the second-screen experience wasn’t regularly discussed on these pages until 2012; a decade later it is much a part of our lives as privately WISHING TO HELL YOU’D PUT THAT BLOODY TABLET DOWN AND LISTEN TO THE DIALOGUE PROPERLY – IT’S CASSAVETES! But never mind the second-screen experience. We’re now moving towards the age of the second first-screen experience, in which a dopamine fiend watches two football matches/episodes of Dawson’s Creek simultaneously. We know this because, for the last few years, Football Daily has been that dopamine fiend. This weekend, two screens might not be enough.
It took me a while to get used to it and unfortunately I couldn’t continue. It was really a matter of the altitude. It’s surreal here” – Palmeiras forward Estêvão – who will join Chelsea for £29m later this year – had an 18th birthday to remember, netting his side’s second in a 3-2 Copa Libertadores win over Bolivar before dropping to the turf, throwing up and leaving the field on a stretcher as the high altitude of La Paz took its toll. Reminds us of Football Daily’s 18th … minus the goal, of course.
Are we to assume that the reason Manchester United Women in the new World Sevens tournament (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is because that’s the size of their squad now thanks to The (Big Sir) Jim Reaper?” – Derek McGee.
Following the preview of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final (yesterday’s Football Daily), can I be the first of 1,057 pedants to point out that Wembley Way does not exist. The pedestrianised street leading from Wembley Park station to Wembley Stadium is (and has always been) called Olympic Way. Blackburn fans born before the 1995 Charity Shield (for example) could be forgiven the mistake, but everyone else (especially otherwise well-informed tea-timely football emails) should know better” – Chris Carter (and no others).
Nice shout for the Human League, a terrific league (Wednesday’s Football Daily). According to the band’s Wikipedia page, the name came from a science-fiction board game. So, if a great league can get its name from a related activity, this suggests that an excellent name for a football league would be the Football League. Yes, that has a familiar and comforting ring to it” – Mike Wilner.
Continue reading...April 23, 2025
Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace: Premier League – as it happened
Jean-Phillipe Mateta came off to score a stunning goal as Crystal Palace twice came from behind at the Emirates
An email from Ian Copestake, one of our resident Liverpool fans
You ain’t seen me. Right?
Continue reading...April 19, 2025
Everton 0-2 Manchester City, Brentford 4-2 Brighton, Barcelona 4-3 Celta Vigo – as it happened
Nico O’Reilly was Man City’s hero, Brentford won the data derby and Barcelona scored a 98th-minute penalty to beat Celta
West Ham (4-2-3-1) Areola; Coufal, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson Palmieri; Soler, Ward-Prowse; Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Kudus; Fullkrug.
Subs: Fabianski, Cresswell, Mavropanos, Luis Guilherme, Rodriguez,
Soucek, Ferguson, Irving, Scarles.
Southampton (3-5-2) Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens; Walker-Peters, Downes, Fernandes, Ugochukwu, Manning; Onuachu, Sulemana.
Subs: McCarthy, Aribo, Smallbone, Stewart, Bree, Wood-Gordon, Archer, Dibling, Welington.
April 16, 2025
Real Madrid 1-2 Arsenal (agg: 1-5): Champions League quarter-final, second leg – as it happened
Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli scored as Arsenal laughed in the face of the remontada
“Is there really any point watching this game?” asks Matt Dony. “I mean, is there really any point even playing it in the first place? It’s Madrid in Europe. We all know what’s going to happen. They’ll have a blindingly good 10-minute spell towards the end of the first half, where they score two goals. There’ll be a scruffy third goal around the 70th minute, then they’ll willpower a winner sometime after the 87th minute. And there is nothing Arsenal can do about it.”
The emergence of the Arsenal players for their warm-up is the cue for the home fans to pay tribute to Joe Root. The noise is quite something, especially as we’re still half an hour away from kick off.
Continue reading...April 15, 2025
Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Barcelona (agg: 3-5): Champions League quarter-final, second leg – as it happened
Serhou Guirassy’s hat-trick gave Barcelona a scare but they held on to reach their first Champions League semi-final since 2019
The players gather round the centre circle to pay tribute to Dortmund legend Wilhelm Burgsmuller, who died last week aged 93.
A reminder of the teams
Continue reading...Rob Smyth's Blog
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