Ronaldo will win it, no doubt.

Sorry guys. Damn me.

Bonkers lol. There’s no words!

god i love football.

top off celebration was a dead cert!

Football…bloody hell. That was probably the best set of QF we have had in a long long time. Say what you like about Ronaldo but that penalty was perfect, you could have had buffon in net as well and they still wouldnt have saved it. Lets hope the semi finals are just as good.

Champions League

Liverpool v Roma
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid

Europa

Arsenal v Atletico Madrid

Red Bull Salzburg v Marseille.

Arsenal v Atletico Madrid

hmmm….not what we wanted, but hey we had to meet them sometime I imagine!  Shame we can’t use our new striker …..and we’ve got 180mins potentially against that (see you next Tuesday) Diego Costa! 🙁

Liverpool v Roma  

Liverpool are 2/1 to win the cup and Roma 8/1 which tells you what the bookies think!  Great chance now for Liverpool go all the way and win it!

I think Roma suits Liverpool slightly better than the others. Roma are closer to a Premier League style of play really and with luck, hoofing the ball to Dzeko will be less effective against Liverpool with VVD and Lovren. (He says optimistically).

Big plan is like with the City game really. Go at the hard and fast and try to take a 2-0/3-0 victory away from Anfield into the 2nd leg in Rome. Can they… well…. Yes, no reason why not !

After the QFs, I dunno, anything could happen.

Its anybody’s really, isn’t it?

The polar opposite of the Premiership.

Should be some belting games though. ‘Cagey’ is isn’t really a word you’d associate with any of them

Its anybody’s really, isn’t it?

The polar opposite of the Premiership.

Insightful.. It is the nature of a cup competition that one 😉

Liverpool have a great chance, so do Madrid which might make it closer.

Where did you end up watching the match Mike? Did you pop to the White Lion?

Late home in the end so managed to watch/listen at home. Will be out somewhere for the Newcastle game Sunday then back in before Man U get shocked by a liberated and relegated WBA playing purely for their resale value Sunday afternoon 🙂

Here is a real jumpers for goalposts story sent to me a few minutes ago from my oldest mountain bike buddy Nick McKeown..

As a prefix to this story in the 70’s when Supermac was strutting his stuff for Newcastle ..Nick was probably the hottest schoolboy talent in the entire North East ..every club in the country was watching him and our local evening newspaper The Evening Chronicle did a like for like feature on his goalscoring exploits v the other Supermac ..the pressure got to Nick and in the end he said **** it and turned his back on football completely ..with no regrets.

Fast forward to the present day and it would appear that his talent has transferred itself to his son Corey ..who has had scouts buzzing around him for years ..although Nick has protected him somewhat ..insisting that he plays for ” fun ” ..and with freedom .

This though has given me a tingle down my spine and I’m so pleased for them both …

Hi Neil, amazing day watching Corey play for his boys club team Newcastle east end yesterday. They played against MK dons in London yesterday in the semi final of The national cup. The biggest junior cup in the country which started off with 140 of the strongest u16 teams in the hat. They had already beaten Rochdale academy, Solihull, Rushall Athletic and Coventry city on the way. 2-0 down with 20 mins to go. Pulled it back to 2-2 then Corey scored the winner in the last 5. Unbelievable emotion when he scored. The goal celebrations were crazy. Probably the nearest I will get to knowing how it felt being at the hillborough cup semi in 74. Very very proud dad indeed!!!!!

Well looks like Newcastle have come out fighting, keeping the tempo up so we will see how both teams tire as the game goes on.

Game on!! Easy to see with this and the last few games why Arsenal are where they are, hard to tell how they are in the Europa Semi’s though

Burnley only two points behind them too 🙂

Evenly matched first half ..

Well taken goal by Perez ..Yedlin scares me every time he has to defend ..an upgrade needed for next season .

Shelvey has played some lovely passes..but Gayle looks like he had a late night .

It would be good to see Slimani given a full half ..but it’s probably going to be 20 mins which is Rafa’ s usual default time ..

Wenger obviously isn’t taking it seriously, as he’s picked Iwobi!

and Chambers!

I obviously don’t know how well he has played up to this point in the season but Iwobi has been one of your better players today ..

I just want to press fast forward to full time now.

Slimani ..what a difference !

Sign him up Rafa ..

In Rafa we trust ..but Joselu ?

Good to see Perez looking like he has given everything out there, that’s how I remember him playing.lets see what Jo’s can miss

Arsenal 72% of possession, 2-1 down…

Well done Magpies…..another poor team selection from Wenger, which hopefully will help seal his doom at the end of the season. Every cloud and all that!

I obviously don’t know how well he has played up to this point in the season but Iwobi has been one of your better players today

says it all!

What a game, so easy to take the ball of Arsenal there. Thoroughly deserved for the work rate in there, 41pts, time to sell up Ashley we are safe and need to get some new faces in and the good ones secured.

Cheers Rockape ..its about time !

Well another season in the Prem guaranteed ( if it wasn’t already)

Now ..if Fat Mike would just sell up it will have been a good season!

Cant wait for Arsenal TV tonight …

Well just taken a look ahead, we have a game in hand on Everton – next up, then WBA, Watford, the Spurs will be a tough game and finishing up at Chelsea who are already on holiday. Every place up from here is more ££ for the summer.

Anyway come on WBA have a go today, lets see if Jose will cry 🙂

I’ll tell you what Rockape, Burnley coming to your place in a couple of weeks should be a hell of a game.

And will somebody with money please buy Newcastle off the delightful Mr Ashley before Rafa decides he’s had enough

I hope everyone’s glued to this blistering display of fast-paced and incisive attacking football?

I’m not sure I can cope with another 45 minutes of this type of edge-of-the-seat, nail-biting excitement!

I know it’s not exactly insightful, but jeepers, if someone gave Rafa some dollar, he could do some dangerous stuff with Newcastle. As it stands, if nothing happens, there are plenty of English and European clubs, one of which will swoop in and nick him during the summer.

Arsenal for instance

Why is Jonjo S not in England squad at least??? Based on talent he should be. I appreciate off the field “attitude” might have something to do with it.

Oh dear…Oh dear… 🙂

They might have well have given it up without a fight last weekend.

Poor way for City to win the league – which they deserve

Jose is  inconsistent[ and uninspiring] to put it mildly

Jonjo is good enough for the squad but he is not a starter.  I think he is not there because  he is just not quite good enough and he is not balanced enough [ on and off the pitch]

What, watching United crumble against the bottom in the league? It’s a reasonable consolation prize.

That was an utterly dismal half-arsed performance, that just emphasises how far off City we are

A couple of points from the last few posts ..firstly Rafa ..has come out and said that he would happily stay for 10 years given the right backing / ambition from the owner ..if that isn’t a wake up call for Mr.Ashley then we don’t deserve to keep him ..

Jonjo Shelvey does not have ” off field ” problems and leads a quiet life ..shuns publicity in fact ..find me an off field naughty boy story ..

You are talking absolute shite..

Unfortunately he has had two red mist moments this season which have resulted in the same colour card..one in the very first game of the season but his yellow card total is low.

He is probably the most in form English midfielder at this moment and nobody out there can touch his range of passing ..Southgate is a plank if he doesn’t take him ( but then I’ve always thought that of him anyway )

Congratulations to Manchester City ..a title is won over the course of the season and in that respect they have been outstanding .

Finally ( hopefully ) Pardew should not get anywhere near a managerial position ever again ..his record when scrutinised is surely the worst of any manager in the Premier League .

I feel sorry for WBA…

Hope you’re ok binners, that you didn’t gamble too much of your money, can afford next months Sky Sports subscription to watch your favourite red boys and have enough Stella left to see you through the evening.