Porto vs. Villarreal Europa League Preview

Got another guess blogger and huge Villarreal fan Ravi writing this preview. Welcome him along and it's a good read.


FC Porto – Villarreal CF Europa League semifinals

1st leg – 9.05pm CDT 28/4/2011, Estadio do Dragao, Oporto, Portugal.
2nd leg – 9.05pm CDT 5/5/2011, Estadio El Madrigal, Vila-real, Spain.



Of all the 4 semifinals in Champions league & Europa league this is the most intriguing match-up if not the most glamorous. These two teams practice distinct styles of football and are shoe-ins for next year’s Champions League. Porto is aiming for a treble, already secured the Portuguese League and reached the final of the Cup (Taça de Portugal).

Both teams have thumped their rivals in the quarter-finals. Porto dispatched Spartak Moscow 10-3 on aggregate and Villarreal thumping FC Twente 8-2 on aggregate. Most fans and experts believe that the winner of this tie is the favorite to win it all in Dublin on the 18th of May.
Let us dive into the details.

FC Porto

(disclosure: I have only watched one game of Porto live, Benfica-Porto which was a bit of an anti-climax and ugly. So most of this is based on reading the match reports from various sources across the net)

Porto under Andres Villas-Boas have been sensational. Dominated the Portuguese league right from the beginning and sewed up the title very early. They replicated the same form in Europa league, waltzing through the rounds to reach the semifinal.

Porto will line-up in a 4-3-3 with the trident of Hulk – Falcao – Varela at the top and the Guarin –Fernando – Moutinho in the middle. Falcao is usually the furthest up front and Fernando is the deepest midfielder. (see schematic)

Gaurin and Moutinho drive forward in possession to support the forwards. Hulk usually plays a bit higher up the pitch just off of Falcao on the right side sort of like 2nd striker in a 4-4-2. Varela is more the wide forward poaching at the far post or dragging the central defender off his position. The playing style is a bit on the physical side with Guarín and Hulk among the top 20 in fouls committed department. Defensively Rolando & Otamendi are the regulars, both very steady in front of Helton. Sapunaru (who will take the place of the injure Fucile) and Perreira are fullbacks used most.

Based on some of the stats in the knockout rounds of the Europa League, Porto doesn’t dominate
possession, but they are quick on the counterattack and use the size of Hulk to overpower opposing fullbacks and central defenders. Hulk is the sort of player that makes oppositions alter their usual game plan to counter his unique abilities. Moutinho plays the key role of providing the service for both Falcao and Hulk. He has a good midrange shot and is capable of a few searing runs through the middle and powerful midrange drives that Diego Lopez needs to pay attention to. Fernando is the deep midfielder and he rarely ventures into the attacking third of the pitch. The forwards of Porto take a lot of shots in general, midrange as well as from the edge of the box.

In a nutshell, they are very vertical when they have possession and defend in numbers when not in possession. (If this all sounds like Real Madrid of Mourinho in the recent clasicos, then I am with you )

Villarreal CF

(disclosure: I’m one of the biggest fans of Villarreal )

Villarreal had a tough time last year. Manuel Pellegrini was replaced by Ernesto Valverde and it didn’t work out. At one point Villarreal hit the bottom of the La Liga table. Around January 2010 Juan Carlos Garrido from Villarreal B took over from Valverde. After getting eliminated by Wolfsburg in 2010 Europa league, Villarreal concentrated on getting to the Europa League and finished 7th in Spanish Primera Liga. While they fell short, Mallorca’s expulsion from Europa league due to financial issues helped Villarreal to get into the Europa League.

After winning their group, they faced an impressive Napoli in the round of 32. After eking out a 0-0 in Naples and falling behind 0-1 at El Madrigal, they made a rousing comeback to win the game and the tie 2-1. They breezed past their next two opponents Bayer Leverkusen and FC Twente with four impressive wins.

Villarreal will line-up in their traditional 4-4-2 formation. It morphs into a narrow 4-2-2-2 in possession. Rossi & Nilmar lead the attack usually supported by Cazorla & Cani on the flanks and a double pivot of Borja Valero & Bruno. In the absence of the impressive captain Gonzalo Rodriguez due to a season ending injury, Marchena and Musacchio will pair in the central defence with Mario & Catala as the fullbacks. Villarreal game is centered on triangulation between Borja, Cani, Cazorla & the forwards. Both the flanks cut in naturally more often than not. Nilmar and Rossi switch constantly and Rossi at time drops back to get the ball.

How will the games play out?

Both teams will try to impose their style of play. They might make minor adjustments but I don’t see any major tactical changes.

Villarreal Perspective

Most of the Villarreal attacks originate from Borja and Cazorla acts as the link to Rossi & Nilmar. Both Rossi and Nilmar move a lot without the ball to open up spaces for Borja and Cazorla to push forward and typically do a screen or two to liberate one of the forwards. Wakaso, a recent signing, relies on his pace to cover a lot of area. His main role will be to keep a check on Fucile/Perreira from pushing forward and double up to help Mario to defend Varela or Hulk when he switches to the left.

Bruno is the holding pivot for Villarreal does the ‘dirty work’ defending the likes of Gaurín and Hulk when he drops deeper. 2/3rd of the attacks will come through the middle if not more. Both Nilmar & Rossi have a great first touch and are not easily dispossessed. They have very good understanding among each other and combine very well with Borja & Cazorla.

Defensively stopping Hulk will be the highest priority. This is why the younger and taller Catala gets the nod at left back over the experienced Capdevila. Marchena and Musacchio have their tasks cut and will need to have very good understanding with the fullbacks to do a tag-team job on Hulk. In the middle they will try to starve Porto midfield of the possession by short passing.

One of the reasons why Villarreal have sort of sacrificed Cani is to add some defensive muscle in the midfield. This has worked well very well in the Europa League especially against crowded midfields teams have tried to use to counter the yellow submarine. Based on what I’ve seen of the goals scored byFalcao, there were a lot of occasions where the opposition was defending Hulk with two and sometimes 3 players leaving both Varela & Falcao with a lot of space and time. This partly explains why Falcao is the highest scorer in Europa League with 11 goals. (Hulk has 4 goals).

Porto Perspective

Porto on the other hand will be more direct in its approach where Moutinho would try to feed the ball to Hulk as much as possible. If they see Villarreal doubling up to counter Hulk, they’d try to switch flanks to create mismatches and let their forwards take high percentage shots in 1-on-1 situations. Porto will definitely look at morphing into a 5-man defence which has caused a lot of grief to the yellow submarine and a lot of teams have exploited it. Bitter provincial rivals Valencia did it most. Porto might test Diego Lopez with powerful midrange drives which both Hulk & Moutinho are capable of delivering. Diego has to be careful not to be too far off the line.

One glaring advantage for Porto is the size. Villarreal is undersized in most positions as a result Gaurin-Fernando-Moutinho will be physical to muscle away Borja & Cazorla (probably the smallest player in all of Europa League) possession away. Porto might also try to push the fullbacks forward to force Cazorla and Wakaso into defending and not give them the freedom to cut-inwards where they are most dangerous. I saw a bit of this in Villarreal X Barcelona 2 weeks ago when Dani Alves did this to Cazorla.(Sapunaru/Perreira are definitely not Alves)

Porto will try to take advantage of the size in set-pieces. They will try to force fouls in the vicinity of the 18yard box to have a go at the undersized wall and the same goes with corner kicks.

Predictions

Objectively speaking>>

I think Villarreal will be happy to take home a scored draw. They will be content with a 0-0 or even a 1 goal loss too. Villarreal hasn’t lost yet at Madrigal in the Europa League.
Porto will look to score as many as possible but I don’t see them risk a whole lot. They will try to keep a clean sheet. They will be happy with 1 goal win and very happy with 2-0 or beyond.

Subjectively speaking>>

While Porto has been very impressive in the Portuguese league and in general in the Europa league, they struggled against CSKA Moscow who line-up in guess what? 4-4-2. the key for Villarreal is to keep possession as much as possible in the 1st half. If they can score a goal in Dragao, it will open up the pitch for the yellow submarine to launch a few lethal counterattacks.

I trust Rossi or Nilmar to score a goal in Dragao and finish off the Dragon at El Madrigal.



#AUPASUBMARINO

If you want to argue with me or tell me that I suck the twitter account is - @aupasubmarino

Manolo Preciado defies tragedy as Sporting Gijón move to safety

Manolo Preciado defies tragedy as Sporting Gijón move to safety

Both teams came in here with different goals besides winning the match. Espanyol have been on a poor run of late after having an excellent start to the season, where they were in contention for Europe which now looks more like a fading dream.

Sporting Gijón to continue on their excellent run of form which consisted of 4 wins (one against Real Madrid away) a draw away to Villarreal and a loss in their last 6 matches to pull away from the relegation zone and consolidate their place in La Liga.

Sadly during the week the very popular Sporting coach Manolo Preciado lost his father to car accident, for those who don't know the history. He also lost his wife to cancer, and one of his sons to a car accident. Preciado has managed to come through proper personal tragedy and will do so again.

There was a minute silence at El Molinón before the match which was observed with great respect. Espanyol started the match better than Sporting. They were playing at a reasonable tempo, though not really opening them up in the first half. Sporting lifted their game and managed to score from a free kick, but he was only 5m offsisde this would have been let go if it was Real Madrid or Barcelona player. Juan Pablo had to make a couple of saves, whereas for Sporting Eguren missed a very good chance after they opened up the defence and put the shot wide.

It was scoreless at halftime but far from a tedious match. Espanyol were looking to Osvaldo for the goals, whereas Sporting in their attacks weren't able to make the vital pass at the end to finish off the build up play. Second half started in similar vein with Espanyol attempting to force the play, but Sporting settled down well and were pushing forward with some good passing moves not able to really give Kameni something to think about.

Preciado bought on Nacho Novo up front and this proved the master stroke as he was able to poach the only goal of the match. Espanyol defender Raul Rodriguez mistimed a header which went backwards and Novo pounced with a good shot past Kameni. The whole team ran over to Preciado and celebrated the goal with him, which was a touching moment.



Espanyol pushed forward trying to get a result, but really weren't too threatening and Sporting got a very popular win, which was a perfect result after the Preciado family tragedy.

The Espanyol players went over to Preciado and congratulated him. There were great scenes with the Sporting players embracing Super Mario and the fans were in fine voice. Preciado is the longest serving manager in La Liga and should stay with Sporting as long as he wants. The rapport he has with the fans and players is clear to see, even the canalla Mourinho doesn't mind Manolo.

Espanyol's European ambitions have taken a dent and Sporting have achieved their goal of survival with plenty of matches to spare, the main question is how of their players they can hold onto for next season.

This win meant so much for Preciado and the Sportinguistas after the personal tragedy during the week. As much as football is in the lives of many people on earth, there are times when you see football for what it really is, a game that does bring people together in spite of a small group of idiots trying to ruin it.

Manolo Preciado will bounce back and continue his great work with Sporting.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, The last decade: Success, Scandals and Rebuilding, On and Off the Field

For this entry, I have a guest blogger that is writing about the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs rugby league club who have had some up and downs. This was written just before the departure of Jamal Idris to the Gold Coast for 2012.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, The last decade: Success, Scandals and Rebuilding, On and Off the Field

Written by Andrew Hendrie

The Bulldogs have never been too far away from the headlines, whether for the right or wrong reasons or on the field or off it. This article highlights the last 10 years at the club and the recent attempts to rebuild and instil the culture that once had Canterbury labelled the "Family Club".

The Dogs ended 2000 poorly, with numerous of the clubs all time greats on their last legs including Hetherington, Stuart and Halligan, and it was time to bring in some fresh faces to mount a new challenge on the premiership in 2001. Vagana, Howland, Trindall and one of the clubs best buys the General Luke Patten were brought in to add some much needed spark and speed in the backline. Hazem "El Magic" Masri took over goal kicking responsibilities from the great Halligan and it's fair to say he did alright in the end. South Sydney junior Braith Anasta also came into the halves and played one of his best seasons in the NRL to be crowned Rookie of the Year. These changes worked wonders for the side and this was emphasised with a 2nd place finish in the competition proper. However the Dogs faltered in the finals series, losing a heartbreaker to the Dragons 23-22 and then proceeded to get destroyed by the Sharks 52-10 to bow out of the competition. The year as a whole however, was a step in the right direction and high hopes were held for the club in 2002.

In what is a normality in any sport, the club said goodbye to two legends this year with captain Darren Britt and the exciting Craig Polla-Mounter calling it quits ahead of the 2002 season. Britt was a superb forward back in his day, with a no nonsense attitude both on and off the field and "Polla" will be best remembered for his role in that amazing victory against Parramatta in 1998. Let's go off topic for a little while and Eels fans will hate me for this.



And we're back. Steve Price was appointed captain in 2002 and Mark "Shrek" O' Meley was recruited to add even more strength to an already fearsome forward pack. It was set to be one of the clubs most successful seasons. The Dogs had won 17 consecutive matches and were 3 weeks away from claiming the minor premiership. But then tragedy occurred for the club. In the wake of the now infamous salary cap scandal, the Bulldogs were stripped of all their 37 competition points and relegated to the bottom of the table and as a result, picked up the wooden spoon. The club were fined $500,000 for the breach which was by more than $1 million. CEO David Gallop said at the time ""This is a bitter day for rugby league, indeed the game has had its heart broken in an unexpected and tragic way." The fallout sparked a massive clean out of the club's board with chairman Gary Mcintyre and chief executive Bob Hagan both resigning days after the announcement and interim chief Garry Hughes followed their lead a couple of days later. Club legend Steve Mortimer was brought in and in his first act, he decided to stand down the entire board. It was clear that the club sought a new beginning in the aftermath of this terrible scandal and that the club now had to start from scratch again to rebuild it's good name and legacy it had worked so hard to obtain over their rich and successful history.

Mortimer worked hard during the off season to instil belief and fight back into the clubs players, fans and sponsors and to try and shed the "cheats" tag the club had received in the last year. In a show of commitment to the club, several players decided to take pay cuts in order for the same group of players to stick together and to try and win a premiership that was cruelly taken away from them last year. This act of "mateship" worked and the Dogs fought back with true heart and intensity and finished 3rd in the regular season behind the Panthers and fierce rivals the Roosters. Canterbury lost their opening finals match 48-22 to 2002 grand finalists the Warriors but bounced back strongly the next week against Melbourne, with a convincing 30-0 win. The preliminary final saw the Dogs go down to the Roosters 28-18 but it was an excellent season for the club and one that thankfully saw attention shift to their on field performances rather than the off field dramas.

2004 was a year that started off with the club yet again surrounded in unwanted controversy but ended with celebration and joy. Before a ball had been kicked, the club again were in trouble with the law. In a pre season trip to Coffs Harbour in February, a young woman accused six Bulldogs first grade players of sexually assaulting her. Due to insufficient evidence, no charges were lade against the players in question but these fresh allegations again took its toll on the club with its legacy tarnished once again and the club legend Mortimer resigning as chief executive. All that hard work done the previous year all for nothing. The media began to speculate who the players in question were and the culture the Canterbury club had been transformed into. The once proud "family club" had turned into a club of binge drinking and partying. This was what the media reported anyway, but tell me a NRL club that isn't.

Despite the off field drama, the Dogs had one of their best seasons on the field this year and finished the year as champions, defeating arch rivals the Sydney Roosters in the grand final. It showed the character of the club and the never say die attitude and to beat the Chooks in the final was the icing on the cake for them. The Bulldogs showed excellent fight in the 2nd half, coming from 13-6 down at half time to win 16-13 and keep the latte lovers scoreless in the 2nd half.

Bobcat Ryan made a final second tackle on a runaway Mick Crocker to end the game and deliver the Dogs their first premiership since 1995.Willie Mason put away his off field issues to win the Clive Churchill medal and the only dampener on the game was that captain Steve Price had to miss the final due to a groin injury. Shifty Sherwin was on fire that year and his contract was boosted significantly to keep him at the club. His partnership with El Magic was particularly effective that year with Shifty putting through the kick and Hazem drifting in mid field to score the try.

From 2005 to 2008, the club again saw their fair share of off field scrutiny, with several individual players bringing the club into disrepute yet again. There were mixed results on the field as well. The Dogs were unable to back up their successful campaign from the previous year, finishing 12th in the ladder. This was mainly due to a substantial amount of injuries at the club and perhaps still a bit of partying was happening from last year. 2006 and 2007 saw the typical Bulldogs fight back and they finished 3rd and 6th respectively these seasons. They were one win away from the grand final again in 2006 but got overpowered and outmuscled in the 2nd half of their preliminary final encounter against Broncos, who were no doubt inspired by the impending retirement of Shane Webcke.

After two consecutive finals campaigns, 2008 held high hopes for the Dogs once again to compete for the premiership. This was far from the case. Willie Mason, Braith Anasta and Nate Myles all had left the club to join the Chooks and lets just say most people involved with the club were happy to see 2 out of those 3 players leave. Sherwin, after not playing his best footy after the 2004 grand final left for England as well. Injuries and lack of creativity in the halves meant the Bulldogs suffered their worst season since the dreaded salary cap year of 2002 and before that, 1964. More controversy arising during this season was the sudden departure of superstar forward Sonny Bill Williams.

"Money Bill" left the club mid season without telling a single soul to take up a lucrative deal to play rugby union in France and yes bobcat Ryan and General Patten wanted to teach him a lesson. Things were getting too hard for Money Bill at the Bulldogs so he took the easy way out and joined up with Mundine and Khoder Nasser and fled the country. Danny Weidler did his best to make Money Bill look like the victim but failed horribly it must be said. This, coupled with some horrible performances on the field, made 2008 one of the clubs most disappointing seasons in its long history.

The club board was also in shambles during the 2008 season with many believing that CEO Malcom Noad, who took over form Mortimer in 2004, was leading the club in the wrong direction and not dishing out severe enough punishments for player mishaps. Noad eventually resigned and the club appointed Todd Greenberg as new chief and he remains at the head of the club to this day.

It was clear a major overhaul was needed at the club before the 2009 season. It began with the induction of Greenberg who is an excellent person to have running the club and doesn’t take any nonsense from anyone. He is also a great family man and made great initiatives to instil those values back into the club's culture. Kevin "Bullfrog" Moore was also signed to coach the club this year to replace Steve Folkes. Moore is a Bulldogs man through and through and was an excellent choice to coach the club in this rebuilding era. The club also recruited some very good footballers in Brett "intercept" Kimmorley, Michael "the menace" Ennis, Greg Eastwood, Josh Morris, Ben Hannant and David Stagg. Greenberg signed these players not only because they were great players but because they were also good human beings as well, which was just as important criteria for a signing for Greenberg. Kimmorley, Ennis, Stagg and Hannant all had young families of their own and Josh is very close with his twin brother Brett. Add El Masri, Ryan and Patten in there and you have a fine bunch of footballers and people.

This was the formula for success for Greenberg and it worked a treat during this season. The Dogs played an entertaining style of attacking football not seen since the 2004 victory and came back from wooden spooners the previous year to finish the year in 2nd position and may have been minor premiers if Soward wasn't a diver and the video ref wasn't Stevie Wonder. Also the two competition points deducted for an interchange breach didn't help either. In the first week of the finals the Bulldogs convincingly beat Newcastle 26-12 to earn the week off. In a blockbuster preliminary final against rivals Parramatta, the Dogs went down 22-12. It was one of the games of the year and played in front of a full house of 74,549 people. The Bulldogs were brave but Hayne, Moi Moi and Daniel Mortimer were too good on the night. It also marked the end of the career for Hazem el Masri who will always be remembered for being one of the great club men and one of the best goal kickers of all time. Also a champion off the field, El Magic was a true Bulldogs legend. It should be noted in round 1 of this year Hazem set the record for most points of all time, going past the great Joey Johns.

After a great 2009 season, great expectations were held for the club to continue improving in 2010. However this was not the case. Many of the players looked tired and as a result the Dog's attack suffered and were unable to create the opportunities they did last year. Noddy Kimmorley tried hard as usual but it just wouldn't click for him and the forwards lacked spark and speed. Losing Eastwood to England was a massive blow as he is one of the most skillful forwards out there and very effective in breaking tackles. It wasn't like the Bulldogs were getting blown away like in 2008, it was more that they just didn't have that flair and X factor to carry them to the next level, which naturally happens when players get older. Canterbury ended up finishing 13th in the regular season, it was just one of those years.

Which brings us to the present day, 5 weeks into the competition. The club recruited a number of players again during the off season, including a brand new halves pairing of Kris Keating and Trent Hodkinson. These two grew up playing with and against each other out in Cabramatta so they know each other very well. Big Frank Pritchard has signed from Penrith and is a devastating ball runner when he is in the mood. The Dogs also capitalised on the Melbourne Storm salary cap situation and poached young prop Aiden Tolman who is already looking like a state of origin player. Ben Barba is also looking the goods at fullback this year. Ryan Tandy's situation with the alleged betting scam has brought the club unwanted headlines again and Greenburg and the board acted swiftly, axing Tandy from the club a few weeks ago. On the field, the Dogs started well with 3 wins on the trot but have since lost their last two games to Melbourne and the Dragons, the two form teams of the competition at the moment.

Things are looking good again for the Canterbury rugby league club. Under Greenberg they have reinstalled the family values and culture of the club and they have recruited a talented roster of great footballers and people who will hope to soon bring success and a premiership back to the club.

Special ones Sporting Gijón end the Jose Mourinho streak

Sporting Gijón end Mourinho's unbeaten home streak

Finally got around to making an entry this multi purpose sporting blog, which there will hopefully be some guest writers about differnt subjects of which my knowledge is shit or a lack of caring for them.

This entry is a bit late, but it's for a worthy cause hehe. La Liga has been a two horse race for so long between Barcelona and Real Madrid, there are many reasons for this. There needs to be a better TV rights deal for La Liga as a whole, even with a fairer revenue stream for the other clubs Barca and RM will still be dominant forces within Spain. The football product is excellent, though the organisation should be German run.

Sporting Gijón ended the outstanding streak from Jose Mourinho going 9 years and 150 matches undefeated at home with the teams he has managed Porto, Chelsea, Inter and now RM. It was a surprising result yet a great one with a few ironies which are never a bad thing. Earlier in the season Mourinho made comments about Preciado fielding a second string side against Barca, indicating they were lying down for the champions. Needless to say Preciado was far from amused and the second string team only lost 1-0 to Barca.

When RM went to El Molinon to play, there was a lot of tension and press naturally lapped it up. Preciado calling Mourinho "canalla", there are a few translations for this but scumbag is a personal favourite, then asking Jose to sit with the ultra. Cristiano Ronaldo "aka Portuguese Peacock" scored the late winner in a very hard fought match.

RM had many of their players out due to a combination of injuries and resting for their Champs League quarter final with Tottenham. They haven't been that impressive this season but there weren't any indications that Gijón were going to pull the upset. Sporting had Diego Castro who has clearly been their best player for the season out of this match, hopefully Sporting can hold onto him next season.

Understandably Sporting were nervous initially, but after 15 minutes or so they settled down and defended intelligently. It wasn't just 10-0-0 catenaccio and hope they don't score. Sure RM had many players out but being a big side they have squad depth to cover these losses, they weren't very threatening in attack lacked width and penetration and Sporting were comfortable at half time.

Second half started out more of the same with RM hitting hopeful balls to Adebayor. Di Maria has guaranteed a spot in the 2012 Argentine Olympic diving team with the amount of diving that he was performing, thought he was like "Sammy the Seal" at Seaworld with the theatrics. Sporting were more comfortable on the ball and were able to pass it around when they had the chance and went ahead with a brilliant team goal, which had 8 quick passes and former Atletico Madrid boy Miguel de las Cuevas hitting the target with a good finish as Casillas was off balance after being exposed by his defence.

The last 10 minutes were amusing for Sporting Gijón fans, as Higuain made his return to football after surgery and RM were throwing men forward attacking like there was free paella on offer and after 78 minutes of not doing very much. Sporting cleared the goal line twice and Mourinho had a rueful smile knowing that it wasn't going to be his day. There was quite a bit of "Fergie time" known as keep playing until Man U score, but nothing was going to deny a brave performance from Sporting Gijón getting the win at the Bernabeu. Arguably they should have drawn the first match at home.

Not sure if RM were that bad to be compared to Stoke as the wonderfully objective Marca stated. In this match their attack had as much idea as a 12 yr old boy trying to take off a bra. Especially when in trouble they couldn't use the whole pass it to the Portuguese Peacock and he'll create something or score. Yes, they miss Ronaldo but you'd think they'd have other dimensions to use to cover his absence.

As a Sporting Gijón fan, I didn't think they'd hold onto the 1-1. At the same time they have had an excellent record against the top sides this season. Draw at the Camp Nou and narrow loss to Barca, a draw with Villarreal at El Madrigal. When they were struggling, I said they would stay up and while this is a great result the job isn't done yet. They have been on a good run and need to beat the teams around them to secure their status in La Liga before the last day of the season. There are worse teams than them, though they can only look after their own results and not what goes on in other matches.

There were rumours about the Gijón old boy Luis Enrique coming to coach them. This would be a mistake as Preciado is popular with his players, even opposition fans appreciate his character and with the squad he has it would be very doubtful that Enrique would do better than Preciado. Getafe aka Real Madrid B are struggling at the moment and could in the market for a new trainer.

What it means for Real Madrid is that they now can concentrate on the Champs League and the Copa del Rey. The UK papers coming out and saying he and Valdano have a strained relationship. This is not a case of the horse has bolted, it has bolted been caught and back in the stable.

Preciado before the match and said positive things about Mourinho and it was good to hear that the "Special One"went into the Sporting dressing room and congratulated Preciado and the team for their win. Somewhere behind that funky moustasche Preciado had a warm glow inside and not just from the fine Asturian cider.