(Abbreviated) Weekend In Review: 2/16

Portsmouth 2-0 Manchester City

I guess Tony Adams was the problem. Or maybe it was simply getting a chance to host Man City, who suck donkey balls away from Manchester this season, that turned things around for Pompey.


Elsewhere:

In the FA Cup 5th round matches, not much was decided on Saturday, as Chelsea was the only outright winner from the five matches on the day, thanks to Nicolas Anelka's hat trick against Watford (42nd overall in England). Fulham will host their replay with Swansea City (29th overall in England), Hull City will host Sheffield United (26th) in their replay, and Middlesbrough will be home for their replay with West Ham. Blackburn will go on the road in their replay to Ricoh Arena, home of Coventry City (34th).

On Sunday, Everton crushed my other favorite team, Aston Villa, 3-1, and Derby County got another serving of Man U beatdown. Come on, Sir Alex, didn't they suffer enough last year??

The quarterfinal draw also took place, despite that five of the eight matches will be replayed. Man U will travel to the winner of the Swansea/Fulham replay, Chelsea goes to the winner of the Blackburn/Coventry replay, and Everton will host the winner of the West Ham/Boro replay. The last quarterfinal will feature Arsenal/Cardiff/Burnley hosting either Sheffield United or Hull City.

In Spain, Real Betis showed that Barcelona bleeds, and if they bleed, someone might be able to kill them. If I had any Photoshop skills, this is where I would post a picture of The Predator's head on Leo Messi's body to complete the analogy. Real Madrid won on Sunday to close the gap at the top of the Spanish league to 10 points.

In Italy, Inter Milan's Adriano opened the scoring a Hand Of God goal (see below) and went on to win, 2-1.



In Scotland, Rangers and Celtic played to a wildly boring scoreless draw, which leaves Celtic two points clear with 13 matches to go. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (pictured at the top) was among those booked. I only mention this because he has the BEST. NAME. EVER!

Goal Of The Week:


Midweek:



Following the FA Cup 5th round action over the weekend, Arsenal hosts Cardiff City today in their 4th round replay. Manchester United plays Fulham on Wednesday, and they'll probably be going five points clear at the top.

And the highlight of this week is the return of UEFA Cup! ZOMG!! I would like to take a moment to paraphrase The Big Bear, a Tottenham Hotspur fan:

"Whatever, Champions League is for pussies, UEFA Cup is where it's really at!"

Indeed it is, Big Bear.

One other story I will share is that I work with a man who is originally from the Ukraine. As such, he is a Dynamo Kyiv fan, and he has shared in the past that Spurs' opponent this week, Shaktar Donetsk, is Kyiv's archrival. For one week, he is a Spurs fan, too. Other notable matches include Dynamo Kyiv against Valencia, holders Zenit St. Petersburg hosting Stuttgart, Aston Villa hosting CSKA Moscow, Werder Bremen hosting AC Milan, Fiorentina against Ajax, and Copenhagen vs. Manchester City.

The Weekend In Review posts Mondays at 8:15.