Yesterday, I watched my Les Bleus battle it all in Vicente Calderon against the world champions with the right to earn an automatic slot in the next World Cup in Brazil that comes up in two years time. The first half was an all-Spanish affair, as the hosts perplexed their illustrious French counterparts with their trademark tiki taka football, that ultimately resulted in the opening goal from Rafael Nadal…Sergio Ramos.
The Spaniards almost doubled their lead when Laurent Koscielny scythed down Pedro Rodriguez with a blatant challenge in the box, leaving the ref no choice but to point to the spot. Ex-Gunner, Cesc Fabregas, was tasked with extending the lead from 12 yards but his spot kick was saved by the toothless Hugo Lloris.
Don’t look at me, @Dondeonbeke had stated a while ago that Lloris looks like a player that has no teeth, when you view his pictures. You see,
I don’t know what Didier Deschamps told his French goons at half time but it clearly worked a treat as the Frenchies came out of the blocks all guns blazing with their most experienced duo, Karim Benzema and Franck Ribery instigating many attacks. Benzema had worked his skins off for his team so Deschamps opted for Olivier Giroud with minutes to spare.
Late on, the Spaniards tried to starve the French off the ball but a late counter attack launched by Moussa Sissoko saw the engine room cover a lot of ground before feeding Ribery. The dwarf with the scar dinked an inch-perfect cross that was headed home by Giroud with basically the last touch of the game….and as expected, Gooners went haywire on Twitter.
A draw was the best result for both sides as it was an even contest from start to finish. However, the same can’t be said about the Germany – Sweden clash, where the Swedes were dead and buried with 30 minutes to go, but a late surge saw the Scandinavians do a Newcastle over Germany, that was Arsenal in this case, if you know what I mean.
The Germans went ahead with a brace from their faithful stalwart, Miroslav Klose, and it was followed by a goal from Per Mertesacker, that had not scored for the Germans since 2005. Mesut M-Ozil-la firefox made it four and it seemed as if a rout was on the cards.
Swedish captain, Zlatan Ibracadabra, scored what seemed like a consolation but Lustig made it two shortly after Ibra had scored. When Johan Elmander scored the third goal, the German faithful became uneasy, but their misery was compounded when Rasmus Elm fired in the sucker punch.
Four goals up, and everything seemed like it was all rosy but it’s just awkward to know that there was no Sebastien Squillaci that came into the pitch when the Germans had that handsome lead. Mertesacker is quite baffled by the debacle but hey, that’s football, the beautiful game.
Moving on to the business of the day, I’ll start with some transfer speculation making waves here and there.
A few days ago, Andre Santos openly declared his intentions to move back to Turkey if Fenerbahce came calling because he holds the outfit in high regard, as well as loving the city of Istanbul. Sky Sports have reported that Fenerbahce’s rivals, Galatasaray, have placed their radar on the Brazilian fullback, and a January bid is on the cards.
Santos has clearly lost his place to Kieran Gibbs this season, and for some strange reason, the English fullback’s fitness problems are now behind him, but we can’t rely on Gibbs to play every game week-in week-out, so I’d like the club to hold onto Andre Santos, unless Arsene Wenger has plans to purchase another leftback from Planet Krypton.
Andre Santos contributed to the team’s cause last season and his goals against Chelsea and West Brom stand out as key milestones because they were both equalizers in games Arsenal clearly struggled. The media Vultures are good at speculating everything so I’ll take this bit with a pinch of salt.
Johan Djourou is another player that has been on the news recently, as it’s believed that he intends to hold a meeting with the Arsenal hierarchy to resolve his future. Latest rumors coming up, courtesy of Soccer Without Limits, has revealed that AS Roma are ready to make a bid for the Swiss brick wall this winter.
Well, Djourou has clearly been out of favor for a long while and if I’m in his shoes, I’ll jump at the chance to play some regular football in a league like the Serie A, where you can actually thrive as a defender even if you have the pace no different from a tortoise or a snail.
I can’t really depict what Djourou’s strengths as a footballer are (harsh, I know!) but I won’t shed a friggin tear if he departs to AS Roma, or any other club in Europe. We have three world class center backs at our disposal and there’s a certain Ignasi Miquel that is coming up the ranks as well.
Someone should come and take away Squillaci from us please!!! 🙁
On potential arrivals, the Daily Star reports that Arsenal is battling hard with Spurs to sign Brazil’s sensation, Leandro Damaio while Inside Spanish Football has unveiled that Arsenal has made an enquiry for Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente.
Right about now, I don’t believe that Arsenal has attacking problems, or do you?
We have Olivier Giroud that’s finding his feet in England, who recently stated that the Premier League is the best in the world, the clinical Lukas Podolski that knows where the goal is when he gets his chance, the much-improved Gervinho that currently leads our goalscoring charts and Theo “Sign da Ting” Walcott that’s pushing hard for a center forward berth.
Thanks but no thanks.
Well that’s today’s bit, I’m kinda late for work.
Sayonara.
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