Thursday, August 20, 2009

Europa League - A Big Night For Figueroa & Many More

Quite of number of big performance from the Albiceleste in the Europa League (formerly known as the UEFA Cup) qualifying round.

Benfica have put one foot in the Group stage with a convincing performance against Vorskla Poltova of Ukraine. Angel DI MARIA open the score when he sent his shot over goalkeeper DOLGANSKYI. Also in the score sheet is Javier SAVIOLA and he was superb all night. After having being denied a few times he finally manage to put the ball in the net in the in the 57th minute.

Genoa on other hand also put up brilliant performance in the first leg encounter against Danish side Odense. The Grifoni earner a precious 3-1 victory despite playing in the absence of Hernan CRESPO. The combination of Luciano FIGUEROA and Rodrigo PALACIO prove to be much for the Danes. FIGUEROA first was a brilliant header and the second was a strike after a couple of saves from goalkeeper Roy CARROLL.
Another Italian side, Lazio also opted to start with an All-Albiceleste partnership up front in their encounter with Elfsborg of Sweden. Summer signing Julio CRUZ played alongside Mauro ZARATE. CRUZ had a goal ruled out because of offside but ZARATE added Lazio’s second with 20 meter shot in the 35th minute.

The Yellow Submarine of Villareal also had a great night with a 3-1 away win to NAC Breda. Ariel IBAGAZA scored from a cheeky free kick in the 49th minute. The goal stood despite the protest from the Dutch side claiming that they were not ready when the kick was taken.

On a lesser known player, Greek League prolific scorer Ismael BLANCO was on target of AEK Athens but his side went down 1-2 to FC Vaslui.

8 comments:

Mohd said...

i am very happy for saviola. whether he gets called for the NT again or not, he is a great person and player and he deserves the best.

on the other hand i really regret DiMaria's ban and that he won't be able to play in the next two matches. he is such a great talent.

as for Zarate, what to say. i cannot remove from my head the image of a trio made of zarate-higuain-messi. that would be a dream trio that no other team have...i always wonder where is the role of the argentina media in pressing maradona hard for correcting his selections.

Unknown said...

Great to see Saviola FINALLY playing again. He's one of my favorites.

David said...

Hi! It's great to see Saviola playing! I was already a fan anda I was astonished when he came to "my" Benfica.

With Aimar - who is in great form this season - they make the game seam so easy and beautiful.

Di Maria is finally showing that he can play for the team and keep doing the same game after game - last two seasons he wasn't so regular.

messidona19 said...

This news really surprised me in a good way! http://www.goal.com/en/news/1706/barcelona/2009/08/21/1453526/jonas-gutierrez-could-sign-for-barcelona-in-the-following

Anonymous said...

Mohd, I am a advocate of having both Higuain and Zarate on the team but right now Aguero has just been on fire. Been following many of his matches and he has looked super sharp. This is the Kun I recall, maybe the rest was what he needed. But I do want Higuain in the starting line up.

As for the highlights, Lucho Figueroa has always ben one of my favorite players. Guy can actually find the net for Argentina unlike a Milito. Has a solid track record for the national team, 9 goals in 15 games. I think he was really close making that 06 squad but due to injury he could not. But I do not think he is in Diego's site. I have not heard Diego ever mention him.

Jack!

johnny said...

I second the comments praising Saviola. Great to see him playing and doing well.

sirus said...

GK
Juan Pablo Carrizo (Zaragoza)
Mariano Andújar (Catania)
Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar)

Defenders
Nicolás Pareja (Espanyol)
Javier Zanetti (Inter)
Nicolás Burdisso (Inter)
Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle)
Gabriel Heinze (Olympique de Marsella)

Midfielders
Fernando Gago Real Madrid
Maximiliano Rodríguez (Atlético de Madrid)
Jesús Dátolo (Napoli)
Javier Mascherano (Liverpool)
Jonás Gutiérrez (Newcastle)

Forwards
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli)
Carlos Tevez (Manchester City)
Diego Milito (Inter)
Sergio Agüero (Atlético de Madrid)
Lisandro Lopez (Lyon)

no Gonzalo, no Samuel no Garay no Higuain, no Zarate... :(

Collocini, Heinze, Tevez, Lavezzi... damn...

Happy to see Pareja and Romero...

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