#224

Cork City lost 2-0 at home to Waterford City in the first League of Ireland game of the season. Though Waterford were the surprise package of last season, it was a bit of a shock to see them beat Cork, one of the two form teams of the past few seasons.

The only saving grace for Cork is that Dundalk, last year’s champions and their biggest rivals, didn’t win their first game. Cork play Sligo at the Showgrounds tonight. Both teams lost their opening games so will want to get a positive result from this.

#225

Cork beat Sligo 2-1 in what was supposed to be a cracking game. RTÉ haven’t agreed on TV rights with the FAI though so I haven’t seen the goals. Here’s the highlight of the Twitter coverage.

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February Football Thread: Champions Elect
#226

Goals are up. Absolute screamer from Gearoid Morrissey after 0:40.

#227

De Klassieker (redux)

In a replay of last month’s cracker Ajax take their revenge and trash Feyenoord 3 - 0, resulting in a well deserved place in the Dutch FA Cup final.

The treble is still on.

#228

MLS starts up this week. I’m off to my first ever away game, it’s against LA Galaxy. Think we’ll smash them tbh.

The Fire have made a couple of smart purchases and a couple of odd ones, still need depth in almost every defensive position. Can’t be much worse than last year, I’m hoping they can sneak a playoff spot.

#229

Not sure they have enough international spots for these two. Gaitán should fun if he’s still got a bit left in the tank.

#230

Gladbach v Bayern
Lazio v Roma
Real v Barça
Porto v Benfica
Napoli v Juve

Wooooooof.

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#231

Unlikely, but imagine if Getafe finished above Real!

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#232

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#233

Yeet. First football match outside the UK. The Ultras area is 75% full; the rest of the stadium is about 2% full. 35 mins to kick off.

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#234

Eredivisie week 24

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The Dutch FA did the right thing and gave Ajax a free weekend to optimise their preparations for tonight’s big game. Wouldn’t happen in England, obviously.

Meanwhile, RVP bags a hattrick at the weekend in Feyenoord’s 4 - 0 win over FC Emmen. Club career totals now stand at 33x Feyenoord, 96x Arsenal, 48x Manchester United and 25x Fenerbahçe. Pretty impressive.

No change at the top of the table, nothing else to report.

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#235

A-League:

The glorious Wellington Phoenix win 8 (eight!) - 2 away with three starting defenders out. Mariners sack their coach immediately. Phoenix on course for our best ever season, after finishing 9th out of 10 last year, and looking good for a home playoff spot, which they’ll fight Melbourne [Manchester] City and Adelaide for. Perth should take the title from Sydney. Sadly our genius coach is likely to move back to Australia after just one season, because his children miss him.

#236

St Pauli v Hamburg on the tellybox tomorrow lunchtime…

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#237

aye all over that shit man

#238

Eredivisie week 25

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PSV and Ajax win 2 - 0 and 4 - 0 respectively, whereas third place Feyenoord draw 1 - 1 at Vitesse. No changes at the top and nothing else to report.

Ajax will play their postponed match (present from the Dutch FA to give the team extra prep time before facing Real Madrid) on Wednesday.

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#239

I

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My little pal is not taking the continuing decline of Schweinsteiger very well :frowning: Another poor display from the German talisman today. He seemed genuinely aggrieved with today’s performance.

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#240

Eredivisie week 26

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Ajax received a severe blow to their treble hopes as they were defeated by in-form 4th placed AZ in Alkmaar. While manager Ten Hag refused to admit that the title race is over, Ajax now have to rely on PSV, who only narrowly won earlier in the day (defeating VVV 1 - 0). The Eindhovenaren have to slip up twice, courtesy of a 5 point gap at the top.

The Eredivisie will now take a break to allow time for the national team hosting Belarus and Germany, before continuing on 30th March for the last 8 games of the season

#241

Eredivisie week 27

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Ajax close the gap on PSV in an incident-packed game that ended in a 3 - 1 victory, despite the home team playing with 10 man for over 30 mins. Two match-defining VAR decisions changed the referee’s initial judgement: the red card for Mazraoui and the penalty that led to the second Ajax goal. Somehow VAR seems to work.

With 7 games left, the difference is two points, so only PSV losing or drawing a match will hand Ajax (who have the better goal difference) the title.

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#242

Eredivisie week 28 & 29

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Whereas the midweek round of games did not bring any surprises, with Ajax beating league debutantes Emmen by 5 goals to 2, and leaders PSV recording a straight-forward 4 - 0 win over PEC Zwolle, this weekend saw a seismic shift at the top of the table.

After leading the league for 33 weeks, i.e. since the start of the season, PSV finally stepped down from the top position after an eventful 3 - 3 draw at Vitesse. Twice VAR was used in a penalty decision, confirmed for PSV and denied for Vitesse. PSV only managed to equalise in the final minute, courtesy of a Lozano penalty, following a last ditch intervention that earned Vitesse defender Van der Werff a straight red.

No such commotion for Ajax, who on Saturday strolled to a 4 - 1 win against Willem II. The Dutch FA allowed Ajax to play a day early to give the team maximum preparation time for the clash against Juventus on Wednesday.

These results mean that both teams are now level on points, but Ajax have the superior goal difference (+74) over PSV (+65). Only 5 games left to go. How exciting.

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#243

Eredivisie week 30 & 31

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Even the distractions of the Champions League cannot stop Ajax in their chase for the title. Last week saw them beat Excelsior without much effort (6 - 2 at the final whistle) and while Saturday’s defeat of FC Groningen was a bit more laborious effort (1 - 0 courtesy of Huntelaar, who then managed to get sent off for a second yellow) Ajax remain top of the table with a +79 goal difference.

All second placed PSV can do now is look and pray Ajax drop points in any of the final 3 games. But the Dutch FA are not helping them, as in a unprecedented move, Eredivisie week 33 has been postponed until after the season’s end to allow Ajax maximum preparation time for their Champions League semi-final v Spurs.

Week 32 starts tonight with Ajax v Vitesse. PSV are away at Willem II on Thursday.

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