SPORTING NEWS OF THE WEEK 4

A week of vast sporting activity, with Carling Cup, Champions League and Europa League action with draws for the Group Stages of Champions League and Europa League, the Transfer Deadline, Test Match Cricket and squad selections for ODI and T20 series, selections for the Ryder Cup and a Fromula One race in Spa

FOOTBALL

• Newcastle beat Accrington Stanley 3-2 with weakened side in Carling Cup, with Everton thrashing Huddersfield 5-1 with a stand-out performance from young Englishman Jack Rodwell. Fulham slaughtered Port Vale 6-0 with goals from Zamora, Gera, Dempsey and new signing Dembele. Mame Biram Diouf scored a treble against Norwich to give Blackburn a 3-1 where Diouf is currently enjoying a loan spell.

• 3RD ROUND CARLING CUP DRAW!!
Brentford v Everton
Portsmouth v Leicester
Stoke v Fulham
Chelsea v Newcastle
Aston Villa v Blackburn
Tottenham v Arsenal
Millwall v Ipswich
Wolves v Notts County
Burnley v Bolton
Birmingham v MK Dons
Liverpool v Northampton
Scunthorpe v Man Utd
West Brom v Man City
Sunderland v West Ham
Peterborough v Swansea
Wigan v Preston

• Tottenham secure Champion’s League Group Stage spot with 4-0 trouncing of Young Boys FC, with Peter Crouch scoring a brilliant hat-trick to have a 6-3 aggregate.

• Aston Villa lose home-leg to Rapid Vienna 3-2 late on after Agbonlahor and Heskey score as they crash out of Europa League on 4-3 aggregate.
• Man City beat Timisoara 2-0 at Eastlands to give 3-0 win on aggregate.
• Liverpool leave it late as Kuyt scores winner against Trabzonspor to ensure the Reds’ qualification.
• Celtic crash and burn away to FC Utrecht 4-0 to fall out of Europe 4-2 over the two legs.

DEADLINE DEALS

• After Alberto Aquilani’s exit for Juventus and, more importantly Javier Mascherano’s £18million Anfield departure, Raul Meireles has been confirmed as Liverpool’s latest transfer for £11.5million.

• Stipe Pletikosa has signed for Tottenham on a year-long loan deal.

• Birmingham have allowed Marcus Bent to go to Wolves on a loan-deal until January. They have also captured the signings of ex-Gunner Alexander Hleb on a season-long loan and Jiranek on a one-year deal. John Beausejour – one of Chile’s brightest World Cup players – has also signed.

• Wantaway City player Robinho has gotten his wish with a permanent deal to AC Milan on a 4-year contract.

• Paul Konchesky has rejoined old manager Roy Hodgson at Anfield in player-exchange plus cash deal, with Dalla Valle and Kacaniklic going to the Cottage in return

• Asamoah Gyan has become Sunderland’s new, transfer record setting signing in a move worth £13+million.

• Roberto Martinez has successfully secured a season-long loan for Manchester United youngster Tom Cleverley.

• Stoke have confirmed deadline swoops for Eidur Gudjohnsson and Jermaine Pennant as well as Portsmouth captain Marc Wilson coming to the Brittania.

• Wigan sign Franco Di Santo from Chelsea on a three-year deal with 2 minutes left on the transfer window clock to join Tom Cleverley

• Young Arsenal left-back Armand Traore has gone to Juventus on a season-long loan after the Old Lady earlier released long-serving Zebina. Emiliano Insua has made a similar move to Galatasaray from Liverpool.

• DJ Campbell has re-signed for Blackpool for an undisclosed fee, much to the delight of Blackpool fans.

• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has made a £10.5million move to Schalke from Real Madrid to end speculation linking him with Spurs.

• Rafael Van Der Vaart makes headline deal to Spurs for £8million just before the deadline.


CRICKET

• England beat Pakistan at Lords amidst rumours of Pakistani match-fixing after two no-balls were supposedly set up after The News of The World had paid a middle-man £150,000 to make these two no-balls occur. After having been 102-7 in their first innings, Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad hit a record 8th wicket partnership of 332 to take England from being 102-7 to being 446all-out with Trott finishing on 184 and Broad 169 after Amir (one of the suspected fixers) took 6-84. Pakistan were then dismissed for 74 with Swann taking 4-12 and Finn 3-38. England put them in for the follow-on and again rolled them, this time for 147 with Swann helping himself to 5-62 this time to ensure a 3-1 series victory for England. However this series will forever be pitched into darkness after such disgraceful allegations.

• England have chosen their Natwest Series and T20 squads to face Pakistan. The shock omission being star-man Kevin Pietersen who will instead play on loan for Surrey, with Kieswetter being used as a batsman and Steven Davies being the keeper.

The 20/20 squad is as follows; P Collingwood (Durham, captain), J Anderson (Lancashire), R Bopara (Essex), T Bresnan (Yorkshire), S Broad (Nottinghamshire), S Davies (wkt, Surrey), C Kieswetter (Somerset), E Morgan (Middlesex), R Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), G Swann (Nottinghamshire), L Wright (Sussex), M Yardy (Sussex).

The Natwest ODI Series squad is as followed; A Strauss (Middlesex, captain), J Anderson (Lancashire), R Bopara (Essex), T Bresnan (Yorkshire), S Broad (Nottinghamshire), P Collingwood (Durham), S Davies (wkt, Surrey), E Morgan (Middlesex), A Shahzad (Yorkshire), R Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), G Swann (Nottinghamshire), J Trott (Warwickshire), L Wright (Sussex), M Yardy (Sussex).



FORMULA ONE

• After qualifying 2nd behind Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton got a brilliant start to leap-frog his rival into the first corner and drove a supreme race in mixed conditions – including rain – that had many others slipping and sliding. Hamilton himself also ran into the wall laps from the finish, but managed to regain control.. Button was removed from the race by Vettel who skidded whilst pursuing Button – 2nd at the time – leaving him with no drive and an early retirement. Webber managed to finish 2nd with Robert Kubica 3rd.

GOLF

• Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, Colin Montgomerie picks Eduardo Molinari, Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald as his wildcards. With the rest of his squad as follows; L Westwood (Eng), R McIlroy (NIr), M Kaymer (Ger), G McDowell (NIr), I Poulter (Eng), R Fisher (Eng), F Molinari (Ita), MA Jimenez (Spa), P Hanson (Swe).