Tips Challenge

Archive for April 2010

Fourth place battle: Man City vs Villa

Friday, 30th April 2010 11:50pm
The battle for fourth place continues in round 37 of the English Premiership with Manchester City battling it out against Aston Villa.

This is a direct battle between two teams vying for fourth place and winner will get a big boost in securing that place depending also on other results.

City go into this match having failed to score in their previous two matches against a Villa side that has maintained clean sheets in its last two matches.

Their previous match earlier in the season ended in a one all draw and this time a draw may not be a favourable result for either team.

The home team are currently a point behind their visitors and a win here will see them jump over their opponents into fourth or fifth position dependent on the Spurs/Bolton result.

A win for Villa could also see them in fourth place if Spurs fail to get a result in their match.

Here are some of the stats for the two teams this season:

	Man City	Aston Villa
Position	6	5
Played	35	36
Points	63	64
Drawn	12	13
Won	17	17
Lost	6	6
Goal difference	27	16
Clean sheets	11	15
Failed to score	7	7
Goals scored	69	51
Goals conceded	42	35
Ave. goals scored	2.0	1.4
Ave. goals conceded	1.2	1.0
Biggest win	Burnley 1 - 6 Man City	Aston Villa 5 - 1 Bolton
Biggest loss	Tottenham 3 - 0 Man City	Chelsea 7 - 1 Aston Villa
Score 3 or more	12	4
Concede 3 or more	5	2
Home matches
Played	17	18
Points	37	32
Drawn	4	8
Won	11	8
Lost	2	2
Goal difference	20	14
Goals scored	38	29
Goals conceded	18	15
Ave. goals scored	2.2	1.6
Ave. goals conceded	1.1	0.8
Away matches
Played	18	18
Points	26	32
Drawn	8	5
Won	6	9
Lost	4	4
Goal difference	7	2
Goals scored	31	22
Goals conceded	24	20
Ave. goals scored	1.7	1.2
Ave. goals conceded	1.3	1.1

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Inter knocks out Barca

Thursday, 29th April 2010 10:57pm
Inter Milan reached the final of the UEFA Champions League after beating defending champions Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate.

Although the defending champions won the second leg 1-nil, that wasn't enough to get them to the Bernabeau where the final will be played.

Inter continued the trend that started from the quarter-final matches were no team winning the first leg failed to reach the next level.

Inter will play Bayern Munich who knocked Lyon the day before.

Below is the table showing trend for the winning teams in the Champions League this season:

Trend	Frequency	Percentage(%)
Home team leading at half time, home team winning at full time	31	32.6
Away team leading at half time, away team winning at full time	21	22.1
Home team trailing at half time, home team winning at full time	3	3.2
Away team trailing at half time, away team winning at full time	5	5.3
Draw at half time, home team winning at full time	21	22.1
Draw at half time, away team winning at full time	14	14.7
Matches ending in result	95	76.6

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Category: Champions League | Comments : 0

Bayern thump Lyon to reach final

Wednesday, 28th April 2010 9:49pm
Bayern Munich reached the UEFA Champions League final after beating Lyon 3-nil in the second leg of their semi-final match.

Bayern won 4-nil on aggregate as they moved into the final which will be played at Real Madrid's ground the Bernabeau.

Bayern will now meet the winner in the other semi between Barcelona and Inter Milan.

Barca needs to overcome a two goal deficit in order to reach their second successive final.

The 3-nil win means that Bayern has now scored 21 goals in this competition to join Manchester United and Arsenal who also scored that tally.

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Category: Champions League | Comments : 0

Burnley relegated after one season

Monday, 26th April 2010 7:48am
Burnley has been relegated into the Championship after one season in the Premier League after losing 4-nil to Liverpool.

Burnley needed to win the match in order to stay in the top flight and there was a bit of hope as the teams went into half-time goalless.

Liverpool scored four second half goals to seal Burnley's fate.

If Burnley wins its last two matches, the team can only have a tally of 33 points which is less than what West Ham United in fourth place from the bottom have at the moment.

Burnley are more likely to be joined by Hull City in the Championship next season. Hull have a mathematical chance of surviving but in reality they cannot score the 23 goals needed to to better their goal difference.

With two matches to go here is Burnley's season so far:

Burnley's season
Team	Burnley
Played	36
Points	27
Won	7
Drawn	6
Lost	23
Goal difference	-41
Clean sheets	3
Failed to score	13
Goals scored	37
Goals conceded	78
Ave. goals scored	1.0
Ave. goals conceded	2.2
Biggest win	Hull 1 - 4 Burnley
Biggest loss	Tottenham 5 - 0 Burnley Burnley 1 - 6 Man City
Scored 3 or more	4
Conceded 3 or more	13
Home matches
Played	18
Points	23
Won	6
Drawn	5
Lost	7
Goal difference	-7
Goals scored	21
Goals conceded	28
Ave. goals scored	1.2
Ave. goals conceded	1.6
Away matches
Played	18
Points	4
Won	1
Drawn	1
Lost	16
Goal difference	-34
Goals scored	16
Goals conceded	50
Ave. goals scored	0.9
Ave. goals conceded	2.8

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Socceroos paired with South Korea

Sunday, 25th April 2010 9:38pm
In the 2011 Asian Cup draw, the Socceroos have been paired with fellow World Cup bound South Korea in Group C.

The other two teams in the group are Bahrain and India.

The hosts Qatar were seeded and are in Group A alongside Kuwait, China and Uzbekistan.

Group B has Saudi Arabia, Japan, Jordan and Syria.

Group D is probably the toughest of all the groups and that group comprises defending champions Iraq, world Cup bound North Korea, United Arab Emirates and Iran.

TipsChallenge will run a tipping competition on 2011 Asian Cup and the fixtures will be available soon.

Here is the full draw:

Group A
Qatar
Kuwait
China PR
Uzbekistan

Group B
Saudi Arabia
Japan
Jordan
Syria

Group C
South Korea
India
Australia
Bahrain

Group D
Iraq
North Korea
United Arab Emirates
Iran

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Category: Asian Cup | Comments : 0

Man Utd faces Spurs test

Friday, 23rd April 2010 8:25pm
Second placed Manchester United will face an in-form Tottenham Hotspurs in round 36 of the English Premiership.

Spurs are coming from two wins against teams either side of United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

The North London team are still in the run for third place in the league whilst for United the title is still up for grabs if league leaders Chelsea slip in any one their remaining three matches.

United have only lost twice and drawn once at Old Trafford whilst away from White Hart Lane Spurs have lost five and drawn five.

A win for the home team will see them top the table because Chelsea only plays on Sunday whilst a win for Spurs means they will finish the round in fourth place.

Here is some of the stats for the two teams this season:

	Manchester United	Spurs
Position	2	4
Played	35	34
Points	76	64
Drawn	4	7
Won	24	19
Lost	7	8
Goal difference	51	28
Clean sheets	17	11
Failed to score	6	9
Goals scored	78	62
Goals conceded	27	34
Ave. goals scored	2.2	1.8
Ave. goals conceded	0.8	1.0
Biggest win	Wigan 0 - 5 Man United Man United 5 - 0 Wigan Man United 5 - 0 Portsmouth	Tottenham 9 - 1 Wigan
Biggest loss	Fulham 3 - 0 Man United	Chelsea 3 - 0 Tottenham Arsenal 3 - 0 Tottenham
Score 3 or more	16	6
Concede 3 or more	3	4
Home matches
Played	17	18
Points	43	41
Drawn	1	2
Won	14	13
Lost	2	3
Goal difference	34	27
Goals scored	45	39
Goals conceded	11	12
Ave. goals scored	2.6	2.2
Ave. goals conceded	0.6	0.7
Away matches
Played	18	16
Points	33	23
Drawn	3	5
Won	10	6
Lost	5	5
Goal difference	17	1
Goals scored	33	23
Goals conceded	16	22
Ave. goals scored	1.8	1.4
Ave. goals conceded	0.9	1.4

Previous Matches

Season	Round	Team	Goals	Team	Goals
2007/8	4	Manchester United	1	Tottenham	0
2007/8	25	Tottenham	1	Manchester United	1
2008/9	17	Tottenham	0	Manchester United	0
2008/9	34	Manchester United	5	Tottenham	2
2009/10	5	Tottenham	1	Manchester United	3

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Top vs bottom : Barca vs Xerez

Friday, 23rd April 2010 1:59pm
In La Liga round 32, league ladders Barcelona will play bottom club Xerez in a match that looks more like a mismatch.

There is a 57 point difference between the two teams and Barca has scored 50 more goals than Xerez.

But its not a complete mismatch if the previous match between the two teams is to be considered. In that match Barca won 2-nil.

Xerez started their season badly but lately they have been picking up points here and there.

However, Barcelona has the second best home form in the competition and has so far dropped two points out of its home matches and this is likely going to continue.

Below is a comparison of the two teams stats for the season so far:

	Barcelona	Xerez
Rank	1	20
Played	33	33
Points	84	27
Drawn	6	9
Won	26	6
Lost	1	18
Goal difference	61	-26
Clean sheets	19	5
Failed to score	2	16
Goals scored	80	30
Goals conceded	19	56
Ave. goals scored	2.4	0.9
Ave. goals conceded	0.6	1.7
Biggest win	Barcelona 6 - 1 Zaragoza Tenerife 0 - 5 Barcelona	Xerez 3 - 0 Valladolid
Biggest loss	Atletico 2 - 1 Barcelona	Real Madrid 5 - 0 Xerez
Score 3 or more	14	2
Concede 3 or more	0	7
Home matches
Played	16	17
Points	46	16
Drawn	1	4
Won	15	4
Lost	0	9
Goal difference	37	-11
Goals scored	46	15
Goals conceded	9	26
Ave. goals scored	2.9	0.9
Ave. goals conceded	0.6	1.5
Away matches
Played	17	16
Points	38	11
Drawn	5	5
Won	11	2
Lost	1	9
Goal difference	24	-15
Goals scored	34	15
Goals conceded	10	30
Ave. goals scored	2.0	0.9
Ave. goals conceded	0.6	1.9

Previous Matches

Season	Round	Team	Goals	Team	Goals
2009/10	12	Xerez	0	Barcelona	2

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Category: La Liga | Comments : 0

Bayern one up against Lyon

Friday, 23rd April 2010 1:15pm
Bayern Munich will go into the second leg of their UEFA Champions league match with a one goal advantage after beating Lyon 1-nil.

Bayern were reduced to ten men in the first half and they managed to score their goal in the second half against a Lyon team that also had a player sent off in the second half.

In the past two rounds, Bayern has gone into the second leg with a one goal advantage and they have successfully managed to defend it.

Lyon knows this will be their best chance of reaching the final and they will be playing at home where they have so far beaten the likes of Real Madrid and Bordeaux.

Below is a list of scorelines so far this seaoson in the UEFA Champions League with just three more matches to go:

Scoreline	Frequency
0 - 0	7
0 - 1	14
0 - 2	2
0 - 3	3
0 - 4	1
1 - 0	16
1 - 1	17
1 - 2	8
1 - 3	3
1 - 4	3
2 - 0	10
2 - 1	11
2 - 2	4
2 - 3	3
2 - 5	1
3 - 0	1
3 - 1	5
3 - 2	2
3 - 3	1
3 - 4	1
4 - 0	4
4 - 1	2
5 - 0	1
5 - 2	1
6 - 1	1

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Category: Champions League | Comments : 0

Advantage Inter as Barca surrender lead

Wednesday, 21st April 2010 10:04pm
Inter Milan came from behind to win the first leg of their Uefa Champions League semi-final match against Barcelona.

Barca were the first score and Inter levelled before half time but then went on to score two more goals in the second to get a two goal going into the second leg at the Nou Camp.

Barca will need to win 2-nil or by a three goal margin in the event Inter scores and so the defending champions have a lot of work to do in the second leg.

Below is the table showing the goal margins for the matches played so far in the Champions League:

Goal Margin	Frequency
0	29
1	54
2	20
3	11
4	5
5	2

So the majority of matches so far have been won by a single goal and the next popular result is a draw (zero goal margin).

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Category: Champions League | Comments : 0

Newcastle wraps up Championship title

Tuesday, 20th April 2010 8:50pm
Newcastle United finished their Championship season as champions after beating Plymouth 2-nil.

The Magpies only needed a point to win the title but they secured all three points against the relegation threatened Plymouth.

Its been a very good season for Newcastle who are still unbeaten at home and could finish the season that way with their last fixture being against Ipswich.

Five teams Nottingham Forest, Cardiff, Leicester, Swansea and Blackpool are still vying for the playoffs which will determine the third team to join Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion in the premiership next season.

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Real reduces gap to one point

Tuesday, 20th April 2010 12:10am
Real Madrid reduced the gap with to just one point after beating Valencia 2-nil at the Bernabeau.

Barcelona were held goalless by Espanyol and this was only the second match of the season for Barca to fail to find the net in a match.

With Real losing out on head to head against Barca, they will need to finish with more points than Barca to win the title and the win over Valencia helps them in that regard.

Valencia are still in third place but face the threat from Sevilla and Mallorca for that position.

Sevilla won its match against Sporting Gijon and Mallorca will play the last fixture of the round against Osasuna.

In relegation matters, Tenerife won its match against Getafe whilst Xerez and Valladolid could only draw their matches.

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Category: La Liga | Comments : 1

Wigan clutter Arsenal's title hopes

Monday, 19th April 2010 11:56pm
Wigan Athletic beat Arsenal 3-2 to dash Arsenal's hopes of a title with only three matches to go.

The Gunners can only with 80 points this season if they win their remaining fixtures and that may not be enough to win the title with Chelsea only needing a win to get to that point tally.

The win was priceless for Wigan as they now have 35 points and one win in their remaining three matches will mean the team will have top flight football next season.

Manchester United won the Manchester derby with a goal in the last minute and with Chelsea losing to Tottenham Hotspurs, the gap at the top has been reduced to just one point.

Manchester United last three fixtures are against Spurs at home, Sunderland away and Stoke at home.

Chelsea's last three fixtures are Stoke at home, Liverpool away and Wigan at home.

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Manchester derby : fourth vs second

Saturday, 17th April 2010 11:27am
In round 35 of the English Premiership, fourth placed Manchester City will battle it out against second placed Manchester United.

Both teams have something to chase with just four matches left (five for City) in the season and for United its the title and for City its fourth place.

In their earlier match this season United edged City 4-3 through a goal deep in injury time and since then there have been some changes at City.

City are going into the derby on equal form with United having won four, drawn one and lost one in their last six matches.

Even though a win will not immediately change the ladder position of either team, a win will go a long way in helping at least keep the teams in the hunt for fourth place or the title.

Here are some of the stats for the two teams so far this season:

	Man Utd	Man City
Rank	2	4
Played	34	33
Points	73	62
Drawn	4	11
Won	23	17
Lost	7	5
Goal difference	50	28
Clean sheets	16	10
Failed to score	6	5
Goals scored	77	69
Goals conceded	27	41
Ave. goals scored	2.3	2.1
Ave. goals conceded	0.8	1.2
Biggest win	Wigan 0 - 5 Man United Man United 5 - 0 Wigan Man United 5 - 0 Portsmouth	Burnley 1 - 6 Man City
Biggest loss	Fulham 3 - 0 Man United	Tottenham 3 - 0 Man City
Score 3 or more	16	12
Concede 3 or more	3	5
Home matches
Played	17	16
Points	43	37
Drawn	1	4
Won	14	11
Lost	2	1
Goal difference	34	21
Goals scored	45	38
Goals conceded	11	17
Ave. goals scored	2.6	2.4
Ave. goals conceded	0.6	1.1
Away matches
Played	17	17
Points	30	25
Drawn	3	7
Won	9	6
Lost	5	4
Goal difference	16	7
Goals scored	32	31
Goals conceded	16	24
Ave. goals scored	1.9	1.8
Ave. goals conceded	0.9	1.4

Previous Matches

Season	Round	Team	Goals	Team	Goals
2007/8	3	Manchester City	1	Manchester United	0
2007/8	26	Manchester United	1	Manchester City	2
2008/9	15	Manchester City	0	Manchester United	1
2008/9	36	Manchester United	2	Manchester City	0
2009/10	6	Manchester United	4	Manchester City	3

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Spurs beat Gunners to stay in hunt

Thursday, 15th April 2010 10:28pm
Tottenham Hotspurs beat Arsenal 2-1 at White Hart Lane in the English Premier League to stay in the hunt for fourth place.

This was Spurs first win over Arsenal in the league since 1999 and it came at a crucial time as Spurs chase the final Champions League qualifying place.

The other win for Spurs over their North London rivals was in the Carling Cup in the 2008/9 season.

The win has placed dents in the Gunners chase for the title as the team is now six points behind leaders Chelsea with just four matches to go.

With the goal difference Chelsea has it needs two more wins to make sure that they finish above the Gunners this season.

Aston Villa's chase for fourth place also got a big dent after being held to a 2-all draw at home against Everton. Villa have a good chance to finish above Liverpool but after the draw it may prove to be difficult.

FA Cup finalists and already relegated Portsmouth could only manage a goalless draw against Wigan. Wigan is hovering just above relegation and three points would have helped a lot in terms of safety but they let the chance go.

Back to the Spurs/Gunners match, this match was the 15th time Spurs had gone into half time leading the match this season. In all those fifteen times Spurs has gone on to win the match and here is the winning trend for the Premier League so far this season:

Trend	Frequency	Percentage(%)
Home team leading at half time, home team winning at full time	115	46.0
Away team leading at half time, away team winning at full time	50	20.0
Home team trailing at half time, home team winning at full time	9	3.6
Away team trailing at half time, away team winning at full time	4	1.6
Draw at half time, home team winning at full time	47	18.8
Draw at half time, away team winning at full time	25	10.0
Matches ending in result	250	74.2

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Advantage Man City as Liverpool draws again

Tuesday, 13th April 2010 11:07pm
In the on-going round 34 of the English Premier League, Liverpool drew its second match in a row to now trail Manchester City by six points.

Manchester City are in top form at the moment scoring 14 goals in their last three matches and conceding just two.

The goal difference that they have built now means that two more wins could be enough to make sure that Liverpool does not finish in the top four.

Fifth placed Tottenham Hotspurs are still to play Arsenal and a win in that match will see them close the gap with City to just one point.

In the relegation battle, Burnley won for the first time away from Turf Moor after beating Hull City 4-1.

That win was also Burnley's biggest win of the season and that was only the fourth time this season that Burnley has scored three goals or more in a match.

With three matches so far in this round ending goalless I will list below the other draw scores so far this season:

Draw scoreline	Matches
0 - 0	26
1 - 1	37
2 - 2	18
3 - 3	4

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Mallorca reduces Valencia gap

Tuesday, 13th April 2010 11:00pm
In La Liga's round 31, all eyes were on the match between Real Madrid and Barcelona but one other key match was between Mallorca and Valencia.

Mallorca is currently in fifth place and they beat third placed Valencia 3-2 to reduce the gap to just four points.

Whilst Real and Barca have already secured the top two places third and fourth places are not yet decided and three teams Valencia, Sevilla and Mallorca are vying for those two places.

Athletico Bilbao in sixth could also be in the picture but they are currently eight points behind Valencia.

So Mallorca's win over Valencia was critical and with seven matches to go the surprise packets of this year's season have a good chance of snatching a Champions League place.

In the Real/Barca match, Real suffered its first home loss and for the first time failed to score at home this season in a league match.

Real has failed to score against Barcelona and this was only the fifth match this season that Real has failed to score in a match.

Looking at the bottom, Xerez's good run came to a stop after losing 1-nil at home to Getafe. The good run has made sure that Xerez are now just two points adrift from the team second from the bottom.

This week I will take a quick look at the winning trend in La Liga this season so far:

Trend	Frequency	Percentage(%)
Home team leading at half time, home team winning at full time	92	39.5
Away team leading at half time, away team winning at full time	48	20.6
Home team trailing at half time, home team winning at full time	8	3.4
Away team trailing at half time, away team winning at full time	2	0.9
Draw at half time, home team winning at full time	58	24.9
Draw at half time, away team winning at full time	25	10.7
Matches ending in result	233	75.2

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Category: La Liga | Comments : 0

Pompey relegated after West Ham win

Sunday, 11th April 2010 5:14am
Portsmouth have relegated to the Championship following West Ham's 1-nil win over Sunderland.

Pompey currently have 14 points following the nine point points deduction following entering administration and with five matches remaining the maximum number of points they can accumulate is 29 which will place them in the bottom three.

Its been a poor season for Pompey with so much happening off the pitch and they will have to regroup again next season in the Championship.

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

West Brom regains promotion

Sunday, 11th April 2010 5:09am
West Bromwich Albion regained promotion back into the Premier League after beating Doncaster 3-2.

Third placed Nottingham Forest can only reach 84 points if they win all their remaining three matches and so the Baggies with 86 points cannot be reached.

Last week Newcastle United also secured promotion and that means two of the relegated sides from last season have bounced back immediately.

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Hull in relegation battle against Burnley

Friday, 9th April 2010 8:55pm
One of key fixtures in round 34 of the English Premiership is the relegation battle between Hull City and Burnley.

Hull are currently three points ahead of Burnley and a win would take them out of the relegation zone if West Ham failed to beat Sunderland.

A win will not change the position for Burnley unless if they win by a five goal margin to have a better goal difference than Hull.

Burnley has the worst away record in the league and have only a single point and that was in a match at Eastlands against Manchester City.

Hull on the other hand has collected most of its points from home with 23 points coming from six wins and five draws at home.

In their previous match in round 11, Burnley won 2-nil at Turf Moor.

So here is some of the stats for the two teams so far this season:

	Hull	Burnley
Streak	LLLLWL	LDLLLL
Played	32	33
Points	27	24
Drawn	9	6
Won	6	6
Lost	17	21
Goal difference	-35	-39
Clean sheets	5	3
Failed to score	12	12
Goals scored	31	32
Goals conceded	66	71
Ave. goals scored	1.0	1.0
Ave. goals conceded	2.1	2.2
Biggest win	Hull 2 - 0 Fulham	Burnley 3 - 1 Sunderland Burnley 2 - 0 Hull
Biggest loss	Liverpool 6 - 1 Hull	Tottenham 5 - 0 Burnley Burnley 1 - 6 Man City
Score 3 or more	2	3
Concede 3 or more	11	12
Home matches
Played	15	17
Points	23	23
Drawn	5	5
Won	6	6
Lost	4	6
Goal difference	-1	-3
Goals scored	21	21
Goals conceded	22	24
Ave. goals scored	1.4	1.2
Ave. goals conceded	1.5	1.4
Away matches
Played	17	16
Points	4	1
Drawn	4	1
Won	0	0
Lost	13	15
Goal difference	-34	-36
Goals scored	10	11
Goals conceded	44	47
Ave. goals scored	0.6	0.7
Ave. goals conceded	2.6	2.9

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0

Real, Barca face off in title battle

Friday, 9th April 2010 8:41pm
In La Liga's round 31, giants Real Madrid and Barcelona in a match that could well decide the destination of the title.

La Liga uses head-to-head to determine table placings in the event of a points tie and in their first match earlier in the season Barca won 1-nil.

Real will need to win this tie to get even on head-to-head should the two teams finish on the same number of points at the end of the season.

Real and Barca are so much ahead of the other teams with third placed Valencia on 56 points and 21 points behind and therefore the two teams have virtually secured the top two places.

In the last round Real won 2-nil away to Racing Santander and that was the first time since January for the team to fail to score three goals or more in a league match.

Barca has the best defence in the league at the moment having conceded just 19 goals.

This showdown sees the team with the best home form play the team with the best away form.

Here are some of the some of the stats for the two teams so far this season:

	Real Madrid	Barcelona
Played	30	30
Points	77	77
Drawn	2	5
Won	25	24
Lost	3	1
Goal difference	57	56
Clean sheets	14	16
Failed to score	4	1
Goals scored	83	75
Goals conceded	26	19
Ave. goals scored	2.8	2.5
Ave. goals conceded	0.9	0.6
Biggest win	Real Madrid 6 - 0 Zaragoza	Barcelona 6 - 1 Zaragoza Tenerife 0 - 5 Barcelona
Biggest loss	Sevilla 2 - 1 Real Madrid Barcelona 1 - 0 Real Madrid Athletic Bilbao 1 - 0 Real Madrid	Atletico 2 - 1 Barcelona
Score 3 or more	19	13
Concede 3 or more	0	0
Home matches
Played	15	15
Points	45	43
Drawn	0	1
Won	15	14
Lost	0	0
Goal difference	37	34
Goals scored	50	43
Goals conceded	13	9
Ave. goals scored	3.3	2.9
Ave. goals conceded	0.9	0.6
Away matches
Played	15	15
Points	32	34
Drawn	2	4
Won	10	10
Lost	3	1
Goal difference	20	22
Goals scored	33	32
Goals conceded	13	10
Ave. goals scored	2.2	2.1
Ave. goals conceded	0.9	0.7

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Category: La Liga | Comments : 2

Bayern, Lyon march to semis

Thursday, 8th April 2010 7:08am
Bayern Munich dumped Manchester United out of this season's UEFA Champions League after losing the second leg tie 3-2 but won the tie on away goals rule.

Bayern won the first tie 2-1 a week ago and a 3-2 loss gave them meant they would win the tie on the away goals rule.

United went 3-nil up in the first half but Bayern scored in each half to make sure United did not advance to the final four for the first time in three years.

In the all French affair, Lyon lost to Bordeaux 1-nil but won 3-2 on aggregate having won the first leg 3-1.

The result means that Bayern will meet Lyon in the semis and the winner will meet the winner between Barcelona and Inter Milan in the final at the Bernabeau.

Its interesting to see that only one team Barcelona, playing the second leg at home managed to advance to the next stage. The other three teams all failed.

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Category: Champions League | Comments : 0

Ferguson joins Perth Glory

Thursday, 8th April 2010 6:58am
Ian Ferguson has left the troubled North Queensland Fury to join Perth Glory as assistant coach.

Ferguson held a similar position at the Central Coast Mariners before he became the foundation coach at Fury.

Ferguson's Fury finished the season just outside the finals places despite anchoring the table for most of the season.

Although the team finished seventh, Fury conceded the most number of goals in the league and also the team had the worst goal difference.

Here is a quick summary of Ferguson's Fury for the 2009/10 season:

Ferguson's Fury
Team	NQ Fury
Played	27
Points	32
Rank	7
Won	8
Drawn	8
Lost	11
Goal difference	-17
Clean sheets	4
Failed to score	7
Goals scored	29
Goals conceded	46
Ave. goals scored	1.1
Ave. goals conceded	1.7
Biggest win	Gold Coast 0 - 2 NQ Fury
Biggest loss	Gold Coast 5 - 0 NQ Fury
Scored 3 or more	1
Conceded 3 or more	7
Home matches
Played	13
Points	21
Won	6
Drawn	3
Lost	4
Goal difference	-2
Goals scored	16
Goals conceded	18
Ave. goals scored	1.2
Ave. goals conceded	1.4
Away matches
Played	14
Points	11
Won	2
Drawn	5
Lost	7
Goal difference	-15
Goals scored	13
Goals conceded	28
Ave. goals scored	0.9
Ave. goals conceded	2.0

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Category: A-League | Comments : 0

Barca dismiss Gunners to reach semis

Thursday, 8th April 2010 12:01am
Defending champions Barcelona reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals after beating Arsenal 4-1 at the Nou Camp.

The first leg at the Emirates was drawn 2-all and therefore the Gunners needed to win or a draw with more than two goals but Barca won 6-3 on aggregate with four goals by Lionel Messi.

Inter Milan won its match against CSKA Moscow 1-nil to win 2-nil on aggregate and will now meet Barca in the semis.

The two teams were drawn together in the same group in the group stages.

As a reminder here was the final group F standings:

Group F

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	For	Against	GD	Pts
Barcelona	6	3	2	1	7	3	4	11
Inter Milan	6	2	3	1	7	6	1	9
Rubin	6	1	3	2	4	7	-3	6
Dynamo Kiev	6	1	2	3	7	9	-2	5

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Category: Champions League | Comments : 0

Victory tops second half performance

Wednesday, 7th April 2010 11:51pm
Melbourne Victory proved to be the best team in the second half in the 2009/10 going by the second half table.

The second half ladder looks at the second half result only and the Victory collected 48 points in the second half.

For comparison the final A-League table is here. So here is the second half table:

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	For	Against	GD	Pts
Melbourne Victory	27	13	9	5	25	11	14	48
Wellington Phoenix	27	9	12	6	22	15	7	39
Gold Coast	27	9	12	6	24	20	4	39
Sydney	27	9	12	6	18	14	4	39
Perth Glory	27	8	11	8	20	20	0	35
NQ Fury	27	8	11	8	19	25	-6	35
Central Coast Mariners	27	6	16	5	16	15	1	34
Newcastle Jets	27	7	8	12	14	22	-8	29
Brisbane Roar	27	6	9	12	16	25	-9	27
Adelaide Utd	27	5	10	12	13	20	-7	25

Its interesting to see that the two bottom teams on this table finished in those same positions in the real table.

At this point it could be worthwhile maybe to look at the trend between winning at half time and winning the match in the end and the table below shows the trend for the 2009/10 season:

.

Trend	Frequency	Percentage(%)
Home team leading at half time, home team winning at full time	46	43.4
Away team leading at half time, away team winning at full time	22	20.8
Home team trailing at half time, home team winning at full time	2	1.9
Away team trailing at half time, away team winning at full time	2	1.9
Draw at half time, home team winning at full time	22	20.8
Draw at half time, away team winning at full time	12	11.3
Matches ending in result	106	74.6

Basically in the majority of cases, the team leading at half time goes on to win at the end of the match.

In only four matches did teams losing at half time go on to win at full time.

There will another post later comparing the trends in the A-League with the trends in the English Premier League, Champions League and La Liga.

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Category: A-League | Comments : 0

Newcastle back in top flight

Tuesday, 6th April 2010 1:56pm
Newcastle United got promoted into the English Premiership after beating Sheffield United 2-1.

The result leaves the team with 89 points from 41 matches and only second placed West Bromwich Albion can catch them now.

Newcastle has an impressive home record. They are unbeaten at St James Park so far after 21 matches and have dropped just eight points.

This is a swift return to the top flight by Newcastle having been relegated last season.

The battle to join Newcastle for an automatic promotion place is now between West Brom and Nottingham Forest.

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Category: English Premiership | Comments : 0