Hi

Well, I’ve been away from soccer for about 10 days, on holiday (vacation) and had a wonderful time so with the batteries now re-charged I’m trying to catch up on all the inevitable emails etc….

Will be back in the world of Soccer soon so stay tuned!

Bye for now
The Soccer Blogger

It looks as though if Spurs, (Britain’s only survivor in this year’s competition), are going to progress to the Semi Finals they are going to have to do it the hard way. They have been drawn against the current holders Sevilla in the last eight but at least the second leg will be at White Hart Lane. I think most teams would rather have the away leg first.

Should Spurs beat Sevilla they will either meet another Spanish team, Osasuna or German side Bayer Leverkusen in the Semi Final.

AZ Alkmaar’s reward for beating Newcastle last night is a tie against German side Werder Bremen.

Here is the full Quarter and Semi Final draw made earlier today:

Quarter-final draw

AZ Alkmaar v Werder Bremen
Bayer Leverkusen v Osasuna
Sevilla v TOTTENHAM
Espanyol v Benfica

(Ties to be played on 5 and 12 April)

Semi-final draw

Espanyol or Benfica v AZ Alkmaar or Werder Bremen
Bayer Leverkusen or Osasuna v Sevilla or TOTTENHAM

(Ties to be played 26 April and 3 May)

The Soccer Blogger

The current Uefa Cup holders, Spanish side Sevilla, edged into the quarter-finals in a dramatic 3-2 win last night against Shakhtar Donetsk in extra-time.

It was a truly remarkable game. The unlikely player to send the tie into extra time was the Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop and Javier Chevanton scored the vital winning goal on 105 minutes.

The first game in Spain ended in a 2-2 draw and the Spanish side were facing a bit of an up hill struggle to continue the defence of their crown by making it through to the last eight.

Shakhtar struck the post late in the first half before they took the lead four minutes into the second half.

However, only just four minutes later Sevilla were level with a goal scored in similar fashion.

But Shakhtar only regained the lead again on 83 minutes when Matuzalem turned provider for Elano to finish clinically. Before that Shakhtar had actually hit the post again!

Understandably, Sevilla were now throwing everyone and everything forward in search of the necessary equaliser, and it was the goalkeeper who proved be to the unlikely hero when he headed home Alves’ corner four minutes into injury-time.

But there was more drama to follow as Sevilla then grabbed the winning goal at the end of the first period of extra-time as Chevanton accepted a pass from Luis Fabiano to send the holders through 5-4 on aggregate. Quite a game and the holders are through to the last eight again.

The Soccer Blogger

Not a good night for Newcastle United. Their fans must be wondering if they will ever win another trophy again. What do they have to do? I mean the term “sleeping giant” must have be coined with Newcastle and the Toon Army in mind!

With a 4 - 2 home win secured at St James’ Park they must have fancied their chances of securing a spot in the last eight of the competition and maybe that was the problem. Perhaps they didn’t take AZ Alkmaar seriously enough because they outplayed and outclassed Newcastle and I didn’t think I’d say that. But ultimately, it was the two away away a fortnight ago that saw AZ through.

Understandably, the Newcastle manager, Glenn Roeder wasn’t best pleased to let the lead and the game slip through Newcastle’s fingers and he blamed their defensive errors on not being in the hat for the next round.

Roeder stated, “They are not good goals we conceded. Too often crosses come into our box, they are not defended properly and bad decisions are made.

“I have to find defenders who are good enough to play in front of Shay Given. Shay Given is a is a top drawer keeper but he does not get the protection he should get. He is exposed far too easily.

“Too many defenders make too many mistakes that cost us points.

“They do well, you are happy with them and you think they have learnt. Then ‘bang’ they go and make the same mistake again and let you down.” We did not have enough players who came out and performed, which was a surprise and unexpected.

Told you he wasn’t happy!! Go on Glenn, sing us a song!

Bet it was fun in the changing room after the game! On the other hand, the AZ manager and ex Barcelona boss, Louis Van Gaal, must have been delighted at the way his team played and fought back.

The Soccer Blogger

The Soccer Blogger understands that the new Uefa president, Michel Platini, is considering changes to the Champions League format which would result in teams from Engalnd, Italy, and Spain having to play each other to qualify for the Champions League.

Platini suggested that Europe’s major leagues’ lowest-placed qualifiers were finding it too easy to qualify. I’ve always thought that. I mean you call the competition “The Champions League” and yet any old team can get into it. It should now be called “The European Cup” like it used to be. “The Champions League” would have been a far better name before, or is it just me? Apart from the fact it wasn’t a League format in those days!!

Anyway, Platini has said that, “It’s not about disturbing England, Italy or Spain, but about finding a balance.

“Perhaps teams from bigger countries, who have four and three qualifying teams, should play against each other.

“My problem is that the two English, Spanish and Italian teams in the final qualifying round do not play against each other, they play against smaller teams.

“We want to add some of the other countries to the competition and to do that we have take some of the others away.

“I’m not sure that the fourth clubs from Spain, Italy and England are more important than the champions of Poland, the Czech Republic and Denmark.”

I suppose it’s a balancing act between trying to make it a little fairer for the so called smaller clubs from the smaller countries and having the biggest teams as possible get through to the knock-out stages. Would the fans, neutral or otherwise, really have wanted a qualifying game between say, Man Utd and Liverpool or to see the same two teams potentially play in the Final? I know which game would get my vote!

Any changes to the format would not come into force until the 2009-10 season.

The Soccer Blogger