Soccer: 12/3 Round-up

[Dmac]

12/3 Round-up

UEFA Cup

Spurs head coach Juande Ramos's hopes of winning a third successive Uefa Cup were ended in a penalty shootout as his side lost 6-5 to PSV Eindhoven.

Jermaine Jenas had a chance to win the shootout in Holland but his tame effort was saved by PSV keeper Heurelho Gomes.

Pascal Chimbonda then missed the 12th spot-kick as his effort rolled wide.

Dimitar Berbatov ensured the game went to extra-time and ultimately penalties with a superb second-half volley after Chimbonda swept over a cross.

Everton suffered Uefa Cup heartbreak as they lost to Fiorentina on penalies.

Andrew Johnson's bundled early goal and Mikel Arteta's stunning 67th-minute strike drew the tie level as Everton dominated the last 16 tie.

But Fiorentina goalkeeper Sebastien Frey produced a string of brilliant saves to keep Everton at bay.

Yakubu hit the post with his penalty in the shoot-out and Frey saved from Phil Jagielka, but Fiorentina hit the target each time for a 4-2 win on penalties.

Premiership

Frank Lampard scored four goals as Chelsea put their FA Cup nightmare at Barnsley behind them to demolish Derby.

Lampard slotted in a penalty after he was fouled by Dean Leacock, before Salomon Kalou knocked in the second.

Joe Cole crossed for Lampard to make it 3-0, Cole stroked home after Nicolas Anelka's shot was saved and Lampard sealed his hat-trick from 25 yards.

Lampard made it 6-0 with a left-foot finish inside the box before David Jones rolled in a Derby consolation.

A first-half Jermain Defoe brace and goals from Hermann Hreidarsson and Kanu secured Portsmouth victory in a thrilling encounter at Fratton Park.

Defoe opened the scoring from the spot after David Murphy had handled, and soon after he made it 2-0 - tucking the ball home from close range.

Fabrice Muamba replied by volleying in a corner from Sebastian Larsson, who curled in a superb free-kick to level.

Hreidarsson bundled home for 3-2 before Kanu's late header secured victory.

Gareth Barry's penalty rescued a point for Aston Villa against Middlesbrough.

The England star struck home from the spot in the second half after Luke Young was harshly judged to have handled Ashley Young's shot.

Tonight is a sad night for English football, after having all 4 English teams in the Champions League advance to the Quarter Finals, we wanted to see the same happen for the UEFA Cup. I'll admit it, I despise Everton with a passion but when it comes down to it, they are representing England against an Italian team and the obvious choice is to root for the English team. The same goes to Spurs now I actually like Spurs but they are again on paper in Europe just an English team. Both teams did really well to equalise the aggregate scores, Spurs with 1 and Everton with 2 it just turns out that the luck of the night was not on the shoulders of England which is a shame and on a side note, now Everton are out of Europe they have more time to concentrate on the Premiership, which is not good at all for Liverpool.

As for the tonight's Premiership games, it was a goals galore night with 15 goals in total coming from 3 games. Now Chelsea to beat Derby is a no brainer and I have been saying for weeks that with all of their players now back, players returned from the African Cup of Nations as well as the very important returns of Lampard and the skipper Mr. Terry. A game against Derby could be just what the doctor ordered, especially for Lampard, he was on fire tonight with 4 goals and ever as a Liverpool fan it is good to see him back on form. The only thing that pisses me off about that is that I was going to pick him for a return in my Fantasy Football team and then decided against it. The Portsmouth/Birmingham game was bound to have quite a few goals due to the fact that the first 3 goals came in the first 9 minutes of the game which would lead eventually to a total of 6, putting Portsmouth back to winning ways in the Premier League which is also nice to see. On a final note I love the fact that Stewart Downing scored tonight, it's about time he did.

Thanks for reading guys, thoughts?

[Black Widow]

gutted spurs got knocked out they were doing really well in it..

6-1 go chelsea where was this result against barnsley

[Dmac]

Magic of the cup Ryno, beleive the hype but as I keep saying over and over where no one seems to listen, the magic of the cup wears off on the Final, in the Final the better team wins in which should Portsmouth make it to the Final it will be them.

[Black Widow]

Portsmouth v Barnsley i think will probably be the final

[Dmac]

I would prefer it to be Portsmouth vs Cardiff to be honest, not because I hold a grudge, because of the fact that I would like to see West Brom in Europe because they would be more capable.