CAN MESSI PUT IN A MATCH WINNING PERFORMANCE TO SEAL THE BALLON D'OR?

On Sunday evening when Real Madrid visit Barcelona to tango in El Clasico, both Madridistas and Cules will - along with the more general fans of football - be able to relish in the opportunity to watch a match featuring two Ballon d’Or winners and one soon-to-be-crowned World Player of the Year.

In 2007, Kaka took home the coveted trophy after winning the Champions League with AC Milan; Cristiano Ronaldo came in second while Lionel Messi came in third. In 2008, Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded the accolade whiles Messi came in second in that year’s vote.

Now, after winning the Spanish Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Champions League, the Spanish Super Cup and the European Super Cup, Messi will more than likely win this accolade.  But the question is if Messi can put in a performance to hush all critics and show the world he is better than CR9?

CL ROUND UP

Can Liverpool have yet another great escape? Will Inter and Barca produce a classic? Also can Bayern produce a miracle to progress?
This year is the year of the under dog as teams such as Rubin, Keiv, Fioretina and Standard Leige are producing results that were not expected of them when the draw was made for the group stages of the tournament. This has added  a belief that the so called lower teams are playing with spirit and heart and have nothing to lost and won't be intimidated by the European power houses such as Barca, Inter etc.
Live streaming for games available at:

http://justin.tv
http://ustream.tv
http://p2p4u.net
TVU networks

CR9 FIT

CR9 has been included in Real Madrid's squad for their Champions League Group C clash with FC Zurich on Wednesday. Ronaldo has missed Real's last 10 games with an ankle injury and was also unable to play in Portugal's World Cup qualifying play-off with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The current FIFA World Player of the Year has not played for Pellegrini's side since their Champions League tie against Marseille on September 30. He did appear for Portugal in their final World Cup qualification group game against Hungary on 10 October, but limped off early after aggravating the injury.

However, the 24-year-old returned to full training on Friday and could now feature against Zurich at the Bernabeu.

SHOULD THE IRISH GET A REPLAY

Irish officials are looking into a loop hole to obtain the match between Ireland and France being replayed.
After the climax of last night events FAI officials are looking into this. With Robbie Keane heavily blasting FIFA President and UEFA President Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, many football purists feel the Irish have been hard done by the referees poor decision and not to mention his assistant who had a birds-eye view of the incident.
I personal do not believe the game should be played over but I do think for future matches the seeding process should be banned and the teams to be drawn from the same pool placing anyone against anyone.
What are your views?

FINAL BOW...LE MAIN EU LES BLEU

France are have finally made it to the dance knocking off a very well organised Irish team. Henry handled a ball into his path before crossing it to William Gallas to nod home an extra time equaliser to give France a 2-1 aggregate victory.
Elsewhere is Europe Greece qualify with a 1-0 win over Ukraine in a very dull and somewhat boring encounter. The Greeks are happy to have made the dance following the disappointment of missing in Germany 2006. Portugal are also through, the semifinalist of 2006 were made to labour by a very good and surprising Bosnia team. Raul Meireles scored the only goal of the second leg giving the short-handed Portuguese a 2-0 aggregate victory.
And in the shock of the day Slovenia beat Russia 2-2 on away goals. Slovenia who looked very good deserved their passage to the dance and will be a force to be reckoned with if underestimated.
Uruguay, Algeria and New Zealand are the others fully through to the dance.

WHO IS SOUTH AFRICA BOUND??

With the world cup next summer the final tune ups are being made with playoff action going in Europe, South America, Oceanic etc. New Zealand are through and Portugal, Russia, Ukraine and France plan to books their tickets to next years tourney. Uruguay and Costa Rica are also veighing for a spot as well.
Have your on who goes World Cup in this debate and be sure to view the games with online streaming by ustream.tv, justin.tv and p2p4u.net