2013年5月31日星期五
Wigan midfielder Ben Watson hails FA Cup winning goal as 'dream come true'
Wigan midfielder Ben Watson has hailed his last minute FA Cup winning goal in
the 1-0 win over Manchester City as a "dream come true".After 90 minutes without
a goal, Watson's header broke the deadlock in injury time as the Latics
capitalised on their man advantage following Pablo Zabaleta's late dismissal. FA
CUP LATEST1/3Wigan are 1/3 with michael kors 2013 Outlet
BetVictor to be relegatedThe 27-year-old, out with a broken leg for the majority
of the season, heralded his team's performance against last season's Premier
League champions and felt Wigan more than merited the win."I've got to say, for
95 minutes today, we were outstanding. [It was] Fully deserved. I think we
played Man City off the pitch," he told ESPN."And to come on and score the
winner is a dream come true. I had a gamble at the louis vuitton Outlet near post and
thankfully it came off."Watson moved on to emphasise the importance of switching
their focus to Premier League survival, while he was also eager to praise the
people at the club that helped him after he broke his leg against Liverpool back
in November."Yeah, it was a huge win. We know we've got two more games in the
league and if we perform like that, we won't be far away. So we'll enjoy it for
the rest of the day and then we'll crack on again tomorrow," he continued."It
was a long six michael kors
Outlet months. I worked hard, [and] was around some good people
that got me through those six months. It's a dream come true."
Why Real Madrid are a different team to the one which lost to Dortmund in October
COMMENTBy Ben Hayward | Spanish Football WriterAnd now for something completely
different. Jose Mourinho said on Tuesday that he hoped Real Madrid would be much
more solid in Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg at Dortmund than
in October's Group D defeat at BVB.They almost certainly will be because
Mourinho announced a starting line-up featuring Fabio Coentrao at left-back and
Sergio Ramos on the right, with Pepe and Raphael Varane in the centre of
defence. In the group game, injuries on international duty to Marcelo (also
sidelined now), Alvaro Arbeloa (suspended this time) and Coentrao forced the
Portuguese coach to field Michael Essien at left-back - and the Ghanaian was
easily exposed by BVB's brilliant forwards. Indeed, as if to rub it in, it was a
left-back, Marcel Schmelzer, who hit the winner for last season's Bundesliga
champions. The lesson has been learned.But there is much more to it than that.
Despite defeat in the group game michael kors Outlet and an
unconvincing 2-2 draw at home (when Mesut Ozil rescued a point with an
89th-minute free kick), Madrid look like favourites to overcome Jurgen Klopp's
men this time around. Because, quite simply, this is a different team to the one
which looked lost and lacklustre on that night in late October.PEP LENDS A
HELPING HANDIt was inadvertent, of course, but Pep Guardiola may have helped
rivals Real Madrid in their semi-final tie with Dortmund, after it was announced
on Tuesday morning that BVB forward Mario Gotze would be moving to Bayern Munich
in the summer.Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp later revealed the 20-year-old had been
attracted by the possibility of playing under Guardiola, while Bayern claimed
they had planned to wait until after the first leg to announce the signing but
had been forced to confirm the news after Bild revealed the deal on Monday
night.Real Madrid have won just one of 24 competitive games in Germany (and have
lost 17 of those), but beat Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals on the way to
the Champions League crown in 1998.Back then, Mourinho's men were in turmoil.
Cristiano Ronaldo had complained publicly of mistreatment from his club amid
rumours he would be off at the end of the current campaign or even in January,
while reports of player mutinies and dressing-room moles brought bad press to
the side and, in particular, Mourinho. In the meantime, louis vuitton Outlet La Liga was
already slipping away. All of the good work from the previous season and the
early promise after beating Barcelona in the Spanish Supercopa had been rapidly
undone. The loss in Dortmund was Madrid's third reverse of the season and two
more followed before Christmas. With La Liga lost, it was time to regroup after
Christmas. But instead of getting better, things initially got worse: Iker
Casillas fractured his hand at Valencia in the Copa del Rey and Mourinho was hit
by more negative press as Marca claimed club captains Casillas and Ramos had
handed an ultimatum to president Florentino Perez: "Presi, either Mourinho
leaves, or we will..."That turned out to be a watershed moment in the club's
season. Florentino faced the press, the same Madrid media which had bent over
backwards to support his michael kors 2013 Outlet
return to the club in 2009 and welcomed Mourinho as coach the following year.
They had gone too far, he said, and accused Marca of publishing lies.The
newspaper responded by printing an offending text message on their front page
under the headline: "Marca doesn't lie." But Madrid had taken a stand and the
whole episode appeared to help the club unite for the tough tests ahead.In goal,
Diego Lopez had been signed as cover for the injured Iker and the former Madrid
canterano proved to be a talisman. He made an impressive debut in the Copa del
Rey semi-final first leg against Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu, which the
two teams drew 1-1, and stayed in the side for the 3-1 win at Camp Nou and the
last-16 success over Manchester United, when he earned praise from Sir Alex
Ferguson. "Casillas wouldn't have saved the shots that the boy Lopez did," the
Scot said after Madrid's 2-1 win at Old Trafford.That game also saw summer
signing Luka Modric pay back a large chunk of his transfer fee with a wonder
goal which got Madrid back in it, while the emergence of Raphael Varane in
defence helped the club negotiate the biggest of tests. In the two Copa Clasico
clashes, his performances proved pivotal, with two headed goals and a number of
saving tackles swinging the tie in Madrid's favour. Furthermore, strikers Karim
Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain are now scoring again after a series of poor
performances earlier on in the campaign, while Xabi Alonso is looking imperious
and Ozil has found his brilliant best just at the right time, having netted
twice in each of the last two Liga games.And then, of course, there's Ronaldo.
The Portuguese forward has had the unconditional support of the Madrid faithful
since missing out on the Ballon d'Or to Lionel Messi in early January and has
saved his finest football for the very biggest games since then. He scored a
double at Barcelona, one in each match against Manchester United and three of
Madrid's five versus Galatasaray to take his Champions League tally to 11 in 10
games this term. His early-season sadness is firmly in the past and, earlier
this week, Perez assured socios that he would soon be signing a new deal at the
Santiago Bernabeu.So suddenly, everything is looking rosy again for Real Madrid.
The momentum is well and truly with the Spanish side and even key decisions
appear to be going their way, notably Nani's dubious dismissal at Old Trafford
in the last 16. Whether the universe is indeed conspiring to help Mourinho's men
claim La Decima remains to be seen, but one thing is certain - this team is
much, much stronger than the one which lost in Dortmund back in October. And
that's more bad news for BVB. Follow Ben Hayward on
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