A Football Report

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We’re happy to bring you our first feast of football for your ears in 2011 with the 8th episode of the A Football Report Podcast. This time on the AFR Podcast we were grateful to have Iain Macintosh (UK correspondent for The New Paper) in the figurative AFR house alongside Oliver Sparrow (London), Dominic Vieira (Lancaster), Eric Beard (Boston), and Darshan Joshi (Kuala Lumpur). Topics included an insight on Iain’s world of sport journalism, the Kenny Dalglish appointment and Gerrard’s red card, contrasting the respective ownerships of Liverpool and Blackburn, Manchester United’s debt and Fergie’s successor, Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent claiming he will be the best player in the history of football, and Messi winning the Ballon d’Or and his fate to be at Barcelona. We also mention Ronaldinho’s affection for beer and pies and why the Brazilian would have loved growing up in Wigan, amongst other things.

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By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

Tonight at Wembley a resurgent England face a Montenegro side who have perhaps unexpectedly won their first three qualifying games. The side from former Yugoslavia lie top of the table with 9 points after consecutive 1-0 victories over Wales, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Their most recent win has left manager of the Swiss team Ottmar Hitzfeld in a precarious position after calls for his resignation from the Swiss media and fans alike.

After splitting their international football partnership with neighbouring Serbia, Montenegro have made swift progress up the FIFA rankings, rising from 199^th to 40^th in three short years, and that position is likely to be even higher after victory over Switzerland. Their performance so far in their group is a far cry from that of their 2010 World Cup qualification campaign in which they finished 5^th in their group below lowly Cyprus.

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(Source: matchcentre)

By Amy Quinn, writing from Dublin

The eve is upon us, and looking around me, I find it inherently strange that there are Liverpool fans with calm heads. No other game gives me quite the same sense of uneasiness, a knot in my stomach. Obviously, it’s a wonderful match to win, but it’s a difficult, if never very surprising, match to lose. Coming from a town and a family that seems to contain representation from both of England’s most successful sides, there will be no shortage of banter tomorrow. My contribution to said banter will be delivered from under some piece of furniture, probably, as I shelter from the fallout.

Somehow, nothing quite stresses me like this fixture. I am never optimistic about our chances, even when there is every reason to be. Most of my childhood was spent only watching these North Lancashire derby ties. Certainly it is a match that raises pulses and sizzles with intensity. Some people enjoy those matches that are like a stretched elastic - bursting with kinetic energy, ready to pop at any given moment. For me, it means constant nausea and near-heart attacks. Yes, I do take football too seriously.

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Rafa Benitez’s 6 year Liverpool reign was terminated today. In his first season the Spaniard won the club’s fifth Champions League title. Other honours were winning the European Super Cup in 2005, FA Cup and Community Shield in 2006. But he failed to win the Premier League which has escaped the team’s grasp for 20 years.

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