Betfair

"From a betting odds perspective, what is the most unlikely thing to have happened in football?" wondered Paul Griffiths back in 2005.
 
"The longest odds for a single result would either have been:

500-1 USA beat England 1-0 in 1950,

500-1 Hungary beat England 6-3 at Wembley in 1953

500-1 Manchester City's remarkable FA Cup fourth-round replay win at Tottenham back in 2004. Spurs led 3-0, but City – with 10 men – stormed back to win 4-3.

999-1  Back in January, Internazionale trailed Sampdoria 2-0  in the 88th minute  of their Serie A clash. "With maximum odds of 1,000 against (the equivalent of 999-1) available, the price was snapped up by a Berkshire man," says company spokesman, Tony Calvin. "Then Obafemi Martins scored in the 88th minute, before Christian Vieri and Alvaro Recoba won the game for Inter in injury time. The punter had scooped almost a grand for his £1 staked.

 Our previous high was 'only' a winning bet at 550 (549-1) on the draw, when a Cameroon side came back from 5-0 down to finish 5-5 against Portugal at the Under-17 World Championships in 2003."

Argintena

"Inter's 2-0 win over Catania last week kicked off with 13 Argentinians on the pitch
Esteban Cambiasso,
Diego Milito,
Rodrigo Palacio,
Walter Samuel and
Javier Zanetti for Inter,
Sergio Almirón,
Pablo Alvarez,
Mariano Andújar,
Pablo Barrientos,
Gonzalo Bergessio,
Alejandro Gómez,
Mariano Izco,
Nicolás Spolli for Catania),"

writes Todd Ashton. "A further three came on as substitutes (
Ricardo Alvarez for Inter,
 Lucas Castro and
Adrian Ricchiuti for Catania

So of the 27 players used in the match, 16 were born in Argentina and for the last 20 minutes 14 of them were playing together."

Poli II Timisoara

"I was recently digging up the history of many cup tournaments and I found out that in 1980 Real Madrid played their reserve squad in the final of the Copa del Rey," wrote Svilen Tomov last week. "Is this the only occurrence anywhere, or has it happened more than once?"

Not that we know of, Svilen, but there have been a few close misses. First, though, let's take a look at that remarkable cup run of Castilla CF, Real's reserve team. They began with two-leg wins over Extremadura, Alcorcon (who a couple of years ago embarrassed the full Madrid side), and Racing Santander before taking on the big boys of La Liga.

Hércules (who finished 15th in the top flight) were beaten first, then Athletic Bilbao (seventh), Real Sociedad (runners-up) and finally Sporting Gijón (who came third behind Sociedad and Real) in the semi-finals. 

The adventure wasn't over, though. With Real winning the title, Castilla became Spain's entrants in the 1980-81 Cup Winners' Cup, the only reserve side ever to compete in European competition (at least until English sides started fielding theirs in the Uefa Cup). It was a brief but eventful campaign. In the first round they beat a West Ham side including Trevor Brooking et al 3-1 at the Bernabéu, but violence at the game meant the return leg was played behind closed doors. The Hammers won 3-1 in 90 minutes and the 262 spectators who had somehow crept into Upton Park saw David Cross score twice in extra-time to complete his hat-trick and send the English side through 6-4 on aggregate.  

Ajax's second team were just a penalty shootout away from meeting their first XI in the 2001-02 Dutch Cup final, reports Tom Adams on Twitter. Having beaten De Graafschap in the third round, Twente in round four and Telstar in the quarter-finals, Ajax II's cup run came to an end against Utrecht in the last four, 7-6 on penalties after a 2-2 draw. (It was quite a young side that Ajax II had back then: Maarten Stekelenburg, Petri Pasanen, Abubakari Yakubu, Jelle van Damme, Steven Pienaar, Nigel de Jong, Wesley Sneijder, Michael Krohn-Dehli, Cedric van der Gun, Jason Culina, Johnny Heitinga and Tim de Cler all featured at various points in the season).

Austria Vienna had a very similar tale to Ajax in the 2008-09 Austrian Cup, with the reserve team beaten by FC Admira in the semi-finals while the first XI went on to win the tournament.

Also close were Hertha Berlin in the 1992-93 German Cup, but it was the first team that, ahem, let the side down. Hertha were dumped out by Bayer Leverkusen in the round of 16, but their reserve team battled all the way to the final, where they were also beaten by Bayer. 

And also deserving of a mention are Sparta Prague B, who reached the Czech Cup semi-finals in 1970-71 having beaten the Sparta first team in the quarter-finals.

THE ECONOMIST’S FEAR OF THE PENALTY KICK: Are Penalties Cosmically Unfair, or Only If You Are Nicolas Anelka?

 PIECES OF PAPER IN STUTTGART, MUNICH, BERLIN, AND MOSCOW

The problem for experienced penalty takers and goalkeepers is that over time, they build up track records. People come to spot any habits they might have—always shooting left, or always diving right, for instance. Levitt and his colleagues observed “one goalie in the sample who jumps left on all eight kicks that he faces (only two of eight kicks against him go to the left, suggesting that his proclivity for jumping left is not lost on the kickers).”

There have probably always been people in the game tracking the past behavior of kickers and keepers. Back in the 1970s, a Dutch manager named Jan Reker began to build up an archive of index cards on thousands of players. One thing he noted was where the player hit his penalties. The Dutch keeper Hans van Breukelen would often call Reker before an international match for a briefing.

Nobody paid much attention to this relationship until 1988. That May, Van Breukelen’s PSV reached the European Cup final against Benfica. Before the match in Stuttgart, the keeper phoned Reker. Inevitably, the game went to a penalty shoot-out. At first Reker’s index cards didn’t seem to be helping much—Benfica’s first five penalties all went in—but Van Breukelen saved the sixth kick from Veloso, and PSV was the European champion. A month later, so was Holland. They were leading the USSR 2–0 in the final in Munich when a silly charge by Van Breukelen conceded a penalty. But using Reker’s database, he saved Igor Belanov’s weak kick.

In Berlin in 2006, the World Cup quarter-final of Germany-Argentina also went to penalties. Jens Lehmann, the German keeper, stood in goal with a crib sheet tucked into his sock. On a page of hotel notepaper (“Schlosshotel, Grunewald,” it said), the German keeper’s trainer, Andreas Köpke, had jotted down the proclivities of some potential Argentine penalty takers:

1. Riquelme left

2. Crespo long run-up/right

                short run-up/left

3. Heinze left low

4. Ayala 2 [His shirt number, presumably given for fear that Lehmann would not recognize him]

                 waits long time, long run-up right

5. Messi left

6. Aimar 16, waits long time, left

7. Rodriquez 18, left

[ce dracu' de portar il stie pe Messi in 2006 dar nu il stie pe Ayala??]

Apparently, the Germans had a database of thirteen thousand kicks. The crib sheet might just have tipped the balance. Of the seven Argentines on the list, only Ayala and Rodriquez actually took penalties. However, Ayala stuck exactly to Lehmann’s plan: he took a long run up, the keeper waited a long time, and when Ayala dutifully shot to Lehmann’s right, the keeper saved. Rodriquez also did his best to oblige. He put the ball in Lehmann’s left-hand corner as predicted, but hit it so well that the keeper couldn’t reach.

By the time of Argentina’s fourth penalty, Germany was leading 4–2. If Lehmann could save Esteban Cambiasso’s kick, the Germans would maintain their record of never losing a penalty shoot-out in a World Cup. Lehmann consulted his crib sheet. Sönke Wortmann, the German film director, who was following the German team for a fly-on-the-wall documentary, reports what happened next: “Lehmann could find no indication on his note of how Cambiasso would shoot. And yet the piece of paper did its job, because Lehmann stood looking at it for a long time. Köpke had written it in pencil, the note was crumpled and the writing almost illegible.”

Wortmann says that as Cambiasso prepared to take his kick, he must have been thinking, “What do they know?” The Germans knew nothing. But Cambiasso was psyched out nonetheless. Lehmann saved his shot, and afterward there was a massive brawl on the field.

Both Van Breukelen’s and Lehmann’s stories have been told before. What is not publicly known is that Chelsea received an excellent crib sheet before the Champions League final in Moscow in 2008.

In 1995, the Basque economist Ignacio Palacios-Huerta, who was then a graduate student at the University of Chicago, began recording the way penalties were taken. His paper, “Professionals Play Minimax,” was published in 2003.

One friend of Ignacio who knew about his research was a professor of economics and mathematics at an Israeli university. It so happened that this man was also a friend of Avram Grant. When Grant’s Chelsea reached the final in Moscow in 2008, the professor realized that Ignacio’s research might help Grant. He put the two men in touch. Ignacio then sent Grant a report that made four points about Manchester United and penalties:

1. Van der Sar tended to dive to the kicker’s “natural side” more often than most keepers did. This meant that when facing a rightfooted kicker, Van der Sar would usually dive to his own right, and when facing a left-footed kicker, to his own left. So Chelsea rightfooted penalty takers would have a better chance if they shot to their “unnatural side,” Van der Sar’s left.

2. Huerta emphasized in his report that “the vast majority of the penalties that Van der Sar stops are those kicked to a mid-height (say, between 1 and 1.5 meters), and hence that penalties against him should be kicked just on the ground or high up.”

3. Cristiano Ronaldo was another special case. Ignacio wrote in the report: “Ronaldo often stops in the run-up to the ball. If he stops, he is likely (85%) to kick to the right hand side of the goalkeeper.” Ignacio added that Ronaldo seemed able to change his mind about where to put the ball at the very last instant. That meant it was crucial for the opposing keeper not to move early. When a keeper moved early, Ronaldo always scored.

4. The team that wins the toss before the shoot-out gets to choose whether to go first. But this is a  no-brainer: it should always go first. Teams going first win 60 percent of the time, presumably because there is too much pressure on the team going second, which is always having to score to save the game.

Ignacio doesn’t know how his research was used, but watching the shoot-out on TV, he was certain it was. Indeed, once you know the content of Ignacio’s note, it’s fascinating to study the shoot-out on YouTube. The Chelsea players seem to have followed his advice almost to the letter—except for poor Anelka.

United’s captain, Rio Ferdinand, won the toss, and turned to the bench to ask what to do. Terry tried to influence him by offering to go first. Unsurprisingly, Ferdinand ignored him. United went first, meaning that they were now likely to win. Carlos Tevez scored from the first kick.

Michael Ballack hit Chelsea’s first penalty high into the net to Van der Sar’s left. Juliano Belletti scored low to Van der Sar’s left. Ignacio had recommended that Chelsea’s right-footed kickers choose that side. But at this early stage, he still couldn’t be sure that Chelsea was being guided by his report. He told us later, “Interestingly, my wife had been quite skeptical about the whole thing as I was preparing the report for Coach Grant, not even interested in looking at it. But then the game went into extra time, and then into a penalty shoot-out. Well, still skeptical.”

At this point Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up to take his kick for United. Watching on TV, Ignacio told his wife the precise advice he had given Chelsea in his report: Chelsea’s keeper shouldn’t move early, and if Cristiano paused in his run-up, he would most probably hit the ball to the keeper’s right. To Ignacio’s delight, Chelsea’s keeper, Petr Cech, stayed motionless— “not even blinking,” in the Spanish football phrase. Then, exactly as Ignacio had recommended, Cech dived to his right and duly saved Ronaldo’s shot. Ignacio recalled later, “After that, I started to believe that they were following the advice quite closely.” As for his wife, “I think she was a bit shocked.”

What’s astonishing—though it seems to have passed unnoticed at the time—is what happened after that. Chelsea’s next four penalty takers, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, John Terry, and Salomon Kalou, all hit the ball to Van der Sar’s left, just as Ballack and Belletti had done. In other words, the first six Chelsea kicks went to the same corner.

Ashley Cole was the only one of the six who partly disregarded Ignacio’s advice. Cole was left-footed, so when he hit the ball to Van der Sar’s left, he was shooting to his own “natural side”—the side that Ignacio had said Van der Sar tended to choose. Indeed, the Dutchman chose correctly on Cole’s kick, and very nearly saved the shot, but it was well struck, low (as Ignacio had recommended), and just wriggled out of the keeper’s grip. But all Chelsea’s right-footed penalty takers had obeyed Ignacio to the letter and kicked the ball to their “unnatural side,” Van der Sar’s left.

So far, Ignacio’s advice had worked very well. Much as the economist had predicted, Van der Sar had dived to his natural side four times out of six. He hadn’t saved a single penalty. Five of Chelsea’s six kicks had gone in, while Terry’s, as the whole world knows, flew out off the post with Van der Sar in the wrong corner. But after six kicks, Van der Sar, or someone else at Manchester United, figured out that Chelsea was  pursuing a strategy. Admittedly, the keeper didn’t quite get its strategy right. Wrongly but understandably, he seems to have decided that Chelsea’s strategy was to put all the kicks to his left. After all, that’s where every kick he had faced up to that point had gone.

As Anelka prepared to take Chelsea’s seventh penalty, the gangling keeper, standing on the goal line,  extended his arms to either side of him. Then, in what must have been a chilling moment for Anelka, the Dutchman pointed with his left hand to the left corner. “That’s where you’re all putting it, isn’t it?” [FOTO] he seemed to be saying. (This is where books fall short as a medium. We urge you to watch the shoot-out on YouTube.)

Now Anelka had a terrible dilemma. This was game theory in its rawest form. United had come pretty close to divining Chelsea’s strategy: Ignacio had indeed advised right-footed kickers like Anelka to put the ball to Van der Sar’s left side.

So Anelka knew that Van der Sar knew that Anelka knew that Van der Sar tended to dive right against right-footers. What was Anelka to do? He decided to avoid the left corner, where he had presumably planned to put the ball. Instead, he kicked to Van der Sar’s right. That might have been fine, except that he hit the ball at midheight—exactly the level that Ignacio had warned against. Watching the kick on TV, Ignacio was “very upset.” Perhaps Anelka was at sea because Van der Sar had pressured him to change his plans at the last moment. Van der Sar saved the shot. Alex Ferguson said afterward, “That wasn’t an accident, his penalty save. We knew exactly where certain players were putting the ball.” Anelka’s decision to ignore Ignacio’s advice probably cost Chelsea the Champions League.

DIN - BCN

Dinamo chiar are șanse: jucătorii Barcelonei vor avea de înfruntat și atmosfera din tribune, ei nefiind obișnuiți cu liniștea.

Întrebat ce știe despre România, Messi a răspuns voios: ”Hagi, Nadia, Knattspyrnufelag!”

Oficialii Barcelonei au declarat: “După înfrîngerea cu 2-0 în fața Stelei în 1986 nu avem deocamdată curaj să jucăm cu gruparea militară. Încercăm cu echipe mai abordabile ca Dinamo sau Chelsea.”

Un avertisment pentru aroganții ăia de la Barcelona: 20-0 e cel mai periculos scor!

Ca să pară o echipă mai redutabilă, cu ocazia amicalului cu Barcelona, Dinamo își va schimba numele în Borcealona.

 

La finalul meciului, jucătorii Barcelonei vor face schimb de tricouri cu suporterii dinamoviști. Iar rezervele spaniolilor cu acționarii lui Dinamo.

Ca să pară că au și ei stil modern de joc, oficialii lui Dinamo au anunțat că au doi homosexuali în echipă.

Mai complicat ar fi fost dacă Barcelona juca amical cu Rapidul, că rapidiștii au toți tricouri de plastic ale Barcelonei luate din Crângași, cu Messi, Rivaldo și Maradona scris pe spate, și sigur le purtau ca să-i încurce.

Ca să nu se facă de râs cu Barcelona, Borcea a anunțat că va transfera niște spectatori.

Ce vor alege dinamoviștii la începutul meciului, când arbitrul va arunca cu banul? Vor alege banul, ca să câștige și ei ceva.

 

Ca să pară că vin mai mulți spectatori la meci, Borcea a anunțat că meciul se va juca în Ștefan cel Foarte Mare.

Dacă meciul tot se numește ”amical”, au voie și dinamoviștii să se laude pe urmă că sunt prieteni cu fotbaliștii?

După ce ne-a dat țeapă anul trecut, pe 10 august, cînd nu a mai venit cu naționala Argentinei la București, acum, pe 11 august, Messi vrea să ne dea țeapă și la nivel de club.

 

8 iunie:

Cristiano Ronaldo are în sfârșit șansa să fie mai bun decât Messi la o competiție.

După ce Chelsea a câștigat Champions League cu o tactică foarte defensivă, fotbalul interțări are un nou proverb: pe englezi să nu-i consideri învinși până nu s-au urcat în autobuz ca să-l pornească și să-l scoată din poartă.

Oficialii germani și cei francezi i-au rugat pe șefii federației Greciei să nu exagereze cu cheltuielile și să ia autobuzul până în Polonia.

Nemții joacă în Polonia în grupe, deci câștigă din prima zi, ca de obicei.

Întrebați cum cred că se vor descurca în meciurile din grupă, jucătorii Italiei au scos imediat niște carnețele pe care aveau notate toate cele trei scoruri care se vor înregistra.

Ăla care a avut atâta tupeu să pună Grecia în Grupa A și Germania abia în Grupa B la EURO 2012 sigur nu-i de la Moody’s.

Indiferent de rezultatele echipei, grecii au anunțat că vor ieși în stradă.

U.E. și U.E.F.A. au hotărît ca jumătate din punctele obținute de Germania să fie oferite Greciei.

-------------

Dacă Italia bate Spania, Silvio Berlusconi a promis fanilor că va ieși îmbrăcat pe stradă.

Meciul Spania-Italia va fi dominat de duelul galeriilor, care îşi vor ironiza adversarii cu mesaje legate de datoria externă a ţării.

Întrebat după meci ce ar fi făcut dacă ar fi fost antrenorul Portugaliei, Mourinho a declarat: „Îl scoteam pe Pepe la pauză. Păi e posibil să joci o repriză şi să nu loveşti nici un adversar sau coechipier?”

Antrenorul Olandei a declarat că Euro 2012 este o ocazie excelentă de pregătire a meciurilor cu România.

Ilie Dobre a anunțat că va scrie o carte după meciul Olanda – Danemarca. Ea se va numi “Olanda – Danemarca”.

Se pare că este turneul surprizelor. Suntem deja în a doua zi de Euro și Reghecampf este încă la Steaua.

Victor Ponta și-a cerut scuze populației pentru că n-a avut nici o părere despre prima zi de la Euro, dar promite să iasă cu ceva tare după meciurile din seara asta.

Este posibil ca în sferturi să joace Rusia cu Germania. Nemții promit că de data asta n-o să mai atace ca proștii, cu toată echipa în terenul advers, chit că nu e iarnă.

Fotbalul e un joc frumos, în care se întâlnesc 22 de jucători, și la sfârșit câștigă turcii și polonezii. Ăia din echipa Germaniei.

-------------------

Polonia-Rusia chiar a fost un meci istoric. Probabil la asta s-au gândit și cei de la UEFA când au pus arbitri nemți. Mai trebuia să pună și observator de joc american.

Filosofia impusă echipei Germaniei de liderul ei, Mesut Özil: “Pas și șut, ca mașina de Mesut”.

Se spune că atunci când joacă prost Germania ajunge în finală, iar când joacă bine o și câștigă. La fel se poate spune că, atunci când Ronaldo joacă prost la echipa națională, Portugalia nu trece de grupe. Iar când joacă bine nu știm exact ce se întâmplă, că n-a fost cazul până acum.

După mulțimea de incidente petrecute de la începerea Euro 2012, Comisia de Disciplină a UEFA a decis ca următoarele două Campionate Europene să se joace cu porțile închise.

Portugalia a dat trei goluri, dar Cristinel Ronaldo n-a marcat încă. Ca de obicei, el așteaptă niște adversari adevărați, Rayo Vallecano sau Santander.

Bun cunoscător al fotbalului internațional, Mircea Lucescu a declarat că, indiferent cine va ieși campioană, arbitrii vor fi de vină.

Telespectatorii români au șansa să asiste la o premieră mondială în televiziune: să se termine TVR-ul înaintea Cammpionatului European.

După meciul cu Cehia am observat că grecii au adoptat un stil de joc foarte asemănător cu cel al Barcelonei. Îi zice tza-tzichi.

-----------------

 Ronaldo “a reușit dubla” în meciul cu Olanda. Dacă era Piți pe banca olandezilor, dădea el o dublă mai mare și întorcea rezultatul.

Cristiano Ronaldo a dat în sfârșit gol! Cu piciorul, că dacă dădea cu capul se chema că a dat gel.

 

Să mai zică cineva că grecii nu se pricep la fotbal și economie. Au eliminat Rusia, echipa cu cei mai cheltuitori suporteri, singurii turiști capabili să consume toată marfa organizatorilor, și vor juca cu nemții. Dacă-i scot și pe ăștia, cred că Euro 2012 poate pleca acasă.

-------------------- deu - gre

UEFA a precizat că la finalul meciului nu se va face tradiționalul schimb de tricouri. Mai exact, doar grecii le vor preda nemților pe ale lor, odată cu șortul, jambierele și ghetele.

Domnul Adrian Vasilescu ne asigură că BNR este pregătită să facă față oricărui rezultat la meciul de deseară. Totuși, dacă se poate, ne roagă să ținem cu Germania.

În sfârșit, Grecia a fost de acord cu o primă măsură de austeritate: a cerut la UEFA să-i fie micșorată poarta proprie cu 25%.

Știți vorba aia? Cică pe nemți să nu-i crezi bătuți pînă nu-i vezi urcați în cele două autocare cu care pleacă acasă: al lor și cel al grecilor, confiscat.

Angela Merkel nu exclude posibilitatea ca, până la finalul meciului, banca de rezerve a Greciei să nu mai existe.

Ziarele nemțești avertizează: un rezultat final de 2-0 pentru Grecia ar fi cel mai periculos scor pentru eleni.

La meciul Germania-Grecia noi, românii, o să ținem cu nemții pînă la pauză și p-ormă o să întoarcem armele și vom ține cu rușii.

Întrebat cum va evolua cursul de schimb în funcție de rezultatul meciului, Hagi a lansat următoarea speculație: ”Dacă ți-e frică de lei, nu intri în pădure.”

Grecii au o echipă atît de proastă încît speră ca pentru ei publicul să fie primul jucător. Sau măcar primul finanțator.

Grecia nu va pleca de la Euro 2012, indiferent de rezultat. Atunci când a fost constituit Campionatul European de Fotbal, organizatorii nu au specificat procedura prin care grecii să poată fi scoși.

 

---------------------- semi

În meciul de astăzi, singura șansă a Portugaliei să se joace și ea cu mingea este să vină cu una de-acasă.

Cu cine vă uitați deseară la meciul Spaniei? Noi, cel mai probabil, cu Cristiano Ronaldo și ceilalți portughezi.

Fotbalul este un sport frumos în care se întâlnesc 22 de jucători și la sfârșit câștigă Germania, ține mingea Spania și ratează Cristiano Ronaldo.

Nemții nu câștigă tot timpul campionatul european, așa cum se spune. În anii în care se țin campionate mondiale câștigă campionate mondiale.

Gigi Becali a anunțat că Steaua nu lucrează cu jumătăți de măsură, așa că nu va juca niciodată în semifinalele vreunei competiții. Doar în finale.

În acest an Olanda și-a propus să câștige campionatul european din 1988. Deocamdată sunt în grafic, joacă bine, sperăm să nu intervină nimic și șansa să fie de partea lor.

Vrăjitoarea Melissa a dat asigurări că România va câștiga un turneu final atunci când acesta se va ține într-un an impar.

---------------- finala

Avînd în vedere tenacitatea recunoscută a nemților, ne putem aștepta ca Germania să revină pe finalul meciului Italia-Spania și să cîștige finala CE.

Balotelli nu va reuși hattrick-ul pentru că la fiecare gol își dă tricoul jos și ia galben.

Ile Dobre: “Finala va fi cîștigată de formația peninsulară.”

Italia va cîștiga finala cu 2-1, în urma a două execuții superbe semnate de Victor Ponta.

TVR anticipează audiențe generoase astă-seară, mizând și pe comunitățile de români de afară. Asta dacă nu cumva telespectatorii vor prefera, în locul meciului Italia-Spania, tot tradiționalul meci dintre bine și rău de la PRO TV.

Adrian Năstase a anunțat că dacă Portugalia, favorita lui, nu cîștigă turneul se va sinucide în gît.

Organizatorii EURO 2012 au declarat că, dintre toate tricourile, cel mai bine se vînd cele cu PONTA pe spate.

Ronaldo haunted by Messi at euros

Cristiano Ronaldo had a bad day at the office today, missing a number of “sitters” during Portugal’s match with Denmark at the Euro 2012 finals. And with every miss, the crowd chanted the name of his rival from Barcelona: “Messi Messi Messi.” The taunting from the grandstand was so obvious that Ronaldo was asked about it during an interview after the match. His reply: “Do you know what he (Messi) was doing this time last year? He was going out of the Copa America in the quarter-finals.”

 ------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more: http://www.totalbarca.com/2012/news/ronaldo-haunted-by-messi-at-euros/#ixzz1xkkpIxSA