Friday 24 August 2012

Thursday Night UEFA Europa League Action - LIVE Coverage plus EPL News:

Hello and welcome to my LIVE Coverage, in the UEFA Europa League as Liverpool face Hearts and Newcastle face Atromitos.

Plus, all the LATEST EPL Transfer and news, with 8 days left in the summer transfer window.

Next Friday:
I will do a LIVE special on transfer deadline day next Friday along with Chelsea vs Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup.

But before I start the LIVE Commentary, here is the LATEST from the EPL:

Yesterday's EPL Evening Match:

Chelsea 4 Reading 2

This match was scheduled to take place yesterday at Stamford Bridge, because of the UEFA Super Cup match for Chelsea next Friday, a day before the match was originally supposed to take place.

Anyways, enough of the technical stuff....

On to the actual match itself:

Chelsea pressed early on with winger Ramires having a shot saved by Adam Federici.

Winger Eden Hazard skilled past two defenders before being brought down inside the box for a Chelsea penalty (by the way he played very well). 

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard scored from the penalty spot in the 18th minute with a hard and low shot past goalkeeper Adam Federici.

Unstoppable: Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard scores from the penalty spot to give Chelsea the lead.

Reading passed the ball well, before a cross came into the box for striker Pavel Pogrebnyak who heading the ball towards goal, high into the top corner, and out of Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech's reach to equalise after 25 minutes.

High header: Reading striker Pavel Pogrebnyak heads the ball past 'keeper Petr Cech to equalise for his new club.


What a header by Pogrebnyak high and a great equaliser.

New Reading signing Danny Guthrie had a free-kick from 20 yards out taken and it swerved powerfully towards goal. 

Petr Cech parried the ball away from himself but the ball span away from him and trickled into the net to give Reading the lead in the 29th minute. 


Out of control: Petr Cech parries the ball away from himself, but the ball is too powerful and spins into the net.
1st goal for a new club: Danny Guthrie scored his first goal for Reading against Chelsea after leaving Newcastle.
Chelsea tried to press for an equalliser with Hazard and Torres looking promising with good link-up play.

Hazard had a shot from 25 yards out over the bar, while a nice cross into the box by Hazard found Torres but his header was just wide of the goalmouth.

At half-time it was 2-1 to Reading.

In the second half, Reading were defending well as Chelsea continued to look for the all important goal.

Hazard and Torres continued to find each other with good passes before Torres passed to defender Branislav Ivanovic who had a shot from 18 yards out over the bar.

Hazard skilled a defender before passing a through bal straight to substitute and £25million man Oscar who had a shot saved by Adam Federici.

In the 69th minute, Hazard passed the ball towards defender Gary Cahill before he unleashed a long distance shot towards goal. Federici missed the ball completely and Cahilll had equalised for Chelsea with 20 minutes to go.

Long-range effort: Defender Gary Cahill equalised for the home side against Reading in the 69th minute.
Back on level terms: Cahil celebrates his goal against Reading to make it 2-2.


In the 81st minute, a new Chelsea pass and move was finished with a through ball past the box by left-back Ashley Cole to striker Fernando Torres who tapped the ball into the net easily.

Controversially, replays show that Torres was offside when he scored, so Reading will have felt hard done by.

In the 90+5th minute, Reading had a corner with goalkeeper Adam Federici coming out of his goal to run up for the corner. 
Chelsea defended well, and counter attacked with Torres, Hazard and Ivanovic running away from the goalkeeper with an open goal awaiting the ball in the net....

Hazard was unselfish by passing thae ball to Ivanovic who slotted the ball into the net to make it 4-2 to Chelsea.

This was how the match ended and despite the scoreline, Reading were robbed and played well throughout.
If only the decisions went the right way.

My Man Of The Match: 
Eden Hazard

He passed the ball well, crossed the ball to his team-mates. 
He assisted Ivanvic and won another penalty by showing his pace and skill.

Looks very promising and £32million looks like a steal now for him.


EPL Transfers and News:

Wigan have confirmed that they have accepted a fee from Chelsea for forward Victor Moses. The fee is expected to be around £9million.

Chelsea bound: Wigan's young forward Victor Moses (left) may join Chelsea soon, after a fee has been agreed.
They have given Moses permission to speak to the club and he is expected to talk to them on Friday or Saturday. 

Wolves have accepted an £10.75million offer from West Ham for winger Matthew Jarvis.
He is having a medical at West Ham ahead of a move to the London club.

Celtic have accepted a £6million fee for midfielder Ki-Sueng Yueng from Swansea, and he is going to have his medical tomorrow.

Medical: Celtic midfielder Ki Sung Yeung will become Swansea's £6million record signing at the weekend.

Tottenham Hotspur defender Michael Dawson’s £9million transfer to QPR was in danger of collapsing yesterday night, after news broke that he had failed to agree personal terms.

Sunderland have opened talks with Manchester City winger Adam Johnson over a £10million move. 

Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne is set to leave Villa for Stoke City. The transfer has been held up as he recovers from groin surgery. 

Fulham and Tottenham are both interested in Roma goalkeeper and Holland international Maarten Stekelenberg. He is available for around £6million.
  
According to Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, striker Sergio Aguero is expected to miss around one month with the knee injury that he picked up against Southampton on Sunday, and could be back in action by September the 15th.

Not as bad as first thought: Aguero will be out for a month with a knee injury but it could be worse.
Tottenham are reportedly ready to let winger Rafael Van Der Vaart leave the club for £9.5million to move back to Germany, to Hamburg. 

Arsenal are interested in Sevilla winger Jesus Navas and may be ready to launch a bid for the £20million rated player.

Sunderland and West Ham are both very interested in West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie and are ready to battle for his services.

Wanted: West Ham and Sunderland are interested in Peter Odemwingie. He has scored 27 goals in 63 matches.




UEFA Europa League 3rd Round Play-Off LIVE Coverage: 

21:35:

FULL-TIME SCORES:

Atromitos 1 Newcastle United 1

The early match in Greece saw last season's 5th placed Newcastle face a side - that to be honest no one has really heard of, apart from the fact that they are a Greek club. 

A nice through ball cross by the home side found Denis Epstein who found space on the wing before speeding past defender James Tavernier before cheekily tapping the ball away from goalkeeper Steve Harper to score in the 23rd minute. 

Deadlock broken in Greece: Epstein celebrates the opening goal in the 23rd minute with his team-mates.

Newcastle had a free-kick from 25 yards out, just on the stroke of half-time (45+1) taken by full-back Ryan Taylor towards goal which was powerful, curled and swerved past the goalkeeper into the net.

Curling free-kick effort: Newcastle full-back Ryan Taylor scores an equaliser in the 45th minute.
Crucial away goal: Newcastle celebrate Ryan Taylor's goal against Atromitos just before half-time.
We needed that: Ryan Taylor shakes hands with his manager Alan Pardew.


Newcastle had equalised, but they could not find the winner in Greece. Despite this, they have the all important crucial away goal with the second leg still to play in Newcastle next Thursday.


Hearts 0 Liverpool 1

The late evening Europa League fixture was played in Edinburgh as Liverpool's fringe squad went to Scotland to play the first leg of the play-off round.

(MORE TO FOLLOW SOON)


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