Phil Dowd referee has been chosen to officiate the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool at Wembley and the 49-year-old has previously taken charge of the 2010 Carling Cup final and this season's Community Shield, and was fourth official at the 2006 FA Cup final to he is delighted to have been awarded the 5th May showpiece and will be fulfilling a dream by officiating the match was honoured and privileged when I found out Dowd told the FA's official website.And they are would never have thought in my wildest dreams that when I first started refereeing in 1984 that one day I'd be refereeing the FA Cup final watching the final as a boy was something I always loved to do in the david elleray FA Referees Committee Chairman, said: "I would like to congratulate Phil and the team on their appointments for this year's FA Cup final, which is fully deserved.A huge honour to be selected as a match official for what remains the world's most famous and best-loved cup competition and i am sure Phil and the others will be really looking forward to both the build-up to the final and walking out onto the Wembley pitch on 5 May for the dowd assistants for the final will be Stuart Burt and Andrew Garratt, Michael Jones is the fourth official and Simon Long is the reserve assistant referee and the liverpool booked their spot in the final by beating Merseyside rivals Everton 2-1 on Saturday to the following day Chelsea thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 5-1.
A 61-year-old Spain coach Vicente del Bosque insists that he does not fear the repercussions of a continental final between the two clubs ahead of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine and the two primera division giants met each other in the semi-finals of the competition in 2010-11, with Barca coming out on top 3-1 on aggregate to the both legs of the tie saw emotions boil over to the Del Bosque is not worried that the same thing might happen again, ahead of Euro 2012.We are must enjoy this moment, because there are five Spanish clubs in the semi-finals of European competitions and the national team has nothing to do with that he told reporters to we want a champions league final between Madrid and Barca to that will not damage the national team, because we know that some will win, and some will lose for the players are prepared for that.And the world cup in 2010, we experienced the same problem with Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Fernando Torres to that we waited until the end with a certain feeling that they would be fit and we were right of a spain will take on italy, croatia and republic of ireland in the group stage at Euro 2012.
He has highlighted the importance of Wednesday's 4-1 victory against atletico madrid at the vicente calderon, believing it was a vital step towards claiming the Primera Division title, and cristiano ronaldo added that 'losing is not in his vocabulary'.A Portugal international grabbed his seventh hat-trick of the 2011-12 Liga season, before jose callejon helped to make the result even more expressive with a goal of his own for the radamel falcao had earlier drawn Atleti briefly level to the victory allowed real madrid to maintain the four-point gap between to Barcelona at the top of the table, and Ronaldo believes that his side have taken an important step towards winning the league.And the ronaldo then expressed his happiness to have taken his league tally to 40 goals following Wednesday's hat-trick to i am very happy to have scored and picked up an assist," he noted to we have to continue like this."I am very happy, but without my team-mates I could not have done it was going to be a tough match, but we gave a good account of ourselves against a very strong Atletico side of a cristiano ronaldo has now scored 52 goals in all competitions following Wednesday's hat-trick, and became the 1st player to score 20 goals away from home in a single Liga season.
The Argentine forward has been in sublime form in the 2011-12 campaign, and broke yet another record after scoring in the Blaugrana's Primera Division win over Getafe and the barcelona attacker Lionel Messi has entered the record books again after becoming the 1st player in La Liga history to score 28 goals at home in one season following his strike in Tuesday evening 4-0 victory over Getafe at Camp Nou.And the record was previously held by former Athletic Bilbao striker Telmo Zarra and ex-Atletico Madrid star Baltazar, who both netted 27 goals in home league games in 1950-51 and 1988-89 respectively for the real madrid attacker cristiano ronaldo to set a new Pichichi record last term with 40 goals in one season, managed to score 26 times at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2010-11.Lionel Messi has scored in all but two of barcelona's primera division games at camp nou this term to argentine was unable to find the net in the scoreless draw against Sevilla, and didn't feature in the 3-1 win over Sporting Gijon in the 24-year-old has netted 39 times in 31 appearances this season in La Liga, and needs only more goal in the remainder of the term to equal cristiano ronaldo's record of 40 goals in a single league campaign.
The Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli is set to receive a nine-match ban if he is charged by the Football Association for his tackle on Alex Song in Sunday's Premier League clash at Arsenal and he will automatically serve a one-match ban for the red card he was shown after being twice booked for challenges on Bacary Sagna.And the football association disciplinary rules also state that "players dismissed having previously in the same season been sent off or suspended under the Standard Directions set out in Schedule A in these Regulations for an incident to suspended for one extra match for each such previous sending off or suspension in the addition to the automatic suspension applicable to the dismissal".They are seen earlier this season, Vincent Kompany received a four-game ban after being dismissed against Manchester United in the FA Cup as it was his second red of the season to the same punishment was handed out to Balotelli too when his standard three-game ban for the stamp on Tottenham's Scott Parker was upped to four due to a previous red to the other bans he has had this term that will equal a total suspension of 14 matches over a 3rd of a season.
They are total of seven players from barcelona and real madrid are just one booking away from a ban with just two matches left before the crunch clash at camp nou later this month and the cristiano ronaldo and victor valdes to host of other key players could miss this month's casico if they receive another yellow card before the game on April 21.The barcelona, Victor Valdes, Seydou Keita, Alexis Sanchez and Thiago Alcantara all have four bookings, and would incur a one-match ban if they receive another yellow card to the real madrid, cristiano ronaldo, xabi alonso and fabio coentrao are also on the threshold of a ban leading up to the decisive game at Camp Nou in 12 days time.And the league competition committee is likely to be watching closely, after madrid were punished last season in the champions league with deliberately getting to sent off in a 4-0 win against Ajax, following instructions from coach jose mourinho in order to miss their last group game.
A 70-year-old believes that his side's ability to score late goals is down to their determination for the he wants a continuation of their current form to secure the championship in Sir Alex Ferguson is looking for his side’s never-say-die attitude to see them grind out the results needed to claim their 20th league title.In the red devils are currently five points ahead of rivals Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table, but they can extend that lead to eight points if they beat QPR on Sunday to Roberto Mancini’s men facing Arsenal later in the day to united were saved by two goals in the final 10 minutes from Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young in their last league outing against Blackburn to claim all three points.And the Sir Alex told the club's official website: Over the years we have had these moments when we have scored late goals for look back to 1993 and Sheffield Wednesday, two goals in the last nine minutes of injury-time is part of our history to we do not give in we are capable of scoring late goals. It is not an accident is a thread relating to the history of the club that way for many years now.They are kept their intensity and concentration really well for that was the plus point on Monday in the intensity of our game was brilliant and our concentration was great just seven games left for both Manchester clubs, the title is United’s to lose and the 70-year-old is looking minimal mistakes during the run-in.
