United played Spurs last night in the days late kickoff. Liverpool played earlier on and were top of the league (on goal difference) when United kicked off.

United once again started with Tevez on the bench. Its looking more and more like he will leave but I hope he stays. At half time it was 2-0 to Spurs and an update was on the books. Tevez came on at half time for Nani and it soon changed. He was the catalyst to the fightback. United got a penalty which was abit lucky really. Carrick was through on goal and Gomas came out and knocked the ball away. The ref thought that connected with Carrick and gave a penalty. The penalty was taken by Ronaldo who knocked it down the middle.

This was the turning point and there was a period in the 2nd half when United scored 3 goals in about 5 minutes. Some awesome attacking play and they looked like they could score every time they attacked. United ended up winning 5-2!

Its still not all over. There have been so many twists and turns this season and we still have to play Arsenal and also City.

In one of the other games of the day, Liverpool played Hull. Again Gerrard was not playing. They were abit fortunate and certainly got the run of decisions. There first goal was from a rebounded freekick by Alonso. It could be argued it shouldnt have been a freekick with Mascherano already falling over but the Hull player did take a late kick at his standing leg. If I was a Hull fan I would have been disappointed to have the freekick awarded against us.

Liverpool’s 3rd goal also involved a hand-ball (by I think Lucas). The ball fell to a Liverpool player who shoot, it was scuffed abit and Kuyt managed to head it into the goal.

There was another decision which went Liverpool’s way (to a certain extent). Folan was running through on goal and Skrtel was obstructing him. Skrtel fell down and stupidly Folan took a swipe at him trying to kick him – although not sure how many connection. Either way, he had to be sent off. He properly should have had a penalty but no need to kick out like that. (Although not as bad as Pepe’s bit of red mist the other day when he kicked a player twice, stood on  his ankle, punched a player….)

There was some inconsitancy with the refereeing when later on a Hull player was obstructed by a Liverpool player and was awarded a freekick. It was very similar to the Folan incident (apart from him not kicking someone!) The game all ended 3-1 to Liverpool.

United beat Portsmouth today 2-0. (It really should have been a lot more with all the chances). United are now 3 points clear with a game in hand. There were some real good performances from the likes of Rooney, Anderson and Giggs. Fletcher was excellent. One worry is the injuries with Neville going off and his replacing O’Shea also going off injured.

The midweek results made it all better for United with Chelsea drawing tonight and Liverpool drawing 4-4 against Arsenal in an amazing game. In that game Arshavin played brilliantly scoring 4 goals (from 4 shots). Hes looking a really good player!

Anyway, United have it to lose but I dont think its all quite over yet. Just one lost would change things and there are some potential slip ups coming up with teams to play such as Spurs, Arsenal and City. Also, we tend not play that well against Boro and Wigan could be a problem with former United player as a manager (Steve Bruce).

Here are United’s remaining fixtures:

Saturday, 25 April 2009 – Man Utd v Tottenham, 17:30
Saturday, 02 May 2009 – Middlesbrough v Man Utd, 12:45
Sunday, 10 May 2009 – Man Utd v Man City, 13:30
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 – Wigan v Man Utd, 20:00
Saturday, 16 May 2009 – Man Utd v Arsenal, 12:45
Sunday, 24 May 2009 – Hull v Man Utd, 16:00

I used the BBC Sport Premier League predictor and it came out with United winning:

1. Manchester United 88Pt Goal Difference (GD) = 41
2. Liverpool 86Pt GD = 47
3. Manchester United 81Pt GD = 43
4. Manchester United 73Pt GD = 34

Teams to be relegated:

18. Hull 35Pt GD = -26
19. Boro 33Pt GD = -28
18. West Brom 25Pt GD = -40

Well maybe that was abit harsh. Its not just the penalty in the shootout that was very (very) poor. Its just that he doesnt seem interested in playing most of the time – I know its his style! Hopefully next season he can step it up. Vidic and Evra didnt play too well in their first season and look at them now!

Back to the games … It was the FA Cup semi-final at the weekend with Arsenal playing Chelsea and United played Everton. Both games were played at Wembley which was different to normal. I didnt watch the Chelsea Arsenal game but Chelsea won. I wanted Arsenal to win – if you know me you will know I am not a fan of Chelsea.

The United v Everton game was on Sunday and Everton won. It was abit of a sport day for me after playing football earlier on, watching the Chinese Grand Prix and then the FA Cup Semi-final. The game was rather boring to be honest and ended 0-0 after extra time. United really should have had a penalty but it was not given. Even Moyes thought it was a penalty. Anyway, we didnt really play particularly well. Stand out performance – as he has been most of this season – was Vidic.

Anyway, it ended up going to penalties. Cahill missed the 1st one and United were in the driving seat. Berbatov was next and as I mentioned earlier, took a really poor penalty – the worst ever?? (see below). So lazy, so weak. It was as if he was kicking the ball back to the keeper!

Everton scored there next one and United’s 2nd was taken by Ferdinand. He also had his penalty saved but it was a better effort. Everyone else scored the penalties including Vidic and Anderson but the 2 missed United penalties meant Everton won. Everton now play Chelsea in the final and I hope they win! For a few different reason that include Everton have a top manager I like and also a few former United players in the squad.

There has been a lot of talk and comments online on various web sites and forums about Berbatov and his shocking penalty. People are also commenting on his lazy, slow style of play. Hes a talented footballer but just not a Manchester United player. United play with pace with players like Ronaldo and Rooney and Berbatov is just not like that. He gets the ball and it all slows down. He must be in the running for worst player of the year (considering his £30m price tag). Scored handful of goals and in some way has (possibly) forced Tevez out of United – who United fans love.

That means the quintuple dream is over and we can now “only” win 4. With Liverpool and Arsenal drawing tonight (in another 4-4 draw and from what I read an amazing game – I saw the last 15 minutes) it means United are level on points with Liverpool with 2 games in hand. Liverpool have 5 more games to play in the league so its moving more and more towards United. Its not over yet though – it could all change very quickly. Come on United!!

Here is that Berbatov penalty:

It was in the news today that motorists will be offered up to £5,000 to encourage them to buy electric/”plug-in” hybrid cars. Its all part of the goverment’s £250m plan to promote low carbon transport. Even if it does happen, eligible cars are not expected to hit the showrooms until 2011.

I am not sure if electric cars are the future. The production of the batteries to power the electric cars are said by some to cause more harm to the environment that normal petrol cars.

I think the future is hydrogen powered cars. They had one on Top Gear recently – a hydrogen powered Honda car with the only thing it “outputted” was water.

The PFA awards nominations have been announced and United played dominate the list. The nominations are:

• Vidic
• Giggs
• Ferdinand
• Ronaldo
• Van der Sar
• Gerrard

Its a strange one the PFA awards as it seems that they vote back in February. Its a strange one as there are still a few months of football and several games. I agree with some of them such as Vidic but some other players deserve a nomination I think such as Lampard who has played really well particularly recently. The Giggs nomination is an odd one. Hes only played about a dozen games?! He did really well around Christmas time but if he won it would be a sentimental vote. Giggs deserves to have won a PFA award in the past but overall this season he should win.

The young players PFA award nominations were also announced and Rafeal of United was nominated. (Johnny Evans of United was also nominated). Thats another strange one after hes only played a handful of games.

United played Porto tonight and won 1-0 on the night, 3-2 on aggregate. United are the 1st English team to beat Porto on their on ground. The performance was miles better than last week. It wasnt difficult!!

We played a lot better than recently, still not brilliantly but very solid. Ronaldo played really well and scored a cracking goal (have a look below), Rooney played really well too. It was also great to have Vidic and Rio back together! Evra had a poor game. Hes had a good season but maybe getting tired???

(Here is Ronaldo’s 40 yard “screamer”:)

Towards the end of the game, Nani came on for Berbatov. Mainly to get some fresh legs on and to “waste time”. However he didnt really do that much. He gave the ball away a few times, trying to take people on when he could have kept possession. He had at least one chance to put a cross in but decided to dribble the ball and take players on.

Anyway, United now play Arsenal in the semi-final which should be a great. 4 teams left in the Champions League with 3 of them English. All the teams left are attacking and play entertaining football!!

Bring on Arsenal!!

Liverpool played Chelsea last night in the quarter finals of the Champions League. Chelsea were 3-1 up and with the 2nd leg at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea were the big favourites. Liverpool were 10/1 to go through.

However, the game last night was just amazing. The game finished 4-4 on the night, 7-5 on aggregate. At half time it was 2-0 to half time but Chelsea were through at that point on away goals rule. The half time talk must have been something because Chelsea were a different team! Chelsea scored 3 times taking it to 6-3 on aggregate. However, Liverpool then scored 2 goals in about 2 minutes. It would have meant if Liverpool scored another then they would have gone through. With about a minute to go, Lampard scored which finished the game off.

It would have been great if the game went on for another half hour! It could have ended 7-7 on the night! Great game, lots of attacking play, some good goals, some poor defending. Extraordinary game!

There was a notice on noticeboard of apartment block I live in. Something about a company doing some filming in the main entrance-way of building today and that it may cause a bit of disturbance with access etc.

I think the company doing the filming were called Just Shoot – not 100% sure. Anyway, at about 545pm I headed out to go to the gym. There were still doing some filming with camera equiment and several people about. As I walked past there were 2 or 3 people sat down and one of them looked like Park. On my way to the gym, thought about it more and I think it may have actually been Park.

When I got back from gym must ppl had gone. However, on my way out to pub later outside near main entrance there were a girls hanging around as well as still several vans/cars/trucks belonging to the camera crew and a large-ish group of people about. Maybe some Ji Sung Park “groupies”?? Possibly doing some filming outside the bar/restaurant near me. They have done filming there before and the bar/restaurant seems to be the place for “celebs” (e.g. Corrie actors, United footballers).

If it wasnt Park, it was someone who looked a lot like him. I literally walked right past him!!

Anyway, thats enough random rambling

Jenson Button won the Malaysian grand prix to continue the brilliant start of the season for himself and Brawn GP. However, Jenson is still to finish a race in 1st place at full race speed. In Australia it was behind a safety car and in Malaysia the race was red flagged and they basically ran out of time and light. The maximum time for an F1 race is 2hours and also the race was started at 5pm local time so it was getting dark.

Before the rain came, Jenson drove brilliantly. He had a poor start and ended up in about 4th place. Around lap 16 when cars were pitting, he was about 2 seconds behind the leading car. He had a couple laps worth of fuel extra and put in some blistering laps. After his own pit stop he was well ahead of the “leading car”. His lap times during this period were more than a second faster than the next non-Brawn GP car – I that was with soft tyres about 16 laps old!

It was a great performance by the Brawn GP team with the tactics with the ever changing weather. In Malaysia when it rains, it tends to bucket it down. It didnt really rain till about 20 laps in (I think??) and at that point was quite light. However a few laps later it bucketted down and it can to stop the race. Cars were aqua-planing across the track. It was like a river!! Brawn GP did well choosing the right tyres for the drivers. Jenson pitted about 4 times for tyre changes.

They made sure they were on the right tyre at the right time. Unlike Ferrari, who once again cocked it up. They put full wet tyres on Raikonnen’s car when it was just spitting. By the time it properly rained his tyres were destroyed. It was a gamble and they could have looked very clever but they just looked stupid.

Since the race finished early all the points awards were halved so thats 5 points for Jenson. Next race is in China….

Wow!! Amazing!! United played Villa yesterday and for the 3rd game in a row with playing very poorly. We scored first but Villa were 2-1 up with about 10 minutes to go. Then Ronaldo, who had a poor game, scored an equaliser and it was all set for a great end to the game.

Federico “Kiko” Macheda, who had come on for Nani, had been lively with some nice touches. However, 3 minutes into the 5 minutes of injury team he got the ball from Giggs, turned brilliantly and curled the ball in the far corner!

With the angle of the TV cameras you could see perfectly the path of the ball curling in. Brilliant!! This was his first 1st team apparence and hes only made a few reserve team apparences. I read an article about him in mid-week being very good and may get a chance yesterday with all the injuries/suspensions we have. (He scored a hat-trick in midweek).

If we lost (or drew) yesterday I think with Liverpool’s momentum they would have been favourites for the title. Its still going to be tight I think and we are still playing poorly but hopefully this will be a springboard to some better performances.

Heres the goal (and celebrations):

Heres a post match interview (along with Gary Neville)