Liverpool/Everton or Sunderland
Chelsea/Tottenham or Bolton
Give me Everton!
Yes please! Decent performance today but the boys did enough to win. Good for Stewie who has finally shown signs of life recently and hope he continues to. Beauty finish by Suarez and he better continue to find the net. Hopefully the oft-injured Kelly is okay as he did well getting into the attacking third yet again. Did not miss Adam today. Not one bit.
Adam has pretty much lost his spot as long as Gerrard is fit. Spearing has shown he's a far better player and obviously more controlled and less inconsistent and frenetic. 5'6 is obviously small for a PL midfielder (picture shown below to reflect) but he's a bulldog in midfield and has never let his size hinder him. Couldn't ask for much more out of an academy product with his physical limitations. After so many years of not having any academy products of Liverpool quality, it's nice to have he and Kelly showing they belong at the club.
Watched Sky sports reporter from in front of the London Chest Hospital this afternoon US, evening in England.
Said Muamba is in a medically induced coma and will remain in one till late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Also said it took 2 hours for his heart to start beating on its own with out help.
It would be a nice consolation for no european nights this year. The thought of Chelsea in the final though really quickens the pulse. We no longer have Benitez/Mourinho, but a pretty good rivalry lingers on still. As much as any cup win is a good cup win is true, an FA cup win actually carries some prestige.
....when will they announced the date of the replay?
In the immediate aftermath of Muamba's collapse there was talk of Bolton pondering whether to withdraw from the competition. I'd suppose that in the event him moving out of danger (which mercifully seems more likely now) they would decide to play on and make the necessary arrangements.
Presumably next week would have been the date for a replay had the initial game ended in a draw.
A terrible own goal, made worse by the fact that he'd actually cleared it, if not for his right leg getting in the way. The game was effectively over at that point, I was relieved we came out of it without conceding further. Towards the end we threatened again, Sessegnon hitting the outside of the post and Campbell screwing up a simple enough chance when through on Howard right at the end. Plenty of evidence in this game for the crimes of Bruce, especially with regard to depleting our strikeforce by an almost comical degree. Still, had he been in charge there's no doubt in my mind Everton would have scored two or three more in the last 20 minutes.
The lack of Colback was particularly notable, he's developed so much this season that he leaves a noticeable gap when he's out. Especially when replaced by Lee "****wit" Cattermole. There was a particularly amusing moment in the first half that saw Cattermole with the ball about 25 yards out from Everton's goal and temporarily struck with the idea that he is a footballer and tried to dribble. He even managed two steps with the ball before the universe noticed what was happening and he began to fall with a look of bewilderment. Thankfully Fellaini fouled him so he was spared the indignity, and possible injury, of falling over the ball and his legs. Still, he's a great leader, as evidenced by his booking every other game record.
I sincerely hope that Martin O'Neill will spend some time replaying all of Bardsley's failed attempts to shoot the ball on target so that Bardsley realises that one great goal does not mean he can actually shoot the ball properly. If O'Neill uses electrodes to drive home the point then so be it.
Everton played well, although there defence was suspect at times they always managed to make the last ditch tackle to prevent Howard being beaten. Although things may have been different had Sunderland a natural goalscorer in the team, the same can certainly be said about Everton's strike force. They controlled the game well in midfield, I thought Osman in particular had a good, influential game. I thought the referee did well, and Andy Townsend again showed his shocking lack of knowledge about football.
