Champions League: Barcelona, Bayern, Dortmund or Real - Who will win the trophy?

Wembley is set to host its second Champions League final inside three years next month and theres every chance that UEFA get their dream all-Spanish final of Barcelona against Real Madrid as the pair were kept apart in the semi-finals. However, its by far a foregone conclusion as Barca must first se...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Schmeichel talks us through United’s trip to Madrid while Piers talks down to Owen

For me this past weekend’s football was filled to the brim with acute annoyances and irksome irritations. To start with it was FA Cup Fifth Round and all the best games were on ESPN, and as I’m still too cheap to upgrade it means I had to go without. On top of that, my beloved Leicester didn’...

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Arsenal: Would you be happy to see Wenger join Real Madrid?

Over the past few seasons Arsenal fans have watched their best players leave the club one by one. Patrick Vieira went to Juventus, Thierry Henry, Alex Hleb and Cesc Fabregas all signed for Barcelona, while Adebayor, Clichy, Nasri, Toure, Nasri and Van Persie all left for the sunnier climes of Manc...

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Man United: Would you sacrifice Rooney to have Ronaldo back?

Manchester United will come face-to-face with their former hero Ronaldo in the last 16 of the Champions League in February, but could the former United number 7 be ready for a sensational return to Old Trafford in the summer? Everything coming out of Spain suggests that Ronaldo is not happy with ...

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Real Madrid: Who will replace Mourinho?

Despite ending Barcelonas dominance in La Liga it looks as though Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid will be parting company next summer. Madrid are currently 11 points behind Barca and even if Real claw that back and go on to win the Champions League all the indications are that the Special One will be ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Love or hate him, 'Mourinho' shows Jose really is the Special One

There are times in this cruel cruel world of ours when desperate sad acts like myself look up to the heavens mournfully, unleash a shriek of despair before dropping our heads to the ground and mumbling incoherently about life being terribly unfair. In my case, it’s usually something to do wi...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: The headline acts of El Clasico put on one hell of a show

Here’s one for you. On the eve of each new football campaign, which match whets the appetite most? Liverpool vs United? Spurs against Arsenal? The Steel City derby? Personally for me, it’s the prospect of any match in which Mario Balotelli will come up against anybody as deranged as he; Craig Bell...

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Manchester City's record against Spanish sides

Manchester City are in the Spanish capital for easily the most eagerly awaited clash in the opening games of this seasons Champions League. This is what being in the Champions League is all about . . . lining up against the very best Europe has to offer, and they dont come much better than Jose Mou...

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Real Madrid's record against English sides

Real Madrid host English champions Manchester City tonight and Roberto Mancini will be hoping to achieve something that only two English sides have managed in European competitions . . . beat Madrid at the Bernabeu. Arsenal were the first English side to beat Real Madrid at home in 2006 thanks to a...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: An Olympic hangover means Dixon’s debut fails to inspire

It’s been a gruelling few weeks for fans of sport hasn’t it? Ever since Spain cemented their place as football’s frontrunners at Euro 2012, there has been a disorientating vacuum of sport on television and no amount of frantic bashing of the Sky remote has been able to render any nourishment for s...

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World Cup 2014: Why no-one can stop Brazil in 2014

With Euro 2012 riding off into the sunset and the superb Spaniards officially crowning themselves the greatest national team of all time by clinching an unprecedented third consecutive major trophy, focus has now shifted to qualification for the next World Cup and talk of the competition its...

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Olympics Betting: Brazil and Spain head the market

Two big names are expected to be the dominant forces in the Mens Olympic Football tournament, with the bookmakers favouring Brazil or Spain to come out on top. Despite Spains scintillating run in recent tournaments, on this occasion its the Brazilians who head the betting. Its no surprise though, b...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Team GB and the BBC could do with heroes like Neymar and the incredible Hulk

I don’t know about you, but even though the Olympics are yet to actually begin, I’m pretty sick of them already. I’m fed up of seeing clowns from the Government on Sky News demanding that the underclass should stop complaining that they can’t afford a pint of milk and just swoon in admiration at t...

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The Strange World Of FIFA: England Ranked Fourth In The World

It will come as something of a surprise to most fans who watched Euro 2012 that England came out of the tournament going up in the FIFA world rankings - not bad for two wins in four matches, one of which came against a Ukraine team who lie at 46th in the table. Ranking tables are always an untrustw...

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Euro 2012 - Team Of The Tournament

With just the final to go its time to decide which players made the most impact in Poland and Ukraine. In recent years FIFAand UEFA have picked a squad of the top performers at tournaments but wheres the fun in that? Very few fans come up with the same eleven and thats when it gets interesting, so h...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Lawro plays the Twit as BBC confidence turns to England despair

It’s easy afterwards, in the hazy mist of reflection that hangs mournfully across the country each time the England team are wrenched from a major tournament, to neatly nestle back into the default self-loathing English mind-set and pretend we were always doomed to fail, fated to forever chase the...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: England make it hard to watch, while Sky’s legend makes the game look easy

Another week, another panic-inducing evening spent watching the England team then. This whole edge-of-our-seat, fine line between death and glory shtick that England have peddled out for years is now growing quite tiresome. Just for once, couldn’t we be like Germany and be ruthlessly efficient and...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Euro Vision begins as ITV and the BBC vie for Championship glory

Ok, so it might not feel too much like summer right now. It’s about 10°C outside, caravan parks are under water and the only suntans in sight are painted on the vacuous plebs of Geordie Shore. But I promise you, we are there and that of course means only one thing: the European Championships have ...

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Chelsea: Why it is time to move on from Fernando Torres

If our average lifespan is 76 years and God knows how many pints of ale, then four years is a paltry coffer of time in comparison to the far more vast reaches of human living capacity. Yet convert those four years into the career of a footballer, and that chunk of time is fattened; they can be ev...

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Euro 2012 Fantasy Football invitation

Calling all fantasy football fans. Have we got a treat for you. If you think you are a better manager than Englands Roy Hodgson or that you could leave Germanys Joachim Low feeling really down in the dumps then why dont you prove it? Weve set up our own Euro 2012 mini-league with the Sun and youve...

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Euro 2012: Can England win Euro 2012?

Despite having won nothing since 1966 England always start major tournaments as one of the favourites. Their passionate fans are full of optimism, having been brainwashed by the Press that their players are world beaters, only for their hopes to be ripped apart as their flaws are exposed by tactical...

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The top 10 dives in football history

Manchester United’s Ashley Young and Chelsea’s Didier Drogba have caused controversy over the past fortnight by diving to win penalties and going down quicker than your average High Street hooker. Ashley Young started it all off by winning a cheap penalty against QPR’s Shaun Derry, when the tough m...

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Beckham, Best, Henry or Cantona: Who were the coolest footballers to ever live?

We would all like to be footballers, right? The money, the women, the cars. Oh, and the playing of football. That’s pretty good. But some are cooler than others. Too cool, even. So cool they make everyone else look like silly, awkward, emasculated chumps. So who were the 10 coolest footballers to e...

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El Clasico: My recipe for the perfect football feast

Woodstock 69’: love, freedom and prosperity. Wimbledon: elegance and tradition. For me, El Clasico is up there with these occasions as the greatest spectacles on earth. The two most successful sides in the history of Spanish football ripping chunks out of each other. And I love it. I love every...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A football overkill but Fabregas’ Barcelona adventure keeps us watching

At the top of this article you will see, if you can get past the crass, self-congratulatory overuse of my own name, that the tagline for this column mentions that there isn’t enough football on the TV. Obviously this pithy line is actually nonsense as there is in fact far too much football clogging ...

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Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Birmingham: What game would you like to erase from your club's history?

I think it is safe to come out from behind the sofa now. The trick and treaters have gone into 12 months of hibernation, giving the nation’s doorbells time to recover. The BBC can put the series of Halloween movies back into cold storage. Just how many were there? As football fans we too have exper...

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Can any player, including Messi, be considered 'the greatest'?

Ah, the Champions League. Bringer of drama, stopper of dreamers, platform for Ray Wilkins to say ‘my word’ 50 hundred thousand times. And there are other things that are nearly always discussed, certainly when seeing the two dominant Spanish sides play. The great debate has moved from trying to ...

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Top 10 bizarre injuries to footballers

Swansea City’s vice-captain Alan Tate is set to miss most of the Swans’ debut season in Premier League after breaking his leg in a freak golfing accident. The versatile defender was a passenger in a golf buggy that lost control and Tate will have to watch the majority of the club’s rollercoaster adv...

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Who's Going To Be At Euro 2012?

The qualifying groups for Euro 2012 are reaching the business end and its becoming a little clearer which players will be in Poland and Ukraine and which ones will be spending extra time on the beach. Places Booked As usual Germany have headed the way in qualification. Aside from a sticky period a...

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Will the new season throw up any shocks across Europe's top leagues?

Here we go again ... Its that time of year again. Your club has had some embarrassing/great results in pre-season friendlies and the anticipation builds up as the new season approaches, but what can we expect from the big leagues around Europe? Some countries, of course, have already kicked off, su...

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Squarefootball's Fantasy football invitation

There is less than two weeks to go until the start of the 2011/12 Premier League season and time is running out for you to enter the Squarefootball fantasy football competition. Last season more than 100 teams competed for the Squarefootball title, which was won by P Oxenby and his team FC Poxo. He...

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Manchester City: Tevez, Telephones and Tedium

Im not sure whats been worse over the last week or so, the phone hacking scandal or the Tevez transfer saga?Maybe if the News Of The World was still in existence it could report, with its tele-pathic powers, where Tevez will be moving to? If I were a Manchester City fan I would just like to see th...

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What five things would you do before the season starts?

Isn’t it normally New Years Eve when you get a top 100 favourite moments of the year or top 500 best movie credits or some other poor excuse for a programme? Well I thought I would also use it as a poor excuse for an article, but rather than boring you all with a list consisting of 100 or more items...

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Football in 3D - A new risk to average attendances?

The world has evolved and developed a lot since the 1950s with the invention, evolution and development of everything from bladeless fans to electric cars and high definition broadcasts and beyond, but what have the boffins responsible for 3D been doing for 60 years since its inception? 3D today i...

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Would you like to write for Squarefootball?

Do you live, breathe and sleep football? Do you have a passion for writing and want your views to be read by a potential audience of millions? Then we at Squarefootball Towers would love to hear from you. Whether you follow Aberdeen or Accrington Stanley, West Ham United or Wolfsburg, we can offer ...

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Holland v Spain- A Meeting Of Football Cousins

Holland v Germany would have been a World Cup Final between nations with a bundle of negative history but Carles Puyol has engineered an encounter between sides with a shared footballing culture. Ever since Johann Cruyff moved to Barcelona in 1973, Dutch and Spanish soccer have been interwoven. Cru...

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Germany v Spain: World Cup History

Wednesdays semi-final meeting is only the third time that Germany (or West Germany) and Spain have faced each other at the World Cup Finals. Spain were beaten in both the previous encounters. The rarity of these matches is caused by Spains poor performance in the tournaments. Despite the strength o...

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The morning after 'Pool

The morning after. Usually for me the worst come down after a night like that. Being a Liverpool fan Ive not had THAT many disastrous nights, so have to take it on the chin and let the other minnows have their day-like every dog. So all the good deeds that I carried out before the match went to wast...

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Dare Rafa Benitez play Torres and Gerrard tonight?

International breaks are tricky things. Four weeks ago Liverpool lost Ferndando Torres and Steven Gerrard to short-term injuries - but both need either rest or surgery over the next few weeks to rectify the situation. And although Torres only initially missed two matches he was clearly playing wit...

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A Good Moment For Spain's Run To End

The USAs 2-0 semi-final victory over Spain in the Confederations Cup has caused a few waves in world football but ultimately it might be a good match to lose for Vincente Del Bosques side. A 35 match unbeaten run is always a two-edged sword because the longer it goes on the bigger the focus on the ...

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David Silva Attracts The Big Clubs

To the average armchair viewerAndrei Arshavin has been the main man of Euro 2008 so far but David Silva of Spain isn't far behind. Like Arshavin he came to the tournament as a player known to be useful but his performances have been a revelation. In a tough midfield to break into Silva has kept out...

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Prediction: Spain to be squeezed out of Group D

Group D is a mismash of teams from the peripheries of the continent, Russia from the east, Greece in the south, Spain in the west and Sweden in the north; and each will take a distinctive style into the tournament. Spain will be attacking and reliant on abrasive defenders to secure wins; Russia wil...

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What We Really Think About Euro 2008

We've written our previews, told you all about the teams and tried to put as much information out there as possible. But what are the real views of the Squarefootball team? Read on to find out. Paul Grech WinnersThe injury to Fabio Cannavaro will hurt them but I still think that Italy will win it....

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Euro 2008 Profiles: Spain

Looking through the squad and it is impossible not to rank them among the favourites. Take a look at their history, however, and you’ll start having second thoughts. Spain once again go into a major championship wondering whether they’ll manage to fulfill their potential or if they will confirm all ...

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4159: England/Spain International Fr

by : Bill Urban Steven Gerrard- 5 Gerrard played adequately well without dominating the pitch as might be expected of him in the 4-5-1 system deployed by McClaren. He chased back and protected Neville while covering for Wright-Phillips in expected fashion, and found time to play a gorgeous ball wi...

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3344: World Cup 2006; The Pain In S

by : Stephen Orford and risk him incurring an unwarranted ban. It seems that quite often, the certainty of getting it 50% right is better than the chance of getting it 100% wrong. This is where Blatter and his cronies should come in. They hold the key to stamping out the practice. If blatant cas...

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3296: Group H: Spain/Ukraine- Spain

by : Bill Urban pressure on a striker clearly lacking match fitness and who isn't adept at holding up the ball at the best of times. Even to drop Owen and use Crouch as the lone striker would do little but highlight the Liverpool striker's shortcomings. In 2002 England went to Japan and Korea in a...

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3279: World Cup 2006 Prediction: Gro

by : Antony Melvin Group H - Spain are the favourites with Ukraine looking to justify their likely qualification by thrashing Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. And after another rash decision to predict the outcome of an event that were are clearly under qualified to judge (we do read the feedback you kno...

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3253: World Cup History:Spain

by : Sam Cullen For a country as football mad as Spain, their past record at World Cup’s manages to leave a lot to be desired of. It all began in 1934 in Italy, the first World Cup held in Europe. Back then there were no group games so Spain progressed to the quarter finals by virtue of a 3-1 win ...

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3246: World Cup Preview - Group H;

by : Stephen Orford If one thing is certain before the start of any major tournament involving Spain, it is that they will woefully fail to fulfil their considerable potential. Domestically La Liga has become one of the finest leagues in Europe and around the world. Witness Barcelona’s march towa...

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