Up in the stands

On Tuesday night in Nicosia, it looked as though Porto had managed to prevent the latest mark of the APOEL fairy-tale start to this year’s Champions League, a Hulk penalty in the 90^th minute the long awaited equaliser to Ailton’s first half spot-kick, yet in a fashion fitting in perfectly to the scarcely believable start to this year’s European competition in Group C, APOEL flew right back to the other end of the pitch and dramatically won the game, Gustavo Manduca on hand to turn in a drilled cross from captain Constantinos Charalambides.

As the old adage goes, a week is a long time in football, and if that is the case, then seven years must be a whole lifetime, such is the scope for things to alter in the blink of an eye. Teams can speed to success at an impressive rate of knots, or can decline to lowly existence with equal haste, yet falls from grace do not come much sharper than that of AS Monaco, who seven years after meeting Porto in a Champions League Final, find themselves rock bottom of the French second division.

“Jack Wilshere is incredible because he is so young. We also need the experience of John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Scott Parker. “You need this kind of player, plus Rooney, I hope.”: Fabio Capello-October 20^th 2011.

As with every Monday, it is the beginning of a fresh week and in the World of football, the cycle restarts itself after the usual madness of the weekend and we have a new set of controversies to focus on and talk about, such is the volatile nature of the game.

After the pause in domestic proceedings to complete the qualifying for the European Championships, we are back to the drama of the Premier League and we start with what promises to be one of the games of the weekend, what a way to get us reacquainted with the self-proclaimed most exciting league in Europe than the meeting between its two most successful members.

As England did their best to betray any optimism that may have occurred to any fan before, or that may have come flooding in with a delightfully efficient first 40 minutes in Podgorica before the self-destruct button was so wilfully pressed, it was easy to miss the other game in group G, that of Switzerland’s visit to Wales with the away team still in contention for the runners-up spot, aiming to set-up an effective play off with Montenegro who were busy erasing any hopes that Fabio Capello has a team correctly equipped for Euro 2012.

With the usual chaos and controversy of the Premier League suspended for a weekend, England travel to Montenegro for the culmination of their group G campaign seeking a solitary point to take them into next year’s European Championships.

On the night their dear neighbours faced a daunting coming of age over in Germany in the Champions League, Manchester United faced a rather ordinary looking tie at home to Basel, the Champions of Switzerland who have never qualified for the knockout stages of the competition that Sir Alex Ferguson claimed on the dawn on the tie was the “greatest in the world”.