A THURSDAY WITHOUT SURPRISES (This article is available in English and Español)

Tonight we have had a lot of European sport events, both football´s games(UEFA CUP) and basketball´s games (Euroleague basketball).

In the UEFA Cup´s game, we have had 2 confirmations. On the one hand, the AC Milan confirmed that after a very irregular start, now it is playing well and it achieve victory easily as tonight over SC Heerenveen (1-3 thanks to a goal of Jong-a pin-in –own goal-, Gattuso and Filippo Inzaghi). And on the other hand, the Tottenham Hotspur needs a change, because if it continues with this negative dynamic, it will have many problems to remain in the Premier League. I do not understand the bad direction of Juande Ramos, since he has good players but the team does not have solidity, both in the defensive line and in the offensive line(of course it was a big risk to lose Jermaine Defoe, Berbatov and Keane and now Tottenham is “paying” this mismanagement and for example tonight it lost 2-0 at Udine-of course that Udinese Calcio is a difficult rival, but Juande can not use this excuse). In addition, the experienced Galatasaray( we see in the squad, players like Harry Kewell, Hasan Şaş, Lincoln, Servet Cetin, Fernando Meira, Arda Turan, Nonda or Milan Baros) has completed his excellent week, since after its important victory last Sunday over the leader of the Turkish Super Lig, Trabzonspor, today it won a complicated game against the Olympiakos of Fernando Belluschi (1-0, Kewell scored the goal); Ajax Amsterdam continues with its negative results when it plays away the Amsterdam Arena and today it lost at Villa Park(2-1 Barry and Laursen scored the goal); Sevilla FC continues to show strength and it won easily the game against Stuttgart in the first quarter thanks to a Romaric and Renato´s goal. Finally we want to remark the important victory of Sampdoria Genoa at Belgrade-it beat Partizan Belgrade (1-2)-and the comfortable victories of Schalke 04 over the PSG (3-1) and CSKA Moscow over Deportivo de La Corunna (3-0 with a great game of Vagner Love)-I have a question for the Deportivo´s coach Miguel Angel Lotina, if last year the team only played well when it played with 3 central defenders, ¿why this year does the team play with only 2 central defenders? Please Mr Lotina, change your tactics because we do not want to see Deportivo playing next year in the 2nd division

About Euroleague basketball, we should say that we've had a day without surprises, as almost all the favourites have solved their games without too many problems. Thus, the top favourite for the continental title, Olympiakos Piraeus, has achieved a comfortable victory in the game against the Italian Air Avellino, being the key players of the Greek giant, the former NBA´s player Josh Childress (14 points and 8 rebounds) and Zoran Erceg (11 points 6 rebounds in 18 minutes). But besides the Olympiakos´s victory, we have also seen the good sensations of other favourites as Panathinaikos-it beat Zalgiris Kaunas (78-51), being the key player, the guard Dimitris Diamantidis-, the Regal FC Barcelona (after its good image at Los Angeles when it played against Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, it played again in Europe and it had not any problem to beat Nancy-excellent play of the Turkish Ersan Ilyasova with 18 points and 12 rebounds-), the CSKA Moscow-all the stars played well and they won the game against AJ Milano-, the Montepaschi Siena-we must remark the center Ksistof Lavrinovic (13 points and 13 rebounds), who was the key player in the game against the Asseco Prokom-,Tau Cerámica- Will Mcdonald played very well (18 points and 8 rebounds) against the Fenerbaçhe-Ulker-, the Real Madrid-we must remark Felipe Reyes and”the killer" Quinton Hosley in the game against Panionios OT-, the Efes Pilsen-Milos Vujanic confirms that he has recovered his good level and tonight his numbers were 17 points and 4 assists in the suffered victory of the Turkish team over the Partizan Igokea Belgrade (61-60-a horrible Efes´s last quarter)-, Unicaja Malaga-although it did not play its best game-, DKV Joventut-correct game against Union Olimija(the center Nana Mensah-Bonsu continues playing well and tonight:14 points and 9 rebounds)-.

The only surprise were the Cibona Zagreb and Alba Berlin´s victories, since the Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv with an unfortunate Carlos Arroyo (0-5 in 2FG ) could not counteract the good play of the Cibona Zagreb´s players as Rawle Marshall -20 Points-, the guard Davor Kus (23 points) and the center Nikola Prkacin (14 points). Neither the Lottomatica Roma could not win its game against Alba Berlin (68-63) “thanks” to a very bad 4th quarter, since the stars of the Italian club- Primoz Brezec (10 points), Sani Becirovic (7 points), Andre Hutson (11 points) or Brandon Jennings (9 points)- scored only 11 points in the last quarter.

Anyway, these competitions have just started and we have mucho more games to enjoy.

Cheers,

J& F