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Champions goal feast a pleasure to watch

What a bunch of results in the Champions League this week. I never saw any of these scorelines coming especially the Tottenham result.They were all fantastic games.Schalke had a terrific win, beating defending champions Inter Milan 5-2 at the San Siro.With Peter Crouch being sent off so early, there was no chance of Spurs beating Real Madrid, much less at home. It was a silly thing for Crouch to do.His team susffered badly, losing 4-0.Spurs didn’t deserve to get anything because they didn’t give themselves a chance . . . going down a man early on and to, of all teams Madrid. That has disaster written all over it.The London club have quality players and I think if they had kept 11 players on the pitch then it might have been a different result maybe conceding one of two goals, but not four.When you play at the Bernabeu with thousands of fans it is always tough.My hat goes off to Raul because he is still scoring goals, even after leaving Madrid and heading to Schalke. His record speaks for itself.You can look at the goal he scored this week for Schalke. He seemed to make the player marking him go to sleep and the next thing you know he is in the box and scoring.You like to see people like him do well, he is so classy.Now Manchester United are in a good position, although not as concrete as the other sides after the 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. But they got a bit of luck with the referee not calling the penalty on Patrice Evra for the foul on Ramires.Too many times we hear about coaches and players being reprimanded for comments made about referees, but the same thing should be done about referees because they have the biggest influence on the game and the game rests on their decisions.Their decision-making can prove costly and in this case it could prove very costly to Chelsea who are going to Old Trafford down a goal when the teams could have been on even terms. Then Chelseas could have gone to Old Trafford, secured a draw and the tie would have gone into extra-time.Now they have to win the match outright, which will be a tall order.Barcelona all but secured their place in the semi-finals after crushing Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1.In the Premier League, United have had their fair share of luck and pain but they didn’t need any help against my boys (West Ham) on Saturday. It was a disastrous result on our part.We had the game in our hands at 2-0 and to totally throw it all away was disgraceful.United had all the play but were still down and we came out in the second half and looked like we didn’t know how to play the game.We managed to get two early penalties and it was then our game to lose, which we duly did.When you give up four goals in the second half, especially when you look at the goals given away, then you don’t deserve to win.Wayne Rooney was running away from goal when he was fouled and the resulting free kick saw United get back in the game.I just don’t get these things.There was no need to foul him, just guide him out to the wing and keep him away. You just can’t give quality players that type of opportunity.Rooney, for some reason, seems to like West Ham as he went on to score a hat-trick.Now for his celebration, it was unnecessary. You can’t go to the camera and curse as he did. The game is being televised around the world and it was stupid of him to do that.To be truthful, I would have hit him in the pocket, not by suspension, and made him give the money to charity.The two-match ban is OK, but it won’t deter him or any other footballer from repeating the same thing.It’s something the FA need to take a close look at.

Refereeing decisions

Too many times we hear about coaches and players being reprimanded for comments made about referees, but the same thing should be done about referees because they have the biggest influence on the game and the game rests on their decisions.