A lot to get through this morning with plenty of action over the weekend, we start off locally with week 10 of the A-League and then continue with the weekends Barclays Premier League action and a look at “El Clasico” from Sunday morning.

Hyundai A-League

Five days ago the Roar seemed invincible. What a difference a week makes with the Roar falling to their second consecutive defeat, this time at the hands of a pumped up Melbourne Heart side.

First half goals to Argentinian Jonatan Germano and teenager Eli Babalj gave Melbourne Heart a 2-1 victory that gives every other club in the league hope for this season.

Brisbane threatened another one of its stunning comebacks after Mitch Nicholls scrambled a 77th minute-goal over the line but in the end a win for Heart was nothing more than they deserved. Brisbane will now need to regroup as they take on Wellington Phoenix in Dunedin on Wednesday night. 

Courtesy of news.com.au

Wellington Phoenix got a crucial 1-0 A-League win over Perth Glory at Westpac Stadium on Saturday with Ben Sigmund scoring the only goal late in the game.

The winner came in the 85th minute and was the only thing separating the teams in what was a pretty dull and not very entertaining match to be honest. The Phoenix did finish the match with 10 men after substitute Mirjan Pavlovic was sent off for a shocking tackle on Steve Pantelidis from behind deep in stoppage-time, causing more woe for Ricky Herbert with the Phoenix needing all the troops they can muster for the match on Wednesday against the Roar.

Central Coast Mariners have moved to equal top spot in the Hyundai A-League after dispatching local rivals Newcastle 2-0 in an emphatic win at Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford on Saturday night.

The Mariners led 1-0 at half-time courtesy of a headed goal to Rostyn Griffiths in the 25th minute before they sealed the three points when Matt Simon scored his fourth goal of the campaign just before the hour was up.

The win means the Mariners have now gone seven matches without defeat, picking up 19 out of a possible 21 points and sit equal with the Roar on points after their loss on Friday night. It now looks like more horses have joined the race for the A-League title with the Roar dropping back to the pack following their record breaking run.

Late on Saturday night Adelaide United snatched a 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium with Barbiero the hero with an 82nd minute goal.

In front of 16,562 fans, Victory looked set to take home all three points after Archie Thompson grabbed his fourth goal of the campaign just before the hour mark but it wasn’t to be as Barbiero ensured the Victory went home with another draw, that makes it 6 draws from 10 games now.

Victory could still have won it in the closing stages but Harry Kewell had a shot cleared off the line by Cameron Watson and then both Carlos Hernandez and Grant Brebner failed from within the six-yard box to connect with a Kewell cross with the goal at their mercy.

Gold Coast United have finally broken their run of five successive defeats but they still remain rooted to the bottom of the Hyundai A-League ladder, playing out a 0-0 draw with Sydney FC at Skilled Park in what were atrocious conditions.

It was quite a gloomy day on the Gold Coast and just prior to kick off rain was bucketing down, the conditions made it hard to play real football and Ben Williams was kept extrtemely busy, dishing out nine yellow cards – seven of which went to Sydney – in what was at times a spiteful affair.

While the hosts will be happy to have escaped with their first point since October, the Sky Blues were on the back foot for most of the match and failed to carry on the momentum built when they ended Brisbane’s record undefeated streak last weekend, despite this they will probably be happy to have escaped from the two matches with 4 points under their belt and knowing that they were the ones to knock Brisbane off their perch.

Couresy of insideworldsoccer.com

Barclays Premier League

Manchester United bounced back from their UEFA Champions League disappointment with victory over Wolves, while Robin van Persie was the hero once again for Arsenal as they took down Everton on their 125th Anniversary.

Wigan managed to climb off the bottom of the standings and out of the drop zone with a much-needed 2-1 triumph over West Brom at the Hawthorns.

Defender Steven Reid scored just his second goal in six years when he opened the scoring for West Brom in the 33rd minute.

He found the back of the net from a 25-yard free-kick which was conceded by Gary Caldwell, lifting a superb shot over the Wigan wall and beating goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi.

Albion’s lead only lasted four minutes, however, as Victor Moses replied by bending a brilliant strike into the top right-hand corner from edge of the box.

Wigan then took the lead in the second half when Reid brought down Moses in the area and Jordi Gomez made no mistake in converting the resulting penalty, he sent Ben Foster the wrong way and rolled the ball into the bottom corner to give Wigan a much needed win.

On Sunday Tottenham’s 11-match unbeaten run ended with a 2-1 loss at Stoke City.

Matthew Etherington, who played for Tottenham for 3 years early in his career, scored twice in the first half to help send the Spurs to their first defeat since August 28 2011.

Emmanuel Adebayor scored a penalty in the 62nd minute for Tottenham, but they also had Younes Kaboul sent off for a second bookable offence, although replays showed it was quite harsh on Spurs.

In the other game, Sunderland celebrated Martin O’Neill’s first match in charge by beating Blackburn 2-1. Sebastian Larsson scored the winner during injury time to lift them out of the relegation zone and get their season back on track.

Blackburn had reason to be upset with the result with a late penalty decision going against them however it was not to be and Blackburn remain rooted to the bottom of the table. O’Neill, who hasn’t coached for over a year since parting ways with Aston Villa, guided Sunderland to only their third victory of the season.

Courtesy of the Mirror

El Clasico

Barcelona came from behind to win 3-1 at Real Madrid in an eventful “El Clasico”.

In the seventh and final Clasico of 2011, Real Madrid knew that a win would send them six points ahead of bitter rivals Barca with a game in hand.

Jose Mourinho’s league-leading side couldn’t have made a better start by going in front after just 22 seconds – the quickest goal in the Clasico’s history.

Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes’ poor clearance fell to the feet of Real’s Angel Di Maria, who drilled the ball into the penalty area only for Sergio Busquets to block its progress.

The rebound fell to Mesut Oezil and his volley deflected off Busquets, before Karim Benzema was able to lash home from six yards. A comedy of errors and not the best start for Barca.

Real continued to impress and they could have doubled their lead when Cristiano Ronaldo skewed his shot wide, though Di Maria was perhaps better placed to his right, Ronaldo perhaps a bit selfish but when you have a goal scoring record like his why wouldn’t you be?

Real were in control with Barcelona’s opportunities limited just to counter-attacks, however the visitors levelled proceedings on the half-hour mark through Chile forward Alexis Sanchez.

Lionel Messi was the provider, with the 24-year-old skipping by several challenges before sliding a weighted through ball to Sanchez to fire home adeptly from the edge of the area

Both sides went into the break locked at 1-1, but that changed eight minutes after half-time, when Barcelona were handed the lead thanks to a large slice of fortune.

Xavi’s speculative volley 25 yards from goal took a massive deflection off Marcelo to wrong-foot Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas, with the ball spinning off the post and into the back of the net.

Ronaldo then wasted another good opportunity, with the Real captain heading wide despite being completely unmarked inside the penalty area.

The hosts were made to pay for their profligacy, as a quick counter-attack ended with Cesc Fabregas scoring his eighth goal for his new club.

Messi slid the ball out to Dani Alves on the right, who whipped in a terrific cross towards the backpost. It was met by an unmarked Fabregas, who headed home.

Real had some late opportunities to get themselves back into the contest, but Barca held firm to move to the top of the La Liga table on goal difference. Real do have a game in hand but you’d much rather have the points in the bank to be honest.

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