Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

THE Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich must thinking that football is a puzzling sport.

Since taking over the Stamford Bridge club nine years ago, the Russian has coughed up million and millions of pounds and has casually sacked a host of high-profile managers for failing to come up with the present he wants the most – a Champions League trophy.

A selection of headlines from stories in the news. They use English in a way that you might think is intended to confuse but it's all perfectly clear to the native speaker.

IT could be described as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

I’m referring of course to the Champions League semi-final first leg between those two Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

THE mouth-watering attraction of the Real Madrid versus Barcelona Champions League semi-final first leg will ensure that the normal parochial English football fans will be glued to their television screens this week.

For some, it will be an even greater attraction than Manchester United’s game at Schalke.

THERE was much  hype surrounding the draw for the last 16 stage of the Champions League with pundits wetting themselves with excitement at the prospect of Arsenal re-staging their epic clashes against Barcelona last season.

True, both matches were real treats, a feast for football purists and it does seem that Arsenal face the toughest challenge of all the English teams still left in the competition.

A few years back my wife and I spent a short holiday in Barcelona, a fabulously vibrant city which I can heartily recommend (although beware of the pickpockets!).

Whilst there we took advantage of an open-top bus tour of the Spanish city which included a stop outside Barcelona’s impressive Nou Camp stadium.