If we pipped them to 6th then in order to qualify for Europa we'd need to either

- win the FA Cup or

- finish as losing finalists to a team above us, or

- have the final played between two teams in the top 4 (probably two of United, Spuds, Chelsea), or

- for the cup to be won by the team in fifth, probably Arsenal.

The first one isn't very likely unfortunately; the third is less likely than you would expect - United could easily go out in the next round and teams can easily be drawn against each other; the last one I suppose is possible, but probably the most likely is number 2.

NUFC reserves 6-0 down at HT away to Man Utd

Aye, fair play to Real, they had a darn good go at it

Barca are certainly gonna win it the hard way now, they've been drawn against Valencia in the semi's while Athletic Bilbao are against Spain's own fairytale story, Mirandes from the Segunda B league (the Spanish 3rd division), they've beaten Racing Satander, Espanyol and Villarreal to get this far

COPA DEL REY, SEMI-FINALS

1. Valencia ........ v ........ Barcelona
2. Mirandes (3) ........ v ........ Athletic Bilbao

And heres some others

GERMAN DFB POKAL, QUARTER-FINALS

1. Holstein Keil (4) ........ v ......... Borussia Dortmund
2. Hoffenheim ........ v ........ Greuther Furth (2)
3. Hertha Berlin ........ v ........ Borussia Moenchengladbach
4. Stuttgart ........ v ........ Bayern Munich

COPPA ITALIA, SEMI-FINALS

1. AC Milan ........ v ........ Juventus
2. Napoli ........ v ........ Siena

COUPE DE FRANCE, 11th ROUND

1. Dijon ........ v ........ Paris Saint Germain
2. Rennes ........ v ........ Evian Thonon Galliard
3. Chateauroux (2) ........ v ........ Montpellier
4. Gazelec Ajaccio (4) ........ v ........ Drancy (4)
5. Valenciennes ........ v ........ Lille
6. Quevilly (3) ........ v ........ Orleans (3)
7. Lyon ........ v ........ Bordeaux
8. Bourg-Peronnas (4) ........ v ........ Marseille

DTUCH KNVB CUP, QUARTER-FINALS

1. PSV Eindhoven ........ v ........ NEC Nijmegen
2. AZ Alkmaar ........ v ........ Gelders Veenendaalse (3)
3. Vitesse Arnhem ........ v ........ Heerenveen
4. Heracles Almelo ........ v ........ RKC Waalwijk

Madrid now 7 points clear at the top of La Liga after beating Zaragoza 3-1 at home followed by Barcelona drawing 0-0 at Villareal (only the 2nd time in 50 away games that Barcelona have failed to score).

The Special One coming good again.

Even though it's a balmy -20C today, I'll shall venture out to the pub to watch Rovers take on the Mighty Arsenal.
I know that at least for one day we'll have your support, so let's hear it from Tyneside: C'MON YOU ROVERS!!

3-1 to Arsenal and Rovers down to 10 men. RVP with another 2 goals and we still haven't finished the first half - more misery for miserable Blackburn fans

4-1 now to Arsenal, two minutes into the second half.


Blackburn Rovers are shite. Fact.

It's snowing at the Emirates and raining goals 5-1


KEANE IN!!!

Well I wanted your lot to win Copy

This could be 8 or 9.

May as well just enjoy the thrashing now Guesty

6-1 Robin Van hat-trick.

How come we only scored two against this lot?

There is of course the fact that Arsenal's goal record is improving rapidly.

Blackburn Wallies

Not to worry, we have the Toon's 6 nil thrashing of Villa and Manure's 6 nil thrashing of Chelski to look forward to

That Oxlade-Chamberlain kid must have a quality future. Better than Walcott.

Aye, it has been said many times recently.

7-1 it finished, Henri got one at the death.

Enjoy your whatever it is you are drinking Copy

He looks good but you could have come up with a better comparison, I'm better than Walcott!!

It's quite embarassing to think they outplayed us in the week even if we did get the result!

"quite" is an understatement. Thank heavens Ba and Cisse are back

Rovers were unlucky in the first half.
The second half was a learning experience for Steve Kean's young squad - see how they got a corner at the end.
This shows that even though they'd been stuffed they still had plenty of spunk!

Man Utd's defence falling apart, 3-0 to Chelsea now.

Alan Green saying that Man Utd have the best away record in the premier league, but can they not be a bit critical about these stats?

Man Utd have beaten: West Brom, Bolton, Everton, Swansea, Villa, QPR, Fulham and Arsenal away in the premier league

They've drawn with Stoke and Liverpool away.

And they've lost 3-0 to us away - now they look sure to lose away to Chelsea away too, though they've just got a soft-sounding penalty. Yes, it's 3-1 now.

Notice the pattern? Of the teams they've beaten away from home, only two of them are in the top half - Swansea are 10th and ManYoo have had the Indian sign over Arsenal for a few years now. Eight away wins in 12 matches is pretty impressive but not so impressive when you consider that they've mostly played teams they would expect to beat anyway. They've been consistent, but not dazzling.

Well, ManYoo get another penalty - not sure what Chelsea are playing at. Mind you, sounds like not a great decision. 3-2 now.

Don't think Chelsea can really have any complaints about either penalty. We need Man Utd to get another one really.

AND THE GOAL WE NEEDED HAS ARRIVED!!

3-3, proving me wrong then

I can't see us finishing above Chelsea.

Nor can I but you never know. They always have the potential to slip up. If Ba and Cisse click, we could put a run together, Cabaye and Tiote will be back in a fortnight too.

Even without the two penalties, I thought Wayne Rooney was outstanding today. He played just behind the striker and linked up beautifully with Welbeck and the midfield. A joy to watch.

I think Bale should have been sent off there. He knocked the ball past Agger and then dived, the foul wasn't given and Agger got up and shouted at him - Bale pushed him away and then there was a bit of typical Anfield aggro. But Bale should have had a yellow for the dive and a yellow for the push, and Agger should have had a yellow for the aggro.

In the end the ref took the easy way out and just gave Bale a yellow.

Yeah I don't get that - two clear bookable offences that I think the ref may have just bottled.

Didn't really expect that from Bale. Shocking on both accounts.

Suarez should have been sent off for that kick on Parker too - only a yellow. Another bottled decision. It will be interesting to see whether the Premier League follow their "the ref saw it at the time so we can't review it" excuse this time.

On first viewing that challenge should have been red, not yellow for Skrtel too. Getting quite feisty, this match.

Carroll's so poor I bet the Scousers wish they had Torres instead

One or two of the fans shining lasers in Assou-Ekotto's eyes - that'll be a life-time ban I reckon.

The people that do that really are thick.

Bale just missed an enormous chance - one on one, he looked to me to be a bit uncertain and in the end he just tried to nutmeg Reina, saved by the keeper's legs. Big big miss.

Gerrard certainly knows how to put a good cross in.

Gerrard certainly knows how to put a good cross in.

Just watching that Bale chance again, it was his first touch that messed it up, too weak and took him slightly wider so it narrowed the angle making it easier for Reina to block.

Suarez, just a tad overrated?

Spurs seem fairly happy with a point. They are playing what seems to me to be a fairly continental style, very patient, keeping possession, lots of off the ball running in midfield.

I agree with Roly (I think it was), that style of play will probably do for us at the weekend.

Suarez shouting "hijo de puta" at the ref & assistant because of that blatant handball that he did. It does my head in that, can the game's authorities not look at it afterwards and say - oi, you are shouting at the ref for something that you *knew* was a correct decision, automatic ban for you?

It's his first match back since christmas so you would give him some leeway, but I assumed from how much people were raving about him that he had scored loads of goals. I think before he got suspended he was central to a lot of Liverpool's forward play, but he doesn't actually produce often enough for me.

You'd think wouldn't you.

As a ref I've gotten loads of shit off players for the most obvious of calls. Some people are just morons.

I think most people recognise that he's a skilful, talented player. And also a twat. But not overrated.

Three points above Liverpool. I'm not complaining.

Just before the whistle you could lip read Carroll shout Fuck Off at the referee too

I've just watched Andy Carroll shouting f*** off at the ref two or three times. How the hell does he get away with it?

Well they will as that is the rule, if a yellow card is given to a player, that can't be upgraded to red after a match and neither can it be rescinded.

Yeah but they are totally inconsistent with how they apply the rule - for example, the ref clearly "saw" Cabaye's incident at Brighton at the time, but for some reason they are allowed to go back and look at that again afterwards and ban him retrospectively.

I think you're right though, this one is too obvious for the ref to say "ooh, actually I didn't see that properly first time".