Final Weekend - Intertoto Cup

The 2nd legs of the 3rd Round of the Intertoto Cup takes place this weekend. All the winners go into the qualifying rounds of the UEFA.

The most interesting tie this weekend has to be Aston Villa v Odense at Villa Park later on this afternoon not because the tie is square at 2-2 but the reception Gareth Barry might receive from the home fans should Martin O'Neill decide to include him in the squad.

During the week at neighbours Walsall, Barry took some unrelenting stick from the travelling Villa faithful.

Wonder what is in store for him later on today?

Calm Down, Calm Down

If I am honest I have had a real s**t time recently.

For the last two weeks work has been THE major concern in my life - everything else including 'my small indulgence' on the internet (this blog) has suffered and my LOVE LIFE too!!! LOL.

From today I hope that I will be here again each and every day especially as the start of the football season gets closer and closer.

Today, there are loads and loads of pre-season friendlies being played involving Man Utd, Arsenal and the like plus Aston Villa start their quest for European glory in the Intertoto Cup 3rd Round 1st Leg away to OB of Denmark.

Deportivo of Spain and Stuttgart of Germany also join the third round fray. Good luck to Villa.

Talking of Villa.

This morning on the radio there was a young lady ringing in to announce that one of her bridesmaid's (one of six) dresses didn't fit. She explained that last week the final fittings for the dresses had taken place and that every thing was fine, except that one dress had to have the shoulder straps cut down. So last night (Friday) dress and bridesmaid were reunited and disaster - instead of the shoulder straps being altered - the dress had been reduced by two dress sizes.

On the eve of this poor girl's wedding one of her bridesmaid's dresses now doesn't fit. The presenters of the radio show took delight in suggesting that the dress hadn't been reduced in size but the bridesmaid had put on a lot of weight in a week so the dress wouldn't fit.

Why am I mentioning this? Well it seems the theme of this young bride's wedding is all about Aston Villa Football Club.

The colour scheme is based on Aston Villa's club colours, Claret and Blue.

Results from today's action will be found in the comments section.

Pre Season Is In Full Flow

Pre-season started in earnest last night with a whole host of games being played to enable our finest footballers to get over their Summer rest and get them hamstrings stretching again.

There was also a full programme of friendly matches today as well as the Intertoto Cup it was a full day of footie action. Hope you were lucky to catch some.

Friday's results:

Brentford 0-2 Ipswich
Buxton Town 1-3 Barnsley
Carolina Railhawks 2-1 Burnley
Colwyn Bay 1-4 The New Saints FC
Eastleigh 2-2 Grays Athletic
Kendal 0-4 Carlisle
Weston-Super-Mare 1-1 Exeter
York City 1-1 Leeds

Saturday's Results:

Aberdeen 0-2 Man Utd
Berwick Rangers 4-3 Airdrie United
Boreham Wood 2-4 Luton Town
Bradford PA 0-1 Macclesfield
Braintree 0-9 Charlton XI
Bromley 1-1 Crystal Palace
Carmarthen 0-5 Cardiff XI
Didcot Town 0-9 Reading
Ebbsfleet Utd 0-6 Charlton XI
FC Sion 0-1 Everton
FC Zurich 2-1 Aston Villa
Fleetwood Town 1-2 Blackpool
Forest Green Rovers 1-1 Bristol City
Glossop North End 2-2 Barnsley
Merthyr Tydfil 1-3 Cardiff City
Newcastle Town 2-4 Port Vale
Tranmere Rovers 0-1 Liverpool
Worthing 0-4 Brighton
Wrexham 1-0 Wolves

In the Intertoto Cup, Hibernian lost 2-0 against Elfsborg and go out of the competition, 4-0 on aggregate.

Intertoto Cup - 2nd Round, 1st Leg

The 1st legs of the 2nd round of the Intertoto Cup were played this weekend - full results here - Hibernian of Scotland joined the competition and were beaten 2-0 at Easter Road by Elfsborg of Sweden.

The resounding result of the weekend was Saturn of Russia beating Luxembourg's Eztella, 7-0 away.

In the 1st round, Eztella knocked out Lokomotiv of Tbilisi on the away goal rule.

The 2nd legs of the competition are scheduled for Saturday 12th July and Sunday 13th July.

The Road to European Glory: Intertoto Cup

The first round of the Intertoto Cup was completed this weekend and teams like Bohemians who beat Rhyl 9-3 on agg and Honved who beat Zhetysu 6-3 on agg and Elfsborg who beat HB 4-1 on agg along with others move on to next weekend on their Road to European glory.

Click for a full list of 1st Round results.

Teams joining the second round stage include Hibernian (Scotland), Rosenborg (Norway).

Click for a full list of fixtures.

Fixtures are due to be played 5th/6th July and 12th/13th July

Intertoto Cup

With Euro 2008 taking up everybody's attention the 2008/09 Intertoto Cup kicked off this weekend.

The Intertoto Cup is a Summer competition that allows clubs from all over Europe to qualify for the UEFA Cup, joining the competition at the 2nd Qualifying round.

Due to a complete reformat of European Competition next season this is the last season of the Intertoto Cup in its present format. As the competition started this weekend, there are a further five weekend's of successive competition and the 2nd legs of the first round take place next weekend, June 28th/June 29th.

There are some BIG club names that will be entering the competition between now and the end of the third round, which takes place in July (1st leg - 19th July/20th July, 2nd leg - 26th July/27th July).

Honved - Hungary
Hibernian - Scotland
Deportivo La Coruna - Spain
Napoli - Italy
SC Braga - Portugal
Stuttgart - Germany
Aston Villa - England

Here are a few names of clubs that have started their route to European glory that you may have never heard of:

Bnei Sakhnin - Israel
Ethnikos Achnas - Cyprus
Etzella - Luxembourg
MIKA - Armenia
Nitra - Slovakia
Saturn - Russia
Shakhtyor Soligorsk - Belarus
Tiraspol - Moldova
TPS - Finland
Zhetysu - Kazakhstan
Erkanas - Lithuania
Renova - FYR Macedonia
FK Riga - Latvia
Teplice - Czech Republic
Fylkir - Iceland
HB - Faroe Islands
Rijeka - Croatia
and the list goes on and on.

For a Full List of last weekend's results, click here.