Wembley Cup - Sky Sports 1

eirebhoy

With Setanta going down there hasn't been much pre-season football on the main channels. The Wembley cup tournament starts today at 5.00 on Sky Sports 1.

At the national stadium from this evening Tottenham, Celtic, Barcelona and the champions of Egypt, Al Ahly, will begin competing for a trophy nobody has won before and which may never be won again after the tournament ends on Sunday. The inaugural Wembley Cup, it is safe to say, lacks prestige but that is of little concern to the four clubs involved considering the other rewards.

Each is receiving a cut of one of the most lucrative close-season tournaments ever, with one analyst valuing it at £8m-£9m. A large chunk of that comes from broadcast deals that will see the four-match event (Spurs play Barcelona in the marquee fixture this evening), televised in more than 90 countries. At a time when clubs are travelling further to boost their global profile in pre-season, the guaranteed TV coverage was a huge attraction.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jul/23/barcelona-tottenham-celtic-wembley

Friday
5.15 Celtic v Al Ahly
8.00 Tottenham v Barcelona

Sunday
1.15 Barcelona v Al Ahly
4.00 Tottenham v Celtic


I'd expect O'Dea to start for Celtic today. Possibly Paddy McCourt too for the LOI fans. McGeady might but he started in Cardiff on Wednesday and Celtic have 1 and a half eyes on the Champions league next week.

~Rebel~

cheers EB, you just made my evening at work a lot more palatable!

eirebhoy

Celtic don't make a single change to the team that played on Wednesday night for some reason.

CELTIC (4-4-2) Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, Naylor; Maloney, Donati, NGuemo, McGeady, McDonald, Fortune.
Subs: Zaluska, Fox, Flood, Samaras, Crosas, McCourt, Mizuno, Killen, O’Dea, Caddis, Ferry.

AL AHLY (4-4-2) Hameed; Ali, Gomaa, Samir, Gilberto; Eno, Ashour, Treka, Forkey; Moawad, Faty.
Subs: Moneim, Saleh, El Sayed, Shebeta, Hassan, Farouk, Yasser, El Egezy, Belal, Sedeek, Al Belkasy, Hosny.

theteal

the egyptians are poor

fortune looking good, linking up well with maloney and mcgeady

donati scored! yeah, donati!

mcdonald took a dive for the peno (kinda), ah it was always a peno as soon as the keeper committed himself.

i wanna see pat mccourt - the lad's not injured for a change

eirebhoy

Good stream here for anyone without Sky:
http://www.kanalturk.com.tr/video/?vId=canli

McGeady's looking good. N'Guemo has been pretty poor, can't seem to find a teammate with a pass. Donati playing very well. He'll probably start on Wednesday.

CR 7

It was never a penalty, but macdonald was gonna go down anyway. He wouldn't have got to the ball, keeper's fault really. Not gonna affect the outcome anyway. Looking forward to the spurs game now.

Bounty Hunter

very easy for celtic 3-0 maybe offside but probably alright

~Rebel~

savage finish for the fourth


Looked a very good shout for a 5th there for a pen, ref probably keeping the score in mind when he let it go.

Celtic playing some lovely stuff at times though.

Y2J_MUFC

That Celtic kit is decent, a bit crazy like the only in the 90's, but nice all the same.

keano_afc

Yeah not a bad kit, I had the original one back in the 90's. Celtic looked alright, opposition were poor though.

Come on Barca in the second game.

T-b0n3

Spurs Team for tonight vs Barca:

TEAM NEWS: Our starting XI v Barcelona - Cudicini, Hutton, Corluka, Huddlestone, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Palacios, Jenas, O'Hara, Modric, Defoe. Subs - Gomes, Chimbonda, Dervite, Naughton, Bostock, Livermore, Rose, Keane, Obika.

Haven't found Barcas team yet. Anyone got it?

Bounty Hunter

a CB pairing of Corluka (yeah i know he can play there too) & huddelstone vs Barca! Jaysus this could be interesting

T-b0n3

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

a CB pairing of Corluka (yeah i know he can play there too) & huddelstone vs Barca! Jaysus this could be interesting

King, Woodgate and Dawnson out afaik. Think Tom has played there a few times, but yea obviously not ideal! Hopfully be an interesting match. Wonder what strength team barca will put out.

CR 7

he he he, Gai. :pac:

therecklessone

Was there any fans there for Celtic vs Al Alhy?

Bounty Hunter

T-b0n3 wrote: »

King, Woodgate and Dawnson out afaik. Think Tom has played there a few times, but yea obviously not ideal! Hopfully be an interesting match. Wonder what strength team barca will put out.

not the strongest although Bojan should be interesting to watch against this makeshift defense.

eirebhoy

T-b0n3 wrote: »

Spurs Team for tonight vs Barca:

TEAM NEWS: Our starting XI v Barcelona - Cudicini, Hutton, Corluka, Huddlestone, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Palacios, Jenas, O'Hara, Modric, Defoe. Subs - Gomes, Chimbonda, Dervite, Naughton, Bostock, Livermore, Rose, Keane, Obika.

Haven't found Barcas team yet. Anyone got it?

therecklessone wrote:

Was there any fans there for Celtic vs Al Alhy?

Not many by Wembley standards but atmosphere was decent.

ShoulderChip

found a good stream
http://www.rojadirecta.com/justin/vip_euro_1

barca are toying with them despite their unrecognizable team.

therecklessone

Palacios at fault there, not helped by Hutton allowing Bojan the space.

gimmick

11 half time subs for Barca. Interested to see what Henrique can do.

CR 7

gimmick wrote: »

11 half time subs for Barca. Interested to see what Henrique can do.

11? I thought they were limited to 6?

Who other than keita and puyol came on? Missed the last 15 min or so.

~Rebel~

the skills of those barca kids are unreal

ro2

Nice header. Bit of life to spurs now.

eirebhoy

Great goal from Rueda there. 2-1 Barca against Al Ahli.

Looking forward to the Celtic game now after Friday's win.

eirebhoy

Celtic team completely changed with Loovens having to play again as we've only 3 centre halves fit.

---

Zaluska

---

Caddis ---- Loovens --- O'Dea ---- Fox
Mizuno --- Crosas --- Flood --- McCourt

---

Killen --- Samaras

---

JPA

Samaras, the new messi.

A Dub in Glasgo

Nice win for Celtic, poor turnout from the Spurs fans from what I could see

eirebhoy

Good performances from the Irish. O'Dea was immense. Flood probably the next best player.