Briefcase

Week 5 fixtures

FIFA World Cup 2022 – European qualification (various groups)

Ireland 2 - 0 Azerbaijan (17:00)
Gibraltar 0 - 3 Turkey (19:45)
Scotland 1 - 0 Moldova (19:45)
Ukraine 1 - 2 France (19:45)
Belarus 0 - 1 Wales (Sunday 14:00)
England 5 - 0 Andorra (Sunday 17:00)
Switzerland 1 - 2 Italy (Sunday 19:45)

South American big qualifying group

Brazil 2 - 1 Argentina (Sunday 20:00)

CONCACAF final qualifying group

Jamaica 2 - 0 Panama (Sunday 23:00)

African qualifying (Group F)

Gabon 1 - 2 Egypt (Sunday 20:00)

Week 4 fixtures

Premier League

Aston Villa 2 - 0 Brentford
Brighton & Hove Albion 1 - 1 Everton
Newcastle United 2 - 1 Southampton
Norwich City 1 - 3 Leicester City
West Ham United 3 - 0 Crystal Palace
Liverpool 2 - 2 Chelsea (17:30)
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 - 2 Manchester United (Sunday 16:30)

National League

Wrexham 2 - 0 Notts County (Monday 19:30)

National League North

Telford United 1 - 2 Hereford w/@Shy Dad (Monday) 

Scottish Premiership
Rangers 2 - 1 Celtic (Sunday 12:00)

Summerslam the first show I've seen in a very long time. 

Would have been better as a 3 hour show. Mysterio and Drew/Jinder should have been on the pre show.

I never really look into the results or wins as usually at Summerslam/Mania its a show set up more for the live crowd than those watching at home (title changes/surprises) which they've probably achieved in fairness. I think with WWE its about moments, Becky/Brock gave us two moments and all will be forgotten about in a few weeks.

Goldberg/Lashley seemed a bit of a mess from Goldberg standing at the entrance for about 2 minutes to the match itself, but still better than the choreographed matches we see week after week and felt a bit more real in that respect (as real as your going to get in WWE these days anyways).

Cena/Reigns wasn't too bad, Brock back at the end is great and he looks great.

Overall a solid show at best, I don't watch AEW so won't compare and I'll probably tune back in at the Rumble. 

Week 3 fixtures

Premier League
Aston Villa 2 - 0 Newcastle United
Crystal Palace 2 - 1 Brentford
Leeds United 2 - 1 Everton
Brighton & Hove Albion 1 - 2 Watford (17:30)
Southampton 0 - 2 Manchester United (Sunday 14:00)
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 14:00)
Arsenal 0 - 2 Chelsea w/@TildeGuy~! (Sunday 16:30) 

Serie A

Empoli 0 - 1 Lazio (19:45)
Udinese 0 - 2 Juventus (Sunday 17:30)

Segunda División

Tenerife 0 - 2 Sporting Gijón (18:30)

Week 2 fixtures

Premier League

Burnley 1 - 1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Chelsea 3 - 0 Crystal Palace
Everton 2 - 0 Southampton 
Leicester City 2 - 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Watford 1 - 2 Aston Villa
Norwich City 0 - 2 Liverpool (17:30)
Newcastle United 1 - 0 West Ham United (Sunday 14:00)
Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 3 Manchester City w/@Vegeta(Sunday 16:30) 

Ligue Un

Lille 2 - 0 Nice (16:00)
Lens 1 - 1 St-Étienne (Sunday 16:00)

Week 1 fixtures

FA Community Shield

Leicester City 0 - 2 Manchester City (17:15, at Wembley Stadium)

Championship

Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Swansea City
Cardiff City 1- 0 Barnsley
Stoke City 1 - 1 Reading
Sheffield United 2 - 0 Birmingham City (20:00)
Fulham 3 - 1 Middlesbrough (Sunday 13:30)
Coventry City 0 - 0 Nottingham Forest (Sunday 16:30)

Scottish Premiership

St Mirren 1 - 1 Heart of Midlothian

German Cup First Round

Lokomotiv Leipzig 0 - 3 Bayer Leverkusen (14:30)
Waldhof Mannheim 0 - 4 Eintracht Frankfurt (Sunday 14:30)

All games kick off on Saturday and at 15:00 unless states. Times are listed in BST.
 

Count me back in as well. Completely missed this thread. 

This might sound a bit daft but one of the few things that occasionally draw me to Raw is knowing the shows are live and that anything can happen and the reactions that come with it, so when I do watch live even if the product is shit there might be a magic moment which is made by the fans.

Piping the crowd noise in really goes against that and I'm not even sure I'll bother anymore until they sort it out. We all saw how having no fans diluted things, this feels the same to me. 

I think this is the right thread but finally managed to get a PS5 on order yesterday so hopefully be with me by the end of the month. Had to order the console with the Spiderman game which is probably fine for a first game.

Any other suggestions on games to pick up? Call Of Duty worth it? (normally love them to be fair). 

First Raw I've seen in months, other than Goldberg nothing at all captured my attention. But even Goldberg felt a bit of a half hearted effort (shit pyros, none of his usual back stage walk, didn't even have a microphone, didn't even spear Lashley).

Presumably Goldberg will spear Lashley and the MITB winner cashes in at Summerslam?

TV Ratings are in.

25m watched the game on BBC. 6m watched on ITV. 

Jenas helping bringing in the ratings, you love to see it. 

This thread reminds me of the time a few of us had to travel and stay overnight for work, our hotel being next to a Toby meant this was the logical choice.

I usually find with these overnight stays that there is always one in the group who has never been to these places before and this was even more obvious when the guy behind the counter asked what meat my colleague wanted, his reply 'Can I have fish'.

Still makes me laugh to this day. 

I got overpaid like 18 years ago by like £500 I think and said I could only afford £10 a month so that's all they took over a few years.

I could have probably paid it back over a few months as money and bills wasn't an issue then but I thought sod them. 

Uefa have said that's part of the rules so not really on the ref that one, blame Uefa. 

19 minutes ago, Mark Impact said:

Some strange selections last night, I was convinced that by taking THAT many full backs we would be 3 at the back and one of those would be encouraged to get forward. Maybe TAA missing nixed that idea, but now with a flat 4 seems even more strange. 

Shaw and Trippier having each started on the left ahead of Chilwell who I think is the most deserving is odd to me. Only thing I can think here is similar to how Hoddle handled Beckham in '98 by dropping him for Anderton (who always seemed to miraculously find form and fitness every 2 years) and then going with him from the third group game on (in a more central role with him now fired up! Wonder how that went?).

Chilwell is no game changer like a Beckham, but his runs in the FA Cup and Champions League Final offer something that Shaw can't and Trippier can't top on the left. 

Scotland were always going to defend deep, so Grealish and Foden's skills would be perfect you'd have thought. Maybe Southgate doesn't want to unleash them properly too early? Swapping one for the other when Foden was still being progressive at least made no sense to me. 

Sterling has this bad habit of running into dead ends constantly, surely should have made way for Rashford early in the second half. 

Kane I'm sure would be better suited by having Rashford over Sterling now, in that Sterling is there to feed Kane yet doesn't, but Rashford would stretch the defence like Son and open space for Kane. Everything last night was so tight.

One big thing is that this match created ZERO momentum, we'd need to spank Czech Republic now to be somewhat rolling for the knockouts. 

Agree with the parts in Bold. Chirwell/Walker would have added pace going forward (Walker not even on the bench). I thought Shaw/Reece-James were too safe, in a team with Phillips & Rice Southgate focusing more on protecting than attacking.

Also didn't realise how poor Pickford is on the ball, must have taken him about 30 seconds to release the ball every time it was in his hands, you could see how stressed/indecisive he was, whether that's Pickford being Pickford or lack of movement its games like this you realise why top teams want goalkeepers who can pass/release the ball quickly. 

Premier League

Arsenal 3 - 1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Aston Villa 2 - 3 Chelsea
Leicester City 2 - 0 Spurs
Liverpool 3 - 0 Crystal Palace
West Ham United 2 - 0 Southampton

National League

Sutton United 2 - 0 Hartlepool United
Torquay United 3 - 1 Barnet
Wrexham 2 - 0 King's Lynn Town

FA Trophy Final (@ Wembley)

Hereford 2 - 0 Hornchurch 

Scottish Cup Final (@ Hampden)

Hibernian 1 - 0 St Johnstone 

Scottish Women's Premier League

Hearts 2 - 0 Motherwell 
Rangers 0 - 1 Celtic 

La Liga 

Elche 0 - 1 Athletic Bilbao 
Huesca 1 - 2 Valencia
Real Madrid 2 - 0 Villarreal 
Valladolid 0 - 2 Atlético Madrid

German Bundesliga

Cologne 2 - 0 Schalke 
Stuttgart 1 - 1 Arminia Bielefeld
Werder Bremen 2 - 1 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Serie A 

Atalanta 2 - 1 AC Milan 
Bologna 0 - 2 Juventus
Napoli 2 - 1 Verona

Ligue Un 

Angers 0 - 1 Lille 
Brest 0 - 2 Paris Saint Germain 

Portuguese Cup Final (in Coimbra)

Sporting Braga 1 - 2 Benfica 

Proper Bundesliga

Rapid Vienna 2 - 0 LASK 
WAC 1 - 2 Sturm Graz

Major League Soccer

Chicago Fire 0 - 2 Inter Miami 
Houston Dynamo 1 -1 Vancouver Whitecaps 
Seattle Sounders 2 - 0 Atlanta United 

A-League

Sydney 2 - 0 Western Sydney Wanderers 
Melbourne Victory 1 - 0 Adelaide United

Women's Champions League Final (@ the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg)

Barcelona 1 - 0 Chelsea 

FA Cup Final (@ Wembley)

Chelsea 2 - 1 Leicester City 

Premier League

Southampton 2 - 0 Fulham
Brighton & Hove Albion 2 - 1 West Ham United 
Crystal Palace 1 - 1 Aston Villa 
Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 
West Bromwich Albion 0 - 2 Liverpool 
Everton 2 - 0 Sheffield United 

Women's FA Cup Fifth Round

Blackburn Rovers 1 - 0 Charlton Athletic 

A Primeira Liga

Benfica 1 - 0 Sporting Lisbon

Nothing more annoying then when you get the little dribble down your leg*

*According to a good friend of mine. 

Week 34 fixtures

EFL Cup Final (at Wembley Stadium)

Manchester City 2 - 0 Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 16:30)

Premier League

West Ham United 1 - 2 Chelsea (17:30)
Leeds United 0 - 2 Manchester United (Sunday 14:00)
Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Bromwich Albion (Sunday 19:00)

National League

Altrincham 2 - 0 Barnet w/@TildeGuy~!
Torquay United 1 - 0 Notts County
Wrexham 2 - 0 Chesterfield

La Liga

Villarreal 0 - 1 Barcelona (Sunday 15:15)
Athletic Bilbao 0 - 2 Atlético Madrid (Sunday 20:00)

Segunda División

Real Oviedo 1 - 1 Girona (Sunday 13:00)
 

7 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Still, might be nice to be allowed back into the real thread next year.

Super thread for the top six super clubs. Have another peasant thread for the other 86 clubs. 

Week 33 fixtures

FA Challenge Cup semi-finals (at Wembley Stadium)

Chelsea 1 - 2 Manchester City (17:30)
Leicester City 2 - 0 Southampton (Sunday 18:30)

Premier League

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 - 0 Sheffield United (20:15)
Arsenal 3 - 1 Fulham (Sunday 13:30)
Manchester United 2 - 0 Burnley (Sunday 16:00)

Scottish Cup Round 4

Rangers 2 - 0 Celtic (Sunday)

FA Women's Cup Fourth Round

Burnley 0 - 3 Manchester United (Sunday 14:00)

Spanish Cup Final (in Seville)

Athletic Bilbao 0 - 2 Barcelona (20:30)

Ligue Un

Girondins de Bordeaux 1 - 2 Monaco (Sunday 16:05)
Nantes 0 -2 Olympique Lyonnais (Sunday 20:00)

The BBC put a very lengthy article about his life up on its home page minutes after the news was announced and also many other outlets. 

So am suspecting the news outlets were aware before the news broke or knew this was coming this week.

I have no clue at journalism so maybe this is a standard thing where the press know a few hours ahead of press releases.

Its a slow day for me but has got me wondering now how it all works. 

I occasionally dip into the Takeover shows and really enjoyed it. Also liked the look of the arena, the cages ringside & the darker theme, reminds me of old school WWE compared to the bright colours that is Raw & Smackdown. I haven't seen NXT in such a long time, so it might not be a new thing.

Despite having the WWE Network I watched this on BT Sport and the only thing that bugged me was the adverts in the matches and after every match and then returning from the break and no entrances or the match already started, fair enough on the weekly show but not on PPV. Not sure if this was different or the same on the WWE Network or a new thing now they've teamed with Peacock?