Season 53 (04.05.14/31.05.14)

[July Fourth]

League Round 21: TeamSystem COBRA 0-5 July Fourth

Papaleo (3 PEN,12 PEN) Shepherd (46) Benayoun (57) Allen (61) MOTM: Papaleo.

July Fourth lead this one from beginning to the end, Papaleo was always active and threatening to break through and score on numerous occasions but as it turned out Papaleo was brought down (or did he dive?) 3 times in which 2 were penalties in which Papaleo scored, Things we comfortable and we were never under any threat and Shepherd made it 3-0 just after HT, Then a Benayoun free-kick and a Allen run through on goal and toe poke for 5-0.

Champions League Semi-Final 1st Leg: Jon Utd 0-6 July Fourth

Papaleo (2,16) Benayoun (24,32,45 Hat-trick) Petersen (73) MOTM: Papaleo.

Just like the league match earlier in the day, Papaleo scored 2 early goals to give us control in this one, Shortly followed by Benayoun scoring 2 free-kicks and heading in a Petersen corner for his hat-trick for a 5-0 lead at HT, July Fourth done the hard work in 45 minutes play and now can relax for the remainder of the semi-finals. Petersen did add to our score with a good strike on 73 minutes. This match overall has to go down as our best performance thus far this season. Jon Utd are a team that have done well against us on some occasions so it was good result to win this one by a large margin.

We are now 2 matches away from another possible treble. Both finals pretty much certain to reach holding substantial margins and the league is all but mathematically won.

[Tommy Vernersson]

Champions League Semi-Final, 1st game.

It was an anxiety -charged atmosphere in the tunnel before the first semifinal out of two. But you could still see some glow in the eyes of our players. Zlatan 's speech to the group in the locker room before this crucial match had provided inspiration to the rest of the team. But it could not have started worse. After only 6 minutes, Courtois had to give up a goal, and 1-0 for the home team was a fact. It was a matter of momentum. Would we let them score another goal, and thus give up the game before it had even started? or should we bite the bullet and see what we could do? The answer was to my relief the 2nd one. Because in the 13th minute Paul Pogba with a cannon straight up in the top corner, obviously assisted by Hazard, who else? This was the beginning of a ketchup effect and we had time for both 1-2 and 1-3 by Cristiano Ronaldo, before the half time break, another assistant of Hazard by the way. Three goals scored away from home so far was a dream result to take home with us for the return match . In the second half , we were a little hesitant , we let Italo FC get back into the game again , and in the 85e minute 2-3 was a fact. Hopefully just a formality. We are strong at home, and we stand with one leg in a Champions League final. No one will be allowed to stop us now, not even SANTA !