A holiday in the sun for Pardew's happy campers.Venue: Estádio dos Barreiros, Funchal, Madeira. Date: Thurs, 4th October. Kick off: 6:00pm Referee: Robert Schorgenhofer. UK TV: ESPN.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this evening’s Europa League clash versus S.C Maritimo on the paradise island of Madeira, home of Christiano Ronaldo, cake, and many a fine fortified wine.
Even away, the Magpies should normally go into this match as strong favourites, however with injuries and manager Alan Pardew prioritising the Premiership at home, he has travelled with a somewhat depleted squad to Funchal, which should add a bit of a “squeaky bum” factor to this game. However, I will spare you from too much of the usual pre match waffle here, as I have alredy done more than enough of that for this game, not only with my fairly extensive match preview from this morning, but also in another story in my series probing our Europa League Group Stage opponents from a few weeks ago. As I noted in the preview though, the squad Pardew has taken out there is: (more…)
Maritimo beating Georgian side Dila Gori on their way to the Group Stage.Venue: Estádio dos Barreiros, Funchal, Madeira. Date: Thurs, 4th October. Kick off: 6:00pm Referee: Robert Schorgenhofer. UK TV: ESPN.
Before I begin, I wrote a previous piece giving some general background on Maritimo in my series probing our Europa League Group Stage opponents.
In this preview, I will concentrate more on Maratimo’s style of play and their performances this season, along with some videos of the Madeirans in action this term. I will also try to cover the usual match preview stuff such as team news for both sides amongst other things.
Maritimo’s style of play, and season so far.(more…)
Team: F.C. des Girondins de Bordeaux. League: French Ligue 1. Position last season: 5th. Stadium: Stade Chaban Delmas, Bordeaux. Last major trophy: Ligue 1, Coupe de la Ligue, Trophée des champions – 2009. Fixture dates: Thurs, 4th Oct (H), Thurs, 6th Dec (A).
A silver haired Supremo in his early fifties, his team came fifth in the League last season. However, after a major clearout of players from his team and a need for replacements, he found himself ultimately frustrated in the hunt for new players in the last transfer window, with his club at an important stage in it’s development.
Who else could I be referring to other than Francis Gillot, the 52 year old Silver Supremo of our forthcoming Europa League Group Stage opponents, Girondins de Bordeaux? Whilst they may not be quite what they were in their last heyday under Laurent Blanc (2007-10) yet, they should still provide by far the stiffest test in our battle to get through the first Europa League group stage.
Maratimo at their place.Team: C.S. Maritimo. League: Portuguese Primeira Liga. Position last season: 5th. Stadium: Estádio dos Barreiros, Funchal, Madeira. Last major trophy: Campeonato de Portugal, 1926. Fixture dates: Thurs, 4th Oct (A), Thurs, 22nd Nov (H)
Though Maritimo play in Portugal’s Primeira Liga, Maritimo (Maritime) are situated on the island of Madeira, some 600 miles from the Portuguese coast and slightly closer to Africa than to Portugal.
Madeira was colonised by the Portuguese in the early 15th Century and is now an autonomous district of Portugal. Despite being a very small island, with a population which is roughly similar to that of Newcastle upon Tyne without Gateshead, Gosforth and the rest, the island of Madeira has no less than eleven teams competing in the Portuguese leagues, the major ones being Maritimo and their main Madeiran rivals Nacional in Portugal’s Primeira Liga. Both Maritimo and Nacional are from Madeira’s capital city, Funchal. It was Nacional who helped to groom the young Funchalian who subsequently went on to become Madeira’s most famous football export by far, Christiano Ronaldo, who won a title with Naconal’s youth team before he moved on to one of the big three of Portuguese football, Sporting Club of Lisbon, at the tender age of twelve. (more…)
