If you don’t remember, then let us remind you that last year, Xavi was awarded the world’s best with world champions Spain and Jose Mourinho. Considered as the oldest of their kind in the soccer world, these awards are in their 30^th year celebration.

This year too, Xavi will feature as the main contenders for the world player of the year award in these soccer awards. It is expected that Spain will grab the award for winning the Champions League at Wembley, the Club World Cup in Dubai.

On the other hand, as the best manager, Alex Ferguson has fair chances of winning the award for celebrating 25 years as the manager of Manchester United in November.Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez and Andre Villas Boas of Europa League are strong contenders too in the same category.

This goalkeeper was busy in getting the first clear chance of the game in the first five minutes of the game itself. Though, the start was bit inauspicious, Dallas soon settled into maintaining the majority of possession in the match. Later in the 66^th minute, the pressure was seen on the Pumas side to defend the goals.

After sometime, it looked as if the Pumas might get back in the game when they earner a corner but the ball was cleared from the danger and the Pumas lost it at home in 11 Champions League matches and the first since falling to Cruz Azul 1-0 in the 2009 quarterfinals.

Now, they played against each other again. Last time City knocked out United out of the competition with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Yaya Toure Goal in the 52^nd minute. Expectations were high from key players like David de Gea who is known for his goalkeeping skills in the Manchester United team.

This was really a head to head battle to watch. Wayne Rooney was also expected to show some marvelous goal hitting performance in this match because of his solid performance in front of 75,322 people at Old Trafford.

PSV is expected to be the likely challengers for these big favorites. You must know that PSV were the ones who finished third last term. It must also be noted that without the natural crown since 2008 so the pressure will be great on coach Fred Rutten. Rutten is known to keep his job despite fierce criticism that he received over and over again to do better.

The local council has helped the Eindhoven club in buying the stadium and training complex. To thank this gesture, PSV will pay the rent for the next 40 years. However, this deal means that this 18 times champion has money available for strengthening its squad.

Another thing to note is that Belgian winger Dries Martens and Holland midfielder Kevin Strootman, have been already signed up for Utrecht but they are not expected to do any harm to the PSV.

Watch the highlights of Sweden vs. Finland UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifying Soccer Match yourself in this video clip. This is a 3 minutes and 9 seconds video clip featuring all the major highlights of this recently held soccer match.

You will get to see when and how the Finland team lost to Sweden with each goal. 

The news of Wayne Rooney’s wish to quit Old Trafford is not going to dampen the spirits of Manchester United in any possible way. The United midfielder Darren Fletcher is focused and also cautions its rivals at the Premier League.

Though the news of Wayne Rooney leaving has shocked everyone and is seen as a blow to the team’s hope of giving tough competition at the league, but the United midfielder Fletcher is confidant that his team can still do better without Rooney. He expects to prove the team’s rise at the Sunday match that it is playing at Stoke.

Fletcher also states that there has been many such earlier cases of high profile players leaving the club, but that doesn’t dampen the club’s spirits to keep going and win trophies.

Again, another person in limelight is the Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson. It seems that he will also be in trouble if the team doesn’t beat Blackburn at Anfield. After several defeats even at the hands of local rivals, the team now desperately need to win this match.

Amongst all the matches, the most exciting one seems to be the one at Eastlands where Manchester City will clash with Arsenal team to keep the pressure on leaders Chelsea to prove their contendership.

It was by no means the most fascinating finals ever and was marred by an exceedingly high number of fouls resulting in a record number of yellow cards. In fact, Dutch Defender John Heitinga had to be given a red card after being booked for a second time. This was perhaps the defining moment, as minutes after his expulsion Spain took the lead and that was enough to sail Spain home. This definitely looked headed towards a penalty shootout as none of the sides looked like scoring a goal even in extra time. Had Heitinga not been shown the red card, we perhaps might have had a different result. 

However, the Spanish side has to be credited for keeping its nerves and holding on till the last moment. This Spanish side has scored the lowest number of goals amongst all champions so far but one must confess that they have produced some breathtaking football throughout the tournament. Though they haven’t scored as many goals as they would have liked to but there is no denying that they have done everything right to be crowned the champions. It definitely looks that the Spanish team has finally lived up to its potential.

Not many would have imagined seeing two European sides fight it out for the coveted trophy and almost no one would have anticipated a “Spain vs Netherland” final. But here we are nearing the end of the greatest sports extravaganza and are about to witness the unlikeliest of World Cup final. 

Although Spain has always been considered a great side, it never really fulfilled its true potential. They have always been termed as the biggest underachievers of world football. Netherlands on the other hand are the surprise finalists. Although they have a decent side with some very good players, not many would have put their money on them. But they have shown immense character and resilience to come this far. Even Brazil couldn’t halt their terrific run as they breezed to the finals. Spain defeated Germany on route to the finals, whereas Netherlands beat Uruguay to make a place in the finals. 

This year’s world cup has been seen turn around as many top sides faltered and the lesser teams marched ahead. Spain, however was favorite along with Brazil, but going by their performances in the world stage, many had doubts if Spain could come this far. 

Netherlands has never succeeded in winning the World Cup, although they have made it to the finals twice. It remains to be seen if they can get lucky this time. This should be a great finale as both these sides are capable of playing some breath taking football and as a football fan we hope they play to their potential and give us a final to remember.

The World Cup never ceases to spring in surprises. Paraguay, for the first time in its football history has qualified for the quarter finals. They defeated Asian giants, Japan in a breathtaking contest which was decided by a penalty shootout. Paraguay will now face Spain, who defeated Portugal in their pre-quarterfinal match.

Japan was hoping they would make it to the next round after qualifying for the last 8 during the 2002 World Cup. But for Yuichi Komano’s unfortunate miss, they could have very made their way into the quarter finals. The defender’s strike hit the cross bar and Japan could not come back from this set back, as they went on to lose 3-5.

After his sides dismal performance against the relative minnows New Zealand, Paraguay’s coach made several changes in this match. Carlos Bonet, Antolin Alcaraz, Lucas Barrios, Edgar Benitez and Nestor Ortigoza replaced Victor Caceres, Nelson Valdez, Julio Cesar Caceres, Denis Caniza and Oscar Cardozo. On the other hand, Japan retained the same side that beat Denmark 3-1 in its group match.

The match was very closely fought with both teams creating several opportunities and there was very little to separate the two sides. Although some would like to believe that Japan played better football until the penalty shootout and were unlucky to miss out on a quarter final spot.

Paraguay stayed focused and converted each of the penalty strokes, which eventually took them to the next round. It remains to be seen if this South American side manages to cross the next hurdle and make it to the semi finals.