Football Matters With Cyclops

Local

Once again, there was no football in the Burdekin last weekend. The Panthers should have had a Ladies match in Townsville on Friday night against Warriors, but the wet weather postponed it.

Except for possible re-arrangement of postponed matches, there are now no more games

until the end of April. The Panthers have four home games over the weekend of 25 -26 April.

Juniors

As it is now the school holidays the Juniors fixtures will resume after Easter on the 3rd May. We hope the kids and families enjoy the holidays.

Masters

Monday Night Masters had to be called off yet again as the grounds were too wet. Fingers crossed that we will be able to resume next Monday 14th April.

National and International

The Socceroos now have just two games left in the 2026 World Cup Qualifying Group C. On 5 June they are at home to Japan and then on 10 June they travel to Saudi Arabia. Australia must win one of these games to be sure of direct qualification. The New Zealand All Whites have already qualified winning the Oceania Group!

The Matildas played South Korea again on Monday. In the first game last Friday Australia won 1-0 in a not very convincing performance in Sydney.

In the A League Men, Auckland could only draw 1-1 at home to Western Sydney and now leads Western Utd by five points. Western won 3-1 in Perth, their fifth consecutive win. Third placed Melbourne City won 1-0 at home to Central Coast and is a point below Western and four points clear of fourth placed Wanderers. Brisbane lost 1-5 at home to Macarthur but stays in twelfth place.

Only one match in the A League Women. Melbourne City is still top, two points clear of Victory after Victory beat Western Sydney. Adelaide is still in third place and Western Utd stays in fourth place. Brisbane remains seventh.

England and the EPL with seven games to go, Aston Villa was the only one of the top six teams to win. Liverpool now has an eleven point lead over Arsenal, after surprisingly losing 2-3 away to Fulham. Arsenal could only manage a draw away to Everton and is now five points clear of third placed Notts Forest who lost. Chelsea is in fourth place and Manchester City stay fifth.

Meanwhile in Germany, with six games to go, Bayern still leads Leverkusen by six points after both clubs won. Third placed Frankfurt lost and is now fourteen points away in third place with Mainz still fourth.

In Italy Inter could only draw and is now only four points ahead of Napoli has a three point lead over who have a match in hand. Atalanta lost its third match in a row but hangs on to third place six points behind Napoli and two points clear of Bologna.

In Spain, where only Atletico of the top six teams won, and with eight games left Barcelona leads Real Madrid by four points and Atletico by seven points. Fourth placed Atletico Bilbao is a further six points adrift.

Finally in France, also with six matches left PSG now has it all sewn up with a twenty two point lead over Marseille after Monaco lost and drops to third place. Strasbourg won again and stay in fourth place.

The Quote of the Week is from ex- Nottingham Forest Manager Brian Clough "Centre-forward, your job is to get hold of the ball and keep it and when you've got it, pass it to someone that can play football."

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