Football Matters With Cyclops

Local

Senior fixtures resume this weekend after a very long hiatus. The Panthers have four home games and one away game over the weekend of 24 -26 April. On Friday, the Ladies are at home to Wulguru at 6.30 and the Division 1 Men play Wulguru at 8.30. The Division 2 Men’s team is away to Estates at 6.30 at Paradise Park. Then on Saturday the Panthers have two home games against Brothers with the Premiers playing at 7.00 after the Reserves have played at 5.00.

Juniors

Juniors are finally back under way this Saturday! There will be local fixtures between Under 5 to 7 teams, Brothers club from Townsville is travelling down to play Under 8 to 12 teams, and Under 13s and 14s playing Townsville teams at home or in Townsville. All the kids cannot wait to get back into it! Let’s hope for sunny skies and good weather!

Masters

Monday Night Masters resumed last Monday, with the return of dry weather There was a reasonable turnout, after a very long break and Manchester City beat Manchester Utd 5-4! And yes, Masters was on again, even though it was Easter Monday.

National and International

Nothing much is happening on the International front with the Socceroos and Matildas having a rest. The Socceroos have just two games left in the 2026 World Cup Qualifying Group C. They are at home to Japan on 5th June and then on 10 June they travel to Saudi Arabia. Australia must win one of these games to be sure of direct qualification. Japan leads the group and Saudi Arabia is in third place.

The Matildas are not back in action until the end of May. They have two friendlies against Argentina, the first on 30 May in Melbourne and the second on 2 June in Canberra. Mary Fowler one of the Matildas’ stars has suffered a serious ACL Injury and cold be sidelined for some time. And, hopefully the Matildas will have appointed a new coach soon!

In the A League Men, Auckland won 2-0 away to Melbourne Victory and with just two rounds left can almost claim the minor premiership. They lead Melbourne City, who drew away to Western Sydney by six points and have a far superior gaol difference. Western Utd stay in third place despite losing 0-2 to Brisbane, who move off the bottom of the table. Western Sydney stay in fourth place and Perth is now holding up the A League.

In the A League Women Melbourne City made it two premierships in a row with a 5-1 thumping of Perth. Victory defeated Perth 2-0 and finish runners up. Adelaide beat Sydney to retain third place and Central Coat finished fourth. Brisbane finished in seventh place, missing out on the Elimination Finals which take place this coming weekend.

England and the EPL with five games to go, Liverpool is thirteen points ahead of second placed Arsenal who are seven points clear of third place Newcastle, the only one of the top five teams to lose. Manchester City has moved up to fourth place and Chelsea is now fifth. At the foot of the table, Ipswich and Leicester will be in the Championship next season along with Southampton. Wolves continue their good run winning 1-0 at ManU.

In the Bundesliga, with four rounds left, Bayern now leads Leverkusen by eight points and look like champions. Third placed Frankfurt won but is a further twelve points away and Leipzig hangs onto to fourth place one point ahead of Freiburg. At the bottom of the league, none of the bottom ten teams won and Holstein, Bochum and Heidenheim, all look doomed.

In Italy, Serie A has five rounds left. Inter lost at Bologna and is now level on points with Napoli. Atalanta won and is seven points adrift in third place. Bologna has moved up to fourth place and Juventus won and moves up to fifth place, but Juve has a game in hand. For Monza relegation looks certain and Empoli, Venezia, Lecce and possibly Parma could accompany them.

In Spain’s La Liga, Barcelona and Real Madrid were the only two of the top eleven teams to win. Barca stays top four points ahead of Real and Atletico are six points away in third place. Bilbao and Villareal stay in fourth and fifth places. Valladolid are certain to be relegated and Leganes, Las Palmas and Alaves are not looking good.

In France’s Ligue 1, with four rounds left PSG has a twenty two point lead over Marseille with Monaco a further point adrift. Lille is in fourth place and Nice has moved up to fifth. Montpelier is doomed and St Etienne, Le Havre, Angers and Nantes all look to be in danger.

The Quote of the Week is from then Shrewsbury Town player-manager Graham Turner after dropping himself from the team and seeing them win “Perhaps I found our weakness at last.”

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