When George Burley and Gordon Strachan meet as managers, one of them ends the season bathed in plaudits while the other ends up doomed. "We have to stop using their stadium as an excuse," said their coach, Felix Magath.Magath received some welcome news yesterday, when England midfielder Owen Hargreaves announced he will extend his contract with Bayern by four years, binding him to the German club until 2010.Hamburg, a point behind Bayern having beaten the champions last month, are at home to VfL Wolfsburg.In France, Fabien Barthez returns from a four-match suspension for spitting at a referee to play for Marseilles at home to Paris St-Germain. Milan and Fiorentina, five points behind Juve, are at Cagliari and Lazio respectively.The Bundesliga leaders, Bayern Munich, who meet Juventus in the Champions' League on Tuesday, face a daunting encounter today away to fourth-placed Schalke 04 Bayern have lost all five previous visits to the AufSchalke. Barcelona are at Deportivo La Coru?hile lesser lights still lead in Spain, Juventus dominate in Italy and can today move within a win of equalling the record for the best start to a Serie A season. The defending champions have made a perfect start with 18 points from six games.
They should secure a seventh at home to a Messina team who have yet to win this season and conceded eight goals in their last two matches. However, Real arrive in good form having climbed to fifth in La Liga. Kezman, whose brace for Serbia & Montenegro ensured Torres' five goals were not enough to secure automatic World Cup qualification for Spain, said: "We have to beat Real because it is so important to our fans. We're both in good form and we are one of the best forward partnerships in Spain." Extra tension has been brought to the derby by an unprecedented attack on the impartiality of the match referee, Bernardino Gonzalez Vazquez, on Real's official website.Getafe, the improbable League leaders, face a tricky match at Real Betis while second-placed Celta Vigo visit Osasuna. Having scored seven international goals between them in midweek Fernando Torres and Mateja Kezman are hoping to maintain that form today to inspire Atletico Madrid to their first victory over city rivals Real Madrid this millennium.
You want to hear him moaning about us saying ''Orrible Bolton, negative tactics, don't get out of their own half' with me in his office asking, 'Alex, how good is the red wine today?'". The players said, 'Gaffer, we want to play 25 passes because everyone says we're a long ball team.'"I said 'No, we want to play winning football. "What we are going to do is get up the opposite end, get a free-kick and throw-in or a corner and we are going to expose what might be their only weakness."When we got criticism last season, the players suddenly tried to start playing too much football and we promptly lost six games on the bounce. If that means playing through midfield or playing off a front man then so be it.' I didn't like to hear people like Fergie saying 'Bolton, they're a good side' after United have just beaten us 4-0. Jaidi, Tunisian Goliath at centre-back, had more goals from set-pieces, seven last season, than any other defender. The Premiership trend, Allardyce said, was for bigger and bigger players with the admission that, at 6ft 3in, if he was playing today he might not have been sufficiently tall to have earned the "Big Sam" moniker that has followed him into management."When we play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge we are not going to throw the ball out at the back and then build-up 23 passes and score," Allardyce said. "Mourinho really went for it against us, every player in his locker.
