Steven Defour was suspended for the second leg after reaching the yellow cards limit but Sam Hinshelwood was back on the pitch after his injury. We also had some good news from the Premier League just before the game, Manchester United dropped a couple of points again after drawing 1-1 with Aston Villa. Our match was off to a nightmare start though, we were dominating the game but Zarate got away again on a counter attack and finished with a placed shot. Things were not looking good but the team tried to react. We managed to get quite a few shots on target until half time but Lazio have a good keeper too, Uruguayan Fernando Muslera… It was half time already and we were 3-1 down on aggregate, we needed to score. And the ball went in eventually, a free kick from the right flank sent the ball into the six yards box, the keeper parried three consecutive shots before the ball arrived in front of centre back Havard Nordtveit, he powered it in! It was his first goal of the season and that surely gave a lift to everybody in the team. Three minutes later striker Demba Ba, employed as a left winger in that match, blasted in one of his trademark powerful shots from 20 yards out, it went in off the post and we were level on aggregate! Lazio were shocked as we kept on pushing forward. Rafael Sobis extended our lead a few minutes later with a fine shot from the edge of the area, it was an epic comeback. But the team just wouldn’t stop, Tinga set up Guilherme with a through ball and the Brazilian striker scored his 50th goal for the club! Sobis scored another one on a counter attack two minutes from time, it was probably the best second half I’ve ever seen this season.
We were through to the quarter finals and the draw pitched us against strong French side Olympique Marseille. If we’ll manage to get past them we’ll get to meet either CSKA Moscow or Stuttgart in the semi finals while Arsenal have a good chance of getting to the final on the bottom side of the draw.
Back to the Premier League for the last game of the month, at home with 18th placed Burnley. We defeated them 3-1 away from home in November and it was quite clear that we needed a win again. Rafael Sobis was in great shape and he gave us the early lead, we were in control. We created quite a few chances to score but that didn’t happen until the second half, Sobis scored his second by intercepting a parried shot from Guilherme. We could have scored a lot more but I guess two goals and three points are more than enough. The best news came after the game, Manchester United lost 2-0 away at Reading!
Normally we should have played another game by the end of March but it was re arranged due to international call ups. Manchester United got back on track in their last game of the month, they won 4-0 at home with Hull City. We were still top of the table, three points clear with two games in hand.
Rafael Sobis was deservedly picked as Player of the Month, he scored four times in three games!
You could say that three points clear with two games in hand seems like a pretty good chance of winning the title. Well, take a look at next month’s fixtures, we’ll have nine games to play while Manchester United will have only four as they are out of all the cup competitions. And I think that if we’ll manage to get past Marseille we’ll have two more games to play, it will be a massacre. If you look at the opponents it gets even worse, we’ll have the Nottingham Derby (twice!) and then a tough three games stretch with Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea!
Well, I guess we’ll have to live through April but it will be extremely difficult. I think that we have a chance of winning the title but only if Manchester United will drop a few points in their four games, otherwise it will be very unlikely. What do you think?
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Laxeyman
15 февраля, 2010 at 22:43
Well done Johnny, fantastic month there! I’d say you need another 4-5 wins from your last 8 games to win the title, and I would almost certainly say you will do it! Good luck against Marsielle, they are a good team, but you’ve got a great chance of beating them. Good luck for April those fixtures are the most gruelling I’ve ever seen!
Sears
15 февраля, 2010 at 22:44
Fantastic month..keep it going! goodluck against OM in the europe league!
Kevin Mayo
15 февраля, 2010 at 23:48
Hi Johnny
Firstly what a thrilling read! You’ve really out done yourself this time and I managed not to scroll down the page to see the pictures :) Fantastic cup wins over Man City and eventually Lazio and you still have that two game advantage over Man Utd which I feel will be enough to secure you the title once they are played. I can see a Notts County v Arsenal Europa League final coming up. Well done on another great month.
Lye
16 февраля, 2010 at 02:09
Hi mate, it will be busy schedule but you have the players for rotations so i don’t foresee too much problem for you. I believe you will be able to win the title in April. The form of Man Utd has not been good and probably they will drop some more points even though they play 4 matches.
As long as you don’t drop too many points, the title will be yours. I believe you can do it.
If you can get pass OM, you should be able to progress to the final and have good chance to win the champions league. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
16 февраля, 2010 at 08:37
Thanks a lot for your comments and good wishes folks, your support is fantastic.
@Lye
I checked the Europa League schedule and if we’ll get to the semi finals, those games will be played at the end of the month, I really don’t know where they’ll put them into our already packed schedule. I just hope we won’t have any injuries, that could make the squad rotation a bit problematic.
@Kevin
I’d prefer somebody else than Arsenal in the final, but I’d be happy just to get there.
@Laxeyman
I checked the schedule more than twice, I just couldn’t believe what was lying ahead of us…
Bilal Ahmad
16 февраля, 2010 at 14:47
Good month! Your probably going to win the Premiership in a couple of more matches however it’s going to be hard. Playing against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in a row that is certainly going to be hard. Your probably going to win against OM and go on to the final to play against Arsenal. FA Cup semi finals looks pretty easy and you should win that!
Bray
16 февраля, 2010 at 14:54
Awesome story just started reading a few days ago when I found a link on someone else’s site.
Best of luck for this month it looks pretty important for all 3 competitions.
Johnny Karp
16 февраля, 2010 at 16:13
@Bray
Thanks for the comment and for the good luck wish, welcome to the website!
Dan Monksfield
16 февраля, 2010 at 16:37
Awesome month there Johnny, I have high hopes you will in the league, like Bilal said you have a couple of hard games there but I am confident you will win the title. You got a good chance of doing a treble there so good luck! :)
Johnny Karp
16 февраля, 2010 at 16:39
Thanks for the good wishes Dan, I hope we won’t let you down. :)