Brazilian goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes de Souza has been convicted
for ordering the murder of ex-girlfriend Eliza Samudio in 2010 and
sentenced to 22 years imprisonment, according to a report from the BBC.
He
was also found guilty of hiding Samundio's body and kidnapping the
couple's son, per the BBC report. Though convicted, Fernandes has
maintained that he knew of the killing but had no other involvement:
"The ex-Flamengo goalkeeper admitted to knowing that Ms Samudio had been
strangled and her remains fed to dogs, but denied ordering the
killing."
Fernandes was charged with ordering the murder of
Samundio, 25, after she had requested child support from the Brazilian
soccer star. He had contracted friend Luiz Henrique Ferreira Romao and
former policeman Marcos Aparecido dos Santos to commit the crime, both
of whom were also charged with murder.
Romao and Santos were
reportedly the ones who carried out the crime, which became a national
story due to its gruesome nature. According to the police report,
Samundio was murdered via strangulation before having her body parts
dismembered and fed to dogs, per a report from The Guardian.
Romao later admitted to being involved with the crime and pointed to Fernandes as the orchestrator.
One
of the world's up-and-coming goalkeepers in 2010, Fernandes was most
famous for his time with Flamengo. A fan favorite for his charismatic
style, the young keeper was expected to play for Brazil's national team
during the 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
When charged with the murder in 2010, Flamengo suspended Fernandes’ contract
until its termination last year. The case then took on a life of its
own, as it captivated the Brazilian media and soccer fans everywhere.
Two
years later, with Fernandes convicted, it seems all sides will finally
be able to move on from one of the ugliest incidents in world football
history.
Just
three days before the vital Champions League return match with AC
Milan, Barça returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over Deportivo
de La Coruña thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez and Leo Messi at Camp
Nou tonight. Messi’s goal took him to 40 in this season’s Liga and it
was also his 17th consecutive league game scoring which is a world
record, beating the Polish player Peterek who scored in 16 straight
games for Ruch Chorzow in 1937/38.
With such a big task facing the team on Tuesday night in the
Champions League Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Pedro Rodriguez, Sergio
Busquets, Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba were all left out of the initial
lineup. With Victor Valdés suspended and Xavi still trying to get fit,
Barça started with an XI of: Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano,
Thiago, Song, Fabregas, Alexis, Villa and Tello. The
game began with a somewhat subdued atmosphere. As a protest at the
board’s decision to drop plans for a young people’s section at Camp Nou,
three blocks remained empty behind the south goal which Barça were
attacking in the first half. There was just one shot from Barça in the
first ten minutes which Tello sent well over from 25 yards. At this
point Carles Puyol showed his captain’s qualities by gesturing to the
crowd to get behind the team. The crowd reacted by increasing the volume
and the team began to lift the rhythm.
The first real chance came in the twelfth minute. Thiago found Alves
forward on the right and the Brazilian sent in a cross that was just too
high for Villa but the ball carried to Tello who headed the ball back
across goal to Alves who sent in a low shot from an angle which Depor
keeper Arunzubia did well to save with his legs. Alves
was being particularly active and a couple of minutes later he sent an
excellent long ball to Fabregas who controlled on the run with his right
foot but could then only fire over with his left. From here on the
first half was a just a series of chances for Barça though the goal took
a while to come. Thiago threaded a pass through for Tello but Arunzubia
came out bravely at the winger’s feet and Adriano fired the loose ball
wide. Villa then put Tello away on the left but Silvio did well to get
in front of Alexis as the cross came in. Then Thiago showed tremendous
skill to twirl away from two players before sending a glorious long pass
to Tello on the left, the winger darted into the area and sent in a low
cross which hit Aythami and an own goal was only prevented by an
excellent reaction save from Aranzubia who touched the ball against the
post.
In the 24th minute Tello sent Villa clean through and a goal seemed
certain but Aranzubia stood his ground well and managed to stick out an
arm to stop El Guaje’s shot, Adriano, following up, fired his shot
straight at the Depor keeper and then Tello fired the second rebound
well wide. Alexis was looking more confident than in recent games and he
made a good run into the area after Song’s pass but his final cross was
cut out by a defender.
Barça kept pushing with Villa firing a quick shot on the turn that
Aranzubia read well, while there was practically nothing from Depor at
the other end. The only concerns for Barça at the back had been
self-inflicted with one early dribble round the area from Pinto and then
a poor crossfield ball from Thiago inside Barça’s half that went
straight to an opponent. However, Depor didn’t manage their first shot
until Oliveira shot well wide from distance in the 36th minute. Two
minutes later another timid Depor attack was broken up by Mascherano.
Barça moved forward with the ball coming to Fabregas who sent a long
crossfield ball to Alves on the right, the Brazilian lobbed in a cross
to the unmarked Alexis whose header bounced down and over the line
before Arunzubia could get his hand to the ball in a desperate dive
backwards. Barça might have made it two-nil soon after following a
splendid build-up which included full-backs Alves and Adriano playing
one-twos through the middle. The ball came to Alexis on the right and
his cross found Villa who hooked his shot wide from 16 yards.
The second half was less intense as Depor showed a lack of ambition
to attack and Barça looked to reserve some energy for Tuesday. The
exceptions were Alves, Puyol and Alexis who continued to work very hard.
The little danger that Barça were creating was mainly from Alves’s
forward charges but his crossing wasn’t so precise. Messi and Iniesta
were brought on to try and find a second goal, with Iniesta forcing
Arunzubia’s first save of the second half in the 74th minute, Messi
buried the rebound but he was correctly flagged for being offside. Busquets
was brought on for the disappointing Fabregas to strengthen the
midfield as Depor started to attempt a push forward in the final
minutes. However, Pinto continued without needing to make a save and
Barça began to find more room going forward. In the 86th minute Messi
had a good chance but completely missed his kick as he swung at Alves’s
cross. It seemed that Messi would have to settle for sharing the
consecutive-games-scoring record, but in the 88th minute he received the
ball from Iniesta about 30 yards out in the inside left position, he
spun away from Aythami before skipping past Aguilar and darting
diagonally to the centre, Insua blocked his way so he sent a pass out to
Alexis on the right and then darted into the box to receive the
Chilean’s quick return pass with a delightful flick past Aranzubia. Messi’s
records were of course secondary today, and although he did not need to
work very much, one can’t help wondering if it would have been better
to keep him as fresh and hungry as possible for Milan. The Champions
League game is going to be one helluva tough test. There were few clues
to who will start against Milan though it would seem logical that the
players who started on the bench tonight will start on the pitch on
Tuesday. Of these I have to say I’m not so sure about Pedro. Alves has
looked good in recent games, especially when he hasn’t had Pedro in
front of him and the options of playing the Brazilian in an adaptable
role, switching between a back three and back four, could be a useful
option. Besides that, there are various players who are pushing for a
place and of these Alexis and Tello will have done their options no harm
with tonight’s performance. The defence all looked solid in helping to
keep our first clean sheet since the start of January but I imagine
Mascherano and Adriano on Tuesday will be benched in favour of Piqué and
Jordi Alba. On a slightly negative note Fabregas continued with his
recent drop in form, Thiago demonstrated that despite his class he is
still a liability with too many mistakes in dangerous positions, and
Villa failed to score from a couple of decent chances. Just for the
record my team for the Milan game, depending on Xavi’s fitness, would
be: Valdés; Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Alba; Xavi (or Fabregas), Busquets,
Iniesta; Alexis, Messi, Tello/villa.
World Player of the Year Lionel Messi believes
many people are hoping that Barcelona crash out of the Champions League
next week so they can call an end to the Catalans' amazing run of
success in recent years.
Madrid:World
Player of the Year Lionel Messi believes many people are hoping that
Barcelona crash out of the Champions League next week so they can call
an end to the Catalans' amazing run of success in recent years.
Barca
face a huge task to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit against AC Milan
at the Camp Nou on Tuesday but Messi said he was hoping that the
occasion would lift them out of their recent slump.
"There are a
lot of people that are waiting for us to lose so that, like they did
last season, they can say this is the end for this Barcelona," he was
quoted as saying by ESPN Deportes.
"It is time to turnaround this situation. It all began in Milan and the return could be the game where we lift ourselves."
It
is not just in Europe that Barcelona have struggled of late, though, as
back-to-back defeats to Real Madrid have seen them eliminated from the
Copa del Rey and their lead at the top of La Liga cut to 11 points.
But
Messi said both he and his teammates were accustomed to the pressures
that come with playing and did not see the need for any sweeping changes
in the playing squad.
"This club is like this. When you lose two games it is a disaster, when you win two it is normal," he added.
"The
people in the dressing room have known this club since they were very
young and to talk about buying replacements is crazy. The majority of
the players are still young."
Messi will also be heavily involved
when Argentina get their World Cup qualification campaign back underway
in two weeks' time and the 25-year-old is hoping to take another
significant step to securing La Albiceleste's place in the finals.
Argentina
currently sit atop South American qualifying and host Venezuela at home
on March 22 before facing Bolivia at altitude in La Paz four days
later.
"First of all we need to think about the game against
Venezuela. It is always important to win the home games and then we will
go to Bolivia to try and to do the same there," he added.
"We'll see how it goes but it would be a big step towards being in a more comfortable position if we could win these two games."
After four years of almost non-stop success Barça have taken a number of blows in the last few weeks to remind us that success in football is neither easy nor guaranteed. Results on the field are one thing but we seem to be getting hit in a number of painful ways in other areas. Obviously the most important of these is the situation with first team coach Tito Vilanova and there is little we can do except hope for his speedy recovery. Besides that we have recently suffered a Fifa block on six foreign players, including the brilliant 15-year-old Korean Lee Seung Woo, from playing in our junior teams. I don’t know too much about the laws on signing young players but it seems Barça are only as guilty as many other top clubs, and the Fifa decision seems to have come after two clubs, reported to be Valencia and Celta,denounced Barça’s situation.
Our youth sections have also been hit by two of our most promising prospects, Alejandro Grimaldo and Sandro Ramirez, suffering knee injuries which has sidelined the pair for the rest of the season. Grimaldo’s ligament injury is particularly nasty and following his operation last Saturday the initial estimates say he will need seven months to recover. If you add to this the possible fine for the flare that was let off at the recent cup game with Madrid and Victor Valdés’s four match ban for his strop at the Bernabéu it has been a pretty miserable time at Can Barça. Some of us were hoping to gain a bit of schadenfreudian joy from a game in Manchester this week but a Turkish referee put an end to that. I couldn’t help recalling Mourinho famous rant at referees: ¿Por qué Undiano Mallenco?Por qué Pérez Lasa?Por qué Cüneyt Çakır?
With morale at a low ebb we now face two games in four days at Camp Nou against Deportivo de La Coruña and AC Milan. Given our eleven point lead at the top of La Liga, the two-goal deficit we need to overcome in the Champions League and the relative difficulty of the games, it would surely be wise to give priority to the Champions League and simply use the Deportivo game as preparation. In this sense I am hoping we rest as many players as possible tomorrow. I know we have not had a midweek game this week but we want to have our key men as fresh as daisies to face Milan. At the same stage of the Champions League last season Leo Messi scored five in the 7-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen just days after being forced to miss the game with Sporting Gijon through suspension. I don’t care whether he feels he can play every game, in this case Messi should be kept straining at the leash, or perhaps even put in a straightjacket and tied to a bed until Tuesday.
It’s fair to say that when we were forced to field a weaker team at Riazor earlier in the season the result could have gone either way, though ten-man Barça held out for a thrilling 4-5 victory. Of course, a victory tomorrow is the best possible way to prepare for Milan, but Depor are bottom of La Liga without an away victory all season, and tomorrow they will be without their top scorer Riki. Surely we can still beat them with a second string XI. Besides Messi, there should at most only be a place on the bench for the likes of Iniesta, Busquets, Piqué, Puyol and Jordi Alba.
Our situation isn’t helped by Xavi being in a race to get fit for Tuesday or by Marc Bartra picking up an untimely injury. Bartra would have been perfect for tomorrow’s game but perhaps now in order to keep Puyol and Piqué rested we will finally see a return for Eric Abidal to partner Mascherano in defence. The other logical thing would have been to recall Marc Muniesa to the first team but the only B team player training with the first team has been Jordi Masip who will be our substitute goalkeeper. So, I’m hoping we’ll get an emotional return for Abidal and a win to get us in the right mood for the big one on Tuesday night.
Possible teams:
Barça: Pinto; Montoya, Mascherano, Abidal, Adriano; Thiago, Song, Fabregas; Alexis, Villa, Tello.
Depor: Aranzubia; Sílvio, Aythami, Insua, Ayoze; Paulo Assunçao, Abel Aguilar; Bruno Gama, Valerón, Pizzi; Nélson Oliveira.
Prediction: Barça 4 Deportivo 1
Date: Saturday 9 March 2013. Kick off: 8 pm local time
The Real Madrid coach has nothing but
praise for his star player, but has pointed out that he needs his
team-mates in order to shine
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho believes that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world, but has insisted that not even the prolific attacker can do things on his own.
The
Portugal international netted the winner in Madrid's 3-2 Champions
League round of 16 win on aggregate over Manchester United, but Mourinho
has made it clear that Ronaldo needs the team in order to shine.
"We
never say that Cristiano is responsible when we lose a game, and we
can’t think that he is the only one who wins it. Without the team he
isn’t anything, but the team without him isn’t the same," the Madrid
coach told ITV Sport.
"Cristiano is the best in the
world. I saw [Diego] Maradona a couple times and I’ve never seen Pele,
but Cristiano is incredible. This man is the best.
"But even he can’t win on his own. The key is in the team."
Ronaldo has already netted 40 goals in 41 official appearances so far this term.
The Brazil international believes his
Chelsea team-mate has matured since arriving from Internacional, but he
is still trying to help the midfielder with his quiet personality
Chelsea defender David Luiz is convinced that team-mate Oscar will be among the best players in the world if he overcomes his shyness.
The midfielder's Stamford Bridge career started in outstanding
fashion as he bagged two goals against Juventus in the Champions League,
but since the arrival of Rafa Benitez he has often found himself on the
bench.
Fellow Brazilian Luiz believes that his problem at the moment is his
shyness, but he is certain that will fade away just like his insistence
on shooting whenever possible.
Luiz told reporters: "I try to help him every day with this [his
shyness]. I tell him he's an amazing player with the talent to make the
difference and change every game. I tell him to be happy and trust in
his football.
"Some players need this. My job is to give confidence to the guys
like Oscar. He is so shy but I say, 'come on, you have the quality to be
in a side with the best players in the world and you have the
opportunity to show that'.
"Some guys in Brazil don't, they have the quality but they don't have
the opportunity to come to Europe and show the world what an amazing
player they are. So, I say, 'come on, don't be shy, show your quality'.
"He is a young guy who wants to learn every day. Every game now he is
more intelligent. He can grab the game and he's waiting for the moment
to decide the games.
"When he first came he was so excited and wanted to do everything.
With the first ball, he wanted to shoot. But now he's more mature. We
need this guy for a long time at Chelsea."
With the Blues strength in defence, Luiz has also found himself on
the bench at times. Though he admits it is frustrating, he says he
understands the need for squad depth.
He continued: "When you are on the bench and you are fit, it is a bad feeling.
"I
don't like it but I understand sometimes you need to play other
players. If you want to do just your own thing and play always, play an
individual sport like tennis."
Chelsea face a tricky test away to Steaua Bucharest on Thursday night
in the Europa League, and although the club's focus remains finishing
as high as possible in the Premier League, Luiz would love to add
another European title to his CV.
Luiz said: "This is a great opportunity to win a European title. Last
season was Champions League and people were happy but we are hungry
again.
"This is the way to think if you play for a big club. We are looking for the Europa League title."
The prolific attacker has hailed the Frenchman's hard work as he continues his recovery from a liver transplant
Lionel Messi has voiced his admiration for Barcelona team-mate Eric Abidal following the latter's ongoing fight against health problems.
The
Frenchman was diagnosed with a tumour in his liver in March 2011, yet
featured for the full 90 minutes in Barca's 3-1 Champions League final
win over Manchester United hardly two months later.
Abidal was
dealt another blow in March 2012, though, when it was announced that he
needed to undergo a liver transplant, and the defender has since been
working on his recovery.
"Everything Eric has done and everything
he has fought for is admirable. No-one truly knows how hard he has
worked to be able to train with the team again," Messi told reporters.
"It
was very difficult when we found out [he had cancer] but his strength
has united the whole team. How much he can contribute to the team is
irrelevant, the important thing is that he is here with us.
"The illnesses to Tito [Vilanova] and Abidal have had a huge effect on us but we are a strong team and we will overcome this."
Abidal
was recently given the green light by Barca's medical staff in late
February and could make his comeback in the upcoming weeks.
the things roaring on after they thrashed celtic 5-0
After dismantling Scottish side Celtic 5-0 on aggregate in the Champions League, the reigning Italian champions Juventus look to go even further in a competition where they've been disappointing historically.
The January transfer window did little to change the nucleus which spearheaded Juventus to their near historic 49 game undefeated streak in Serie A.
Led by the backbone of the Italian national team, La Vecchia Signora has built an enviable chemistry, staying faithful to a 3-5-2 formation that has been their recipe for success in the past year.
This
core of players is still intact, and the relationship they've formed
under coach Antonio Conte is enough to get by the toughest of European
rivals.
The biggest test for the Bianconeri came against former Champions League winners Chelsea,
but Juve defeated them 3-0 in Turin, showing the world just how
formidable they can be against top opposition. Also, fans got a glimpse
of just how intimidating their brand new Juventus Stadium can be.
Juventus boasts one of the finest midfields in world football, coupled with a sensational back line and the legendary Gianluigi Buffon
in goal. What's even more impressive is their depth, as they can bring
on the likes of young starlet Paul Pogba off the bench along with an
array of quality defenders like Martin Caceres.
What chance do you give Juventus to win the Champions League?
Really, the only problem with the squad is in the
attack. Last season, Alessandro Matri was their leading striker
domestically with 10 goals. This season, the now hardly utilized Fabio
Quagliarella and inconsistent Sebastian Giovinco lead the way with seven
strikes each.
With their revolving door upfront, it seems Antonio
Conte has finally found his best pair with the mercurial Mirko Vucinic
and Alessandro Matri, who is currently enjoying a great spell both
domestically and in Europe.
However, this is not an attack you'd
normally associate with a team competing for the Champions League, and
it becomes even clearer that their midfield needs to take up some of the
offensive duties. Despite this, the team camaraderie and poise is
enough to make Juventus one of the most fearsome sides in Europe.
As
a matter of fact, Juventus has not been scored on in 490 minutes in the
Champions League. Incredibly, the last time they conceded a goal in
this competition was back on October 23th, 2011 in a 1-1 tie against
Nordsjaelland.
If Milan can successfully knock out the mighty Barcelona, only Real Madrid would be favored against the Bianconeri in a two-legged affair. Even so, it would be one of the closest and most enthralling games of the year.
Simply
put, a Champions League triumph would be the ultimate reward for a team
and fan base that has suffered tremendously in recent years.
Photo via The Mirror
World
Player of the Year Lionel Messi believes many people are hoping that
Barcelona crash out of the Champions League next week so they can call
an end to the Catalans' amazing run of success in recent years.
