Frontline Football Blog

It took Juventus two years to get back into Europe's finest tournament, but the dream came to an abrupt stop last night.

Claudio Ranieri's squad was once again ripped apart by injuries ahead of the most important game the club would play for the past two seasons.

Although Chelsea looked immensely stronger on paper, what was to unfold on the pitch would prove otherwise-that would, however, not apply to the end result.

Ranieri had tweaked his starting line-up due to the injured players and despite losing Pavel Nedved to injury after only 12 minutes of play, the home side managed to take the lead. A brilliant build-up by David Trezeguet and Vincenzo Iaquinta saw the latter level the score on aggregate.

Arsenal vs. AS Roma

24 Feb 2009 20:45:00 CET
Emirates Stadium-London
Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)

Arsenal finished second in group G with 11 points and their only defeat came to group winners Porto. The Gunners went all the way to the final in 2006 where they were defeated at the hands of Barcelona. Since then, the North London club hasn't been nearly as successful in their quest for European glory.

Injuries and poor form has seen Arsenal slip down the standings and just last weekend they collected their third consecutive goalless draw. The club is currently residing in fifth place with a mighty 17 points separating them from the top-which makes it rather safe to say that they're out of the title race for this time.

Football is a funny old game isn't it?

This weekend in the English Premier League referees were once again under the spotlight, most noticeable Mike Riley who ruled over the clash between Chelsea and Liverpool.

Riley was widely condemned for sending off Chelsea's Frank Lampard for what seemed a run-of-the-mill tackle on Liverpool's Xavi Alonso. While the sending off was a bad call, everyone makes mistakes and Lampard was exceptional in how he handled the situation, walking off the pitch without causing a fuss.

As expected, Chelsea challenged the red card and it was rightly rescinded. Lampard is now free to play in Chelsea's next game.

While all this is very fair, it is what has happened over the last two days that is most baffling.

Referee Mike Riley and Chelsea's Frank Lampard may have kissed and made up after Sunday's red card incident that cost Chelsea any chance of a point at Anfield but that controversy is just the tip of the iceberg.

Underneath lies an inconsistent Football Association incident review system that has apparently just looked favourably on Chelsea.

No one has any issue with the fact Frank Lampard's red card has been rescinded as most would agree it wasn't a red card, but my point lies with a certain Jose Bosingwa and his late Kung Fu kick that went unpunished as Chelsea lost 2-0 to title rivals Liverpool.

The incident took place at the corner flag, right in front of the assistant referee who has more than enough authority to get the Portuguese player sent off.

Amazingly, after an apparent review of the incident, it was decided that no further action would be taken. This would have been all well and good and we might even have forgotten about the incident had the FA not charged Shaun Wright-Philips with violent conduct just a day later.