The Warm-Up: A friendly isn't so friendly, Olivier Giroud bigs himself up
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Updated 28/03/2017 at 08:34 GMT
Plus: England's under-21s pick up the slack from the seniors, and a tribute to Paul Alcock...
Football - 2016 / 2017 Premier League - Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace Olivier Giroud of Arsenal scores hs goal with a magnificent back kick over his head at The Emirates. COLORSPORT/ANDREW COWIE PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxUK Football 2016 2017 Premier League
Image credit: Le Buzz
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Friendly isn’t so friendly
International week usually needs something to spice it up, but the crowd at Senegal and Ivory Coast’s game in Paris on Monday night took that to the extreme when the game had to be called off after their incursion onto the pitch.
The score was 1-1 with 88 minutes on the clock, but trouble in the stands spilled over onto the pitch and supporters flooded onto the field, with one unfortunate soul – Senegal’s Lamine Gassama – rugby tackled to the floor by a giddy fan. The players, rather understandably, very speedily did one down the tunnel, and the referee was forced to abandon the game.
This isn’t the first time a game between these two has been called off prematurely: when similar disturbances occurred during a play-off in 2012, Senegal were barred from competing in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. One wonders what, if any, sanctions will be handed down this time.
Loftus-Cheek stars for England Under-21s
The senior team may have served up a tedious lesson in routine competence at the weekend, so it was up to the kids to spice things up a bit, and they did that rather nicely.
England Under-21s strolled to a handy 4-0 win over their Danish counterparts on Monday evening, with Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek bagging a pair of goals, while Brighton winger Solly March and Fulham’s Cauley Woodrow got the others.
Attention now turns to the European Championships in the summer, where we’ll presumably be told that half of the senior team need to be sent in order to build up plenty of tournament experience, in order to prepare them for the World Cup. Given England went out in the group stage of the last U21 Euros, we’d say it sounds like ideal preparation.
Giroud ‘leaves a mark on history’
You’ll have your own opinion as to which was the better goal: a) Olivier Giroud’s ‘scorpion kick’ strike for Arsenal against Crystal Palace in which he stuck a leg out and just about managed, with a chunk of luck, to hook the ball in, or b) Andy Carroll’s magnificent, soaring, perfectly-executed scissor kick for West Ham, also against Palace, the poor blighters?
You can probably note where the Warm-Up lies on that scale, but as you might expect Giroud does not concur. “I don’t want to big myself up, but goals like mine leave a mark on history because they’re rare,” said Giroud, neglecting to mention an almost identical strike by Henrikh Mkhitaryan the previous month against Sunderland, and that you can find compilations of similar goals on YouTube with a quick search.
“Andy Carroll’s goal is magnificent, but maybe people won’t remember it in two years’ time. Mine, yes. It’s like Zlatan’s improbable overhead kick against England or Marco Van Basten’s volley, goals I would have liked to score.
And people say Arsenal are a team satisfied only with style over substance.
IN OTHER NEWS
Ref takes a stumble
We confess, one of the last people we were expecting a heartfelt tribute to this weekend just gone was former Premier League referee Paul Alcock. But in Vasco de Gama’s game against Flamengo, that’s exactly what this referee did after Luis Fabiano sort of…well…half chest/belly-bumped him.
Still, it’s got nothing on the original, although we maintain the funniest part of the infamous Premier League moment is Nigel Winterburn, having dashed over from the other side of the pitch to confront Paolo Di Canio, flinching flamboyantly at the merest suggestion that the Italian might be thinking about swinging for him.
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Arsenal's Nigel Winterburn and Sheffield Wednesday's Paolo Di Canio are held apart, as referee Paul Alcock watches on
Image credit: PA Sport
DIRTY LAUNDRY
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Nach der Pleite in Bulgarien entlassen: Danny Blind
Image credit: SID
In Monday’s Warm-Up, Adam Hurrey placed ‘Holland and Danny Blind’ firmly into the ‘Zeros’ category for their latest calamity, but we could not disagree more. What you want from the Dutch is one of two things: either brilliant, transcendental football, the sort of stylish and incisive play that will redefine the game, or you want absolute shambles, era-defining squabbles and rank incompetence. Blind, clearly recognising the former is not possible, has opted for the latter, and for that we salute him.
HAT TIP
The mess is too deep-rooted to be levelled squarely at Tim Sherwood but Swindon supporters certainly expected more when, in November, the former Tottenham and Aston Villa manager was appointed director of football. Sherwood had been a regular visitor to the County Ground due to his friendship with the club’s chairman and owner, his former Norwich team-mate Lee Power. It was nonetheless billed as a new beginning but instead Swindon, 21st when Sherwood arrived, are a place worse off in the League One table and his role appears an ambiguous one.
Been wondering how Tim Sherwood’s latest job is going? Well, erm, not well. Nick Ames travels to Swindon to find out how they are doing under their wise and learned director of football.
RETRO CORNER
Rough times for Holland at the moment, but here they are in happier times, giving West Germany a good old shoeing in the Euro 88 semi-final. After the game Ronald Koeman mimed wiping his bottom with Olaf Thon’s shirt. Mature? Sensible? Absolutely not, but very funny.
COMING UP
International week is a grind at the best of times, but they’ve somehow managed to stretch this one out by tacking on a bunch of even-more-meaningless-than-the-usual-meaningless-friendlies-friendlies onto the end of it. We here at the Warm-Up say this is time to take a stand and say “NO! NO MORE! WE WILL IGNORE THESE POINTLESS GAMES AND SPEND TIME WITH OUR LOVED ONES, OR IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY LOVED ONES JUST SITTING ALONE DRINKING.” Or, y’know, Ireland are playing Iceland. It’s entirely up to you.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by Alex Chick, who will combine spending time with his loved ones with sitting around drinking.
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