Sports Burst – Alternate Facts Hits Football
Mourinho’s alternate reality, Copa del Rey crackers and Nadal turns back time
By Tim Stannard
1) Mourinho makes up own Man United score-line
If anyone was going to start introducing this wholly wonderful concept of ‘alternate facts’ into soccer you could have bet all the food in a rabbit hutch that it would be Jose Mourinho.
Sure enough, the Portuguese manager was claiming with a stone-face that the 2-1 defeat to Hull City on Thursday was a 1-1 draw, thus keeping intact an unbeaten run that had extended as far back as the beginning of November. Mourinho was not pleased with a penalty call against his team in Thursday’s EFL Cup semifinal second leg clash and opted to change the score-line to an alternate one. We didn’t lose,” said Mourinho. “It was 1-1, 1-1. I only saw two goals.”
Knowing the madness of La Liga, the worlds of Barcelona and Real Madrid seem to be the next logical ports of call for this Trumpian intrusion with Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo fans each claiming five goal hauls for every game despite statistical evidence. Then again. We are not far off from that anyway.
2) Big guns drawn together in Copa del Rey final four
There will be dancing in the streets of Galicia and the Basque-lands today as the two relative minnows in the Copa del Rey semifinal draw were paired against each other in the final four, avoiding Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in the process.
Of course, that means that these two La Liga behemoths will be slugging it out over two legs like Godzilla taking on the Kraken in a fire pit.
The first leg will be at the Vicente Calderon on Wednesday and live on beIN SPORTS of course. Like a big blanket of football, we’ve gotcha covered. Make sure you tune into the Locker Room at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT for full look at the weekend to come and whether the CRISIS at Madrid can be ended against Real Sociedad on Sunday.
3) Jese to be Las Palmas home-coming king
TRANSFER TIME! On Thursday, Sports Burst had all but moved Jese from PSG to Middlesbrough, but low and behold, the footballer’s hometown club, Las Palmas, are back with an offer. The club president, Miguel Angel Ramirez, says that a move is closer than ever. "We can't compete financially with the others who want Jese but the player himself wants to join.”
Meanwhile, a desperate Crystal Palace have splashed the cash on bringing in Sunderland and Netherlands fullback, Patrick van Aanholt, for a deal worth upwards of $15m.
Tune into the XTRA on Friday at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the latest transfer news, views and alternate facts.
4) Friday football returns with Marseille match-up
The midweek games of football are over, but it is a wait of mere minutes before the new weekend kicks off. And it does so in style on beIN SPORTS.
Ligue Un takes pride of place with Marseille v Montpellier live at 2:40PM ET / 11:40AM PT. Rudi Garcia’s side are looking to pick up a victory after back-to-back league defeats followed a fine run of form. The Mediterranean club might even show off new signing, Patrice Evra.
Spain has a rather frenzied relegation affair between bottom-of-the-table Osasuna and a Malaga side that has lost four league games on the bounce. That is available on beIN CONNECT from 2:45PM ET / 11:45AM PT. Over in the Bundesliga, Eintracht Frankfurt could move into the top 6 with an away win at Schalke whilst there is a local derby in England with Derby hosting Leicester in the FA Cup.
All the goals from those games will be on the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT.
5) Nadal completes Australian Open windback
This will blow you mind.
Rafa Nadal has made it through to the men’s final of the Australian Open, but he did it in the early hours of tomorrow morning shortly before 1AM. The Spaniard has completed what is being called a Windback Weekend down under by booking a spot in a final against Roger Federer – all very 2009 – to go with the Williams sisters final later today, which was a 5000-1 shot final pairing at the beginning of the tournament.
WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?
The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.