By Khilen Mehta

So if you’re like me, you are probably thinking what you can do this summer now that your domestic football season has drawn to a close. Your teams fate has been decided, you’ve shed your tears and you promise yourself that next season you will listen to your partner when they say, “it’s only a game, love!”

But is it really worth all the drama? Is it worth losing your beloved fingernails? Is it worth your wife or girlfriend threatening to leave you? Too damn right it is! And that’s why, even though England aren’t in it this time round, all football fans eyes will  be peeled on the European Championships this summer.

You can never get enough of football. Even if your team isn’t in it, there is always some member of your team playing, and you even get an early opportunity to scout some of the targets your manager is after. Seriously, what more could you want? So let’s get the lads round, crack the beers open and read my guide to the top three countries this coming summer.

1)     Spain- The Perennial Under-achievers

Every tournament pundits say the same. This is their best chance. They have the players and they have the support but every tournament they fall away at the quarter-final stage. So why should this year be different I hear you shouting? Because this time, Spain are coming into the tournament on a great run of form. 14 games without defeat including games against England and Italy. Fernando Torres will lead the line, Cesc will be tougher after a hard season and Ramos oozes class at the back. Could this year actually be their year?

Key Player: Fernando Torres to continue to knock the goals in

2)     Italy- The reigning world champions

So can the best team in the world, become the best team in Europe? Arguably the best passing team around, Italy’s only problem has been their lack of pace in going forward. However with a new fluid front three, they have a new attacking dimension that could catch teams out. They have the experience and they have the players. A definite threat.

Key Player: Andrea Pirlo will hold the team together and provide a set piece threat

3)     France- Last chance for the golden age?

Raymond Domenech has been bold in his squad selection. He has left out David Trezeguet and in his place fans will be itching to catch a glimpse of the countrys new gems, Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa. They have a solid, experienced spine with the likes of Thierry Henry, Claude Makelele and William Gallas all itching to make amends for their World Cup  misery.

Key Player: Thierry Henry to make up for his Barcelona misery

Call me biased, but I actually believe this could be Spain´s year. I´ve probably just jinxed them…

By Maja Gojkovic

Last night was the first round of the Eurovision Song Contest; the first semi final. Representatives from all nineteen countries presented their songs all hoping to make it to the next round and represent their countries. Serbia pulled out all the stops for the show and really impressed the audience by producing an amazing set and even involving Serbian performers and celebrities to kick off the voting.

The theme of the show, presented by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović, was “City”, and the theme of the Second Semi-Final will be “Water”.

After all songs had been presented, televoting started in all the participating countries as well as in Spain and Germany, who are already qualified for the Final, but were drawn to vote in the First Semi-Final, while the other directly qualified finalists – France, The United Kingdom and Serbia – get to vote in the Second Semi-Final. Nine of the qualifying countries were decided by televoting.

The countries that qualified were Greece, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Poland and Norway.

As bookies predicted Russia have a good chance of wining. I personally agree as the song is a beautiful ballad and definitely has a Eurovision song contest feel to it. Russia may have to watch out as Greece in my opinion have a tremendous chance of winning as the song is catchy, dance like and definitely something that could be a winning number. Although performances from Russia, Greece were catchy and definitely deserved to go through to the second round of the competition others were not so lucky. Countries such as Ireland, Belgium and Estonia will have to try harder next year as this year performances were nail bitingly awful. The first semi final seemed to be influenced by a pantomime child like feel as Ireland were represented by Dustin the turkey with a song Iralnde Douze Pointe was hilariously bad which in my opinion was a shame considering Ireland’s amazing success in the competition since it first started. Belgium were represented by Ishtar with a song called O Julissi, also a poor performance in my opinion. Estonia also added to the pantomime feel during the competition as the performance looked like three middle aged umpa lumpa childrens entertainers. They were represented by Kreisiraadio with a song Leto Svet.

All in all I think the first semi final of the competition got off to a good start. If you’re a Eurovision song lover like me then if you watched yesterday’s first round it definitely wet the appetite of us lovers and definitely got the ball rolling for the competition. Out of the qualifiers from the first round my money is definitely on Russia, Greece and Israel.

If you want to watch the second round of the semi finals you can watch the show live on www.eurovision.tv. The second round of the semi finals will be on Thursday 22^nd May. The countries participating will be Iceland, Sweden, Turkey, Lithuania, Albania, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Belarus, Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Georgia, Hungry, Malta, Cyprus, FYP Macedonia and Portugal.

By Khilen Mehta

Rangers’ Uefa Cup dream ended after they fell 2-0 to Zenit St Petersburg in Manchester. The game was severely overshadowed however by scenes of violence that ruined the carnival atomosphere. Thousands of ticketless Rangers fans had made their way into Manchester city centre during the day and were looking forward to enjoying the game on the big screen and hopefully witnessing Scotland´s first European cup in 25 years.

However violence broke out after a giant screen in Piccadilly Gardens failed to work, leaving thousands of fans unable to watch the match. Police said that most fans were well-behaved, but a “significant minority” reacted angrily, pelting the screen with beer bottles. Riot police charged the crowd after hostile fans lobbed bottles and cans while others taunted officers and filmed them with mobile phones. Thirty people were arrested and charged with a variety of offences including affray, possession of an offensive weapon, serious assault, possession of drugs and theft.

Rangers came to Manchester in search of a great prize but could only leave the stadium with their heads held high. Zenit were by far the better team, but the Glaswegian steel made sure that the game was always tense. En route to the final, Rangers had won just two games and their campaign has been defined by patience and endurance and they continued with their strategy all through the games.  Though Zenit were clearly the more accomplished side, for much of the game they were not permitted to rise above the struggle. Rangers harried and hurried the opposition and fought for every ball.

But the suspicion that Rangers could not hold off the attacking threat of Zenit, which had seen them romp home against Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, proved to be founded. when two slick Zenit moves sealed the competition for the Russians. At the beginning of the game the Rangers fans had unfurled a banner for the squad to read as it conducted a pre-match warm-up. The message read: “This is your chance. This is your time. Become legends.” Alas for the players and the fans, their dreams of a historics quadruple fell at the first hurdle.