TEXT 4. ARSHAVIN HITS FOUR AS ARSENAL HOLD LIVERPOOL

Arsenal's Andrey Arshavin became the first player to score four goals in a league game at Liverpool for 64 years but it was not enough to stop the Reds returning to the top of the Premier League after another 4-4 draw.

A week after crashing out of the Champions League 7-5 on aggregate after sharing eight goals in their quarterfinal second leg at Chelsea, Liverpool took their fans on another rollercoaster ride.

A draw was going to be enough to take the Merseysiders above Manchester United - they have two games in hand but it needed 90 minutes of drama before they edged ahead on goal difference.

Russian striker Arshavin opened the scoring after 36 minutes and struck again after 67, 70 and 90 as Arsenal bounced back following their weekend FA Cup semifinal defeat.

Fernando Torres, with a header after 49 minutes, and Yossi Benayoun (56) hit back after halftime before Arshavin sent Arsenal 3-2 ahead with 20 minutes left.

Torres's second of the night after 72 hauled Rafael Benitez's side level two minutes later - but it took Benayoun to salvage a draw for Liverpool in the third minute of time added on after that man Arshavin had hit number four after 90 minutes.

It was the first time in his career that Arshavin had scored four in a match and he told Sky: "I liked the game but of course it's not good for the team...almost basketball."

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said of his Russian star: "His performance was outstanding. He had a quiet first half but when he comes into the game he is always very dangerous. He has personality and is a winner."

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez saw his team concede a quartet of sloppy goals but he could not fault their commitment to the cause.

"You never know," he said of the Reds' dwindling hopes of overhauling United. "Today we made too many mistakes, but it's also very positive because the team showed character until the last minute."

Benitez added: "They (United) had it (the advantage in the title race) before and they continue in the driving seat. We have to keep pushing and showed today we will fight until the last game."

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TEXT 5. DIEGO MARADONA

 

Maradona was born in 1960 in a poor area of the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aries, and started playing football in the street as a small boy. By the age of twelve he was working as a ball boy at the stadium of Argentinos Juniors, one of the Buenos Aires teams. He played his first game for the Argentinos Juniors first team just before his sixteenth birthday and stayed with the club until 1981, when he joined a more famous Buenos Aires team, Boca Juniors. By this time, though still only twenty-one, he was already the most important player in the Argentina national team. In 1982 he moved to Europe, played in Barcelona for two years and then went to Italy to join Napoli. He soon became a hero with the Napoli fans and was the main reason the team became national champions in 1987 and 1990.

It was as captain of Argentina during the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico, however, that the most famous moments in Maradona’s career took place. Argentina won the competition and Maradona played brilliantly in most of their games. In the quarter-final against England, which Argentina won 2-1, Maradona scored a goal by punching the ball into the goal. Then, less than five minutes later, he ran with the ball for sixty metres, past five England players, to score what many people think is one of the best goals in the history of football. English fans said the first goal made Maradona a cheat, but most of them agreed the second showed he was also a genius.

After Maradona stopped playing in 1997 he had lots of health problems. There were times when he was very overweight, and in 2004 he had a heart attack and almost died. Since then, however, life for Maradona has improved. In 2005 he became the host of a chat show on Argentinian TV called ‘The Night of 10’, because that was the number of the shirt he always wore as a player, and recently, in October 2008, he became the coach of the Argentina national team.

BECKHAM

 

David Robert Joseph Beckham was born in Leytonstone, London on May 2nd, 1975. Keen on football from very early on, David won the Bobby Charlton Soccer Skills Award when he was 11. Five years later, at the age of 16, he signed on as a trainee at Manchester United Football Club. The following year, he made his first team debut as a substitute but it was another three years before he started playing full-time in the Premier League. He established himself as a quality player in the 1995/96 season. In 1996 he started playing for the England senior team and the year ended with him being voted Young Player of the Year.

He was left out of the team for the first two matches of the World Cup, but in the match against Colombia he scored a stunning free kick and became the hero of England. However, in the next match, against Argentina, Beckham was sent off for a childish foul on Diego Simeone. England lost the match and went out of the World Cup. Everyone blamed Beckham and the newspapers wouldn’t leave him alone. Many predicted that his career was over – the fans hated him, the newspapers hated him and even people who didn’t know him hated him. Despite all the odds, he answered his critics by playing better football and keeping his temper under control. Gradually, the fans started to appreciate him once more.

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