Soccer shorts

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Falcao hits hat-trick to humiliate Chelsea

Atletico Madrid 4 Chelsea 1

Chelsea suffered Uefa Super Cup humiliation last night as Radamel Falcao showed them what might have been with a devastating hat-trick to help hand Atletico Madrid a crushing win.

The Blues looked anything but European champions in what was one of their most clueless performances since Roman Abramovich first began his quest for the greatest prize in club football.

Former target Falcao took advantage of some inept defending and tactical naiveté to plunder a first-half treble, with Joao Miranda piling on the misery before Gary Cahill grabbed a consolation.

Falcao’s hat-trick was his second in four days and saw him completely outshine Fernando Torres, who endured a nightmare reunion with his boyhood idols.

CHELSEA: Cech,Ivanovic,Cahill,Luiz,Cole (Bertrand 89),Mikel, Lampard,Ramires (Oscar 46), Hazard, Mata (Sturridge 81), Torres. Subs not used: Turnbull, Romeu, Moses, Meireles. Booked: Ivanovic.

ATLETICO MADRID: Courtois, Juanfran, Miranda, Godin, Filipe Luis, Mario Suarez, Gabi, Adrian (Rodriguez 56), Koke (Raul Garcia 81), Turan, Falcao (Emre 87). Subs not used: Sergio Asenjo, Silvio, Cata Diaz, Diego Costa.

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia).

Tottenham and Liverpool handed tough encounters

Tottenham and Liverpool were both handed tough-looking Italian jobs yesterday after being paired with Lazio and Udinese in the Europa League group-stage draw.

Spurs will open their Group J campaign against Lazio at White Hart Lane on September 20th. They are then scheduled to travel to Panathinaikos prior to a double-header with Slovenian side Maribor and return match with Lazio, before hosting Panathinaikos in their final game.

Liverpool’s task was arguably even more difficult. Their reward for edging past Hearts in the play-off round last night was a match-up with Udinese, who finished third in Serie A but lost their Champions League play-off tie. They do not travel to Udine until their final Group A game on December 6th but have it all to do before then against mega-rich Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala and Swiss side Young Boys.

Liverpool and Tottenham were both top seeds but were handed much tougher-looking groups than Newcastle, who were seeded third ahead of their first European campaign for six years. The Magpies were in Group D along with Bordeaux, Club Brugge and Maritimo.

Europa League: Group A – Liverpool, Udinese, Young Boys, Anzhi Makhachkala; Group B – Atletico Madrid, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Viktoria Plzen, Academica Coimbra; Group C – Olympique Marseille, Fenerbahce, Borussia Moenchengladbach, AEL Limassol; Group D – Girondins, Bordeaux, Club Bruges, Newcastle United, Maritimo; Group E – VfB Stuttgart, FC Copenhagen, Steaua Bucharest, Molde; Group F – PSV Eindhoven, Napoli, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, AIK Stockholm; Group G Sporting Lisbon, Basel, Genk, Videoton; Group H – Inter Milan, Rubin Kazan, Partizan Belgrade, Nefti PFK; Group I – Olympique Lyon, Athletic Bilbao, Sparta Prague, Hapoel Kiryat, Shmona; Group J – Tottenham Hotspur, Panathinaikos, Lazio, Maribor; Group K – Bayer Leverkusen, Metalist Kharkiv, Rosenborg, Trondheim, Rapid Vienna Group L – Twente, Enschede, Hanover 96, Levante Helsingborgs.

Uefa policy may well impact on Irish officials

Attempts by the FAI to improve the standard of refereeing in Ireland could be undermined by a Uefa plan to promote the use of Additional Assistant Referees (AARs) by only using refereeing teams at future international championship from countries that have adopted their use at domestic level. So far, only the Italians have decided to introduce the five-strong refereeing teams into its league and the decision by the Premier League to use goal-line technology at its games suggests that it will not follow suit.

Speaking yesterday in Monaco, Michel Platini said the decision to use refereeing teams from leagues who have adopted the system makes sense. “If the national associations don’t like the system and they don’t want to use it then they won’t have referees at big competitions because,” he claimed. “to use referees who don’t trust the system would be a problem.”

Given clubs here are unlikely to want to carry the cost of two additional officials at league or cup games, that could well mean Irish officials could miss out on the chance to work at under-age Uefa tournaments or in high level Uefa club competitions.

– EMMET MALONE