The 1-1 draw in the Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland yesterday was clearly hugely disappointing for Newcastle. Alan Pardew’s men seemed to be in full control as time ticked away and Sunderland hardly created any chances; that is until Steve Harper turned the ball into Asamoah Gyan’s path and the Ghanaian managed to divert the ball into the back of the net. The last gasp equaliser was cruel on Newcastle, who had defended admirably as a team for the rest of the match, and if one man’s performance deserved to earn a clean sheet, it was Fabricio Coloccini’s.

The Premier League match against Sunderland yesterday was arguably Coloccini’s best 90 minutes in a Newcastle shirt. The Argentina international showed just how well he reads the game, covering well for Mike Williamson on numerous occasions and carrying out his defensive duties with minimal fuss. As always Colo was calmness personified, and even nearly added to his goal tally with a crisply struck volley that was cleared off the line. But it is Coloccini’s defending that is winning him the plaudits and making him an indispensable member of the Newcastle starting eleven.

When Newcastle signed Fabricio Coloccini from Deportivo for a fee in the region of £10 million in the summer of 2008, quite a few eyebrows were raised in regards to the money spent by the magpies. It was questioned whether Coloccini could make the transition from La Liga to the Premier League, and in his first season with Newcastle he did little to dispel those questions. It would be fair to say that Coloccini struggled in his first year in English football, he wasn’t out of sorts, but that £10 million price tag was looking pretty hefty.

With Newcastle relegated, many people (me included) thought that would mark the end of the Argentinean’s time on Tyneside. But credit must be given to Coloccini; he stayed at St James’ and ensured that Newcastle’s stay in the Championship was a short one. The classy defender consistently showed that he was a level above most players in the division and was named in the Championship Team of the Year. Newcastle’s promotion gave Coloccini another opportunity to show those that watch the Premier League just how good he is and it’s one he’s taken.

This season Coloccini has hardly put a foot wrong. Apart from the heavy defeat at Bolton where the Argentinean defender was sent off for an elbow on Johan Elmander, something he quickly apologised for after the match, Coloccini has been a rock at the heart of Newcastle’s defence. A highlight for Colo will be the match against Wigan where he captained Newcastle and scored a late header to salvage a point for the Toon. But yesterday he was perhaps even better and definitely deserved to be on the winning side.

At 28 years of age, Fabricio Coloccini has plenty of his career ahead of him and is now showing the form that should ensure he adds to his 34 caps for Argentina to date. He has become invaluable for Newcastle, and whether he partners Williamson or Steven Taylor at the back, his experience and calmness can only help those around him. His commitment to Newcastle and his high level of performances are slowly proving that the £10 million Mike Ashley shelled out for Coloccini two-and-a-half years ago is money well spent. It may still be a big price for a defender, but Mr Reliable is showing he’s worth every penny.

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Iraq coach Wolfgang Sidka was more inclined to focus on his side’s Asian Cup knockout-stage qualification than the 1-0 win over North Korea.The defending champions booked their place in the knockout stages of Asia’s premier national soccer tournament with a largely lacklustre victory on Wednesday and will now face Australia in the last eight.

But they will need a much-improved performance if they are to beat Asia’s top-ranked side, having been pushed all the way by North Korea.

Sidka, however, said after the game that he was just happy to be through to the next round.

“If they were allowed to attack, sure they would have been able to get back into it but we imposed ourselves on the match,” he said.

“We kept the ball, especially in the first half, we had a lot of ball possession so we didn’t allow them to create opportunities.”

“It was always our plan that we would have more ball possession and not let them play.”

“The most important thing is that we are now playing Australia in the quarter-final. I think we deserve this victory, we played very well, especially in the first half.”

“I was very satisfied with the way we played. In the last 20 minutes, North Korea did everything to try and get back into the match so we lost a little bit of possession and control of the match but not too much.”

“In the end, 1-0, I think we deserve it. We are happy and we are looking forward to the quarter-final.”

North Korea went behind after Kerrar Jasim scored the game’s only goal on 22 minutes, and coach Jo Tong-Sop believes the early strike dented his side’s confidence.

“We conceded the goal too early in the first half. This disrupted our tactics,” Jo said.

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“In the second half we improved and tried to make chances to score goals but we lost the match 1-0.”

“This was the last match and we didn’t get a good result. I think for the players, they had psychological problems and so were unable to read the match.”

“Tactically they didn’t do so well especially when the other team played long and medium-range passes. We didn’t react too quickly when we conceded the goal.”

West Bromwich Albion forward Peter Odemwingie is hoping to be fit for his side’s trip to Manchester City on Saturday.

The Baggies leading goalscorer was trodden on in Albion’s draw against Wigan Athletic on Tuesday, but said it was a minor concern for manager Roberto di Matteo.

“Unfortunately, someone stepped on my ankle in the first half,” Odemwingie told the Birmingham Mail.

“I will get some treatment and hopefully it will not swell up and I will prepare for Saturday.”

“It is always interesting to play against a big team. I know it is a big stadium. I haven’t played there so I am hoping there will be no difficulties with my ankle.”

“City are a big club. It will be nice to play against them and we remember the last game we lost there so I’m hoping we can at least get a point from them.”

City boss Roberto Mancini has already confirmed striker Mario Balotelli not be rushed back for the clash at Eastlands, while Adam Johnson remains on the long-term injury list with a knee problem and Micah Richards is doubtful with an ankle complaint.

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The Blues won the reverse fixture at the Hawthorns 2-0 in November courtesy of a Balotelli brace, and City also took the spoils the last time the two sides met in Manchester when the then Mark Hughes-led City won 4-2.

Albion have scored just once in their past five away fixtures in the Premier League since their 4-1 drubbing of Everton at Goodison Park in November.

France’s friendly against Brazil on Wednesday will be another test for Laurent Blanc’s side as they continue to rebuild after the World Cup.

The French side were a laughing stock in South Africa at the 2010 World Cup, with a rift between former manager Raymond Domenech and his players – most notably striker Nicolas Anelka – seeing them exit the tournament without a win.

But there have been positive signs since Blanc took over in August, with an impressive 2-1 win over England at Wembley in November capping off a solid first six months in charge for the former Bordeaux manager.

Now – with the friendly against Brazil in Paris ahead of their next Euro 2012 qualifier in March – Blanc believes his side can fare well against the five-time world champions.

“As a player, you don’t have many opportunities to face Brazil in your career,” Blanc said.

“They are one of the two best teams in the world. It’s going to be difficult. Brazil have a multitude of good players.”

“To measure oneself against the best is the best way to make progress. It will be a good gauge.”

Olympique Lyon’s Yoann Gourcuff, Girondins Bordeaux’s Alou Diarra and Loic Remy of Olympique Marseille have all been included in Blanc’s squad despite some lacklustre recent performances in national colours.

But former captain Patrice Evra has been left out of the side, despite completing his five-match ban for his role in the revolt against Domenech in South Africa.

Real Madrid playmaker Kaka has been unable to force his way back into Mano Menezes’ Brazil squad for the friendly, despite making a successful return from a knee injury.

Kaka missed nearly six months of football after sustaining the injury at the World Cup in South Africa, but was left out of Menezes’ side along with Inter Milan defenders Lucio and Maicon.

The coach has instead turned to youth, with Bayer Leverkusen’s Renato Augusto, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Jadson and Dynamo Kiev forward Andre all surprise inclusions in the squad.

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Goalkeeper Julio Cesar makes his return to the national side for the first time since the World Cup.

No Brazilian-based players have been selected in the squad, meaning Ronaldinho also misses out.

“Our (Brazil-based) players would suffer in the next games and would play rivals in a different form,” Menezes said. “It is important for us to have the same form, the same physical condition.”

“Brazilian teams are playing Copa Libertadores matches the same day. Anyway, we are not going to France with a weak team at all.”

Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri has asked his players to narrow their focus as the Serie A season heads toward a thrilling finale.The Naples club slipped from second to third on the table following a 3-0 loss at AC Milan on Monday, and they now trail the league leaders by six points.With second-placed Inter Milan just a point away and Lazio, Udinese and Roma all pushing for a Champions League place, Mazzarri is wary of his squad becoming distracted.”We should only be focused on ourselves and continue to play in the championship as we have done so far,” Mazzarri said.”There is no use in looking at the others.””Mathematics confirms also that teams such as Roma and Juventus can achieve higher positions in the league depending on the results on the pitch.””Events affect the results, therefore anything can happen.”Next up for Napoli is a visit from lowly Brescia, who are mired in a relegation battle after taking just 24 points from 27 fixtures so far this term.But Mazzari has warned of the challenge facing his team on Sunday, and every matchday until the season has concluded.”I totally respect Brescia – they have great skills and players such as (Alessandro) Diamanti and (Andrea) Caracciolo,” he said.”The defenders are also very good, such as (Jonathan) Zebina, and their coaching staff is very good.””It shows the high level that Serie A has reached since there isn’t the gap between the bigger and smaller teams.””I already know it will be tough and I’d like the people to get prepared for it. The matches are going to be difficult, even home matches.””There will be moments when we won’t be able to play as we may want to do since the other teams will stop us from doing so.””We’ll have to suffer, but we should all find the best way in order to win as many matches as possible out of the 11 matches from here until the end of the season.”

With the bad boy theme running on Football FanCast this week I thought it would be apt to supply you with a video list of some shocking incidents seen over the last few years on the football pitch. From player bust-ups, to dodgy tackles and even the bizarre actions involving referees and fans, there were many to choose from. Players are expected to be professional on the pitch, respecting the referee, respecting the opposition and being able to control their anger but football is a passionate game, which the following top 10 shows.

10: Mascots Fighting – This is one of the most bizarre incidents and although it does not feature football players, when do you see opposing mascots having a real punch up on the pitch? Well it happened between Wolves’ mascot Wolfie and Bristol Rovers’ three little piggies. Unfortunately this is the most light hearted of the entries in the list.

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9: Ruud Van Nistlerooy receives Arsenal attack – After winning a last minute penalty against Arsenal, Ruud Van Nistlerooy steps up to smash home a winner from the spot for Manchester United but it hits the crossbar and comes back out into play. The match is shortly over and Martin Keown along with his team mates decide to let the Dutchman know what they think of him.

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8: Di Canio pushes Ref – Although this incident is bad it is rather humorous at the same time, Sheffield Wednesday’s Paulo Di Canio was sent off in a game against Arsenal at Hillsborough and the passionate Italian shoves referee Paul Alcock. But the way the ref falls to the ground makes it look more comical than a serious matter.

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7: Gattuso loses it – Recent incident involving the AC Milan captain gradually losing the plot in the Champions League game against Tottenham Hotspur. He takes exception to Spurs coach Joe Jordan on the touchline first grabbing him by the throat and later trying to head butt him. Although his actions were disgraceful, I’m sure many of us would’ve liked to have seen Joe Jordan retaliate and stop the Italian in his tracks.

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6: Team-Mates Fight – There’s been a few of these incidents over the years but this one is probably one of the best (or worst) depending on how you look at it. Newcastle United’s Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer exchanged some heated words on the pitch which quickly turned to blows. It reminds me of a similar incident in the 1990s between Blackburn Rovers pair David Batty and Graeme Le Saux. There’s also been quite a few from the training ground, Sweden’s Mellberg vs Ljungberg and West Ham’s John Hartson vs Eyal Berkovic are two examples.

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5: Another Muscat tackle – One thing I have never understood in football is how Kevin Muscat made a career in the sport from assaulting players? This was just one of the latest from playing in his homeland of Australia getting sent off for a horrendous over the ball tackle. He had just come back from suspension after landing a kidney punch on a player during a game. In England, he made some horrible tackles, most notably on Mattie Holmes which ended his career short.

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4: Zidane – You know what, during the 2006 World Cup final, Zinedine Zidane bows out to the football world with a shocking headbutt on Italy’s Materazzi. Cursing between players happens in every game but Zidane took exception to whatever Materazzi said to him and knocked him completely off his feet to the millions of live viewers watching.

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3: Roy Keane’s retribution – This incident made me lose any respect I had for Roy Keane as a player. He even admitted in his autobiography that he deliberately set out to injure Haaland and should’ve received a lengthy ban. Keane saw it as revenge for an incident a few years earlier, Keane had tried to deliberately kick Haaland in front of him but ended up injuring his own leg. Haaland accused Keane of faking it, which is why Keane set out for revenge. Haaland never played a full game of football after this incident and Roy Keane was left to continue playing football for many years to come.

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2: Thatcher elbow – The defender has had previous for his over aggressive challenges on the pitch but this incident on Tottenham’s Pedro Mendes topped it all. Thatcher’s over enthusiastic tackle led with his elbow caused Mendes to be knocked out and hospitalised. The alarming thing is, Thatcher acts like it was a fair challenge. Maybe Wayne Rooney should watch this to see how dangerous flying elbows could be?

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1: Kung-Fu Cantona – An incident that shocked the football world. When Eric Cantona was sent off for Manchester United against Crystal Palace a Palace fan gave him abuse that sent the Frenchman over the edge and resulted in the flying kung-fu kick attack on the fan. He was banned for several months and it somewhat overshadowed the talented footballer’s career.

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Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe claims he considered quitting the club during the January transfer window due to a lack of matches.The 28-year-old, who has been at Spurs for six years over two spells, has started just 11 matches this season and made only three substitute appearances. He scored his first Premier League goal of the campaign against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday, but it remains to be seen if will feature against AC Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday. “It’s been hard. You start to think: ‘What am I doing here?’ I’m used to playing in big games,” Defoe told the Daily Mail. “I’ve played in big games for my clubs and for my country.””It’ll be a tough game (against Milan). I hope I’m playing and if I can score and we win the game then it’ll be great.””But I remember playing against Charlton and scoring two goals, then the next weekend I missed out.””I was upset about that because once I start scoring I’m confident and I have the feeling I know I’ll score in the next game. We played Manchester United and I thought, ‘I’m playing’, but I didn’t start.”Defore previously left Spurs to spend one year at Portsmouth in a permanent move between 2008 and 2009. But the former West Ham man does not believe he would have been allowed to leave White Hart Lane mid-season for a second time, even temporarily. “I don’t think the club would have allowed me to go on loan,” he said. “But it was like when I decided to leave here and went to Portsmouth because I got to a situation where I thought: ‘I’m not sitting on the bench’.””I’m 28, I don’t need to be sitting on the bench. I don’t need anyone to put their arm round my shoulder and say: ‘Just keep it going’. And if it means I have to work even harder, then I will.”

Most football fans enjoy the odd statistic or two. Most sports fans in fact – it’s part of the fabric of any sport. Longest winning run in ten years. Not beaten Everton in last fifteen visits. Scored more away than at home. Never lost a semi-final in a year ending in 1 when the game has been played on a Sunday under floodlights. However, they can be very misleading too. And I have begun to notice people using the same statistic to support contrary viewpoints, or their own agenda.

At Manchester City, the most-used statistic by a country mile over the past year, used by the pro-Mark Hughes camp in Fleet Street (ie most of his personal friends there) was the stat that in the first 3 to 4 months of this season, Mancini’s points per game average was no better than Hughes’ for the same period the previous season, a stat used to push the opinion that he should never have been sacked, and his successor was not an improvement in any shape or form, carefully ignoring the higher league position. To further undermine Mancini you could cite City’s lack of goals against the other “Big 5” teams over the past year or so. A valid point, but an argument that only works when ignoring cup games. A national journalist used a similar argument to argue that Tevez was something of a flat-track bully, due to his paucity of goals against the big teams, once more conveniently ignoring a swathe of goals in the cup against Arsenal and Manchester United.

Meanwhile, Spurs are the great entertainers, and City are unbelievably sterile and dull. It certainly appears this way. Look at the stats for Spurs in Europe. Look at City’s series of blanks against Arsenal, Chelsea, and United at home. Yet the fact is City have a better goal difference than Spurs in the league, having conceded less goals and scored more. In total, they have scored 80 goals this season. But if you cherry-pick you will see what you want to see.

Let’s take a hypothetical argument – the oft-quoted viewpoint that Manchester United get all the refereeing decisions. Let’s suppose for argument’s sake that United get more penalties than anyone else. You could thus argue that they get more decisions than anyone else. But you could use the same statistic to argue that this merely proves that United attack more than anyone else, spend longer in the opposition penalty area, and thus by the law of averages should get more penalties anyway.

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Let’s consider if Arsenal are playing well at the moment. The general feeling is that they are in freefall, after a terrible month. And lo and behold it turns out that until Arshavin scored against West Brom last week, they had gone 365 minutes without a goal for any Arsenal player in all competitions. But also consider this – they are unbeaten in 12 Premier League games, their longest unbeaten run since the 2008-9 season.

How about Dmitar Berbatov? Surely a success story this season. Afterall, he is the Premier League’s leading goal-scorer. But hold on, he’s barely scored in the Champions League for years, he’s just another flat-track bully.

Many fans use possession stats in a particular game to try and argue that their team was dominant, that they were the better of the two teams. Yet possession wins a team nothing, nor should it. In 106 Premier League games, Stoke have never had 50% or more of the possession. West Brom drew against Arsenal with 25% of the possession. Likewise, many have argued that the key to finishing in the top 4 is to pick up points against the other top teams, in the same way that teams fighting relegation have their own “six-pointers”. However, Manchester City’s record against the other big teams this season is poor, yet they sit above Tottenham as Spurs have only won once in eight games this season against bottom six teams. And City sit in 4th with the 6th lowest shot toal in the Premiership.

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Statistics are still great of course, interesting, and even occasionally educational. But they are only a guide, as the goals of a striker does not tell us everything about a striker in the same way the number of clean sheets for a goalkeeper does not tell us the full story either – football is afterall a team game. But you really can do almost anything if you cherry-pick enough – even make Messi look rubbish. Afterall, in last year’s World Cup finals, he failed to find the net in 5 games. Just another flat-track bully.

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Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini admits the absence of Carlos Tevez for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United has come as a huge blow for his side.Mancini confirmed on Thursday that Tevez could miss the next four weeks with a hamstring injury – at a time when City are not only fighting for their first trophy in 35 years, but also to finish in the top four in the English Premier League.

The club’s hopes of finishing in the Champions League places were dented on Monday night after being thumped 3-0 by Liverpool – and Tevez limped off in that match with an injury that now rules him out of Saturday’s derby.

“Tevez is not available for Saturday. I think he will recover in three or four weeks. It is a big problem but we can’t take any risks,” Mancini said.

“We have six games left and hopefully we can get Carlos back for the last two or three games.”

The Argentina striker, City’s top scorer, could be fit in time for the FA Cup final if Manchester City get there, with either Stoke or Bolton the opponents at Wembley.

Mancini will have to rely on either Edin Dzeko or Mario Balotelli to shoulder the goalscoring burden in Tevez’s absence.

“I still have to decide what to do. But both players know this is an important chance for them,” Mancini said.

“Every player knows this is an important moment for the club. If we will we can go to a final, so every player will give 100 percent.”

Mancini has had to fight off speculation regarding his job at Eastlands and there have been reports that he could be sacked if City fail to finish in the top four.

But he insists everyone at the club should be content as he looks towards the Wembley showdown with rivals United.

“We should be happy at the moment as it’s the first time in a long time are in the semi-final. We have a good chance of this and the Champions League,” Mancini said.

“The fans should be happy for this situation and for this game. We need to focus on this game and we need to understand it is very important. If we play well, we can get to the final.”

“United are in good form. They are very strong but I am not worried about this game – I am sure we will play well.”

Sanfrecce Hiroshima moved to equal second in the J-League on Sunday thanks to a 4-1 demolition of powerhouse Gamba Osaka at home.The hosts made the perfect to the contest, when striker Tadanari Lee opened the scoring inside the first minute of the match and from there they did not look back, with goals to Koji Morisaki, Mihael Mikic and Hisato Sato killing the game off.

Gamba Osaka did manage a late consolation from Shota Kawanishi, but it would do little to brighten the mood of coach Akira Nishino.

In another upset, the Urawa Reds thrashed reigning champions Nagoya Grampus 3-0 at home to leave Nagoya with just one point from their opening two matches.

Brazilian midfielder Marcio Richardes opened the scoring for the hosts in the 12th minute, and Tatsuya Tanaka doubled their advantage 13 minutes later.

Genki Haraguchi completed the rout 12 minutes from the end to hand the Reds their first win of the campaign.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Jubilo Iwata emerged with a point from their trip to Albirex Niigata, when a 68th-minute goal from Gilshino helped them erase an early penalty from Young-Cheol Cho and earn a 1-1 draw.

Montedio Yamagata and Cerezo Osaka played out a goalless draw at the ND Soft Stadium Yamagata.