17-3-2007: Rooney and Ronaldo combined to score the 2006-07 Goal of the Season on this day. The two broke away from a Bolton corner and raced the length of the pitch before Rooney flicked the ball over the Bolton keeper. United won the match 4-1, Rooney and Park both scored two. Rooney’s second wasn’t too bad either.

11-3-1963: Middlesbrough versus Blackburn completed the third round of the 1962-63 FA Cup on this day. The round had taken a record 66 days to complete. The ‘Big Freeze‘ lead to 261 postponements and the final between Leicester City and Manchester United was put back three weeks.

Only three matches where played on the original day (5th January):

• Preston North End 1 Sunderland 4
• Plymouth 1 West Bromwich Albion 5
• Tranmere Rovers 2 Chelsea 2

Middlesbrough defeated Blackburn 3-1 in the last match of the marathon round.

10-3-1981: Barcelona and Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o was born on this day in 1981.

• Fernando Torres scores a second consecutive home League hat-trick to move to third place in the list over Premier League top scorers. Manchester United’s Ronaldo tops the table with 21 goals. Arsenal’s Adebayor has 19 and Torres 18.
• Real Madrid where knocked out at the last 16 round of the Champions League for the fourth consecutive year.
• Manchester United have now won their last 10 home matches in the Champion League. Only Juventus have done this before them.
• Micheal Ballack scored his 14th Champion League goal last night. This is a record for a German player.
• Manchester United’s Christiano Ronaldo has now scored 30 goals in 30 games this season.
• Chelsea’s unbeaten home run in all competitions stands at 60 matches after Wednesday’s victory. Their last home defeat was inflicted by Barcelona in the Champions League on 22th February 2006.
• Celtic have lost their last eight away matches in the Champions League.

3-3-1953: One of the stars of the flamboyant Brazilian national team of the 1980’s, Zico, was born on this day in 1953. Take a look at the man they called the White Pele.

2-3-2002: On this day in 2002 Dennis Bergkamp scored the 2001-02 Goal of the Season in Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Newcastle at St James’ Park. Bergkamp’s goal came after 11 minutes. Sol Campbell doubled Arsenal’s lead in 41st minute. A crowd of 52,067 saw the Premier League game.

Newcaste: Given, Hughes, Distin, O’Brien, Dabizas, Solano, Jenas, Speed, Robert, Ameobi, Shearer

Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Stepanovs, Campbell, Luzhny, Lauren, Vieira, Grimandi, Pires, Bergkamp, Wiltford

1-3-1952: Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill was born on this day in 1952.

O’Neill played in the Nottingham Forest team that won the 1980 European Cup final. He played 285 games for Forest over ten years between 1971 and 1981. Forest won the League championship in the 1977/78 season and won the European Cup in 1979 in addition to the 1980 final win over Kevin Keegan’s Hamburger SV.

O’Neill finished his playing career at Norwich City and Notts County before he began his successful management career. He lead non-league Wycombe Wanderers to two FA Trophy wins and promotion to the Football League in 1993. After 20 games in charge of Norwich City he moved to Leicester City. He lead the east midlands club to two League Cup triumphs in 1997 and 2000 before he moved to Celtic.

He won three League Championships with Celtic and lead the club to 2003 UEFA Cup final where they lost to Jose Mourinho’s Porto 3-2 in a match that went to extra-time.

O’Neill is now in charge of Aston Villa and has been selected as Premier League manager of the month twice in his two seasons at the club.

Source:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_O%27Neill

27-2-1900: On this day in 1900 German Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich where founded. Here’s a short description of the club’s beginnings from it’s web-site:

“The first 100 years of Bayern Munich’s history – and its success story – begin and end with the name Franz. Is it just a coincidence that the leader of the eleven spirited rebels who met to form FC Bayern in the Gisela Restaurant in Munich on the night of 27th February 1900, was a certain Franz John? Or that it was a Franz who masterminded the split from MTV 1879, the original club, which had suppressed every attempt by the footballers at independence? Is it only chance that exactly a century later, another Franz, this time Beckenbauer, would lead Bayern Munich, now an experienced and visionary club with countless titles to its name, into the new millennium as its president?”

Bayern have won the following major trophies in their 108 year history:

• Bundesliga 20 times (A record – the second highest is Dynamo Berlin with 10 wins)
• European Cup / Champions League 4 times (1974, 1975, 1976 and 2001) (Only Real Madrid 9, AC Milan 7 and Liverpool 5 have won more)
• European Cup Winners’ Cup 1 (1967)
• UEFA Cup 1 (1996)

Source:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayern_Munich

27-2-1999: Oxford United hosted Sunderland at the Manor Ground in a Division 1 match which was the first Football League match to be screened on pay-per-view. The match ended 0-0 in front of a crowd of 9,044 was shown on Sky Sports.

26-2-1983: Goalkeeper Pat Jennings played his 1000th first-class game on this day in 1983. Jennings kept a clean sheet in Arsenal’s 0-0 draw against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. A crowd of 13,923 witnessed the match.

Arsenal’s line-up included Kenny Samson, David O’Leary, Tony Woodcock and Graham Rix. Albion’s line-up included future Tottenham manager Martin Jol.

Jennings career stretched from 1963 to 1986. In addition to the over 1000 club appearances he made for Watford, Tottenham and Arsenal he won 119 caps for Northern Ireland.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Jennings
• http://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com/pages/fame/Inductees/patjennings.htm