Another interesting weekend of football. The "Dream Final" will have to be an unbelievable match to beat out the Chelsea-Blackburn game. How many times do you think Morten Gamst Pedersen has replayed in his mind the header that went inches wide with 8 minutes left?

With the Everton-Charlton game on delay I was sorely tempted to check the score on the internet. Fortunately, I resisted the temptation and an amazing finish was the reward.

In Italy it was like old times with Inter coming back from two goals down to Palermo to draw. Parma have sufferred only one loss in their last 8 games although five other games have finished as draws. Although Ascoli pulled of####ood result against Lazio (2-2) it wil be awfully tough to make up the lost ground. Messina are in free fall so it may come down to Parma, Reggina or Chievo joining the other two.

Barcelona scraped through courtesy of a last minute own goal to extend their lead at the top of La Liga. The schedule favours Barcelona with only three (Atletico, Getafe and Espanyol) of the eight games against top half teams. Of the 31 points dropped by Barcelona this year only 8 have come against bottom half of the table teams and they have yet to lose to a team from #11 down.

Levante became the latest team to drop into the bottom three in Spain. Athletic Bilbao and Celta Vigo under new coach Hristo Stoichkov both won. There is a full schedule of games in Italy this week and a partial schedule in England.

Coming off a 3-0 loss to Sheffield United another loss to Chelsea would leave West Ham at least 5 points from safety and with a much poorer goal difference. Sheffield United faces Manchester United before another 6 point encounter on Saturday - this time against Charlton.

Here are a few articles that have caught my eye recently.

On Wednesday we will find out who will host the 2012 European Championships.

Gabriele Marcotti provides us with the 5 reasons why English clubs are dominating Europe.

David James asks where are all the ####_footballer_ever_com.html">#### football players?

Tom Humphries with an interview with the man who has Sunderland fans believing.

Steven Wells on the annual Softball vs. Soccer wars.

And the nominations for the PFA player and young player of the year are out.