Play Up Pompey! Are They the Best Team Ever to Finish 20th?

How incredible it is to see Portsmouth reach the FA Cup final for the second time in three years given their Premier League plight this season. Despite being relegated on Saturday, Pompey performed excellently on the horrendous Wembley pitch the very next day to deny Tottenham Hotspur their first FA Cup final appearance since 1991. The embarrassment felt by Spurs boss Harry Redknapp (not to mention ex-Portsmouth players Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar) must be paramount after his counterpart Avram Grant, with a shadow of the Pompey side Redknapp himself led to Wembley in 2008 ,got the better of him and his expensively assembled North London side. But despite their league position, this Portsmouth team isn't full of mugs.

Their situation at the foot of the league is very much deceiving, as on a few occasions the south coast club has shown true quality this season, namely the 2-0 victory over Liverpool, a narrow 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, and their incredible FA Cup run, where they beat high-flying Birmingham City in the quarter-finals. It is largely down to the bizarre financial circumstances at the club, the revolving door of owners earlier in the season, and the refusal to appoint Grant at the expense of the hapless Paul Hart until midway through the season. Frederic Piquionne (an excellent find from French football) has shown some class finishing, including the first in extra-time on Sunday and the likes of Algerian duo Hassan Yebda and Nadir Belhadj should by no means be considered relegation-candidate players. The evergreen David James marshalled his defence excellently in the semi-final, a defence which included the experience of European cup winner Steve Finnan and South Africa captain Aaron Mokoena. If injury hadn't restricted James to just 22 league appearances this season, Pompey may well be higher up the league. Of course, the nine point deduction for going into administration was the real killer and since then the writing has been on the wall.

The saddest thing, is that despite Grant's incredible achievement of leading his club back to Wembley to face his former employers Chelsea on May 15th, their fate next season could well be even worse. With the finance of the club still in turmoil, it is likely many Portsmouth players will be on their way out this summer. Shorn of the few remaining stars they have, it seems more likely that Portsmouth will head the way of Leeds United and local rivals Southampton in disappearing to the depths of League One, as opposed to the quick return enjoyed by Newcastle United this season. But if they can hold on to Grant, then perhaps the Pompey chimes will keep ringing a bit longer.

When A 3-2 Victory Isn't As Good As A 2-1 Victory

Manchester United were last night eliminated from the Champions League quarter-finals by Bayern Munich, thanks to an incredible volley by Arjen Robben, Bayern's second away goal. This is the fourth time in their history that the Red Devils have been eliminated in such fashion, following away goals defeats to Galatasaray and Monaco in the 1990s and Bayer Leverkusen back in 2002. But what I simply cannot understand is WHY the away goals rule exists?

In the past many away teams would play extremely defensively in European competition. I believe the thinking behind the rule is to make the away team try to attack more than they otherwise would, but surely this in turn makes the home team need to play more defensively. Essentially, the rule says that a 2-1 home win is better than a 3-2 home win, and that a 2-2 home draw is worse than a 1-1 home draw. This is clearly ridiculous, surely all draws should be looked upon as the same, and a victory by a one goal margin should be seen simply as it is - a victory by a one goal margin.

A most ludicrous case comes to mind, back in the Champions League semi-finals of 2003. AC Milan were drawn to play city rivals Internazionale and the two ties took place in their shared stadium, the San Siro. A goalless first leg ensued, and the second leg finished 1-1 after Andriy Shevchenko put the Rossoneri one up before Obafemi Martins grabbed a late equaliser for the Nerazzurri. But as Inter were supposedly the home team in the second leg, it was Milan that went through thanks to Sheva's 'away goal'. Pure folly. Simply put, UEFA should abolish the away goals rule and stick to good old-fashioned extra time and penalties to settle any tied match. At least that way a team has to win by an actual margin.