Early Doors - Your morning briefing blog

Cristiano Ronaldo has a healthy enough ego - does he really need Carlos Queiroz to compare him with the bloke who discovered America? The Manchester United second banana has weighed into the increasingly ludicrous war of words with Real Madrid over the man who is to humility what Sharon Stone...More

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Eyes right for a shameless ogle at the streakers who interrupted Italy's Euro 2008 training as part of a stunt for TV. See, this is the kind of fun we're missing out on thanks to that idiot McClaren. Think about it when tonight's meaningless friendly trudges into its 74th soul-crushing...More

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John Terry's miss last week provoked a bizarre outpouring of grief and a letter of condolence from the Primer Minister ("From one loser to another - Love Gordon"). But JT should buck up his ideas and get down to Brockworth in Gloucestershire, where sport really is a matter of life...More

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In the fallout from John Terry's slip and consequent break-down in the Champions League final, Frank Lampard claimed "Mr Chelsea" (let's call him Mr Chelsea-Terry from now on, it sounds quite posh) has nothing to be ashamed of and is really a "man's man" and not at all a sobbing...More

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Early Doors has been accused in the past of devoting almost no coverage to events north of the border, and in turn has received plenty of abuse for it. So, after an evening in which there was precisely zero football played in England - there was even a 24-hour embargo...More

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Things looked grim for Manchester United after Cristiano Ronaldo, having shed his big-game bottler tag earlier in the evening, claimed it back with interest and missed his penalty. Chelsea had one kick to win it, and the only thing that could save United was some good old-fashioned English blood and...More

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* Early Doors is not in Moscow. 19:00 UPDATE!Ji-Sung Park has been left out of the United squad alltogether, which is quite a surprise when you consider the role he's played in their European campaign. The atmosphere is really starting to build in the stadium now, with both sets of fans in good...More

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Not the chart-topping classic from long haired Swedish rockers Europe, rather the gradual edging closer of the most epoch-defining event of recent times. The 1986 number one fantasised about blasting off from Earth for the distant planet of Venus - a feat that, even 22 years later, scientists are still...More

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Welsh pluck v English savoir-faire, fresh-faced enthusiasm v stony-faced professionalism, the unbridled optimism of youth v the hardened pragmatism of age.With the benefit of hindsight there was only ever going to be one winner at Wembley on Saturday and so it proved, with the vertiginously-cleavaged Lesley Garrett comfortably out-trilling alluring...More

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Chelsea will be denied an open-top bus parade on Thursday if they win the Champions League as the council believe it will cause massive traffic jams. A Hammersmith and Fulham councillor said: "Holding a parade on Thursday evening is not an option considering that it would bring a large part...More

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