SO for two weekends in-a-row, we’ve had two-goal victories on the back of severely disputed refereeing decisions, which would ordinarily cause the more fair-minded such as me to squirm uncomfortably.

REFEREEING decisions have been the dominant topic in much of European football for a fortnight, not least thanks to Michel Platini’s various amusing interventions.

LONG-TIME loyal regulars over there (top o’ the morning, Messrs ‘Boggers’, ‘Digger’ and ‘Major’) probably don’t need reminding that I write this on a Monday night.

EARLY Saturday kick-offs — and thus earlier drinking kick-offs — have one small silver lining: you have usually had too much to drink by about 10pm and are thus often forced to stagger home prematurely.

ANOTHER week annoyingly lost to lumbering internationals blundering about comes thankfully to a close — and this time it was even more of an absurdity than usual, in light of the stunning revelations in an excellent new book about match fixing, including at the 2006 World Cup.

LAST WEEK had gone so well: then the weekend’s clouds started to gather.

SALUT, camarades! Greetings from Monte Carlo where it’s 28 degrees, sunny and pleasingly packed with lithe, tanned mademoiselles.

GREETINGS chaps, and occasional chap-esse: we can be this familiar now, can we not?

SO here we all are this week, at last: a whole continent’s eyes cast towards a venerable Eastern Bloc capital, where a thrilling competition comes to a primetime TV climax — amidst, no doubt, much muttering about skulduggery and bias.

IF there was one reason for United being able to go one better in 2007/08 compared to last season’s slight shortfall, then it was surely the injection of the Latino vitamin-booster into the squad’s body: Tevez, Anderson and Nani have all exceeded expectations and made the difference — we hope — between being also-rans and continental kings.