Euro 2016: All Fairytales Must End – French Hosts Send Iceland Home

A bittersweet match for the neutrals but both teams have much to take away from this last quarterfinal.

The Daily Drool: Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Ridiculously cute winger Alireza currently plays for Dutch club NEC. He has represented Iran at the U20, U23 and senior levels. He kinda looks like an Iranian Olivier Giroud in this picture doesn’t he? Foxy!

The Daily Drool – Epic Bromance Month: Olivier Giroud & Lukas Podolski

This is one good looking bromance going on at Arsenal! Thanks to the anonymous watishista who suggested it!

Arsenal Support Anti-Homophobia Campaign

After that last disheartening story about racism in sport, here comes a bit of good news on another front. Gay rights group Stonewall along with Paddy Power and the Gay Football Supporters’ Network have launched this year’s Rainbow Laces campaign with a little help from Arsenal.

The Daily Drool – World Cup 2014 – France: Rio Mavuba

Midfielder Rio has played for Lille since 2008. Interesting fact: His birth certificate says “born at sea.” His father (who played in the 1974 World Cup for Zaire) and his mother (an Angolan national) were fleeing the Angolan Civil War and little Rio was born on a boat in international waters. The family came to France as political refugees and he became a citizen in 2004. Sadly, his mother passed away when he was 2 and his father when he was 14. He turned to football for solace. He rose through the ranks at Bordeaux & Lille (and even played a season at Villareal). While he was recruited by the DR Congo National Team, he chose to play for France. He has represented his adopted country at the U21 and senior levels.  If you want to see more of Rio (and by that I mean ALOT more), check out the Dieux de Stade calendar. He posed for the 2013 and 2014 editions (this past year with Yohan Cabaye and Olivier Giroud – here’s the Making Of video). Here’s some sneak peeks of Rio getting his pose on.

You Know, This Scenario Is Not How I Pictured It…

We love your “pyjamas” Mesut 😝😜👌@MesutOzil1088 pic.twitter.com/ZW2IcSBGlk

— Olivier Giroud (@_OlivierGiroud_) December 10, 2013

Whenever I’ve thought of Mesut and bedtime (which is actually a whole heck of a lot less than you’re probably imagining), this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

Thursday Late Night Bits & Bobs

How does this always happen? I get home from work late, eat dinner and then sit down to post – poof! – it’s close to 11 PM. I give up. Here’s a quick rundown.

First, congrats to Nacho who yesterday extended his contract with Real Madrid for an additional 4 years.