Its not just Manchester United who score late, by Danny Harris

Republic of Ireland were robbed of a credible draw at the weekend, after scoring late only to see their opponents Italy equalise with stunning impertinence.

After the jump, we choose our six favourite similarly chaotic upside-down closing stages:

The Spoiler attempts to explain the Argentinian’s inconsistency

A strange thing tends to happen when Lionel Messi pulls on an Argentina shirt - generally speaking, he loses the dazzling talent that made him the centre piece in Barcelona’s triple-winning season. But why does this happen? As the Albicelestes prepare for a vital clash with Peru on Saturday, Spoiler correspondent Sam Williams gives five possible reasons for his inconsistent form on the international stage…

The manager
Comparisons with Maradona are inescapable, particularly when the manager forces the iconic number 10 shirt on Messi. Before the recent World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Paraguay, Maradona said of his star player: “We’ve been heaping responsibility onto him. He’s fast, concentrated, totally committed. He knows the chance he has.” Argentina duly lost both games.

Messi is consistently outstanding for Barcelona because he plays in a liberated, care-free manner. He knows how good he is, and if Maradona lets him get on with it, he could help dig Argentina out of the World Cup Qualification hole they find themselves in.

The formation
In the aforementioned defeat to Paraguay in Asuncion, Messi was deployed up-front in a 4-4-2 formation. For all his attacking qualities, five-foot-seven Messi isn’t an out-and-out striker and he couldn’t impose himself against the big, physical Paraguayan centre-backs. Alongside a target-man

The Albicelestes’ poor form under Diego Maradona continues

Paraguay 1/ Argentina 0
While World Cup Qualification strugglers Portugal were given a boost with a 1-0 victory in Hungary last night, Argentina saw no such change in their fortunes. Following defeat in Paraguay, Diego Maradona’s side now find themselves in the fifth-place play-off spot in the South American qualification system that is pretty much designed to give them an easy ride.

Argentina have lost four of their last five qualification games, and slip-ups in the two remaining matches against Peru and Uruguay could mean they miss their first World Cup finals since 1970. Maradona, it seems, is dealing with the pressure with his own unique brand of panicked defiance:

“As long as I have a drop of blood left, I will fight to get Argentina qualified.

“We’re not out of the World Cup.

“I’m not afraid of criticism. I’m not afraid of anybody. I’m going to continue no matter who criticises me.”

[Video: 101GG]

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[Dirty Tackle]

Xabi Alonso finally gets on with it and submits a transfer request
[Guardian]

Chelsea haven’t given up on Franck Ribery
[The Telegraph]

500 Peruvian footballers resign from the national team - we had no idea they had such a big squad
[The Offside]

Robert Huth to Fulham?
[Goal.com]

WAG Danielle Lloyd is not unattractive at the beach
[NewsToob]

Tis the season for sportsmen all over the country to behave like idiots

Great, it’s Christmas, everyone will be full of cheer. The only downer is that when the free grog is flowing, easily-led sportsmen tend to come unstuck and morph into animals. Welcome to shaming season - Henson, Pizarro and Cattermole are up first.

The Accused: Gavin Henson (rugby player)

The Crime: Boarding a train from Reading to Wales with three of his gruesome rugger mates and horrifying fellow passengers (including tiny little children) with blue language and outrageous antics. Antics that included thumping each other, spewing all over the place, then weeing in a carriage. The final outrage came when Henson called a special needs teacher a “fat cunt”.

The Spoiler Verdict: An utterly loathesome rugby oik, such obnoxious behaviour should see him chained to rocks and punched in the face by the offended children. As things stand, his club apologised instead.

The Accused: Claudio Pizarro (footballer)

The Crime: Allegedly the Peru skipper/ Chelsea sub spent an evening in a luxury South American hotel, Las Inkas, making passionate sex with prostitutes whilst extremely high on alcohol. This came but days before his side was thrashed 5-1 by the little people of Ecuador.

The Spoiler Verdict: Perhaps Pizarro is spending too much time with Coley and JT over at Chelsea? He could do with having a night in with the quieter/more mature players, like Makelele. His national coach says that if it’s true he won’t be playing for Peru ever again.

The Accused: Lee Cattermole (footballer)

The Crime: The Sun reports that Middlesbrough midfield thug Cattermole is facing a three-year ban from his favourite pubs in Yarm, Teeside, after him and his mates spent an entire day smashed out of their brains, being sickeningly abusive to anyone within earshot. He managed to get thrown out of four pubs in one day.

The Spoiler Verdict: Cleveland Police took it upon themselves to have a strong word with the 19-year-old thug. The Spoiler would advise a harder line - cut off his hands!