Cubed Issue #1, January 2016 | Page 35

33 CHRIS MARTIN CHIPS IN WITH A VITAL GOAL FOR DERBY respectively. Deulofeu opened the scoring against Celtic, latching on to an exquisite Romelu Lukaku chip before coolly slotting the ball home. Lukaku then added to the goal he notched against Zenit with the second against the Scots, before Leighton Baines rifled a stunning effort into the top corner. Griffiths then scored from a set-piece situation once more, with Tim Howard left to flap in vain at a free kick that nestled into the top left, but a delicious passing move ended with Deulofeu slipping a pass through to Kevin Mirallas, and the Belgian opened his body and curled home a neat fourth. The usual suspects combined to put Anderlecht in their place after a fifth minute penalty had given the Belgians a shock lead. Mirallas equalised, before Aaron Lennon ran from the half way line and powered home a second for the Toffees. Deulofeu added a third just 53 seconds into the second half, before Mirallas and Lukaku both scored to wrap up proceedings. For Robin and Leicester, the thrill of an excellent 5-2 victory over Celtic in the opening game was somewhat quashed by 0-0 and 1-1 stalemates against Anderlecht and LA Galaxy respectively. Jamie Vardy racked up a hattrick against Celtic, with Riyad Mahrez scoring before celebrating by removing his own spine (see the photo on the opposite page). Leonardo Ulloa can- celled out a stunning 30yard effort by Giovanni dos Santos to secure the draw with Galaxy, while in Leicester’s game with Anderlecht, absolutely nothing happened. Nothing. It was the first time in gaming history that a crowd in a sports game sat down, or went to get a hot drink. Now I’m not conjecturing that switching difficulty to Semi-Professional after the Celtic win affected Robin’s performance a bit, but… I’m stating it. That was definitely it. Sian will be sure to follow in his tracks next month, with Derby cantering to the lead in the league, but can Ed and Everton produce world class displays to match the difficulty they clearly need to be playing at? See you all next month… CG CUP LEAGUE TABLE