The 5^th edition of the Monaco Grand Prix, 90 years ago, was a glorious demonstration of why this race quickly became the most prestigious European Grand Prix.

A street circuit like no other, in the tight corners of a city by the Mediterranean Sea, it was the race that had everything.

The glitz and glamour coupled with fast cars is what makes Monaco still attractive today, however, the racing itself is not as exciting anymore.

In the 1930’s the cars were much smaller and could squeeze past each other around tight bends of which Monaco has the tightest.

Having seen the 1933 winning car in person it is easy to see why Monaco would have been a real test of a driver’s ability, as opposed to today’s huge cars which make the race more of a procession.

The challenger Achille Varzi, driving in a Bugatti Type 51, started on the front grid alongside Louis Chiron, the only Monegasque driver to win at Monaco in 1931, and Baconin Borzacchini who unfortunately would pass away a few months later at the Gran Premio di Monza. 

The winner of the previous Monaco Grand Prix, Tazio Nuvolari started on the second row in his Alfa Romeo.

The lead would change hands six times between the two Italians, Varzi and Nuvolari.

In the final laps Nuvolari’s car just couldn’t handle it anymore and could you blame it, Nuvolari had gone from fourth position into first, reclaiming first two more times before the car gave up in the 98th lap of the 100-lap race.

Eventually, Nuvolari would finish fourth but be retrospectively disqualified for getting help pushing the car over the line.

Varzi was the winner of the 5^th Monaco Grand Prix, completing the podium would be Barzocchini and Rene Dreyfus winner of the 1930 Monaco Grand Prix.

As well as the excitement at the front of the race, up to nine drivers retired including Winston Churchill’s cousin Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe, and Luigi Fagioli the oldest person to win a race ever in Formula One.

Historically, Indianapolis 500 is one of the biggest races in the world and one-third of the triple crown with the Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 hours of Le Mans.

However, as it is on the same weekend as Monaco, as per tradition, very few Europeans pay as much attention.

Fernando Alonso competed on a few occasions to try and complete the triple-crown, but only one person has managed to do so, Graham Hill, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1966, as well as Monaco on five occasions, and Le Mans in 1972.

The front row of the grid was Scott Dixon, a New Zealander who won the 2008 edition, the Australian Will Power, and Simon Pagenaud of France.

Juan Pablo Montoya started the race in the 5^th row. Dixon led the race for most of the opening laps, as Montoya ended up at the back of the race due to a collision that took off his rear wing.

Pagenaud eventually takes over from Dixon but soon after Tony Kanaan, who won the race in 2013, overtook both to be out in front.

A few yellow flags later and Pagenaud gained the lead again off Will Power this time and the duo traded places a couple of times up until Tony Kanaan crashed out of the race himself over 140 laps in.

One more major crash allows Juan Pablo Montoya to complete the outstanding comeback all the way to the front and managed to get the lead with only 30 laps remaining.

His back and forth with Will Power was epic and the Colombian would finish only one-tenth of a second ahead of Power.

This was the fourth closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis 500, and it was Montoya’s second win, his first coming all the way back in 2000.

The 2006 Premiership final is Sale’s proudest moment, their only trip ever to the final and they crushed a highly favoured Leicester team.

The Tigers had started the decade strong having won four titles in a row but had yet to win a playoff final since the format changed to include a playoff to determine the champions in 2003.

The Sharks had finished top of the league however and built a really strong team around World Cup winner, Jason Robinson, and France’s beast, Sebastian Chabal.

In the league, Sale beat Leicester at home 24-16, and both teams shared the spoils 27-27 in the return match.

Both teams traded tries in the first ten minutes of the final, but Sale started breaking away with two more tries and three penalties scored by number ten Charlie Hodgson.

It was 23-10 at halftime, Sale kicked on from there and proceeded to dismantle Leicester. Sale would eventually win the title for the first and only title in their history beating Leicester 45-20.

Leicester would come back to win the title the next season, but 2006 was Sale’s year.

The decline and rise storylines make this Saturday’s Championship Play-Off final will make for compelling viewing.

The traditional drama will be capped off with extra emotion as two teams whose fanbases have suffered immensely in the last 15 years look to gain promotion back to the top division.

It was not long ago that the Hatters and the Sky Blues met in League Two.

Coventry was floundering in the fourth tier after five seasons in League One, they were relegated once more, the lowest point in their history since the 1950’s.

Luton on the other hand was back on the rise.  The Hatters had spent five seasons in the National League almost going out of business but returned to the Football League in 2014.

Both teams were chasing automatic promotion as they clashed in midweek.

Peter Vincenti latched onto a rebound to put Coventry ahead inside the first three minutes. A Marc McNulty free kick that took a deflection fooled the keeper and put Coventry 2-0 up at half-time.

In the second half, Luton came back, and two headers one by Scott Cuthbert and the other by James Collins with two minutes to go forced the draw.

The two teams would be promoted at the end of the season; Luton came second, and Coventry finished 6th going up via the playoffs.

This weekend will be the redemption of one of these two teams, years of suffering washed away.  

Chelsea have had a season to forget, all the positivity at the beginning was obliterated once they got to their third manager of the season.

Frank Lampard has won one game for Chelsea since coming back as manager in March, he still has two games left including Newcastle.

Newcastle have had their best season since they finished third in 2002-03, they managed to get Champions League football for the first time in 20 years.

However, that 11-12 season was a rare, good one in the previous owner’s, Mike Ashley era.

Former manager Alan Pardew joined the Magpies in 2010 and managed to keep them in the top tier before an astonishing start to the season meant that Newcastle was a serious contender to get the top four.

With two quality Senegalese strikers, Demba Ba scored 16 goals and his colleague Papiss Cisse scored 13 goals.

It was Cisse who scored two absolutely stunning goals in this match.

The first, with one touch of his right foot, opened his body up towards the goal and smashed the ball into the opposite corner with his left.

With his second, the ball sat up for him on the near side close to the touchline, and he just whacked it into the air.

A shot most mere mortals would have seen heading into row Z by the corner flag, his, swerved almost 90 degrees to come thundering into the net, looping over Petr Cech.

Chelsea would finish 6th in the Premier League that season, and Newcastle finished above them in 5^th, the last time Newcastle would do so.

The difference between then and now is that Frank Lampard would lift the FA Cup and the Champions League a few weeks later in 2012, today he would just rather forget everything and not just the Premier League season.

Leeds needs to win this weekend and hope that Everton and Leicester lose this weekend.

A performance like this one back in 2000 when they beat Spurs 4-3 to leapfrog them on their march to the top four, would be most welcome.

Those were glorious days back then for Leeds.

Mark Viduka, Ian Harte, Alan Smith, Danny Mills, and Lucas Radebe to name but a few fantastic players wearing the white shirts.

They would reach the Champions League semi-finals that year.

Tottenham had a few bad seasons and was limping into the new millennium after a decade of regression.

Tottenham took the lead in the first half, with Sergei Rebrov, a shot from the edge of the area that bounced past Nigel Martyn.

In the second half, Leeds stormed back. Poor goalkeeping gave Mark Viduka an opportunity to get his first-ever Premier League goal.

Three minutes later he got his second, a cute deflection into the back of the net off of a rocket shot by Gary Kelly.

David O’Leary’s men did not relent and four minutes later they went 3-1 up. Alan Smith looped his header over the keeper.

Tottenham did not lie down, within a minute they pulled one back, a brilliant delivery to the far post was met by Chris Perry who thundered his header past Martyn.

However, four minutes later, Smith completed his brace scoring his second header, a sweet one, restoring Leeds’s two-goal lead.

Tottenham’s Rebrov would get one more with a beautiful overhead kick, but Spurs could not capitalise with 15 minutes to go.

Leeds must recreate this spirited display this weekend and there is no better time to play Tottenham who are having a terrible season despite Harry Kane’s best efforts.

Just looking at the lineups of this match is mouth-watering. It reads like a who’s who of football in 2003.

Juventus travelled to the San Siro with a squad including Gianluigi Buffon, Alessio Tacchinardi, Lilian Thuram, Ciro Ferrara, Gianluca Zambrotta, Pavel Nedved, Edgar Davids, Alessandro Del Piero.

This would be the second game out of three between the two giants of Italian football, Juventus won the first game 2-1, and the two would meet later in the Champions League final at Old Trafford.

Andrei Shevchenko scored the opener almost fighting with Buffon to keep the ball before passing it into the net.

Juventus didn’t take long to equalise, the Czech Nedved with a wonderful free kick that bounced off Dida into the back of the net.

Filippo Inzaghi restored the lead for the Rossoneri in the 25^th minute taking the ball down before finding the smallest gap between Buffon’s legs to make it 2-1.

The rest of the game was a classic demonstration of old-fashioned defending by AC Milan.

The Bianconeri would win the league 11 points ahead of AC Milan.

The Champions League would go to Milan however and it makes sense when you see their starting 11.

As well as their two world-class strikers, Milan’s team included Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta, Alessandro Costacurta, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf, and Rui Costa.

It’s a shame that both teams would be involved in the very ugly Calciopoli match-fixing scandal in 2005.

Real Madrid and Sevilla have had many high-scoring matches in the past two decades. A couple of 6-2’s and 4-3’s but one score that stands out is the 7-3 in 2013.

Madrid had missed out on the title the season before by 15 points from the Barcelona centurions.

Carlo Ancelotti, in his first spell, was brought in to replace the chaotic Jose Mourinho.

Only one league title as opposed to all the reported infighting was enough for Florentino Perez to replace the charismatic Portuguese manager.

Real Madrid’s new addition and big summer signing Gareth Bale arrived with a lot of promise.

Bale was signed from Tottenham to help Real Madrid recover their coveted La Liga titles and potentially even get back on the throne in the Champions League.

He opened the scoring in the 13^th minute with a curving shot and doubled the lead in the 27^th minute.

A soft penalty for a hand on Isco gave Cristiano Ronaldo, the star of the show, his first goal.

An equally soft penalty allowed Ivan Rakitic to pull one back for Sevilla before Carlos Bacca made it 3-2 before the break.

In the second half, Karim Benzema got in on the action, at the time heavily underappreciated, his trademark finish made it 4-2 and a few minutes later Cristiano Ronaldo scored his second and the 7^th goal of the game.

Ivan Rakitic’s shot reduced the deficit once more with a beautiful shot into the top corner, the best goal of the game.

The comeback never materialised as Cristiano Ronaldo bagged his hat-trick and Karim Benzema got his brace, not before Stephane Mbia was sent off for Sevilla and Rakitic missed a penalty.

Real Madrid would go on to win the Champions League on the back of the “BBC”. Their first of four in five years.

This could finally be the year that Bayern Munich lose the Bundesliga title after a decade of domination.

Die Roten have won the league for the past ten seasons winning on average with more than ten points ahead of their closest rivals.

Back in 2011, Cologne’s come-from-behind win was one of the many defeats that cost Bayern the title.

They were 2-0 up in the first half and yet lost, costing boss Louis Van Gaal his job.

Mario Gomez and Hamit Altintop had put Bayern comfortably 2-0 up at the break.

Cologne did not roll over. Christian Clemens pulled one back and a brace from Milivoje Novakovic in a space of 20 minutes in the second half saw Bayern slump to their 5^th defeat of the season.

Cologne has failed to beat Bayern Munich since and has been relegated twice in that time.

Bayern Munich would bring in Jupp Heynckes in 2011 to halt the slump. A move that would be very fruitful as Heynckes would win the treble in his final season and leave Pep Guardiola with an incredible squad to start the run of ten titles in a row.

This particular match is very apt ahead of this weekend as this would be Jurgen Klopp’s only victory as Mainz manager over Borussia Dortmund.

Mainz reached the Bundesliga in 2004 for the first time in its history and would stay for three seasons whilst Jurgen Klopp achieved many accolades and plaudits for his management style.

Unfortunately, Mainz would be relegated at the end of this season but in three seasons they only lost once to Dortmund and managed four draws.

Klopp would stay one more season before Dortmund would make the move for their man. And what a move.

Within five years he won two Bundesliga titles, a DFB Pokal, and reached a Champions League final.

It was this win and the performances in three seasons in the Bundesliga that motivated Dortmund to swoop in for him.

Mainz scored through Leon Andreasen’s penalty in the 61^st minute.

Only two of the Dortmund starting 11 would be there by the time they won their first league title under Klopp, Roman Weidenfeller, and Christoph Metzelder.

It is ironic that Dortmund could win the league against Mainz, the club where they found Klopp, the last manager to win the league for the Black and Yellows.