Pre-match

Pre-match notes said they were "chasing a seventh win in 10 matches, their best start in 42 years".

Football League in Focus: Derby County pulled up short by Leicester | Jeremy Alexander 2011

Pre-match: Police confiscate several thousand copies of the Red Issue United fanzine because of a spoof cut-out-and-keep poster showing a Ku Klux Klan hood on its back cover.

Old Trafford's day of discord 2012

Pre-match was moody, and there followed shit-throwing and ambulance-shaking, which – though I'm biased – seems fair to say is a bit much, as are random attacks on own business-minders.

Liverpool v Manchester United: football tribalism at its most visceral 2012

Pre-match emails:"Why is it that Barcelona can field substantially the same XI time after time 'Barcelona are as expected', while EPL teams are constantly changing squads from one match to the next?" says Paul Szabo.

Real Madrid v Barcelona – as it happened | Jacob Steinberg 2012

Pre-match niceties: In the ITV studio, pundits Gareth Thomas and Thom Evans are unanimous in their agreement that Wales are taking a risk playing Sam Warburton in match after match during this World Cup, suggesting he should have been wrapped in cotton wool for this encounter to ensure he avoids suffering an injury that could rule him out of the quarter-finals.

Rugby World Cup 2011: Wales v Namibia – live! 2011

Pre-match email dept "In a tournament that is increasingly bizarre, with the French imploding, the English suffering stress fractures, the Italians losing their touch and the Spanish discovering their mortality, is it Brazil's turn?" wonders Joe Gibson.

World Cup 2010: Brazil v Ivory Coast – as it happened 2010

"Pre-match I had never felt so wound-up and tense," he recalls.

Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

Pre-match talk of 4-4-2 versus 4-3-3 proved erroneous - Ancelotti abandoned both and plumped for a 4-3-2-1 'Christmas Tree' system that allowed him the extra control he needed in midfield and to accommodate Abramovich's desire for

Evening Standard - Home James Olley 2011

Photograph: Kerim Okten/EPA Pre-match emails: I'll put these in, then have some pre-match pasta.

The Guardian World News Jacob Steinberg 2012

Pre-match talk was of the third-placed Gorgie side challenging the Old Firm for the title but they never recovered after falling behind to a James Forrest goal in seventh minutes.

Evening Standard - Home 2011