The Round of 32 produced a few dramatic results including a thrilling two-leg sweep of Roma by Panathinaikos. The Greek club won both legs by identical 3-2 scores and should be full of confidence for their matches against Standard Liège.
A quick look ahead to the Round of 16. Depsite their domestic foibles, I do expect Liverpool’s overall depth to show against Lille. Lille have performed well this season and I think they will keep the tie close but ultimately the Reds will move on.
A potential upset in the making sees Fulham take on Italian giants Juventus. Juve have struggled for form this season and I look for master tactician Roy Hodgson to engineer a win.
PREDICTIONS: Hamburger SV v RSC Anderlecht
FC Rubin Kazan v VfL Wolfsburg Club Atlético de Madrid v Sporting Clube de Portugal
SL Benfica v Olympique de Marseille Panathinaikos FC v Royal Standard de Liège
LOSC Lille Métropole v Liverpool FC
Juventus v Fulham FC Valencia CF v Werder Bremen
Bayern Munich will take a slender lead to Florence after a controversial 2-1 win over Fiorentina in a hotly contested match which featured a number of odd decisions by the refereeing crew. Fiorentina’s Coach Cesare Prandelli was aggravated while club skipper Riccardo Montolivo could not believe his eyes and admitted the players are disheartened.
There is no point dwelling on what happened but the main question will be whether the Gigliati will put this defeat behind and use it as the fuel necessary to propel them to the next round or if they will hide behind these wrong decisions as an excuse for folding and exiting the competition. Prandelli’s players have been going through a dismal run with the players unable to achieve victory in recent matches with the attackers struggling to score and the defense leaking goals. Against the Bavarians the Gigliati players appeared to be motivated and could have easily escaped with a draw despite Bayern’s domination in terms of possession.
Fiorentina’s players appeared comfortable defending the 1-1 tie and only the decision to expel Massimo Gobbi and the two other unfortunate incidents involving Miroslav Klose altered the final score. The Italian club’s players will take heart from this but sometimes moral victories are not enough to overturn a European tie. Bayern’s players are not to blame in any form for the wrongful decisions by the referee and his assistants. Dutchman Arjen Robben continues to strike fear in opponents and he was the main catalyst (besides the woeful referee) behind the victory of the German side. French star Franck Ribery will be in better condition once the tie heads to Italy so Coach Prandelli will have his hands full trying to limit the threat emanating from those two players.
Fiorentina will be without the injured Alessandro Gamberini in defense but they must play with passion and commitment in order to prevent Bayern from scoring and then a narrow win could suffice. The Gigliati must be careful because the Bavarians completely outplayed, outhustled and outscored Juventus in Turin when the two teams met in the group’s penultimate match to decide the fate of the qualifying team. Bayern are quite capable of winning away from home and have many weapons which can bother Fiorentina’s shaky defense.
Will Prandelli be able to rally the troops to continue the fairytale run or will the German giants advance to continue their quest to reach the final? The neutral observant might be leaning towards Fiorentina not because they have anything against Bayern but due to the obvious calls which went against the Italian club. The Germans have two of the most exciting stars to watch in Ribery and Robben but the manner of the victory achieved must have left a bitter taste even for the Bavarian club.
The UEFA Champions League is about to begin its knockout stage and it’s time to take a closer look at which teams are legitimate contenders to lift the trophy in May. Defending champions FC Barcelona continue to be the favorites but several other teams are not far behind. The rankings below are as of Sunday, February 14, 2010 and only include the top eight teams (out of the remaining 16).
FC Barcelona – They remain undefeated in La Liga and are the favorites to win the Champions League this season. The only thing that could deter Barca’s run to the final could be injuries.
Chelsea – They’ve been at the top of the EPL for most of the season and have made it to at least the semifinals of the CL the last two seasons.
Manchester United – They are not the team of two years ago when they won the CL but still consistently do well in the tournament. Wayne Rooney has been as good as any striker this season but needs someone else to step up if they want to challenge Barcelona.
Real Madrid – A team with as much talent as anyone but they’ve yet to reach their potential. Cristiano Ronaldo has a knack for scoring important goals in the CL. They are hard to predict and could lose in the round of 16 (against Lyon) or win the whole thing.
FC Porto – An underrated team from a smaller league (Portuguese Liga) who are capable of knocking off one of the larger clubs.
AC Milan – Milan have been inconsistent in the Serie A but showed good form in the group stage. A trip to the semifinals would be a stretch as they just don’t have the depth and talent as the other contenders.
Arsenal – Another club that has lots of talent but unable to win a trophy in recent years. They are a step below RM, Man U, Chelsea, and Barca but not by much.
Inter Milan – Inter hasn’t been able to duplicate their Serie A success in the CL. They will have to prove themselves because they can be taken as a legitimate
What do you think? Feel free to share your comments.
The Champions League will feature a hotly contested tie between Italian champions Inter and English club Chelsea. There are many story-lines beyond Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge as the winner of this Round of 16 clash should have safe passage to the semi-finals where European champions Barcelona will likely be waiting. Below are some of the intriguing features offered by this much anticipated clash:
- England vs Italy: With a number of Italian Coaches managing English clubs (R. Mancini at Manchester City, C. Ancelotti at Chelsea, and G. Zola at West Ham United) and Fabio Capello in charge of England the comparison between the English Premier League and the Italian Serie A has taken another twist. Critics point to the fact the Premiership is attracting more viewership worldwide and are backed by the financial muscle of some of the English clubs (Chelsea and Man. City) but they should not overlook the tight race for European places in Italy as well as the superior technical approach of the weaker Italian clubs (compared to the weaker English sides). Milan and Liverpool went head-to-head twice in the final and it is all square despite the fact the Liverpool win was a miraculous one.
-Ancelotti vs Mourinho: Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho are not exactly on the best of terms. While in Italy, Ancelotti was in charge of Milan and had a tense public relationship with Inter’s Mourinho. The rivalry between the two only gets worse considering Ancelotti is now at the helm in Stamford Bridge which deep inside must surely irritate Mourinho who really did not want to leave Chelsea.
- Abramovich vs Moratti: Both club presidents are desperate for European success with Massimo Morattisupposedly letting go of Roberto Mancini for failing to bring the prestigious trophy to Milan while hiring Mourinho for the sake of winning the Champions League. Interestingly, Roman Abramovich fired Mourinho due to a number of factors but mainly used the inability of the Portuguese Coach to win in Europe as his reason. Abramovich wants to bring the European trophy to Stamford Bridge for the first time while Moratti wants to win the Champions League after a dry spell of more than four decades.
-Drobga vs Eto’o: Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba and Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o are considered two of the most dangerous and lethal attackers in the world. Both hail from the African continent and they will be aiming to show who is the best goal scorer from Africa. Eto’o currently has the edge in terms of honours having won the Champions League on two occasions with Barcelona while Drogba has yet to win in Europe. Drogba has been in stunning form for his club scoring 17 goals in 20 league appearances while Eto’o has 8 goals in 17 matches in Serie A.
Both clubs are leading their respective league table and have plenty of talent with players such as Frank Lampard and Drogba on Chelsea’s squad compared to Inter’s Wesley Sneijder and Eto’o. Will Mourinho’s desire to put one over his old club drive the Nerazzurri players to overcome Chelsea or will Abramovich prove his decision to fire Mourinho is vindicated on route to winning in Europe?
The Super Bowl, that vainglorious championship game of American football, is less than a week away, and with this game will come grand estimates of just how many people around the world will be watching. American expatriates, European fans of the gridiron game and various curiosity seekers will tune in this Sunday to see the big quarterback duel between Peyton Manning and Drew Brees.
Despite what the NFL would like you to believe, however, the Super Bowl will not be the most-watched club football event of the year. That honor now belongs to the UEFA Champions League Final.
According to a study by Initiative Futures Sports and Entertainment in London, the Champions League Final was the most watched annual sporting event of 2009, bringing in an average worldwide audience of 109 million viewers, compared to 106 million for Super Bowl XLIII. The “total audience” numbers, which represent the number of people who watched at least part of the event, were skewed even more in favor of the Champions League. 206 million watched at least part of Barcelona’s win over Manchester United, while only 162 million saw part of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
So what has made the Champions League Final bigger than “The Big Game(tm)”? One word: Asia.
Barring a flood of deals in the last couple of days, this will go down as one of the quietest transfer windows in recent years. So far there have been very few actual sales with the majority of deals being short-term loan stints with options to buy later. The biggest deals I’ve seen announced have been in the £3m range, which is far cry from last January. The Premier League clubs alone spent over £175m last January.
By far, there has been more written and said about the state of clubs finances. Typical big spenders like Manchester United and Liverpool are facing some harsh debt loads and despite the spin coming from both clubs, it appears they have no real transfer budget to work with. I can understand clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona not spending big. Real already spent massively in the summer and they need to trim down their squad not add to it. Barcelona are cruising along nicely and are concerned about disrupting chemistry. But where are Juventus, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Lyon and some of the other perennial Champions League contenders? Even Chelsea, whose owner ‘wrote off’ their debt have not made any moves despite facing a transfer ban this summer and next January as well.
It’s been very quiet with only the rumour mills working overtime. Are the big club’s finances worse than they are letting on ? I’ve been reading David Conn’s columns on the financial situation that Manchester United are facing. I recommend reading his piece on the gloom facing the entire Premier League, it is quite sobering. There are many other thought-provoking articles such as this one from Simon Wilson in MoneyWeek. With UEFA’s Financial Fair Play initiative on the horizon, it is possible that clubs are trying to curtail their spending so that they are not excluded from the lucrative Champions League competition.
What are your thoughts on the lack of transfer deals?
It’s only days away from the opening of the transfer window — a time when much cash will be splashed and many sides will be re-shaped and benches re-inforced. Because there can be some major impact signings, I am waiting to analyze the match-ups in the Champions League Round of 16 and the Europa League Round of 32 until after the transfer window closes. Those competitions do not kick off again until February 16th. Here are a few articles I’ve been checking out the past few days in anticipation of the spending spree.
Depending who you want to believe, Valencia sniper David Villa is going to Manchester United, Chelsea, or Real Madrid. It looks like Villa will move either in January or the summer transfer window as Valencia will likely have to sell two from Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata in a bid to cut down their £450m in debt.
Chelsea may be more interested in a striker from another debt-laden Spanish club, Atletico Madrid’s Kun Aguero.
Luca Toni will be another name featuring in many headlines with a return to Italy looming. Will he land at Internazionale?
Special Note: Be sure to check out Major League Soccer Talk as they will have the most in-depth coverage of the Landon Donovan loan spell with Everton.
The Champions League will feature a hotly contested tie between Italian champions Inter and English club Chelsea. There are many story-lines beyond Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge as the winner of this Round of 16 clash should have safe passage to the semi-finals where European champions Barcelona will likely be waiting. Below are some of the intriguing features offered by this much anticipated clash:
Barring a flood of deals in the last couple of days, this will go down as one of the quietest transfer windows in recent years. So far there have been very few actual sales with the majority of deals being short-term loan stints with options to buy later. The biggest deals I’ve seen announced have been in the £3m range, which is far cry from last January. The Premier League clubs alone spent over £175m last January.
It’s only days away from the opening of the transfer window — a time when much cash will be splashed and many sides will be re-shaped and benches re-inforced. Because there can be some major impact signings, I am waiting to analyze the match-ups in the Champions League Round of 16 and the Europa League Round of 32 until after the transfer window closes. Those competitions do not kick off again until February 16th. Here are a few articles I’ve been checking out the past few days in anticipation of the spending spree.
