Champions League 2012-13: Tribute to the teams eliminated, Part II

Read Part I

CFR Cluj, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Group H, 6+3=1-2 9-7, Position 3

The Romanian champions got eliminated from the Champions League group stage in the worst of all scenarios. The team won 3 matches, earned a draw, but still was unable to reach the next round. Having huge problems in the domestic league, Cluj, as predicted earlier in the season, shone in the Champions League. The board was ought to change the manager in October, substituting Ioan Andone by Paolo Sergio. The Portuguese gave confidence to the team, which won two of the last group matches, including the noisy win at
Old Trafford. However, Paolo Sergio’s Champions League debut had started with a defeat to Galatasaray, which became the crucial detail in the end of the group stage, when the points were calculated. Cluj will be remembered for some inspirational football and is always welcome to Champions League, if they intend to bring us such football. Especially Rafael Bastos was impressive during this group stage.

Montpellier, France

Group B, 6+0=2-4 6-12, Position 4

The biggest disappointment of all was the performance of the champions of a European top 5 league. Already the first Montpellier match, lost to Arsenal, showed that there is not much Rene Girard’s team can contribute to the Champions League 2012-13. The team performance was not impressive in the French league either. The only reasonable chance for them was to enter the Europa League, which was ingloriously lost to Olympiacos. The positive thing about Montpellier was that they scored goals in five of their six matches. The 22-year-old Younes Belhanda was the most notable player, scoring two goals in the group stage.

Lille, France

Group F, 6+1=0-5 4-13, Position 4

Another infamous French participation to this Champions League was completed by Lille. The fans had to accept that the team was not able to reach valuable results without Eden Hazard. As in Montpellier’s case, Lille, having big problems in Ligue 1, occupied the last place in its group, losing the first match. For Lille it was the home match against Belarusian BATE. It went even worse for them afterwards. Rudi Garcia’s team was overwhelmed by Valencia and Bayern, conceding nine goals in three matches. The visit to Belarus was targeted to earn a place in the Europa League, however the 2-0 win was not enough to do so. Lille will be remembered for its two fantastic goals, authored by Salomon Kalou and Djibril Sidibe.

FC Nordsjælland, Farum, Denmark

Group E, 6+0=1-5 4-22, Position 4

This time it was a new team representing Denmark in the Champions League. The team initially had no chances, especially after being drawn into Group E together with Chelsea, Juventus and Shakhtar. Of course, nothing extraordinary happened and Kasper Hjulmand’s side appeared in the last position in the group. Despite having earned only one point and conceded 22 goals, which makes Nordsjælland the worst team among the 32 participants, the team was showing some interesting football from time to time. They even earned a point in a match against the eventual group winners Juventus. The Scandinavian team, however, had huge problems in terms of team moral. In most of the matches the players were losing their heads at some point. The brightest person of the team was goalkeeper Jesper Hansen, who made some fantastic saves, especially in the matches against Juventus.   

Olympiacos, Piraeus, Greece

Group B, 6+3=0-3 9-9, Position 3

The Greek champions managed to win three of their six matches. It might be enough to qualify in other circumstances, but not in Group B, where Schalke 04 and Arsenal reserved the first two places. Leandro Jardim can be proud of his team, for showing some interesting football and confidently leaving the French champions behind. The crucial match for Olympiacos took place in Germany, where the team needed a point to keep the hope alive. Had they not conceded 13 minutes before the final whistle, it would not be clear whether Arsenal or Olympiacos would be looking forward to Friday’s Champions League Play-off draw. The 24 year-old Greek striker Konstantinos Mitroglou scored four goals in the tournament.

Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine

Group A, 6+1=2-3 6-10, Position 3

The Ukrainian runners-up can’t be satisfied with the first part of the season. Already in the first couple of months they were left far behind in the domestic league, beaten in the national cup and drawn in the same Champions League group as Porto and PSG. Yuri Semin was replaced by Oleh Blokhin, who was on his turn being replaced by his assistants due to health problems. Being in front of only Croatian Dinamo was not a part of the Kiev side’s strategy, so they needed to overcome the two giants. These chances were lost in the home matches against Porto and PSG in the 4^th and 5^th rounds respectively. The team didn’t score in these matches, which was already a sign of an early elimination. A chaos in the team, only typical for Eastern European clubs, didn’t produce any sustainable performance from Dynamo players. The best one was probably Miguel Veloso, the Euro 2012 semifinalist, who also managed to score a goal in the Champions League group stage opening match.  

 

Zenit, St. Petersburg, Russia

Group C, 6+2=1-3 6-9, Position 3

Zenit of Autumn 2012 was a legendary team. If no news from the football world, there would always be something to tell about the team during the first part of the season. Everything started with the Molotov cocktail thrown by the club management by the end of the transfer season, where Hulk and Aksel Witsel appeared in Russia’s Northern Capital. Everything ended with Zenit’s crushing elimination from Champions League and fans’ demonstrations against any “non-white” players. As concerned the Champions League group stage, Luciano Spalletti’s team lost lots of points in the beginning, but still could catch the train, had the team not lost in Belgium and won against Malaga’s reserve team. The team is in the Europa League and the new captain Danny seems to be a good leader for the players with strange relationship to each other and to the administration.    

Spartak Moscow, Russia

Group G, 6+1=0-5 7-14, Position 4

When Unai Emery’s team showed some courage to almost save a point at Nou Camp, Europe thought of Spartak’s return. Everything was set to its place after the home defeat to Celtic. Spartak lost five of its matches, not showing anything extraordinary. The promising coach turned into the main reason of all troubles and was again replaced by Valery Karpin. It was too late for the latter to confirm anything but the last place in the group. Two of Spartak’s seven goals were scored by Emmanuel Emenike.