The
Champions League has already seen all-Spanish (2000), all-Italian (2003) and
all-English (2008) finals, and now it’s Germany’s turn. The second leg of the
semifinals confirmed the Wembley-places for the two German clubs Bayern and
Borussia Dortmund. But the scenarios were different in these semifinals.
Borussia was getting closer and closer to eventual elimination, but the final
whistle caught Real still looking for the crucial goal. Bayern had absolutely
no problems in Barcelona, as the team devastated Tito Vilanova’s boys one more
time.
Celtic,
Glasgow, Scotland: The glorious fans of Celtic saw their favorite team win the
Scottish League. The team has also reached the Scottish FA Cup final, scheduled
on the 26th of May, but the League Cup wasn’t meant to go to Glasgow,
as Celtic lost to St. Mirren in the semifinal.
Shakhtar,
Donetsk, Ukraine: The Ukrainian champions successfully defended their title and
won the Ukrainian Cup, scoring three in the final match against Chernomorets.
Mircea Lucescu needs to fight for his leaders to remain in the club for another
season, otherwise the team will find it really hard to play as well as they did
in the Champions League 2012-13 group stage.
AC Milan,
Italy: Massimiliano Allegri’s team, together with the winter signing Mario
Balotelli, managed to do what seemed to be impossible half a year ago – they
took the bronze medals, earning the right to participate in the Champions
League qualification round next season. The cup run, as last year, had ended after
the draw had made them meet Juventus.
Schalke 04,
Gelsenkirchen, Germany: Despite the mid-season crisis, where the team appeared
deep in the middle of the table, Jens Keller’s leadership made the team occupy
the desired fourth position in the Bundesliga, so there is a chance for
Schalke-fans to see Champions League football again next season. The cup run
was ended right in the middle of the crisis mentioned above.
Porto,
Portugal: Not losing a single match and winning the most important one against
Benfica, Porto defended the Portuguese League title. The Cup runs didn’t bring
any gold, though, as the team lost to Braga two times: the League Cup was lost
in the final, and the national cup - in an even earlier stage.
Arsenal, London,
England: As Milan and Schalke 04, Arsenal was also believed to be missing from
the list of the Champions League 2013-14 participants, but a strong finish made
them appear on the 4th place. Any medal opportunity was lost in the
period before February.
Paris
Saint-Germain, France: Finally PSG won the French title, without serious
problems though. The team has conceded only 22 goals in the French League 37
matches. But despite the huge difference between the capital city-based team
and the other ones, Carlo Ancelotti’s side didn’t win the French Cup, losing to
Evian in the quarterfinal. The League Cup was also lost in the same round: this
time to the eventual winners St. Etienne. Losing three out of three
quarterfinals is probably not the best result for a team spending so much money
on recruiting stars, so Ancelotti’s successor is definitely going to be under
pressure from the management and the fans.
Galatasaray,
Istanbul, Turkey: Fatih Terim’s team won the Turkish League once again, but
lost the national cup in a very early stage, not even reaching the group stage
of the competition. Together with rivals Fenerbahce, the Turkish football set a
high benchmark this season.
Malaga,
Spain: Malaga’s appearance in the Champions League quarterfinals was predicted
to be a rare achievement for the team for years to come. Seems like the
predictions are coming true, as the team will not be in the competition next
year. Even if Malaga wins the two last matches of the league, they will not
find themselves higher than the 6th position. The Cup run didn’t get
successful either, as the team lost to Barcelona in another quarterfinal stage
of the season.
Juventus,
Turin, Italy: The Italian champions defended their title and reached the
semifinal of the national cup competition, losing to Lazio in a dramatic
semifinal. Antonio Conte’s team was way too stronger than the Italian
competitors this season, so now they need to start competing with European
giants to make life interesting.
Barcelona,
Spain: Tito Vilanova’s players managed to return the league title to Catalonia,
but the way they lost to Bayern and Real in the semifinals of the Champions
League and Spanish Cup respectively doesn’t wake optimism. The time is up to
move forward and build something new to repeat the glorious achievements.
Real
Madrid, Spain: Jose Mourinho had come to Madrid to win the Champions League,
but what he achieved was the semifinals all three seasons. Losing the league title
to rivals Barcelona and the Cup final to the city rivals Atletico, the team
cannot boast of anything special this year. Let’s see what the next manager is
going to do with the team.
CFR Cluj,
Romania: Cluj has been the biggest disappointment of the Romanian season. The
team was defeated 0-5 in aggregate in the Europa League round of 32. By the end
of the season the team is too far from the Europa League zone. The only positive
news for the fans is the place in the Romanian Cup final, which is going to
take place on the first day of summer.
Montpellier,
France: Only one match to go, Montpellier is on the 8th position in
the French League, which prevents the fans of seeing their team play in
continental tournaments next season. Both the national and league cups were
lost already in January, so the golden season was followed by a very bad one
for Rene Girard.
Lille,
France: As Montpellier, Lille has also lost everything possible, but there is a
chance for the team to appear in the Europa League next season, as the team is
on the 5th position of the French League before the last matchday.
FC
Nordsjælland, Farum, Denmark: The Danish champions were much worse than last
season, but they still managed to bring a bit intrigue in the Danish league,
until they lost the crucial match and thus the title to FC Copenhagen. There is
still a chance for the team to enter the Champions League group stage, if they
get through the qualification round. The Danish Cup run was stopped in October.
Olympiacos,
Pireus, Greece: There are no serious competitors for Olympiacos in Greece. The
team completed the second double in a row, winning both the Greek league and
the national cup. There were also chances to lift the third trophy, but the
team lost to Levante in the Europa League play-off.
Dynamo
Kyiv, Ukraine: A season to forget for Oleh Blokhin’s team: Dynamo came only
third in the Ukrainian League. However, the position gives the team a chance to
fight for the Champions League group stage next season. The team, as many other
Champions League group stage participants, was defeated in the Europa League
round of 32. The national cup was also lost in the earlier stages.
Zenit, St.
Petersburg, Russia: The Russian champions, predicted to have a successful
season after spending lots of money during the summer transfer window, lost
everything possible, as they were eliminated in the Europa League round of 16,
were defeated by Anzhi in the national cup semifinal, and lost the league title
to CSKA. Zenit will have to win in the Champions League qualifying round, if
they plan to enter the group stage next season.
Spartak
Moscow, Russia: The other Russian team had an even worse season, where it was
necessary to fire the manager in the middle of the season. The new old manager
Valery Karpin seems to have fixed something and the team is in the Europa
League zone before the last match of the league. The cup match was lost already
in October.
Manchester United, England: The last season of
Sir Alex Ferguson could have been better, although the team showed how strong
they stand compared to the other English clubs. It was already clear after the
winter break that Manchester United was going to return the English title. But
the hard defeats to Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 and to
Chelsea in both League Cup and FA Cup still complete an average season for
Ferguson’s benchmark.
Valencia,
Spain: After being the third force of the Spanish League for a long time,
Valencia struggles to earn a Champions League place this season. However, the
change of the manager has had a positive impact on the performances, so the team
has had a much better period under Ernesto Valverde’s management. The team was
beaten in the Spanish Cup quarterfinal.
Before the
final match will decide the most successful team of the Champions League
2012-13, let’s take a look at the 30 participants beaten on the road to the
final in Wembley and see where they ended up after being eliminated at various
stages of the tournament.
Ajax,
Amsterdam, Netherlands: Ajax won the third consecutive Eredivisie this season.
The most important match was won on the 14th of April, when the
champions defeated their main competitors PSV at Eindhoven. After leaving the
Champions League Ajax had appeared in the Europa League. The team got
unexpectedly eliminated in the stage of last 32 after losing to Steaua on
penalties. A couple of days later they lost to AZ Alkmaar in the semifinal of
the Dutch Cup.
BATE,
Borisov, Belarus: The Belarusian League normally starts in spring and ends in
autumn. The champions BATE had defended their title while still being involved
in the Champions League. As Ajax, BATE was also transferred to Europa League
and eliminated right away. The cup run was not meant to be successful either,
as they were already eliminated in the earlier stages.
Anderlecht,
Brussels, Belgium: The Belgian champions managed to defend their title only in
the last match of the league, where they had to earn a point against the followers
Zulte Waregem. The visitors were close to win the crucial match, but Anderlecht
didn’t concede the vital goal despite being a man down. The cup run was less
successful as the team lost to the eventual champions Genk in the semifinal
stage.
Dinamo,
Zagreb, Croatia: This is another team having the chance to show up again next
year. Dinamo easily won the domestic league long time before its climax. The
team had been eliminated from the national cup already in October.
Chelsea,
London, England: Not having a successor on the Champions League throne yet, the
team managed to climb up on top of another continental tournament, the Europa
League. Despite the negative atmosphere at the Stamford Bridge, Rafa Benitez
did a great job, also winning a place in the next Champions League edition,
securing the third place in the Premier League. Both the FA Cup and the League
Cup runs ended in the semifinals, while the Club World Championship was lost in
the final.
Manchester
City, England: After the second dreadful Champions League campaign the team
needed to win the Premier League again as a consolation for the fans, but the
neighbors from Manchester United were determined to return the title and did so
confidently long before the last match of the tournament. When City lost in the
final of the FA Cup, the manager Roberto Mancini had no excuses any more. Now
the next manager knows that two silver medals in one season are not enough to
satisfy the board.
Benfica,
Lisbon, Portugal: Everything was going in the right direction for Benfica until
the two possible gold medals turned into silver in two disastrous matches.
First they lost to Porto in the second last match of the league, conceding on
the 93rd minute and thus handing the title in to the winners, and
then the same happened 4 days later, when the team lost its 7th
consecutive European final, conceding deep inside the injury time and leaving
the Europa League trophy to Chelsea. The fans hope that the third final will
not turn into yet another third place on Sunday, the 26th of May,
when Benfica plays against Vitoria Guimaraes in the Portuguese cup final.
Sporting
Braga, Portugal: The team made it to the Portuguese League Cup final and won it
thanks to Alan’s penalty in the last minute of the first half. The rest of the
season doesn’t impress much, as the team lost the third vital position to Pacos
de Ferreira and will not be a part of the Champions League next season.
With only
one week away from the Champions League final, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern
will play their last Bundesliga matches of the season on Saturday. As it has
been obvious for quite a while now, Bayern has secured the title, and Borussia
has earned the silver medals.
The
Dortmund side confirmed this achievement after saving the match in Wolfsburg,
where the team was losing 3 goals by 1 six minutes before the final whistle,
when Juergen Klopp introduced the midfielder Moritz Leitner instead of the
defender Felipe Santana. The change of the formation helped the man in great
form, Marco Reus, score twice. The first goal of the match was scored by Sven
Bender only after 4 minutes of play.
In the
season’s last match at Allianz Arena Bayern’s manager Jupp Heynckes let the
main players shine in front of the home crowd. The champions won 3-0, with the
goals coming in the last 20 minutes of the match. Thomas Mueller, Xherdan
Shaqiri and Luiz Gustavo added their names on the scoreboard. It was after this
match against Augsburg that the Munich team received the gold medals.
The last
matchday will bring Hoffenheim to Dortmund, while Bayern will travel to
Monchengladbach to meet the other Borussia. The main intrigue of the tournament
is the question of the league topscorer. Robert Lewandowski’s competitor Stefan
Kiessling of Bayer is 1 goal ahead, so the Polish striker has got a task to do this
Saturday.
The last
weekend was special for the European football in terms that the two Champions
League finalists were going to meet in a Bundesliga match. Both Borussia
Dortmund and Bayern had no problems to solve, but who said the match didn’t
decide anything?
Although
most of the Champions League heroes were not on the pitch from the first
minutes at the Signal Iduna Park, the atmosphere was more than nervous, as if
the winner would get any advantage before the Champions League final.
The home
side, as expected, was more enthusiastic, while the task for the visitors was
keeping their face. The first half got famous for Kevin Grosskreutz’s and Mario
Gomez’s goals. But it was the second half that revealed the main intentions of
the teams towards each other. The accelerator was Robert Lewandowski’s penalty,
which was saved by Manuel Neuer. The incident brought lots of emotions in, and
it was Bayern’s Rafinha, who became the first victim of those. The defender got
2 yellow cards in a spell of 2 minutes and got expulsed only 4 minutes after
the penalty episode. Afterwards he tried to explain Blaszczykowski what a moron
the Pole was, had to hear some comments from Juergen Klopp, who got involved in
lessons about manners on the bench instructed by Matthias Sammer, now
representing Bayern’s camp. The episode was followed by clashes between Boateng
and Lewandowski, Mueller and Santana, while Schieber was close to shoot Neuer’s
head instead of the ball. As for the match itself, Jupp Heynckes removed Mario
Gomez in favor of Emre Can, anticipating Marco Reus’s entrance minutes later.
The young German created two great chances for Julian Schieber, but the forward
showed precisely why Lewandowski was always the favorite to appear in Juergen
Klopp’s starting line-up.
The
rehearsal ended 1-1. The teams will meet at Wembley very soon.
As for the
upcoming weekend, Bayern will host Augsburg, a team still having some chances
to remain in the Bundesliga for the next season, and Borussia will travel to
Wolfsburg, where they will try to earn the last point necessary to secure the
silver medals for this season.
Not many experts would bet on a German final in this season’s Champions League. The two German clubs Borussia Dortmund and Bayern have been exceptional this season, both winning their Champions League groups and then reaching the Wembley-final. They eliminated the two Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, which means that our focus before the final match is going to be the German Bundesliga only.
Borussia and Bayern have secured their places in the next season’s Champions League. The two teams have no problems to solve in the domestic league. Bayern was already unreachable a month ago, while Borussia is 8 points clear in the fight for the second place. With three matches remaining, Juergen Klopp’s team is unlikely to give this advantage away.
The teams were in the middle of Champions League semifinal encounters last weekend, as they met their Bundesliga Day 31 opponents. They took it easy, but secured three points in these matches. Bayern won against Freiburg, thanks to Xherdan Shaqiri’s sole goal. Borussia travelled to Eintracht, where Nuri Sahin and Jakub Blaszczykowski scored goals on the 20th and 70th minutes respectively, to win by two goals to one.
This weekend could have been special, as Borussia is going to host Bayern, but the teams, as mentioned above, have no reasons to fight until the last minute, especially after tough Champions League matches during the week. Borussia’s manager Juergen Klopp has already commented, that a loss in this match will be acceptable, or it will at least be “the sweetest of all defeats”, as he mentioned. For those who don’t follow Bundesliga much this can be an important chance to watch the two big clubs clash before they show up in London for the Champions League final.
It turned
to be that Bayern had never forgotten the 4-0 defeat in the quarterfinals 4
years ago. Now they took the revenge in an even more important match.
Bayern, as
in the matches against Juventus, was dominant for the whole match. Unlike
against Juventus, now they sat too deep, letting Barcelona come in and leave a
chance for Bayern to smash the damaged defense. But they were too compact in
their half and never made mistakes. There is not much to discuss about the defensive
abilities of the backs, as they were only seen during the corners in front of
Barcelona’s goal. The midfielders were the heroes of the match. Javi Martinez
and Bastian Schweinsteiger, as many of their teammates, had a perfect match.
They never let Xavi, Iniesta and even Messi act. The wingers, especially
Robben, worked too hard. The Dutchman had a great match, becoming a huge
defensive help for David Alaba in the right wing. He was reasonable when attacking.
It was him crossing from the right corners, two of which turned into scorings.
The Dutchman finally scored himself, making the score 3-0. The same can be told
about Mario Gomez, who, as Robben, was only been selected for the match due to
the circumstances. But he was running back and forth, to prove Jupp Heynckes he
was not worse than Mandzukic. He scored his goal, too. And of course, the best
man was Thomas Mueller, who, despite being another type of a player than Kroos,
made the match. He created the goals and scored twice, doing the last one after
he had already asked for a substitution. Had Bayern had Kroos in the squad,
some counterattacks could have turned into scorings, but Mueller couldn’t pass
correctly in couple of situations. First half statistics of 35-65% ball
possession and corners 8-2 were the pattern to be continued in the second half.
These figures, together with the score of 4-0, might tell the story of the
match. Jupp Heynckes gets 10 out of 10 for this match. He introduced an
especially hard working, disciplined, balanced team, with players being in such
physical conditions, that they were equally fresh before and after 90 minutes
of an electric match.
Barcelona never
woke up. The team was never given a chance to advance further than the center
of the pitch. Barca, unlike Bayern, were periodically making wrong passes and conceding
handballs, the last ones staying unnoticed by the referee Kassai. Tito Vilanova
didn’t even know what to do. He gave up after the first half, not even considering
substitutions. Barcelona slipped once in the round of 16, then twice, in the
quarterfinals, but this was Munich! There are less than 3% chances for
Barcelona to reach the final, as the team didn’t even manage to score a goal in
the first leg, a conceded one from Bayern will require six scored. There is no
need to discuss the tactics of the teams for that upcoming semifinal second
leg.
The first
semifinals got famous for the German dominance. Bayern and Borussia, German
champions and vice-champions of the past years, scored 8 goals to their Spanish
counterparts. Robert Lewandowski became the hero of the semifinals, scoring 4
goals. The Polish striker has now scored 10 goals in this season’s Champions
League, which is 2 more than Lionel Messi’s indicator and 2 less than Cristiano
Ronaldo’s.
Germany is suddenly
close to climb onto the first place. The difference between the two leagues is
now three points. In case both of the German teams appear in the final, equal number of
points earned by both league representatives will push the Bundesliga forward.
League
Pts.
1 (-)
Spain (2)
66
2 (-)
Germany
(2)
63
3 (-)
England
(0)
39
4 (-)
Italy (0)
29
5 (-)
Portugal
(0)
27
6 (-)
France (0)
26
7 (+1)
Turkey (0)
17
8 (-1)
Ukraine (0)
16
9 (-)
Romania (0)
10
10 (-)
Scotland (0)
10
11 (-)
Russia (0)
10
12 (-)
Greece (0)
9
13 (-)
Belarus (0)
6
14 (-)
Belgium (0)
5
15 (-)
Netherlands (0)
4
16 (-)
Croatia (0)
1
17 (-)
Denmark (0)
1
RANKING AFTER THE FIRST LEG OF SEMIFINALS
Place
Club
Chance to Win The Cup
1 (+1)
Bayern (Germany)
54,2% (+27,9%)
2 (+2)
Borussia D.
(Germany)
40,6% (+20,3%)
3 (-2)
Real Madrid (Spain)
3,6% (-25%)
4 (-2)
FC Barcelona (Spain)
1,6% (-23,2%)
The shocking
semifinal results left almost no chances for Real or Barcelona to win the
trophy. Bayern showed the best performance shown in this tournament so far,
while Borussia is still the only unbeaten side of Champions League 2012-13.
Borussia
and Real will open the second leg of the Champions League 2012-13 semifinals.
The first match gave answers to many questions. The score 4-1, with goals scored
by the team topscoreres Robert Lewandowski and Cristiano Ronaldo, fully tells
the story of the match.
Juergen
Klopp decided to introduce Blaszczykowski and Gundogan in the starting lineup.
Hummels started, too. Marco Reus occupied the left wing and the Bayern signing
Mario Goetze had to assist the forward Lewandowski. As for Real, the main
surprise was Angel Di Maria’s absence, whose place in the right wing was occupied by
Mesut Oezil, while Luka Modric was meant to cover Oezil’s usual place in the
midfield. The team had problems in the right wing of the defense, so
Sergio Ramos moved there, to open a place for Pepe to start in the centre.
These two changes were meant to play a negative role throughout the match.
It got
clear, why Pepe didn’t start for Real in the last period of time. The
Portuguese international, together with Raphael Varane, started a very nervous
match and never got a chance to recover. Pepe lost the main battles to
Lewandowski.
Borussia
Dortmund got inspired by Bayern’s noisy victory over another Spanish giant the
previous evening. The high spirit developed further after Marco Reus’s early
slaloms showed how vulnerable Real defenders could be. Everyone wanted to try
such dribblings and some even succeeded. Goetze had an inspirational match,
outplaying Real’s defensive midfielders. However, this match was Lewandowski’s
benefice. The Polish striker had an unbelievable night. He did all he wanted,
and scored the way he wanted, increasing the number of his Champions League
goals from 6 to 10.
Tactically
Borussia played the same way as Bayern – leaving the ball to the opponent, but
never letting them make an extra step after crossing the midpoint. This
prevented Real players of creating any danger in front. Another parallel with
Bayern’s amazing match against Barcelona was that the physique was fantastic
throughout 90 minutes. An interesting part of Borussia’s game was their mature
patience. This is especially interesting to notice after the quarterfinal tie
against Malaga, where the German side was blamed to be inexperienced.
Real was
unorganized. Lack of emotions has been described as a cruel characteristic of
Real, but the team looked pale in this case and the emotional breakthrough
never happened to come. Only at some point, when the score was 1-0, Real seemed
to be recovering, but the 3 suffered free kicks didn’t lead into big chances.
Mourinho’s defenders lost the second floor to the opponent, the attackers were inert,
and the team needed two hard-working wingers to help the backs: Ronaldo and
Oezil didn’t do this at all.
The return encounter requires Real to score at
least three without conceding. Jose Mourinho’s team has scored 3 or more in 23
matches this season, but conceding has also been a constant problem for the
team. The Spanish champions will have to utilize the energy produced by
Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. They will have to be quicker, wittier and work
harder than Borussia. The main problem is neutralizing the danger of the
opponent’s front 4, where especially the wings are dangerous. Borussia will
play its football without looking back. The team is still the most inexperienced
among the remaining semifinalists, so the very moment they decide to hold the
advantage of three goals, they might appear in danger. However, Klopp knows
about this, so the chances of Borussia to earn a place in the Wembley-final are
about 90%.
Before the
Spanish teams had to be humiliated in Germany, they took three points in their
matches against their domestic league opponents. First it was Barcelona that
won against Levante, scoring the only goal only 5 minutes before the final
whistle, and then Real scored three to Betis, conceding only one. The teams
need to play away matches this Saturday: Barcelona will travel to Bilbao, while
Real will take part in the Madrid derby, where a win will theoretically secure
them the second place, while a loss will let Atletico earn the same amount of
points as Mourinho’s side. Barcelona may already clinch the league title this
Saturday. They need maximum 6 points in 6 matches, but a win followed by Real’s
loss will bring them the gold medals.
Bayern
crashed the Hannover defense last weekend scoring 6 goals. There are 4 matches
left in the tournament and the Munich team has already secured the champion’s
title, but Jupp Heynckes can not get enough. They will need to host Freiburg on
Saturday. Borussia will visit Fortuna Eintracht.
The second semifinal of the season’s Champions League
is going to take place in another German city - Dortmund, where another
German-Spanish duo will start the fight for a place in the final. Borussia and
Real met in the group stage and were victorious over the Dutch and English
champions. However, all talks about the group stage need to be stopped here, as
these are new matches, this is the semifinal.
The road to this stage was certainly not easy for both
of the teams. Only the miracle of scoring twice in the injury time opened the
semifinal doors for the Dortmund side. After a goalless draw in Malaga, Juergen
Klopp had to wary of conceded goals.
Borussia didn’t have its best match that evening and it was not obviously
stronger than Malaga, at least in that particular match. The team didn’t create
as many chances as they did in Spain, but let the visitors organize several
dangerous attacks. Despite the beautiful goal scored in the first half,
Borussia looked surprised of how well-prepared the opponent was. The players
were getting nervous. Shmelzer and Subbotic could have been expulsed for continuous
fouls, but the referee was mild. It is important to mention, that Klopp played
without Hummels, Kehl and Grosskreutz in the starting line-up, introducing
Santana, Bender and Blaszykowski instead. These three decisions needed to be revised
during the match, so the two midfielders were substituted after 70 minutes of
average football, while Hummels came in on the 86th minute to
encourage the teammates. And it was exactly the three substitutions that made
the miracle happen. 15 minutes before the end Reus and Goetze were denied by
Malaga’s goalkeeper Willy, who made two unbelievable saves by his left foot. Malaga
seemed to have the things under control after the second goal, but this was not
meant to be Borussia’s last match in this Champions League. Despite the the
fact that the winning goal was scored after Borussia players were twice caught offside,
the way they fought in the last minutes of the match and the way their fans
encouraged the team gives Borussa a full credit to appear in this late stage.
Real had almost secured the semifinal place in their
first match against Galatasaray, so they simply needed to keep their face and not
get smashed by Galatasaray. The team coped with this, not without efforts,
though. The strength of Real is the play they showed in the quarterfinals: the
play without emotions. This is the main philosophy Mourinho managed to inject
into Real players this season. They were solid but calm in both matches against
Galatasaray. The opponent was fighting, creating chances, scoring goals, but
Real never panicked. The coach would come up with a fantastic substitution and
save the match in any case. As Mourinho introduced Modric in the match against
Manchester United, he brought Albiol instead of Oezil in the quarterfinal
second leg, to prevent the emotional Turks of scoring the fourth goal. It worked,
and the opponent had no more chances in the last 15 minutes, where the miracle
could have been produced.
Other than the match against Malaga, Borussia had been
brilliant in the rest of its matches in this Champions League edition. The
problem in the last round was probably the fact that Borussia was announced to be the
favorite. And this is not the best present to them. They will rather be underdogs
and surprise. Now they are underdogs again. Borussia is surely going to create
lots of chances in these semifinal ties, but the key question is whether they
will convert these chances into goals or not. The team is quick, they have
clever players and their attackers are in good form. If they are going to win against
Real, it has to be done thanks to their creativity. On the other side, Borussia
cannot boast to have world-class players, as Real can. The team is not experienced
in Champions League, and, finally, the team suddenly bumped into the problem of
Goetze’s announced transfer to Bayern: the news that was obviously a topic
within the team, as Klopp’s press-conference showed. Will this factor affect
Borussia’s performance or not, the time will show.
What we expect to see in Dortmund is, of course, quick
counterattacking play by Borussia, but it is not a fact that Mourinho is going
to let the Germans do this. Real is probably going to try to give the ball away
and sit deep, waiting for their own chances to organize counterattacks. The two
are probably Europe’s quickest counterattackers. But Real is also good in
positional play. Let’s see how Borussia will try to break Real’s defense and
keep its own goal under a lock. The fact that Real’s Essien, Coentrao and
Arbeloa will miss the match might become the key for Borussia’s wingers to act.
However, the Spanish champions have at least 20% more chances to advance to the
final than their German colleagues. The experience of third consecutive
semifinal, the balanced team and the cunning manager might be the difference in
the end of the day.
Now, when the Champions League 2012-13 quarterfinals
are a history, it is time to look back at these matches and make the
conclusions before the epic semifinals kick-off.
Estimated by pundits, only Bayern had to experience
problems in the quarterfinals, while Borussia, Real and Barcelona had to
eliminate their opponents easily. The four mentioned teams turned stronger than
the others, but the way they won their ties was exactly opposite to
expectations. Borussia was deeply buried in the home match against Malaga as
they produced a sensational comeback, scoring twice in the injury time.
Barcelona was outplayed by PSG, until Lionel Messi came out of the bench and
settled the necessary equalizer. Real was not expected to have any trouble in
Istanbul, but the Turkish fans were there to push their heroes forward and see
them score three in the second half. It was not enough for Real to get
eliminated, but Mourinho’s Real doesn’t concede so many every week either. And
only Bayern had no problems in the quarterfinals, being the better of two sides
literally from the first minute of the tie. The second leg matches produced 14
goals, some of which were pearls. Especially beautiful was Didier Drogba’s back
heel goal, but the element of back heel and many others were present in
Borussia’s first goal to Malaga, which was one of the most astonishing
counterattacks of the tournament. A team scoring such quick goals and producing
such incredible comebacks fully deserves its place in a Champions League
semifinal. Enjoy that goal, finished by Robert Lewandowski.
Scoring two goals in Istanbul, Cristiano Ronaldo is
now too far to be caught by competitors. The Portuguese has registered 11 goals
in 10 Champions League matches, while Lionel Messi has only scored 8 times in
10 matches. The eliminated Burak Yilmaz is still standing in between the two,
as the Turkish striker played a match less than Messi. Borussia’s Lewandowski
is on the 4th place with 6 goals.
The table showing the ranking of the leagues is very
close to take its final shape. After Turkey moved one position up, the places
from 3 to 17 are not going to change any more. Now it is about the first two
places, as only Spanish and German teams are left in the tournament. Spain has
got an advantage of 9 points, so the Germans need to be exceptional to overtake
the first position.
League
Pts.
1 (-)
Spain (2)
66
2 (-)
Germany
(2)
57
3 (-)
England
(0)
39
4 (-)
Italy (0)
29
5 (-)
Portugal
(0)
27
6 (-)
France (0)
26
7 (+1)
Turkey (0)
17
8 (-1)
Ukraine (0)
16
9 (-)
Romania (0)
10
10 (-)
Scotland (0)
10
11 (-)
Russia (0)
10
12 (-)
Greece (0)
9
13 (-)
Belarus (0)
6
14 (-)
Belgium (0)
5
15 (-)
Netherlands (0)
4
16 (-)
Croatia (0)
1
17 (-)
Denmark (0)
1
RANKING BEFORE THE FIRST LEG OF SEMIFINALS
Place
Club
Chance to Win The Cup
1 (-)
Real Madrid (Spain)
28,6%
2 (-)
Bayern (Germany)
26,3%
3 (-)
FC Barcelona (Spain)
24,8%
4 (-)
Borussia D.
(Germany)
20,3%
Only Borussia has yet to be defeated in this
tournament. The reason why Real and Bayern stand higher in the ranking is that
they have a tiny advantage over their semifinal opponents, which gives them a
better chance to appear in the final.
The first Champions League 2012-13 semifinal will take
place in Munich, where the last season’s Chelsea victims Bayern and Barcelona
will meet. Both of the teams are determined to go all the way and anything but
the “cup with big ears” will be a fiasco.
Bayern is the team being in the best form. The Munich
team has won 8 out of 8 matches played after the Champions League defeat to
Arsenal in March. Bayern players have scored 32 times in these 8 matches. They
have already won the league title, but they move on towards the other two
golden awards, with the Champions League being the top priority.
Bayern was too strong for Juventus in the
quarterfinals, so the team dominated from the first minutes of the first leg
until the final whistle in Turin. And here we are talking about the strongest
team Bayern had met in this Champions League by then.
The average of 4 goals in a match shows how
unstoppable their attack is. The fact that Mario Gomez and Claudio Pizarro keep
on scoring hat-tricks and still not appearing in the starting line-up speaks
about the strength of the attackers. Ribery, Robben, Mueller and Mandzukic
don’t notice their opponents. The midfield is calmly controlled by Bastian
Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez. They
are ready to eliminate Xavi, as they did it to Pirlo. There is no need to talk
about fantastic Neuer, Lahm and Dante, who have been praised during the whole
season. Now they have the upcoming star David Alaba next to them, who has been
exceptional in the matches against Juventus. Bayern was quick, Bayern was firm
and Bayern was pressing like a hurricane in these quarterfinals.
We need to dig too deep to find a weakness in this side. The absence of Toni
Kroos hasn’t been a problem for the team so far, but if Barcelona is there to
create problems for Bayern, they might lack Kroos’s creativity in front.
Heynckes has tried to solve the problem by moving Mueller to the center and
introducing Robben in the right. Anyway, Thomas Mueller is another type of a
player and he is most useful when the team doesn’t depend on his vision. Arjen
Robben hasn’t found his best shape since he missed a couple of crucial
penalties a year ago. The Dutchman scores, creates chances, but the manager can
never rely on him when it is time to use the created chances.
The team will say goodbye to the current manager Jupp
Heynckes this summer, to welcome Barcleona’s previous boss Pepp Guardiola.
As for Guardiola’s previous team, not everything has
been fantastic for Barcelona so far. The team is out of the domestic cup, they
were two times close to being eliminated from the Champions League, and Lionel
Messi is still recovering from his injury. Barcelona manager has a problem to
solve here, as the matches against Milan and PSG revealed several huge problems
about the team. The most important of these was the dependence of the team of
Lionel Messi and not Xavi Hernandez, as the myths claimed previously. We need
to talk about the defensive problems of the team, too.
But this is still Barcelona, the team who has changed the football world in the
past decade. There is no cure against their ball possession and Tito Vilanova
has come up with several fresh ideas during the season. One of those was the
changes he made in the last thirty minutes of the home match against PSG. The
first one was Messi, who played unusually deep and surprised PSG in this. However,
Messi’s introduction was clear and it overshadowed the other substitution of
Vilanova, who sent Marc Bartra in to substitute Adriano. The youngster had a
huge influence in the back, helping Pique to deliver a good defensive
performance in the minutes when PSG’s tired attackers were desperately trying
to score the second goal.
The team is leading in the Spanish League and they
need 6 points in 6 matches to return the title. They don’t have to think about
anything else than Champions League for the remaining season, so here is where
they have an advantage over Bayern.
The match in Munich is not going to decide the finalist, and the two managers
know about this. Whatever we see on the pitch on Tuesday is going to be
something extraordinary. Bayern is going to try to do what Milan did a couple
of months ago, when they blocked the breathing air for Barcelona. Barcelona is
now more or less ready to this. But Bayern is the first team in Barcelona’s way
to be strong enough to press during 90 minutes. In this particular match there
is a big chance for Bayern to cheat Barcelona defenders and score, despite
Kroos’s and Mandzukic’s absence. As for Barcelona, their strength is at Nou
Kamp. They will have to keep their face before the second leg and try to make
use of their quick low passes, which might be a problem for Bayern’s tall
center backs. Bayern’s chance to appear at Wembley is about 5% more, as the
team is more organized and doesn’t depend on any particular players.
I am a professional football watcher. I watched the WC '94, when I was 10 years old and have had no success in quitting with this. I promised R. Baggio to give tribute to his Juventus and Italy team ever-since, as he missed that damned penalty.
While watching matches I always try to analyze every fact before, during and after the matches. This makes me feel I am an expert. Everyone is welcome to start a conversation on any football-related topic. You would just make me a huge favour.
Besides, I am a hopelessly lost gambler. A player, not only in the game, but also in life!
I live in Denmark. I am married, which, of course, prevents me of watching football 24 hours a day. My daughter was born in 2011. This fact is neither a football-friendly one, but it does not disappoint me.
I am making my first steps in professional scouting with one of the local companies.
If this profile sounds something close to you, I would warmly welcome you to follow my blog, where you'll read about everything I mentioned above. I promise to post an article every week. Let's say Saturday. So here we go!
