Champions League 2012-13: Tribute to the teams eliminated from the Champions League round of 16 stage, Part I

Another 8 teams were thrown out of the Champions League. The main headline is again the horrible performance of English clubs. The last two were also eliminated from the tournament, generating discussions about a crisis in the Premier League.

Most of the teams were well-prepared for the play-offs. Some were a bit unlucky with the draw, and others were just too weak to appear in the quarterfinals. Let’s say the last goodbye to the 8 teams leaving the tournament before the quarterfinal stage. 

 

Manchester United, England

8+4=1-3 11-9

Topscorers: Robin van Persie, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez – 3 goals

The English giant was set for a triumph this year. As Sir Alex Ferguson’s team acquired Robin van Persie, Manchester United became a strong candidate to go on and win the prestigious European trophy. The season had been successful until their early exit in the Champions League. The team had won the first 4 group matches, being the only one to do so by then. The fact is, however, that no victories were waiting for the English Premier League leaders afterwards. They lost two meaningless matches in the end of the group stage, and bumped into Real Madrid in the round of 16. Everything went right in the first

match against the Spanish champions, and even better in the first 57 minutes of the return leg. Sir Alex Ferguson had calculated everything. As the first-leg score of 1-1 made a clean sheet more important than a scored goal, the wise Scott decided to emphasize on defending the score in expense of the attack. Even Wayne Rooney and the weekend hero Shinji Kagawa were left to sit on the bench. Ryan Giggs was supposed to help Rafael in containing Cristiano Ronaldo, while Nani and Danny Welbeck were the only ones to have the privilege of helping Robin van Persie in seldom counterattacks. Jose Mourinho’s team seemed to be out of ideas. And then it came the much-discussed expulsion of Nani and the Champions League train was suddenly gone.

The critics are right in pointing out Manchester United’s poor defense. The argument is that the team never reached top class in the back during the whole season. The lack of in-form central defenders costed the team a lot – the whole team had to concentrate on the defense to be sure of a clean sheet. This had nothing to do with the brand Manchester United of Alex Ferguson. Another thing is the disastrous football shown after the Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir’s famous action. A Champions League title candidate should be able to cope with the stress related to an expulsion and not give up so early.

Although fans can argue on the outcome of the Manchester United-Real tie, the fact is that it has gone terribly bad for Manchester United in the past two Champions Leagues. The domestic league situation is much better though.  

Valencia, Spain

8+4=2-2 14-8

Topscorers: Roberto Soldado, Jonas – 4 goals

After a quiet group stage, where the Spanish team easily earned a play-off place, the team had to show some big performance to overcome the hurdle of Paris Saint-Germain. The season had been one of the worst ones in the past years. The team was on the 11^th place of the Spanish league at some point. The coach Mauricio Pellegrino was substituted by Ernesto Valverde, but if the team started to climb higher in the domestic league table, nothing fantastic happened in the Champions League. The home match against PSG was a bad performance, with Valencia showing nothing else but a static defense and toothless attack. They were lucky to get a late goal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s ban for the return leg. The match in Paris had to decide everything for Valencia: either Soldado and Co. were scoring two, or leaving this elite company of European clubs. The half-time substitute Ever Banega added freshness to the match. The Argentine midfielder was good in linking the sleepy team members to each other. The result was the goal scored by Jonas on the 55^th minute. Anyway, the visitors couldn’t elaborate on this and even conceded an equalizer soon. They were never close to score the second one and send the game into extra time. The team became the first Spanish representative to leave the Champions League 2012-13.

Valencia has been a team depending on mood. Sometimes they would deliver some solid performance, but a quarterfinal would have been too much for a team creating almost no scoring chances in two matches of the round of 16.

Celtic, Glasgow, Scotland

8+3=1-4 9-13

Topscorer: Georgios Samaras – 3 goals

It was not expected for Celtic to qualify from the Champions League group ahead of Benfica and Spartak, but Neil Lennon’s boys stood together to win half of their matches, which, together with the draw against Benfica, was enough to move further within the tournament. The inspirational performance of the group stage, where the Scottish champions beat Barcelona among others, didn’t continue in the next round. Celtic received the solid Italian champions as a Champions League Play-off present. Juventus sank Celtic already after the first leg.

Of course, the team could have been luckier in a couple of situations in the beginning of the

match, but the difference between the levels had to emerge at some point. What became the most crucial element in this tie was Neil Lennon’s trust to Efe Ambrose, a Nigerian defender, who only two days before this important match had taken part in the victorious final match of the African Nations Cup. The obviously tired defender made several big mistakes to help the opponent score. There was also lack of class in the attack. The enormous press from the attackers, accompanied with the extraordinary support in the stadium, couldn’t break the Juve defense. The result was the humiliating 0-3 defeat, which turned the second leg into a formality.

Champions League will surely miss the Scottish fans, but the team they support was not the one to leave a mark in the Champions League play-off.

Shakhtar, Donetsk, Ukraine

8+3=2-3 14-13

Topscorer: Willian – 4 goals

One of the most attacking teams of the Champions League group stage had to give up after a couple of toothless performances in the Play-off. Shakhtar fans had serious reasons to think that after overplaying Champions League champions Chelsea in the group stage they would be able to eliminate the German champions. 

But it never happened. To say that Shakhtar failed to accomplish the mission because of not winning in the first leg would be wrong, but the Donetsk-match showed that Shakhtar had never found its autumn-form. Shakhtar defenders kept on making foolish mistakes; attackers were not enjoying themselves either. Dortmund found the weak zones of the Ukrainian team and kept on taking advantage of them. Razvan Rat’s left wing was trampled by the Germans. Even the experienced captain Dario Srna was vulnerable in his flank. Mircea Lucescu’s team appeared to be an out-of-form team, lacking ideas and match sense.

The Ukrainian league was in the middle of a 3-month winter break, the last day of which had to come only a couple of weeks after the first Champions league winter match. Eastern European clubs representing countries with awfully cold winters have this disadvantage. Only few exceptions can be remembered. This was the case with the Ukrainian champions, so experts linking this defeat to the transfer of Willian exaggerate the Brazilian’s role. The fact that Willian, one of the best Shakhtar players in the Champions League group stage, was not together with the team any more was important for Lucescu’s side, but not decisive.

It was a pleasure to watch Shakhtar in the group stage of the Champions League. There are lots of top-class players in the Ukrainian team. Fernandinho, Luiz Adriano, Douglas Costa, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Teixeira could easily play in higher-ranked European leagues. Shakhtar has to maintain its current stars, including the coach, to hope for better results in the next year. 

Read Part II