Champions League 2012-13: Before the final, Part III

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 26^th 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 4^th 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 6^th 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.