Champions League 2012-13: Before the first leg of the semifinals, Part I

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 4^th 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.  

Champions League 2012-13: The week, when Bayern secured its place in the German Cup final

The week after the Champions League quarterfinals was meant to be an easy walk for the 4 teams remaining in the tournament. Bayern, Borussia, Barcelona and Real scored 22 goals in 5 matches altogether, conceding only twice.

The German champions 2012-13 tried their closest reserve and the reservers didn’t disappoint. The team scored four times, without conceding any. Boateng, Gomez, Rafinha and Shaqiri got their names on the scoresheet. Four days later the team had to play in the German Cup semifinal, which ended even worse for the opponents. Jupp Heynckes’s main heroes were on the pitch. Mandzukic, Robben and Shaqiri scored a goal each before Mario Gomez completed a phenomenal six-minute hat-trick 9 minutes after he had substituted Mandzukic. A truly magnificent result for the German international! Bayern is now in the final of the Cup competition, where the team will meet Stuttgart in the last match of the season. The three silver medals of the last season are getting closer and closer to changing their color into gold this season.

Borussia Dortmund, in comparison to Bayern, introduced its strongest lineup last Saturday, which totally destrpyed Greuther Furth, scoring five times already in the first half. Goetze and Gundogan scored twice, while Blaszczykowski and Lewandowski did it once to set the final score of 1-6. The team is 8 points above Bayer, so the second place looks pretty secure.

The two Spanish teams had to play their matches away at home. Both of them gave a rest to a couple of important players. In Barcelona’s case Alcantara and Tello shined, scoring all three goals of their team in the match against Zaragoza. Real won by the same 3-0. Crisitano Ronaldo did a brace to get a bit closer to Messi while the Argentine is out of game.

Because the domestic league intrigue is almost dead for the teams concerned, the teams might not be fully concentrated on their domestic matches. Bayern will play against Hannover in a match which doesn’t decide anything for the Munich-club. Jupp Heynckes might give a chance to younger players, not forgetting that the main stars will also need some practice before the important Champions League match against Barcelona. Borussia will host Mainz.

Real will host Betis before they travel to Dortmund. This is the most interesting match of the weekend. Betis is fighting for a place in Europe next season. Three points would be very important for them to enter the desired Europa League-zone. Three points wouldn’t harm Real either, as Atletico is only three points behind in the fight for the second place.   

Barcelona will host Levante before traveling to Munich. 

Club	Last Matches	Next match	Position in the domestic league
FC Barcelona (Spain)	14.04 Zaragoza (A) 3-0	20.04 Levante (H)	1
Real Madrid (Spain)	14.04 Athletic (A) 3-0	20.04 Betis (H)	2
Bayern (Germany)	13.04 Nurnberg (H) 4-0 17.04 Wolfsburg (Cup) 6-1	20.04 Hannover (A)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	13.04 Gr. Furth (A) 6-1	20.04 Mainz (H)	2

Champions League 2012-13: The week, when Bayern's clinched the Bundesliga title

So we are done with the quarterfinals and three more leagues are disappearing from our attention. Italy, Turkey and France lost their last Champions League participants. The best European leagues Spain and Germany are represented by their two best teams: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern and Borussia Dortmund will be our focus until two of them leave the competition. The semifinal draw doesn’t exclude the opportunity of a Champions League final with two clubs from the same league. Bayern will meet Barcelona and Borussia will host Reak before the German teams travel to Spain.

Unfortunately for neutral fans, the domestic intrigue related to the clubs concerned is dead. Barcelona is 13 points ahead of Real Madrid, which means that the Catalans need to win maximum 4 out of the 8 matches left, while Bayern has already officially confirmed the title. Real and Borussia are unlikely to lose the second place, as they have a solid advantage of points, are in good form and the main competitors are very unstable.

The news of the last weekend was, of course, Bayern’s title-bringing victory over Eintracht Frankfurt. The team needed two points in the last matches. Alternatively Borussia had to lose points in any of the 7 matches left. But Jupp Heynckes’s boys didn’t have the nerves to wait for the circumstances. They simply won their match, scoring only once, thanks to Bastian Schweinsteiger’s goal in the beginning of the second half. The team could have scored earlier, but David Alaba failed to convert a penalty in the first half. Bayern has become German champions for the 23^rd time in history and this is the first time a team becomes a Bundesliga champions so early in the season. This title returned to Munich after two years of break.

Borussia didn’t introduce its main players to the match against Augsburg, saving some energy before the Champions League second leg match against Malaga. But the final result didn’t suffer and the team won 4 goals by 2. The league topscorer Robert Lewandowski was brought in to save the team in the second half. The clinical Pole helped his team score three times in the second half. Lewandowski has scored 21 league goals this season.

Barcelona had to play without the injured topscorer Lionel Messi, who was missing for the first time in the season. The one to replace Messi wasn’t bad either. Cesc Fabregas scored three times, to help his team win by a score of 5-0. Messi is another league topscorer, who has scored twice as much as Lewandowski so far.

Real didn’t introduce the best eleven in the home match against Levante. The team conceded first, but was able to score the same 5 goals as Barcelona. Cristiano Ronaldo scored, too. The Portuguese has got 29 league goals registered next to his name.

The next matches will not be too tough either. Bayern will play its first match with the title of champions on hand. The team will host Nurnberg. The other teams will be in the role of visitors this weekend; Borussia will play against Greuther Furth, Barcelona will be hosted by Zaragoza, and Real will visit Athletic from Bilbao.

Club	Last Matches	Next match	Position in the domestic league
FC Barcelona (Spain)	06.04 R. Mallorca (H) 5-0 10.04 PSG (H) 1-1	14.04 Zaragoza (A)	1
Real Madrid (Spain)	06.04 Levante (H) 5-1 09.04 Galatasaray (A) 2-3	14.04 Athletic (A)	2
Bayern (Germany)	06.04 Eintracht (A) 1-0 10.04 Juventus (A) 2-0	13.04 Nurnberg (H)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	06.04 Augsburg  (H) 4-2 09.04 Malaga (A) 3-2	13.04 Gr. Furth (A)	2

Champions League 2012-13: The second leg of the quarterfinals, Part II

Bayern-Juventus 2-0

The match advertised as the most intriguing quarterfinal tie didn’t justify the expectations. The main problem of this was the visiting side. Juventus played the worst football ever under Antonio Conte’s management. The team made so many mistakes in simple passing, that Antonio Conte will probably send half of the team back to school to learn the basics.

Everything was meant to go wrong for the Italian champions and it was already clear after 25 seconds, when Juventus lost the ball stupidly and David Alaba’s warm-up shot was got deflected by Arturo Vidal and appeared in the back of the net. Juventus, believed to be a mentally strong team, tried to calm the match down, but never recovered from this blow. The score could have become much worse already in the first half, but the break came earlier than another goal. Juve’s brain Andrea Pirlo had one of his worst matches. The experienced midfielder didn’t seem to catch the tempo of the match. He was slow and his passes were incorrect.

The second half continued the way it developed in the first 45 minutes. If the defenders were more or less all right, the midfielders, commanded by Andrea Pirlo, failed totally. Finally the bad play got attracted on Gianluigi Buffon, who dropped the ball and brought the second goal in his net. The substitutions of Conte didn’t help and the team will have the toughest task of not conceding and scoring three goals at Juventus Stadium.

As for Bayern, the team organized some unbelievable pressing during 90 minutes of the match, thus making the opponent lose the ball occasionally. Other than this, the team found the weak sides of Juventus and utilized them. Most of the attacks came from the wings, especially from the right. As Kroos had to leave the pitch due to an injury, Robben took Mueller’s right wing and used Peluso’s wing comfortably. When not in the wings, Bayern players were shooting as soon as they were getting the ball in the center. Here is the reason why Mandzukic never got a real chance, but I don’t think the Croatian is too sad about that. He had a fine match being in the center of attention and managed to setup the second goal for Mueller. Jupp Heynckes did a great job, when “sleeping with the Old Lady” the previous night, as he said before the match.

Bayern’s pressing was the key and now the score of 2-0 gives the German team at least 90% chances to advance to the semifinals. The only possibility of beating Bayern is playing quick low football, which is not the main strength of Juventus. Bayern doesn’t even need any special tasks. The only mission is to somehow score a goal. Juventus will not score four for sure. Vidal and Lichtsteiner are going to miss the match due to suspensions. Bayern’s suspension Javi Martinez is going to be back, while Toni Kroos’s injury will not let him travel to Italy. Juventus will have 90 minutes to do what Borussia did in 1 minute last night.

PSG-Barcelona 2-2

The most interesting about the starting lineups was the appearance of David Beckham in the position of a defensive midfielder: the Englishman had to try something new in his 38^th year. But this is the trend in modern football nowadays – clever players with great vision and skillful passing play deep in the midfield. Ancelotti surprised, offering a brave attacking tactics against Barcelona. After boring matches against Valencia in the previous round it was nice to see that the nervousness and cautiousness were gone. It is always better to see a team, spending so much money on acquiring players, show attacking football rather than playing for the result.

Especially the first half of this Champions League quarterfinal was amazing, as PSG was competing with the visitors in creating good chances rather than sitting back and waiting for counterattack possibilities. Being secure of a cemented defense by Thiago Silva, Alex and brilliant passes from Beckham, Ibrahimovic was encouraging Pastore, Lavezzi and Lucas to bravely run forward and get the opener. These attacks were sometimes too quick for Barcelona to react, but Valdes, together with the post, made all these chances to come down to nothing in the first half. Things went a bit better on the other side of the pitch, as Lionel Messi managed to score his 8^th goal of the season’s Champions League. It was Daniel Alves who sent a magnificent high ball to the Argentine, cutting the opponent’s defense and letting the striker do his usual business.

As Messi was obliged to stop the play after the first half, Barcelona’s attacks didn’t look too dangerous any more. But PSG got tired, too. The pace they offered in the first half was too much for them. Not to decrease the pressure, Ancelotti introduced three new players instead of the most tired three. A tactical battle led to three scorings in the last 11 minutes of the match, generating a 2-2 draw and leaving the semifinalist’s question open before the match at Nou Camp.

PSG has to score to hope for an advancement. But it is difficult to guess the tactics Ancelotti will offer. Everyone knows how dangerous the Blaugrana are at home, so they would rather be watched out closely. A favorite counterattack strategy is not too bad to choose though, especially after the first match proved the superiority of PSG’s attacking pace over Barca’s defense. Important to notice, that one of the central defenders is going to be Bartra, an unexperienced defender, who helped the ball deflect before appearing in Valdes’s net on the last minute of the first leg match. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, despite making the day for PSG in that match, will still have his say at Nou Camp, if he wants his revenge to be complete. Tito Vilanova will have to think further how to beat the Brazilian defensive duo. A possibility is moving Villa closer to the offside trap exactly as in the home match against Milan. Anyway, this is going to be an epic match, where Barcelona is in a threat of being outplayed and eliminated. There are going to be big problems in Barcelona defense with Macherano and Puyol absent. Messi’s participation is still a question. PSG will have nothing to lose, as no one is going to blame them for a loss, of course if that loss is not a 0-4.

After the incredible support the home sides received on Tuesday, it is now the turn of Italian and Spanish fans to assist their favorite teams in reaching the semifinals.   

Champions League 2012-13: The first leg of the quarterfinals, Part I

The four quarterfinal ties are entering the second leg, where the teams know each other better, and it is time to act, at least for some of the teams planning to reach the Champions League semifinals this season. The four matches generated only 9 goals, which is typical for first legs. The most interesting is to follow.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal was the best out of these 9 goals, although Messi’s goal could be a good competitor, considering Daniel Alves’s fantastic pass.

Burak Yilmaz has probably played his last match in this Champions League, as he is suspended for the second leg and a semifinal ticket doesn’t look likely for his team to earn. So the Turkish international is now sharing the second place with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, both having scored 8 goals in 9 matches. The sole topscorer is Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 9 times in his 9 matches.

There are no changes in the table showing the leagues participating in this Champions League. Spain and Germany add points to their account.

	League	Pts.
1 (-)	Spain (3)	65
2 (-)	Germany (2)	51
3 (-)	England (0)	39
4 (+1)	Italy (1)	29
5 (-1)	Portugal (0)	27
6 (-)	France (1)	25
7 (-)	Ukraine (0)	16
8 (-)	Turkey (1)	14
9 (-)	Romania (0)	10
10 (-)	Scotland (0)	10
11 (-)	Russia (0)	10
12 (-)	Greece (0)	9
13 (-)	Belarus (0)	6
14 (+1)	Belgium (0)	5
15 (-1)	Netherlands (0)	4
16 (+1)	Croatia (0)	1
17 (-1)	Denmark (0)	1

The biggest losers of the club ranking are the Italian champions Juventus, who haven’t got lots of chances to overcome Bayern’s hurdle after a toothless first leg. Real and Bayern are confidently leading the table, followed by Barcelona, who returns to Nou Camp with a good away result of 2-2. Borussia is still better in the ranking, though Malaga is now closer after a solid score of 0-0 in the first match. PSG will have some chances to reach the semifinals, unlike Juventus and Galatasaray occupying the last two places in the ranking.

RANKING AFTER THE FIRST LEG OF QUARTERFINALS

Place	Club
1 (-)	Real Madrid (Spain)
2(+1)	Bayern (Germany)
3 (-1)	FC Barcelona (Spain)
4 (-)	Borussia D. (Germany)
5 (+2)	Malaga (Spain)
6 (-)	PSG (France)
7 (-2)	Juventus (Italy)
8(-)	Galatasaray (Turkey)

The most predictable of all, Real-Galatasaray quarterfinal tie produced three goals: all of them were scored by Real players.

Fatih Terim knew the defense was the weakness of his team, so the experienced manager had to push forward and get a goal scored. Having many experienced European scale players in the squad, it was clear that the team wasn’t nervous against the Spanish giant. Galatasaray’s performance can therefore be called brave, but it never got successful. Didier Drogba, together with Emmanuel Eboue, was trying to lead the team to threatening attacks. The Ivorians tried to create problems for Real, but the hosts were getting more and more confident in containing the visitors. Varane got used to Drogba’s style, Eboue got dug in defensive responsibilities, Burak Yilmaz was not given the space he needed, Altintop had a bad match, and Sneijder was substituted after the first half. Terim was trying to avoid more conceded goals after the break.

Mourinho surprised, introducing Micheal Essien in a right defender’s position. The match showed that the Ghanaian was there to assist his side’s attacks from the righ. Having Eboue’s threat from the left, the Portuguese manager had decided to leave Fabio Coentrao alone with his defensive responsibilities and concentrate on right-wing attacks. Other than this, Real’s midfielders not surprisingly outplayed their Turkish fellows, with Ronaldo and Benzema winning half of the battles in Galatasaray’s penalty box. Three scored goals after Oezil’s, Essien’s and Xabi Alonso’s crosses were a good assessment to Real’s dominance over Galatasaray.

The conclusion is that Real had a very good match, with all players actively taking part in it, but no one needed to rush the incidents or make an extra effort. Galatasaray was trying to deliver the surprise. The team even exceeded Real in ball possession, but the opponent was too rational.

There is not much to discuss about the return leg. Real is a team that has scored in all Champions League matches this season, and Galatasaray is not the team to score five, or even three to this Real. The fact that Burak Yilmaz will be suspended for this match doesn’t make the things better, so Terim and assistants, all sent off in their last league match, will have it hard, if not impossible, to find a functional solution on their problem. Both of the teams had good matches during the weekend. Some of the players were given a rest ahead of the Champions League clash, though the teams won their matches, with Galatasaray getting closer to the championship, and Real strengthening its positions on the second place. The news of the match is the likely return of Iker Casillas.

Malaga and Borussia have knowledge about each other now, though the lack of this knowledge never prevented them from demonstrating good football in the first match. Borussia, the favorites to advance to the semifinals from this couple, were closer to open the score, as Juergen Klopp’s side took the advantage of pressing throughout the pitch. The team was using Robert Lewandowski’s skills to open space for partners, in particular Goetze and Reus. Especially Goetze has to blame himself for the zeroes on the scoreboard. He lost all of his duels to Malaga’s goalkeeper Willy. The score of 0-0 assumes that Malaga’s attack wasn’t good either. The team never found the way to feed Isco and Joaquin, who stayed anonymous throughout the match.      

It will not be a big surprise if we see Malaga defending massively during the whole match. But this is surely not going to be the same as the match in Porto, when the team lost and got criticized for boring football. Pellegrini is experienced enough to understand that ultra-defensive tactics in such matches is equal to death. Teams can be unlucky and concede one and never be able to change a defensive mindset into an attacking. The fact that Borussia has scored in all but 4 matches this season means that a scored goal by Malaga looks to be a must in any case. However, if any of the teams would be set for extra time and penalties, it would be Malaga - a team with a lower status and little chances to win the tie. Borussia’s task is not going to be easy either. The fact that they didn’t use any of their goalscoring chances in the first match will make it riskier for them to attack. Considering the suspension of two important Malaga players Weligton and Iturra, Borussia has got 75% chances to appear in the semifinals. Another leader Eliseu has just started to train again, so his name might be on the list on Tuesday evening.  

The teams showed that Champions League success is the main target of the season, as they left their strongest players on the bench on Saturday. Especially Malaga had to stand up for a fight to enter the Champions League next season. The team lost to Real Sociedad after a disastrous flight to San Sebastian, when the plane was struck by thunder three times before the plane had to prepare for an emergency landing. The bad mood in the team continued as the manager Manuel Pellegrini had to leave for Chile to say the last goodbye to his father. He has to find his way to Dortmund by the match kick off. Finding themselves in such circumstances Malaga players will do everything possible not to lose in a match deciding whether the season was successful or not.  

Champions League 2012-13: The week of Derby d'Italia

The major matches of the week:

Although there were no serious problems to solve in the Derby d’Italia between Inter and Juventus, the rivals were more than motivated to beat each other. Juventus, having an eye on the upcoming Champions League quarterfinal match, was believed to be less interested in wasting energy at Giuseppe Meazza, but already the first minutes showed how important it was for the Italian champions to take a revenge for team’s first ever loss at Juventus Stadium.

Antonio Conte had thrown the main powers into the pitch, with the only unusual appearance in the starting lineup being Padoin instead of Lichtsteiner. Asamoah was called to play in the opposite wing. The attacking duo was comprised of Quagliarella and Matri. The two communicated greatly, to create two goals and help the champions leave the city of Milan in the winner’s role. There was a period in the second half, when Stramaccioni’s team seemed to be getting back into the game. They even equalized, but the Old Lady killed Inter’s enthusiasm with the second goal on the 60^th minute. Juventus’s goalkeeper and central defenders had a very strong match, too.     

PSG had to host the defending champions Montpellier before Barcelona’s arrival. Carlo Ancelotti left Beckham and Lucas on the bench. The Englishman, together with Kevin Gameiro, came on later in the match, as the score still had to be opened. They helped the team score the only goal 9 minutes before the end.  Although PSG had created the best chances, it is difficult to agree that the league leaders earned a fully deserved victory. With the league ending in 8 matchdays, PSG has to maintain the advantage of 7 points over Marseille. It shouldn’t be too early to say, that PSG triumphed over Montpellier, symbolically taking the crown away from the title holders.   

   

Highlights of the week:

-                      Lionel Messi has now scored in 19 league matches. A flat calendar means that all La Liga teams were ought to take the ball off the net after Messi’s shots. The sequence started in the match against Mallorca, the team Barcelona meets this weekend.  Seven out of the top eight teams in the league tied their matches, so Malaga was the winner of the 29^th matchday. The team is now only one point away from the 4^th place, which gives a chance to participate in the Champions League 2013-14. The two leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid are separated by a gap of 13 points. Both of the teams will have relatively easy weekends, hosting Mallorca and Levante respectively.

-                      Bayern delivered the most extraordinary result of the European football season. The team scored whole 9 goals to demolish the opponent Hamburger. Interesting to notice: 4 of these 9 goals were authored by Claudio Pizarro, a man, not even being a part of Jupp Heynckes’s Champions League plans. After this sensational win Bayern needs 2 points in 7 matches to be crowned German champions. The second-placed Borussia had a tough match, but Lewandowski managed to score the winning goal 7 minutes before the final whistle.

-                      Thanks to Burak Yilmaz’s brace, Galatasaray won its match last weekend and is very close to defending the champion’s title. The difference of 4 points creates a chance for Fatih Terim’s team to make the title official already this Sunday, when rivals Fenerbahce will play their 28^th match. There are three matchdays left in the Turkish league.

The upcoming weekend:

All the eight teams play their matches on Saturday, the 6^th of April. The main battle for the 4^th Spanish Champions League ticket will take place among Malaga, Real Sociedad and Valencia. The first two will meet each other this Saturday, which makes Malaga’s calendar overloaded before the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal battle.

As mentioned earlier, Bayern is probably going to become Bundesliga winner on Saturday. A win is enough for this to happen. But even no points can return the title to Munich in case Borussia doesn’t win its match against outsiders Augsburg. 

Club	Last Matches	Next match	Position in the domestic league
FC Barcelona (Spain)	30.03 Celta (A) 2-2 02.04 PSG (A) 2-2	06.04 R. Mallorca (H)	1
Real Madrid (Spain)	30.03 Real Zarag. (A) 1-1 03.04 Galatasaray (H) 3-0	06.04 Levante (H)	2
Malaga (Spain)	30.03 Rayo Vallec. (A) 3-1 03.04 Borussia (H) 0-0	06.04 Real Sociedad (A)	5
Bayern (Germany)	30.03 Hamburger (H) 9-2 02.04 Juventus (H) 2-0	06.04 Eintracht (A)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	30.03 Stuttgart (A) 2-1 03.04 Malaga (A) 0-0	06.04 Augsburg  (H)	2
Galatasaray (Turkey)	30.03 Istanbul BB (H) 2-0 03.04 Real Madrid (A) 0-3	06.04 Mersin (H)	1
Juventus (Italy)	30.03 Inter (A) 2-1 02.04 Bayern (A) 0-2	06.04 Pescara (H)	1
PSG (France)	29.03 Montpellier (H) 1-0 02.04 Barcelona (H) 2-2	06.04 St. Rennais (A)	1

Champions League 2012-13: Before the first leg of the quarterfinals, Part II

Real Madrid and Galatasaray generate the most uneven tie of the Champions League 2012-13 quarterfinals. The most interesting about this clash is that the two Champions League topscorers Cristiano Ronaldo and Burak Yilmaz are going to meet each other. Real and Mourinho are getting ready to part from each other. The Portuguese coach lifted the class of the team to win everything possible at home, outplay Barcelona, and become one of the main title candidates in Champions League. But the spell will not be complete without the prestigious European trophy. Considering the fact that Real has lost the hope to win the domestic league, the reason they play football this spring is only winning the Champions League. The team doesn’t lack anything. They have only top class players in their squad. The form they are in lets them hope for the best.

Galatasaray is, on the other hand, the weakest team left in the tournament. Although the team acquired Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder last winter, Fatih Terim hasn’t had more resources to build a higher-level team. They do well at home, being very close to the league title, and they could have been a strong favorite to win the Europa League, but the round of 16 and quarterfinals of the Champions League are the limit for the Turkish champions.  

Real had the strongest opponent in the round of 16, when only the last 30 minutes of the second leg match decided the destiny of the quarterfinal tickets. It is difficult to say how the match would develop if not Nani’s expulsion, but Mourniho’s side had not much to demonstrate before this. Manchester United had accurately blocked all the roads leading to its goals, so Real was wandering around and thinking about a solution. Probably we would see some open football, as Real showed in the last minutes of the opening match against Manchester City back in September. But now they suddenly had to finish the job started by the Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir. And they were great in this. Mourinho sent Luka Modric into the battle, thus making the most correct decision ever. The Croatian immediately took the ball and illustrated some great vision only Pirlo can boast. He scored, too. The rest of the match after Ronaldo’s 69^th minute goal was just about waiting for the final whistle.    

Galatasaray had also registered a 1-1 score at home and had to play better in the second leg. As it usually happens in the matches with Galatasaray, there are lots of attacks organized by both sides. Schalke scored first, but the pressure from the Turkish side was too strong to stand. The quarterfinalist was decided on the 37^th minute, when the extramotivated Hamit Altintop scored from a free-kick and destroyed the mood in his former club. Fatih Terim’s side took the advantage of this and scored the second very soon. The second half task was about not conceding twice. With Schalke 04 being in a bad form and missing some crucial players, this was not too tough to do. Schalke scored one, but they could not do more. Especially useful were Drogba’s defensive skills obtained in the last year’s Champions League.

Altintop has to score against another of his former clubs. But Real is unlucky to enter a turbulent fight with Galatasaray. They will probably try to take the ball and block every move of Sneijder, Drogba and Yilmaz. At least two of them are more than familiar to Mourniho, so this is not going to be hard to do. Conceding is forbidden unless Ronaldo scores a hat-trick. Galatasaray will have huge problems in defense, which hasn’t been great against weaker opponents either. The only chance Galatasaray has got is to listen to Drogba’s legends about Chelsea’s heroic defending against Barcelona and Bayern last year. Let’s see how good the Turkish players are in this.    

Malaga and Borussia are the last participants of the quarterfinals. As in Real’s case, Borussia has got nothing left to fight for in the domestic league, so the advancement in Champions League is the target of the season. The same can be told about Malaga, although the team will still need to secure a place in the next season’s Champions League. Both of the teams are capable of showing some great performance, but great performance means something completely different for these teams. Borussia is a team with a strong accent on attack, while Malaga will never attack if the defensive problems are not solved.

Borussia’s attacking characteristics were brightly demonstrated against Shakhtar in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16. Here Lewandowski played a fantastic match, opening space for teammates and asking for passes from them. Dortmund found the weakest points in opponent’s defense and simply utilized them. Especially impressive was the way they attacked from the right wing.

Malaga had a different type of a match after they had lost 0-1 in Portugal. The Portuguese side had no intentions to go forward and score. After half an hour of introduction, Malaga understood that luck is not the best friend to trust. They started to act. A goalless score would be too hard to break in the second half, as Porto was determined to continue with the defensive tactics. But the pressure worked out. Malaga took the initiative for the first time during 120 minutes of the two-match tie, and got rewarded. First they were stolen a clear goal on the 39^th minute, but Isco’s wonder strike was too good not to stand. The half-time speeches of the coaches were now changed. The teams were still not eager to run forward until the 49^th minute dismissal of Steven Defour. And then it got easier for Malaga. The final score was 2-0 – enough for a quarterfinal place.

Now because the match is in Malaga, the teams have to show something different from what they are good in. Malaga has to attack and Borussia will need to defend. But Borussia is very good in counterattacks, having quick players like Reus, Goetze and the Polish trio Piszczek-Blaszczykowski-Lewandowski. Borussia is not the team to defend for the whole match, so Malaga’s Isco and Joaquin will surely create some chances, but the most important for Pellegrini’s team will be not conceding. I don’t think Klopp will have anything against a draw in Spain. The answers to the main questions are going to be given in Dortmund, so let’s watch how the ground for that second-leg match is going to be built.  

Champions League 2012-13: Before the first leg of the quarterfinals, Part I

The eight matches of the Champions League Round of 16 second leg were full of beautiful football and

drama. Big clubs like Milan, Manchester United and Porto, who together have won the Champions League 12 times, former vice-champions Celtic, Valencia, Arsenal and former UEFA Cup winners Shakhtar and Schalke 04 all will not be a part of Champions League 2012-13 any longer. But stronger teams are left in the tournament. Out of the 8 teams only Juventus and Borussia are

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

Read Part I

Milan, Italy

8+3=2-3 9-10

Topscorers: Stephan El Shaarawy, Alexandre Pato – 2 goals

The only team among the round of 16 losers, leaving the tournament with a negative score balance is the Italian Milan. Massimiliano Allegri’s team had an awful start in the season. They were not only far from the top of the table in the Serie A, but also not secure of qualifying from the Champions League group stage. The team never showed any great football to remind the glorious days of the past. The luck was there, as the main contenders for the next round were the