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

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.

First Germany took the

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.     

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

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 8^th 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 5^th 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.

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

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 14^th 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 93^rd minute and thus handing the title in to the winners, and then the same happened 4 days later, when the team lost its 7^th 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 26^th 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. 

Champions League 2012-13: One week to go

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.  

Club	Last Matches	Next match	Position in the domestic league
Bayern (Germany)	11.05 Augsburg (H) 3-0	18.05 Borussia M. (A)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	11.05 Wolfsburg (A) 3-3	18.05 Hoffenheim (H)	2

Champions League 2012-13: The week of the Borussia Dortmund-Bayern match

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.

Club	Last Matches	Next match	Position in the domestic league
Bayern (Germany)	04.05 Borussia D. (A) 1-1	11.05 Augsburg (H)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	04.05 Bayern (H) 1-1	11.05 Wolfsburg (A)	2

Champions League 2012-13: The week between the semifinals

 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 20^th and 70^th 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.

Club	Last Matches	Next match	Position in the domestic league
Bayern (Germany)	27.04 Freiburg (H) 1-0 01.05 Barcelona (A) 3-0	04.05 Borussia D. (A)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	27.04 Fortuna (A) 2-1 30.04 Real Madrid (A) 0-2	04.05 Bayern (H)	2

Champions League 2012-13: Before the second leg of the semifinals, Part II

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. 

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

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%.   

Champions League 2012-13: The week before the semifinals

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. 

Club	Last Matches	Next match	Position in the domestic league
FC Barcelona (Spain)	20.04 Levante (H) 1-0 23.04 Bayern (A) 0-4	27.04 Athletic (A)	1
Real Madrid (Spain)	20.04 Betis (H) 3-1 24.04 Borussia D. (A) 1-4	27.04 Atletico (A)	2
Bayern (Germany)	20.04 Hannover (A) 6-1 23.04 Barcelona (H) 4-0	27.04 Freiburg (H)	1
Borussia D. (Germany)	20.04 Mainz (H) 2-0 24.04 Real Madrid (H) 4-1	27.04 Fortuna (A)	2

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

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 86^th 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.

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.