The
major matches of the week:
Tottenham-Arsenal: Wenger’s next season Champions
League hopes are crashing. Arsenal lost the important London derby and now
there is a difference of 5 points between Arsenal and another London team
Chelsea. The Champions League winners are on the 4th position. This
is the last position giving a ticket to Champions League next season. Arsene
Wenger’s players, as usual,
conceded two in the first half, and then scored only
one. They created several more chances, but didn’t take advantage of them. The
conceded goals were typical – stupid positional mistakes in the back, while the
scored goal came from Walcott’s free kick cross, which was met by Per Mertesacker’s
header.
One of the meaningless El Classicos of the last era
took place at Nou Camp last weekend. Barcelona is almost there to get the
Spanish League title and Real has already accepted the defeat in this front. The
Madrid team has the Champions League in focus this season. Jose Mourinho dreams
of taking the European trophy for the third time. They also kicked the
archrivals out from the national cup competition, so the third place in La Liga
can be forgiven by Real fans in the right circumstances. There were lots of
important profiles absent in the starting lineups. Other than Tito Vilanova,
Barcelona was missing Xavi and Puyol, while Real’s attacking force was taking a
rest before the important Champions League match against Manchester United. However,
as Leo Messi equalized after Benzema’s opener, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sami
Khedira appeared on the pitch. They helped Sergio Ramos to score the winner 8
minutes before the final whistle. The last minute episode, where the referee
didn’t appoint a penalty for an arguable foul against Adriano, will be
remembered for a long time. Barcelona players were clearly irritated by the
second defeat to Real in a row, so the emotions were set free. The result is
Barcelona’s goalkeeper Valdes’s expulsion. The difference between the two teams
is 13 points with only 12 matches to go.
The Serie A match between Napoli and Juventus was the
central match of the weekend, where the two main candidates of the Scudetto
2012-13 had to meet each other. The Turin side was 6 points ahead of Napoli
before the kick off. After a great first half, where Antonio Conte’s players
showed their power over the challengers, Napoli reshaped and started to control
the match. Some dangerous counterattacks were saved by great Gianluigi Buffon. Juventus
was absolutely all right with a point from Naples, so they were not hurrying to
score the winner, especially with such out-of-form forwards as Vucinic and
Giovinco. The topic of the match was the couple Chiellini-Cavani, who, despite
the nasty fight of 90 minutes, hugged each other and parted as good friends
after the final whistle. 1-1 after Chiellini’s and Inler’s goals, and Juventus has
got all the chances to defend the title this season.
Milan-Lazio was another big match of the matchday in
Italy. The battle was cancelled, as Lazio’s Antonio Candreva was dismissed on
the 17th minute. Milan, playing without the injured Mario Balotelli, managed to take the advantage
of an extra man by the end of the first half, thanks to Pazzini’s and Boateng’s
goals. The second half picture was not too much different. Milan was in charge
of the game, giving the visitors no chances to hope for a point. Giampaolo
Pazzini scored his second goal on the 60th minute, thus setting the final
score of 3-0. Allegri’s top-form team has surpassed Lazio and is in the top 3
now.
Highlights
of the week:
- Big matches Valencia–Levante
and Malaga-Athletico were overshadowed by Barcelona-Real supermatch. Unlike the
El Classico, these two matches chose no winner,
- Porto couldn’t win in a
big match in Lisabon, where Sporting made a huge favor to its biggest rivals
Benfica, taking a point from Porto. The champions are now two points behind
with 9 matches left.
The
upcoming weekend:
FA Cup quarterfinal between Manchester United and Chelsea
can become a consolation match between the midweek losers of the European club
tournaments. Another big match of the weekend is the Ruhr derby usually played
between two current Champions League teams Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund.
| Club | Last Matches | Next match | Position in the domestic league |
| Arsenal (England) | 03.03 Tottenham (A) 1-2 | 13.03 Bayern (A) | 5 |
| Man. Utd. (England) | 02.03 Norwich (H) 4-0 05.03 Real M. (H) 1-2 | 10.03 Chelsea (Cup) | 1 |
| FC Barcelona (Spain) | 02.03 Real M. (A) 1-2 | 09.03 Deportivo (H) | 1 |
| Real Madrid (Spain) | 02.03 Barcelona (H) 2-1 05.02 Man. United (A) 2-1 | 10.03 Celta (A) | 3 |
| Valencia (Spain) | 02.03 Levante (H) 2-2 06.03 PSG (A) 1-1 | 10.03 Athletic (A) | 5 |
| Malaga (Spain) | 03.03 Atletico (H) 0-0 | 09.03 Real Vallad. (A) | 4 |
| Bayern (Germany) | 03.03 Hoffenheim (A) 1-0 | 09.03 Fortuna D. (H) | 1 |
| Borussia D. (Germany) | 02.03 Hannover (H) 3-1 05.03 Shakhtar (H) 3-0 | 09.03 Schalke 04 (A) | 2 |
| Schalke 04 (Germany) | 02.03 Wolfsburg (A) 4-1 | 09.03 Borussia D. (H) | 6 |
| Porto (Portugal) | 02.03 Sporting L. (A) 0-0 | 08.03 Estoril (H) | 2 |
| Galatasaray (Turkey) | 02.03 Eskisehirspor (A)0-0 | 08.03 Genclerbirligi (H) | 1 |
| Juventus (Italy) | 01.03 Napoli (A) 1-1 06.03 Celtic (H) 2-0 | 10.03 Catania (H) | 1 |
| Milan (Italy) | 02.03 Lazio (H) 3-0 | 08.03 Genoa (A) | 3 |
| PSG (France) | 02.03 St. Reims (A) 0-1 06.03 Valencia (H) 1-1 | 09.03 Nancy (H) | 1 |
| Shakhtar D. (Ukraine) | 01.03 Volyn (H) 4-1 05.03 Borussia D. (A) 0-3 | 10.03 Vorskla (A) | 1 |
| Celtic (Scotland) | 02.03 St. Mirren (Cup) 2-1 06.03 Juventus (A) 0-2 | 09.03 Ross County (A) | 1 |
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