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.  

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.