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
Russian champions Zenit, a team in an even deeper crisis.
Russian champions Zenit, a team in an even deeper crisis.
The Play-off opponent had to be Barcelona, a team
Allegri’s Milan met in the quarterfinals of the Champions League 2011-12 and
lost. Milan hadn’t made any conclusions after that tie. After a remarkable
first leg match, where Milan was believed to be the first team to outplay Barcelona
in many years, the team lost disgracefully in the return leg. They were frightened
and nervous, as a year ago. Barcelona was of course dazzling, but Milan was
probably under the influence of the journalists smelling Barcelona’s big fall.
The team had so many problems in that match, and in this Champions League overall,
as if the 2-0 win over Barcelona was a lucky coincidence. Had they been drawn
against a weaker side or won by a smaller margin in the first leg, the
situation could have been different. But this is Champions League, a tournament
Milan has won whole 7 times, so the team should have known, that only one good
match is not enough to make noise.
Milan will have no competitors if the most
unpredictable team in Champions League history is to be announced. How many
times has the team won the trophy after having been written off earlier in the
tournament, and how many times has the team delivered disastrous results when
it was expected to win. To the black pages of 2004, when Milan was eliminated by
Deportivo even after the 4-1 win in the first leg, and 2005, when the team lost
the final to Liverpool after winning 3-0 before the second half, 2013 is added.
Now the team has become the first ever Champions League participant to get
eliminated after a 2-0 home win. They were close to demolish an advantage of
4-0 last year, but Arsenal could only score 3.
We will surely see a stronger Milan next year; as for
now, let’s enjoy Mexes’s incredible goal against Anderlecht, which has been the
most beautiful scoring in the Champions League 2012-13 so far.
Schalke 04, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
8+3=4-1 13-10
Topscorer: Klaas Jan Huntelaar – 4 goals
The group B winners Schalke 04 were one of the few
unbeaten teams in this Champions League. Galatasaray’s last-minute goal not
only defeated the German team for the first time, but also sent it out of the
prestigious tournament.
The Gelsenkirchen team had a fantastic spell in the
beginning of the season. They won their Champions League group, beating Arsenal
in London, and were occupying top places in the domestic league, where they won
plenty of matches, including the one against rivals Borussia Dortmund. But
something went wrong as soon as the team won the crucial Champions League match
against Olympiacos, to secure a place in the next round. This victory in a
chilly November evening became the last one in 2012 and made the board look
for
a substitute for Huub Stevens. Jens Keller started to build a new team, selling
the leader and most promising player Lewis Holtby to Tottenham. The fee for the
transaction is believed to be less than 2 million Euros, while the player is
estimated to be worth more than 10.
The elimination of Schalke 04 had a lot to do with the
appointment of a new coach, who didn’t have manage to prepare the team for the
matches against Galatasaray. The first match was more or less satisfactory, but
the team was not able to demonstrate strength to overcome the Turkish hurdle.
Huntelaar, Jones and Holtby, all missing for different reasons, were
irreplaceable. Michel Bastos and Julian Draxler needed better partners in the
attack than the Finnish forward Pukki. The profiles thrown to save the match in
the dying minutes were Max Meyer and Chinedu Obassi – players with respectively
4 and 2 season appearances. What on Earth would this team do in Champions
League quarterfinals?
Porto, Portugal
8+5=1-2 11-6
Topscorer: Jackson Martinez – 3 goals
Being drawn in a more or less easy group, Porto didn’t
have to stretch to qualify for the Champions League Play-off. The team
impressed in a couple of matches, proving that leaving stars are not a big
problem. Hulk and Guarin were gone, but James Rodriques and Jackson Martinez
were here to replace them this season.
Vitor Pereira’s team became famous for rocky defense
and clever attacks: exactly as their play-off opponents Malaga. So it was not
strange to see similar football in two legs, where the teams showed
complimentary football, synchronically changing from home into away tactics and
vice versa. Porto was the favorite to qualify for the quarterfinals after the first
leg win. There were already opinions that the Portuguese
champions were one of
the most unpleasant opponents for big clubs in quarterfinals. But Malaga
appeared to win 2-0 and eliminate Porto.
This was a surprisingly defensive tactics by Vitor
Pereira, who had all the resources to go on and score. But it is always easy to
judge after the match. The match could have gone either way if not Defour’s
poor judgment of the situation. His challenges were not always legal in the
first half either, but the referee got tired of those in the beginning of the
second half. Moutinho’s substitution after the first half was probably dictated
by his injury. Otherwise Joao and most of his teammates had a match of their
normal standard. An unlucky day for Porto, stupid actions by Defour and lack of
risk in coach’s decisions determined Porto’s destiny in this Champions League.
But we will still miss this team and look forward to
their new breakthrough stars over and over again.
Arsenal, London, England
8+4=1-3 13-11
Topscorer: Lukas Podolski – 4 goals
For the first time in many years Arsenal manager
Arsene Wenger has been under fire from the beginning of the season. Things
didn’t go well in the Premier League. Luckily for the Frenchman, the Champions
League group was not the toughest. But the home loss to Schalke 04 was crucial
for the first-place battle, so Arsenal received a stronger side as an opponent than
it could have hoped having won the group.
Bayern took the game under control from the very beginning.
Arsenal, as it has become a tradition for the team this season, conceded twice
in the first half. The second half pressure was not enough to save the match.
The score 1-3 was already close to death, but the English side went to Munich
and surprised
everyone. Periodically fascinating football against the relaxed
Bayern earned them a victory of 2-0 away at home. Especially beautiful was the
first goal. Not every quarterfinalist can organize such quick one-touch attacks
and surprise Bayern. Such a victory would be more than enough to go on to the
next round in many occasions. But Arsenal needed the third goal, and it never
came. Arsenal left the tournament heads high, as they did last year, when they
had spoiled everything already in the first leg, losing to Milan 0-4, and won
3-0 in the return match.
It is probably time for Arsene Wenger to take a break
or find a superstar able to substitute the big departures every year. Van
Persie was substituted by Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski, but none of them became
any closer to the Flying Dutchman. But if this topic can still be discussed
further, the topics about Arsenal’s goalkeepers and defenders are closed.
Everybody agrees that the play in the back has been too far from the Champions
league standards.
No comments:
Post a Comment