“It doesn’t get much tougher than a trip to the European champions, and in Milan Harry Redknapp has to prove that he is a competent tactician at the very highest level. Here are five key points to consider.” (itv)
“Back from a short holiday! Totally refreshed and ready to pick up the pace of a determining phase of the season. The coming months will see which jump starts will turn out to be true overachievers and which slow starts will prove a lost year to the club. Picking up the action I’ve missed starts with last week’s midweek UEFA Champions League (UCL) action. Match day 2 of the UCL saw Ajax face AC Milan at home, with the hosts aiming for their first points after a disappointing performance away at Real Madrid in their first UCL match in four years. Milan did win their UCL opening match against Auxerre, albeit trough a rather narrow 2-0 victory with two Ibrahimovic goals shortly after the hour-mark.” (11 tegen 11)
“Dame N’Doye scored the first, created the second, and Gilberto Silva received two yellow cards for fouling him twice. Nikos Nioplias selected his usual 4-2-3-1 formation. Gilberto Silva dropped into a centre-back position alongside Josu Sarriegi, leaving Kostas Katsouranis playing just ahead of Simao in the centre of midfield. Luis Garcia started in a central playmaker position.” (Zonal Marking)
“Schalke eventually found a way past Benfica, in a game between two sides lacking confidence. Schalke played a 4-3-1-2 / 4-4-2 diamond system, with Raul dropping off Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Jefferson Farfan was the midfielder with most inclination to get out wide.” (Zonal Marking)
“Below are video highlights for all the UEFA Champions League group stage matches on September 29, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
“Smash and grab – Javier Hernandez’s late goal settled a tight contest. Valencia were without Joaquin, so fielded a fluid Mata-Pablo-Dominguez trio behind Roberto Soldado, who started ahead of Aritz Aduriz. Jeremy Mathieu was preferred to Jordi Alba at left-back. Manchester United were without Wayne Rooney, which made it an easy decision to start with a 4-5-1 (indeed, it would have been interesting what Sir Alex Ferguson would have done if Rooney had been available. Michael Carrick and Anderson’s returns from injury were timed well in the absence of Paul Scholes, whilst Rio Ferdinand replaced Jonny Evans.” (Zonal Marking)
Samuel Eto’o
“Samuel Eto’o put Werder Bremen to the sword as Inter Milan delivered a lesson in clinical finishing at the San Siro tonight. The Cameroon striker scored a hat-trick and the influential Wesley Sneijder was also on target as the Champions League holders showed they are still a force to be reckoned with despite the departure of Jose Mourinho.” (ESPN)
“Below are video highlights for all the UEFA Champions League group stage matches on Tuesday, September 28, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
“An entertaining first half, a much less interesting second half, and a point apiece. Ajax maintained the 4-3-3 shape they used in the 2-2 draw with Twente, making one change – Demy de Zeeuw replaced the ineffectual Rasmus Lindgren, with Eyong Enoh dropping into a deeper midfield position.” (Zonal Marking)
Cornelis van Poelenburgh, Landscape with Roman Ruins
“Chelsea are onto six points after a victory over Marseille that was in doubt for longer than it should have been.
Carlo Ancelotti made two changes from the side that lost to Manchester City at the weekend. Ramires, who had a poor game, was left out in favour of Yuri Zhirkov, whilst Gael Kakuta was in for Didier Drogba, who is serving his traditional start-of-season Champions League suspension.” (Zonal Marking)
“As the Champions League grows and grows, must it follow that domestic leagues sacrifice their native characteristics? Leave aside Spain, where Barcelona breeds its own, inimitable style, and the answer might be that we are rushing toward uniformity. The top matches in England, Germany and Italy over the weekend were all of a type. Manchester City, bankrolled by Abu Dhabi sheiks, beat Chelsea, owned by a Russian oligarch, by a solitary goal.” (NYT)
“Ajax’much awaited return to the Champions League turned out to be a big deception in their first Group Stage match against the stars of Real Madrid. Although the final 2-0 score-line made it look like a football match, it was in fact a very one-sided affair. Real dominated all areas of the pitch, creating an impressive number of 33 goal-scoring chances and if it was not for Maarten Stekelenburg’s excellent goalkeeping, Ajax would never have come away with only two goals conceded.” (11 tegen 11)
“With the Champions League opener drawing near, it seems only fair to cover the team I glossed over in my main Champions League preview piece. After hours of trawling through many Slovakian websites (some not exactly kosher to my eye) and some Champions League highlights, let me attempt to give Chelsea fans the low-down on their unknown away day to the home of the Slovakian League Champions.” (6 Pointer)
“Bayern dominated the game from start to finish, but it took a superb Thomas Müller goal to break the deadlock. Bayern lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 shape. Hamit Altintop started on the left in the absence of Franck Ribery, whilst Ivica Olic was the lone forward. Roma played a conservative, narrow 4-4-2 formation with Francesco Totti and Marco Borriello upfront. Aleandro Rosi made a rare start at right-back, so Marco Cassetti played on the left. Matteo Brighi was used in a right-sided midfield role.” (Zonal Marking)
“Cometh the hour, cometh the man … James Richardson returns for a new weekly look at all things football across the continent (Guardian – James Richardson)
“For the first time in 18 years, PSV has to settle for Europa League (former UEFA Cup) football for two consecutive seasons. And despite 12 Champions League participations in these 18 years, they’ve only passed the group stage three times, with a Hiddink-managed side reaching the semi-finals of 2004/05 as their best result.” (11 tegen 11)
“Barcelona had another scare, but hit back to record a convincing victory. The home side weren’t taking any chances after their shock weekend defeat to another Greek big name, Hercules. Pep Guardiola named his strongest side, bringing back Carles Puyol, Daniel Alves, Xavi Hernandez, Pedro Rodriguez and Sergio Busquets, playing a vague 4-3-3 system.” (Zonal Marking)
“Ajax’much awaited return to the Champions League turned out to be a big deception in their first Group Stage match against the stars of Real Madrid. Although the final 2-0 score-line made it look like a football match, it was in fact a very one-sided affair. Real dominated all areas of the pitch, creating an impressive number of 33 goal-scoring chances and if it was not for Maarten Stekelenburg’s excellent goalkeeping, Ajax would never have come away with only two goals conceded.” (11tegen11)
“The Rossoneri started their UEFA Champions League campaign with a group stage match against French side AJ Auxerre on Wednesday, September 15, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
Real Madrid 2-0 Ajax Amsterdam – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League – 15 September 2010
“Jose Mourinho led Real Madrid for the first time in the UEFA Champions League as they began the group stage with a home match against Ajax Amsterdam on Wednesday, September 15, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
Arsenal 6-0 Sporting Braga – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League – 15 September 2010
“Arsenal hosted Portuguese side Sporting Braga in their opening UEFA Champions League match of the group stage on Wednesday, September 15, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
MSK Zilina 1-4 Chelsea – Video Highlights, Recap, and Match Stats – Champions League – 15 September 2010
“Chelsea traveled to Slovakia to face MSK Zilina in their first UEFA Champions League group stage match on Wednesday, September 15, 2010.” (The 90th Minute)
“Below are video highlights for all of the group stage matches in the UEFA Champions League on September 15.” (The 90th Minute)
“Rafael Benitez had an unconvincing beginning to his Inter Milan Champions league career as his side were held in Holland. Former Liverpool boss Benitez took over from Jose Mourinho, now with Real Madrid, but the Spaniard’s bid to retain the Champions League title won by his Portuguese predecessor did not get off to the best of starts even if there was a goal for Dutchman Wesley Sneijder in his home country.” (ESPN)
Barcelona 5 – 1 Panathinaikos
“A Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona recovered from the shock of going a goal down against Panathinaikos to get their Champions League campaign off to a convincing start at Camp Nou. Panathinaikos took the lead against the run of play through Sidney Govou in the 20th minute but Barca hit back in merciless fashion to take a 3-1 lead by half-time through two goals from the irrepressible Messi and another from David Villa.” (ESPN)
Fergie’s gamble backfires in stalemate
“It is becoming an unfortunate habit. For the second time in four days, Manchester United were held to a potentially costly draw. For the second time in four days, Sir Alex Ferguson’s selection was questionable. Whereas the 3-3 at Everton was an early candidate for game of the season, this was the antithesis. Utterly devoid of incident, it was nonetheless a non-event that had significance. A failure to win perhaps the most winnable game in the group stage can have repercussions; so, too, can an inability to top the pool.” (ESPN)
“Europe’s premier footballing competition once again welcomed the officials of the elite clubs across the continent to the Grimaldi Forum, for what is quickly becoming the most comedic and most drawn out football draw ever . Even I would welcome Jim Rosenthal into the proceedings in an attempt to make it a little bit quicker than Ben Hur. The faux-drama of the event was astounding whilst the Inter players who won the club awards looked uninterested at the format. Meanwhile Gary Lineker was called upon to pick letters, a task he seemed utterly bemused by continually picking out Group C. Conspiracy? No of course not, just coincidence.” (6 Pointer), (Group E-H)
“The football in the CONCACAF Champions League is like Latin American food, low quality but lots of it. In comparison to Europe or South America, CONCACAF is definitely a poor relation. So why am I writing about it, and more importantly why should you read about it? From the tattoo of Che of Maradona’s arm to Emilio Médici linking Brazil’s World Cup win in 1970 to his military dictatorship, football and politics in Latin America are joined at the hip. The CONCACAF region pits the very richest against some of the poorest nations in world football, and more often than not the poor ones win, for the time being at least.” (In Bed with Maradona)
“The competition’s anthem is a stirring call to arms, a signature tune for excellence and, as Spurs fans will soon appreciate, the opening bars to an extraordinary symphony conducted with a baton of iron by Uefa. Briefly deemed under the sway of greedy clubs, the Champions League is now utterly ruled by Michel Platini, the Uefa president.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
“Bremen were the better side and looked to be sailing through to the group stage, but their loss of concentration might come back to haunt them. The game was an interesting match-up in terms of formations – Bremen played a 4-3-1-2 / 4-4-2 diamond system, with Aaron Hunt shuttling across the pitch into wide areas, hoping to impress after the departure of Mesut Oezil.” (Zonal Marking)
“Wednesday is here, and time for the EPL Talk team to tackle the strength of the league. No league in the world has the kind of depth the Premier League has four through eight. Today, Laurence McKenna, Kartik Krishnaiyer and myself talk about Aston Villa, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Tottenham and pick which teams will miss-out on Europe and which team will go to Champions League.” (EPL Talk)
“This has been a decade of broadly attacking football, at least at the highest level, but at the start of 2010-11 the game stands at a crossroads. Internazionale’s triumph in the Champions League, the predominance of reactive football at the World Cup and the growing realisation that nobody can match Spain/Barcelona at their brand of possession football, though, might mean a turn into defensiveness.” (Guardian – Jonathan Wilson)
“You thought football had stopped for a month, didn’t you? Well, not in the Russian Premier League, which has restarted after a brief break over the World Cup. This match between Spartak and Rubin is something of a glamour tie – 2nd v 1st from last season, and these two clubs have therefore both qualified for the group stages of the 2010/11 Champions League.” (Zonal Marking)
“One prominent player agent in the Bundesliga has bought the domain mediocritysucks.de. He also loves sending out provocative letters with famous quotes from varied people — Karl Marx, Confucius and Lukas Podolski have all been featured in the past. His latest missive came this week, in a letter with a big “Steven Gerrard for England” sticker, and it carried a good line at the back of the envelope: ‘We don’t fear the competition, we are the competition.'” (SI)
“For half an hour on Tuesday in the Champions League qualifiers, Dinamo Zagreb was worried. Davor Bubanja had given Koper the lead, and the specter of yet more European failure was raised. But then the excellent Milan Mandzukic equalized, and Miroslav Slepicka had the Croatian champion ahead. Second-half goals from Mandzukic and the two Brazilians, Sammir and Etto, gave Dinamo a 5-1 win and should have put the tie to bed.” (SI)
“And so the 2010 Champions League Final raised its skinny arms up over its head, arched its little back, and dove into the waters of ‘a thing that happened,’ where it slipped in without making a splash. I mean no bitterness toward the participants when I say that, unless you were an Inter fan or could name more than four players on Bayern’s team, this was not an event that sent you scurrying to your secret dictionary. Mourinho’s teams have a way of making their victories look tautological—they perform actions from which winning results, therefore they win—and this one was even more programmatically straightforward than most, a lot of patient defending combined with two inspired stabs from Milito. Bayern should have scored, but they didn’t, and therefore Inter performed the actions that ensured they never would. Mourinho keeps doing it, as Andy Gray twice purred. Code is poetry, except that it totally isn’t.” (Run of Play)
“The Champions League final has been and gone, so we are now officially at the end of the 2009/10 season. This would not be an internet football site without an article outlining some reasonably pointless ‘awards’, but since this is a site focussed on tactics, hopefully the tactical angle will – like a newly-signed winger that doesn’t appear to fit into the team – ‘provide something different’.” (Zonal Marking)
Jan Massys, Loth et ses filles
“Inter have deservedly won the Champions League – beating this season’s champions of England, Spain and then Germany on the way to collecting the trophy. Jose Mourinho has conquered Europe again, Inter have won the treble for the first time in the history of Italian football, and Italy retains its four Champions League places ahead of Germany.” (Zonal Marking)
How Inter Milan Won its Treble
“Bayern Munich manager Louis Van Gaal is not generally a man prone to hyperbole. On the eve of the Champions League final between his team and Italy’s Inter Milan he was asked whether the two finalists were the best sides in Europe. ‘No,’ he said, pausing a moment for the briefest of frowns. ‘No, these are not the best teams. The three best teams in Europe this season were Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United.'” (WSJ)
Bayern Munich 0-2 Inter Milan (Internazionale) – Video Highlights and Recap – Champions League – 22 May 2010
“The UEFA Champions League ended the 2009-10 season with the final of Bayern Munich v Inter Milan aka Internazionale. The two sides made improbable runs to the final which included beating FC Barcelona, Chelsea, and Manchester United. The final was play at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu which is the home of Spanish La Liga side Real Madrid.” (The 90th Minute)
Jose Mourinho
“This is what the Champions League is all about: England’s best side against Spain’s best side in last season’s final in Rome, Italy’s best side against Germany’s best side this season in Madrid. This is an intriguing match-up between two sides who have underachieved in Europe in recent years, and between two of the greatest tacticians in modern times. The Italy v Germany clash is emphasized when you consider the situation regarding both countries’ UEFA coefficients (which determines the number of European places each national league is allocated) where Germany currently leads Italy by 0.155 points.” (Zonal Marking)
Champions League Final Preview
“The most anticipated event of any European season, this year’s Champions League final looks set to be yet another intriguing battle both on and off the field, with several fascinating plot lines running through the pre-match build-up to further stoke the fire of what should be a wonderful spectacle and, perhaps more appealingly, a struggle for tactical supremacy between two of the game’s most astute Coaches. As one-time Barcelona manager Louis van Gaal’s Bayern Munich and his former translator, Jose Mourinho’s Inter prepare to face off in the magnificent surrounds of Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, The Equaliser looks at the potential line-ups of both sides and tries to get the measure of the personnel and systems these two prestigious sides may look to use on Saturday evening.” (The Equaliser)
CL Comment: Five Ways Inter Can Beat Bayern Munich
“Keep The Tempo Running High. Inter are not a team generally linked with fast flowing football, and many believe that they’d struggle were they plonked straight into a Premier League fixture list. Besides that being a pointless argument, it also overlooks the fact that some of Inter’s better performances this season have come against teams who like to play the ball around at speed (see Chelsea, Barcelona, Genoa, Milan, Palermo…) Therefore, should they go for the spoiling approach in trying to deal with Arjen Robben et al, they may be on the wrong track. By allowing the game to be played at a decent pace it will give them extra opportunities to punish Bayern on one of their notorious counter-attacks.” (Goal)
Champions League Final Is Clash of Coaches
“As Bayern Munich and Inter Milan take the field for Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final, even the most ardent football fan could be forgiven for taking a second glance at the match program: Just who are these guys? In a tournament that’s supposed to be dominated by the world’s greatest players, the 2010 final is conspicuously short on star power.” (WSJ)
“You can expect to hear a lot about Jose Mourinho over the next few weeks. Playing in the Champions’ League final and possibly moving to the world’s biggest football club will do that. Plus, of course, there is nobody – and I mean nobody – in the game who has such a talent for putting his point across and turning the media into some kind of megaphone (for better or worse, sometimes it backfires).” (TimesOnline)
“The most important result in Italian football right now isn’t the upshot of the Serie A title race, which saw Inter Milan secure a fifth consecutive championship on Sunday, or even the outcome of this weekend’s UEFA Champions League final. It’s actually the decision from a Milan appeal court judge scheduled for later this week over the league’s television broadcasting rights deal. Late last week, Claudio Marangoni heard an appeal from Conto TV, a small satellite operator, which contends that an agreement between pay-TV network Sky Italia and the Italian football.” (WSJ)
“It has been quite a long wait – 26 years to be exact – but finally Turkey can claim to have a league that is not completely dominated by the big boys. Besiktas (in the early 90s) and Trabzonspor (in the late 70s/early 80s) have offered resistance to the dominance of Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in the past, but all too often a smaller side’s challenge for glory has fallen short. Lowly Sivasspor, last year, were the ones to fail at the final hurdle and, just 12 months on, found themselves fighting a relegation battle which they only just won.” (ESPN)
“Confidence is something José Mourinho has probably never lacked, but if one man more than any other helped the FC Internazionale Milano coach believe in himself, it could be the one who will try to deny him a second UEFA Champions League title on Saturday: FC Bayern München’s Louis Van Gaal.” (UEFA)
Claude Gellée, Idyll: Landscape with a Draughtsman Sketching Ruins
“On the surface, the praise for Lionel Messi during his current extraordinary run has been pure. Astonishing — astonished — praise has followed his every deed. Not for a generation has there been such a rush to consider someone alongside the pantheon of great players past; to name a planet after him; to dress him in armour, plonk him on a horse, dip him in bronze and place him halfway between La Masia and Camp Nou, beside a stall selling miniature bronze-coloured plastic replica hims. Scienticians are rushing to prove by July that he is, in fact, a physical constant.” (Sport is a TV Show) (Must Read Soccer)
“Club football’s biggest prize is at stake when two of the great names of the European game, FC Bayern München and FC Internazionale Milano, cross swords in the climax to the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League season in Madrid.” (UEFA)
“The Premier League’s most exciting ever season will end this Sunday. Well, that’s what I heard on the BBC and Sky during the weekend. They have had less to say about it being three of the same old big four swapping places at the top of the table. As a close contest it had more to do with the inconsistency and obvious flaws of the top teams than the excellence of their football. And the sub-plot of teams competing to get their snouts in the fourth place of the Champions League trough has been taking place 16 points distant from the top – hardly an advert for competitive balance.” (WSC)
Andrea Mantegna, Pallas Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue
“Tottenham emerged victorious from this Champions League playoff, primarily because they created more clear-cut chances. Peter Crouch’s winner was slightly fortunate, but it was no more than Spurs deserved. Manchester City played their expected line-up in a game they needed to win – two strikers with Emmanuel Adebayor as the targetman, and Carlos Tevez dropping off in behind, in a position he seems to prefer, judging by his recent display at Arsenal. Craig Bellamy and Adam Johnson continued as inverted wingers.” (Zonal Marking)
Manchester City 0 Tottenham Hotspur 1: match report
“Fortune favoured the brave last night and the brave now inherit a fortune. Adventurously set up by Harry Redknapp, Tottenham Hotspur hit the heights of the lucrative Champions League and it was the 6ft 7in Peter Crouch who lifted them and their ecstatic support into dream-land.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
Match Of The Midweek: Manchester City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
“When the Champions League play-off suggestion was made earlier this season (and laughed out of court accordingly), few would have guessed that we would be where we are with four and a half days of the Premier League season left to play. Aston Villa’s wobbly second half of the season coupled with Liverpool ably demonstrating that the abjectness that they displayed during the first half of the season was absolutely no flash in the pan have set up something approaching what the originators of the plan had envisaged. With two matches left of the season, either Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur will be taking their chances in the final qualifying round of the Champions League. It has been a very odd season indeed in the Premier League.” (twohundredpercent)
Manchester City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur – Video Highlights and Recap – EPL – 5 May 2010“The battle for the last UEFA Champions League spot in the English Premier League was at stake on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 as Manchester City hosted Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs had a one point lead over City before the match and would clinch a top four finish with a victory. Both teams will be playing in Europe next season in either the Europa or Champions League.” (The 90th Minute)
“Several members of Bayern Munich have parlayed the German club’s success this season into a potential summer sojourn to South Africa with the national team. Germany Manager Joachim Loew announced his 27-man preliminary World Cup roster Thursday, which included seven Bayern players who won the Bundesliga and are vying for the German Cup and European Champions League crowns.” (NYT)
“Recently I have received several complimentary tickets to watch a Championship team but the experience has been decidedly mixed. When a friend’s son signed for the club near me at the turn of the year, I was delighted for the young man involved but even happier for myself. He was moving hundreds of miles from friends and family and I would be there to support him. Just as importantly, I would get to stuff my face with prawn sandwiches and other delights ordinary paying folk could only dream of.” (WSC)
“In 2004, Gabriele Marcotti wrote an article for The Times about Barcelona legend Pep Guardiola. It wasn’t a celebratory piece looking back at Guardiola’s fine career, nor remarking on his ability to defy the critics and keep playing at a high standard, like Paolo Maldini. It was about how, in 2004-spec football, Guardiola was useless. That is not to say that he had declined as a player. A physically unremarkable player, his domain was sitting front of his own defence and spraying passes across the pitch for his more illustrious teammates – Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov and Romario being amongst the biggest names to have benefited from his presence. When Marcotti wrote the article, at 33, Guardiola should have been at his peak.” (Zonal Marking)
“I can rarely remember a week that has featured so much chit-chat about managers. Sometimes you begin to wonder whether the players matter any more. Mourinho this, Mourinhno that. The implications of Barcelona’s elimination from the Champions League last week spread far and wide, but in Spain all that matters is that Mourinho has allegedly proved himself eligible for the Bernabeu hot-seat.” (ESPN)
Jan Brueghel the Elder. Orpheus in the Underworld
“There are times when the hype about Jose Mourinho is frustrating and cliched, there are times when it is fully deserved. Tonight was the latter in one of the great defensive performances in recent footballing history. Barcelona reverted to their ‘traditional’ 4-3-3 they had persisted with until recently, with a midfield trio of Busquets-Keita-Xavi, Yaya Toure in defence, and Gabriel Milito surprisingly pushed out to left-back. Pedro Rodriguez stayed wide-left, Lionel Messi cut in from the right, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the striker.” (Zonal Marking)
Barcelona 1 Inter Milan 0; agg 2-3: match report
“Even the Nou Camp sprinklers set at geyser strength couldn’t douse Jose Mourinho’s fire. Even the combined technical might of Lionel Messi and Xavi couldn’t overcome opponents organised so brilliantly by the Special One. Even the loss of Thiago Motta to a red card and loss of a goal to Gerard Piqué couldn’t perturb composed, calculating Inter. Homage to Catalonia? No chance. Mourinho scripted the reverse.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
Barcelona v Inter Milan: Jose Mourinho hails ‘most beautiful defeat of my life’
“A 1-0 second-leg defeat could not prevent dogged Inter, leading 3-1 from the San Siro, heading to the May 22 final against Bayern Munich. Mourinho even received congratulatory texts from his old Chelsea friends.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
FC Barcelona 1-0 Inter Milan – Unbreakable Inter far from Wile E. Coyote
“Do you remember the Looney Tunes cartoons, and the scene that always takes place in which the ‘baddie’ character overruns a cliff but grabs onto a branch and clings on for dear life, sweat dripping, slowly losing his grip as he stares ominously down at a shark tank or bear pit or similar great peril? That, to me, symbolised Inter Milan against FC Barcelona at Camp Nou tonight. And while Inter hung on desperately, we watched – nervous, tense, enthralled – waiting to see if they would hang onto that branch, somehow, and clamber back to safety, or if they would eventually tire, arms weary from the struggle, and plunge helplessly into the abyss.” (Just Football)
Barca in need of a Plan B
“It is hard to criticise a team who have scored 83 goals in La Liga this season for lacking the firepower to see them through but, against Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan, reigning European champions Barcelona showed that their fluid attacking style has weaknesses. After the heights of the sextuple last year, this season’s Barcelona had a lot to live up to, but the decision to sell Samuel Eto’o to their eventual conquerors in Europe could be one that comes back to haunt them.” (ESPN)
Barcelona dethroned by resilient Inter
“An immense display of intelligent defending and sheer determination took FC Internazionale Milano into the European Champion Clubs’ Cup final for the first time since 1972, ending FC Barcelona’s hopes of becoming the first team to defend the UEFA Champions League.” (UEFA)
Champions League: Inter Milan Holds On
“ITV pundit Clive Tyldesley likes to invoke ‘magical nights’ in Barcelona whenever he gets the chance (even when he’s commentating on a fourth-round FA Cup tie between Blackpool and Stoke). But his patented tagline actually fits the occasion today. It’s the second leg of Barcelona and Inter Milan’s Champion’s League semifinal from Camp Nou in Barcelona.” (WSJ)
FC Barcelona 1-0 Inter Milan (Internazionale) – Recap and Video Highlights – Champions League – Wednesday, April 28, 2010
“The UEFA Champions League finished its semifinal round on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 with the second leg of FC Barcelona v Inter Milan aka Internazionale. Inter Milan held a 3-1 lead after the first leg at the San Siro but would have to try and hold Barcelona at the Camp Nou. The winner would move onto the final to play Bayern Munich in the final in late May.” (The 90th Minute)
“Rarely can a team have qualified for a Champions League final as easily as Bayern Munich did against Lyon. ‘Has anyone seen a Champions League semi-final?’ asked one wag in the Stade Gerland media centre after Tuesday’s hopelessly one-sided semi-final return leg. ‘I was told there’d be one here but I couldn’t see it.’ Comprehensively outplayed in both legs, Lyon’s limp performance over the tie was an appalling advertisement for French football and in the grim post mortem of the after-match analysis there was no disguising the simple fact that Claude Puel’s side had been beaten by a far superior team. Time and again in his post-match press conference, a shell-shocked Puel returned to the theme of Bayern’s remarkable physical capacities.” (Football Further)
“Everybody, including me, wants to paint Mourinho as the Dark Lord, the scheming scientist locked in a dungeon in a castle atop a mountain. Due to his playful and sarcastic media mind games, his personality gets depicted in a negative light. Accordingly, we transpose this ‘abrasive’ personality onto his team – if Mourinho is such a downer in press conferences, then surely his Inter play negative catenaccio. Right? Wrong.” (futfanatico)
“With a 3-1 lead going into the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal on Wednesday, it is fair to say that Inter Milan’s chances are better than 50/50. Perhaps Jose Mourinho was trying to be generous to his hosts. More likely, Mourinho, the Inter Milan manager, was trying to ease the pressure on his players and tweak Barcelona.” (NYT)
“A resounding victory for Bayern, a disappointing end to France’s exciting adventures in European football this season, and an underwhelming display from Lyon in their first European semi-final. Lyon started with a 4-2-3-1 formation, with three out-and-out attacking players lining up behind Lisandro Lopez. Sidney Govou was recalled in place of Ederson, whilst Jean-Alain Boumsong replaced Jeremy Toulalan, a centre-back in the first leg, at the back.” (Zonal Marking)
Lyon 0-3 Bayern Munich – Recap and Video Highlights – Champions League – Tuesday, April 27, 2010
“Lyon hosted Bayern Munich in the 2nd leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals needing to overcome an 0-1 deficit. The winner would move on to face the winner of the Barcelona/Inter Milan semifinal. The match could go either way and neither team was an overwhelming favorite to move into the final.” (The 90th Minute)
Mathematical Treatise
“After Internazionale had astonished the football world by pummelling Barcelona 3-1 in San Siro last week, a calm José Mourinho pronounced that his team’s chances of reaching the Champions League final had not changed. ‘They are still 50-50,’ he said. ‘We deserved this victory, but we’re a long way from the final. In the second leg in Barcelona we’ll be playing against a team who will be even stronger. Whether we get to the final or not, we’ll come home with our heads held very, very high’.” (Guardian)
“FC Barcelona’s Gabriel Milito and elder brother Diego, of FC Internazionale Milano, may come face to face in Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg but the defender, whose side trail 3-1 in the tie, told UEFA.com that sibling rivalry will be secondary at the Camp Nou.” (UEFA)
“Last Tuesday, but for a small minority who had made the trip from Catalonia (by land, given the volcano ash cloud-related flight restrictions), San Siro stadium celebrated Inter Milan’s 3-1 victory over Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal. One man, clad in Inter’s distinctive black and blue colors, however, declined to join in the jubilation.” (WSJ)
Pep Guardiola
“In 1996, José Mourinho suddenly became a powerful man. Aged only 33, the unknown Portuguese had come to Barcelona chiefly to translate for the English manager Bobby Robson. However, he fast turned into more than a translator. Mourinho took a duplex in the beach town of Sitges, near Robson’s house, and often talked football with him over dinner, recounts Mourinho’s biographer Patrick Barclay. He wrote dazzling scouting reports, and had one great advantage over his boss: he spoke Spanish. When Robson talked to players or the press, Mourinho interpreted. Many felt he added thoughts of his own.” (FI – Simon Kuper)
“We need goodies. Therefore we need baddies. Human minds work that way. We can’t help turning any situation before us into a moral tale. Take politics: we even turn the choosing of a government into a contest between good and evil, or, at least, between awful and slightly less awful.” (TimesOnline)
Defeat to Mourinho’s Inter remains a bitter pill for Barca to swallow“It’s the ultimate in gloating — the traditional song that really, really rubs it in and stings like hell. You’ve traveled miles and miles to watch your team but hope has turned to despair, all you’ve eaten is a ropey sandwich at a service station and all you’ve drunk is a bottle of warm Coke that’s long since gone flat. Which might not be a bad thing, because there’s no way you’re trusting your backside to that toilet.” (SI)
“There’s wily, and then there’s completely insane. Mourinho’s act with the media has always felt less like tactical posturing—the sort of thing Bill Parcells always used to get credit for, or that Rafa Benítez believes himself to be good at—than like the simple luxuriating of a man who likes sunning his ego in public. If there are two smart ways to deal with the media—be boring and say all the right things, or else stir up controversy for some deliberate purpose—Mourinho loves balancing on the precipice of Crazy Option #3, letting them know what you really think.” (Run of Play)
Francois Perrier, Orpheus
“Some unfavourable games for the goal-loving neutral can turn out to be the most interesting for the tactical enthusiast. Sadly, this wasn’t really the case tonight, as a toothless Lyon went down to a relatively subdued Bayern in a muted contest. Bayern went for the expected side – Diego Contento at left-back and Danijel Pranjic in the middle. The Croatian sat slightly deeper than Bastian Schweinsteiger, tending to drift to the left to allow Contento to attack.” (zonalmarking)
Franck Ribéry shown red card but Bayern Munich claim first-leg victory
“Franck Ribéry’s nightmare week went from bad to worse last night as he was sent off in the first half of Bayern Munich’s 1-0 Champions League semi-final win over Lyons. The France winger will be suspended for next week’s second leg in his home country, compounding a miserable few days in which he has found himself mired in a sex scandal.” (TimesOnline)
Tactics: Lyon paralysed by chance of a lifetime
“With 53 minutes to play and their opponent a man down in last night’s Champions League semi-final first leg in Munich, Lyon spurned the chance of a lifetime simply by failing to react. Franck Ribéry’s dismissal handed the visitors the initiative in a huge and unignorable way, but rather than reacting, Claude Puel’s side froze.” (Football Further)
Bayern Munich 1-0 Lyon – Recap and Video Highlights – Champions League – Wednesday, April 21, 2010
“The UEFA Champions League continued its semifinal round on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 with the first leg between Bayern Munich and Lyon. Both teams have upset teams in previous rounds and were not expected to go this far in the tournament. Bayern Munich hosted the first leg with the second scheduled to take place in France next Tuesday.” (The 90th Minute)
Jose Mourinho
“Esteban Cambiasso praised the ‘extraordinary work of our three forwards’ after FC Internazionale Milano’s 3-1 win against FC Barcelona in the first leg of their semi-final tie at the San Siro, a sixth consecutive UEFA Champions League victory for José Mourinho’s side.” (UEFA)
Inter 3-1 Barcelona: Why did Pep Guardiola play Zlatan Ibrahimovic?
“It’s not often during his two seasons as Barcelona manager that you can conclusively say that Pep Guardiola got his tactics wrong – but tonight that was the case, as Inter take an important two-goal lead to the Nou Camp. Both sides essentially played their standard formations. Inter were 4-2-3-1 with Samuel Eto’o and Goran Pandev wide, and Javier Zanetti continuing at left-back. Barcelona played a similar team to the first leg at against Arsenal – Zlatan Ibrahimovic leading the line, Lionel Messi behind him, Pedro in a wide-right role and Seydou Keita playing from in to out on the left.” (Zonal Marking)
James Lawton: Mourinho calls the shots to make Italy think again about his style
“Even Jose Mourinho has rarely known a night like this, one in which not only a second Champions League title but perhaps even the keys of European football may have been at least halfway into his grasp. If Mourinho had some substantial gifts from his Portuguese compatriot referee, including a third goal that was plainly offside, there was no questioning that he had produced from his Internazionale a magnificent response to the challenge of facing the reigning champions of Europe, a team with the potential, some of us may still believe, to touch new levels of excellence.” (Independent)
Italian Football Faces Tough Times
“The most important league table in Italian football right now isn’t the Serie A standings, where AS Roma and Inter Milan are locked in a titanic tussle for the title, or even the Serie B championship, where Torino—one of the country’s most historic clubs—is hoping to secure a top-flight return. It’s actually an obscure ranking of European’s football nations known as the UEFA coefficient table, a mind-boggling complex formula that has produced one very simple conclusion: Italy’s days as a football superpower could soon be at an end.” (WSJ)
Champions League: Inter Milan 3, FC Barcelona 1
“Inter Milan meets Barcelona tonight in the first leg of a mouthwatering Champions League semifinal that many fans think should have been the final itself. With Lyon and Bayern Munich meeting in the other semifinal tomorrow, the glamor — and global attention — will all be at the San Siro in Milan this evening. The visitors are Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona: Spanish league leader, defending European champion and for many, currently the best team in world soccer. The side also, of course, fields the planet’s best player, by popular acclaim, in Argentinian forward Lionel Messi.” (WSJ)
‘It Will Not Be Inter-Barcelona, It Will Be Inter or Barcelona’
“Inter Milan counter attacked with great effect Tuesday against Barcelona, coming back from a goal down to win the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal, 3-1. Barca went up early, scoring a crucial away goal by way of Pedro Rodriguez. He tucked away an angled pass from Maxwell, whose run down the left flank past Cambiasso to the goal line was unchecked by Maicon and Lucio, who both stopped dead in their tracks. But Inter responded with determined counter-attacking play, as per Manager Jose Mourinho’s instructions.” (NYT)
Inter Milan vs. Barcelona
(footytube)
Inter Milan (Internazionale) 3-1 FC Barcelona – Recap and Video Highlights – Champions League – Tuesday, April 20, 2010
“The UEFA Champions League kicked off its semifinal round with a 1st leg match between Inter Milan (Internazionale) v FC Barcelona at the San Siro. Either team would be favored to win the competition if they were to make the final. Barcelona has been in very good form in the Champions League while Inter Milan has knocked out favorites like Chelsea.” (The 90th Minute)
“There’s a pretty good chance that you know Olympique Lyonnais are playing today in the UEFA Champion’s League semi-final against Bayern Munich. You may not also know that Lyon’s women’s team are also playing in their UEFA Champion’s League semi-final this Saturday, against Swedish giants Umeå IK.” (Pitch Invasion)
Late-Game Heroes Have Lifted Bayern Munich and Lyon
“Arjen Robben’s contributions to Bayern Munich in the Champions League this season have been eerily consistent, and supremely valuable. In the 65th minute of the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 match on March 9, the Bayern Munich wing capped a stunning 11-minute spell with a sharply angled shot into the top corner of the Fiorentina goal. How fortunate. Though the German side lost the match, 3-2, it was Robben’s stunner that saw Bayern through to the quarterfinals by virtue of away goals, 4-4 on aggregate.” (NYT)
Scissors Kick 