Grandisimo Napoli

Today Napoli did not disappoint when they had it everything in their own hands to take the Serie A title at home. The Neapolitans defeated Cagliari 2-0, firstly on a splendid half-bycicle kick by Scott McTominay at a moment when Napoli had started to feel that the Cagliari, and in the second half Romelu Lukaku made it 2-0 on a typical "a-devil-in-him" goal.

Grande Napoli! My favourite Italian side! And Maradona is celebrating as well!

Napoli champions!

Napoli have had an extraordinary season, and finally today, five games before the end of the league, Napoli are sure to win their third Serie A title ever, and the first time they win without one Diego Armando Maradona on the team... 

One point against Udinese was enough after Victor Osimhen equalized Udinese's early lead. Napoli are 16 points ahead of Lazio, and cannot be overtaken.

Manager Luciano Spalletti has had an extraordinary season, with a fantastic side which I hope will not be purchased out next season. All in all, Italian football is undergoing a resurgence, with two teams in the Champions League semifinals, and such a fantastic Napoli side.

Personally, I am delighted for Napoli, whom I have always considered my darling Italian side!!! Forza Napoli!!!

Early and coming Champions

Seasons are ending all around Europe, and we can already see some of the titles being handed out!
With a 0-1 victory over West Bromwich Albions Chelsea mathematically became champions of the Premier League with still three games to go before the end of the season. This cements Chelsea's amazing season, which few saw coming I think: a disastrous last season which led to the hiring of Antonio Conte as manager, and he has stabilized the team, that plays excellent football. One has to wonder whether the absence of European football may as well have been an advantage, as they were able to focus entirely on the Premier League.
In Germany Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga again and as expected by many. That said, it is a disappointing season, as they did not win the DFB Cup and were eliminated in the Champions League. Bayern Munich is set to go through changes next season, so it remains to be seen how they will do.
In Italy Juventus is only a victory away from taking the title, while in France Monaco are on the brink of taking a title that seems to have belonged in Paris since 2013, and this also cements their extraordinary season where they won themselves a lot of friends in the CL!

The day I became Napoli fan

I have never had a favourites Italian team. Many years ago I used to follow the Serie A closely, but this ended with the corruption scandals surrounding Juventus in the mid-00s. As an avid Maradona fan I had also always sympathized with Napoli. But the lack of results and the fact that I had never visited Naples, caused me not to become a fan.
That has changed today.
I am visiting the beautiful city of Naples for the first time in my life and when I learned that Napoli was playing Lazio I immediately got a ticket for the legendary stadium of San Paolo, the temple where they adored Maradona. As much of the city, the stadium is somewhat worn down, but remains beautiful and imposing, and with a fantastic atmosphere provided by the Napoli supporters.

The team itself has not started the Serie A in the best way, without victories in their first three matches. But that changed tonight when they resoundingly defeated Lazio 5-0. What most impressed me was how they achieved the victory: high pressure and good passing. There were certainly some signs of weakness in the defense (which stronger teams than Lazio could punish), the attacking combinations were flowing through Hamsik, Allan and Jorginho, to very mobile offensive players like Insigne and Higuaín (Higuaín is not a player I am fond of, but I must admit that he played a great match scoring two excellent goals. He certainly loves playing against Lazio!).

The new coach Maurizio Sarri has now led his team to score 10 goals in the last two matches (last week they defeated Brugge 5-0 in the Europa League), and his side is starting to show the potential for what could be a great season for a great team and a great city.
And I will be cheering on them all the way!

Weekend of Champions

Today Chelsea made sure of what everyone have been expecting: a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace, on a goal by Player of the Year Eden Hazard, has made them champions of the Premier League, no matter what happens in the last three matches.
Surely Chelsea are not easy to like under the genius of Jose Mourinho. Their football is defensive and result-oriented. Just like Atletico Madrid's, who everyone liked last season...
No, Chelsea are well-deserved champions, and the credit lies mostly in the fact that they have been steady in the most difficult league in Europe (if not the world!). This is not a league where you can expect to win 8-0 against a lower-ranked team, but where you can lose points in every match if you do not concentrate (ask Manchester United, Liverpool or Manchester City). That makes Chelsea's achievement so much more deserving of praise. Mourinho is a genius and Chelsea are champions.
That said, subjectively, I must say that I can think of 19 other teams I would have preferred as champions of the Premier League....

And another noteworthy champion was Juventus, who won Italy's Serie A after defeating Sampdoria 0-1. Fourth title in a row for the Torino side that has retaken its awesome position as the best side of Italy. They continue in the Champions League, so this could be a golden year for the Italians, although they still need to get past Real Madrid.

Bayern Munich had had no competition winning a German league that is becoming too much like the Scottish of Spanish leagues: one to two team affairs where many matches are nothing but expecting how many goals they will score against an opponent that is mostly there for show. Sad that the German league, with perhaps one of the best youth systems in Europe, should come to be so dominated by one side.
In the meantime the French league is awaiting an exciting end with Lyon and Paris St. Germain both vying for the title - with the Paris side having a slight edge, but with everything still awaiting to happen!!

It has been a great football season in the European leagues indeed!

Juventus champions!

With a 1-0 victory over Palermo Juventus won their second Italian Serie A title in a row. In spite of Napoli defeating Inter Milan 3-1, the runner-ups cannot catch up with Juventus.
Great for Juventus, who are cementing their place back at the top of the Italian league after their disgraceful season in the lower Serie B league following the "Calciopoli" match fixing scandal.
Napoli will follow them into the Champions League, while AC Milan, Fiorentina, Roma, Udinese and Lazio seem to be fighting for the three CL qualification spots.

Juventus champion!

Last time Juventus won the Italian championship was in 2006, but due to the "Calciopoli" scandal that same year they were stripped of the title, and relegated. They returned to the Serie A in 2007, but had so far been unable to win the title. Until now. It had been coming, but with today's 2-0 victory over Cagliari, and Inter's 4-2 victory against AC Milan, Juventus has again taken the crown as Italy's best team!

Juve on top

I must admit that Italian football has been something I have followed less and less since the scandal in 2006 that relegated the great team of Juventus. Back in the Serie A in 2007, Juventus is now leading the Serie A. I came after their victory against AC Milan a couple of weeks ago, and today, when AC Milan did not manage to defeat Fiorentina, Juventus did what they had to do, and defeated Palermo 2-0 away. With seven matches left, Juventus is one point ahead of AC Milan on first spot, and has it all in their hands to take the title. That said, there are some very exciting matches coming up, not least the next match at home again Lazio.
But I do hope Juventus takes the title!

Towards the championship

The European leagues are entering their last stage, and one can begin to see the shape of the champions more or less in many of them:

• In Germany, Borussia Dortmund destroyed 4th placed Hannover 96, and are 7 points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen with six matches left. They have had an extraordinary season, and it would be a pity if they don't win it.
• In Italy's local derby between AC Milan and Inter, AC Milan won 3-0. Pato played an extraordinary match in this important step for the Milanese, although the Serie is hot: Napoli took second spot after defeating Lazio, only three points up to first place! It will be an exciting ending!
• In the Netherlands Twente defeated PSV Eindhoven 2-0 in a hugely important victory to retake the title. There are five matches left, and a five point difference between Twente, PSV Eindhoven and Ajax Amsterdam on first, second and third spots respectively.
  
• In Portugal FC Porto defeated second placed Benfica 1-2 in Lisbon, and now 16 points ahead of Benfica and five matches left, is certain to win the championship. The Portuguse league has been completely dominated by a mighty Porto side that might still go through it undefeated!
  

While I was gone

I have been travelling, and although watching football as much as possible, have not been able to post much here. Still, many interesting things have happened in the world of football!

• In the Italian Serie A, AC Milan and Napoli played a match where the southerners had the chance of taking over the first spot. However, they faced a concentrated Milan side where Brazilian Pato was extraordinary and Milan won 3-0 to become entrenched at the first spot, where only a rather unstable Inter seems able to threaten them for the title.
• The team of the moment is surely Germany's Borussia Dortmund. Last week they defeated Bayern Munich, in Munich, 3-1. They are a young, hugely talented side who are now heading straight for the Bundesliga title!
• In Spain, Barcelona has again pulled a bit more away after Real Madrid only managed 0-0 with La Coruña. In spite of winning in Valencia, Barcelona is looking a bit more shaky, also looking ahead at the play-off match in the Champions League with Arsenal.
• The Champions League started with excellent matches. Arsenal's 2-1 victory against Barcelona was excellent, and although my sympathies surely lie in Catalunya, I hope that Arsenal can put up a great fight! I was in Aruba when I saw Lyon and Real Madrid play 1-1, ahead of what will be an interesting match in Madrid. Also, I was unashamedly delighted to see that Chelsea defeated FC Copenhagen, although at the same time, I am nervous about Valencia's options after 1-1 with Schalke 04, no matter how much I sympathise with Raul!

Anyway, back to work and to football!

Benitez out

Although Inter Milan just last week won the World Club Championship, it is perhaps not surprising that it was today when coach Rafael Benitez was fired after only six months. Benitez has been very critical of the Inter leadership, and as results have not been forthcoming (they are only 7th in Serie A and came second to Tottenham in their CL Group A), the firing of Benitez is perhaps not so surprising, in spite of the short time and many injuries on the Milan side.

Benitez is a great coach (A CL title, a UEFA Cup Title, a Spanish Championship) but he apparently has a controversial personality that has often led him to part ways, as in Valencia, Liverpool and now Inter. It will be interesting to see where he will be heading next.

More interesting will be to see who now takes over in Inter. The Brazilian Leonardo, with a history in AC Milan seems to be first choice. Whoever it ends up being, he will have a difficult task!

League triumphs

The football seasons are ending all around Europe, with some interesting and notable results!

Last weekend FC Twente won their first Dutch championship ever, upsetting the power of the usual greats of Dutch football; Ajax Amsterdam, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord.

In France, Olympique Marseille coached by the former French national team captain, Didier Deschamps, today won the French Championship for the first time since 1992 (not counting the one they were stripped for in 1993 for bribery) with a 3-1 victory over Rennes, while their closest rivals Auxerre lost points to Olympique Lyon. This also further upsets the balance in French football, where Olympique Lyon had won for seven seasons in a row until Bordeaux won last season.
French club football is entertaining and surely the league, such as the Dutch, is more varied than in some other countries where the leagues have only become a rivalry between 2-3 clubs, with the rest being mere spectators.

Such a league is the Ukranian league, where Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev always fight for the title. This season it was Shakhtar's turn as they defeated Dynamo Kiev 1-0 to take the title.

In Spain, Real Madrid is still trailing FC Barcelona by one point, with both teams winning against anyone they encounter. Today Cristiano Ronaldo was spectacular scoring 3 goals in Real Madrid's 4-1 victory against Mallorca. There are now really (and sadly if you are a fan of the Spanish league) only two teams in the Spanish league, with the rest just vying for the extra Champions League spots that Spain gets only because of Real Madrid's and FC Barcelona's exploits.
I must admit though that I am very happy that Valencia CF just made sure that they will be in the CL next season by winning 3-1 against Xerex, but one should not expect too much of them among the top of European football - in Spain they are only "the best of the rest of them"....

The German Bundesliga is often dominated by the southern German giants of Bayern Munich, who with a 3-1 win over Schalke 04 almost made sure they will be German champions this season. In fact, Bayern Munich will be going for "the Triple", as they will be playing the final of the German Cup against Werder Bremen, and the CL final.

The other CL finalists, Inter Milan from Italy also has all chances to win the "Triple", and took their first step by winning the "Triple" by taking the Italian Cup with a 1-0 victory against AS Roma, who is also their closest rival for the Serie A title. But also there Inter Milan is set to win: with two matches left they are 2 points ahead of the Romans, and will also be hoping to win their third title in Madrid on May 22nd.

In England the Premier League title is a struggle between Chelsea and Manchester United, with Chelsea very close to taking the title. In the meantime, Arsenal is sure of one of the CL spots, while Tottenham Hotspurs made sure that they will be in the CL next season by defeating Manchester City 1-0. It will surely be interesting to see the Londoners in Europe next season!

A lot of happy and some disappointed fans!

Roma overtakes Inter

Only a couple of months ago it seemed given that the Italian championship would end up in Milan: Inter was top of the table with AC Milan following suit. Nobody seemed to be looking at AS Roma under coach Claudio Ranieri. But then results started to flaunder for the Milanese, and a couple of weeks ago, AS Roma seriously entered the fight for title when they defeated Inter at home. With this weekend's results AS Roma has gone to the top: AC Milan only tied in Catania, and so did Inter, 2-2 against Fiorentina. This meant that AS Roma, with a 2-1 win over Atalanta, now takes the top spot with 18 points, one more than Inter, and now has all the opportunities to take the title with five games left.
Who would have thought...?

The Milano derby

One of the greatest derby's of world football took place yesterday in Milano, namely that between Inter Milan and AC Milan. This one had been looked forward to as Inter's lead in the Serie A had seemed to be threatened by an AC Milan side that lately has started playing outstanding, in particular Ronaldinho who seems to have flourished like in his younger days. However, today was all about Inter Milan, who truly showed who the best team is; in the first minutes they overran AC Milan, and the Argentinean Diego Milito brought Inter ahead. Even though Wesley Sneijder was shown a very strange red card, Inter continued to dominate and the Macedonian player Goran Pandev brought Inter ahead 2-0 on a beautiful free kick.
In the last minutes of the match AC Milan was given a penalty as Lucio was thrown out for Inter Milan. However, in front of his countryman Julio Cesar, Ronaldinho missed the penalty.
The title seems on its way to Inter who with this victory cements their leadership of the Serie with 9 points ahead of AC Milan on second place.

Thank you Maldini

You can like AC Milan or not, but anyone should acknowledge that they are one of the greatest clubs of all time. And one of the greatest players ever to play on this great club, Paolo Maldini, has just played his last game for the team.
Mr. Maldini played more than 900 matches for AC Milan, and ends his spectacular career at the age of 40 and undisputed captain of the team (although strangely, some AC Milan fans were there at his final match to insult him, as he had some disagreements with these tifosi during his time at the club).

And what a career!
Seven Serie A titles; eight champions league/cup finals, of which he has won five, and one World Cup trophy with Italy in 2006.
Together with many football fans, I will miss Mr. Maldini: he just seems to have been there almost since I started watching football, and I guess it just is there to remind us that time changes, and even great players have to end at some point.
Thank you Mr. Maldini!

Champions

Some major leagues had their 2008-09 champions decided this weekend.
In the Premier League Manchester United just needed one point against Arsenal to proclaim themselves champions. It was far from the best match by Manchester United, and Arsenal put up at excellent fight, but in the end, 0-0 was enough for the Reds to lift the Premier League trophy for the 18th time.
In Spain Barcelona didn't need to play to become champions: Real Madrid maintained a meager hope that they might be able to catch up with the Catalans, but in their third defeat in a row, Madrid lost 2-3 to Villarreal, and Barcelona are thus unreachable no matter what happens in the last games. After having trashed Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in the Copa del Rey final this week, Barcelona is looking to crown an awesome season with the Champions League final in Rome.
A similar thing happened in the Italian Serie A, where AC Milan had to win against Udinese to keep the hope that they might reach Inter Milan. However, Udinese won 2-1, and Inter are thus champions for the 4th time in a row.

Congratulations to all fans of these great teams!

Excellent football weekend

It has been an excellent football weekend (and I am not only saying this because of my personal joy this weekend).

In the English Premier League Chelsea finally lost a point, to league-trailers Everton. However, Chelsea's lead is so large with 28 points (Charlton on second has 19), that it is difficult to see how they would not win the Premier League.

Tottenham Hotspurs is on third spot. They managed a good 1-1 result in Manchester United, after a beautiful free-kick goal by Jermaine Jenas. Manchester United is looking more and more like a second rate team, just as some of it's players get themselves in trouble off the pitch.

Fulham defeated Champions League winners Liverpool 2-0. It seems Liverpool will only be fighting in Europe again this season.

Arsenal won a hard-fought victory against Manchester City. The more bizarre thing in this match was Robert Pires missed penalty. Seems it was not a good weekend for French penalty shooters, as Zidane's pathetic kick against Valencia demonstrates.

In Italy's Serie A, Juventus is five points ahead of AC Milan on top after a strong 0-3 away victory to Lecce.

In the classic battle for Rome, between AS Roma and Lazio, it ended with a 1-1 tie with goals by Francesco Totti and Tomasso Rocchi.

In Denmark, FC Copenhagen continued on top after a narorw 1-0 home victory against little Horsens. On the other hand, defending champions Brøndby kept a strong pressure on Copenhagen after an impressive 5-0 win against FC Midtjylland.

In Spain's Primera División, the most talked about was of course Valencia´s victory against Real Madrid. Valencia was far superior against a Real Madrid side that got two Red Cards: Gravesen after only six minutes on the pitch for his violent attack on Vicente, and David Beckham, for complaining. Seems Mr. Beckham is becoming good at the last, as he has also gotten red cards lately on the English national team. On top of this, Pablo García made a record appearance, becoming the fastest man to be awarded a yellow card in Spanish football. Another record in the match was better: Amadeo Carboni from Valencia became the oldest player ever to play in a Spanish League match. He is 40.

With Real Madrid's loss, the Spanish league is very close. FC Barcelona moved up in the table with 13 points, with a 3-0 victory over 5th placed Osasuna. Top team is still surprising Getafe with 17 points. They continued their impressive performance with an excellent 5-2 victory over Real Zaragoza. It will be interesting how far they can take it.

All in all, a great weekend!