Unpredictable quarterfinals

The first round of the 2015-16 quarterfinals is over, and with fantastic games and close results, the second round is all but impossible to predict:

• Atletico Madrid-Barcelona: Barcelona won 2-1 at home after some help from the referee when he threw out an admittedly over-eager Fernando Torres. But the way FC Barcelona have looked in the last two matches, nothing is certain as they go away to Madrid. Atletico Madrid are tactically astute, physically strong and strong enough to get the needed 1-0 home victory. It will be a thrilling encounter
• Benfica-Bayern Munich: The South Germans looked to be opening the floodgates as they went ahead 1-0 in the first minute, but that was in fact the final result of the match. 1-0 at home is never certain before you go to Portugal, and be reminded that another Portuguese team, Porto, defeated Bayern 3-1 in Portugal in last year's quarterfinal. Bayern Munich then went on to win 6-1 at home, but that option is no longer available. 
• Manchester City-Paris Saint Germain: 2-2 was a great result to get home from Paris for Manchester City after a match where both teams made awful defensive errors. Both teams have great striking power as well, so that combination is sure to be impossible to predict before the next match in Manchester. It will be a drama and fantastic match.
• Real Madrid-Wolfsburg: As Spanish teams so often do, they underestimate the Germans, and are punished for it. Wolfsburg shocked an arrogant and uncharming Real Madrid side (where Marcelo is a disgrace for his blatant kicking, headbutting and acting, all in one play) by winning 2-0 at home. Real Madrid are thus against the wall as they play at home, and will have to attack with everything they have, which is bound to be interesting. At the same time, they must not underestimate a Wolfsburg side that is so strong on counter-attack.

I am already counting down for next weeks matches, and every minute moves as slow as the last five minutes of a final you are winning 1-0....

The curse lives

In 1961 and 1962 the legendary Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann led Benfica to two European Cup triumphs. Following the second victory, over Real Madrid, he left the club in a dispute over salary. When leaving he said that Benfica would not win a European title in one hundred years. Since then, Benfica have lost European finals in 1963 (AC Milan), 1965 (Inter), 1968 (Manchester United), 1983 (Anderlecht), 1988 (PSV Eindhoven), 1990 (AC Milan) and 2013 (Chelsea). Tonight was their eighth try as they entered the Europa League final against Sevilla.
It was a very tactical game, but Benfica surely had the best chances to score during the match, but continuously hit a wall of Sevilla players and the goalkeeper Beto. In the end it all went to penalty kicks, and this is where the curse may really have kicked in: Oscar Cardozo and Rodrigo looked more like little children with very weak penalty kicks that Beto easily saved. It was enough to give Sevilla a 4-2 victory.
Everyone cried: Benfica fans in desperation and Sevilla fans of joy.
The late Eusebio, who was brought to Benfica by Bela Guttmann, famously prayed at Bela Guttmann's grave to lift the curse, but this has not happened. The curse lives on, and maybe Benfica will have to wait to 2062 before they can win a European title again...

RIP Eusebio

One of the greatest players of all time, Eusebio, has passed away. Although a Portuguese national, Eusebio was the first African player to make it to the world stage, being Mozambican when his country was a Portuguese colony.
He played in Benfica from 1960 to 1975 in what was perhaps the best Benfica side of all time. In that period the club from the Portuguese capital won 11 national titles, two European Champions titles and were runners-up in three additional European titles. Eusebio scored an impressive 317 goals in 301 matches for Benfica, where a statue of him is in front of Benfica's home stadium (seen below).
Eusebio also became the star of the 1966 World Cup, overshadowing even Pele. With nine goals he became the most scoring player of the tournament (and very memorable are his four goals against North Corea in the quarterfinals when his side was down 0-3) where Portugal became bronze-winners, the country's best World Cup result ever.
RIP.

"Interim" Chelsea

Chelsea has been up and down over the last few years. In 2011 Carlo Ancelotti was fired as the club "only" made it to second place in the Premier League (the previous year he had led them to their first "Double"). For the start of the 2011-12 season Andre Villas-Boas became manager, and under him team performance dipped with a string of defeats. Villas-Boas was fired in March 2012, and was replaced by "interim" coach Roberto Di Matteo, who in the subsequent months pulled the side up to win the FA Cup and the Champions League in May 2012. One could have been led to think that this would be enough to keep him in the club, but Chelsea's elimination in the first round of the 2012-13 Champions League season (as the first defending champions ever) led Di Matteo to lose his job in November 2012, and a new "interim" manager took over: Rafa Benitez.

And Rafa Benitez stayed as "interim" in spite of continued controversies and criticism, and eventually he announced that he would be leaving at the end of the season in spite of securing a CL spot in the Premier League. In the meantime the team progressed in the Europa League and last night Rafa Benitez led Chelsea to the Europa League title when defeating Benfica 2-1 in Amsterdam. It wasn't pretty: only Benfica inefficiency and an excellent late header by Branislav Ivanovic gave them a victory that must surely have felt somewhat bittersweet for Benitez, who will nevertheless probably not have to look much around for a more steady job.

And Chelsea? Rumors abound about a certain Portuguese gentleman returning to Chelsea. He will probably not have the title "interim", although that may always be the case in Chelsea anyway.

The surprises

The last round of matches of the group stages of the 2011-12 Champions League had a couple of surprises.

Firstly, Manchester United was elminated for the first time in the group stages of the tournament since the 2005-06 season. More surprising than this fact is nevertheless that it happened against the underestimated FC Basel in the last match of the tournament, where the English side needed only a tie to follow Benfica to the next round. However, the Swiss side was much more efficient, when they went ahead 1-0 early in the match they played a controlled defensive that kept United away for most of the match. Add a bit of luck and a late strike, and Basel managed to win 2-1 to complete Manchester United's sensational exit. In group A, Manchester City was also, less surprisingly, eliminated in spite of their win against Bayern Munich, so there will be no more CL football in Manchester this season.

Another surprise was that Olympique Lyon managed to follow Real Madrid to the next round in group D, after they needed to win with six goals away to Dynamo Zagreb to overtake Ajax Amsterdam (who losing to Real Madrid, could have solved it for themselves). Lyon won 1-7 in Zagreb, but the odd thing is how it happened: One man down, Zagreb nevertheless took the lead, only to see the French equalize before halftime on a gross defensive mistake. In the second half the home side fell mysteriously apart when Lyon scored six goals to take the ticket to the next round. French authorities are now looking into the match for the suspision of it being fixed, a thought that I think must have crossed many football fans' mind, including my own. Sadly, the fixing of matches at this level is not unheard of... It involving French sides is not unheard of neither.

That said, it may be wholly fair, and in that sense, one must congratulate Lyon, but the surprise simply looks too suspicious not to be looked into. I hope it was not fixed though.

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!
  

Benfica-Braga

I have been travelling a lot the last two weeks, but not missed out on football! I was in Lisbon this weekend, and Sunday evening, decided to go to the legendary Estadio da Luz to watch the home side Benfica against Braga. These two teams ended first and second respectively in last season's Portuguese league, and are currently the Portuguese representatives in the Champions League. Braga has done badly in the first two matches in the CL, first getting destroyed by Arsenal and this last week they lost 0-3 at home to Shakhtar Donetsks.
Benfica has a victory in the CL, but losing 0-2 to Schalke 04 still makes it a challenge for them to go through in a season that has started badly for them: before the Braga match they were only seventh in the league with 9 points for six matches, while Braga was fourth with 11, both trailing FC Porto, who started the season with six straight victories. It was therefore crucial for both teams to get a good result, and pressure was particularly on Benfica, whose play has been meagre this season.
For me, it was also special to go to the legendary stadium, and atmosphere was truly extraordinary in spite of it not being sold out (there were 44,000 spectators). I was specially impressed by the start of the match where a real eagle (the eagle is the symbol of the team) is let loose to fly in the stadium, to the cheers of the spectators, and to land by the Benfica captain.

Benfica were clearly the most motivated team, and played much better in the first half, where Braga was nevertheless disciplined in defence, including some splendid saves by the Braga goalkeeper Artur Moraes. Still, in spite of the dominance, Benfica, it seemed to me, lost too many balls, and is not entirely funcitoning as a team. In particular the elder Argentinean, Javier Saviola, worked hard as always, but lost many balls and missed some big chances (he was also taken out eventually). In the second half Benfica continued attacking, but for a while it seemed the air had gotten off the balloon, and both the fans and the team seemed more and more nervous as time advanced.
But finally, in the 77th minute, Carlos Martins scored a beautiful goal where he took the ball down very well and kicked precisely behind the goalkeeper. It could have been 2-0, as Braga, in spite of clear Benfica nerves (and some nasty nervous tackles towards the end), couldn't really answer back.
Benfica won 1-0, and because of the other results of this round, suddenly jumped to second spot (things are pretty close as there are three teams with 12 points and three with 11), but still 7 points behind the leaders of Oporto. However, this match may well mean that Benfica gets back the belief that they can again win the trophy this season!
And I was there!

Champions League 2007-08: First round tips

I have not been following the leagues, and have little knowledge of transfers and changes. However, I still feel I need to give my tips for the first round of the Champions League, however meager those tips may be due to my poor level of information…

The tips are in any case based on what happened after first matchday, so they may be a bit better and I may not look totally pathetic…

Group A:

• Olympique Marseille
• Liverpool
• FC Porto
• Besiktas

Liverpool was not looking too strong against FC Porto, but still managed a tie, and under Benitez’ wise tutelage, they remain a strong cup side, so I predict that they will succeed in continuing from the group. Olympique Marseille is far from old times’ greatness, and may have confidence after starting with 3 points against Turkish Besiktas. Nevertheless, I think FC Porto will prevail: with a bit more luck they could have taken out Liverpool, and have a strong attacking force.

Group B:

• Valencia
• Rosenborg
• Chelsea
• Schalke 04

Chelsea and Valencia are the obvious choices in this group where I think anyone will reduce Schalke 04 and Rosenborg to fight for the UEFA spot on third place. The two giants clashed in the quarterfinal last season, with Chelsea coming out victorious. This season, I think (and hope) Valencia will prevail to get the first spot: they started well with an away victory to Schalke 04, while a Chelsea team that has also looked shaky in the Premier League, only managed a tie in Trondheim. The Norwegians may be on their way into the UEFA Cup.

Group C:

• Real Madrid
• Lazio
• Olympiakos
• Werder Bremen

The Spanish champions will win this group. After selling the galacticos, I think real football will prevail in the club instead of fashion and design. They started by defeating a Werder Bremen side that has before given them trouble, and should be ready to defeat the others. Lazio and Werder Bremen will be having a tense fight for second spot in the group, with the defensive Italians being upset by a fighting Bremen side.

Group D:

• Shaktar Donetsk
• AC Milan
• Benfica
• Celtic

In this group AC Milan and Benfica are my obvious choices, and with AC Milan starting the whole thing with a victory against the Portuguese, I think they are in for a first spot. Shakhtar Donetsk started another good Champions League with a victory against the Glasgow Celtic, and it is likely these teams will be fighting for the third spot. Benfica, the Lisbon club with such great tradition and history, should get into the next round on second spot.

Group E:

• Barcelona
• Rangers
• Olympique Lyon
• VFB Stuttgart

Barcelona seems set for another good season, in spite of them not winning anything last season. They are still putting priority on entertaining attacking football, and young Lionel Messi is starting to shine brightly on the otherwise dark sky of great footballers today… They started with a sure 3-0 victory over Lyon and I think they will cruise through this group. The rest of the teams will be in a harsh fight for the second spot, which may be a true nail-biter. Lyon are still a strong team of talented youngsters and excellent foreigners, VFB Stuttgart are German champions, and Rangers should have confidence after defeating them. Hard to predict, but I go for Lyon, whom I have always felt sympathy for.

Group F:

• AS Roma
• Sporting Lisbon
• Manchester United
• Dynamo Kiev

Manchester United, defending English champions and with one of the most awesome young teams in Europe is likely in for the first spot, more so after starting with an away victory against Sporting in Lisbon. The only possible threat may be AS Roma: the often unpredictable Romans seems to be looking more stable, and started with a good 2-0 victory against Dynamo Kiev in Rome. They could upset Manchester, but I doubt they will, but should nevertheless take second spot.

Group G:

• Fenerbahce
• Inter Milan
• PSV Eindhoven
• CSKA Moscow

While many would have predicted Inter Milan, I think this group could be in for an upset. Fenerbahce, who apparently has bought some excellent new players, managed to defeat Inter in the first match, and PSV, full of young motivated players, also managed to defeat CSKA, and may also manage to upset the Italians. I only predict CSKA to be out of the race. Inter Milan should continue to next round, but I am not sure it will be on first spot. This will be one of the most interesting groups.

Group H:

• Arsenal
• Sevilla
• Slavia Prague
• Steua Bucharest

Arsenal for sure. They started out destroying the twice UEFA cup champions from Sevilla, who seemed surprised to see the different level in the highest European competition. However, as they are now in, I predict they will prevail against the other two sides. Admittedly, I know little of either Steua or Slavia (more of the formers good historical results), but I feel they should not be a threat to Sevilla.

Let us see how I do!

Champions League 2005-2006 semifinals

The result from last night's CL quarterfinals were quite predictable: Barcelona won 2-0 at home against Benfica, on beautiful strikes by Ronaldinho and Eto'o, while Arsenal defended well their 2-0 lead against an inefficiant Juventus side.

The semifinals are now as follows:

• Barcelona-AC Milan

A clash of giants, although Barcelona has been the most impressive this season. However, AC Milan have the routine and skills to upset the Catalonians. It will be two tight matches!

• Villarreal-Arsenal

Neither team has been so far in the Champions League before. Particularly Arsenal should be hungry for finally having some European glory. Villarreal are "the small ones" in every sense of the word, and Arsenal are likely to think they are in the final already. I have no problem admitting that my unconditional support is with the Spaniards.

But the best of luck to all fans of these great teams!

Champions League 2005-06: Last-16

There have been some interesting and intense matches in the last-16 of the Champions League. This round second leg matches were as follows:

Barcelona-Chelsea 1-1
Ronaldinho, Lampard

Although the 1-1 result may seem narrow, the truth over both matches is that Barcelona has been far superior to Chelsea. Although any team by now can win the competition, Barcelona must be a favourite, besides them playing beautifully.

Villarreal-Glasgow Rangers 1-1
Arruabarrena, Løvenkrands

Rangers did very well but is out after two ties. Villarreal is doing very well on their first CL ever, and will be a team to watch in the quarterfinals.

Juventus-Werder Bremen 2-1
Trezeguet, Emerson, Micoud

Had it not been for Werder Bremen's goalkeepers huge mistake in the dying minutes of the match, Bremen would have made the upset and eliminated the Italians. These were two very dramatic matches, and it must be a huge disappointment for the Germans. Juventus is not looking as strong as before, but can obviously go all the way.

Arsenal-Real Madrid 0-0

The 1-0 victory in Madrid was enough for Arsenal to eliminate Real Madrid. The Spaniards are heading to another title-less season, while Arsenal has its hopes set high on finally making a good show in Europe.

Liverpool-Benfica 0-2
Simao, Miccoli

The defending champions are out after a disappointing defeat at home, mostly characterized by great inefficiency in front of the goal. The Portuguese are looking strong, and may be on the way back to times of former glory. Don't forget that another Portuguese team, FC Porto, won the tournament only 2 years ago!

AC Milan-Bayern Munich 4-1
Inzaghi (2), Schevchenko, Kaka, Ismael

AC Milan are looking very strong, and is one of the most serious contenders to the title yet again. It is quite amazing to trash the German champions, who were looking very strong in the first round of the tournament.

Lyon-PSV Eindhoven 4-0
Tiago (2), Wiltord, Fred

After an away victory, Olympique Lyon confirmed its quarterfinal spot with a large victory against PSV. Lyon is playing very well, and this may well be their year. I would not be surprised to see them get very far, although a lot depends on the draw for the quarterfinals.

There is one match left: Inter-Ajax Amsterdam. It will be played next week, with Inter having a good result from the first match.

Champions League Last-16 draw

The first round of the UEFA Champions League ended with some surprises. The biggest was probably Manchester United's elimination in Group D. Meanwhile Glasgow Rangers managed to sqeeze through behind Inter Milan in Group H, while largely all the favourites continued on from the other groups.

Last week, the draw for the fixtures in the last-16 took place, with some very interesting matches ahead:

• Real Madrid-Arsenal

Two teams who are currently going through crises in their respective leagues, will be under great pressure to perform in the Champions League. I tip Arsenal to be the better at the moment though, as I do not believe in Madrid after their recent changes.

• Bayern Munich-AC Milan

This will be a classic clash between two of the greatest teams in Europe! Bayern Munich has been looking very strong lately, although the Milanese are never to be underestimated. Both are teams that can make it all the way.

• PSV Eindhoven-Olympique Lyon

PSV continues from its good performance of last season. However, they will surely have to play their best against a Lyon side that has been simply amazing this season. The French deserve to get very far in this tournament.

• Benfica-Liverpool

Liverpool is playing very well, and will continue figting hard to defend their title. Benfica showed strength however, when defeating Manchester United in their last match. I believe that Liverpool will prevail though.

• Chelsea-Barcelona

This is without any doubt the clash of titans. These are the two best teams in Europe at the moment, both leading their respective leagues, and playing awesome football, although very different styles indeed: Barcelona's magic attacking football, against Chelsea's strong defensive style. When they met last season, it was an amazing match, and it is sure to be again. This one is not to be missed!

• Glasgow Rangers-Villarreal

Glasgow Rangers made it through with their splendid fight. They will ahve to continue doing their best against a Villarreal side who won its group ahead of Benfica, Lille and Manchester United.

• Werder Bremen-Juventus

The Italians from Juventus are playing well at the moment. Werder Bremen continued from the group by destroying Panathinaikos 5-1, and depending on Barcelona defeating Udinese. The Germans will surely have their hands full against Juventus.

• Ajax Amsterdam-Inter Milan
  

Another classic match. Ajax is not as strong as in former times however, and Inter Milan's awesome strikers, led by Adriano, will be difficult to control for the Dutch defenders.

The first round of matches take place on February 21st and 22nd!

Manchester United on the way out?

It has been a very bad season so far for Manchester United. They have been unable to keep pace with the top in the Premier League, they have also had problems with the performance of their talented players, and some have been tarnished by scandals on and off the pitch (for instance the recent dismissal of Roy Keane, or Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo).

Tonight ManU's problems have become even more critical. Their performance on the Champions League has been meagre, and after today's match against Villarreal, they will be forced to get points in a very difficult match against Benfica in Lisbon, if they want to stay in the tournament.

Manchester has 6 points on 3rd spot of the Champions League group D, the same as Lille. Manchester must win against Benfica to be certain to qualify to the next round. A tie will not be enough in case Villarreal does not win against Lille. So all the pressure is on Manchester.