City's legendary Champions

 Manchester City managed to do what they have been trying to for years: win the Champions League. It was was not elegant, and they played a nervous and poor match despite being full favourites against Inter Milan, who with more precision could or should have scored. In the end Rodri's precise strike in one of the few good moments created by City gave them the victory.

A pity for the Italians, but seen overall, City are the best team in the world right now, particularly proven by their performances against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid earlier in the tournament. Guardiola was given time to forge a strong side of complete players, even though results were absent in the first years, and that is a lot of credit to the club's owners, who now see their team sweep aside all opposition, and become the first team to win the treble since Manchester United in 1999.

So truly a historical victory for a team that will go into history, and congratulations to its fans.

Real demolition

Although Manchester City were probably slight favourites against Real Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semifinal, it was somewhat of a surprise that the English side was in fact far superior to the defending champions. 

High pressure, possession and passes, and only Thibaut Courtois saved the Spaniards from only being behind 2-0 at halftime, on two goals by Bernardo Silva. One would have expected Real Madrid to hit back in the second half, but they basically proved powerless against the continued pressure and a total midfield dominance by Manchester City (in particular Rodri was brilliant). Manuel Akanji made it 3-0, while Julian Alvarez sealed it to 4-0 shortly after coming on for Erling Haaland. 

Manchester City will face Inter Milan in the final on June 10th in Istanbul, and are surely favourites to take their first Champions League title. Inter Milan nevertheless looked strong in their defeat against their local rivals from AC Milan, and it is bound to be an exciting and closely fought final.

The semifinalists

The Champions League 2022-23 semifinals will be two of the most exciting semifinals for a long time, with a potentially historical final.

Real Madrid-Manchester City

Surely two of the sides everyone expected to see in the final. The defending champions of Real Madrid have not been as lucky as last season, but have rather looked solid in particular in their defeat of Chelsea. In the meantime Manchester City must surely be seeing themselves as potential winners of their first CL title in particular as they were quick in trashing a usually strong Bayern Munich, who is looking to reconstruct the team under Tuchel. Both of these teams are potential champions.

Inter Milan-AC Milan

After so many years during which Italian teams have been absent, there will surely be a finalist from Italy this year. Last time an Italian team was in the final was Juventus in 2017, and last time an Italian team won was Inter Milan in 2010. Inter are again in the semifinal and it will be a local derby as they face AC Milan, who took out the Seria A leader of Napoli. As everyone knows, when these teams play, anyone can win, so it will surely be a clash to watch.

If the final happens to be Real Madrid-Milan, it will be the two most winning sides in European champions' history, so that itself will be historical. But no matter what happens, history is in the making.

The PSG stars are out again

 Paris St. Germain are a team of superstars, but as everyone knows you cannot construct a team just by superstars, and the Parisians were up against the wall as they faced Bayern Munich in Munich. And Bayern Munich are certainly also a team of superstars, but who to a much greater degree play like a team, and with tactical discipline and intelligence closed down the great potential threats posed by Messi and Mbappé.

PSG had their chances in the first half, and should have been ahead had it not been for a spectacular goalline clearance by Matthijs de Ligt. 0-0 at halftime, PSG still had hope, but Bayern Munich were far superior in the second half, with Eric Choupo-Moting bringing the Germans ahead after a clumsy mistake by Marco Verratti. And as PSG put everything forward, Serge Gnabry elegantly brought Bayern ahead 2-0 in the last minute of the match, and PSG's stars are again out.

This will surely cost Christophe Galtier his job, but the problem goes much deeper that the manager. You need to build a team!

VAR overreach

The last-16 Champions League match between Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund was rightfully a highly expected affair, and it was indeed a great match until the VAR intervened. Chelsea went ahead, and equalized the tie, on a somewhat lucky but skillful strike by Raheem Sterling, but at the same time Dortmund were playing a great match that could go to either side.

But for 2-0 for Chelsea I think VAR overreached. Indeed, VAR was generally correct, and it was also correct when the handball inside the area was awarded although it was what would be called a "harsh" call, that in many cases would not be called. But the overreached happened in the penalty kick when Kai Havertz kick on the post had to be retaken because of what was called "encroachment" into the box. Havertz scored in the new kick, and gave Chelsea the victory.

Not an undeserved result by itself, but the "encroachment" call was weird to say the least, because nothing happened that doesn't happen in every penalty kick at that level, and Havertz surely did not miss because of the so-called "encroachment". Instead, it seemed only like Havertz was given a new chance that would never have been given otherwise.

VAR is generally used well at this level, without (too many) ridiculous breaks, but in this case it seemed like total overreach, which was surely a pity for what was otherwise a great match,

 

First Champions League knock out round

Yesterday I escaped from the office to watch the highly expected clash between Bayern Munich and Paris St. Germain. In Paris, the highly rated French side (Bayern's lineup had more Frenchmen than the Parisian side showing the true Europeanisation of European football) were supposed to pull a good result before a return match in Munich, but were unable to in a match where the German team was superior throughout the match, and although Donnarumma should have caught Kingsley Coman's winning goal, the victory was fully deserved. The side with Messi, Neymar, Marquinhos, Mbappe, does simply not show any seeworthy and efficient football, and are likely again out of the CL.

In the meantime Tottenham lost 0-1 to AC Milan, but an exciting match awaits back in London.

Today I also managed to watch most of Borussia Dortmund against Chelsea. Chelsea's new players Joao Felix, Enzo Fernandez and Mikhailo Mudryk were all on the pitch and played a fine match where Chelsea could have deserved a goal, but in the end the German side won a good match on a splendid counterattacking goal by Karim Adeyemi. It all points to an exciting return match in London!

In the meantime, Benfica defeated Club Brugge 0-2 in Belgium, and are already looking towards a quarterfinal.

While I was gone

For the past three weeks I have talked a lot of football, but barely watched any, as I have been participating in the Budapest-Bamako rally. This has of course been a challenging but awesome experience, but in the meantime many things have happened in the football world, as we approach the coming World Cup. 

The most important action happened in the Champions League, where the group stages finalised with some surprising, and some less surprising results. Spanish teams did particularly badly: former finalists of Atletico Madrid ended dead last in Group B, while FC Barcelona and Sevilla made it to third place in groups C and G respectively, and in particular Barcelona was a disappointment, losing 0-3 to Bayern Munich at home. Real Madrid are the only Spanish team through, as winners of group F, ahead of RB Leipzig.

Portuguese teams on the other hand have looked strong: Porto and Benfica are through as group winners, the latter ahead of mighty Paris St. Germain, through goal difference after defeating Maccabi Haifa 1-6 in the last match.

The German Bundesliga and the English Premier League are well represented in the knock-out phases. In the former case, Bayern Munich went through as winners of group C, while Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund are all through as runners-up. In the case of the four English teams, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City, all went through as group winners, while Liverpool went through as runners-up in group A, despite defeating the group winners of Napoli in the final match.

Italian teams have been strong, in particular Napoli, winning their group A ahead of Liverpool, but also Inter Milan and AC Milan going through as runners-up of groups C and E respectively. The disappointment was Juventus in group H, who were no match for Benfica and Paris St. Germain.

Finally, one Belgian team went through: Club Brugge as runners up in Group B, behind Porto, after heaviliy losing the final match 0-4 to the Portuguese, but at the same time ahead of Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid.

The knock-out matches, scheduled for February next year, looks as follows:

• RB Leipzig-Manchester City
• Club Brugge-Benfica
• Liverpool-Real Madrid
• Tottenham-AC Milan
• Eintracht Frankfurt-Napoli
• Chelsea-Borussia Dortmund
• Inter Milan-Porto
• Bayern Munich-Paris St. Germain

I need not say (but will anyway), that the matches most fans will be watching for are Liverpool-Real Madrid and Bayern Munich-PSG; although all matches will be fantastic!

Most leagues are shutting down this week, as players either go on leave or to joing their national teams for the World Cup. Some exciting weeks are ahead!

Champions League 2022-23 draw

Seasons have started and football is on the go. I have nevertheless had busy months, with a lot of things in my head (both good and bad), and football has come a bit in the background, and I have not seen much, although been following the news and the start of the new leagues, interesting changes and discussions.

Sometimes we just go through these stages in life.

But as a warm up to an exciting new season we today had the draw for the Champions league:

Group A: 

• Liverpool
• Ajax Amsterdam
• Glasgow Rangers
• Napoli. 

An exciting group where Liverpool would appear as the favourites, but the English side has not started the season well, while Napoli and Ajax Amsterdam are looking to progress as well.

Group B: 

• Atletico Madrid
• Bayer Leverkusen
• FC Porto
• Club Brugge

Atletico Madrid are the natural favourites in a group where the defending Portuguese champions are favourites to go along with the Spaniards, with Brugge and Leverkusen looking to cause an upset.

Group C: 

• Bayern Munich
• FC Barcelona
• Inter Milan
• Viktoria Plzen

This appears as the group of death, with Bayern Munich and Barcelona looking for another of their many epic clashes, but also with the Italian giants with good options to progress. The Czech champions will not be given many odds by many, so they can only surprise.

Group D:

• Eintracht Frankfurt
• Marseille
• Tottenham Hotspurs
• Sporting Lisbon

Eintracht Frankfurt will look to continue European success from the Europa League in the Champions League in a group where all the other teams nevertheless are ambitious and have options at continuing to the next round. They will all compete.

Group E:

• AC Milan
• Chelsea
• RB Salzburg
• Dynamo Zagreb

AC Milan and Chelsea are the likely winners of the group, but both the Austrian and Croatian champions could create an upset. 

Group F:  

• Real Madrid
• RB Leipzig
• Shakhtar Donetsk
• Celtic

The defending champions of Real Madrid have gotten a group that they will surely be happy about. Although there are no easy groups in the CL, the Spaniards are huge favourites, with all three other teams looking to fight for the runner-up position.

Group G: 

• Manchester City
• Sevilla
• Borussia Dortmund
• FC Copenhagen

An interesting group with three giants and FC Copenhagen. The Danes have caused surprise before, but will have to do their best to fight against these three giants. Manchester City may again appear the favourite, but the experience of Sevilla and Dortmund may take either side on the first spot.

Group H: 

• Paris St. Germain
• Maccabi Haifa
• Juventus
• Benfica

PSG are to try yet again ina group where Benfica and Juventus will be difficult teams to face. Nobody will expect anything from the Israeli champions, who will play with no pressure.