The champions league semifinals

It was great to see Atletico Madrid eliminate FC Barcelona from the Champions League. It would have been perfect if Borussia Dortmund had managed the miracle and and eliminated Real Madrid as well, while Chelsea did well to eliminate Paris St. Germain. In the meantime Bayern Munich were far superior to the poor Manchester United, a team that will not be in the Champions League next season.

The semifinals now look exciting: Atletico Madrid-Chelsea and Real Madrid-Bayern Munich.

Diego Simeone's men should no longer be underestimated at the face a Chelsea side where Jose Mourinho will undoubtedly study the Spanish side in depth and exploit every mistake.

Real Madrid-Bayern Munich is probably the match that most people would have expected to see in the final. Bayern Munich looks like the strongest, and Real Madrid cannot commit mistakes if they are serious about the title. Pep Guardiola knows Real Madrid well, having defeated them many times as Barcelona coach. It will surely be a match to watch!

Bayern Munich champions!

Until Saturday's final Borussia Dortmund was the only undefeated team in the Champions League. Still, Bayern Munich was the slight favourite after taking the German title and played outstanding football in the matches against FC Barcelona and Juventus. But this did not show in the beginning of the final where Dortmund seemed liked the team with most desire to win, and only some outstanding saves by Manuel Neuer kept Bayern Munich in the match. One can only speculate whether Dortmund's attacking force would have been even stronger had Mario Gotze played. But without goals Bayern Munich worked themselves into the match. Arjen Robben missed a couple of excellent chances, and one wondered whether the curse that seems to follow Robben would continue. However, in the last minutes of the match, with the score 1-1, Arjen Robben slipped through the defense and scored the winning goal for a relieved Bayern Munich, for whom losing the third CL final in four years would have been a devastating blow. Jupp Heynckes finished his coaching career with a second CL triumph (his first was as Real Madrid coach), and there will now be enormous pressure on Pep Guardiola when he takes over as new coach: how can he do better that a German championship, a CL triumph and a possible Cup victory (they are playing the final next week)? A pity for Borussia Dortmund, who has been building up a young competitive side for some years. This has already resulted in German championships and Cups, and plays good attacking football. Mario Gotze's farewell for next season will undoubtedly be a huge blow, and the team will also struggle to keep players such as Lewandowski and Marco Reus. But they will be in the CL again next season and will surely continue to be one of the most competitive sides in the tournament. But thanks to both teams for a great final, and congratulations to all Bayern Munich fans out there celebrating with a good pint of beer!

The German final

Without Lionel Messi Barcelona never seemed really to believe in a historic comeback from 0-4 down to Bayern Munich. And without Carles Puyol down in defense FC Barcelona looks like a pretty ordinary side. It must be time for some reflection and perhaps a new coach? Tito Vilanova simply is not cut out for leading the side. While he maybe a product of their football philosophy he made some wrong choices in a match where Bayern Munich's victory was never in danger.
Bayern on the other hand are simply perfect. In all aspects of the game they were superior, and I do not think there has ever been amore resounding semifinal trashing of 7-0 in CL history.
For the first time ever we will now see a purely German final (there have been purely Spanish, English and Italian finals over the last 13 years). At Wembley. Germany will invade London!
Bayern Munich will be favourites against Borussia Dortmund, who in the end suffered more than necessary against Real Madrid. Still, in a final anyone can win (just look at Chelsea last year!), and it will surely be an exciting and well-played final on May 25th!

Bundesliga-La Liga 8-1

Many people have been hoping for a Real Madrid-Barcelona CL final, but it seems that they will be wishing again. Last night Bayern Munich destroyed FC Barcelona, and today Borussia Dortmund was again superior to Real Madrid (they defeated them in the first round of this very same tournament) winning a resounding 4-1 victory against the Spaniards on a night when Robert Lewandowski became the first player ever to score four goals against Real Madrid in a European match. At times it seemed Dortmund could have made more goals, and Real Madrid was only saved by goalkeeper Diego Lopez and a huge defensive mistake by Mats Hummels that gave Cristiano Ronaldo a free chance to score.
Otherwise, it was a complete debacle for Real Madrid, and it would seem that the final in Wembley could be a Bundesliga final!
And that would be fantastic!

Mighty Bayern

I knew Bayern Munich was the best side of the four remaining in the CL. And I thought that Barcelona was the weakest side without a working Lionel Messi. But I never thought the difference would have been so large.
4-0!
Bayern Munich disproved the Barcelona mantra that you need to have the ball to be the better team; the Germans just let the Catalonians pass the ball around, but without fantasy or capacity to do anything with its possession, FC Barcelona begin to look ordinary. And without the real star of the team, Carles Puyol, to dominate defense, Barca basically begin to look like an ordinary side. In almost every attack Bayern Munich were more dangerous; Frank Ribery, Javi Martinez and Arjen Robben (with one goal) were all in complete control of Barcelona, while Thomas Muller (with 2 goals!), was another of the superstars of the side.
FC Barcelona has been considered the best team in the world over the last few years, but with this match they have been pushed from the throne, and although it is not certain yet who will replace them, Bayern Munich are surely candidates.
I cannot believe that Barcelona can recover from this defeat next week.

The Champions League semifinal

The 2012-13 Champions League semifinals will be as follows:

• Bayern Munich-FC Barcelona
• Real Madrid-Borussia Dortmund

Both semifinals are bound to be great matches.
But who are the best of the four teams?
It is not Barcelona. They just pass the ball around, and without Messi their attacking prowess is unimpressive. They are in fact the least scoring team of the four with 18 goals, eight of which have been scored by Messi, who also gas four assists, the same as their midfield general Xavi. Getting to the semifinal they have lost two matches, to Celtic and AC Milan, and after Paris St. Germain shook them, they are surely beatable. That said, their 4-0 trashing of AC Milan in the quarterfinal showed that FC Barcelona are surely capable of great things.
Real Madrid, with 23 goals, is the most scoring team of the tournament, and Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer of the tournament with 11 goals. But they rely less on Ronaldo than Barcelona on Messi, with a wide array of players giving the assists for Ronaldo, such as DiMaria (5 assists), Ozil (4 assists) or Benzema (4 assists). While they are a more complete team, their continued arrogance can shake them, such as Galatasaray did in the semifinal, or Borussia Dortmund did in the first round. Still, Mourinho is the best coach in the world and is hungry for a third CL title with a fourth club.
Bayern Munich looks as the best side of the four, and are eager for the title that eluded them a year ago. They have seemed to get stronger as the tournament progressed and their quarterfinal against Juventus and the last-16 away victory to Arsenal was a demonstration of power. If Bayern does not take the title it might well be the side that beats them. Still, they have been shaken; by Arsenal in the last-16 and by Lille in the first round, their two defeats in the tournament so far.
The only undefeated team of the four semifinalists is also the smallest (although still a big team. Do not forget they won the Champions League in1997!): Borussia Dortmund have won six and tied two of their matches, and this includes a 2-1 win and a 2-2 tie against Real Madrid in the first round. Their super youngsters on the midfield, Mario Gotze and Marco Reus, have been fantastic, and Robert Lewandowski a dangerous striker up front. Thet fully deserve their semifinal spot and I believe that if you are not a Real Madrid, a Barcelona or a Bayern Munich fan, but simply love football, you will be supporting Borussia Dortmund.
Be sure that I will.

The usual suspects

FC Barcelona "messied" themselves in the semifinal of the Champions League with 1-1 at home against a Paris St. Germain team that won some friends today, and surely deserved better than what happened today. The difference was Messi. Make no mistake; FC Barcelona are an outstanding side, but it is Messi that makes them outstanding, and I think that showed today.
In the meantime Bayern Munich was again powerful against Juventus, winning 2-0, and probably presenting themselves as favourites for the title that eluded them last year against Chelsea.
Yesterday Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund made it to the semifinals. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona were all in the semifinal last year as well, but it was the fourth side (Chelsea) who ran away with the title.
I hope the same happens this year.

The Dortmund comeback

Fantastic comeback by Borussia Dortmund in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal against Malaga. In the 82nd minute Eliseu brought Malaga ahead 2-1 and it seemed the Germans were out. But in the 91st minute Marco Reus equalized, and one minute later Dortmund brought euphoria to Dortmund scoring the winner that puts the Germans in the semifinal.
Do not mind that Santana was off-side; Eliseu was clearly off-side when he scored for Malaga, so a neutral observer could say that it was a deserved compensation for Dortmund, who were the better side in a fantastic match.
Malaga have been a great surprise in the tournament, but it is great to see Borussia Dortmund in the semifinal, and I sure would love to see them go all the way against the arrogant giants that are certain to be the other semifinalists.

Hope is alive

In the previous round of the Champions League FC Barcelona destroyed AC Milan 4-0 after having lost the first match in Italy 0-2. Today, in the first leg of the quarterfinal in Paris the Catalonians got 2-2. FC Barcelona was up 2-1 on goals by Messi and Xavi (on penalty) until the 93rd minute when Blaise Matuidi equalized for the French side to give them hope before the second leg in Barcelona.
In spite of Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring and David Beckham becoming the first player to play Champions League in four different sides, hope is the best that Paris St. Germain has before what will be a very difficult second leg

In today's other quarterfinal Bayern Munich was superior to Juventus in a 2-0 home victory where David Alaba scored after only one minute and Thomas Muller made it 2-0 in the second half.
Juventus' hope is that their defeat was not large enough and that they can pull back on the two goals.
But hope seems really to be the best that Juventus can take away from the first leg. Bayern Munich are currently playing extraordinary football, and as Paris St. Germain, they have a difficult second leg to look forward to.

But one more thing should give Paris St. Germain and Juventus hope: anything can happen in football!

The Champions League quarterfinals

The greatest surprise in this season's Champions League is that among the eight quarterfinalists there are no English sides, something quite unheard of over the last few years. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are of course there, followed by the surprise Spanish side, Malaga. Two very strong German teams, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are there, as are Juventus, Galatasaray and Paris St. Germain from Italy, Turkey and France respectively.
It is a refreshing batch of teams that were crossed the following way for the quarterfinals:

• Galatasaray-Real Madrid
• FC Barcelona-Paris St. Germain
• Bayern Munich-Juventus
• Malaga-Borussia Dortmund

Bayern Munich-Juventus is surely the most interesting match, although it will also be interesting to see the new multi-million ambitious side of Paris St. Germain take on FC Barcelona. Besides their spectacular match against AC Milan, FC Barcelona have not looked unbeatable this year, and the Parisians certainly have a chance if the hit the day.
But whatever happens, I do not hope it will be a Real Madrid-Barcelona final.

Zero-sum game

I don't want Spanish teams to be eliminated from the Champions League. On the contrary, I would love to see Valencia and Malaga, who both lost their first last-16 matches, to go through.
But there is nothing I wold like more than to see Real Madrid and FC Barcelona eliminated. So it was with delight that during a trip to Colombia I saw both struggle in their initial last-16 matches in the CL. Real Madrid fought their way to a 1-1 result at home to Manchester City, while FC Barcelona fell to a superior and intelligent AC Milan side 2-0 in Milano.
Both Manchester United and AC Milan know that there is a long and difficult match ahead, but truth is that they will be doing the football world a favour.
I am just tired that this rivalry defines football, blinding to the many other great teams. These two teams only exist for each other. Granted, it is fun to watch them play each other (as today, where Real Madrid trampled over a poor FC Barcelona side), but their glory is not a zero-sum game where ones loss is the others triumph! In fact, the loss of either side, in particular in the Spanish league, may propel other teams forward and give renewed excitement to a pretty lame league.
The same seems to be the case in the CL where the "dreamed" final between Real Madrid and Barcelona has fortunately not taken place, and hopefully won't.

The classy exit of the champions

The defending Champions League champions, Chelsea recently fired their coach, Roberto Di Matteo, after their latest defeat in the CL, 0-3 to Juventus. This meant that today they had to hope that Shakhtar Donetsk would defeat Juventus at home and themselves defeat FC Nordsjaelland. And under the new coach, Rafa Benitez, the defending champions did all they could to defend their title against a meager Danish side. 6-1 was the final score, but it was not enough.  Juventus won 0-1 in Donetsk, meaning that both the Italians and the Ukranians continue to the next round.
Chelsea are out, but it was a classy exit, and it will be interesting to see Rafa Benitez in his new (temporary) role as Chelsea manager.

Victors and losers

The group stages of the 2012-13 Champions League are coming to an end, and there were some interesting matches today.  In group C Malaga has been unbeaten and were sure to finish first before today's final match against Anderlecht. Things were different for the Belgians, who needed to win to at least get an Europa League spot. It did not help them that AC Milan lost 0-1 at home to Zenit St. Petersburg. Still, it was a splendid match in Malaga, where the Andalucians went twice ahead on two great goals by Duda, while Milan Jovanovic and Dieudonne Mbokani also scored two beautiful goals to equalize. In the end Anderlecht came really close to the victory but were prevented by goakeeper Idris Kamenei.
A great match and a pity to see Anderlecht out, but it will be equally interesting to follow a very interesting Malaga side in the next rounds. AC Milan follows them on second spot in spite of their defeat.
In group D Borussia Dortmund has been awesome and sealed their first spot by defeating a meager Manchester City side 1-0. The English champions are thus out of European football for the season, while Ajax squeezed into the Europa League with poor four points after being destroyed 4-1 by Real Madrid, where it was excellent to see the great Kaka score a beautiful goal for the Spaniards.
In group A Paris Saint Germain defeated FC Porto 2-1 in a group final to take first spot, while in group B Arsenal missed the first spot by losing 2-1 to Olympiakos (who makes it to the Europa League), but Schalke 04 takes first spot with a 1-1 result against French champions of Montpellier.
Tomorrow they will be playing the final matches of the last four groups.

The cruel fate of Di Matteo

Last March Roberto Di Matteo became interim coach for Chelsea at a moment when the Londoners were in crisis. Within a few months he guided Chelsea to the FA Cup title and to their first Champions League title ever. Within a few weeks he was no longer interim, but permanent manager. Now, barely six months after taking Chelsea to the greatest triumph in its history Di Matteo has been fired after some disappointing results. They are "only" third in the Premier League and are struggling in the Champions League were Juventus' 3-0 win over them sealed Di Matteo's fate.
A cruel fate, to be hailed and then fired within the same year! And one has to doubt whether this is not a too hasty decision by Chelsea's management: Di Matteo may have given rapid success, but he had a strong team, where there have been changes since last season (they lost their star player, Didier Drogba!). One would think that a manager needs time to build up a competitive team!
But no, short-term thinking is the rule in Chelsea, just as it is in other teams that think they can buy quick success, and where loyalty only reaches to their wallets.
There are rumours now about a new coach. Rafa Benitez has been mentioned, but in some places only as "interim" if Chelsea can get hold of Pep Guardiola.
I think everyone is "interim" in Chelsea.

Stop crying

FC Nordsjaelland lost 2-5 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk, but the most talked about thing about the match was a goal Adriano scored at the score 1-0 for the Danes, when he picked up a ball that was supposed to be returned to the Danes after fair-play situation.
Of course it is totally against the ideals of fair-play what Adriano did. But it is not against the rules. You cannot be sentenced for being an asshole, but you can for doing something illegal.
Perhaps FC Nordsjaelland should be thankful: they can complain that they were cheated so that everyone can forget that they got their butts kicked!

Valencia and Bayern Munich through

In the economic crisis Valencia has been in for years they need any penny they can get, so to get as far as possible in the Champions League is part of this.  In the CL Group F they were today playing at home against Bayern Munich. A tie would put both teams through as Bate Borisov lost to the last-placed Lille at home, diminishing their own chances to go through. With a victory, Valencia could even look at winning the group, so it was a disappointing start to the game as Valencia's first real chance only came 30 minutes into a pretty lame match, where both teams at first seemed happy with a tie. However, when Antonio Barragan got a red card for Valencia, it seemed that 10 men played better than they had before! Fifteen minutes from the end Valencia went ahead on a goal by Sofiane Feghouli, and understandably Valencia celebrated like crazy. But only a few minutes later Thomas Muller equalized for Bayern.
Valencia could still go through on first spot by defeating Lille and hoping Bayern does not defeat Bate Borisov at home, but that seems unlikely, and Valencia should just be delighted to be in the next round to keep those Euros flowing in...

Great Celtic

Even though Celtic play in the world's most boring league, their victory today against the leaders of the world's second most boring league was truly impressive. Because no matter how you turn things, FC Barcelona are a much better football team than Celtic. But the beauty of football is that sometimes David beats Goliath. Two weeks ago Celtic were close to tying Barcelona away, and it was some of the same tough, defensive style, with good counterattacking, that gave them today's important victory, that puts them ahead of Benfica to take the second spot in the group. In other matches of this round of the champions league, Real Madrid tied 2-2 at home to Borussia Dortmund, who are set to take the first spot in the group, where Manchester City are on their way out after 2-2 at home to Ajax Amsterdam. While Manchester City were dreadful in the first half they were rightfully angry with the Danish referee who cheated them for a goal and a penalty in the second half, favouring a Dutch side full of Danish players.

Cool little guys

Some teams do not have the quality to be competitive in the UEFA Champions League, but they are nevertheless fun to include due to the occasional upsets they can cause in the tournament. There is no doubt that FC Nordsjaelland, the 2012 Danish championship side, is one of these sides. In their first two matches they lost 2-0 and 0-4 to Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea respectively, although nice and polite things have been said about their style. Today at home against Juventus they were looking for their first goal.
I watched the match on ESPN, where the Latin American commentators spend around 10 minutes talking about the great Michael Laudrup, whose son Andreas plays for FC Nordsjaelland. But as the game progressed they had only admiring words to say about the dedication of the tenacity of the Danes against the Italians. Some five minutes into the second half Mikkel Beckmann scored the first CL goal for the Danes on a splendidly taken free kick, and then the match became more fun as everyone was expecting one of the occasional upsets in the CL. Although goalkeeper Jesper Hansen had some amazing saves against the Italians, Mirko Vucinic in the end managed to equalize for the Italians.
The match ended 1-1, and FC Nordsjaelland may be a bit disappointed, but truth is that Juventus remains a far better team than the Danes, who have now made a little upset against the Italian champions. Pretty cool for some little guys, but that is also what it will remain.

Oscar's first goals

It is fantastic to have the Champions League back, the best football on the planet. And not least to start with some excellent matches! Firstly, Real Madrid's hard-fought 3-2 victory against Manchester City, and secondly, today's match between the defending champions of Chelsea, and the Italian champions of Juventus.
This summer Chelsea bought a young Brazilian from Internacional from Porto Alegre, Oscar. He has for a while been one of the many Brazilian talents, and has had success in the Brazilian league and in his first matches on the senior Brazilian national team. He has also had some injuries, but his move to Europe probably came at the right time. And against Juventus today he showed that he may have great potential on making his name in Chelsea: he scored the English team's first two goals, and in particular his second goal was a beauty!
Oscar's two goals were nevertheless not enough to give Chelsea the victory in a great match. Arturo Vidal and Fabio Quagliarella scored for Juventus to give them an excellent 2-2 result at Stamford Bridge.

The Champions League qualifiers

I must openly admit that I was fearing Denmark would for the first time ever have two teams in the CL. Not because I have anything against Denmark with two teams, but it depends on which two teams. And while I think it is great FC Nordsjaelland will play their first CL ever, I am not in favour of FC Copenhagen, so I was delighted when Lille won 2-0 in a hard-fought extra time match.
France will have three teams in the Champions League this season.
Braga defeated Italian Udinese to join FC Porto and Benfica as the three Portuguese sides, while Italy was left with only two sides.
Borussia Monchengladbach was eliminated by Dynamo Kiev to leave only three German sides, Bayern Munich, Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund.
Malaga will also be playing their first Champions League ever, after eliminating Panathinaikos, to complete four Spanish sides. Only Spain and England have four sides represented, but it still remains clear which is the best league in the world: the Premier League is represented by four teams, all qualified directly, three of which are in the top seed: Manchester United, Arsenal and the defending champions of Chelsea. It should be noted that the English champions, Manchester City, are not top seeds!
All in all, there is a great variation of interesting teams from different countries:

• Spain: Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia
• England: Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea
• Italy: AC Milan, Juventus
• France: Lille, Paris St. Germain, Montpellier
• Germany:  Bayern Munich, Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund
• Portugal:  Benfica, Braga, FC Porto
• Ukraine: Dynamo Kiev, Shakhtar Donetsk
• Russia: Zenit St. Petersburg, Spartak Moscow
• Greece: Olympiacos
• Netherlands: Ajax Amsterdam
• Belgium: Anderlecht
• Turkey: Galatasaray
• Scotland: Celtic
• Belarus: Bate Borisov
• Croatia: Dynamo Zagreb
• Romania: CFR Cluj
• Denmark: FC Nordsjaelland

The draw for the groups is on Friday.