Bad week for Valencia

After falling in the Champions League midweek, Valencia only need to concentrate on keeping the third spot in the Spanish league in order to make it back to the Champions League next season. I got ready for the match against Zaragoza after the gym, a bit in the pool, and the Manchester United-Arsenal match (2-0, putting United in the semifinals of the FA Cup, and also a bad week for Arsenal). I got myself a six-pack of Solera-Verde beer, and was in the mood for a good Valencia match! But I stopped watching at half-time. Valencia played like a bunch of leg-less chicken. Nothing worked, and Zaragoza, who is struggling to get away from the relegation area on the table, won 4-0. Valencia had not lost by four goals since 2008, to FC Barcelona.

More quarterfinalists

It seems that all Italian teams are on the way out of the Champions League: today it was AC Milan. After losing 0-1 at home to Tottenham, the Italians were unable to score in London, and 0-0 was enough for the English to progress to the quarterfinals for the first time ever. Last Italian team left is Inter, who lost 0-1 at home to Bayern Munich, so they will surely have a difficult time keeping up Italy's place in the Champions League.

Schalke 04 defeated Valencia 3-1 to make it to the quarterfinals. On a personal note, this is of course disappointing, but I knew it would be hard after 1-1 in Valencia, and knowing the fact that Valencia has always had it difficult with German sides. That said, Schalke 04 are surely a strong team that will give any team a good fight!
It was to be no different, but I am happy that Valencia this season, after selling out previous' season's stars, did it far better in the CL than I was expecting, and that they seem to be heading back there next season.
Amunt Valencia!

Barcelona and Shakhtar

I think that most people were expecting that Barcelona would be able to defeat Arsenal, which they also did, 3-1 tonight, to qualify for the quartefinals of the Champions League. What less people, including myself, were probably not expecting is that Arsenal would play so bad! In spite of a bad referee, 3-1 was pretty lucky, although Barcelona's attack was also somewhat inefficient; David Villa had a really bad day and Manuel Almunia had a great day in Arsenal's goal after he came in as a substitute. Still, it seems incredible that Arsenal managed to score a goal, when they didn't even have a shot on goal: their goal was an own-goal by Barcelona's Sergio Busquets where he seemed to have had a brain diahrrea, heading it into his own goal.
Arsenal are a great team, and their victory in the first match was well-deserved. However, after tonight's disappointing match, they will not be missed in the quarterfinals.

Shakhtar Donetsk is one of those brilliant but rather unknown teams, that has only become better and better over the last seasons. This season they are undefeated at home, where they have also not lost for more than two years! It was therefore looking good against a lame Roma side whom they had defeated 2-3 in Rome. Although Roma had its possibility with a missed penalty kick, Shakhtar Donetsk was otherwise brilliant and deservedly won 3-0. Roma's players resorted to violent frustration, but a friendly referee forgave them what should have been red cards.
Roma will not be missed, but any team that faces Shakhtar Donetsk in the quarterfinals should not underestimate this strong Ukrainian side!

Excellent Liverpool

Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish is on the rise. Some of the new signings of the season, notably Raul Meirelles, and lately Luis Suarez, have blended well into the team. Today, Liverpool played their rivals of Manchester United, who is leading the league, in what was an expected match in the English Premier League. And this time, Liverpool was simply much better than a quite lame Manchester side: 3-1 was not one goal too little. All goals were scored by the Dutchman Dirk Kuyt, but what mostly characterised the match was an excellent team effort that made Machester United look ordinary.

Liverpool has had a habit of playing well against the big teams, but then pull bad results against smaller teams. It remains to be seen whether Kenny Dalglish can break this habit, as Liverpool is again looking towards the top five spots of the league. After today's victory, there is surely reason to be optimistic for Liverpool.

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!