Istanbul to Athens!!

While the never-ending cricket season continues, the football season is coming to an end. Manchester United have regained the coveted Premier League. The FA cup final promises to be a cracker. While United will be looking to add insult to injury on Chelsea, Maurinho will be looking for his first FA cup win in probably his last attempt as rumors say that the Porugese is on his way out of Stamford Bridge.





Meanwhile in Spain its getting too close,

CLUBS P W D L F A GD PTS
Barcelona 33 19 8 6 63 29 34 65
Real Madrid 33 19 6 8 51 31 20 63
Sevilla 33 18 7 8 57 31 26 61
Valencia 33 18 5 10 47 32 15 59

The Catalans' superior goal difference means that, they can afford to drop a couple of points and yet retain the La Liga title.

But I have not yet talked about the big one. (Ab ek phata hua, Dk se bhi zyada) All galis, roads, flights, trains lead to Athens (Desi- remember last year's bet on Liverpool/Lyon. Probably you should have betted on them this year) But, to me Milan are the favorites. No, not the revenge factor.



I just feel they are a much better side. Gattuso and Pirlo will do Gerrard what they did to United's Ronaldo. The back four looks solid despite the average age touching the 33-34 mark. Inzaghi and Gilardino are taking the chances when they come in spite of being not-so spectacular. I think till now, the players I have mentioned, Liverpool have an answer. If you have Pirlo we have Gerrard, if you have Gattuso we have Alonso, if you have Maldini we have Risse, if you have Inzaghi we have Crouch. But I think you might have guessed by now, Liverpool wont have answer to the question if you have KAKA!!






Its the old hindi cricket commentator's comment 'Inki jitni tareef ki jaye utna hi cum hoga'!! I know, there will be some Liverpool fans who wont agree to what I am saying. But, I think we should wait for the 23 night now before further discussions. Anyway, while its hard for the two teams to provide us the same drama which they did two years back, even if its 10% as exciting, it should be fun. It does promise to be an absolute cracker.

Technorati Tags
UEFA ACMilan ManU Liverpool Barcelona LaLiga Chelsea

Rooney, Kaka! Kaka, Rooney!

The fight for European supremacy continues as Milan took on Man U in England in the first leg of UEFA Champions league’s first semifinal last night. Manchester united, injury struck and card struck came on without Gary Neville, Ferdinand and Vidic and Evra and Heinze took the defensive responsibilities. Milan knew that they just have to hold the fort in this match and with all the injuries and cards ManU will have a tough task in the next leg.

Saurabh, anand and dk decided to run a parallel game of scrabble as the referee blew the whistle, we set the board and got ready and then came the noise, GOAL, already. Five minutes in the game, and a Ronaldo head gets the ball behind the bars. Controversial though, whether it should have been a Dida own goal, who in attempt to keep the ball away from heading Heinze touches the ball in the net. Manchester united one up.

I am always on the losing side when Saurabh takes on scrabble, but it was my lucky dayJ, Saurabh was already angry on Man U’s pass-it-long tactics as I made progress. And suddenly we discovered God, Kaka, making the defence realize that they lack some players, single handedly took one to the brink and finished it beautifully. 22 minutes in the game and its open yet again. Saurabh happy, anand happy and Vivek gets up.

Kaka makes his presence felt again and doesn’t take long to do the same, 15 minutes later, on again he dodges the defenders, leaving Heinze and Evra colliding, one on one with Van Der Sar makes it 2-1, beautiful goal!! On away ground Milan is leading inside the first half and scrabble lays secluded in some corner of our room, poor game!

Soon with a carry over yellow card already, Evra gets himself booked, making the Milan visit next week a tourist bonanza as Milan pushes them. Half time changes, discussions, strategies happen and Man U strikes back in 59^th minute. Rooney gets it for his team making the score 2-2, game on! (I am winning a scrabble game for the first time, yo yo yo)

A yellow to Kaka, one to Giggs, one to new kid Bonera, the game looks all set to go winnerless, Rooney gets the crowd erupted by hitting one in injury time, and I have won my first game J and Manchester united pulls this game back from behind leaving behind the Kaka-embarrassment to strike a claim for the European championship.

Is it going to be a complete Chelsea Vs Man U season everywhere, let’s find out tonight!

Image source : UEFA

Technorati Tags:kaka, rooney, manu, ac milan, uefa

A Prelude to Glory!

UEFA Champions League Semi Finals!!!!

Tonight Manchester United hosts Milan and tomorrow Liverpool goes to Chelsea's Home . Just before the semis, people speak:

"We're not far from winning the Champions League, even if it's not this season then next," the striker told uefa.com. "The team is getting more experience. We don't give up and we will win it." – Drogba

“We have enough quality but you can say that about all four teams in the semi-finals – everyone has to be at their best and show it on the pitch," – Sir Alex Ferguson

"They play wonderful football, especially here, so what happened against Roma will have no impact on our dressing room and how we approach the game. I'm proud to be here and be captain of my team. We're motivated by the fact we want to win the Champions League, which has been our main aim throughout this season. We have always been a leading club in Europe, and Italy, over the last 20 years and we want to show why."- Maldini

Source : UEFA

World after UEFA Matchday 7 - I

Matchday 7, first leg, teams travelling around the europe and eight pretty close matches, I don't say this, this stats speak, 1 draw of the opening day and 3 on the following, and the victories also of just single goal margin. Platform is pretty well laid for the first week of february encounters. Lets have a brief look at the matches.

Day - 1

Celtic hosts European giants Milan, and share honours on their home ground, Celtic is an unpredictably good team strengthened by players like Nakamura and Naylor and they were able to keep Milan devoid of any outside success that they were hoping, but life will not be easy for the scottish when to travel to Milan. No prizes for guessing, my money on Milan. (Celtic 0-0 Milan)

Gunners, love you hate you. Being an avid Indian cricket fan, Arsenal has to be my favourite club, it's so much like Indian cricket team, too unpredictable for their ability. PSV, lost their last game and came back strongly to beat the previous year finalists just to keep their hopes on, but remember, I said unpredictable, and at home gunners can be demoralizingly brutal, PSV wants a draw, Let's see. Ah, 60-40 Arsenal! (PSV 1-0 Arsenal)

History and Revenge, Controversies and Chaos, game on! Lille home, Giggs dido and Manchester United continues the 20 year celebration of great manager-giri. Life seems to be difficult for the French club after losing their backyard encounter. And if Lille plays this years quarter final, book a DVD of Manchester United - Lille 7th Mar match already, because it will be a miracle.(Lille 0-1 Man U)

And finally the match we Indian could see live (Thank you so much Ten Sports), Two historic European champions ( Read UEFA retrospect articles) and a expectedly fan treat on plate. The match started and it started raining goals! Raul, then Lucio equalizes, then Raul again (lucky he, it should have been Helguera's) making it 2-1 and then Rudd van taking it to a comfortable 3-1, and it says only 34 minutes, and when it looked like a landslide, Van bommel appeared and made the scene look different a late goal and the scoreline says 3-2. A real victory but with 2 away goals makes Bayern happy, they just need to get a 1-0 victory when real visits them. Wearing a cannavaro t-shirt right now, but I think it will be Bayern to proceed. (Real 3-2 Bayern).

Technorati Tags
UEFA Liverpool ManchesterUnited Arsenal Helguera Giggs Celtic AcMilan

UEFA Champion's League Schedule

Analysis, Criticism, Predictions, Teams, Coaches, Practices, Transfers, Rivalries, Away Goals, Fans, Articles and another hundred kinds of blah blah, the game is back and those 90 minutes which matter the most. So all those critics, experts Shhhhhhhh, sit back, grab your beer cans and watch the action. And ask your secretaries to schedule your meetings accordingly!

Matches on 20 Feb and 7 March

Celtic - Milan

PSV - Arsenal

Lille - Man. United

Real Madrid - Bayern

---------------------------

Matches on 21 Feb and 6 Mar

Roma - Lyon

Barcelona - Liverpool

Porto - Chelsea

Internazionale - Valencia

Who's getting your support?

UEFA Champion's League in Retrospect- Episode II

Clubs D'Honneur

Liverpool

When we talk about passion, when we talk about die hard rooters of a club, when we talk about the complete English football time line and the giant, we talk about Liverpool. The most impressive English club in the European championship would be none other than The reds who have been crowned the European champions five times, only behind Real Madrid and AC Milan.

If Madrid was the flavor of the late fifties then Liverpool were the rulers in late seventies and early eighties with likes of Keegan and his replacement Dalgish, Paisley and Kennedy. They won in 1976-77,1977-78,1980-81 and 1983-84. But after that victory came late, too late. There is no doubts that this was the time of the Reds, they saw all these victories and they welcomed Stevie on 30 may 1980, who eventually (and currently) turned out to be the spearhead of the pool attack, driven by his control over the complete pitch, Liverpool won the 2004-2005 beating Milan in an unforgettable final.

Come 2007 and they fight the defending champions FC Barcelona for a quarter final berth. It’s a beautiful example of a complete fusion of agony and pleasure for the football lovers all over as they see their favorite teams fight out in the knockout stage just to see a good team exit early. Very much the match of this stage, Barca Vs Pool!

AC Milan

La liga team already in, English football supremacy also discovered, another league that would complete the trilogy is Italian Serie A and the team is meeelaan! AC Milan have been the European champions six times. They’ve played quite too many finals, as may as 10 and were there fighting it out with Liverpool two years back. They were the champions in 1962-63, 1968-69, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1993-94, 2002-03 beating Benfica, Ajax, Steaua Bucuresti, Benfica again, Barcelona and Juventus respectively.

The Rossoneris have dominated the game for a lot of time in their part of the world and have been the Italian bosses most of the time overcoming threats from home rivals Inter, and league rival Juventus and Roma. Driven by the forces of Marco van Basten, Massaro, Shevchenko, Maldini, Rijkaard during their times in the complete timeline, the Milan fans have been delighted time and time again by phenomenal display of modern day football.

Come 2006-07 and Milan see controversies, the match fixing scandal, Shevchenko moving to Chelsea, Dida’s injury, the aggressive Milan crowd and the fan fiasco. They have had a torrid time. They take on Scottish team Celtic in the initial knockout stages, and with Kaka’s reverent presence this gate should not be a difficult one to cross. At least the fans feel so and they go meeelaan meeelaan again!

There is More to follow!

TrackBack: UEFA Champion's League in Retrospect- Episode I