New blog

I am pleased to report i am now regularly writing for a new blog. If you wanna stay upto date with the latest in news gossip and reviews from the world of football, do check out http://footballsitrep.com/ 

preview -final Manchester United vs Barcelona

Barcelona took all the spoils last time the 2 sides met

Okay so the big moment has finally arrived. The battle of the giants! I really cannot stress enough what this means to both sides. For guardiola's men its another chance to display to their supremacy. To show the whole world(*honestly the UCL final seems to be more important than the w.c final*) why they are considered one of the greatest sides ever to have played the game!

For S.A.F's men, a chance to show that even when they may not have the star-studed sides of yesteryear, they can still compete with the very best and be consistent. Which we all know they have been especially at home in the league. 18 wins and 1 draw is quite the record, one which not even the all conquering catalan side can currently match.

But thats exactly the point here. United have been weak away from OT while barca haven't away from the camp nou. The location for the final, wembley provides an away stadium for both clubs so it should be very interesting to see how it pans out! People are arguing that wembley being in UK does act like more of a home to the red devils. One thing is for certain though, it is anticipated to be one of the greatest matches ever seen!

TEAM NEWS:
Okay so to team news now and the sides are very predictable. Barcelona are gonna line up something like this; valdes in goal, alves, puyol(*captain*) pique and abidal in defence. Busquets behind xavi and iniesta in midfield. Pedro, villa and messi up front!
United will be; van der sar in goal, rafael, ferdinand, vidic(*captain*) and evra in defence. Fletcher, giggs in midfield with park and valencia running down the flanks. Rooney playing 'in the hole' behind hernandez!

MIDFIELD BATTLE:
This match will pretty much be won and lost in midfield. From barca's pov, they need to have iniesta or xavi free to control the tempo of the game which they do so well. If both of these 2 isn't in space messi tends to drop very deep to recieve the ball as he did in the match against real. Pepe and alonso did to a very good job of holding down barca's two pivots in midfield and so messi was forced to drop deep to keep the play alive. If man united want to control this match they need to do exactly the same but with more fluidity. My guess is park will be used in more of a central role due to his never dying stamina and will most probably be right in between iniesta and xavi to pick up and loose balls or just stay with the runners. This may mean giggs will be given more of a free role to roam about the pitch.
The main concern for barca will be how to deal with united's no.10. Wayne rooney who has rediscovered his form and seems to now be flourishing in his new found role behind the central striker. If busquets is set to man-mark rooney then 1 of either giggs or park will always be free in midfield to recieve the ball when united are in possession and also, wayne rooney is also one of the most difficult players to man-mark so it will be interesting to see how that battles affect the game!

WING PLAY:
Both sides have very attack minded full backs. Alves' ability to get forward has been both praised and criticized. He provides a lot of assists from down the right and is very dangerous going forward but also leaves a huge gap in defense which can be exploited very efficiently be a counter attacking side like manchester untied. Although it is probable that just like the match against real, where alves was completely pinned back by the forward runs of di maria, he will be forced back once again by either rooney or park running down uniteds left hand side! Also expect abidal to have one of the toughest nights of his lives against valencia. The ecuadorian international has been in magnificent form since his return from injury and abidal certainly has a very tough task to contain him. One though he can accomplish when on his game. His recent return from a tumor removal operation will be a key factor in how well he plays though one can expect united to dominate that part of the pitch
Barcelona arent really fans of wing play, concentrating most of their attacks down the center. Both the wingers, messi and pedro love to come inside on their stronger feet and have a strike at goal. The main problem for united will be pedro runnnig at rafael. The full back's ability to loose his cool has been seen quite a few times and although he can be at times brilliant, like in last years match against bayern where he didn let ribery move even, he has a tendency for the odd mistimed tackle and going down to 10 men is really something you dont want against a club like barcelona!

WHAT WILL HAPPEN
If united can find a way to contain barca's midfield and hit them hard on the counter-attack, they will definitely be able to get a result out of this match. Hernandez and rooneys pace down the center will be a problem for barcelona who dont really have the fastest defenders around. If not then expect barcelona to take complete control of proceedings and inturn the final result. Whatever happens though, a great match can be expected with plenty on show from some of the worlds best players and the two best teams out there battling it out for european glory which now really does seem bigger than the world cup even!

review-manchester united vs marseille second leg

chichartio scoring his 1st of 2

Manchester united went through to the quarter finals following what was a highly entertaining match at old trafford. All the goals coming from the reds, one at the wrong end though, but it wasn to matter as the red devils fought hard to overcome the french champions and deserved the win!
Okay so team news then and it was good news mostly for sir alex as both carrick and their player of the season so far nani were back from injury. The latter had been ruled out for around 3-4 weeks following a reckless challenge from jamie carragher that gashed his leg but he made a miraculous recovery and got back in time for this 1. There were problems at the back though as both rio ferdinand and vidic were out! A 4-4-2 system was employed with van der sar in goal. John o shea, wes brown, smalling and evra(*captain*) in defence. Nani, carrick, scholes and giggs in midfield and rooney and hernandez up front.
Didier deschamp started the same side that did so well against rennes on friday and it was certainly a boost to have star striker gignac back. The frenchman missed the first leg through injury and they missed his presence up front in that match.The regular 4-3-3 system was employed with steve mandanda(*captain*) in goal. Rod fanni, diawara, heinze and taiwo in defence. Lucho gonzales, m'bia and cheyrou across the midfield and remy, gignac and ayew up front!
The hosts must've been instructed before the game to go all out against the french team and that is exactly what they did with a very good quick start to the game that led to the opening goal in the first 5 min.
Following a united corner, the ball was cleared out but straight to red shirts and it dropped to rooney, and the no.10 volleyed it out to giggs superbly who had space on the left. Rooney then made up a lot of ground to get on to the return pass from the welshman, took it past a defender with 1 touch and put it into the danger area between the goal keeper and the defenders which was basically the typical type of ball you want if your a striker and hernandez was happy to oblige to that and was there for the tap in! It was a brilliant start for the red devils and marseille i must say were for the first few min shocked at the speed at which united were playing!
They did however start to get back into the game and began to create chances. One of those falling to gignac who tried to put it over van der sar into the goal but his effort was well off and he shouldv just blasted his volley into the back of the net! Marseille then took control of the game and had more possession than united although that they were lacking quality in the box and did let a few very good chances go to waste! Cheyrou was having a very good game for the visitors and looked to be the main threat to united along with lucho and remy who surprisingly was getting the better of evra at times!
At the other end rooney was having a brilliant game and this is the 1st time ive seen him this involved in the play since back in april when he was tearing down defences! This time around it was a less of a goal threat from him but the quality of passing and movement in the center of the park was superb from the englishman!
One player who didn seem to be performing at all though was nani. The portugese was having a relatively quiet night and he looked to be very hesitant to take on taiwo due to the left back's pace and was opting to pass the ball more instead. This of couse took out one of united's major goal threats and it was a very disappointing night for the no.17 who was taken off in the second half
John o shea had his hamstring pulled in the 35th min following a good run from him down the right hand flank and young rafael was brought on to replace him.
SECOND HALF
The second half started along the same pattern at which the first had ended with a battle for possession going on though united did look to be better this time around.
Nani was taken off for valencia who was greeted by cheers from the united faithful.It was the first champions league match for Ecuadorian since that horrific injury to his ankle!
United had looked shaky at the back  for most of the match and the absence of vidic was highlited when a cross from taiwo came in and brown completely mis-timed his kick and it couldv really gone anywhere from hitting his leg but he was lucky. The ball took a slight deflection off of his shin and went behind for a corner.
Remy continued to trouble united down their left hand side and evra was having to stick very close to him to deal with the wingers pace. Regular crosses though were coming in from that side but again not enough quality in the box to seriously trouble van der sar!
United did have more problems at the back from there after rafael, who had come on to replace john o shea in the first half, also managed to pull his hamstring. Fabio was brought on to replace his twin brother and at that point the marseille players must have said to themselves, 'we need to go for this now more than ever'
However it was United who began to trouble marseille a bit more and giggs shifted to centre of the park combining with valencia to deadly effect in the 75th min
Giggs bursted down the right hand side but had to cut back and pass it to valencia. The latter then did well to find a bit of space for himself and layed of a beautiful through ball for giggs who squared it into the box with his right foot and hernandez finished it off into the bottom left corner. A good finish following what was a very good move down the right hand side for the red devils.
Wes brown put a header in into his own net following a velbuena corner which made the game very interesting for the last 10 minutes but united managed to hang on and although marseille dominated large periods of the match, it was that ruthlessness in front of goal that won united the match which they did deserve on the night!

review- tottenham vs milan second leg

sandro competing for the ball with pato

Spurs defended excellently in a game  in which they surprisingly failed to score but deserved to go through after a well fought battle!
The fact that they failed to score is such a surprise because before this fixture they had scored 3 goals in all of their previous home games in europe.Still it was a fairly interesting game with Milan having the better of the chances but failing to put away any of them due to some excellent defending from the english side which included a dramatic goal line clearance from william gallas!
There was only 1 change from the tottenham team that played in the first leg with modric coming back in for palacios. A 4-4-1-1 formation was employed with gomes in goal. Corluka, gallas, dawson(*captain*) and essou-ekotto in defence. The pacey lennon, sandro, modric and pienaar made up the midfield and rafa v.der.vaart played in the hole behind peter crouch. Gareth bale had recovered from his back injury in time for this fixture but could only find a place on the bench with redknapp taking no chances on his star player!
Allegri played a pretty attacking side employing his favored 4-1-2-1-2 with abbiati in goal. Abate, nesta, thiago silva and jankulosvki in defence. Seedorf(*captain*) played deep with boateng and flamini playing ahead of him and robinho played directly behind ibra and pato!
Milan dominated the game with 63% overall possession which, considering the match was at white heart lane and how excellent tottenham have been there this season, was probably the biggest shock of the match. It basically meant that spurs came here to defend and only rarely created a chance or two. V.der.vaart had a few cracks at goal from long range and came close with a well struck free kick but his effort was just over the bar. Abbiati did look to have it covered though if it had dipped at the last instant!
The absence of a holding mid in the shape of palacios in the spurs midfield meant they werent strong enough in that part of the pitch and were regularly being overcrowded. Boateng in particular was finding lots of space and regular passes were being fed to ibra and pato through him. Ibra came the close with a very well struck freekick that was heading for the top corner but gomes pulled off a good save to keep it out.
It was robinho who had the best chance of the first half to open the scoring when pato, after rounding an on-rushing gomes, squared the ball to him but he just mistimed his kick a little and it hit assou-ekotto. The ball rebounded off the left back and wouldv ended up in the back of the net if not for a goal-line clearance from william gallas!
Milan created a few more chances and bossed the midfield area but failed to score in what was an eventful first half
SECOND HALF
Tottenham played much deeper in the second half with at times all their players back defending! This of course meant that milan were having even more possession in midfield though it wasn leading to much. One bright point from tottenhams p.o.v was that aaron lennon was much better in the second 45 and constantly used his pace to good use against jankulovski!
They did of course have a big target man in the box in the form of peter crouch to aim the crosses towards but the former liverpool wasn good enough with most of his headers and at times got caught up in b/w putting in to the goal or squaring it to van der vaart.
A lift was given to the home supporters though when gareth bale came on in th 66th min for v.d.vaart who had had had a disappoint game. Bale however wasn used in the role many expected and slotted back in as an extra lb clearly signalling spurs' intent to just see the game out without conceding!
Pato and Robinho both came very close to scoring for the away side but in the end it just wasnt to be and the final whistle was accompanied by a frenzy of cheering from the spurs' fans! An amazing overall win over one the european giants and an amazing achievement to have gotten to the semis on the first time of asking!

review- barcelona vs arsenal second leg

So the wait was finally over! The match everyone had been waiting for, the second leg of the battle of the sides famed for their passing abilities.A highly interesting match followed that had a lot of contentious decisions from the match officials and certainly lived upto all expectations with the spanish giants walking away with all the spoils in a match, which they controlled right from the off and deserved to go through to the final 8!

okay so into the team news then and Pep Guardiola had to make do with a very makeshift central defence due to both puyol(*injury*) and pique(*suspended*) not being available for selection. Victor Valdes started out b/w the sticks with alves, busquets, abidal and adriano in defence. Mascherano took up the holding mids position with xavi(*captain*) and iniesta in front of him. Messi, Villa and Pedro made up the front 3. It was an almost regular starting XI for barcelona who just had the issues in defence to deal with before the match and i must say the back 4 did a very good job against arsenal's attack!

Arsene wenger had to do without the pacey Walcott and Alex song for this one and was very happy to atleast have captain Cesc fabregas and Van persie back into the squad. Both were a doubt before the match but managed to recover from their respective injuries and made it back into the squad just in time. Szczesny started out as goal keeper and Sagna, Koscielny, Djorou and Clichy were the defence. Diaby was charged with having to hold the mid together and Wilshire and Fabregas were in midfield....Rosicky, V.persie and Nasri were up front!.

The home side, as expected of them, started off very well with pedro going through on goal in the 3rd min and it took a very good challenge from koscielny to deny him an early goal. Barca kept possession very very well during the whole of the match but were wasteful in front of goal. The stats did however still show their dominance, maintaining around 70% of the possession throughout the entire game. The fullbacks were continuously looking forward and seemed to be more like genuine wingers rather than defenders. Adriano in particular was a constant threat to the arsenal defence and sagna just didn know how to deal with him at times!

Arsenal played a different game as to what they did in the first leg. 2 weeks ago at the emirates they chased down every barca pass like crazy and did not let the catalans get a proper grip on their passing game which we all know they execute so wonderfully. A high back line was also avoided due to the danger of over-the-top through passes and at times, due to barcas full-backs pressing so hard, nasri and rosicky were slotting back in defence creating a sort of back 6. 

messi celebrates scoring his penalty with his team mates

Barcelona were quite good at keeping the ball and pressed relentlessly whenever arsenal had the ball. In fact the londeners were not even being able to put together a move of around 5 passes! Everytime they got the ball, their was always pressure on the man in possession and no-one really looked calm enough to keep the moves going. The defending though i must say was pretty good from them for around the first 40 min and they managed to keep barca out of their penalty box by not allowing any space for passes into the box. This was forcing xavi and iniesta, the two pivots around which all their attacks rotate, to play more passes square rather than into the path of the strikers for a run on goal!.

Arsenal had another problem to deal with around the quarter hour mark when following a smashed freekick from alves, szcsesny collected the ball and rolled it out of play instantly signalling that something was troubling his finger. As the replay suggested, the ball had hit the polish keeper's finger head on and it bent back which is certainly very painful! Manuel almunia was brought on who last year was just a spectator as messi scored 4 past him and single-handedly won barca that fixture. Arsenal have revealed that szczesny dislocated his finger which means out for the rest of the season!

And it was that man messi again who turned out to be the tormentor of arsenal in the 47th min. Up till that point arsenal had defended very well and had kept out barcelonas attack but a mistake from the 1 person in that team you would never expect to make it, cesc fabregas, changed the whole scene of the game!

Arsenal managed to barely clear their lines following a barca attack and the ball dropped to fab who, on th outside of his own box, tried a back-heeled pass to wilshire! An amazing mistake from the spaniard and the ball dropped to iniesta who after going past 3 players, produced a SPECTACULAR chipped through ball for messi. The argentine took it in his stride with 1 touch, over the advancing almunia with the next touch and volleyed it in for a goal. Brilliant skill from the world's best player though fabregas has to take the blame for it!

SECOND HALF

The second 45 started pretty much the same with barca dominating! That however seemed to go against what took place in the 53rd min

Nasri did brilliantly down the left hand flank to get a corner. The frenchman took it himself and his delivery looked delicious and produced an unlikely goal! Sergio busquets headed the ball into his own net! They clearly missed the presence of the poyul and pique in the box and that corned showed exactly why!

At the other end messi produced a good through ball to put villa through on goal put the spaniard was wasteful and almunia came out and claimed the ball. It was certainly an off night for villa who just couldn get his finishing going!

Van persie was sent off on a second yellow in one of the most bizarre decisions you will ever get to see. He was flagged offside and ref blew the whistle but the dutchman had already thought about the shot and after taking it was sent off for lashing at the ball! A very very poor decision that you do not expect off of a champions league ref!..

Barca marched on from their on in and got their second goal following an absolutely exquisite passing move involving iniesta, villa and xavi with the latter finishing if off with a calm finish past almunia that looked to have taken a little touch off of sagna!

They got their third shortly after when koscielny tripped pedro in the box and the ref pointed to the penalty spot. Lionel messi stepped up to take it and calmly slotted it past almunia into the bottom right corner.

On the night barca definitely definitely deserved that win! The arsenal players just didn show up at all and were punished for playing so defensively. Their was not a single shot on goal from the londoners and that stat just basically sums up the whole game! 

review- inter milan vs bayern munich

gomes celebrates his winning goal with his bayern team-mates

this was one of the most anticipated games of the season as it brought together last years finalists once more for 180 min to fight it out once again but this time for less of a reward!....the last of the first round of last 16 matches didn disappoint and bayern managed to take vengance over their italian counterparts for last years loss!...
this time around last year the most major difference in the inter squad was of course the absence of the charismatic jose mourinho under whom they secured the treble....leonardo surprisingly has had a better start to life at inter than the portugese but inter are still yet to show the same potential in the champions league as they did last year and on a defensive note this years side cant even come close to previous years having conceded the most number of goals in the italian league(*top 4*)!....diego milito was injured for this 1 and a 4-3-2-1 system was played with julio cesar(*Captain*) between the sticks....maicon, lucio, ranocchia and chivu were in defence and motta, zanetti and cambiaso were played in midfield....wes sneijder and stankovic played "in the hole" behind eto....
van gaal started his regular 4-2-3-1 system with kraft in goal, lahm(*captain*), badstuber, tymoschuk and pranjic in defence...schweinsteiger and gustavo in midfield with robben right, ribery left and muller playing behind gomez...
what followed was surprisingly a very very open game considering the defensive(*atleast from inters p.o.v*) line ups!...and it was the italians who had the early chances with ranocchia getting a shot in on goal in the very first minute!...eto also got a good oppurtunity to open the scoring but he shot from a difficult angle and on his weaker foot so it wasn much of a problem for kraft!....at the other end ribery hit the crossbar from a header following a cross from arjen robben!...the dutchman has only recently come back from injury and has given bayern that electrifying pace and skill down the right hand side that they bad been missing while he had been out!...

bayern were the better side during the opening 45 min controlling most of the possession and the chances....theyr defence also kept it very tight...the italians most of the times played very narrow since inter have never really had much width to them and the attacks are channeled down the center....the center area was made very crowded and the main player of inter...th 1 who makes them tick, wes sneijder wasn given any room at all to create chances or get shots on goal!...the german teams full backs also got higher up the pitch when bayern were in possession of the ball due to lack of width from the italians and chivu in particular was having a rough night against the combination of lahm and robben
SECOND HALF
inter started the second half on a more positive note and got a bit better through out the second 45....bayern were still bossing them from the wide positions and at times it seemed no1 at all was tracking either lahm or pranjic!....the front 3 always stayed up the field and didn help out in defending....
robben came very close to breaking the deadlock on the 53rd when following some good work from schweinsteiger, the flying dutchman drifted past challenges and hit a good right footed shoot from the left side of the box but it hit the near post and went out for a goal kick!...the second half was certainly a whole lot more entertaining and many more chances were created...the majority by the men in red and white and actually there was a whole 10 min period from the 60th min onward when there was wave after wave of attacks coming in from the germans and they had 5 or 6 good chaces to score!....ranocchia got injured after that and was taken away on a stretcher to be replaced by houssine kharja....inter were better in the 10 min leading up to the goal and created a few good chances in quick succession
then came the defining moment of the match when following a good cross field ball from ribery, robben was allowed to come in on his left foot as he soo loves to do and took a shot at goal which bounced awkwardly in front of cesar who could only parry it into the path of the on rushing gomez...he tapped in from 3 yards out and clenched a very well deserved win for the german side who will be very very happy right now knowing they got theyr revenge from the side that beat them in the final last year and have 1 foot in the quarter final with that invaluable away goal advantage!....for inter a lesson learnt harshly and leonardo will definitely need to put a more positive and attacking side in the match at the allianz if he is to have any hope of recovering something from this fixture
(*btw guys i noticed the commenting on my blog had been limited to only those who had subscribed and i felt that a bit unfair so now any1 can comment anonymously on any of the posts!*)...

review- marseille vs manchester united

two very evenly matched teams battled it out in france for what was a highly disappointing game with both sides failing to score!....both had their chances but none were taken and this was the only goal-less match in all of the last 16 fixtures!....

the scenes at the stade velodrome before the match

didier deschamps had to do without top scorer gignac who is injured and played a 4-2-3-1 formation with mandanda(*captain*) in goal....new signing rod fanni, diawara, mbia and man united old boy gabi heinze in defence...cisse and kabore in midfield with loic remy, gonzales and ayew in front of them and brandao in the lone strikers role.....

sir alex couldn call up champions league veteran ryan giggs for this as he was out injured along with the likes of rio ferdinand and big match hero ji sung park!....a 4-1-2-3 system was employed with van der sar in goal...john o shea, vidic(*captain*), smalling and evra in defence...carrick in the holding mids role and gibson(*a surprise pick ahead of scholes*) and fletcher in midfield....rooney wide left....nani wide right and berbatov in the center of attack!....

the game was pretty open in the opening few stages of the game with chance being created by both sides....

the player of the first half was definitely nani...he constantly troubled heinze who didn have the legs to keep up with his electrifying pace and skill....at times lyon had to double up on him just to squeeze the ball out!...the only proper shot on goal from the english side was from a nani free-kick which hit the bar but the ball dropped to fletcher who despite the awkward bounce, still managed to get his effort on goal and force a save from mandanda from outside the box....nani also managed to get in a very delicious looking cross into the path of berba but it was just a foot too long and the striker couldn get the touch that wouldv sent it into the back of the net!...

ayew also looked very sharp and was constantly getting balls into the penalty box and beating john o shea with good skill on the ball!... marseille looked a bit shaky at first but later got into the game and starting dominating possession!...the half just went on after that and no real opportunities were created!...

SECOND HALF

the second period of normal time began pretty much the same as the first ended with both teams concentrating more on not conceding!.....marseille did however sort up pick up the tempo and looked to be more threatening with ayew coming close to opening the scoring!...paul scholes was brought on 18 minutes from time and he gave some much needed passing ability back to the squad which carrick especially had been lacking at times throughout the 90 min...

marsielle will be positive at having not conceded on the night but will be aware that the real challenge awaits them at old trafford!..sir alex will be hugely disappointed with having failed to score but a clean sheet is always welcome and the whole team will be looking forward to the return leg!