Well, no big surprises at all, except for Villarreal´s win maybe. As it stands now even two Spanish teams could advance to the big Final in Paris (knock on wood). Here my
REVIEW:
Milan defeated Lyon with its usual bit of "luck". There was a clear penalty in the second half not awarded to Lyon (Costacurta on Malouda I believe) which could have changed everything but in the end the everlasting Milan troupe prevailed. How is it possible Inzaghi keeps scoring those important goals? Can´t he retire or something?!?! Never liked the guy.
Arsenal almost sentenced its playoff against Juve with a 2-0 win at Highbury in the first game already. The team is seeming to get into its rythm and they are not even conceeding goals on D which is UNBELIEVABLE considering their defenders, well, probably except for Eboué. The guy from Ivory Coast who has been pretty much impressive in Lauren´s absence! As for Juve, what can I say.
There´s a tendency amongst top European teams, to concentrate so much on D, playing safe football and controlling the pace of the game when they are ahead in the scoreboard, that these teams are just LOST when they have to take the responsibility of attacking and looking to score. The consecuence is that they normally approach that effort in a much desperate way, the result obviously turning out to be the worst, which is: not being able to score at all and hence being kicked out of competition. Well deserved is all I can say! here some examples:
- Liverpool was the first to fall this season. With a 0-0 score in Portugal, Benfica scored first at Anfield and sealed the game. Liverpool was incapable of getting back and eventually ended up loosing 0-2 at home.
- Same story for Juve. With an 0-2 defeat at Highbury they were just not capable of turning their series around. Call it lack of habit or whatever but they were lost against Arsenal, at home, in their biggest game of the season and couldn't even score a goal in 180 minutes. That said, they were already lucky to reach the Quarter-finals in their matchup with Werder.
- Chelsea meanwhile is sort of a mistery to me. They have maybe lacked some more fortune in their last two Champions League seasons. Nevertheless, I firmly believe Barcelona was superior to them in all four games they´ve played against each other in just over a year, except probably for the first 25 minutes at Stamford Bridge last season. For the rest, they were lucky to eliminate Barça last year with a fourth goal that shouldn´t have counted, they got destroyed by Barça on home ground this season, and not just thanks to Del Horno´s red card (awarded for some fierce tackling, no matter what Chelsea players argued), but because Rijkaard´s side was just the better team. And at camp Nou this year they got clearly outplayed by the Spanish squad but still were close to causing some tension if Crespo had scored 0-1 in the second half with a ball that just went wide a little... So, yep, they have the same tendency of focusing on D, not knowing really how to attack the opponent (see Liverpool´s series last year) but their coach, Mourinho, is smart, very smart I might say, and the players are commited. Anyway, their faith seems to be fading a little these days...
As for Barça and Villarreal everything (almost) has been said so far and I don´t wanna go into detail to much to not bore anyone.
Now the
PREVIEW. I see the semi-finals as following:
Arsenal-Villarreal: I couldn´t actually tell a winner here. If Riquelme and Senna can control the tempo of the game and the team can somehow sneak out of Highbury with 1 goal and even a 2-1 deafeat or much better a 1-1 draw, I would pick them as the winners of this series. If Arsenal keeps a clean sheet in the first game and scores it´s gonna be tough for Pellegrini´s side.
Milan-Barcelona:
One by one analysis:
Dida vs Valdés:
Draw. Valdés is far from being the best keeper I´ve seen and his character raises questions as well as his many errors this season which might have cost Barça 6-9 points in the league. Dida, well, he makes mistakes as well, so that´s good.
Kaladze, Nesta, Stam and Serginho vs Belletti, Oleguer, Puyol, Gio:
DrawKaladze is OK but he plays off position on the right back and even if he plays central defender and Stam is on the right that won´t solve Milan´s problems at all, not even if Cafú comes back in time as he´d get absolutely torched on D by either Ronaldinho or Eto´o. As for Stam, I don´t like the big dutch guy at all, too slow. Nesta is good although a bit overrated. I´ve always liked Serginho, but then again you don´t want a Brasilian wing back player on your team when it´s about having to defend, and that's exactly what they'll have to do against Barcelona's powerful attack! They have such a tendency of being offense first minded guys that they won´t even get back when they should, like Belletti in yesterday´s match against Benfica. Could someone of the coaching stuff please have told him "Hey we´re up 1-0, so stop f****ing pretend you are a wing player and play some DEFENSE!!!!". Brazilians&Commitment, that´s a rare thing to find in football, with some honorable exceptions (Cafú, Mauro Silva, Donato...).
On the other hand, for Barça, we have Belletti who when setting his mind to the game and not showing up thaaaat much on the offensive end is OK, Oleguer who´s decent and holds his own against almost every striker without being spectacular, the best central back in the world: Puyol who´s an all hard work, real "blue collar" guy and Gio, and as I don´t wanna put up the same arguments as in Belletti´s case for the Dutch guy, I´m gonna stop here.
Lesson here for the Beguiristain&Rijkaard tandem: get us a left back who can actually play some D and if possible a right back as well, or at least bring back Damiá and let him develop slowly along the more experienced guys.
Pirlo, Seedorf and Gattuso vs Edmilson or Motta, Iniesta and V. Bommel:
Draw (slight edge
Milan especillay considering Barça will be without Deco, who, to be honest, is running on fumes a little anyway. Maybe that little rest could do him so well...)
It all depends on the game Iniesta and V. Bommel display. The Spanish youngster has been good at times but has looked raw and inconsistent at others. Van Bommel has just not found his place with the team yet and seems incapable of scoring even if his live depended on it which is never a good sign this far into competitiona and having to play Milan.
Sheva, Kaká and Inzaghi/Gillardino vs Ronaldinho, Eto´o and Messi/Giuly, Larsson:
Draw (slight advantage
Barcelona just because Ronaldinho makes such a difference these days... and because Messi might be back for some action)
Milan´s starting three is impressive, Barça´s, too. A couple of things that worry me about Barcelona:
1) Eto´o has lost his scoring instincts a little. I´m still confident he will give his best against Milan.
2) Ronaldinho has lost a step of explosiveness as of lately as well, is he maybe saving himself a little for the World Cup? It surely looked like that in the first half at Stamford Bridge, where after being fouled several consecutive times at the start of the game he didn´t get into rythm until close to the end of the match.
3) Give Milan something to think about. If Messi is not 100% ready give Guly, the tiny French guy, a run! Milan´s defenders are mostly slow so he can do some damage there!! Besides the Larsson+Eto´o formula´s not working as expected.
My two cents:
Arsenal 1 - Villarreal 1
Villarreal 2 - Arsenal 1 (extra time)
Milan 1 - Barça 2
Barça 1 - Milan 1
:)
Labels: Sports
