There’s nothing quite like European soccer in the month of
April. League titles are on the line, the Champions League finalists are
eventually known, and relegation battles capture the hearts of many fans who
love seeing the underdo g pull through. The pressure these teams and players
face is immense, even for a team like Bayern Munich who have already secured
the Bundesliga (German league) title. So without further rambling, let’s analyze
the most recent week starting with the league games over the weekend and moving
to the breathtaking and heartbreaking moments of the Champions League.
As
usual, the Barclays Premier League provided plenty of drama and lots of goals.
The key game on Saturday was actually Cardiff-Crystal Palace. Many casual fans
have probably never heard of these teams, but both are fighting to survive and
remain in the Premier League next season. These relegation battles (which I’ll
highlight further in the spotlight section) are often very intense and it’s not
unusual for a relegation threatened team to beat a team at the top of the
table. Crystal Palace knocked off Chelsea the week before and picked up another
3 points beating Cardiff 3-0 on the road. The result almost condemns Cardiff to
relegation while elevating Palace closer to safety. However, the more important
games in the grand scheme were played out on Sunday. Everton thrashed Arsenal
3-0 to move within a point of the Gunners for 4th place and an entry
into next year’s Champions League. Everton has not played in the Champions
League since 2005, and Arsenal hasn’t missed out in 15 years! With a game in
hand, Everton controls its own destiny. Arsenal, on the other hand, needs help
to keep the 4th spot and will need to quickly improve their play.
The Gunners are in free-fall. They seemed the favorites to win the title just a
few weeks ago, but a run of poor results and key injuries reversed the clubs
fortunes. In other games, Liverpool survived a tough match beating West Ham
2-1. The Reds now have all sights set on this weekend’s matchup against
Manchester City, who are four points back but do have two games in hand. It’s a
mouthwatering tie that may determine who wins the league. My prediction: I
think Manchester City are deeper than Liverpool, but the Reds have silenced
critics all year long. We’re going to see goals in this game but I don’t think
the title is settled: 2-2 draw.
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| Roberto Martinez (left) has Everton fans dreaming of a Champions League spot. On-loan striker Romelu Lukaku is a big reason why. |
There
was relatively little in change this week in Italy and Spain, but the
Bundesliga featured a few important games. Bayern Munich’s 53 match unbeaten
streak ended at the hands of FC Augsburg. Having won the title a week before,
Bayern rested many of its regular starters and despite dominating most of the
game, lost for the first time in the league since October of 2012. It was still
an incredible streak for the Bavarians, and no one can fault coach Pep
Guardiola for giving his younger guys some very important playing time.
Borussia Dortmund all but secured a berth in next year’s Champions League with
a key victory over Wolfsburg, who are trying to make it into the top 4. Marco
Reus, who I’ll mention later, scored late in the game and Dortmund moved 7
points clear of 4th place Monchengladbach with only 5 games left.
Wolfsburg missed the chance to go 4th and sit in 6th one
point behind Monchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen. Wolfsburg and Leverkusen
play on the last week of the season, in a game that could be worth millions of
dollars for a Champions League spot.
Spotlight: Promotion and Relegation
One of
the most exciting things about European Soccer is the promotion and relegation
system. It’s standard procedure for every European league, but I’ll focus
specifically on the Barclays Premier League. The concept is simple: the bottom
three teams from the Premier League are relegated to the second tier, known as
the Championship. While the top two teams from the Championship as well as the team
that wins the promotion playoffs, are promoted to England’s top flight. In the
promotion playoffs, teams 3-6 play for the final promotion spot. The third team
plays the sixth while the fourth plays the fifth in a home and home (two
games). The winners face off at Wembley Stadium for the right to play in the
Premier League. That game is known as “The Richest Game in the World” because
of the money involved with moving to the Premier League. It’s hard to say
exactly how much, but estimates from last year’s game say around 150 million
pounds goes to the winner in the form of TV contracts, bonuses and other
payments. The promotion playoffs also produce some of the most entertaining
matches I’ve ever seen! Take last year’s Watford-Leicester City game. Tied 2-2
on aggregate, Leicester City was awarded a penalty kick in stoppage time of the
second half. The PK was saved and Watford ran down to the other end and
miraculously scored sending fans onto the pitch. It can go from excitement to
heartbreak in a matter of seconds. A year later, it’s Leicester who get the
last laugh as they’ve already secured promotion to next year’s Premier League
while Watford ended up losing last year to Crystal Palace in the promotion
playoff final and are not in position to make the playoffs this year. Relegation
battles have similar emotion attached to them. Known as “Survival Saturday and
Sunday” fans of relegation threatened teams spend the last weekend religiously
scoreboard watching. Take for example two years ago when Queens Park Rangers
had to go to Manchester City on the final day and likely needed at least one
point to secure promotion. City needed a win to get the title. QPR, down to ten
men for most of the match, surprisingly led 2-1 until the last two minutes when
City scored twice to secure the title. But QPR fans celebrated with them a few
minutes later when they found out, due to other results, they would be playing
another season in the Premier League.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AeHvFNMaBI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-4UG1S6rQI
Last
but not least, the Champions League produced a stunning turnaround and a few
surprises. Chelsea successfully overturned a 3-1 deficit, winning 2-0 and advancing
on away goals rule. Demba Ba’s 87th minute tally sent the home crowd
into a raucous as PSG were denied the semi-finals for the second straight year.
It’s a disappointing end for a team that spent over a hundred million dollars
on new players before the season started. Borussia Dortmund were on the same path as Chelsea,
but their epic comeback attempt fell just short, as they beat Real Madrid 2-0
but lost 3-2 on aggregate. Marco Reus was especially impressive, scoring two
goals in the first half and brilliantly setting up Henrikh Mkhytarian who could
not score into an open goal. Dortmund were left ruing after missing plenty of
chances to even the score line. In the end, coach Juergen Klopp was very proud
of his team, as he should be, but was disappointed that his team missed so many
chances. Wednesday’s games saw Bayern beat Manchester United and Atletico
Madrid triumph over Barcelona. Bayern had the advantage from last week but
United took a shock lead in the 57th minute through Patrice Evra.
However, Bayern responded with 3 goals to put away the tie. It was a fair
result given Bayern attacked almost the entire game and had almost 80% possession.
Atletico upset Barcelona 1-0 to win the tie on aggregate 2-1. Koke’s 5th
minute goal was enough, but Atletico should’ve scored at least 3 more goals in
the first 20 minutes alone. They were almost punished for their poor finishing
but Barcelona could not find a way through as Lionel Messi was completely shut
down. The draw for the semi-finals was held earlier today with the first legs
being on April 22-23rd and the return legs on April 29-30th.
Real Madrid vs.
Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid vs.
Chelsea
My prediction: These are great matchups, especially the
Bayern-Real game which many fans wanted to see as the final. Given that Pep
Guardiola had major success against Real in his Barcelona days, I give the slight
edge to Bayern. The other tie is legitimately a toss-up between two teams that
are probably overachieving a little. Both pulled off upsets in the
quarterfinals but I give a VERY slight edge to Chelsea because of experience.
Atletico may also be without Diego Costa, their leading scorer and best player.
So, I think we see a rematch of the final two years ago: Chelsea vs. Bayern.
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| Koke (left) celebrates with teammate David Villa after scoring the deciding goal in Atletico Madrid's Champions League tie |
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| Borussia Dortmund have only themselves to blame for not completing an epic comeback |
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| Demba Ba's late goal secured Chelsea's spot in the Champions League Semi-finals |
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