If you thought last week’s games were exciting, this week
provided even more drama, sensational goals, and a new leader in the Premier
League. The UEFA Champions League, seen by some as more important than the
World Cup, returned on Tuesday and Wednesday and certainly did not disappoint.
The Champions
League, Europe’s premier inter-country club competition, is down to its last
eight teams. Prior to the quarterfinal draw, most teams would probably want to
face Manchester United. In most years, the prior sentence would be nothing
short of laughable because United are one of the best teams on the continent. But
this year they’ve struggled to adapt under new manager David Moyes, and are
more than likely not even going to qualify for next year’s Champions League. On
Tuesday, United hosted Bayern Munich, arguably the best team in the world right
now. Not only did United hold their own against the German giants but they very
easily could’ve won the game had they now squandered two or three good chances.
Normally, a 1-1 draw favors the visiting team due to the away goals rule which
I’ll talk about later on. But in this case, 1-1 is a positive result for
Manchester United though David Moyes made it clear there are no moral
victories. Before United fans get too excited, remember what happened two years
ago when Bayern lost the first leg to FC Basel 1-0…They won the return leg 7-0
at home and easily advanced. I doubt Bayern will score seven but I don’t see
Manchester United winning on German soil.
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| Nemanja Vidic celebrates with teammates after giving Manchester United an unlikely lead |
The
second fixture of the day saw an all-Spanish matchup between FC Barcelona and
Atletico Madrid. Unlike the Bayern-United fixture, this one is a toss-up.
Atletico currently lead La Liga by 1 point over Barcelona and that race will
likely come down to the last game where thankfully (for soccer fans anyway) the
two teams face one another. But before that, one of these teams will be in the
semi-finals of the Champions League. Atletico’s Diego scored one of the goals
of the season midway through the second half to give Atletico a slight edge
heading into the return leg. The Brazilian smashed a shot into the top right
corner from more than 30 yards out. Even though Neymar equalized for Barcelona,
it’s the Madrid team who should feel better heading into next week.
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| Diego's wonder strike could be the goal that sends Atletico to the semi-finals |
The
Wednesday fixtures weren’t as close as Tuesday’s but there was still plenty of
drama. Real Madrid avenged last year’s loss to Borussia Dortmund with a
comprehensive 3-0 victory that could’ve been much worse if not for the heroics
of Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller. Dortmund knocked Real out at this
stage last season, but only had 4 of the 11 players start from last year’s
team. The German team is plagued by injuries, many of which are season-ending.
You got the sense that after Gareth Bale’s third minute goal, Dortmund would
never have much of a chance. The only positive is that Robert Lewandowski, who
scored 4 goals in last year’s game in Dortmund, will be back for the second
game and Cristiano Ronaldo is questionable due to injury. The second game saw
French champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) knock off Chelsea 3-1. PSG scored
the third goal in second half stoppage time and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho,
who is known for his mind games, publicly criticized his back four. It will be
hard for Chelsea to overturn the 3-1 score line but there is some hope because
of the away goals rule.
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| Javier Pastore scores a very important third goal for PSG |
Spotlight: Away Goals
Rule
Every
once in a while I’ll spotlight a few key terms and rules that may be unfamiliar
to the casual soccer fan. This week’s spotlight features the away goals rule,
which is very important in the UEFA Champions League. The away goals rule is
applied when two teams are tied after two legs. So for example, this week’s
Barcelona-Atletico game finished at 1-1. Say for example the next leg finishes
2-2. In this case Barcelona advances to the next round because they scored two
goals away from home, compared to Atletico’s one. Another example would be if Chelsea wins their
tie against PSG 2-0 they would also advance because they scored once in France
while PSG did not score in England. Overturning a first leg deficit is rare,
but it does happen at times, most recently this year when Manchester United
beat Olympiakos 3-0 after losing 2-0 away from home. To give some hope to
Chelsea fans, the Blues overturned a 3-1 deficit against Napoli two years ago
by winning 4-1 in extra time. In that case since the scores were the same in
both legs after 90 minutes (3-1), the game goes to extra time which is two 15
minute halves. Chelsea scored a goal in the extra time period to win 4-1 and win
the aggregate 5-4. Note: the extra time period is not sudden death, the full 30
minutes are played out. If the scores are still tied after 120 minutes, the
game goes to a penalty shoot-out. A quick fun fact to wrap things up: the
biggest deficit overcome was by Spanish side Deportivo La Coruña in 2004.
Trailing Italian side AC Milan 4-1 after the first leg, Deportivo won the
return leg 4-0 to claim a 5-4 win on aggregate.
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| Never Say Die! Ten years ago Albert Luque of Deportivo La Coruña scored to complete the biggest comeback in Champions League history |
Finally,
it was a dramatic weekend in England as the Premier League has a new leader.
Liverpool easily dispatched Tottenham 4-0 and moved into first place thanks to
a shock 1-0 loss by Chelsea to Crystal Palace. Jose Mourinho said his team
(Chelsea) are now out of the title race, despite being only 2 points back. I
respectfully disagree with Mr. Mourinho, not only because I picked Chelsea to
win the league before the season began, but also because a two point lead is
nothing. With six games left to play, anything can happen. It should be
mentioned that Manchester City are only one point behind Liverpool and have a
game in hand, meaning they are currently the odds-on favorite to win the title.
Liverpool hosts Manchester City on April 13th in what will be a key
game in determining the title. At this point in the season there are no “easy
games” because teams at the bottom of the table (like Crystal Palace) are
fighting not to be relegated. It’s not rare to see a team near the bottom of
the table beat or tie a team in the top 4.
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| John Terry's own goal against Crystal Palace dents Chelsea's title hopes |
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