Fabregas Unhappy At Barcelona

Guys, I’ve asked once already, ‘GIVE ME THE BALL!’

Morning.

I say this every single time we have an international break, but, ‘I hate it’. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that the national teams need time together and with the limited time they have together ahead of major tournaments, I fully understand international breaks, plus, when else would you play qualifying matches? What I hate, is how it disrupts what most of us live for at a weekend, watching our respective club sides do battle and if you’re a fan of Liverpool for example, this break couldn’t have arrived at a better moment, but what if you’re a fan of Arsenal, Swansea, Manchester United and so on? All you want is to play the next game when you’re in form.

Plus, what the hell am I supposed to write on a Wednesday during an international break? Read more

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Craig in Europe, La Liga, Spain Leave a comment

Cesc Fabregas & His Barcelona Dilemma / Blackburn Agree Rhodes Deal / Stoke Land Charlie Adam

I want to play with the ball for a bit!!

Morning.

It must be horrible, doing everything possible to force a move to another club to play under your boyhood hero, only for said hero to leave after one season of working with him and the new coach deciding that he doesn’t have sufficient space for you in his side, forcing you to play in a position you haven’t played for four years and do not enjoy. Of course, I’m talking about Cesc Fábregas.

Having practically forced through a transfer to Barcelona out of desperation to move back home, Fábregas was excited to be playing under his boyhood idol, Pep Guardiola. The feeling of excitement was reciprocated on Guardiola’s behalf, indulging in playing Fabrégas in his favourite role, just behind a main striker, close to Lionel Messi. Guardiola had changed the shape of his team to suit the inclusion of Fábregas and David Villa hardly started in the time he wad fit before breaking his leg. Cesc enjoyed a good first season back home, scoring nine goals and managing eight assists in La Liga competition, before injury late in the season hampered his form. For a first season back however, it was a very good start for Cesc. Read more

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Craig in Championship, England, Europe, La Liga, League One, Premiership, Spain 2 Comments

Van Persie Returns / Arsenal Bid For Paulinho

‘Robin Returns’. Sounds like a bad Batman spin-off.

Good morning!

I’m currently looking after a puppy for some friends who have gone away on holiday. He’s a lovely Dog, a Shetland Sheepdog, but by sweet Moses are they high maintenance! In conjunction with me owning a Jack Russell, it’s been a chaotic week; waking up at half five most mornings is not my idea of heaven.

Right, to the news this morning, as I’m on borrowed time despite being on a day off, having been cleaning up Dog wee and feeding said Dogs most of this morning.

Van Persie returns to Arsenal training

As expected, Robin Van Persie returned to Arsenal for pre-season training yesterday, sparking further rumours of his future. The ESPN website this morning carry quotes from an Arsenal spokesman, who says that Van Persie, ‘returned to training on Monday as expected and made it clear he wants to sit down and resolve the matter of his future, either way, as soon as possible. No date has yet been agreed for that meeting.’ Read more

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership, South America, World Leave a comment

Van Persie Refuses To Extend Arsenal Contract

Robin Van Persie wipes his nose as he contemplates his Arsenal future.

Good morning.

It should have been Adam posting this morning as I said yesterday, but Robin Van Persie declared he wasn’t going to renew his Arsenal contract, so here I am, full of cold, in the worst mood ever. I do f*cking hate having a cold, it’s barely even an illness, just a massive annoyance, like when a tap drips but it’s impossible to tighten the tap so you have to live with the constant dripping of water. It’s not a massive problem, just enough to infuriate you as you try to get on with your day.

In a statement on his official website, Van Persie revealed that after end of season talks with Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger, it had, ‘again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward. As soon as Mr Gazidis is back from his two week holiday, further meetings will follow’. Throughout Euro 2012, Van Persie had been placed on a media ban by Arsenal, not even allowed to do post-match interviews with Dutch TV. Clearly, that ban has now expired after Van Persie revealed his decision on his own website, a statement which came as a complete shock to Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger, whose PR team had to rush around trying to put a club statement together. Van Persie had delivered Arsenal no prior warning to his statement and it certainly is interesting as to just why he’d throw statements about in such a carefree attitude. Read more

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

No Decision On RVP Contract Talks / Martinez To Liverpool?

Hi Mr Van Persie, could you sign me an autograph please?…just sign here, here and here.

Good morning!

Welcome to Friday, which spells, ‘slow news day’ as far as I’m concerned. A quick glance at BBC Football this morning tells me that Robin Van Persie hasn’t yet reached a conclusion in his contract talks with Arsenal, whilst Roberto Martinez is set to sit down and speak to Liverpool over their vacant manager’s position after Kenny Dalglish was sacked on Wednesday.

Aside from Kenny Dalglish flying all the way to Boston to be told he was sacked on Wednesday, Robin Van Persie hopped in his car and travelled to Arsene Wenger’s house that same day to discuss the Dutch striker’s new contract. Ivan Gazidis would also have been present and from what I can gather, the discussions went on for a long time, as they would when a contract worth millions of pounds is the subject of discussion, more so that the contract is designed to keep a high-performance component of the club in place for the next few years.

Naturally, an agreement wasn’t struck there and then. Talks between Van Persie, Wenger and Gazidis would have been preliminary, not decisive and typically a deal was not sorted out on Wednesday. Of course, Arsenal would have wanted Van Persie’s contract sorted before the Euro 2012 campaign, but Van Persie, always open to settle matters after the Euros, was happy to meet up with Dutch squad on Thursday and a decision will be settled one way or the other when Van Persie returns to Arsenal.

It’s widely accepted that Van Persie has great affection for the club. Van Persie broke through lines of stewards to celebrate with Arsenal fans at the Hawthorns on the last day of the season as Arsenal secured third place, dragged Pat Rice out of the dressing room so he could have a proper send off with the Arsenal fans, organised a player’s fund to buy Pat Rice a watch as a leaving present and his wife organised a girls’ night out with all the girlfriends and wives of the players.

Robin Van Persie has also organised many, many team events over the course of this season for the team to bond and relax in general. Family BBQ’s, meals out, trips to the cinema and other things have been organised by Van Persie in his capacity of captain.

This has all happened in stark contrast to Cesc Fabregas’ final year at Arsenal, where he refused to play in pre-season matches whilst he tried his best to join Barcelona and word is that Fabregas was generally a moody figure in his final year at Arsenal. Fabregas had a lot of friends, of course, and still does at Arsenal. Van Persie and Fabregas went on holiday together just before the Spanish midfielder moved to Barcelona, so relations were okay, but his default mood that year was one of wanting to get away. Fabregas would not have done any of the things above that Van Persie had done this year for Arsenal.

Whilst Van Persie has great affection for Arsenal, he is a competitive football player, and a player of Van Persie’s calibre needs to be winning trophies. I imagine this whole ‘saga’ to be pulling Van Persie apart; does he stay and be loved at Arsenal, or move away for trophies should his ambitions not be realised?

Van Persie held talks with Arsene Wenger last year to express his great frustration at the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. Recently in an interview with Four Four Two magazine, Van Persie claimed their departures had crushed him, saying that midfielders such as Fabregas are very rare and that to lose such a player was a crushing blow.

In Van Persie’s crisis talks with Wenger, he stated the need for top-level players and this is the decisive factor for Van Persie’s new contract talks. Should Van Persie return from competing in the Euros to find that Arsenal have signed two more top players to join new signing, Lukas Podolski, then I imagine Van Persie will be very warm to signing a new contract, but Arsenal must show ambition in the transfer market to realise their initial ambition of signing Van Persie to a new contract.

Along with Lukas Podolski, I would sign another striker, as I believe Podolski will play predominantly on the left, with Van Persie in the middle and Theo Walcott on the right. To join a new striker, Arsenal need another midfield enforcer, potentially Yann M’Vila, and another creative outlet to help with Arsenal’s natural flow.

After losing Fabregas and Nasri, Arsenal have become more methodical in their build-up, rather than fluid and unpredictable. There are pros and cons to both styles, but a more fluid style holds the more pros. With Fabregas and Nasri, goals were coming from those two, Arshavin, Walcott, Van Persie, Chamakh and Bendtner. This season, most attacks culminate in Van Persie applying the final touches and the goal return from other areas of the team has been relatively low compared to other seasons, which boils down to a lack of fluidity.

If Arsenal show their ambition in the transfer market, then the signing of Van Persie’s new contract will be pivotal in returning to a more fluid style, and, hopefully, Arsenal will finally provide Van Persie the silverware of which he is deserving.

Roberto Martinez

Finally today, Roberto Martinez has been linked with the Liverpool manager’s job after Dave Whelan allowed Martinez to talk with Liverpool over their new vacancy.

For me, I wouldn’t touch Martinez for another five years if I were Liverpool’s owners. Martinez could link up with Aston Villa and I believe he’d do a fantastic job with Villa’s youngsters and he’d have them playing to a style they haven’t enjoyed for three years. I don’t believe it will take a lot for Martinez to fire Aston Villa away from where they currently are.

Liverpool on the other hand are undergoing massive changes. To oversee Liverpool’s current transition, an experienced manager needs to come in and steady the ship, not the young Martinez. Another reason I’d say no to Martinez, is due to Wigan’s prosperity to perform only in the latter stages of a season. For twenty-eight matches a season, Wigan are terrible, but for those last ten games they are capable of winning them all and securing survival, it’s ridiculous how a team who lost nine on the bounce earlier this season can still survive.

Liverpool, I plead with you, do not open talks with Martinez because he’s a terrible manager, but because he’s still perfecting his trade and that is not the personality needed at Liverpool at the moment. Martin O’Neill would be an ideal appointment for Liverpool, but wouldn’t he be an ideal appointment for any club? If Liverpool were to hammer on Sunderland’s door, I don’t see Martin O’Neill refusing the chance to turn Liverpool round on to the right track again.

Right, that’s your lot for today, I’m becoming pushed for time as I finish this post!

Enjoy your weekend, I’ll see you on Monday.

Until then.

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Craig in England, Premiership Leave a comment

Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea. Chelsea Progress To Champions League Final

Chelsea's Big Blue Bus was back again.

Good morning!

What. A. Match. Try and make sense of the remainder to this paragraph: Barcelona went 1-0 ahead through Sergio Busquets before John Terry got sent off for trying to dead-leg Alexis. Barcelona then doubled their advantage courtesy of Andres Iniesta. Ramires then scored on a breakaway goal to give Chelsea parity on aggregate (2-2) and thus through on away goals. Barcelona spent the second half trying to break Chelsea down and were awarded a penalty, which, shockingly, Lionel Messi missed. Barcelona continued trying to break Chelsea down when in the 90th minute, Fernando Torres, on as a substitute, scored to seal Chelsea’s progression to the Champions League Final.

That’s a whirlwind paragraph to read, and really, where do you start when trying to exlain what happened last night in Camp Nou? Let me start from the beginning…

Chelsea travelled to Barcelona as overwhelming underdogs, despite holding a 1-0 aggregate lead from the first-leg. It’s only natural that a team travelling to Camp Nou are branded as underdogs, purely because they’re playing Barcelona, a team who brag star talent in abundance, such as Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas. Barcelona’s Nou Camp pitch is vast and has exposed many teams before now, regardless of their quality. Only two years ago, Barcelona put five past Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid, a fact which only highlights Barcelona’s ability. Rightly so, Barcelona have been branded the best club side to have ever played.

Whilst Barcelona have been guided to unprecedented glory under Pep Guardiola, Chelsea have worked their way through managers how a five year-old would get through new shoes. Since the end of last season, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas Boas and now interim manager Roberto Di Matteo have taken the managerial reigns at Stamford Bridge. Turbulence in the Chelsea dressing room and a lack of continuity has lead to an awful league campaign this year, yet Chelsea had managed to fight their way to a Champions League Semi-Final.

Before the match, everybody in the world knew Chelsea would go to Barcelona and defend their one goal advantage as Barcelona tried to pass their merry way around them. It took just a few seconds for that trend to settle as straight away, Barcelona pushed Chelsea back to the edge of their own area and started to pass in that hypnotising way we have come to know. Chelsea had formed a wall of white as Barcelona tried to look for gaps in a defence resembling concrete.

Thirty-five minutes in, Barcelona were to open the scoring. A Barcelona corner was headed clear by Didier Drogba, yet not far enough and straight away Barcelona were on top of Chelsea and when Issac Cuenca beat his marker, a simple pass across the six yard line was enough to undo Barcelona as Sergio Busquets lurked at the back-post to tap home for 1-0.

Just minutes later, ultimate drama struck the Nou Camp. Alexis Sanchez was standing as still as a lighthouse on the edge of Chelsea’s area when John Terry came behind the Chilean international and inexplicably drove a knee into the back of Alexis, seemingly attempting to dead-leg to speedster. Alexis went down to ground in pain and when the 5th official informed the Referee of what had happened, Terry was rightly awarded a red card.

Despite what we all think of John Terry as a man, we know who he is a football player and that is an ultimate professional who takes pride in his captaincy of Chelsea. Terry has not picked up a yellow card throughout Chelsea’s Champions League campaign this year, so why would he suddenly act in such a way as to damage the chances of his team making the Champions League Final? I can’t begin to explain why Terry did what he did, I just know that what he did was horribly wrong and I hope (though it’s unlikely) Chelsea punish Terry internally for his actions.

Five minutes later, Terry’s indiscretion was punished as Lionel Messi fed Andres Iniesta a killer pass from which the Spanish international would slot past Petr Cech with consummate ease. I don’t mind admitting that at this stage, I considered Chelsea as dead along with the Dinosaurs. Down to ten men, losing 2-0 and behind on aggregate to the best team in the world is a steep mountain to climb.

Amazingly, just two minutes after Iniesta scoring, Chelsea had hope. Frank Lampard’s through-ball gave Ramires time and space in which he chipped an onrushing Victor Valdes to make it 2-1 in the match itself and 2-2 on aggregate, with Chelsea now going through on away goals.

All of this in 45 minutes? From my position on the settee I felt almost dazed by what I was watching. No way in hell should Chelsea be going through on away goals in those circumstances, but down to men they were still battling.

More of the same was required in the second half, though it took just a few minutes for Barcelona’s relentless pressure to conjure up an opportunity when Didier Drogba tripped Cesc Fabregas inside the penalty area.

Drogba hadn’t tripped Fabregas, the Spaniard had dived and had Lionel Messi converted his penalty rather than striking the bar, thus sending Barcelona through to the final, it would have been very amusing to see a clash between little Cesc Fabregas and the hulking figure of Didier Drogba. The world seemed just when Messi hit the crossbar following Fabregas’ dive and once more, Chelsea got back to defending for their lives.

Pass, pass, pass, Barcelona were relentless in their pressure, always closing Chelsea down whenever Chelsea dared take possession for a moment and 73% possession in Barcelona’s favour tells its own story.

Despite Barcelona’s dominance in possession of the ball, the only chances they created were half-cut and there was no moment, Messi hitting the post aside, where you felt Chelsea were in immediate danger.

With three minutes added time, Chelsea were so close to a Champions League Final, they just had to keep Barcelona at bay for a few minutes to reach what had seemed an unlikely final, sitting on a Ramires away goal.

Another Barcelona pass had fallen to a Chelsea shirt and in a desperate hack clear from out of their penalty area, Fernando Torres, on as a substitute for Didier Drogba, was in acres of space, no Barcelona defenders near him as the Spaniard ran clear at goal with only Victor Valdes to beat. After what Torres has suffered in the past year, I was so happy to see Torres round Valdes and score to put Chelsea through against Barcelona.

A minute later, the referee had blown for full-time and Chelsea were rightly jubilant in their celebrations as they had defeated Barcelona in the most epic of Champions League matches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8HQB0Vp4g0

Many people this morning, particularly of Spanish heritage, will moan that Chelsea’s victory is, ‘one for Chelsea, but not for football’. For me that is pure, 100% rubbish. I said last week that Chelsea needed to play to their strengths in order to win and guess what? They won! It is a results business and those on their moral high horse, spouting off from the lip over how good Barcelona were in possession need to exile themselves to a faraway land.

On my FourFourTwo stats app it gives you a feature showing where players were positioned mostly throughout the match. If you look at Barcelona’s, it shows Xavi, Iniesta, Keita, Fabregas, Alexis, Tello, Messi and Cuenca all grouped together in the middle of the pitch. All of those players were guilty of coming inside and trying to play in non-existant space. No matter how good a team is with the ball, they need variation. When did Barcelona ever stretch the Chelsea defence by going wide? Barcelona never tried anything different and a player Barca desperately needed last night, is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. People say he was a flop at Barca, but I don’t call 16 goals and 7 assists in 29 appearances a ‘flop’, I’d say that is a pretty good return!

With Ibrahimovic, Barcelona could have crossed the ball, having their wingers hug the touchline in an attempt to stretch Chelsea and thus present space to their central players. Ibrahimovic would have given Barcelona the variation they so needed last night. No matter who Barca sent on last night, the player coming on was always the same as the one going off.

For all their greatness, Barcelona are becoming easy to read, examples are Real Madrid at home on Saturday and against AC Milan away. A team needs to be efficient with their passing and if one way fails, try another. Barcelona were trying to sell a dead Horse for ninety minutes last night and never considered the use of a different Nag. All of Barcelona’s 700-plus passes were the same, none of them any different in style to the other and that is their problem when faced with a team like Chelsea: No variation.

As for Chelsea, on the same iPhone app I looked at where their players had been mostly and it shows Chelsea’s players in perfect shape. Chelsea aren’t shown to be scattered, their players are organised into banks, all dedicated to a job and position.

Last night was a fantastic showcase of fight, spirit, determination and professionalism. Chelsea are through to the Champions League Final.

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Craig in England, Europe, La Liga, Premiership, Spain Leave a comment

Drogba Gives Chelsea 1-0 Advantage

Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill and Cole line up to play Barca.

Good morning!

Yesterday I spoke about Chelsea needing to attack Barcelona and to stay true to themselves. I think what I was trying to get at yesterday, is stay true to your own game, don’t play as another team just to try and beat Barcelona as it won’t work, every team should stick to what they know best when they play Barcelona. I used Arsenal playing attacking football at the Emirates last year as an example of a team playing to their own strengths. Arsenal don’t own a bus to park in front of goal, so they didn’t and won the first leg.

Unlike Arsenal, Chelsea own quite a few buses and were able to successfully stifle Barcelona and prevent space through the middle. Lionel Messi is the greatest dribbler of a ball in the world, but even everybody’s favourite Argentinian ragdoll can’t dribble around six or seven players before being snuffed out.

To say Chelsea parked the bus however, is incredibly short-sighted and doesn’t do justice to what was a fantastic counter-attacking performance from Chelsea, one which shouldreally be a blueprint for England at the European Championships this summer. We can’t match Spain, Holland or Germany with their quality, so why not dig in and play on the counter?

The first half went pretty much as expected, Barcelona began to smother Chelsea with their hypnotising blanket of passing football and their first real chance fell to Chilean striker, Alexis Sanchez. In the eighth minute, Andres Iniesta fed Alexis through and with the ball bouncing and Petr Cech racing forward, Alexis opted for a smart lob which unfortunately for Barcelona, struck the bar and was gleefully hacked away to safety by Gary Cahill.

A quick note about Gary Cahill; I think he really grew in stature last night. Early on I thought Cahill could be in for a long night and his favouring of the long ball was playing right into Barcelona’s hands as they plucked the ball and went back at Chelsea. Once Cahill had gotted that out of his system, he was imperious alongside John Terry. Is that pairing one for the summer?

Cesc Fabregas was the next Barcelona player to be found guilty of missing a glorious opportunity. Messi had broken into the area and reached the byline before having to spin and pass to Iniesta in a better position. Iniesta released a shot on goal which Cech found himself equal to and parried dangerously to a lurking Fabregas. For all the world, I’d have backed my personal favourite player to score from eight yards out with the goal at his mercy. Fortunately for Chelsea, Fabregas was already thinking of how he could celebrate Barcelona’s first goal of the night, lashed at the ball and spun it wide to Alexis, with the attack eventually peetering out.

Fabregas nearly made up for that missed opportunity. In some sort of perversed switching of events, it was Barcelona who found themselves counter-attacking on Chelsea, with Lionel Messi running straight at Chelsea’s defence after Barcelona had ripped Chelsea’s midfield apart. Fabregas made a run to Messi’s left and received a pass from the Argentine to take him through one-on-one (ish, Cesc did have the attentions of other defenders and a looming Petr Cech to deal with) Cech who himself had closed Cesc’s room for manouvre expertly. The only option available to Fabregas was a chip, which he pulled off, lifting the ball over Cech with the outside of his right boot, only to see one-time team-mate Ashley Cole hook Cesc’s chip off of the line.

Barcelona were really increasing the tempo of their game and with half-time approaching, 0-0 and a chance to draw breath must have looked very inviting for Chelsea.

Lionel Messi was in possession on the halfway line, wondering which way to go round Frank Lampard when his hesitance in making his mind up cost him and Lampard stole possession back from Messi. Looking up, Lampard saw Ramires running down the left into acres of space and duly released the energetic Brazilian. Not able to step inside and shoot at goal, Ramires squared to Didier Drogba, who slotted past Victor Valdes from close range to give Chelsea an incredible lead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPX_q4wlfH4

Drogba’s insistance on going down continually as if he were a £15 an hour hooker was beginning to irk most of the world, but you cannot take away the fact that if Drogba is faced with a occassion such as last night, he will perform and is very hard to stop. Drogba’s footwork in several situations was sublime and if his touch had not eluded him in the early stages of the match, Drogba, may well have seen better scoring opportunities.

In the second half, Barcelona carried on the precedent set by the first half, probing Chelsea and looking for small pockets of opportunity. Barcelona never rushed themselves and didn’t create anything dangerous until the final few moments.

Messi’s free-kick late on was flicked by the moppy head of Carles Puyol, sending the ball spinning to Cech’s bottom right-hand corner. Only a sprawling Cech could prevent Barcelona equalising and moments later, Cech had the woodwork to thank for saving Chelsea’s cleansheet, when Pedro came inside and curled a shot on to the base of the post. Sergio Busquets followed up the rebound and had that chance fallen to anyone else, even Victor Valdes, Barcelona would have scored. Like Fabregas in the first half, Busquets was imagining a heroes welcome back in Barcelona and lifted the ball high over the Cech’s crossbar, landing the ball somewhere in Walthamstow.

Like Arsenal last year, Chelsea won by playing to their strengths. Chelsea are traditionally a well-drilled, defensive unit, not an attacking force like Arsenal and whereas Arsenal created just as many chances as Barcelona at the Emirates last season, Chelsea played on the counter and won 1-0. Both systems of playing have to be recognised and celebrated, for the result is the only thing that matters. I will always encourage Barcelona-esque football, but if you can win via other means of playing, then that’s nothing to raise your eyebrows at.

Many will write off Chelsea this morning and understandably so. Barcelona have played thirty matches at home this season and scored 104 goals, conceding merely 16, losing none. If Chelsea manage to score just once however at the Nou Camp, then Barcelona need to score three against Chelsea and that is an extremely difficult task.

Barcelona are still clear favourites to win this tie, but Chelsea must continue to stay true to themselves and produce an even better performance than what they did last night.

That’s me done for today. See you tomorrow!

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Craig in England, Europe, La Liga, Premiership, Spain Leave a comment

Bayern Bat Madrid Out Of Bavaria / Chelsea v Barcelona Preview

Bavaria, home to Bayern Munich.

Good morning!

I do love this time of year for football. No longer do we have to put up with boring group matches featuring Olympiakos and Standard Liege, we’re now at the stage where only the best teams can make it and if you’re a neutral watching everything unfold now, then consider yourself the luckiest man in the world.

Last night, Bayern Munich met Real Madrid at the Allianz Arena, a gigantic arena (capacity of 69,000) which will be used for this years Champions League Final. Oh, the stadium also changes colour as can be witnessed below…

The sub-plots for this match was unreal. First, Howard Webb (last night’s referee) was referee for the 2010 final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, and now Real Madrid manager, Jose Mourinho, was in charge of Inter Milan for that 2-0 victory, which also took place at Santiago Bernabeu, home of Madrid. In that match, Howard Webb denied Bayern Munich a clear-cut penalty when Walter Samuel handled in the penalty area. In 1998, Jupp Heynckes, now manager of Bayern Munich, was in charge of Real Madrid and that year won the Champions League with Real. Unfortunately for Heynckes, his Madrid side also finished fourth in La Liga, so the German was booted out of Madrid, possibly the only manager in history to be sacked after winning the world’s most prestigious trophy. (yes I include the World Cup in that)

Despite an early flurry of half-chances and possession, it was Bayern Munich who largely manipulated the flow of the first half, controlling the ball. In spite of Madrid’s early superiority on the ball, it was Bayern Munich who would strike the first blow, through Franck Ribery. In the 17th minute, a corner was taken and Real’s defence were presumably on sabbatical. The ball broke free to Ribery who needed no invitation to shoot from close range, through a see of legs and past a helpless Iker Casillas.

It was a shock lead considering the dominant start Real Madrid had enjoyed and Bayern Munich started to build on their goal, becoming more influential on the match and using the ball better than Madrid. No real chances of note ensued however and Real Madrid went in at half-time looking frustrated.

A near-farcical goal in the 53rd minute gave Madrid a crucial away goal though Mesut Ozil. Cristiano Ronaldo had broken through on goal one-on-one with Manuel Neuer, who expertly blocked Ronaldo’s effort. Karim Benzema acted before Munich’s defence and spread a ball back to the far post for Ozil, who had the easiest of jobs bundling the ball home from all of a couple of centimetres. One of Badstuber, Boateng, Alaba and Lahm should have done a much better job in snuffing out the danger.

Mario Gomez was guilty of missing big chances as Bayern re-applied the pressure. Firstly, Gomez lifted a chance over the ball over the bar having been unwittingly teed up by Sergio Ramos, before firing straight at Casillas when through on goal.

Finally, in the 90th minute, Gomez prevailed and gave Bayern Munich a 2-1 lead which they will hold going into the second leg. Phillip Lahm beat his man (Esteban Granero, I think) far too easily and with all the time in the world, simply passed the ball into space at the near post where Mario Gomez was lurking to smash home to make it 2-1.

This game is far from over, as Bayern have yet to travel to Spain and a second leg at the intimidating surroundings of Santiago Bernabeu will prove to be Bayern’s acid test.

Chelsea v Barcelona

In yesterday’s pre-match press conference, Cesc Fabregas declared that Chelsea had gone back to their former ways of direct football, sending long balls into Didier Drogba and playing largely on the counter. Fabregas went on to note that you could completely out-play Chelsea, but Drogba would score on Chelsea’s first counter-attack.

I recognise that Chelsea play this way and I have no problems with it. Andre Villas Boas tried to change too much in his time at Chelsea. As I noted on Twitter yesterday, a transition period between teams should be gentle, not as explosive as the changes AVB was intent on making at Chelsea. You can’t teach an old Dog new tricks and all that. I believe AVB’s vision was the right one, but he maybe wasn’t the man to oversee such a transition, such a period needs a softer touch. Can you imagine established players such as Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and John Terry being told that everything they knew was wrong and that they needed to play a different way? Nobody reacts well to such a declaration.

I’m glad Chelsea have reverted back to what they know, as this is the only way in which they can beat Barcelona. Under AVB, Chelsea might have tried to meet fire with fire, passing the ball, playing attacking football and generally leaving themselves desperately exposed to Barcelona’s attacking force.

Normally I’d encourage teams to play attacking football against Barcelona, but this isn’t Chelsea, that’s not what we’ve come to expect of them and they can beat Barcelona by fighting a war of attrition, by sending long balls into Drogba and playing on the counter. It isn’t pretty and I discourage that brand of football, but that is how Barcelona can be beaten and for 180 minutes over the next two legs, football snobbery should be put to one side as we watch Chelsea fan Barcelona’s fire by bypassing the midfield.

To beat Barcelona, Chelsea need to be direct and full of intent every time they get the ball, they must not hide within themselves. I fully expect them to set up defensively and man the barracks, but they must show enthusiasm getting forward when getting forward, that is the only way in which they will taste success.

Right, that’s your lot from me today. See you tomorrow.

Follow @J4goalpostsblog

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Craig in Bundesliga, England, Europe, Germany, La Liga, Premiership, Spain Leave a comment

Bayern Ease Past Marseille / Milan Little Trouble For Barca

Good morning all!

At 7 o’clock this morning I awoke to see my street covered in snow. Can somebody explain to me where the bloody hell it came from? I half expected David Attenborough to begin the filming of a new series of ‘Frozen Planet’.

It’s crazy what a little snow can do, isn’t it? In my little village, a road is closed due to power lines being down and a tree has fallen at the top of my street, narrowly missing a car. It’s amazing and I’m pretty sure mainland Europe will be enjoying a bloody good laugh at our expense as we spend the next week struggling to deal with snow.

On to the football news and last night saw two matches played out by four massive clubs in Bayern Munich, Marseille, Barcelona and AC Milan. All four teams have a fantastic European pedigree and I was positively brimming at the prospect of both.

To be fair, I never made the Bayern v Marseille match as I was enjoying Barcelona’s thumping of AC Milan too much, though I knew I was safe in the knowledge that Bayern would walk over Marseille with little trouble.

Since March 3rd, Bayern have been in immense form having started the month with a 2-0 loss away to Bayer Leverkusen, Jupp Heynckes’ team have blown away their opposition, scoring twenty goals and conceding just the one through mid-March. From the match in Leverkusen in early March, to last night against Marseille, Bayern have won eight matches on the bounce, setting up a final between themselves and league leaders Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal.

Boasting an incredible attacking quartet of Thomas Muller, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Mario Gomez, it’s no surprise to see Bayern doing so well of late, but as you may have picked up on in the last paragraph, Bayern are not league leaders which prompts the question; ‘why?’.

Despite being able to boast one of the strongest starting XIs in Europe, Bayern are fairly weak in terms of back-up to their first team. Beyond that immense attacking quartet, there isn’t much in the ways of real attacking talent. Nils Petersen was bought in the summer as back-up to Mario Gomez and has played just the eight games and beyond him is Croatian forward Ivica Olic, who was once a feared striker throughout Europe, but injuries and age (32) have made Olic’s pace redundant and he no longer represents the same threat, which is evident in return of two goals in sixteen appearances this season.

Beyond Mario Gomez, there is very little scope for a true striker to provide reliable back-up and if there is no Gomez, Bayern struggle. Similarly, it’s no surprise that when Arjen Robben is missing through yet another injury, Bayern find themselves fielding Danijel Pranjic.

For a team that Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp described as, ‘unstoppable’ this season, it’s been very disappointing for Bayern to have lost six matches. Admittedly, Bayern are only three points behind Borussia Dortmund, but they’re a young side with their own injury problems and as brilliant as Dortmund are, you must have expected Bayern to be well ahead by now in the league, yet squad depth is costing them.

Fortunately for Jupp Heynckes, such wasn’t the case last night as the likes of Robben and Gomez were rested, allowing for a goalscoring return from Ivica Olic and an appearance for the talented David Alaba.

Marseille consistently progress to these stages of the Champions League, only failing to go further through meeting another powerhouse of similar or higher stature to themselves. Marseille, despite their rich European history, are the flat-track bullies of the Champions League, picking off smaller teams and being knocked out easily by bigger teams.

Over in Barcelona, Pep Guardiola was hoping his Barcelona side would be able to deal with what proved to be a stubborn AC Milan side in Italy.

Against Arsenal in the previous round, AC Milan walked over Arsene Wenger’s side in the San Siro on what was a really terrible pitch. Milan’s pitch is reminiscent of a freshly ploughed field and is incredibly difficult for teams such as Arsenal and Barcelona to play on and unsurprisingly, both sides struggled and failed to score against Milan.

On a proper pitch however, AC Milan have been shown for what they really are against Arsenal and Barcelona. At the Emirates, Milan were battered 3-0 by Arsenal and if the Gunners had better luck with injuries for the second-leg, it could have been a lot more. Similarly at Camp Nou, Barcelona walked over Milan and to be honest, did anybody expect anything else?

On a better pitch, Barcelona were able to ping the ball about as they normally do, enjoying colossal amounts of possession in Milan’s half, probing for an opening and it was no surprise when Barcelona took the lead, albeit via a penalty. Having wreaked havoc in the penalty area, Massimo Ambrosini, who looked on the verge of exloding all night long, brought down Lionel Messi for a clear penalty. As you’d expect, Messi rolled it past Abbiati without any trouble.

AC Milan were set to hit Barcelona on the counter, but so many teams play in such a fashion against Barcelona that it becomes easy for Barca to read. In recent years, Inter Milan and Arsenal have enjoyed historic victories against Barca by going toe-to-toe and playing their own game. AC Milan would have done well to recognise this and although Nocerino replied to draw the scores level, it was widely acknowledged that it would only be in vain as Barcelona ramped up the tempo and forced another penalty out of AC Milan.

Alessandro Nesta, one of Italy’s best ever defenders was drawn into pulling Sergio Busquets’ shirt inside the area and even though Sergio is prone to a spot of play-acting, it was never in doubt that Barca should have been awarded a penalty and again, Messi rolled the ball past Abbiati, this time going to Abbiati’s left.

Andres Iniesta added a third in the second half to add to Milan’s misery and that was it, game over. At that, Ladbrokes put Milan at 100/1 to win the match and they were as good as out. Milan knew it, Barca knew it, everybody knew it.

If Chelsea beat Benfica tonight then they’ll set up a semi-final date between themselves and Barcelona. God help Chelsea fans watching David Luiz cope with Lionel Messi…

That’s your lot from me today! Till tomorrow.

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Posted on April 4, 2012 by Craig in Bundesliga, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A, Spain Leave a comment

Arsene Wenger Launches Tirade On Arsenal Players

Morning all!

Today’s a bit of a slow day, mainly because I refuse to talk about Europa League football. I mean, if Stoke City can rest players when it comes to their first bash at European football, then I’m going to give my fingers a rest by not talking about a competition nobody else cares about. If Patrice Evra wants to moan that it’s ‘embarrassing’ to play in the Europa League, then it’s certainly ‘embarrassing’ for me to talk about it.

So with that, our attention again focuses on Arsenal, who are looking to pick themselves up off the proverbial floor tomorrow with victory against Sunderland in the FA Cup, seven days after having beaten Martin O’Neill’s rejuvenated Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

A 4-0 loss away to AC Milan in the Champions League has created a feeling of further unrest amongst Arsenal fans, who are angry at not having top players replaced during the summer, and a sudden realisation of the fact that Thierry Henry, who has now returned to New York Red Bulls following his loan spell, was Arsenal’s second best striker behind Robin Van Persie. Now Henry has gone, (again) a realisation of having a particularly weak squad is hitting Arsenal fans and there is rumour that Arsene Wenger is going to field his strongest side against Sunderland, so as not to risk further backlash from fans who would be angry about being knocked out of the FA Cup just three days after being effectively knocked out of the Champions League.

To be fair, there has been a feeling all season that Arsenal’s squad is weak. Whereas last year, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Jack Wilshere lead the midfield, this season it’s been Mikel Arteta, Alex Song, Tomas Rosicky and Aaron Ramsey; only the holding midfielder has remained, otherwise the creative hub behind Arsenal’s beautiful passing game has disappeared. Replacing Cesc Fabregas with a player still in the early stages of his development is nothing short of naive. Ramsey will become a great player, but he shouldn’t achieve that goal through being hammered most weeks by fans who are frustrated at watching a player still being in educated in football, try to fill the gigantic boots vacated by Cesc Fabregas.

Wednesday’s defeat to AC Milan was terrible and recognised as a real sign of regression, especially when compared to last year’s stunning 2-1 victory over Barcelona. That night, (as well as in the second leg, Arsenal were in the driving seat when Van Persie was sent off) Arsenal matched Barcelona, then triumphed over the Spaniards, eventually proving too good for Barcelona at their own game. It was emphatic, the best night of my life as an Arsenal fan in the past few years and on Wednesday, that night seemed worlds away.

Arsene Wenger wasn’t happy with his players either. John Cross, a football journalist for the Daily Mirror whose job is to cover Arsenal, said in his online column that Wenger barely spoke a word to his squad in Milan, before hammering his players when back at London Colney. (Arsenal’s training ground) Cross reports that very few Arsenal players had seen Wenger as furious as the man berating his squad for an embarrassing performance in Milan and having demanded a reaction from his players, it’s very likely Wenger will name his strongest team available, with maybe a few alterations.

Rather than Theo Walcott on the right, I believe Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will move to the right, whilst Andrey Arshavin will move in on the left, as Walcott has been eternally disappointing in recent matches, so it is time for a natural change there anyway. Van Persie may be rested due to what the San Siro pitch may have done to his infamous knees and Koscielny won’t feature out of injury, but otherwise, Arsene Wenger will be fielding the strongest side available to him.

Arsenal need a positive reaction and after one of Arsene Wenger’s rare tirades, will the Gunners deliver against Sunderland?

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Posted on February 17, 2012 by Craig in England, Europe, Italy, Premiership Leave a comment

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