If Tottenham can make it a draw, or just lose with one goal at Santiago Bernabeu I think they will have a very good chance to advance. In Bale and Lennon they have enough speed to outrun Real Madrids slow defencemen. It'll be a close series, but Tottenham is going to make it.
Inter Milan < Schalke 04
Inter made it through just barely against B. München. But against a Schalke, with nothing other than Champions League to play for, they will have a much harder time. The germans quick game is going to chock Inter, and hopefully it will be enough!
Chelsea < Manchester United
Even though Chelsea played quite impressive against Man City, and showed that they still can play good football, Manchester United have a lot larger and better squad. Even though their defence line is badly hurt at the moment they will have enough time to get some players back, and with Rooney, Hernandez and Berbatov on fire, Chelsea won't have anything to collect after the two games.
Barcelona > Shakhtar Donetsk
It's just typical that Barcelona is going to face the, on paper, weakest team. But Shakhtar is certinely not just another amatuer team, they are undefeated at home since 2008 and won't let Barcelona take it easy. This, however, won't matters since the spanish team still is going to be way to difficult for Shakhtar to handle.
United don't have a larger and better squad. Chelseas first 11 man for man is better than Uniteds bar maybe Vidic? Just because Chelsea have been having a hard time doesn't mean that on their day they are suddenly worse than the poorest united squad in years
I would rather have essien, lampard and ramires in my midfield than fletcher carrick and scholes. Terry and Ivanovic/Alex is up there with the best defensive partnerships and is certainly on par if not better than Vidic and Smalling (Smalling the weak link). Ash Cole is a better left back than evra and both teams have hit or miss right backs. Uniteds strikers are gelling more than chelseas though but Chelsea have proven they can beat united even in their bad moment.
The matches should be a lot closer than some people are predicting. Took a mistake from jaskelaainen to gift united 3 points AT HOME while chelsea dismantled city with ease.
But I'm a bias Chelsea fan so do with this what you will.
(Vote): Fabien BARTHEZ (Vote): Gianluigi BUFFON (Vote): Iker CASILLAS Fernández (Vote): Petr ČECH (Vote): Jerzy DUDEK (Vote): Oliver KAHN (Vote): Francesco TOLDO (Vote): Edwin VAN DER SAR (Vote): Other
(Vote): Marcos Evangelista de Moraes - CAFU (Vote): Daniel Alves da Silva - DANI ALVES (Vote): Philipp LAHM (Vote): MAICON Douglas Sisenando (Vote): Gary NEVILLE (Vote): Christian PANUCCI (Vote): Sergio RAMOS García (Vote): Lilian THURAM (Vote): Other
(Vote): Roberto Fabian AYALA (Vote): Fabio CANNAVARO (Vote): Ricardo CARVALHO (Vote): Rio FERDINAND (Vote): Sami HYYPIA (Vote): Lucimar da Silva Ferreira - LUCIO (Vote): Rafael MARQUEZ Álvarez (Vote): Alessandro NESTA (Vote): Carles PUYOL Saforcada (Vote): John TERRY (Vote): Other
(Vote): Vincent CANDELA (Vote): Christian CHIVU (Vote): Ashley COLE (Vote): Patrice EVRA (Vote): Paolo MALDINI (Vote): John Arne RIISE (Vote): ROBERTO CARLOS da Silva (Vote): Giovanni VAN BRONCKHORST (Vote): Other
(Vote): Philip COCU (Vote): Edgar DAVIDS (Vote): Anderson Luís de Souza - DECO (Vote): Michael ESSIEN (Vote): Steven GERRARD (Vote): Roy KEANE (Vote): Claude MAKELELE (Vote): Andrea PIRLO (Vote): Mark VAN BOMMEL (Vote): Patrick VIEIRA (Vote): Other
(Vote): DAVID Josué Jiménez SILVA (Vote): Ryan GIGGS (Vote): Pavel NEDVED (Vote): Robert PIRES (Vote): Franck RIBERY (Vote): Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER (Vote): Clarence SEEDORF (Vote): Dejan STANKOVIĆ (Vote): Other
(Vote): CRISTIANO RONALDO dos Santos Aveiro (Vote): Alessandro DEL PIERO (Vote): Thierry HENRY (Vote): Claudio LOPEZ (Vote): Lionel MESSI (Vote): Vincenzo MONTELLA (Vote): Michael OWEN (Vote): RAUL Gonzalez Blanco (Vote): Ronaldo de Assis Moreira - RONALDINHO GAUCHO (Vote): Fernando TORRES (Vote): Other
(Vote): Didier DROGBA (Vote): Samuel ETO'O Fils (Vote): Zlatan IBRAHIMOVIĆ (Vote): Filippo INZAGHI (Vote): Miroslav KLOSE (Vote): Fernando MORIENTES (Vote): RONALDO Luiz Nazario de Lima (Vote): Andrij SHEVCHENKO (Vote): Ruud VAN NISTELROOY (Vote): David VILLA (Vote): Other
If Tottenham can make it a draw, or just lose with one goal at Santiago Bernabeu I think they will have a very good chance to advance. In Bale and Lennon they have enough speed to outrun Real Madrids slow defencemen. It'll be a close series, but Tottenham is going to make it.
ROFL??? Real Madrid slow defenders? Marcelo is slow? Ramos is slow? PEPE IS SLOW??? Its Mourinho and he never got kicked out in knock out stages against a team who is worse than his. With all due respect to Bale and Lennon, CR7 and Di Maria are just better. Tottenham was crushed in midfield against Milan in 3 of 4 halfs, and Real's is so much better. The reason that Tottenham won is that Milan's attack doesn't have teeth (Ibra is awful against English teams and Robinho? mehhh..)
If Tottenham can make it a draw, or just lose with one goal at Santiago Bernabeu I think they will have a very good chance to advance. In Bale and Lennon they have enough speed to outrun Real Madrids slow defencemen. It'll be a close series, but Tottenham is going to make it.
ROFL??? Real Madrid slow defenders? Marcelo is slow? Ramos is slow? PEPE IS SLOW??? Its Mourinho and he never got kicked out in knock out stages against a team who is worse than his. With all due respect to Bale and Lennon, CR7 and Di Maria are just better. Tottenham was crushed in midfield against Milan in 3 of 4 halfs, and Real's is so much better. The reason that Tottenham won is that Milan's attack doesn't have teeth (Ibra is awful against English teams and Robinho? mehhh..)
i agree mostly with this, with alonso controlling the game i don't see madrid losing. also to the poster above i think vidic actually kinda carries man utd right now. obviously they have a decent team overall, but they are so easy to play against without vidic there. just look at how badly lpool raped them and lpool are not that great even without that idiot hogson managing them anymore
I think Terry has to be one of the most overrated defenders since Jamie Carragher. Personally I wouldn't choose any left back in the world over Patrice Evra. Ashley Cole was miles better when he played for Arsenal as far as I'm concerned and a lot less of a bell end.
While I'd rather have Essien, Ramires and Lampard in my midfield over Carrick and Fletcher (quite honestly there's a lot of players I'd rather have in my midfield over them 2) I'd not take any one of them over Scholes. Essien to be fair is quality, the other 2 I don't really think are that great.
And our forwards at the moment have hit some pretty good form, Rooney, Hernandez and Berbatov do look like the strongest attack in the EPL atm.
But really the current premier league table speaks a lot, we've actually been pretty mediocre this season and have been somewhat fortunate that everyone else has sucked too because we're in extremely good position to win it with only really Arsenal having much of a chance of competing.
Bayern Munich: Val Gaals contract is terminated in summer break, rumours say Heynckes will take over
Bayer Leverkusen: Heynckes did not renew, SC Freiburgs' Robin Dutt has signed a contract for next season.
Hamburger SV: Armin Veh announced not to renew his contract in summer, was dumped about a week later after losing 6:0 to Bayern, former Nuremberg coach Oenning, his assistent, has taken over until summer. On a sidenote, chairman and assistent will not be granted contracts for new season, and Chelseas' Arnesen, who will take over Management in summer, is not allowed to start working yet there. Total chaos.
SC Freiburg: Dutt will switch to Leverkusen next Season, so Youth Coach Marcus Sorg will take over
FC Schalke 04: fired team manager Magath after advancing to Quarters in CL and finals in national cup, club internas were the issue. Ralf Rangnick, Hoffenheims coach this season until he quit in winter break, and also successful former coach of Schalke, has signed a contract and is taking over.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Coach Skibbe has been dropped, after Frankfurt scoring their first goal last playday and first win this playday in 2011. Former Leverkusen and Istanbul coach Daum takes over now.
VfL Wolfsburg: 2 years after their championship, they are in relegation zone. Coach McLarren and taking over Littbarski now both dumped, aswell as Manager Dieter Hoeneß, former Schalke Manager Magath returns to the place of his masterpiece so far, the mentioned championship.
Everything taking place within a bit more than a week.
I think the idea Louis van Gaal had really good. He talked in an interview about a transfer window for coaches to stop this madness. Or maybe that a coach cant coach two different teams in one season. What do you think about that?
As far as I know, there is a rule for that in Italy, that says, you can only coach one team per season. I would actually prefer that clubs, coaches and players take the contracts they sign seriously, the way these papers are treated is ridiculous. Trusting a manager for more than a season would be a beginning.
On March 22 2011 19:41 kazansky wrote: German coaching scene going nuts, some summary:
Bayern Munich: Val Gaals contract is terminated in summer break, rumours say Heynckes will take over
Bayer Leverkusen: Heynckes did not renew, SC Freiburgs' Robin Dutt has signed a contract for next season.
Hamburger SV: Armin Veh announced not to renew his contract in summer, was dumped about a week later after losing 6:0 to Bayern, former Nuremberg coach Oenning, his assistent, has taken over until summer. On a sidenote, chairman and assistent will not be granted contracts for new season, and Chelseas' Arnesen, who will take over Management in summer, is not allowed to start working yet there. Total chaos.
SC Freiburg: Dutt will switch to Leverkusen next Season, so Youth Coach Marcus Sorg will take over
FC Schalke 04: fired team manager Magath after advancing to Quarters in CL and finals in national cup, club internas were the issue. Ralf Rangnick, Hoffenheims coach this season until he quit in winter break, and also successful former coach of Schalke, has signed a contract and is taking over.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Coach Skibbe has been dropped, after Frankfurt scoring their first goal last playday and first win this playday in 2011. Former Leverkusen and Istanbul coach Daum takes over now.
VfL Wolfsburg: 2 years after their championship, they are in relegation zone. Coach McLarren and taking over Littbarski now both dumped, aswell as Manager Dieter Hoeneß, former Schalke Manager Magath returns to the place of his masterpiece so far, the mentioned championship.
Everything taking place within a bit more than a week.
With the Bundesliga, I always felt that there was little consistency at the top of the league besides Bayern Munich every season. Whenever another team gets a Champions league spot, they subsequently struggle in the league in the next season and fail to retain that spot (notably demonstrated by Wolfsburg and Schalke).
Whats more interesting are the number of managers who have confirmed that they will not be renewing their contracts in the summer. It seems like all of the clubs are in a 'revolving door' kind of state where they are simple rotating managers around. It probably isn't good for a team's morale when your manager has no chance of retaining his job throughout the summer.
I agree on the manager and morale issue, its very strange. More than half of the teams have changed, are about to change or are not renewing with their coach this season, that is not professional work.
On the performance consistency, its a bit more complicated. There are clubs that performed well over the years and always contested Bayern, like Leverkusen, Schalke and Bremen all did for a short period, where they performed in Champions League and still did well in Bundesliga. The problem is the financial power of Bayern compared to other clubs, if the contester gets too big, they buy them to death, if a team manages to succeed the stretch of national and international duties over a certain period, like happened to Leverkusen.
On addition, Bundesliga is more contested than other leagues in Europe top to bottom. In England or Spain, teams are used to play national and international, and therefore established bigger squads and better "second suits" over time in the first place. In Bundesliga, you either cannot pay this, or you can pay it but are not granted to be Champions League next Season.
On March 22 2011 01:30 yesitsrob wrote: I think Terry has to be one of the most overrated defenders since Jamie Carragher. Personally I wouldn't choose any left back in the world over Patrice Evra. Ashley Cole was miles better when he played for Arsenal as far as I'm concerned and a lot less of a bell end.
While I'd rather have Essien, Ramires and Lampard in my midfield over Carrick and Fletcher (quite honestly there's a lot of players I'd rather have in my midfield over them 2) I'd not take any one of them over Scholes. Essien to be fair is quality, the other 2 I don't really think are that great.
And our forwards at the moment have hit some pretty good form, Rooney, Hernandez and Berbatov do look like the strongest attack in the EPL atm.
I'd take Evra over Cole and Vidic over Luis (barely), but Chelsea have a better #2 CB with Terry than United do with Smalling/Brown. Likewise Ivanovic is better than Rafael (mental)/O'Shea (aging).
Central mids are where Chelsea are way better. I'd take Essien over anyone in United's mid. Scholes is a great distributor but his tackling is awful and I'm wary of his ability to last more than a half in an uptempo game against another top side. Lampard and Ramirez are solid starts too, whereas I'm always nervous about what kind of game to expect from Carrick or Fletcher. (although Fletcher seems to work his ass off on defense, fwiw)
However, with Valencia back that helps negate the middle since he is a great vehicle to advance the ball down the wing and deliver accurate crosses, unlike Nani who always looks to shoot. But Nani is a good attacking option when you consider that he's the third option. I like these two over Malouda/Kalou.
Strikers on paper are even but at the moment United's are more in form and more used to each other. Rooney and Hernandez are especially starting to gel. Luckily, Torres and Drogba don't seem to fit well together.
But really the current premier league table speaks a lot, we've actually been pretty mediocre this season and have been somewhat fortunate that everyone else has sucked too because we're in extremely good position to win it with only really Arsenal having much of a chance of competing.
Yes it has been a rather poor season for all the top clubs. I'd say United's worst in 6 seasons.
After watching them beat City, Chelsea may actually be in the next-best position to win the EPL. Their game at United is the only game left on their schedule I don't make them clear favorites to get 3 points. Arsenal might struggle with a trip to Tottenham, besides Arsenal are capable of losing to anyone while Chelsea with the form they're in right now won't be dropping points against mid/low teams.
ok i take it back. i thought arsenal deserved a trophy up until a month ago but our lack of depth, stale tactics and shocking mentality have really shone through these last 4 weeks and i've been converted to a realist. Shame we came so close.
to reiterate what someone said on an arsenal board: "arsenal have never come so close to the title with such little desire to win it"
David Luiz will be the best Center Back in the World in 2 or 3 years... I am a Benfica Supporter and he always have been great! I think the transfer was cheap and a really good opportunity for Chelsea. I hope he does well in England
David Luiz is unbelievably talented. Seeing him live is an experience too, the guy has a huge heart, always running around everywhere and fighting for every ball. Back in Portugal he was a bit inconsistent at times, he would get a bit overconfident and fuck up. Defenders tend to mature with age tho, so we'll see.
Really sucks that last year we had Ramires, Luiz and Di Maria at Benfica and we weren't on the CL. Coentrão is probably next. On the other hand, buying players for 5-10 mil and then selling them 3-4 years later for 25-30 is not a bad business model.
EPT
we came so close.
