Gunners Rule!!!

I had come up with a few predictions in my previous entry and to my disbelief just 1 of them turned out to be the actual scoreline... Anyways we are now into the semis of the Champions League... We have already seen Barca win against a strong Milan side in Milan... Which effectively means that Barca have one foot in the final... Arsenal too came up with a decent performance but they wouldnt be too comfortable going to Villareal with just a single goal cushion... They will be looking to kill the leg off by scoring an away goal... Arsenal havent conceded a single goal in the Champions League for the past 9 matches now... But football is what it is meant to be... Unpredictable... Villareal are always in with a chance... But they will be looking for a more influential performance from their talisman Juan Roman Riquelme who had an inconsequential night against the Gunners...

But thinking of the quarterfinals now... The predictions i made... Where did i go wrong??? Juventus and Arsenal drew 0-0 as i forecasted.... In my mind the real tragedy was the Milan- Lyon leg... The result i anticipated was so close... Hardly 2 or 3 mins left and Inzaghi pops up with a goal which had never been on the cards... Lyon had not been dominating exactly but they were without doubt playing at a notch higher than the Rossoneri... 1-1 till the 87th min as i predicted... 3-1 at the end of full time... Unbelievable.... Deja Vu for Lyon as they make their exit in the quarters yet again... They fully deserved to be in the semis at least... But credit shouldnt be taken away from Milan as well... They played a good game and progressed with a bit of luck... But sadly it looks like the luck has run out for Milan as they missed a plethora of great chances against Barca with the likes of Gilardino, Kaka and Ambrosini all missing good chances...


And the other surprise was the Inter- Villareal result... I thought Inter played a very good game in the 1st leg despite going down in the very 1st min... They recovered to win the match 2-1... They showed that they could deal with pressure... I thought that aspect would take them through to the semis... But unfortunately that did not prove to be the case as they let Villareal run away with a 1-0 win... Inter's strike force was inept at its best that night... They let themselves down with such a performance... Inter's trophy drought continues.......

Benfica's resilience in the 1st leg against Barca showed that they are not to be taken lightly... Barca dominated the 2nd leg... Even Ronaldinho's penalty miss couldnt stop them... But things could have changed if Simao had equalised... He had a wonderful opportunity... Commentators thought he had in fact scored... But the ball was found behind the net.... Pity!!!

Anyways Gunners rule and will continue to rule!! Let us pray for them.. Hope they can make the finals this year!!!! Barca we are waiting!!!!!

The Impending Clash!!

When Barca take on Benfica this Wednesday they might already be thinking of their opponents in the semis... It could be either Milan or Lyon... Lyon have been underdogs throughout this season's Champions League... But their 4-0 demolition of PSV have made them a team to watchout for... Barca too will not have a walkthrough... Their Portuguese opponent Benfica made short work of defending champs Liverpool in the previous round progressing 3-0 on aggregate... I think that's no fluke...

Both the matches are intriguingly poised... But Milan and Barca will be ruing their inability to score an away goal which might have put the results beyond doubt.. Anyway with both matches finishing 0-0 all that they need is a win in their home stadiums... Which will not be very easy but achieveable nonetheless... But intuition here tells me that Milan might be ousted by Lyon... You know people call it gut feeling... Thats exactly what i feel...

The other 2 quarters are also ones to look out for... Arsenal travel to Italian giants Juventus with a handy 2-0 lead... They will be looking forward to progress to the semis.. If they do this will be their 1st time beyond the quarters for the Gunners... Juventus will be missing some important players in the shape of former Gunner Patrick Vieira, Johnathan Zebina and Mauro Camoranesi... Though they will be boosted by the return of influential midfielder Pavel Nedved who missed the 1st leg and also skipper Alessandro Del Piero who will mostly be benched... Arsenal will be looking for some inspirational performances from much-wanted captain Thierry Henry and youth prodigy Cesc Fabregas who put in a tremendous performance in the 1st leg...

The other match will see Inter Milan taking on Villareal.. Inter won the 1st leg 2-1 despite going down 1-0 in the very 1st minute of the match... Villareal though need just a 1-0 win if they are to progress... Inter will be looking to Adriano to provide the goods after he overcame his goal drought with the 1st goal in the match against Villareal last week... Villareal on the other hand will be looking to Diego Forlan to score their goals... Juan Roman Riquelme will also be a key element in this fixture... Lets see...

Anyway my personal predictions for this week's quarters are as follows:

Barca 2- 1 Benfica
Milan 1-1 Lyon
Juventus 0-0 Arsenal
Villareal 1-1 Inter

Remember to catch the action this tuesday and wednesday nights on ESPN and Star... C ya then...

The Champs are Back!!!

Looks like i am posting after a really long time... This post heralds in the most exciting football a football fan could ever dream of... The UEFA Champions League is set to resume next week after a virtually unending gap... I just cant wait to catch the action... There are a host of mouth watering ties coming up next week... Undoubtedly the Chelsea-Barca 1st leg at Stamford Bridge will be the one to watch out for... Both the teams are going through what one might say a lean patch in recent times... Chelsea were humiliated 3-0 by a team grappling with relegation- Middlesborough... Barca too suffered... In fact they went through back-to-back defeats to Atletico Madrid and Valencia...

My own favourite Arsenal will take on another Spanish giant Real Madrid... Real seem to have found some sort of form of late despite a 6-1 drubbing in the Copa Del Ray against Real Zaragoza.. They are playing better as a team and are far superior( at least on paper!!) than a depleted Arsenal who have had their worst season yet with Arsene Wenger at the helm... Hope Arsenal put up a good fight at least!!! AM keeping my fingers crossed...

Another pet team of mine... AC Milan too have been drawn against tough opponents... Bundesliga Champions Bayern Munich are sure too give Milan a run for their money... Both teams rely a lot on their defences... Milan seem to have hit the peak just at the right time with massive wins of late... Bayern on the other hand have been playing consistent football, grinding out results in the Bundesliga thereby maintaining a healthy lead there...

Last year's semifinalists PSV will be playing a repeat of last year's quarters when they face off against runaway Ligue 1 leaders Lyon.... Lyon will be looking forward to taking revenge after a bitter loss through penalties last time around... Promises to be a good match...

Newcomers Rangers and Villareal go head to head in another interesting fixture... Villareal have been putting up consistent performances while Rangers form in recent times has been nothing short of woeful... But Rangers brought up the goods last time around in the group stages when required... Letz see what happens...

A young but talented Ajax side who find themselves in a lowly 5th spot in the Dutch League take on Italian mammoths Inter... Inter are expected to progress but Ajax wont be going down without putting up a good fight...

Defending Champions Liverpool will face the conquerors of Man Utd... Portuguese side Benfica cannot be taken lightly particularly if Simao Sabrosa is playing... Curiously Simao was chased by Liverpool but a deal couldnt be made... Should be an interesting affair...

Serie A leaders Juventus will have a relatively straight forward test when they face German powerhouse Werder Bremen... Juventus have been hardly troubled by any of the Serie A opposition... But in football you never know...

Thats all for now....

Keep coming back for more updates on the footballing world!!!

The Best Thing To Play!!

THE GAME OF THE YEAR!!!!


AS this blog is dedicated to the purpose of informing you all about football and its related elements i would like to touch upon an interesting topic... As most football fans might have noticed there are a lot of GAMES available with loads of good graphics and commentary and the like... I mean football games like the ever present FIFA which has been coming out year in year out for the past 10 years or so...

I have been an ardent fan of the FIFA series and i am a not-too-bad player as well... FIFA has been improving with time and the 2006 edition is SIMPLY TOO GOOD!!! There are loads of things to be explored in the game... In the previous editions of FIFA i used to notice that though you were given the authority to control a few essential components FIFA06 gives you a free hand in taking over the manager's role... There are a lot of complex dealings that one needs to do... Like selecting the team's sponsors and all... And there a lot of questions to be answered as well.. If one loses an important game the manager has to respond to the press in the correct manner or else he loses the confidence of the players or the chairman or even the fans...

FIFA06 is the most indepth football game i have ever played so far... While i talked a bit about the fine parts of the game i left out another important part... The Actual Gameplay!! The Game is as realistic as 1 can imagine a game of this era to be... Wouldnt say cutting edge but probably the best graphics that could be developed for a football game... FIFA06 unlike its predecssors lays more emphasis on crosses and corners especially crosses... IN the earlier versions it was not child's play to score goals from crosses... In fact it was even difficult to land those crosses in the right spot forget about scoring... But FIFA06 provides more opportunities from crosses than in runs along the middle of the park...

Well guyz try playing FIFA06...Its the best thing to do when you feel bored in class!!! ;)

Or else just bunk class and start playing THE GAME OF THE YEAR!!!!

Mouth Watering!!

As you might know last year's most interesting clash in the Champions League saw Chelsea face Catalans Barcelona in what was expected to be a thriller... And it didnt leave any of the football fans disappointed... Chelsea ultimately won the 2 legged clash 5-4 on aggregate... The West Londoners went down 2-1 in the 1st leg in the majestic Camp Nou... But were on top in the 2nd leg at Stamford Bridge when they raced to a 3-0 lead within the 1st 20 mins.. Barca were clueless and looked upto their talismanic Brazilian Ronaldinho who brought them right back into the game with a well executed penalty and a sublime goal that could be watched over and over again... A toe poke as pundits would put it left Petr Cech rooted to the ground as he made the scoreline 3-2 Barca though would have won if the score had stood that way because of the 2 away goals that they managed to score.. However that was not to be as Chelsea captain John Terry headed home to lead Chelsea to a famous victory over their opponents... Chelsea though were ultimately dumped out in the semis by eventual champions Liverpool...

This year's Champions League draw has made people jump with excitement... Chelsea face Barca again... Deja Vu!! And there are a lot of other mouth watering ties... For the 1st time in European football history we will see Arsenal facing Real Madrid... And AC Milan facing Bayern Munich... Liverpool though i must say have a rather straight forward tie against Portuguese side Benfica who dumped Man UTd unceremoniously from the competition... French Champions Lyon will be looking for revenge against Dutch Champs PSV Eindhoven as Lyon were thrown out last year by PSV in a penalty shoot out if i am not mistaken... And we will see 1st timers Rangers facing another first timer Villareal.... A bit tough to predict but i hope Rangers go on cause i love 'em... And then we have Italian Champions Juventus facing German stronghouse Werder Bremen though the Bianconeri will be expected to move on especially after Bremen's drubbing last year at the hands(legs rather!!) of Lyon... Lyon won 10-2 on aggregate last year... Bremen will be hoping to put up a much improved performance though... And last but not the least Italian powerhouse Inter will face former champs Ajax Amsterdam... Ajax though are a young team and will be hoping to thwart Inter...

OK keep watching this space for more info..Thats it for now..

The Monopoly!!

Football as i had written earlier is not just a sport but an industry... PLayers at their peak are worth million of dollars to their respective teams.... For example Zinedine Zidane cost Real Madrid a fortune... In fact his transfer cost Real an approximate 72 million US dollars... I can cite many such players involved in huge transfers like Rio Ferdinand, David Beckham, Luis Figo etc etc... We often see during the summer a lot of names being involved in these transfer rumors... A whole lot of players are talked about but actually only a few of these rumors actually materialise..

But the changes that we have seen seem to be rather drastic... Only a few clubs have the financial might to hold on to their stars as well as sign other new stars... We can literally count the no. of such clubs... Real Madrid, Man Utd, Arsenal, Barcelona, Newcastle United, AC Milan and a few other clubs based in either Spain, England or Italy... Even Italian Clubs are fast losing out on the transfers as they are not able to compete with the likes of the Spanish or English clubs.. As u all might have noticed i "missed" a very important club in terms of money and financial clout and that club is called Chelsea... Chelsea after their takeover the England based Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has quickly turned into a class of its own... Mr.Abramovich has spent a fortune on Chelsea... He spent a staggering 140 mn pounds just to buy Chelsea Football Club... And he has spent a near equal amount on signing new players and increasing wages of star players like Frank Lampard etc to prevent them from moving onto other clubs...

Chelsea's financial clout has taken them to near invincibility in terms of the squad that they possess... They have got at least 2 estabilshed players for each position that you can think of in the field... They have the largest squad in the Premier League and obviously the strongest squad as well... Under their manager Jose Mourinho they have reached new heights... They made it to the Semifinals of the UEFA Champions league last season and they are favourites to win it this season... They won the EPL last season and lead the 2nd placed team this year by a healthy 11 points... They are on course for a treble this season and none of the teams looks like they will be able to quench their thirst for victory... The reason behind this recent revival of a long underperforming team like Chelsea has been the sudden spurt in the money that has been invested in them...

In the past few seasons only 2 or 3 teams in a league have been dominating the leagues that they play in though the Spanish League has been a bit of an exception... They have seen different champions like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Deportivo La coruna in recent times... But even that adds upto only 4 teams... England has seen just 3 different champions including Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea... Italy has been dominated by the likes of Juventus and AC Milan only in recent times... France on the other hand has been under a monopoly for 5 years now... Olymique Lyon have won their league for 5 seasons now and they look well placed to win a 6th title this season.. Germany has been dominated by Bayern Munich for years now with the only exception being the title won in 2004 by Werder Bremen... And remember Scotland as well... Celtic and Rangers have been winning the championship from time immemorial and the last time at least 1 of the teams finished outside the Top 2 was in the early 70's..

So as statistics show football has become a rather one-team show... With the other teams just playing the catch-up game... Spending money on transfers is a requisite for most managers to bring in some fresh faces and invigorate their respective teams... But spending big money on it without thinking about the consequences have led to some of the teams reduced to shambles.. Leeds United for eg spent huge sums of money on players and they did get decent results... They were challenging for a lot of titles though they won none... But the directors didn't keep an eye on the money being involved and soon they were bankrupt... PLayers started leaving the club for petty cash as they couldnt even receive the salaries... Leeds Utd kept losing their matches thereafter and got relegated a couple of seasons back to the Football League Championship... They have lost a lot on their TV income also because of this relegation...

Anyways will be back to write more on football soon!! Keep waiting for more info!!

A Round up of recent events!!

Most of Europe's elite footballing clubs made it through to the knock out phase of the prestigious UEFA Champions League.. The likes of Real Madrid, Barca, Juventus, AC Milan, Arsenal, Chelsea and other strong teams alongwith defending champions Liverpool cruised through into the knockout phase... But surprisingly 2 time winner and 1999 champions, English giants Manchester United crashed out of the competition after a 2-1 loss to Portuguese club Benfica... Man U had to win their last game if they had to progress but their European exploits for this season has come to a premature end...

The knockout phase promises to provide viewers with an exciting line up of matches... The knock out phase though will begin only in the month of Feb.. The rules of the knockout phase are basically like this... The winner of a particular Grp say GRP A in the 1st round will meet the runner up of another grp say GRP C.. The draw for these matches is made by drawing lots... So a lot of things depend on luck... Last year's favourites Chelsea and Barca were expected to reach the finals but Barca were dumped by Chelsea in the knockout phase... So we can expect some fireworks once the draw has been made...

In the EPL former West Ham manager Harry Redknapp has created a controversy by returning to manage his former club Portsmouth just an year after leaving them in unceremonious circumstances.. Redknapp left Pompey last season to join arch rivals Southampton but he could not prevent Southampton's relegation... REdknapp has now returned to Pompey who sacked their manager Alain Perrin after a string of disappointing results which sees them just 2 places above bottom club Sunderland...

In another important development REal Madrid have sacked their Brazilian coach Wanderley Luxembourgo.. Real have been going through an indifferent spell which sees them 6 points off the pace from league leaders Barca... Luxembourgo is thought to have been in danger ever since Real's humiliating 3-0 loss at the Bernabeu to arch rivals Barca... Real have appointed Jose Ramirez Caro is the interim coach... The likes of Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello etc have been mentioned as possible replacements though they have all rejected Real's advances so far...

And finally tribute must be paid to Scottish champions Rangers who have become the 1st Scottish team ever to reach the knockout phase of the Champions League.. Rangers achieved this feat after holding Italian giants Inter Milan to a creditable 1-1 draw at home... Rangers manager Alex McLeish has been in a spot after his side's poor run in the domestic league where they find themselves 17 points behind leaders and Old Firm rivals Celtic... McLeish's job had been on the line but the club's directors have given him the green light...

Anyways thats it for now... Hope you enjoyed it...