UEFA Champions League Round-Up

 Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Champions league, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Premier league, Real Madrid, West Ham  No Responses »
Oct 222015
 

The European Champions League was back in action with a lot of expectations from fans around the world. With lots of Europe’s elite teams going head to head it was sure to be an eye catching encounter in the match day 3 of the competition.

Barcelona were away against BATE club and it required the magic of croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic to break the deadlock for the team. He was in terrific form scoring two goals as they ran out winners in the game that ended 2-0. Bayern Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno was to blame as the team drew 4-4. Arsenal hosted Bayern Munich at the Emirates stadium and although they did go into the match as the underdogs they came on top with goals from Oliver Giroud and Mesut Ozil. Elsewhere in group F Olympiakos got a goal over Dinamo Zagreb which meant Arsene Wenger’s team remain bottom of the table.

After a 2-0 win over West Ham this weekend, Chelsea couldn’t muster much against Dynamo Kiev in Sweden and they shared the spoils in a goalless draw. Hulk continued his scintillating form for Zenit as they trashed Olympique Lyon 3-1, this means the Russian team has now won all three of their Champions League matches. PSG stars were below par against a weak Madrid team with the later having the better chances of the game though they couldn’t covert it to goals. Anthony Martial scored his first Champions League goal sparing the blushes for team captain Wayne Rooney who had missed a couple of chances to put the team ahead. The young french striker made up for his errors that gave CSKA Moscow the lead after conceding a penalty with a hand ball. Athletico Madrid were the highest winners beating Astana 4-0 while Manchester City got a 2-1 victory over Sevilla. This match day made a change to the fact that the big teams smash their way past through the group stages, now they have to work to earn it.

Bayern Munich has weaknesses

 Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Champions league, Premier league  1 Response »
Oct 212015
 

Arsenal succeeded in showing the world that Bayern Munich can be defeated after they can crashing to a two goals defeat at the hands of the Premier League team. Both Goals which came late on in the second half of the game just showed how good the team tactics had worked. The first half of the game saw Arsenal miss some chances with Manuel Neuer pulling a wonderful save to deny Theo Walcott. The Arsenal striker look goal bound after running into a rebound but having saved the first attempt, Neuer was again on hand to save this one. That save kept Bayern in the game as the Gunners seemed to be lying in wait for their opponents to make any slight mistake. The first half ended in a stalemate as both teams were unable to break the deadlock in the first 45 minutes.

Enter the second half and Oliver Giroud heads home the first from a quite intelligent pass from Santi Carzola. Having earlier kept Bayern in the game through his heroics, the German shot stopper totally undid all that with his wrong read of the pass. In a bid for an equaliser, Bayern threw their all forward in the dying minutes of the game only to be hit again by Arsenal on the quick break. Manuel Neuer thought he had denied fellow German Mesut Ozil only to be told other wise by the goal official. Despite the victory Arsenal remain at the bottom of their group with just three points but this win just gives the team a reason to smile for better days ahead.

Wenger hoping Arsenal would keep good form running against Bayern Munich.

 Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Bundesliga, Champions league, Leicester City, Manchester United, Premier league  No Responses »
Oct 192015
 

imagesArsenal coach, Arsene Wenger is hoping that his team would continue their good form as they welcome FC Bayern to the Emirates stadium tomorrow. A win against Bayern is also vital if they are to move forward from the group stage. They have so far lost their last two matches meaning they are in the knife edge and anything less than a win tomorrow might be the end of their Champions League campaign this season. Arsenal have been in good form in the Premier League this season. Their last three scores have been 5-3 against Leicester City, 3-0 against Manchester United and 3-0 against Watford last weekend. Arsenal fans would be hoping their star player Alexis Sanchez would lead the pack to a victory.

On the other hand, Bayern Munich have kept a 100% win record this season. Last weekend they set a new Bundesliga after winning 9 out 9 matches since the start of the season. Lewandowski has been on great scoring form for both club and country. Bayern in the process have knocked aside the likes of Borrusia Dortmund and Wolfsburg who their only Bundesliga contenteders.

Both Wenger and guardiola would have to go back to the drawing table as this game looks like one that would be won by the books.

Announcing that I would retire in 2002 was my biggest mistake

 Champions league, Manchester United, Premier league  1 Response »
Oct 142015
 

alex-ferguson_2339779kFormer Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Fergus on has revealed the announcing that he would retire at the end of the season in 2001 was his biggest mistake. Sir Alex Ferguson had planned to retire from coaching at the end of the 2001/2002 season, a decision which he made public. He has claimed that the announcement had drastic effects on his coaching staff and players. According to him, he changed his mind in January after seeing that the club still needed him very much. Sir Alex Ferguson later went on to become Manchester United’s longest serving coach And later retired in the 2013.

During his 26 years reign at Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson won a staggering 38 trophies including trebles at some point in his career. After his departure there was a lot of debate about who was going to fill the shoes and the plan. Then came David Moyes, who left Everton to take over United. David Moyes came to the club with a good plan lasted only 10 months as United lost out on a Champions league spot that season because they finished seventh on the table.

After the 2014 world cup, Manchester United hire former Netherlands, Barcelona and Ajax manager Louis van Gaal. He helped the club back to wining ways and secured a place in the champions league. But that’s not enough as the club has spent so much during the transfer market to have a squad like what they currently have.

“Carlo Ancelotti turned down Liverpool’s offfer”.

 AC Milan, Champions league, Liverpool, Premier league, Real Madrid  1 Response »
Oct 132015
 

Former Tottenham Hotspur and QPR coach, Harry Redknapp claims that Liverpool approached Carlo Ancelotti before going to Jurgen Klopp. According to him, the former Real Madrid boss turned down the offer to coach the premier league club. Prior to the sacking of former coach Brendan Rodgers, it had been rumored that the club had approached Carlo Ancelotti as a possible replacement but they quickly rebuked the news only to cut off Rodgers days later.

Liverpool then made it seem like they only wanted Klopp because of his ability to rebuild teams. But Harry Redknapp has come out to state that Klopp was only a second choice who the club approached after being turned down by the Italian. The Former Real Madrid and AC milan boss took a self imposed leave from the game after parting ways with Real Madrid at the end of last season to go have a back surgery. now after Klopp’s announcement at Liverpool, Ancelotti came out to say that he is ready to go back to coaching and he would preferably want a premier league team where he says is an ideal environment for the game.

Even though Klopp was second choice to Ancelotti, Redknapp believes the 48 years old German has what it takes to take Liverpool back to its glory days as he is a coach who is always filled with enthusiasm . He also went on to state that he thinks that the German would bring more spice and competition to the league as a whole. He also went on to state that he feels Ancelotti wanted more and that is why he rejected Liverpool’s offer. He is a coach who would love to coach a Champions League team.

Manchester united prove they are champions league contenders

 Champions league, Manchester United, Wolfsburg  1 Response »
Oct 012015
 

Manchester United sent out word to those who have doubted their abilities as they came from behind to seal all three points on Wednesday night against Wolfsburg. Having lost their first match, the red devils were really looking forward to recovering from their loss. They lost most than three points against PSV because it they also lost England player Luke Shaw to injury. The news of Shaw’s injury over shadowed their loss to PSV Eindhoven. They succeeded in getting back to winning ways in the Champions League in front of their home fans as goals from Juan Mata and Chris Smalling cancelled out Daniel Caliguiri’s early opener at Old Trafford. The win means that all four teams in the group have shared the spoil equally so far with each team sitting on three points.

United came into the match with a lot of high hopes given that were now topping the Premier League table. Summer signing Anthony Martial also continued with his good form although he was unlucky not to have registered a goal in the match. All through the 90 minutes, he looked like he was going to pop a goal every time he was in possession. After equalizing through a spot kick by Juan Mata, United went on to take the through a sublime pass from Mata which Chris Smalling popped home from close range. Wolfsburg searched for a desperate equalizer after wards as the laid siege on De Gea post but the home team held on to their win till the end.

Cristiano Ronaldo: The ultimate goal scoring

 Champions league, Real Madrid  No Responses »
Sep 302015
 

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has earned the title “the ultimate goal scoring machine” after he scored his 500 career goal in their match against Malmo on Wednesday night. The former Manchester United man also went on level terms with Madrid legend and all time highest goal scorer Raul. He was the only goal scorer for Madrid on their Champions League night out in Sweden and his two goals meant Madrid retained their spot at the top of the table ahead of Paris Saint Germans (PSG) who also won their match. Now Ronaldo would have the chance to surpass Raul if he is able to score against city rivals Atletico when both teams meet this weekend.

Real Madrid were without key players such Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos, James Rodriguez and defender Danilo while the coach also dropped some players from his first eleven in preparation for the vital league match at weekend.  Cristiano Ronaldo’s first goal came through a counter attack by the team in the 29th minute of the game and the Portuguese attacker made sure to poke this one home. Malmo had their chance in the game but it couldn’t amount to much. Though Ronaldo was made to wait till the final minutes of the game for his second as Malmo’s goal keeper Johan Wiland pulled off some wonderful saves to deny the attacker another goal in the first half. He finally had his time in the 90 minute as he converted a square cross from team mate Vazquez to score his 323 goal for Madrid.

Messi’s Shoes, Too Big for Neymar to Fill.

 Barcelona, Champions league  No Responses »
Sep 292015
 

FC Barcelona lost their star player Lionel Messi to a knee ligament in their weekend match against Las Palmas. It was supposed to be a knock he could shake off after minor treatment on the sidelines but it proved to be stronger than that and he was substituted few minutes later. It was later confirmed after the match that he had torn his knee ligament and would be on the sidelines for two months to recover. Barcelona fans immediately tipped Brazilian star Neymar Jr. to lead the team in Messi’s absence but it seems like that task is too heavy for the Brazilian forward as was seen by his poor performance tonight. Bayern Leverkusen took the lead in the 22nd minute when Kryiakos Papadopoulos jumped between Mathieu and Ter Stegen to head home a cross. After then, Barcelona needed a goal to go level and the best Neymar could come up with was a dive in the opposition’s eighteen yard box for which he was booked before his other attempt came off the post.

The first half ended with Barcelona trailing behind, they couldn’t afford to lose this one after drawing their first against AS Roma. The second half continued and the chances kept on coming but they couldn’t convert. Neymar was far from his best all night and it took the introduction of Sergi Roberto for Barcelona to level scores with just 10 minutes to go. Luis Suarez was again the hero as he got the winner for the home team just like he did during the weekend. With Messi out for other six or seven games, it is good to know that there is someone besides Neymar who can step up to the plate when the team needs him.

Roberto Lewandowski can’t stop scoring

 Bayern Munich, Bundesliga, Champions league  No Responses »
Sep 292015
 

Bayern Munich striker, Roberto Lewandowski cannot just stop banging in the goals. The polish international went scored a hat-trick at the Allianz arena during their champions league match to take his tally to 10 goals in 3 games. Lewandowski who moved from Borrusia Dortmund to Bayern in the summer of 2013 started his recent scoring rage last week, when he came off the bench in the second half to score five goals in their match against Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg had earlier taken the lead in the first half of the match after a combination of passes game them access to Bayern 18 yard box. The home team could not respond in that half, but Lewandowski came on in the second half to score five goals in 9 minutes. He became the first ever Bundesliga player to score that amount of goal in such a short period of time. Even his coach Pep Guardiola was left in awe as camera caught him with hands on his head and mouth wide open after Lewandowski scored his fifth goal of the match.

He continued his scoring in the weekend as his brace and a goal from Mario Gotze was all Bayern need to put aside Mainz in front of the home fans. And during their Champions League match on tonight, he scored a hat trick as Bayern Munich cruised to a 5-0 victory over Dynamo Zagreb to go top of their group in the Champions League. Brazilian attacker, Costa opened the scoring for the host before Lewandowski capitalized on a defensive error to open his account for the night. Mario Gotze scored the next, and then Lewandowski added another to make it 4-0 just after 29 minutes. But he was made to wait until the second half to complete his hat-trick as Zagreb’s defense was destroyed and he had no issues chipping an easy one over Eduardo.

Manchester City surrender top spot after being battered at white hart lane

 Champions league, Manchester City, Manchester United, Premier league, Sunderland, West Ham  1 Response »
Sep 272015
 

With five games into the Premier League, Manchester City were the only team in the English top flight to have secured a perfect start to the season given that they had won all their matches and they did so without conceding a single goal. But all that gloss was dimmed after their 2-1 defeat against West Ham last weekend. The loss was followed by a 4-1 thrashing of Sunderland in the league cup which suggested that they were back to winning ways only to be pegged down in London by the same score line against Tottenham. City’s early season form has dropped and has seen them lose three matches in their last four games allowing their city rivals Manchester United to claim top spot in the Table.

Manchester City drew first blood after Kevin De Bruyne who appeared to be in an offside position gave the visitors the lead midway through the first half with beautiful strike. But that offside call was just the first of many to come as three of Totteham’s goals were also scored from an offside position. Manuel Pellegrini gave a good press conference after his team’s loss, he praised his opponents for a wonderful display and didn’t seem to care about the poor officiating that saw his side concede three goals from offside positions. Manchester city must shake off the effects of this loss and get back to winning ways as they travel to Germany to face Borrusia Monchengladbach on Wednesday in the Champions League.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries