Quick and dirty on the Champions League draw:
Lyon-APOEL
Napoli-Chelsea
Milan-Arsenal
Basel-Bayern München
Leverkusen-Barcelona
CSKA-Real
Zenit-Benfica
Marseille-Inter
Not one single draw that makes you lose your breath. Someone might have forgotten to heat up the balls. But 2xItaly against England sticks out. I think the English are more unhappy than the Italians over that, actually.
Pretty sure Leverkusen are kicking themselves for letting the group win slip. The three title favourites Bayern, Barca and Real are the only obvious quarter finalists, all other games remain open.
The two French sides that were almost out of the group stage now have decent chances of reaching the quarterfinal.
Now Europa League.
Showing posts with label Champions League. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Champions League. Show all posts
Friday, 16 December 2011
Saturday, 27 August 2011
The year of the double Dutch?
I'm not gonna predict all Champions League and Europa League here.
But maybe a few comments on the draws in random order - leaving aside the Milan-Barca-Zlatan implications that we have already dealt with.
What else?
Group A with Bayern, Villareal, Man City and Napoli has rightly been dubbed the group of death. Any group with Man C would probably be called that, but joined also by one of the two strongest fourth seeds, Napoli (the other, even stronger, being Dortmund), it is indeed a strong group.
Manchester United and Benfica should go through in Group C, just like Milan and Barca should go through in their groups. Still. What beautiful football games. What memories. OK, I was not really on Wembley in 1968, but that Manchester United win is one of the classics. And Milan's thrashing in the deam final against Barcelona in 1994 still ranks as one of the most extatic football memories of all times.
The third clash of historic titans is Real-Ajax, but it''s not quite the same these days. And they never played each other in a final.
Arsenal-Dortmund has the potential to be one of the best games in the tournament. Shame it clashes with Milan-Barca: no one, including me, will watch.
Europa League does not provide the same excitement. But I was surprised over the lack of exciting draws. Atlectico, Udinese, Rennes is a fine group though.
Otherwise Europa League has a tendency of being dominated by a different league every year. We had Germany, we had Ukraine, and last year we very much had Portgual. Who's up?
England have four teams, but that is too boring. Holland is a great candidate, I would not be surprised if at the knockout stage we have four Dutch teams that all have the potential to progress even further. Belgium has made a good tournament so far but have tougher draws. So Holland is my bet. Remember that next spring.
But maybe a few comments on the draws in random order - leaving aside the Milan-Barca-Zlatan implications that we have already dealt with.
What else?
Group A with Bayern, Villareal, Man City and Napoli has rightly been dubbed the group of death. Any group with Man C would probably be called that, but joined also by one of the two strongest fourth seeds, Napoli (the other, even stronger, being Dortmund), it is indeed a strong group.
Manchester United and Benfica should go through in Group C, just like Milan and Barca should go through in their groups. Still. What beautiful football games. What memories. OK, I was not really on Wembley in 1968, but that Manchester United win is one of the classics. And Milan's thrashing in the deam final against Barcelona in 1994 still ranks as one of the most extatic football memories of all times.
The third clash of historic titans is Real-Ajax, but it''s not quite the same these days. And they never played each other in a final.
Arsenal-Dortmund has the potential to be one of the best games in the tournament. Shame it clashes with Milan-Barca: no one, including me, will watch.
Europa League does not provide the same excitement. But I was surprised over the lack of exciting draws. Atlectico, Udinese, Rennes is a fine group though.
Otherwise Europa League has a tendency of being dominated by a different league every year. We had Germany, we had Ukraine, and last year we very much had Portgual. Who's up?
England have four teams, but that is too boring. Holland is a great candidate, I would not be surprised if at the knockout stage we have four Dutch teams that all have the potential to progress even further. Belgium has made a good tournament so far but have tougher draws. So Holland is my bet. Remember that next spring.
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Great Balls of Fire II
Time for the Champions League draw.
First, to all Swedes that are depressed over Malmö not qualifying: be careful what you wish for. Even though Malmö convinced at home, they were utterly thrashed away to a team that will be ranked as one of the worst in the group stage. Imagine what would happen if Malmö got there. The squad is performing as a mid-table team in Sweden. I think we need a team that at least is the best in the country to represent us if we are ever to have a team in the Champions League again.
Example: Let's say Malmö would have qualified and would have been drawn against a mid-ranked team from all all seeding groups. That would mean a group consisting of, say, Bayern Munich, Benfica and Manchester City. Good luck.
Now Malmö will play in Europa League: the play offs are played tonight but let's say that if the big teams go through (and some of them are in serious trouble, an average group would consist of Sporting Lisbon, Celtic and Dinamo Bucharest. Tough, but possible. Swedbank Stadium will be similarly full, and Malmö will feel that they are there to move to the next level, not to act as a sand bag.
Now to the upcoming draw. I will not attempt to guess what UEFA will do to get the most exciting draw, but I note that my Milan had all reasons in the world to support Udinese last night. Not just because Serie A is slipping in the rankings, but also because Arsenal's qualification pushed Milan down to the group of second seeds.
Which means that Milan could face a group of Barca, Milan, Manchester City and Dortmund, for example. Best possible draw now would be Arsenal, Bate Borisov (what a night they had. Winning away to Sturm Graz and at the same time have UEFA declaring that Trabzonspor will replace Fenerhahce - pushing Bate Borisov up to the third seeds) and Otelul Galati.
Here are all the teams. Let's analyse more after the draw this afternoon.
First, to all Swedes that are depressed over Malmö not qualifying: be careful what you wish for. Even though Malmö convinced at home, they were utterly thrashed away to a team that will be ranked as one of the worst in the group stage. Imagine what would happen if Malmö got there. The squad is performing as a mid-table team in Sweden. I think we need a team that at least is the best in the country to represent us if we are ever to have a team in the Champions League again.
Example: Let's say Malmö would have qualified and would have been drawn against a mid-ranked team from all all seeding groups. That would mean a group consisting of, say, Bayern Munich, Benfica and Manchester City. Good luck.
Now Malmö will play in Europa League: the play offs are played tonight but let's say that if the big teams go through (and some of them are in serious trouble, an average group would consist of Sporting Lisbon, Celtic and Dinamo Bucharest. Tough, but possible. Swedbank Stadium will be similarly full, and Malmö will feel that they are there to move to the next level, not to act as a sand bag.
Now to the upcoming draw. I will not attempt to guess what UEFA will do to get the most exciting draw, but I note that my Milan had all reasons in the world to support Udinese last night. Not just because Serie A is slipping in the rankings, but also because Arsenal's qualification pushed Milan down to the group of second seeds.
Which means that Milan could face a group of Barca, Milan, Manchester City and Dortmund, for example. Best possible draw now would be Arsenal, Bate Borisov (what a night they had. Winning away to Sturm Graz and at the same time have UEFA declaring that Trabzonspor will replace Fenerhahce - pushing Bate Borisov up to the third seeds) and Otelul Galati.
Here are all the teams. Let's analyse more after the draw this afternoon.
| Manchester Utd |
| Barcelona |
| Chelsea |
| Bayern |
| Arsenal |
| Real Madrid |
| Porto |
| Inter |
| Milan |
| Lyon |
| Shaktar |
| Valencia |
| Benfica |
| Villareal |
| CSKA Moscow |
| Marseille |
| Zenit |
| Ajax |
| Leverkusen |
| Olympiakos |
| Manchester City |
| Lille |
| Basel |
| Bate Borisov |
| Dortmund |
| Napoli |
| Dinamo Zagreb |
| Apoel |
| Trabz |
| Genk |
| Plzen |
| Otelul Galati |
Monday, 30 May 2011
And the eyes in his head sees the world spinning round
History is written by the winners. The value of perspective of time. Time to nurture those old clichés.
It's pretty much possible to divide all time periods in eras. European club football is no different and UEFA Champions League (previously the European Cup) in itself is a good yard stick although the format of the competition has changed over time and although by nature it only a measurement of the premium end of each league.
I'm talking about the eternal question "which league is the best?" Whích league is the best, you think, right now? And what would you have answered in 2008? In 2000? In 1990?
There are eras and the eras are sometimes so intense that we lose perspective. Really.
Right now, Barcelona are by many considered unbeatable (bar some unsportsmanlike tactics from the villain, Mou). That's pretty new. Barcelona has been a top team in Europe for many years but when Barcelona made it to the final two years ago it was with a last minute winner against what was then the favourite, Chelsea.
Back then, all focus was on British domination. For the second consecutive year, England had produced three out of four semifinalists. It seemed England had dominated for long, and would dominate for the foreseeable future.
Actually, the Premier League domination era was fairly short and generated in, at most, two titles. When Liverpool reached the final in 2005, that was considered a huge surprise, and that win is the story of one of the greatest underdog win in non-fiction life (the game belongs to the horror genre in my book, but that's a different story).
England partly overlapped with some rather odd AC Milan success period (2003-07), although the world would never admit that AC Milan was the dominant team in Europe in this period. But if you need to pick one team, based on merit, clearly AC Milan is the team standing out despite most limited domestic success.
Who would have thought that when Zidane volleyed in El Galacticos third win in five years in 2002? What could possibly have stopped them at that point? Spain dominated football and Real Madrid dominated the world.
We saw that coming when Hierro and his team beat Juve in 1998. What we may not have guessed at that point was that no Italian team would reach the final until two of them did it in 2003. Because in 1998, Italian participation in the final was a rule. Seven straight finals and nine finals in the last ten years - 1998 (Juve), 1997 (Juve), 1996 (Juve), 1995 (Milan), 1994 (Milan), 1993 (Milan), 1992 (Sampdoria), 1990 (Milan), 1989 (Milan).
That Italian domination followed on a period in the 1980s where, just like around 2003-2005, European domination was up for grabs, six countries had lifted the trophy in as many years. In a way, the Heysel disaster in 1985 marked the end to another era, this time with the difference that for everyone watching, it was clear that was exactly what was happening. We knew English teams would be banned, and we therefore knew that an era of English/German battles has come to an end. Between 1974 and 1984, the 11 European cup titles were divided between England (7) and Germany (4), with England dominating the latter part of that period.
And so the history has developed. Before my lifetime there were four more periods, the Real Madrid Era in the fifties was followed by a short Benfica (Eusebio) spell in the early 60s, followed by Italian domination for the rest of the 60s until the Dutch in general and Ajax in particular dominated the early 70s.
The recent English period was short, intense and did not result in a whole lot of silverware. Will the Barca era turn out the same? Or is the English domination not really over?
I guess time will tell.
It's pretty much possible to divide all time periods in eras. European club football is no different and UEFA Champions League (previously the European Cup) in itself is a good yard stick although the format of the competition has changed over time and although by nature it only a measurement of the premium end of each league.
I'm talking about the eternal question "which league is the best?" Whích league is the best, you think, right now? And what would you have answered in 2008? In 2000? In 1990?
There are eras and the eras are sometimes so intense that we lose perspective. Really.
Right now, Barcelona are by many considered unbeatable (bar some unsportsmanlike tactics from the villain, Mou). That's pretty new. Barcelona has been a top team in Europe for many years but when Barcelona made it to the final two years ago it was with a last minute winner against what was then the favourite, Chelsea.
Back then, all focus was on British domination. For the second consecutive year, England had produced three out of four semifinalists. It seemed England had dominated for long, and would dominate for the foreseeable future.
Actually, the Premier League domination era was fairly short and generated in, at most, two titles. When Liverpool reached the final in 2005, that was considered a huge surprise, and that win is the story of one of the greatest underdog win in non-fiction life (the game belongs to the horror genre in my book, but that's a different story).
England partly overlapped with some rather odd AC Milan success period (2003-07), although the world would never admit that AC Milan was the dominant team in Europe in this period. But if you need to pick one team, based on merit, clearly AC Milan is the team standing out despite most limited domestic success.
Who would have thought that when Zidane volleyed in El Galacticos third win in five years in 2002? What could possibly have stopped them at that point? Spain dominated football and Real Madrid dominated the world.
We saw that coming when Hierro and his team beat Juve in 1998. What we may not have guessed at that point was that no Italian team would reach the final until two of them did it in 2003. Because in 1998, Italian participation in the final was a rule. Seven straight finals and nine finals in the last ten years - 1998 (Juve), 1997 (Juve), 1996 (Juve), 1995 (Milan), 1994 (Milan), 1993 (Milan), 1992 (Sampdoria), 1990 (Milan), 1989 (Milan).
That Italian domination followed on a period in the 1980s where, just like around 2003-2005, European domination was up for grabs, six countries had lifted the trophy in as many years. In a way, the Heysel disaster in 1985 marked the end to another era, this time with the difference that for everyone watching, it was clear that was exactly what was happening. We knew English teams would be banned, and we therefore knew that an era of English/German battles has come to an end. Between 1974 and 1984, the 11 European cup titles were divided between England (7) and Germany (4), with England dominating the latter part of that period.
And so the history has developed. Before my lifetime there were four more periods, the Real Madrid Era in the fifties was followed by a short Benfica (Eusebio) spell in the early 60s, followed by Italian domination for the rest of the 60s until the Dutch in general and Ajax in particular dominated the early 70s.
The recent English period was short, intense and did not result in a whole lot of silverware. Will the Barca era turn out the same? Or is the English domination not really over?
I guess time will tell.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Whining like Barca - scheming like Mou
Pretty nice football weekend coming up with Chelsea-Spurs on Saturday late afternoon and then a massive clash Milan-Bologna and Arsenal-Man Utd on Sunday afternoon. Milan is a must see if they can secure the scudetto, if not it could be one of those nervous games that are pretty painful to watch. And then AIK-ÖSK on Monday, live in Stockholm hopefully.
We need a good weekend after a pretty disappointing Champions League week. Just like in the quarter finals, the second legs now feel like they belong to an old tired dog. This year's Champions League has been pretty underwhelming for the most part. Without any intention of being objective I rank Bale's three last halves against Inter as the top moment of the tournament. Together with watching the inevitable draw for the last 16 from the Maldives, the runner-up is Arsenal-Barca. Otherwise the the drama has been missing, in the group stage as well as in the knock-out phase. And with the wrong sides winning. A Neuer (I did not come up with Manu Knighted, so I should not use it) clean sheet and a Mourinho-20%-possession-1-0-win would have felt so much better, in particular as Barca have a team of pretending-to-be-good-boys that are really a bunch of cheaters and whiners. Although they can pass the ball. And run with it (too lazy to insert hyperlinks, I assumed you watched and know what I'm talking about).
The coaches of my teams have interesting selection problems for this weekend.
Even if I have ruled out Spurs' chances of making it to the Champions League, we must go for a win against Chelsea. We should therefore afford to try something new now when the uninspired Assou-Ekotto finally has picked up an injury. So how do we fill the gap?
I would like to see Bale playing left back, but basically assigning the entire left corridor to him. This will allow us not to be outnumbered by the Chelsea midfiled, playing Tom Huddle, Sandro (I'm still to watch him play well but they say he has been decent lately) and Modric centrally.
Lennon comes back in on the right, vdV gets a starting position to the left but with freedom to move into the box, and Crouchie dominates Terry in the air. Little bit of a 4-2-3-1: Gomes - Corluka, Dawson, Gallas, Bale - Sandro, Huddlestone - Lennon, Modric, van der Vaart - Crouch.
In the case of Milan, they need to adjust to having Ibrahimovic back. I would like to see him besides Cassano with Boateng behind.
Örebro needs to survive yet another game without the prolific Haddad. I would really like to see Atashkadeh get a chance to run the crap out of the AIK defenders for as long as his fuel lasts. Then Paulinho comes on and Rama moves in centrally. I don't believe in Lushtaku as a centre-forward, I really don't. Centrally, the phasing out of Kihlberg is overdue. I would like to give Nilsson another chance from the start.
Thus Alvbåge - Haginge (lets wait one more game before we start with Anttonen), Almebäck, Wikström, Wowoah - Bedoya, Nilsson, Gerzic - Astvald, Atashkadeh, Rama. On the bench Nurme, Anttonen, Wirtanen, Nordback, Kihlberg, Lushtaku, Paulinho.
We need a good weekend after a pretty disappointing Champions League week. Just like in the quarter finals, the second legs now feel like they belong to an old tired dog. This year's Champions League has been pretty underwhelming for the most part. Without any intention of being objective I rank Bale's three last halves against Inter as the top moment of the tournament. Together with watching the inevitable draw for the last 16 from the Maldives, the runner-up is Arsenal-Barca. Otherwise the the drama has been missing, in the group stage as well as in the knock-out phase. And with the wrong sides winning. A Neuer (I did not come up with Manu Knighted, so I should not use it) clean sheet and a Mourinho-20%-possession-1-0-win would have felt so much better, in particular as Barca have a team of pretending-to-be-good-boys that are really a bunch of cheaters and whiners. Although they can pass the ball. And run with it (too lazy to insert hyperlinks, I assumed you watched and know what I'm talking about).
The coaches of my teams have interesting selection problems for this weekend.
Even if I have ruled out Spurs' chances of making it to the Champions League, we must go for a win against Chelsea. We should therefore afford to try something new now when the uninspired Assou-Ekotto finally has picked up an injury. So how do we fill the gap?
I would like to see Bale playing left back, but basically assigning the entire left corridor to him. This will allow us not to be outnumbered by the Chelsea midfiled, playing Tom Huddle, Sandro (I'm still to watch him play well but they say he has been decent lately) and Modric centrally.
Lennon comes back in on the right, vdV gets a starting position to the left but with freedom to move into the box, and Crouchie dominates Terry in the air. Little bit of a 4-2-3-1: Gomes - Corluka, Dawson, Gallas, Bale - Sandro, Huddlestone - Lennon, Modric, van der Vaart - Crouch.
In the case of Milan, they need to adjust to having Ibrahimovic back. I would like to see him besides Cassano with Boateng behind.
Örebro needs to survive yet another game without the prolific Haddad. I would really like to see Atashkadeh get a chance to run the crap out of the AIK defenders for as long as his fuel lasts. Then Paulinho comes on and Rama moves in centrally. I don't believe in Lushtaku as a centre-forward, I really don't. Centrally, the phasing out of Kihlberg is overdue. I would like to give Nilsson another chance from the start.
Thus Alvbåge - Haginge (lets wait one more game before we start with Anttonen), Almebäck, Wikström, Wowoah - Bedoya, Nilsson, Gerzic - Astvald, Atashkadeh, Rama. On the bench Nurme, Anttonen, Wirtanen, Nordback, Kihlberg, Lushtaku, Paulinho.
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Great balls of fire
There is a legend that may or may not be true relating to fixed draws of major football events. The number one conspiracy theory is that of hot and cold balls in the draw bowl.
http://mikewhalley.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/was-the-champions-league-draw-rigged/
So on the basis that there is more to it than the 14.3% chance of any encounter, here is one idea of how UEFA may be thinking for the quarter and semifinal draw of the Champions League, keeping in mind that (i) homecomings are popular, and (ii) Platini is disgusted by the idea of one-country (read: england) domination of European club football.
So, the attractive draws are:
Real-Barca (will mean there will be four clasicos in one month. A once in a lifetime opportunity. And one Spanish team gone)
Real-Chelsea (Mou homecoming)
Real-Inter (Mou homecoming, to some extent also Sneijder)
Real-Schalke (Raul homecoming)
Real-United (Ronaldo homcoming)
Chelsea-Spurs (London derby, albeit no one really sees this encounter as much of a derby. And one English team gone)
Chelsea-United (English combination, final 2008)
United-Spurs (the other English combinations)
Barcelona-Inter (revenge for last year, Eto'o homecoming)
Barcelona-United (final 2009)
On the basis of that, don't expect Real to be drawn against Spurs or Shaktar. Not even on the same half. I guess the draw will be (winners of game 1 and 2 will face each other in semi, as will the winners 3 and 4),
Barca-Real
United-Inter
Chelsea-Spurs
Schalke-Shaktar
Which according to a previous post would give Spurs a 22% chance of playing the final. I'd settle for that.
http://mikewhalley.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/was-the-champions-league-draw-rigged/
So on the basis that there is more to it than the 14.3% chance of any encounter, here is one idea of how UEFA may be thinking for the quarter and semifinal draw of the Champions League, keeping in mind that (i) homecomings are popular, and (ii) Platini is disgusted by the idea of one-country (read: england) domination of European club football.
So, the attractive draws are:
Real-Barca (will mean there will be four clasicos in one month. A once in a lifetime opportunity. And one Spanish team gone)
Real-Chelsea (Mou homecoming)
Real-Inter (Mou homecoming, to some extent also Sneijder)
Real-Schalke (Raul homecoming)
Real-United (Ronaldo homcoming)
Chelsea-Spurs (London derby, albeit no one really sees this encounter as much of a derby. And one English team gone)
Chelsea-United (English combination, final 2008)
United-Spurs (the other English combinations)
Barcelona-Inter (revenge for last year, Eto'o homecoming)
Barcelona-United (final 2009)
On the basis of that, don't expect Real to be drawn against Spurs or Shaktar. Not even on the same half. I guess the draw will be (winners of game 1 and 2 will face each other in semi, as will the winners 3 and 4),
Barca-Real
United-Inter
Chelsea-Spurs
Schalke-Shaktar
Which according to a previous post would give Spurs a 22% chance of playing the final. I'd settle for that.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Zlatan damns the dammed creek of Dawson
It has always been easy to like a guy like Dawson. A nice guy, loyal to the club, who always gives his everything. But it is not until last season he has actually proved to be a class defender. And last night, he took another step. Dawson held mighty Zlatan for 90 minutes, and the way this game was played, at least in the first half, Milan would be in the quarterfinal if he hadn't. Gallas and Sandro were great too, but it was Dawson that took Spurs to this quarterfinal. I am happy for him and I now hope Spurs gets even further. What are the chances of a semifinal? In my view, 40.1%. This is how I got there:
Assuming there are no "hot and cold balls" involved in the draw, Spurs have 1/7 chance of playing the other teams. 3 other teams are qualified already, and there is thus a 14.3% chance/risk of playing those teams. The liklihood of playing against and winning against those teams I estimate to:
Barcelona: 14.3% x 15%=2.1%
Shaktar: 14.3% x 55%=7.9%
Schalke: 14.3% x 55%=7.9%
Eight other teams may progress to the quarters. There we have to include an estimate of the chance of that happening. I get to the following conclusions:
Chelsea (99% chance of progressing): 14.1% x 40%=5.7%
FC Copenhagen (1% chance of progressing): 0.1% x 80%=0.1%
Man Utd (80% chance of progressing): 11.4% x 30%=3.4%
O Marseille (20% chance of progressing): 2.9% x 60%=1.7%
Real Madrid (85% chance of progressing): 12.1% x 25%=3.0%
Lyon (15% chance of progressing): 2.1% x 60%=1.3%
Bayern (90% chance of progressing): 12.9% x 50%=6.4%
Inter (10% chance of progressing): 1.4% x 45%=0.6%
In total, 40.1%.
Assuming there are no "hot and cold balls" involved in the draw, Spurs have 1/7 chance of playing the other teams. 3 other teams are qualified already, and there is thus a 14.3% chance/risk of playing those teams. The liklihood of playing against and winning against those teams I estimate to:
Barcelona: 14.3% x 15%=2.1%
Shaktar: 14.3% x 55%=7.9%
Schalke: 14.3% x 55%=7.9%
Eight other teams may progress to the quarters. There we have to include an estimate of the chance of that happening. I get to the following conclusions:
Chelsea (99% chance of progressing): 14.1% x 40%=5.7%
FC Copenhagen (1% chance of progressing): 0.1% x 80%=0.1%
Man Utd (80% chance of progressing): 11.4% x 30%=3.4%
O Marseille (20% chance of progressing): 2.9% x 60%=1.7%
Real Madrid (85% chance of progressing): 12.1% x 25%=3.0%
Lyon (15% chance of progressing): 2.1% x 60%=1.3%
Bayern (90% chance of progressing): 12.9% x 50%=6.4%
Inter (10% chance of progressing): 1.4% x 45%=0.6%
In total, 40.1%.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
And what about the game tonight then?
Maybe a word or two on my predictions for tonight.
Whereas the Barca-Arsenal 3-1 game yesterday was predictable, things can go in a few different directions tonight. I think we will know quite well where this is going after 15 minutes of play, but before kick-off it is harder to tell.
Starting with the line-ups, I hope to see Spurs like this: Gomes - Corluka, Gallas, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto (well I will never hope to see him, but he will play so I can't hope for anything else really) - Lennon, Jenas, Modric, Bale - van der Vaart, Defoe. Very much an attacking line up with very fast players. I think Bale may be rested and Crouch may be picked over Defoe as a target, but Harry may want Defoe's speed so not sure there. Also quite likely that Hutton will play instead of Corluka.
And then Milan: Abbiati - Abate, Nesta, Tiago Silva, Jankulovski - Flamini, Boateng, Seedorf - Robinho, Pato, Ibrahimovic. If Boateng is fit, I cannot see Allegri play in any other way, Jankulovski is perhaps the only question mark.
So what will the game look like? Spurs will go about it with speed and force from the first minute, no doubt. If they score an early goal, that's probably curtains. They will use the wings and make sure Nesta is tested deep as well. Milan will need to show that despite lacking their natural leaders in the midfield, the entire team will play with composure and with an early press.
Are you willing to do that tonight, Clarence? After all, this is your tournament, right?
That's right. When I said it will probably not take long before we know what kind of game this will be, I am very much talking about Clarence Seedorf. If he has an on-night, he can make the difference. The occasions when he does are few and far between, but if there is one game where he will do a Lazarus it is tonight. And he needs to. If Milan's midfield (missing Pirlo, Gattuso, Ambrosini, van Bommel and Emanuelson) does not come out the may they did against Napoli, Milan will not go through. Hoping for Ibracadabra only is futile, and Robinho and Pato are absolutely dependent on good delivery from the midfield as their game is based on gettting the ball with speed. At 9 pm sharp we will be able to tell if they will get it.
Whereas the Barca-Arsenal 3-1 game yesterday was predictable, things can go in a few different directions tonight. I think we will know quite well where this is going after 15 minutes of play, but before kick-off it is harder to tell.
Starting with the line-ups, I hope to see Spurs like this: Gomes - Corluka, Gallas, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto (well I will never hope to see him, but he will play so I can't hope for anything else really) - Lennon, Jenas, Modric, Bale - van der Vaart, Defoe. Very much an attacking line up with very fast players. I think Bale may be rested and Crouch may be picked over Defoe as a target, but Harry may want Defoe's speed so not sure there. Also quite likely that Hutton will play instead of Corluka.
And then Milan: Abbiati - Abate, Nesta, Tiago Silva, Jankulovski - Flamini, Boateng, Seedorf - Robinho, Pato, Ibrahimovic. If Boateng is fit, I cannot see Allegri play in any other way, Jankulovski is perhaps the only question mark.
So what will the game look like? Spurs will go about it with speed and force from the first minute, no doubt. If they score an early goal, that's probably curtains. They will use the wings and make sure Nesta is tested deep as well. Milan will need to show that despite lacking their natural leaders in the midfield, the entire team will play with composure and with an early press.
Are you willing to do that tonight, Clarence? After all, this is your tournament, right?
That's right. When I said it will probably not take long before we know what kind of game this will be, I am very much talking about Clarence Seedorf. If he has an on-night, he can make the difference. The occasions when he does are few and far between, but if there is one game where he will do a Lazarus it is tonight. And he needs to. If Milan's midfield (missing Pirlo, Gattuso, Ambrosini, van Bommel and Emanuelson) does not come out the may they did against Napoli, Milan will not go through. Hoping for Ibracadabra only is futile, and Robinho and Pato are absolutely dependent on good delivery from the midfield as their game is based on gettting the ball with speed. At 9 pm sharp we will be able to tell if they will get it.
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