Owen Hargreaves caught the smackdown from Alex Ferguson after Hargreaves said he still wants to play for England at the World Cup. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the idea that bowing out of tournaments early gives you more time to focus on league matches that you still have control over. However, I don’t know if this is exactly the same because what we’re seeing is a guy who wants to play for country just being honest about it.
From the category archives:
Europe
Lyon and Bordeaux are going “all-French” in the Champion’s League Quarterfinals this year. This is a fun one because we really get to see some good advancement from France AND we get to see two clubs that are in a heated race at the top of their battle in the Champion’s League.
I’m sure that French fans would have been much happier with their teams on opposite ends of the draw, but this way they do get to see an all-French matchup.
photo credit: Aitor Escauriaza
Basically, he does as he pleases…
Leo Messi nearly put up a hat-trick on Stuttgart to put Barca into the Quarterfinals of the Champion’s League. A HAT-TRICK! This is pretty incredible considering it’s hard enough to score one goal in a professional soccer match–much less three!
If you read the official stats and see that Barca had 16 shots I’d think that you can imagine they were down in Stuttgart’s end all night long. Here’s the thing about Barca–they can overpower anybody. They hardly let up. They push really hard AND Leo Messi is the best “filed general” in the world.
Carrying the all important away goal advantage into tonight’s return leg knockout stage fixture, Bordeaux are in pole position to qualify for the quarter final of the Champions League. Laurent Blanc’s men should easily overcome Olympiacos without any hustles.
However, what baffles me is Bordeaux’s indifferent form in the league. With players like Chamakh, Gourcuff, Plasil, Diara and Wendel in their ranks, it is more than hard to understand their luke warm approach in Ligue 1. A sere of defeats and draws has left them leading the Fench league by virtue of only a goal difference. Olympiacos on the other hand have to break the curse of producing poor performances when playing away from home. Coming to think of it, their home record is not to good either.
Moscow did it. They beat Sevilla and advanced to the Quarterfinals of the Champion’s League. This is a feat that United and Chelsea could not muster yet the Russians are here and looking very good.
It would be easy to say that Sevilla is “down” and that makes all the difference, but you still have to play these matches and Moscow played well.
Now the rumors start to swirl as Manolo Jimenez is on the hot seat even though his club has expressed support for him:
That’s the headline I’m seeing everywhere. It’s like a media conspiracy. Jose Mourinho didn’t kick ball #1 yesterday when Inter squeaked past Chelsea into the Champion’s League Quarterfinals. In fact, they barely won the match, but they did win.
Now, Chelsea is left to stick with United for the rest of the season in the hopes of redeeming themselves from that awful Final match they had last season. Inter moves on to see if they perhaps spoil someone else’s Champion’s League dreams.
So, I hop on the computer this morning–gotta love the internet, right–and I see this story. “Jose Mourinho’s Gonna Get Fired If He Doesn’t Advance Past Chelsea“. Really?
This came a day after I read a story that said Mourinho could be the beginning of a serious managerial shake-up in European Soccer. Is this a coincidence? I think not.
Mourinho is obviously not stupid and he’s figured out two things:
1. The media loves it when people get fired
and
2. The media loves to speculate about people getting fired.
With Sevilla and Moscow being tied at 1-1 it’s a winner-take-all duel in the Champion’s League on Tuesday to see who goes to the Quarterfinals. Moscow has stood fast as they try to keep matches close with their opponents. They’ve tied Sevilla and they only lost to United 1-0 in the group stage of the Champion’s League. Plus, they aren’t the giant-killers of Rubin Kazan so they have alot more to prove.
Taking out Sevilla would be a MAJOR step in the right direction and could easily lead to a snowball effect that could see Russia move even deeper into the Champion’s League tournament. Though it will be hard for them to fend off Sevilla is is entirely possible because Sevilla has its own problems.
David Beckham’s World Cup is more than likely over as he has–apparently–torn his Achilles Tendon in a Serie A match this weekend. Basically, the English are crying right now, but I think it’s time for the English side to get it together and make this into a rallying cry. This could be their chance to push themselves over the edge and get into a position to win the whole thing.
I know I predicted that they wouldn’t make it out of their Group because of poor management, but management may not even make a difference now. If this team wants to rally around its core and basically shut out everyone else they can really do something special.
It would have taken more than a pretty sign…
After losing to Catania (under shorthanded circumstances) Inter Milan has promised that it can answer such humiliation against Chelsea in the Champion’s League on Tuesday. Something tells me it isn’t that easy. When you play a match in your home league, shorthanded, against a team that really needs it and you give them every advantage then you can’t turn around and say that it’ll be better next time.
