Posts Tagged Champions League

$250 million dollar dream crashes

Florentino PerezFlorentino Perez saw his ambitious $250 million dollar dream crash at Santiago Bernabeu. Lyon drew with Real Madrid in the Champions League and they go to the next stage due to aggregate goal difference.

Thus continues the Real Madrid hoodoo, they haven’t won a match in the knock out stage since the past five years. Big stars such as Ronaldo and Kaka were not enough to end the five year long drought. Lyon teenage sensation, Miralem Pjanic put a nail in Los Merengues coffin to send the new Galacticos right out of the Champions League.

Nobody knows what went wrong. Higuain, who has been the best player for Real Madrid in this season couldn’t sync with other players. He missed a goal in the early stages of the game which stunned the Madrid loyals.

Ronaldo was perhaps the only player, who looked dangerous, but “CR9” faded after the first half and other players didn’t seem to co-operate with him on the attack.

All the other players were lacklustre; this was the shadow of the Real Madrid team that we have seen in the La Liga.

This defeat has sent rumors floating that Perez is now looking for a new manager to lead his new side. Current Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger, who is currently with Arsenal, are tipped to take over from Manuel Pellegrini. The current Real Madrid manager however says that he has no plans of resigning from his post.




Jose Mourinho Says He Wants To Return To EPL

Former Chelsea manager and current Inter boss Jose Mourinho has said that he will return to England to manage a premier league side but that won’t be before next year. Mourinho is rumored to be out of favor at San Siro due to poor Jose Mourinhoperformances in the Champions League and may be on his way out soon.

Massimo Moratti, the owner of Inter Milan expressed displeasure publicly when Milan were defeated by Barcelona in Champions League at Camp Nou. Mourinho has since replied by saying that he wants to go to coach in Spain.

Mourinho visited Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea defeat Fulham and was mobbed by reporters and fans where he reiterated his desire to work in England. Mourinho is rumored get the coaching position at Manchester United, something that is endorsed by Sir Alex Ferguson who said that he would like the Portuguese to take over at Old Trafford.

Chelsea enjoyed one of the best days when Mourinho was in charge, won every cup except the Champions League and left Chelsea with a mutual agreement. The Russian oligarch was stunned last year when the Chelsea players requested him to bring back Mourinho back to London to get back to their winning ways.




Where Does Van Nistelrooy Go Now?

Ruud Van Nistelrooy one of the world’s best attackers is looking for a new club in order to make a position for himself at next year’s world cup in South Africa. Van Nistelrooy, a former Manchester United front man  was bought by Real Madrid for 24 million euros in 2006 but after a couple of success full seasons the striker has had a series of injuries which has left him baking the benches.

Liverpool are interested to buy the striker in order to improve their attack. The Merseyside club is currently having one of the worst seasons ever after being thrown out of Champions League and currently lying seventh on the Premier league ruud van nistelrooywith just three wins in their last 15 matches. But Liverpool will be asking Van Nistelrooy to accept a cut in wages, as they cannot afford to pay £100,000 a week after tax that he currently earns at Real Madrid.

Tottenham Hotspurs are the other club who want to purchase the striker and are currently accumulating funds by trying to offload Roman Pavlyuchenko, Alan Hutton, David Bentley and Robbie Keane who are currently surplus to requirements in White Hart Lane.

Real Madrid are offering Van Nistelrooy to Chelsea but are asking for Ricardo Carvalho in return to make up for injured Pepe who will be missing the rest of the season with torn cruciate ligament injury in right knee.

Van Nistelrooy is available for purchase for a few of £3 million and is desperate to leave the Los Merengues in order to cement his chance in World Cup 2010.




What Is Wrong With You, Liverpool?

Liverpool has just had one of the most disastrous Champions league campaigns ever; they didn’t even make it to the knock out stages of the championship and got out of the group stages even before the final round of fixtures was played.

Nobody knows what went wrong with Liverpool, they have had great luck in the competition. A couple of years ago they struggled to finish in the top four in the domestic competition and won the European club competition.

Liverpool teamLast year the manager Rafael Benitez spend about 18.5 million pounds on Glen Johnson, 15.3 million pounds on Aquilani (who never got to play much due to injury problems from his former club) and this was spent to help Liverpool’s chances of winning the cup. But instead things have got worse and compared to this year, they did better last time. Maybe selling Xabi Alonso was too overwhelming for them. This shows what kind of player he was.

Nobody knows what went wrong, when a team has players like Gerrard and Torres how can you not come in top 2 with a group of teams like Fiorentina, Lyon and Debrecen? This will be a huge loss to Liverpool in terms of money and the club’s image. To make matters worse there are rumors lurking around that say Javier Mascherano is leaving for Barcelona for earning more money and that Torres will be sold to relieve the club of financial burdens.

Liverpool now focuses on Europa League. If they win the cup it will be nothing great because Liverpool are the most talented team in that league but if they lose it will build even more pressure on them.




Mourinho Asked To Go For Guti

Mourinho has been asked by Inter Milan players Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder to bring José María Gutiérrez ‘Guti’ Hernández to Inter Milan to solve their mid field woes. The two players believe the attacking midfielder will provide great opportunities to the Inter strikers who are shy of scoring in Champions League.

GutiGuti currently is out of favor at Real Madrid following a war of words with Coach Manuel Pelligrini, in which the trainer won the duel and now Guti has been left to warming the benches at Real.

Inter coach Jose Mourinho is currently facing the heat from owner Massimo Moratti, following their 2-0 deafeat at Barcelona at the Champions league. The “Special one” has done nothing spectacular since replacing Roberto Mancini in 2008. True, the have won a couple of Scudettos, but this was already achieved by Mancini. Moratti wants Champions League success and has gone public with his disappointment with Mourinho to which the latter replied by saying ‘I would like to coach in Spain’

Guti is expected to leave Los Merengues following the outburst against Pelligrini during the Copa Del Rey match against Alcoron. But both Real Madrid and the player have insisted that there will be no transfer. Pelligrini has other ideas; he is heard saying that Guti is not playing because he is ‘injured’.




Messi – So much achieved, at such a young age

Lionel Messi was announced World Player of the Year, he was far ahead of the nearest rival making him favorite to win the award.

The award to Messi goes probably because of his contribution in the Champions League where helped catalan giants, Barcelona to win the competition for the year 2008-2009. This is not all, Messi was a part of the Spanish team that was the first ever to win all three competitions or the ‘treble’ for Barcelona.

lionel messiContrary to the popluar belief that Messi lived in Argentina for most of his life, the winger was spotted by Barcelona when he was in his teens and quickly offered him a place in the youth academy. He has since grown there and climbed up the youth ranks to make a name in the first team of the Blaugrana.

Messi is considered now as one of the best players in the world. He has everything right from skill full tactics to speed and he has the capability to single handedly lift a team to victory.

Messi, as most famous players are, has been seen a lot of rumours floating around, linking him another club. Barcelona made a bid for Manchester City Robinho and Manchester City were quick to ask for Messi in a swap deal. There were also reports in Italy linking the Barca ace to Inter Milan where money is not a problem for the Inter owner Massimo Morati. The wildest of rumors have been new Real Madrid owner Florentino Perez trying to do another Figo and break the bank to buy Messi.

But Messi says he will remain loyal to Barcelona since they showed so much faith in him when he was young and brought him to Spain. Messi continues to terrorize the defense and cause night mares to defenders of the opposing team.




Football Transfer Rumours

Kaka to Madrid:

16578kakaIts official.The Brazilian international has finally made the move to Real Madrid from A.C Milan. The move, as claimed by the Spanish media, has been completed for approximately 65.2 million EUROS. He is being paid a net 6 million EUROS for six seasons. This move will see the 27 year old who joined Milan in 2003 and led them to the 2004 Seductto and 2007 Champions League and also won the prestigious Ballon D’Or during his stay. Real Madrid’s statement was as follows:

“Kaka, is a Real Madrid player after an agreement was reached with AC Milan. The Brazilian footballer has now successfully passed all medical tests. Kaka has signed a contract with Real Madrid for the next six seasons.”

While Milan’s statement was:

“From next season, Kaka will play at Real Madrid. Milan thank Kaka the man and the great champion for his decisive contribution to the many victories over the last six years. It will be very difficult to fill the void that Kaka will leave, as he is a shining example of commitment and professionalism. A. C. Milan, on behalf of the Rossoneri managers, players and supporters, send him the most cordial and affectionate wishes for the continuation of his sporting career.”

So as promised, Florentino Perez, the new president, has started his signings of world talents. So will we see, once again, the GALACTICOS, Real Madrid once were? Only time will tell…….

luca toni footballToni To Barca? :

As Bayern Munich fans rejoiced the signing of Mario Gomez, the German international, from Stuttgart and it seems as per La Gazzetta dello Sport he is looking forward for a proposal which would move the 32 year old to the European Champions Barcelona. This comes on the wake of his failure to replicate his previous form of his previous season. Also it’s a known fact that Guardiola and Toni were teammates at Brescia.

So will the talismanic striker move to Barca?

On the line of fire – Trezeguet :

david trezeguet - footballTrezeguet, the French striker, has become a wanted man by many European teams, if his Agent, Antonio Caliendo, is to be believed. The player, who had fallen out of favor with Juventus ex-manager Claudio Ranieri, had hinted that he would leave the club if he had a good offers coming his way despite the fact that he has two years contract left with Juventus. “Real Madrid, Inter, Milan, Roma, Sevilla, Villarreal and Manchester City are all after him,” Caliendo told Tuttomercatoweb.com.

So let’s see where Trezeguet plays next year and may lady luck smile upon him wherever he goes or even if he decides to stay….

Posted by: Harris



Chelsea triumph over Everton to take FA Cup

chelsea win fa cupOne of the best farewell presents a team could offer to their coach was done by Chelsea, with and excellent win over Everton 2-1 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. Though Everton had a dream start to the match when striker Louis Saha put Everton ahead after just 26 seconds and also scored the fastest goal in FA Cup Final but the day surely belonged to Chelsea.

Chelsea scored two amazing goals to get back into a 2-1 lead through strikes Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard scoring in 20th minute and the 72nd minutes respectively.

Chelsea was the hot favorite to qualify ahead of United for the Champions league when they conceded a last minute goal which resulted in a draw, taking United to the final. On Sunday Chelsea proved a point that they were the best side in English Club Football.

Chelsea, playing under Hiddink for the last time before he returns to coaching Russia’s national team, equalised after 20 minutes when Didier Drogba rose virtually unmarked to head past Tim Howard.

Frank Lampard said in a post match interview

“It was amazing, to be 1-0 down in one minute, we showed a lot of character. We basically dominated the game. The second half wasn’t quite so good, but I was always felt like we could win the game so I’m pleased to get the goal to help us win it.”

This win also helped England defender Ashley Cole to win his fifth FA Cup winner’s medals, the highest since the tournaments. He had previously won three with Arsenal and now has two with Chelsea.

Hiddink is a post match interview said

“We are very demanding on each other but that is a strength, they know how to react when they are on the back foot. That is why I like them. It hasn’t just been an in between job for me, it has been more than that. This is one of my biggest adventures, to win at football’s mecca is quite something.”

David Moyes the Everton coach gracefully accepted defeat and said

“Chelsea were the better team, however, we made a semi-final last year and now a final this year and the guys are growing in stature out there.”