Group A
Liverpool
Porto
Marseilles
Besiktas

Group B
Chelsea
Valencia
Schalke
Rosenborg

Group C
Real Madrid
Werder Bremen
Lazio
Olympiakos

Group D
AC Milan
Benfica
Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk

Group E
Barcelona
Lyon
Stuttgart
Rangers

Group F
Manchester United
Roma
Sporting Lisbon
Dynamo Kyiv

Group G
Inter Milan
PSV
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce

Group H
Arsenal
Sevilla/AEK Athens
Steaua Bucharest
Slavia Praha

 

 

Antonio Puerta, the tall, elegant left-sided midfielder for Sevilla and Spain passed away today. He had been in hospital in critical condition for the past 3 days after collapsing during Sevilla's game over the weekend against Getafe. He had had multiple cardiac arrests, and there was brain damage that had arisen from those that made the situation very, very complicated. He was just 22 years old, and had a baby on the way as well. Clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and Real Madrid had been watching him for a while now, and he was one that was surely destined for the top.

It's a sad day when such a promising, young footballer passes on, and we would like to wish his family all the best.

After Liverpool have painstakingly gone ahead with meeting Atletico Madrid's massive transfer demands, they now have to face up to the prospect of meeting exorbitant wages for the increasingly diva-like Fernando Torres.

El Niño has apparently asked for a massive £31.2 million contract! He has allegedly demanded a 6-year deal, worth £100,000 per week, because those are the same terms that Inter Milan offered.

I have no doubt that Inter offered ridiculous wages, but were they even serious about signing Torres? They've already got Ibrahimovic, Crespo, Adriano, Julio Cruz, Alvaro Recoba and now David Suazo. Perhaps they offered Torres this ridiculous contract as a means of trying to coax him into making his situation with Atletico very sour, and thereby lowering the transfer fee? Who knows.

In any case, Liverpool will have to negotiate trickily with this one, because there are very few players in the history of the Premiership who have been on £100,000 per week or higher. Thierry Henry, Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Steven Gerrard and Cristiano Ronaldo are all proven talents and performers, and even Frank Lampard and John Terry haven't been able to bump their contracts up to that level. Not only will Torres earning that much ruffle a few feathers, but given Torres' inconsistency and the fact that he is not yet at the top of his game, it will be quite a financial burden on the 'Pool.

Of course it could all just be paper talk. After all, only a week ago it was rumoured that Torres' had the words "You'll Never Walk Alone" on the underside of his captain's armband, and that he was desperate to join Liverpool.

Well, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was released on a free today, and will rejoin Feyenoord.

Question is... who will Barca's new left-back be? It's not as if Gio was the reserve full-back, so someone would need to come in an replace him.

Silvinho is a very good player, but Barca regard him as a backup, and at his age he is not going to suddenly take the Nou Camp by storm.

Barca are chasing Christian Chivu and Eric Abidal (allegedly), with the latter threatening to go on strike in order to get his desired move.

Chivu is left-footed, and has played left-back before (he started there), but is really a centre-back and has done his best work for Ajax and Roma in that position. He's a technically gifted player, great at set pieces and with terrific touch and passing.

Abidal is a left-footed left-back, who started out at centre-back. He is a tough, reliable defender, who is very quick and powerful, but someone who offers very little going forward (in my opinion). There's no doubt he would be a good signing for any team, but Barca's system has so often relied on a zippy, technical lfullback overlapping down the left and providing width and creating space for Ronaldinho. Van Bronckhorst had undoubtedly one of the best left-foots (feet?) in Europe, and produced many great crosses and passes. Abidal would not provide any of this.

The other option of course is for Gianluca Zambrotta to play at left-back. He has played there so well for so many years, for both club and country, despite having started out as a right-winger, and he has always done well. For a right-footed player, his left-foot is probably better than that of many left-footed players, and there's no doubt he would do an excellent job there. But then Barca would need to be searching for a right-back... and with Belletti gone and Thuram looking slower and slower, that's a problem they don't need at the moment.

About 6 years ago, Spartak Moscow playmaker Yegor (Egor/Yeghor/Igor/etc) Titov was one of Europe's hottest properties. He was impressive in the Champions League, and for the national team. They were narrowly eliminated from the Champions League in a tough group that featured Arsenal, Lyon and Bayern Munich, and it was widely thought that Titov would move on to greener pastures and settle in Serie A or La Liga where he could pull the strings from midfield. He was a gifted player, and at 6'1", was no pushover either. Certainly one could imagine him gracefully constructing play on the Spanish pitches where his compatriots Valery Karpin and Alexandr Mostovoi had excelled not too long ago.

Instead, he's now 30 years old, still playing for Spartak and very unlikely to make an impact on any kind of larger scale. The emergence of CSKA Moscow has seen Spartak lose control of the league, and as a result their effect on the Champions League has been minimised. Russia beat Andorra 4-0 today in the Euro 2008 Qualifiers, but there was no sign of Titov. He will probably finish his career as a club hero at Spartak, but no doubt he will have a deep sense of unfulfillment at the way his career has panned out.

Umm... I should also mention that he was tested positive for Nandrolone after a Euro 2004 qualifier and banned for 12 months, but talent is still talent. Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids, Frank de Boer, Abel Xavier, Adrian Mutu and a few others have all had lengthy drug bans, but come back to excel again. It's not THAT big a deal! Or is it? Who knows? I don't. Do you?

Anyways, i'm sure he still had a fantastic career and won many European and World Cups on Championship Manager. That's always something to fall back on.

Manchester United have apparently reached deals to sign Brazilian startlet Anderson from Porto, and Portuguese wonder-kid/winger Nani from Sporting Lisbon .

F*CK. SH*T. B*LL*CKS. OK, didn't need that many asterisks there, but come on. This is exactly what the Arsenal needed to do after they won in 1998/2002/2004 - strengthen. There's been no news on the transfer front apart from Robin Van Persie saying that they don't really need to sign anyone, and that Julio Baptista has decided to ship his chunky, useless self back to Madrid. COME ON! Man United have gone and signed two of the best young players in Europe (and i'd rate Anderson as one of the best young players in the world), for £35 bleedin' million pounds for the pair. That's almost Chelsea-esque.

Nani has excelled this year for a rejuvenated Sporting, and his goalscoring wingplay could see him become into one of the most dangerous attackers in Europe. Him and Cristiano Ronaldo on opposite wings might just see the introduction of double fullbacks on each side as a tactic (well Chelsea do it anyways).

Anderson is a bit more of an enigma. Back in October/November the press couldn't shut up about him, he was doing amazing things in the Champions League, Barcelona were interested, and he was enjoying his football. He's since gone off the boil a bit, but the ability is still there.

It might be a shame though if he doesn't achieve what he's supposed to at United. I know many Brazilians consider it a shame that Kleberson (one of the most talented players in Brazil at the time) never achieved his potential and ended up losing his way completely in Manchester, and I would hope that the same does not happen with Anderson, because he really is a special player. I don't really have faith in Alex Ferguson's management in this matter, but maybe Carlos Queiroz will prove crucial here.

Four years ago Man Utd missed out on Ronaldinho because they didn't want to pay a few million pounds more. Now, they're splashing out in a big way, and one or both of those players might well go on to eclipse and exceed Ronaldinho in a few years' time. 

Well... ticket sales for this years Champions League Final (Athens 2007) seem to have ended up in a right old mess. I'm watching it on TV at the moment (as the poor and distant are wont to do), and things seem noisy enough so i'd hope that most of the loyal fans who tried their best to go have managed to, but there has been an unhappy sinister note to the way the whole thing has been handled.

* WHAT A ROULETTE FROM KAKA! *

Anyways, sorry... back to the business. The first big problem, is that forged tickets have flooded the market - there are said to be in excess of 1500 tickets, and arrests have already been made, although the number in circulation is thought to be huge. Many fans had bought tickets in advance, and some are concerned that these might now be fake , which is heartbreaking considering that the minimum paid was probably about €400.

* TYPICAL OPPORTUNISM FROM PIPP INZAGHI, MILAN 1-0 UP. STUPID HALF-TIME PANELISTS SAY HANDBALL, I SAY WATCH THE REPLAYS PROPERLY *

Fans have also been sadly let down by the system in this case. The Spiros Louis Stadium holds only 63,000, so the per club allocation of roughly 17,000 tickets was never that large to begin with. Fans have thus had to go around to all manner of touts and ticket agencies to try and find those golden tickets, and have these been very vulnerable to trouble. Many ticket agencies sold packages to clients without having the requisite number of tickets in hand, and they did so in anticipation of ticket prices falling, and subsequently making huge profits. Unfortunately that never happened, and so several hopeful fans have been left in the lurch. The majority of these agencies simply took the money and ran, and obviously since the deals were dodgy to begin with, the clients could do nothing.

Travel & sports travel companies weren't much better - most of them refunded the ticket cost (face values) to the fans, but kept the travel expenses portion of it - presumably under the argument that said fans could still have gone and had a holiday and stay in some hotel.

* SECOND HALF AND LIVERPOOL ARE 2-0 DOWN. PERFECT FINISHING FROM PIPPO INZAGHI AGAIN, AND MILAN HAVE SHOWN THEIR PEDIGREE *

Adriano Galliani didn't help things this with his statements saying that only season ticket holders should receive tickets to the final (not sure how much this affected things, especially because Italian fans are the most notorious sellers of their tickets). When you consider the fact that Liverpool and Milan are two of the world's biggest and most popular clubs, it becomes obvious that the ex-pat and international fans would probably be travelling in numbers rivalling those of the local fans.

There is also the great story of the one Italian tour operator who was selling close to 3,000 ticket packages for the final, but actually had 0 tickets. He had anticipated receiving these tickets directly from Milan, and that never materialised. I'm not sure whether the fans eventually received any money back, but I hope they did. So much for the beautiful game eh?

* MILAN WIN. 2-1 AT FULLTIME WITH A CONSOLATION GOAL FROM KUYT. HE WAS OFFSIDE WHEN CROUCH FLICKED IT ON, BUT IT TOUCHED MALDINI ON THE WAY THROUGH AND SO IT STANDS. IT WAS A SCARE FOR MILAN, BUT THEY COMFORTABLY WRAP THE GAME UP, AND IT WAS MEN vs BOYS REALLY *

You know how the saying goes.

Milan teased and tormented a pedestrian United side tonight. When it came down to the crunch, they basically lacked the requisite quality. United are back to where they were when they signed the Juan Sebastian Veron back in 2001, in an attempt to add some class and composure to their midfield because they were so often found wanting when faced up to the continent's best.

The hustle and bustle, and charge and energy of Rooneys and Ronaldos might be enough to storm the Premiership and the meeker of Europe's top contenders, but when faced by the true class of a possession game with high levels of technique, they can't contend. In 2000, Fernando Redondo pulled the strings and bewitched United's midfield into submission as Real Madrid marched on to win the cup. Three years later Zidane and Figo were also present as Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to knock them out. And in between there was their elimination by Deportivo La Coruna, when playmaker Juan Valeron was arguably the best in Europe.

Manchester United play swashbuckling, dynamic, entertaining, attacking football, but they most often pummell opponents into submission, as opposed to carving them open with guile and cunning. That's where they lose out -  they've never had that player in the middle of the park who can control games. Maybe Ferguson made the mistake of thinking that Carrick could/would be that player, but as fantastic of a passer as he is, he doesn't dominate teams with his movement of the ball.

And they were outclassed tonight. Gattuso ran and ran and ran and tackled and kicked everything and gave 100% to never let United's players rest. And in Kaka, Pirlo and Seedorf, Milan had three of Europe's most accomplished passers and thinkers.

Kaka has been a revelation this year with his finishing and general attacking play. He's been the best Brazilian for about a year and a half now, and hopefully he will receive his due credit and emerge from the shadow of Ronaldinho. Sometimes wide, sometimes central, he glides around the pitch, finding enormous amounts of space and plays the game with subtle endeavour using every possible angle to pass and move in. 

Pirlo was Italy's best player at the World Cup, and is one of the most consistent in Europe. He moves the ball perfectly at any distance to any player on the field, intelligently reads the game to fill in gaps, and most importantly he understands situations very well, and adapts to them.

As for Seedorf, he may be a bit older now, but he's won the European Cup thrice - with Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan. This will be his sixth final, and third with Milan. He can shoot, pass and run, and his movement and adaptability mean that he can take control when he needs to, or play the supporting role to either Kaka or Pirlo.

Don't forget Ambrosini as well - essentially a defensive midfielder, but with good all-round ability, he supported everyone in their efforts tonight, forming a central core with Pirlo and Gattuso, and allowing Seedorf and Kaka to run around and do their thing.

This was a top, top class midfield, with intelligence, experience, and class, and quite simply Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick are nearly men, who were not upto the task tonight. Ryan Giggs is rejuvenated in his roving role, but is still essentially a 33 year old left-winger with much diminished pace. Scholes is still bright, still classy, but he's always been a reflex player - one touch passes, hammered shots and volleys, and quick interplay.

There was no one to take charge today, no one to control things. In the first leg they escaped through an inspired performance from the team at home in front of a roaring Old Trafford. But at the San Siro, it was men versus boys.

And as for that whole best player in the world debate? Kaka showed today that Cristiano Ronaldo is a million miles away. Kaka is real, true class, a kid who arrived from Sao Paulo and immediately started to control games and make things happen. He can pass, he can move, he can finish. Ronaldo is a trickster who has after three unproductive seasons has hit great form. He is as good of a dribbler as anyone, and has improved his shooting and crossing, but he doesn't play with composure and intelligence in the way that a Kaka, Henry or Ronaldinho does. The Portuguese "kid" has failed to score against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool this season, and I would say that all the celebrations over his talent are more than a little bit pre-mature. 

Good Luck Milan.

Hello... since the season is almost over (FINISHED if you're an Arsenal fan) and, quite frankly, not much is happening in the summer apart from International Football (yes, I used CAPS), I thought maybe it would be cool (fun?) to pick up the Copa America and really follow it from start to finish.

Of all the tournaments this summer (Gold Cup/FIFA U-20s/Pan-American Games), it's probably going to be the one with the best football and the best players, but as usual it will probably not be given much attention by the English-language media. I've noticed we have loads of Brazilians and Argentines on here, and more than a few USAians, so there's no reason why we can't make ourselves the best English source for the Copa America this summer. Anyone interested? I promise I won't keep talking about Denilson.

Anyways, if you have a blog and feel like keeping an eye out for the Copa, then have a go, and if you're interested in writing but aren't a member, then sign up!

This past Club World Cup (which NOBODY cares about outside of South America), OleOle probably had the most (and best) coverage of the event, and i'm sure we can generate a fair amount of buzz about the Copa America. This is after all the "World Cup of the Americas"... but I guess that doesn't make much sense. I'll stop now.

Last night was my first ever time at Stamford Bridge, and I have to say that I was underwhelmed. Most of the fans didn't know the songs (most of which were quite uninspired), some were audibly saying stuff like "how does that one go?" and "what are they saying?", and all the shirts were from this season or the one before - no history eh?

They also have some ridiculous anthem, and silly flags that they wave about, and it gave the general impression that I was in some bizarre kind of football Disneyland. I don't really mean to slag them off at Chelski, but it was seriously uninspiring stuff - there were chants of "Chewwseaaa", "Champeeeeyuns" and one or two others that are quite generic and which i'm fairly sure have been nicked off others. Ditto for the player songs. And their support mostly seemed to be in the form of vitriol and abuse at opposition players and fans, and maybe that is just emblematic of the Chelsea/Mourinho mentality of "Us Against The World". Anyways, enough of that, on to the football...

...which as you might expect in a Champions League semi-final was a very tense, cagey affair. I personally don't think that 1 goal is enough for Chelsea up at Anfield, and Fat Frankie Lampard had a chance from which he really should have scored. Shevchenko came close a few times (but was a passenger for the rest of the game), and Joe Cole and Didier Drogba were generally a dangerous duo for most of the game, although Drogba was heavily marked and didn't really have too many shooting opportunities (but he created chances for others, including the goal).

Seeing Drogba play in the flesh really gave me an idea of just how difficult an opponent he is - he's absolutely massive and a good athlete as well. Tall, very well built, and quite quick, time-and-time again he was first to long balls, and/or easily able to get the upper-hand at balls played into the channels. He works hard and really organises the game from the front (and on more than one occassion he lectured Shevchenko, whose timid personality doesn't do him any favours in this team).

Carragher dealt with him decently, but Agger was at his wit's end, and Drogba mostly operated in his area. In the second-half they dealt with him by having Mascherano/Xabi track him and pick-up the second ball when Agger challenged him in the air, but he had already done the damage with his contribution to the goal in the first half. He charged past Agger on the right-flank and put in a low cross to Joe Cole who neatly steered the ball in. Cole was influential all game and he finally gives Chelsea that bit of attacking flair and intelligence that they've missed this season.

Mamamamakekekekelelele was solid, Mikel was decent, and I finally saw Lampard for the overrated "lucky" player that many claim he is - he did nothing all game, doesn't beat players, and thumps long (/diagonal) balls up for the winger or Drogba to get to. But he does pick up scraps in front of goal, and if it wasn't for a super save from Reina, he would have volleyed in for 2-0 and more or less killed the tie. Ashley Cole might as well not have been there - at Arsenal he was an exciting, tenacious, attacking fullback; at Chelsea he is a slightly confused, reasonably steady left-back who just thumps 50-60 yard curling balls into the box for Drogba, and occassionally makes forays and crosses into the box. Chelsea really isn't the place for footballing fullbacks, and on the night Paulo Ferreira didn't seem like fullback who even knew how to play football - he was beaten time and time again by Boudewijn Zenden of all people, and he's just lucky that Zenden couldn't shoot, cross or pass to save his life.

That was it really, there were more poor performances on show than good ones, and Liverpool were really bad. I can't believe why Rafa Benitez put out the side that he did, but i'm sure that we'll see a completely different Liverpool at Anfield. Resting Peter Crouch was strange, and omitting Pennant (who has been in good form of late) was a sign that they were willing to play for a draw and maybe steal one on the break with Bellamy's pace. As it were, Bellamy was just awful - Chelsea defended deep, and never pushed up so he never had anywhere to run into. Kuyt can't quiyt act as the proper foil for him, and Liverpool generally looked like a side that didn't know what they were doing.

Gerrard was excellent, and influential, but had nothing happening in front of him (constant comments from the Chelsea fans all night along the lines of "ee should of come to Chewww-seee", which was also what they said in reference to any other good player that someone decided to talk about... amazing what a bit of money does to people eh?). He had one fantastic volley saved by Cech, which was the only real save that he made all game. This was in stark contrast to Pepe Reina at the other hand who made a series of breath-taking saves at the other end. He was Drogba's rival for Man of the Match, and if Liverpool go on to salvage anything in the second leg, they have him to thank for keeping the scores level.

Finally, a quick mention about the "ghost penalty" that Mourinho keeps going on about - I haven't seen the incident on TV, but I was seated directly in line with it, and to me it seemed that the ball bounced up off Arbeloa's knee or thigh onto his hand (which was by his side). Ball-to-hand if there ever was one and I think the referee made the right decision, although Mourinho being Mourinho, the Special One with Special Needs, no decision will ever satisy him.

Anyways though, it's all just fuel for the fire that is the game at Anfield. There will be the Kop and all the fans to deal with, as well as (i'm hoping) a more attacking line-up. Steve Finnan was badly missed, and Pennant and Crouch will play in the second-leg, maybe even Mark Gonzalez. The attack in London was completely void of any guile or invention, and Luis Garcia, inconsistent as he is, is a big loss in this department.

Anyhow, next week should be quite the game, and the atmosphere will be something special up there... let's see if Chelsea can handle it.