Champions League is here again ladies and gentlemen and, for La Liga mas especial del mundo, we've got 3 teams still in the heat of the action: FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid. My initial reaction, a bit of optimism for Real Madrid against a slowly sinking Liverpool side, a bit of pessimism as the head-cases at Atleti are hard pressed as ever to find consistent form in La Liga, let alone in the pressure cooker of the Champions League and finally, as RCD Espanyol just pointed out last round in league play, Barca are very vulnerable in and around goal and will concede if a team manages to break through that wall of talented midfielders that they have.

Predictions? My first reaction was that over both legs, Real Madrid would open it up and attack Liverpool at the Bernabeu as the faithful madridistas would have it no other way, and I figured 3-1 for the team in white, and in the return leg at fortress Anfield, European nights and all that rubbish, Madrid would not be intimidated and would have gone through on a one all draw. Obviously that's all out with the loss at home from Benayoun's late goal for the 'Pool but it is still on if Madrid can nick an away goal early and draw Rafa out of his shell and that's exactly what I think will happen.

In the less glamorous matched: I thought that Atleti would suffer a bit when they finished their series at the Dragao next week as they were let down immensely by their very porous defense allowing a 2-2 draw at home at the Vicente Calderon. Despite the two goals, Kun Aguero was not scoring, and it seemed he was distracted with the birth of his Maradona baby, but this past weekend's Barcelona match changed that I believe. He's an emotional kid, fueled by confidence, and the club reflects that in the way they play. They'll have to attack early and hope that their defenders won't be caught by the Porto counter-attack, and while I don't usually believe that bombs-away teams like the colchoneros do well in these competitions I think they've drawn an inferior opponent quite frankly and they'll go through. For Villareal it's a different story. Conceding an away goal isn't usually a death knell if your club can break down an opponent like Villareal can, Guiseppe Rossi is the true heir to the proud lineage of the Azzurri #10 shirt that Antonio Cassano only wishes he were, but while they are also facing an experienced European side with a quality manager, Atletico Madrid only have to travel to Portugal while the Yellow Submarine have a fierce trip to Athens to look forward to, and much more experienced and deeper squads than Villareal have lost in the Eastern Mediterranean before. I'm not sure, but I expect Panathinaikos to advance.

Which leads me to the FC Barcelona match at Lyon. They have been on some rather indifferent form, coasting for much of the year in Spain, and a thin squad to begin with (as Guardiola doesn't like big squads or vary too much in his rotation) is even thinner with injuries and suspensions to key players like Puyol or Marquez. Losing to last place Espanyol in a derby match at home was an indication that they had their heads elsewhere (maybe in France, maybe on Madrid) but this past weekend's collapse against Atletico Madrid losing not one but two leads to an inferior rojiblanco squad that they had pummeled earlier in the year 6-1 was a sign that all is not well at the Nou Camp. I think that if this match were in any other place but at home, Barcelona might continue to struggle, but all they really need is a draw (as that crucial Thierry Henry away goal carries alot of cache) and they'll advance with ease. This is a clear indicator that not only is there definitely a league campaign still on for the blaugrana but no one is going to merely hand over the Cup with the big ears to them.

Champions League is here again ladies and gentlemen and, for La Liga mas especial del mundo, we've got 3 teams still in the heat of the action: FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid. My initial reaction, a bit of optimism for Real Madrid against a slowly sinking Liverpool side, a bit of pessimism as the head-cases at Atleti are hard pressed as ever to find consistent form in La Liga, let alone in the pressure cooker of the Champions League and finally, as RCD Espanyol just pointed out last round in league play, Barca are very vulnerable in and around goal and will concede if a team manages to break through that wall of talented midfielders that they have.

Predictions? My first reaction was that over both legs, Real Madrid would open it up and attack Liverpool at the Bernabeu as the faithful madridistas would have it no other way, and I figured 3-1 for the team in white, and in the return leg at fortress Anfield, European nights and all that rubbish, Madrid would not be intimidated and would have gone through on a one all draw. Obviously that's all out with the loss at home from Benayoun's late goal for the 'Pool but it is still on if Madrid can nick an away goal early and draw Rafa out of his shell and that's exactly what I think will happen.

In the less glamorous matched: I thought that Atleti would suffer a bit when they finished their series at the Dragao next week as they were let down immensely by their very porous defense allowing a 2-2 draw at home at the Vicente Calderon. Despite the two goals, Kun Aguero was not scoring, and it seemed he was distracted with the birth of his Maradona baby, but this past weekend's Barcelona match changed that I believe. He's an emotional kid, fueled by confidence, and the club reflects that in the way they play. They'll have to attack early and hope that their defenders won't be caught by the Porto counter-attack, and while I don't usually believe that bombs-away teams like the colchoneros do well in these competitions I think they've drawn an inferior opponent quite frankly and they'll go through. For Villareal it's a different story. Conceding an away goal isn't usually a death knell if your club can break down an opponent like Villareal can, Guiseppe Rossi is the true heir to the proud lineage of the Azzurri #10 shirt that Antonio Cassano only wishes he were, but while they are also facing an experienced European side with a quality manager, Atletico Madrid only have to travel to Portugal while the Yellow Submarine have a fierce trip to Athens to look forward to, and much more experienced and deeper squads than Villareal have lost in the Eastern Mediterranean before. I'm not sure, but I expect Panathinaikos to advance.

Which leads me to the FC Barcelona match at Lyon. They have been on some rather indifferent form, coasting for much of the year in Spain, and a thin squad to begin with (as Guardiola doesn't like big squads or vary too much in his rotation) is even thinner with injuries and suspensions to key players like Puyol or Marquez. Losing to last place Espanyol in a derby match at home was an indication that they had their heads elsewhere (maybe in France, maybe on Madrid) but this past weekend's collapse against Atletico Madrid losing not one but two leads to an inferior rojiblanco squad that they had pummeled earlier in the year 6-1 was a sign that all is not well at the Nou Camp. I think that if this match were in any other place but at home, Barcelona might continue to struggle, but all they really need is a draw (as that crucial Thierry Henry away goal carries alot of cache) and they'll advance with ease. This is a clear indicator that not only is there definitely a league campaign still on for the blaugrana but no one is going to merely hand over the Cup with the big ears to them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlXRe582fJs]

Sometimes in football, like in this match, the most incomprehensible things occur; the littlest player on the field (Ivan de la Pena) comes through with an unlikely header, unmarked and unchallenged, and then he adds to the tally with a monumental gift by Victor Valdez chipping it over the keeper after receving a wayward clearance from the same character. Bottom beats top, left is right, and suddenly we’re back into the mix, an escape from relegation a certainty?

Now, people on the other side of town (mostly cules) are going to downplay the loss, blame the ref or a subpar performance before a Champions League match midweek against Lyon looming. Xavi himself said that the ref took over the game, listened to the protestations of the Espanyol players, pulling out the red card, and awarded the “pessimism” of Espanyol to get in the way of the beautiful football that they were “dominating” with.

What a load of rubbish. They have no inherant right to beat all comers just because they can play neat pretty triangles on the pitch. Sometimes they need to fight. It was a chippy game from the get-go, a true derby match (emotional and heated) and Barca were giving just as much as they were getting. The cards were even throughout on the field (6 apiece) with one weird yellow going to the Barcelona bench for dissent. The red card didn’t look all that bad at first glance, but in slow motion you could see studs up in the lead foot for Keita and the trailing foot hitting the Espanyol player. There’ll be complaints, but it was a fair call, especially considering we lost a similar call in the corresponding fixture at the beginning of the year at the Montjuic; a game that threw us into a death spiral and humiliated us in front of the league. Karma. ‘Nuff Said.

I said we’d be lucky to get 3 points out of the matches against Sevilla, Barca, Real Madrid and Villareal, anything else in the next two is gravy I think.

Sometimes in football, like in this match, the most incomprehensible things occur; the littlest player on the field (Ivan de la Pena) comes through with an unlikely header, unmarked and unchallenged, and then he adds to the tally with a monumental gift by Victor Valdez chipping it over the keeper after receving a wayward clearance from the same character. Bottom beats top, left is right, and suddenly we’re back into the mix, an escape from relegation a certainty?

Now, people on the other side of town (mostly cules) are going to downplay the loss, blame the ref or a subpar performance before a Champions League match midweek against Lyon looming. Xavi himself said that the ref took over the game, listened to the protestations of the Espanyol players, pulling out the red card, and awarded the “pessimism” of Espanyol to get in the way of the beautiful football that they were “dominating” with.

What a load of rubbish. They have no inherant right to beat all comers just because they can play neat pretty triangles on the pitch. Sometimes they need to fight. It was a chippy game from the get-go, a true derby match (emotional and heated) and Barca were giving just as much as they were getting. The cards were even throughout on the field (6 apiece) with one weird yellow going to the Barcelona bench for dissent. The red card didn’t look all that bad at first glance, but in slow motion you could see studs up in the lead foot for Keita and the trailing foot hitting the Espanyol player. There’ll be complaints, but it was a fair call, especially considering we lost a similar call in the corresponding fixture at the beginning of the year at the Montjuic; a game that threw us into a death spiral and humiliated us in front of the league. Karma. ‘Nuff Said.

I said we’d be lucky to get 3 points out of the matches against Sevilla, Barca, Real Madrid and Villareal, anything else in the next two is gravy I think.

Lecce-Inter 0-3

Inter dominated Lecce at the Via Del Mare stadium in Lecce on Saturday evening.

In the 12th minute Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Inter all they needed to win the game on a pretty goal by Ibra that beat Benussi to make it 1-0 Before the goal however, Inter had come close in the 9th minute, on a shot by Dejan Stankovic that went just over the crossbar. On the goal Ibrahimovic took a nice pass from Esteban Cambiasso which he put into the lower left corner of the net. in the 18th minute Julio Cesar made a nice save on Guigliermo Stendardo's header.

In the 37th minute Ibrahimovic is given a yellow for falling in the area without being touched.

In the second half, Inter closed the game on a goal by Luis Figo in the 71st minute and Another by Dejan Stankovic in the 82nd minute winning by 3-0  this result, combined with Milan's home tie with last-place Reggina 1-1 on a 34th minute goal by Davide Di Gennaro and a 66th Minute Penalty Kick by Kaka basically gives Inter the scudetto for 2008-09,. they now lead Milan by eight points and the only hope Milan has is to win next weeks derby, But they will have to win in front of Nerazzurri fans.

the Milan penalty was a legitimate call which Alexandre Pato caused and Ricky Kaka converted. Tomorrow's TV games are Roma-Genoa on Raitalia and FSC and the night game is Palermo-Napoli on Raitalia and FSC be watching I will.

Forza Futbol

This week on Forza Futbol Mando and Hannah go over the weekends action from La Liga and Serie A. We also talk transfers as the window is now shut. Raul scored his 307th goal for Real Madrid and is now tied with Di Stefano. Messi scored Barcelona's 5000th goal in La Liga and Mutu scored his 100th goal in Serie A. Get the whole episode here, direct download here or subscribe in iTunes.

Follow us on Twitter. Visit our new website at ForzaFutbol.com

Gol TV strikes again ladies and gentlemen. Rather than getting a bit of Spanish classicism from the best league in the world, I get stuck watching U-20 South American kids; which I’ll say is perfectly good if you like living in that head space where you watch a player and wonder whether he’ll be any good in 4 years, when you barely remember him, but right here right now you just wonder why you’re bothering to watch sub standard football.

So rather than watch Real Madrid at a decent hour, I’m watching it at 1 in the morning right before bed. Some reflections early on:

• Soria is a very small venue to watch a first division game. I wonder if they can build a sustainable model of top flight football at Numancia with that small stadium?
• Fernando Gago continues to be late reacting to the ball and continues to come in late for tackles. He’s no Fernando Redondo, no matter what people say about resemblances.
• I don’t like to criticize people covering games, but Phil Schoen on Gol TV made me laugh when he mentioned the great players that Real Madrid have in their “cantina”. No wonder they all play sluggishly.
• Wesley Snejder is a great talent but there’s something wrong with him still. He should have waited to make his comeback. He’s great on the set pieces but he’s lost a step in the run of play.
• Numancia don’t play like a promoted side looking for a break. They dominated possession in the first half and should have scored off the header by Javier del Pino.
• The first goal, the record breaking one by Raul, was set-up by a darting inside run by Robben who layed it off to Higuain who shot, it was blocked and Raul poached it. Nice form for a guy who doesn’t have the skill anymore of a quality support striker but isn’t physical enough to really handle the #9 role all by himself. The forgotten man though was Lass. It was he who won the ball for Robben, who I assume realizes that if he stays by Lass, he’ll get the ball soon enough.
• The second goal was typical Robben. He may not be Lionel Messi but he’s the only player they have that can break a man down all by himself and he showed it. Higuain comes close, but this is the real failure of Pedja Mijatovich, he continues to bring in players that have no business wearing the classic white shirt.

The story of  the match was Raul’s reaching for Alfredo DiStefano’s club record for goals. “It is a beautiful thing”, he remarked to himself primarily, as DiStefano was nowhere to be found. I realize he’s getting on in years but Don Alfredo’s been a constant presence there for decades. I wonder if there’s a bit of crankiness there for a man known for his crankiness. Wouldn’t surprise me. That's Real Madrid.

Aupa: La Liga