Europe Update
All the four Spanish teams played away lost: Barcelona and Ream Madrid to Chelsea and Bayern Munich respectively in Champions League, Athletic Bilbao and Valencia to Sporting and Athletic Madrid respectively in Europa League.
Barcelona lost 1-0 to Chelsea. The failure to score an away goal might come back to haunt them. This match was full of drama. Barcelona had 24 shots on goal: one hitting cross-bar, another hitting goal post and a last ditch clearance off the line, more than 70% of possession. Despite all these statistics Barca failed to score a goal. What a pity! It's one of those nights when despite doing everything required, there's nothing to show for the effort. Barca have been wasteful in front of the goal all season and managed to escape without a big damage, but this loss might cost them. What made this defeat even more bitter was Messi losing possession resulted in Chelsea goal. But Barca must back themselves to beat Chelsea at Camp Nou next Tuesday. What was not surprising about the match was, Chelsea played like Chelsea(defending deep and relying on counter-attack) and Barca played like Barca(hogging the possession and playing in Chelsea half.)
I do not see return leg being any different. Chelsea will defend even more and only try to score on counter-attack. Barca must be more ruthless in front of the goal. They must score three times to be able to overturn the loss at Stamford Bridge. What's guaranteed is Barca will score but they will also concede.
Madrid lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich. They managed to score a precious away goal.
Bayern Munich deserved the win! They went 1-0 up and still attacked Madrid goal. With a stroke of luck, Madrid equalized but then opted to sit back and defend. Just like CSKA, Bayern scored a goal in the last minute and now will go to Bernabeu with a lot of confidence. Mourinho played for a score draw of 1-1 but his plan backfired. They have no choice but to attack Bayern and this might give a slim chance to Bayern to score.
And then there's this small matter of El Classico in La liga this weekend. Madrid lead Barca by 4 points. But a win for Barca will reduce the deficit to one point and Madrid must not lose anymore points if they want to snatch the La liga from Barca. Madrid have yet to play Sevilla at home and Athletic Bilbao away. I hope one of these two teams take points off Madrid :)
In Europa League, Athletic Bilbao didn't look their best and had not kept possession of the ball. Muniain and Llorente looked ordinary, only Herrera shined. And when Bielsa took Herrera off with around 20 minutes to go Athletic were winning 1-0. But the fortunes changed soon after. Sporting attacked like they were possessed and duly scored an equalizer and Diego Capel scored a wonderful winner later on. The result was too harsh on Athletic but they were not their best. Importantly they scored an away goal and can overturn the defeat in Lisbon at San Mames.
Valencia lost 4-2. But for the last minute goal, the scoreline would have been 4-1. They have a steep target in front of them. At Mastella they must win 2-0 but keeping Atletico from scoring might prove difficult.
I predict Atletico Madrid to go through to final of Europa league.
So with 90 minutes to go both competitions are well poised. Next week will be very interesting indeed! Oh, yes the weekend too with El Classico.
Barcelona lost 1-0 to Chelsea. The failure to score an away goal might come back to haunt them. This match was full of drama. Barcelona had 24 shots on goal: one hitting cross-bar, another hitting goal post and a last ditch clearance off the line, more than 70% of possession. Despite all these statistics Barca failed to score a goal. What a pity! It's one of those nights when despite doing everything required, there's nothing to show for the effort. Barca have been wasteful in front of the goal all season and managed to escape without a big damage, but this loss might cost them. What made this defeat even more bitter was Messi losing possession resulted in Chelsea goal. But Barca must back themselves to beat Chelsea at Camp Nou next Tuesday. What was not surprising about the match was, Chelsea played like Chelsea(defending deep and relying on counter-attack) and Barca played like Barca(hogging the possession and playing in Chelsea half.)
I do not see return leg being any different. Chelsea will defend even more and only try to score on counter-attack. Barca must be more ruthless in front of the goal. They must score three times to be able to overturn the loss at Stamford Bridge. What's guaranteed is Barca will score but they will also concede.
Madrid lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich. They managed to score a precious away goal.
Bayern Munich deserved the win! They went 1-0 up and still attacked Madrid goal. With a stroke of luck, Madrid equalized but then opted to sit back and defend. Just like CSKA, Bayern scored a goal in the last minute and now will go to Bernabeu with a lot of confidence. Mourinho played for a score draw of 1-1 but his plan backfired. They have no choice but to attack Bayern and this might give a slim chance to Bayern to score.
And then there's this small matter of El Classico in La liga this weekend. Madrid lead Barca by 4 points. But a win for Barca will reduce the deficit to one point and Madrid must not lose anymore points if they want to snatch the La liga from Barca. Madrid have yet to play Sevilla at home and Athletic Bilbao away. I hope one of these two teams take points off Madrid :)
In Europa League, Athletic Bilbao didn't look their best and had not kept possession of the ball. Muniain and Llorente looked ordinary, only Herrera shined. And when Bielsa took Herrera off with around 20 minutes to go Athletic were winning 1-0. But the fortunes changed soon after. Sporting attacked like they were possessed and duly scored an equalizer and Diego Capel scored a wonderful winner later on. The result was too harsh on Athletic but they were not their best. Importantly they scored an away goal and can overturn the defeat in Lisbon at San Mames.
Valencia lost 4-2. But for the last minute goal, the scoreline would have been 4-1. They have a steep target in front of them. At Mastella they must win 2-0 but keeping Atletico from scoring might prove difficult.
I predict Atletico Madrid to go through to final of Europa league.
So with 90 minutes to go both competitions are well poised. Next week will be very interesting indeed! Oh, yes the weekend too with El Classico.
posted by Srikanth | 12:40 AM
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