[Editors’ note: We welcome backAdam Novy for a preview of this Saturday’s little match in London–Manchester United versus FC Barcelona, meeting at Wembley for the 2011 UEFA Champions League final.]
Suicidal tendencies?
Manchester United is a cunning team who play a vintage 4-4-2 formation and, when focused, do well controlling games against big teams, as with their three recent wins against Chelsea, a side who always used to kill them. While Barcelona my be slightly overrated by a droolingly uncritical press who’ve made them poster kids for liberal self-congratulation despite their racist players, they play the best and most attractive football of any club in memory, and have five or six of the best position players in the world, including Leo Messi, who’s in a class by himself. To beat Barcelona, Utd will need a number of things to go their way, and, if any single one of them doesn’t, they will lose. (You should probably be told, gentle reader, that I’m a Man Utd fan.) It’s not impossible for Utd to pull this off, but it’s highly unlikely.
Here is a list of things Utd need to do to win:
Squeeze Out Service To Messi
Lionel Messi is almost impossible to stop, except when he plays for Argentina, when he never gets the ball in dangerous places and has almost no influence at all. Germany contained him without sweating, and, to do the same, Utd will need to keep the ball from getting to him in the box. Because he moves back and forth and side-to-side, Utd will cede possession if he’s far from the goal, but try to angle him away if he’s in the area. Also, once he gets the ball, he’ll need to be smothered. He cannot be allowed to pass to open teammates.
We lamented a bit last week over the close of the (European) club season, with most of the big leagues decided (and after the weekend, France (Lille) and the Netherlands (Ajax) also crowning champions). So what else is a CultFootball fan to look to, aside from the upcoming Champions League final (10 days away!)? Well, just today there are three tasty matches to watch.
First, there’s the Europa League final taking place in Dublin between two Liga Sagres sides–the nearly Invincible Porto against Sporting Braga. And later in the day, two Copa Libertadores quarterfinal 2nd leg matches– Brazilians Santos hosts Colombian Once Caldas (Santos having won the 1st leg 1-0 on the road), and Paraguayan side Libertad hosts Argentine Vélez Sársfield in Asunción (Vélez Sársfield won the 1st leg 3-0 in Buenos Aires).
(US TV coverage is as follows: the Europa League final is at 2:15pm ET live on DirectTV and rebroadcast on GolTV in the evening. The Copa Libertadores matches will be on Fox Deportes.)
Regarding the Europa League final, here is the Guardian’s Sachin Nakrani intra-Portuguese
The first European final to be played between two teams situated less than 50km apart is noticeable for the sporting chasm that exists between them. Porto, two-times winners of the European Cup and 25-times winners of their domestic championship, face a club whose proudest moment in their 90-year history came last season, when they finished second in the Primeira Liga.
That changes in Dublin on Wednesday evening, however, as Braga look to defy the odds again and win their first European trophy (second if anyone is counting the 2008 Intertoto Cup). Few give them a chance against André Villas Boas’s rampant champions, but within a squad whose home ground is built in a quarry there is a belief that they can unearth a golden moment for themselves.
Not sure where Porto and Braga are located? Neither were we:
Porto in particular is worth watching. They’ve had a remarkable season: they won the Liga Sagres going away, going undefeated in the process (27 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses). They were also undefeated in their Europa League group, and marched through the knockout phase, beating a couple Spanish and a couple Moscow clubs along the way: Sevilla, CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Villareal. (Braga dropped down from the Champions League after finishing third in their group behind Shakhtar Donetsk and Arsenal, although they did defeat Arsenal 2-1 at home in November. In the Europa knockout phase, they beat Polish Lech Poznan, before upsetting Liverpool, then Dynamo Kyiv and finally another Portuguese power, Benfica, in the semis.)
Another squad of Invincibles?
For today’s match, keep your eye on the handful of rising stars on their squad, quite a few of whom are South American: the Brazilians Fernando and Hulk (yes, the Hulk); Colombians Falcao and James Rodríguez; Argentine midfielders Fernando Belluschi and Nicolás Otamendi; Uruguayan defenders Fucile and Álvaro Pereira. They also have a few Portuguese internationals (midfielder João Moutinho, winger Silvestre Varela, the Cape Verdean-born defender Rolando).
"I'm a Special One!" "I'm Special Too!"
And of course there’s 33-year old first-year manager Andre Villas Boas–who everyone is hyping up as another Special One.
Here is the Guardian’s Dominic Fifield posting yesterday on Villas Boas:
His coaching career is not yet two years old but already his reputation precedes him. The domestic Primeira Liga title is his. This club’s first European trophy since 2004 and the Portuguese Cup could both have been hoisted by Sunday. These days he spends his time attempting to shrug off constant comparisons with Mourinho, the mentor under whom he cut his teeth but with whom he no longer speaks, and the links with Chelsea, Juventus and Roma which refuse to go away.
And here is Michael Cox (aka Mr ZonalMarking) contributing a column on Villas Boas to ESPN.com:
The similarities are clear — like Mourinho, Villas Boas is young, Portuguese, had no professional playing career to speak of, and is making his name at Porto. He is effectively Mourinho’s protégé, having worked under him at Porto, Chelsea and Inter.
Of course, Cox blesses us with detailed tactical notes on Villas Boas’s squad:
Just when you thought El Clásico couldn’t get any more heated, Pep Guardiola took the rivalry to 11 in his press conference yesterday in Madrid. But the real battle of Mourinho contra Guardiola will take place on the pitch later today, with the 1st leg of the Champions League semifinal. It will remarkably be the 3rd meeting in the past 11 days between Guardiola’s Barcelona and Mourinho’s Real Madrid (following the tense 1-1 draw in a La Liga match on April 16 and Madrid’s dramatic 1-0 Copa del Rey victory a week ago), and the real battle will be the tactics the two managerial masterminds deploy today, in light of the past two matches–and in light of key absences for both squads. Here’s what you need to get ready for today’s match:
If you have time for nothing else, open up this post of ours from last November, containing both sides’ squad lists; also open up Marca’s very cool interactive graphic showing “Los sistemas de Mourinho y de Guardiola“–though given the injuries and suspensions, today’s starting XIs will not be any of the ones shown there. Keep reading..
If you’ve got more time, and haven’t been following our El Clásico coverage, catch up on last November’s initial La Liga meeting here and here (“This game more than any other has divided the CultFootball brain trust, with one faction supporting the brilliant arrogance of the establishment side and the other hoping the subversives from the north can one-touch their way a million times to victory.”). That match of course produced a stunning 5-0 victory for the Catalan club–what we called “Tiki-taka to La Manita” (that post includes two sets of video highlights from that instant classic El Clásico).
Like the rest of the footballing world, we’ve got loco for El Clásico over the past two weeks. Our preview of this four-game series is here. These words still hold true–but a couple key names mentioned here will be absent today due to injury (Iniesta for Barça, Khedira for Madrid):
So which team is in better form? Through most of the season it was clearly Barcelona, but they’ve seemed a tad shaky of late while Madrid are looking pretty comfortable on the pitch. Madrid have also had an entire season to learn Mourinho’s defensive principles…then again Barça tend to have their way with what seem at the outset to be the most prepared of teams.
The key to a Madrid victory will be to limit Messi’s time with the ball. When his teammates have looked less than otherworldly this season, the little Argentine has stepped up his game to amazing levels. Very often it’s some combination of Iniesta and Xavi that pop open the defenses, with Messi finishing the movement, but Khedira and Alonso will collapse on them very quickly and it’ll be up to Lionel in isolation (and also finding Villa moving off the shoulder of his defender).
For Barcelona to walk away with the win they’ll have to retreat quickly when they lose possession (Madrid have a very quick counter attack) and not give Özil any time on the ball. The young German is a key link between back and front, and with him contained Barça can maintain their high pressing and look to turn the ball over quickly, as they do.
After the Copa del Rey, the observation that Barcelona seems a tad shaky while Madrid is looking increasingly comfortable holds a fortiori–as well as the tactical observations about Messi on the ball and Madrid on the counterattack, with Madrid’s defensive midfield “trivote” tasked with collapsing on the former, and Özil certainly a key to the latter. See our multipartfilm session on the Copa del Rey final for illustrations of these points.
Madrid’s trivote in the previous two matches consisted of Khedira, Xabi Alonso, and Pepe. With Khedira out, look for Lass Diarra to step into the midfield. Might we see Kaka make an appearance in the midfield, and/or Higuain up front? The Brazilian midfielder and Argentine striker have both been absent this season due to injuries, but both played well over the weekend in Madrid’s 6-3 blowout of Valencia.
ZonalMarking's Probable Starting XIs
For Barcelona, their stalwart defender Puyol returns to lineup, but both Brazilian left wingbacks (Adriano and Maxwell) have been left back in Barcelona due to injury. Add to this Eric Abidal’s continued absence (due surgery in March to remove a tumor from his liver, although remarkably he returned to training this week), and Barcelona will again be forced into a suboptimal lineup in defense. Look for Mascherano to stay in the starting XI, though it’s not clear if he’ll be playing wingback. ZonalMarking speculates that Puyol will play on the left, while Mascherano will stay in the center. In either case, Barça likely won’t get the forward width they get from Adriano or Maxwell–but that may actually be a good thing, as Puyol or Mascherano will stay home and be more likely to prevent Madrid counterattacks up that wing. Hence, look for Madrid to concentrate even more on getting behind Dani Alves on the other side of the field–the diMaria-Alves matchup there is key.
Not having Iniesta in the midfield is of course a huge loss. In his stead, it will likely be the Malian Seydou Keita who pairs with Xavi and Busquets–though we may also see the 20-year old “wonderkid” Thiago Alcantara in action. Up front it will be the usual trio of Villa, Messi and Pedro.
We leave you with video of Pep’s presser yesterday–we are confident we will be using the phrase “el puto jefe y puto amo” with regularity in the future:
Jeremain Lens will need to be on point against Feyenoord come Sunday
We’re approaching the end of club football in Europe, and while no fixture can be taken for granted at this point, there’s not a whole hell of a lot that’s particularly interesting this weekend. The games are important at the top and bottom of the table for sure, but will that make them something we want to watch? We think not.
The few exceptions are below, all times Eastern US, and click the teams for viewing information all around the world. Just think, with so few games to care about this weekend maybe you’ll actually get out there and have a kick about yourself? When’s the last time you did that afterall?
Saturday April 23
9:00am Inter Milan vs Lazio Lazio sits in fourth and Inter in third, with the sides separated by three points and automatic champs league qualification hanging in the balance. Inter does have a better goal difference though so even a loss would keep them in current places, but with Udinese breathing down the necks of the Rome side this match could have larger ramifications.
12:00pm Valencia vs Real MadridSecond place travels to third (though there are 14 points between them). Valenica will look to keep ahead of Villareal, while the Madriders are still keeping the faith for league glory. Highly unlikely on that later bit? Indeed.
Sunday April 24
8:30am Feyenoord vs PSV It’s all very tight at the top of the Eredivisie. Psv is currently in first position ahead of Twente, but only on goal difference, with Ajax siting third one point behind both (and with a better goals-for record than Twente). It’ll be a race to the end, and while Feyenoord aren’t the powerhouse team that challenged Ajax for the title so many times in the past, they’re no slouches either and could cause the champion’s league slots to shuffle this weekend.
There are a number of matches worth watching this weekend: the Manchesters facing off Saturday in the FA Cup semifinal is certainly worth your time, as are Udinese at Napoli and Arsenal hosting Liverpool on Sunday. But these games pale in comparison to the first of four el clásicos taking place over the next three weeks.
Saturday’s match at the Bernabéu won’t have quite the impact on the league table that Madridistas would’ve hoped for at the beginning of the season (specifically after that 5-0 spanking at the Camp Nou), but even with the league gone and the teams meeting in the Copa del Rey final next wednesday you can expect a full-blooded affair. Mourinho went full psychological battle this afternoon when he sat silently next to his assistant during a press conference, refusing to answer any questions himself. A classic tactic by the Portuguese, who prefers to draw attention to himself around big matches rather than leave his players open to excessive scrutiny.
As for fitness, Barcelona sorely miss Puyol and Abidal in defense and have looked vulnerable when teams have pushed past their high pressing midfield. Madrid have a few absentees in Lassana Diarra and Pedro Leon, but they do have Higuain and Benzema fit again, and Adebayor didn’t look half-bad against Spurs mid-week.
So which team is in better form? Through most of the season it was clearly Barcelona, but they’ve seemed a tad shaky of late while Madrid are looking pretty comfortable on the pitch. Madrid have also had an entire season to learn Mourinho’s defensive principles…then again Barça tend to have their way with what seem at the outset to be the most prepared of teams.
The key to a Madrid victory will be to limit Messi’s time with the ball. When his teammates have looked less than otherworldly this season, the little Argentine has stepped up his game to amazing levels. Very often it’s some combination of Iniesta and Xavi that pop open the defenses, with Messi finishing the movement, but Khedira and Alonso will collapse on them very quickly and it’ll be up to Lionel in isolation (and also finding Villa moving off the shoulder of his defender).
For Barcelona to walk away with the win they’ll have to retreat quickly when they lose possession (Madrid have a very quick counter attack) and not give Özil any time on the ball. The young German is a key link between back and front, and with him contained Barça can maintain their high pressing and look to turn the ball over quickly, as they do.
Though this isn’t necessarily the most popular prediction, both in the CultFootball offices and around the world in general, I think we’ll be looking at a 3-1 Madrid win. Truly this game could go either way. Both coaches are great tacticians, and both teams are really a joy to watch, but I’m a little tired of Barcelona’s dominance.
Chelsea travel to Manchester today to play in the only quarterfinal match that remains winnable by either side. The Londoners head into Old Trafford a goal down and perhaps lacking the confidence to steal it back. It doesn’t help matters that their floppy-haired central defender David Luiz is cup-tied and cannot play, nor that the £50M man up front can’t seem to find the back of the net.
United are, well, United. They persevere. Even without key components of their team for long periods this season (Valencia, misfiring Rooney, Ferdinand) they’ve managed to reach the FA Cup semifinal, the quarters of the Champions League, and are sitting 8 points clear at the top of the Prem. Chelsea, who are usually bigger and faster than the teams they come up against, weren’t able to convert their extra inches into goals, and looked a little slow in attack during the first leg.
Speed to goal isn’t something United lack. They have one of the swiftest counter attacks in all of football, with the little pumpkin churning away up front, and Nani and Valencia flying up the wings. More importantly, they have absolute belief in themselves, and it shows in the way they move the ball and force the attack. Chelsea were often hesitant in the first leg, pulling the ball sideways when a more direct attack may have been available, and giving the United defense enough time to readjust. Yes there was the Ramirez challenge that should’ve been a penalty, but you can’t rest all your hopes of winning on a spot kick.
The key to Chelsea victory will be exploiting O’Shea in right back. He’s just coming back from a hamstring injury, and it will be up to Malouda and Cole to make his day difficult (if they can also manage Valencia). We’ll come back at’cha with post-game analysis, but for now here are a few tidbits that will probably have no impact on proceedings:
Only twice in the UEFA Champions League era – Inter Milan’s triumph at Bayern Munich in this season’s last-16 (0-1 home, 3-2 away) and the 1995/96 semi-finals, when Ajax recovered from losing 1-0 at home to Panathinaikos with a 3-0 away triumph – has a team turned round a tie after a home first-leg defeat.
United have progressed in all 13 UEFA competition ties where they won the first game away from home, most recently against AC Milan in last season’s round of 16 (3-2 away, 4-0 home). That includes only one 1-0 away win, at Lille in the 2006/07 round of 16, which preceded another 1-0 victory at Old Trafford.
Chelsea’s quarter-final record in the competition is five wins and one defeat. United have won 11 and lost five at this stage, and went down on away goals to Bayern Munich 12 months ago.
Today is the final day of the Interlull matces which began last Friday, and we pick out a handful of matches in Europe that may be of interest. We’ll be back later today with previews of a couple Americas-based matches with later starting times.
France-Croatia in Saint-Denis; Lithuania-Spain in Kaunas; Netherlands-Hungary in Amsterdam (all on ESPN3.com starting at 2:30pmET): A choice of three intra-European matchups for you.
Lithuania-Spain and Netherlands-Hungary are both Euro2012 qualifiers, featuring the two finalists of WC2010 and probable favorites for next summer’s tournament in Poland/Ukraine. Spain is coming off a closer-than-expected 2-1 home win over the Czech Republic on Friday, and have had to travel far north and east to Lithuania. On the other hand, the Netherlands won convincingly 4-0 on the road in Hungary on Friday, and return home to take on the Hungarians in Amsterdam.
France-Croatia is a friendly match (un match amical); here is France24 reporting with some comments by French manager Laurent Blanc (“Mardi soir, les Bleus retrouvent le Stade de France à l’occasion d’un match amical face à la Croatie. Après une victoire sans éclat au Luxembourg dans le cadre des éliminatoires de l’Euro-2012, Laurent Blanc pourrait enfin dessiner son équipe type”):
But the one we’re more looking forward to is England against one of its former colonies–with the latter having surpassed the former in terms of recent footballing success:
England-Ghana at Wembley in London (FSC, 3pm): Although this is a friendly (read: meaningless) match (made even less compelling by the fact that England manager Fabio Capello let John Terry, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney released back to their clubs), the Ghanaians may be up for coming to Wembley. For a comprehensive set of pre-match material, see ITV’s match page, which includes a match preview by African football expert @GaryAlSmith; a look by Opta at England’s unbeaten record versus African opponents; and Michael Cox (aka Mr @ZonalMarking) profiling “England new boy” winger Mike Jarvis (Wolves)
In fact, @ZonalMarking and @GaryAlSmith were having a bit of back&forth about this match on Twitter over the past couple days. E.g., here is Mr Al-Smith @-msg’ing Ghana’s likely starting XI to Mr Cox:
@garyalsmith: “@Zonal_Marking Kingson – J Pantsil, D Addy, John Mensah, Vorsah – Annan, Agyemang-Badu, A Ayew, K Asamoah – D Adiyiah, P Tagoe”
Here is an excerpt from Al-Smith’s ITV match preview:
Asamoah is the hub – his dribbling ability, off-the-ball movement and distribution will be key while Ayew covers and provides crosses for the forwards.
Capello may employ the thriving Jack Wilshere to thwart such flowing moves and that is where Stevanovic may place Annan to keep tabs on the young Gunner. Wilshere’s vision and range of passing, coupled with his excellent ball retention, makes him very similar to Annan. The potential to cancel each other out is high. Annan’s experience in the climes of Africa, Scandinavia, the World Cup and now Germany should counter any talk that Wilshere is technically the better player.
Note that it doesn’t look like Ghana will start it’s Premier League stars Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, or Asamoah Gyan–although Panstil and John Mensah will start in defense. We’ll be watching for our favorite French-based Ghanaian, Andre Ayew. The Ghana squad had to travel to London all the way from Brazzaville and will be playing on only one day of rest, after they crushed Congo 4-0 in Brazzaville on Sunday. Scoring for Ghana in that game: Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah and Sulley Muntari (who came on as a sub in that match). Tagoe and Adiyiah both play for Partizan Belgrade.
We’re past the halfway point of the Interlull. We saw some interesting matches Friday and Saturday. There’s less to watch today–then no games tomorrow, but a whole slate of interesting ones on Tuesday. Here are the two we choose for today,
Sunday, March 27:
The one getting all the attention is Scotland hosting A Seleção..in London (?):
Scotland-Brazil at Emirates in London (ESPN2, 9amET): See our Sao Paulo-based correspondent’s rundown of the newish Seleçãohere. We don’t much about the Scottish side. If you really want a preview of them, listen to the segment on this week’s Guardian Football Weekly Extra pod, wherein they get Scotsman Ewan Murray on the phone in order to discuss the match.
But we’re equally intrigued by this match in Brazzaville–we’re just not sure if we’ll get to watch it:
It's not often you get to see this national team play--and you probably won't today
Congo-Ghana in Brazzaville (no US TV): An interesting Cup of African Nation qualifier. Ghana may be looking past the Congo to Tuesday’s match against England at Wembley.
Note that this match is being hosted by the Republic of Congo in the capital city of Brazzaville. As Wikipedia points out the Republic of Congo is “Not to be confused with the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Which is exactly what we did at first, thinking we’d refer you this post we did on TP Mazembe back in December, when they surprised the footballing world by advancing to the finals of the Club World Cup. But TP Mazembe is of course in the DR Congo. So all we can do on Congo is excerpt Goal.com’s match preview:
Congo are a team under construction hence a lot of young players with few experience faces. Captain Christopher Samba of Blackburn Rovers would have a lot on his shoulders as they meet the ever popular Black Stars. They are just a point adrift the west Africans and a little effort from his troops coupled with the home support could do the trick for them.
Coach Camille Ngakosso would also rely heavily on striker Ibara Franchel, the 2007 CAF Young Player of the Year award winner and Switzerland-based Matt Moussilou to frustrate the current Africa best team at the Alphonse Massamba Debat Stadium.
For info on Ghana see our copious coverge of the Black Stars: here (for the Ghana starting XI vs Uruguay in the World Cup last July); here (for video of the Asamoah Gyan Dance); and here (for background about young up-&-coming striker Andre Ayew–son of the greatest Ghanaian player of all time, Abedi (Ayew) Pele). We may see Gyan and Ayew partner up front in an exciting Ghanaian strikeforce (if not in Brazzaville, then maybe in London on Tuesday).
Ghana is clearly the highest profile side on the continent, after their inspiring showing in South Africa last summer. They boast a squad filled with players playing club ball at the highest levels: Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan, Sulley Muntari John Painstil, John Mensah, Richard Kingson (all Premier League); youngsters Kevin-Prince Boateng, Kwadwo Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu (all Serie A, the latter two at Udinese); ; Isaac Vorsah and Anthony Annan in the Bundesliga (Hoffenheim and Schalke 04, respectively); and Derek Boateng in La Liga (Getafe). See here for a list of the full squad.
Since there doesn’t appear to be any US television coverage (not sure about Europe?), one way to follow the match is via @GaryAlSmith’s Twitter stream–he is all about African football, and it appears he’s actually in Ghana. Here is his Twitter bio:
garyalsmith: AFRICA = African Football Remains In Corrupt Administration….but…All Football Remains In Correspondence Always.
Chelsea travel to Manchester today to play in the only quarterfinal match that remains winnable by either side. The Londoners head into Old Trafford a goal down and perhaps lacking the confidence to steal it back. It doesn’t help matters that their floppy-haired central defender David Luiz is cup-tied and cannot play, nor that the £50M man up front can’t seem to find the back of the net.
