Copa Libertadores vs Champions League

The swift unraveling of the European Super League doesn’t mean that things will become better in the Champions League. It still appears that the dominance of few clubs from Europe’s big 5 leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France) will continue for a long time. This wasn’t always the case in the Champions League / European Cup but has became the new normal. If Europe's main club competition doesn't offer much hope of change, then what about South America's big club competition? A recent observation from Norman Crane about how things fare in the Copa Libertadores inspired me to compare the different winners in South America’s main Club tournament with that of Europe’s main Club competition.

Copa Libertadores: 10 South American countries but 2 dominate

Overall winners by country: 

Argentina: 25
Brazil: 20
Uruguay: 8
Colombia: 3
Paraguay: 3
Chile: 1
Ecuador: 1

It is not a surprise to see that Argentinian and Brazilian clubs have dominated the overall Copa Libertadores with Uruguayan clubs at #3. These 3 are also the most successful national teams in South American football as Brazil have 5 World Cup wins, Argentina and Uruguay have won 2 world Cups each. Uruguay have the most Copa America wins at 15, Argentina have 14 while Brazil have 9.

However, it is still surprising to see such a small number of winning teams from Colombia (3) and Chile (1) given their national team's strong performances over the last few decades. Currently, there are no Copa Libertadores winners from Peru, Bolivia or Venezuela.

In terms of the top winning clubs, it is a surprise to see the Argentine club Independiente still leads the list with 7 titles thanks to the 4 titles they won in the 1970s with their last title coming in 1984. It is also a big surprise to see the traditionally big Brazilian clubs such as Santos and São Paulo only have 3 overall titles while Flamengo with only 2, one of which was in that recent remarkable 2-1 win over River Plate in 2019, with Gabriel Barbosa scoring the goals in 92nd and 95th minute to clinch the win.

Wins by clubs: 

Independiente: 7
Boca Juniors: 6
Peñarol: 5
River Plate: 4
Estudiantes: 4
Olimpia, Nacional, São Paulo, Santos, Grêmio: 3
Palmeiras, Cruzeiro, Internacional, Atlético Nacional, Flamengo: 2
Colo-Colo, Racing, Argentinos Juniors, Vélez Sársfield, Vasco da Gama, Once Caldas, LDU Quito, Corinthians, Atlético Mineiro, San Lorenzo: 1

Copa Libertadores by the decades:

1960 - 69

Peñarol started Copa Libertadores in a strong fashion by winning the first 2 tournaments and finishing runners-up in the third tournament. However, clubs from Argentina came to dominate this decade.

Overall, 5 different teams won from just 3 nations.

Argentina (5): Independiente (1964, 1965), Estudiantes (1968, 1969), Racing (1967)
Uruguay (3): Peñarol (1960, 1961, 1966)
Brazil (2): Santos (1962, 1963)

1970 - 79 

Argentina extended their dominance in the 1970s and that also coincided with their national team winning their first World Cup in 1978. Brazilian football was declining on the international stage after Pelé retired in 1970 and that decline was reflected at the club level as well as only one Brazilian club won a title in this decade. Paraguay had their first ever Copa Libertadores winner as Olimipia won the first of their 3 titles in 1979.

6 different teams won from 4 nations.
 
Argentina (7): Estudiantes (1970), Independiente (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975), Boca Juniors (1977, 1978)
Uruguay (1): Nacional (1971)
Brazil (1): Cruzeiro (1976)
Paraguay (1): Olimipia (1979)

1980 - 89 

Clubs from Uruguay began their re-awakening and that translated into their national team growing in strength until the mid 1990s. Atlético Nacional became the first Colombian team to win the Copa in 1989. 

Overall, a diverse decade of winners with 8 different teams winning from 4 nations.

Uruguay (4): Nacional (1980, 1988), Peñarol (1982, 1987)
Argentina (3): Independiente (1984),  Argentinos Juniors (1985), River Plate (1986)
Brazil (2): Flamengo (1981), Grêmio (1983)
Colombia (1): Atlético Nacional (1989)

1990 - 99

The best decade in spreading out the titles as 9 different teams from 4 nations won the competition. Brazilian clubs dominated and would start their seesaw battle with Argentine teams in dominating a decade. The famous Colo-Colo won their and Chile's first Copa in 1991.

Brazil (6): São Paulo (1992, 1993), Grêmio (1995), Cruzeiro (1997),
Vasco da Gama (1998), Palmeiras (1999)
Argentina (2): Vélez Sársfield (1994), River Plate (1996)
Paraguay (1): Olimpia (1990)
Chile (1): Colo-Colo (1991)

2000 - 2009

7 different teams won from 5 nations with Argentina dominating again and their clubs taking over from Brazilian clubs. LDU Quito became the first ever team from Ecuador to win the Copa in 2008.

Argentina (5): Boca Juniors (2000, 2001, 2003, 2007), Estudiantes (2009)
Brazil (2): São Paulo (2005), Internacional (2006)
Paraguay (1): Olimpia (2002)
Colombia (1): Once Caldas (2004)
Ecuador (1): LDU Quito (2008)

2010 - 2019

Brazilian clubs dominated this decade although it wasn’t one Brazilian club that dominated. 6 different Brazilian clubs won a single title and as a result 9 different teams won from just 3 countries.

Brazil (6): Internacional (2010), Santos (2011), Corinthians (2012), Atlético Mineiro (2013), Grêmio (2017), Flamengo (2019)
Argentina (3): San Lorenzo (2014), River Plate (2015, 2018)
Colombia (1): Atlético Nacional (2016)

2020 - 2021

2020 proved to be an all Brazilian Copa final although the final was played in 2021 due to the pandemic shifting things. Palmeiras won the title 1-0 over Santos. Given the recent dominance of Brazilian teams, it feels safe to say that Brazilian clubs may dominate this decade but if the seesaw logic holds, then Argentine teams should win more than the Brazilian teams. As Tim Vickery noted recently that even this year the dominance of Brazilian and Argentine teams looks set to continue as 12 of the teams in the round of 16 are from Brazil and Argentina (6 each) with 2 teams from Paraguay and single teams from Chile, Ecuador.

“Just five of South America's 10 countries, then, are represented in the round of 16. As well as Colombia, there were wipeouts for Peru (for the eighth successive year), Venezuela (for the fifth and the 11th in the last 12), Uruguay and Bolivia.”

European Cup / Champions League

Overall winners by Country:

Spain: 18
England: 14
Italy: 12
Germany: 8
Holland: 6
Portugal: 4
France: 1
Romania: 1
Scotland: 1
Yugoslavia: 1

Just two Spanish clubs (Real Madrid with 13 wins and Barcelona with 5) make Spain the dominating nation in terms of European Cup / Champions League winners.

In contrast, England’s 14 wins are provided by 5 clubs (Liverpool, Man Utd, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Aston Villa).

Italy’s 12 wins are by their big 3 of AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus. Bayern Munich’s 6 wins prop up Germany’s 8 total wins with single titles by Borussia Dortmund and Hamburg.

Holland’s 6 wins are by their most well known big 3 led by Ajax with 4, Feyenoord and PSV with a single title each. It is not a surprise that Portugal’s big two clubs Benfica and Porto each have 2 titles.

Wins by Clubs:

Real Madrid: 13
Milan: 7
Bayern Munich, Liverpool: 6
Barcelona: 5
Ajax: 4
Manchester United, Inter Milan: 3
Juventus, Benfica, Nottingham Forest, Porto, Chelsea: 2
Celtic, Hamburg, FCSB, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Feyenoord, Aston Villa, PSV, Red Star: 1

1956 - 1959

The tournament started in the 1955-56 season so it is hard to measure the 1950s via a proper evaluation but safe to say Real Madrid dominated the tournament early on by winning the first 5 straight European Cups including all 4 in the 1950s.

Spain (4): Real Madrid (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959)

1960 - 69

6 different teams won from 5 different nations. Celtic won the first ever European Cup for a British team and it still remains the only European Cup that Celtic has won. Portuguese powerhouse Benfica led by Eusébio won their only 2 European Cups in the 1960s and also finished runners-up on 3 other occasions in the 1960s.

Italy (4): AC Milan (1963, 1969), Inter Milan (1964, 1965)
Spain (2): Real Madrid (1960, 1966)
Portugal (2): Benfica (1961, 1962)
Scotland (1): Celtic (1967)
England (1): Manchester United (1968)

1970 - 79

Worst decade in spreading winners out as only 5 teams won from 3 different countries. The rise of Johan Cruyff meant Ajax won three straight titles and that dominace also translated into Holland’s strong showing at the 1974 World Cup. Cruyff left Ajax for Barcelona in 1973 and it is not a surprise that Ajax didn’t win any more European Cups in the 1970s. Although, without Cruyff the Dutch national team did still make the 1978 World Cup final which they lost to hosts Argentina.

Holland (4): Feyenoord (1970), Ajax (1971, 1972, 1973)
Germany (3): Bayern Munich (1974, 1975, 1976)
England (3): Liverpool (1977, 1978), Nottingham Forest (1979)
 

1980 - 89

9 different teams won from 6 different nations.

English Clubs dominated the early 1980s but were banned from the European Cup after the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985. The absense of English clubs surely played a key part in spreading out the winners in the late 1980s before the rise of Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan team, powered by the flying dutchmen trio of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, won about back-to-back European titles in 1989 and 1990.

England (4): Nottingham Forest (1980), Liverpool (1981, 1984), Aston Villa (1982)
Italy (2): Juventus (1985), AC Milan (1989)
Germany (1): Hamburg (1983)
Romania (1): Steaua Bucharest (1986)
Portugal (1): Porto (1987)
Holland (1): PSV Eindhoven (1988)
 

1990 - 99

Best decade in terms of spreading winners as 9 different teams won from 7 different nations. Also, this was the last decade before changes started happening across the European game including the rebranding of European Cup to Champions League plus the removal of foreign player restrictions for a team. The collapse of the Berlin Wall, changing of transfer policies in Eastern Europe and the dissolving of Yugoslavia meant that talented Eastern European players could move to Western European teams for the first time.

Italy (3): AC Milan (1990, 1994), Juventus (1996)
Spain (2): Barcelona (1992), Real Madrid (1998)
Yugoslavia (1): Red Star Belgrade (1991)
France (1): Marseille (1993)
Holland (1): Ajax (1995)
Germany (1): Borussia Dortmund (1997)
England (1): Manchester United (1999)

2000 - 2009 

7 teams won from 5 different countries.

Spain (4): Real Madrid (2000, 2002), Barcelona (2006, 2009)
Italy (2): AC Milan (2003, 2007)
England (2): Liverpool (2005), Manchester United (2008) 

Germany (1): Bayern Munich (2001)
Portugal (1): Porto (2004)

2010 - 2019

6 teams won from 4 different countries. The 1970s were worse in the fewest number of different winners but this decade certainly featured a lot of repeated and predictable match-ups. The difference was in the 1970s, each country only had 1 team in the competition which meant some different teams still took part. But with the expanded Champions League format with top 4 teams from Spain, England meant almost the same teams were present resulting in similar match-ups.

Spain (6): Barcelona (2011, 2015), Real Madrid (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018)
England (2): Chelsea (2012), Liverpool (2019)
Italy (1): Inter Milan (2010)
Germany (1): Bayern Munich (2013)

2020 - 2021

Germany won the first title of this decade after Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win in 2020 over PSG while Chelsea beat Man City 1-0 in an all English final in 2021.

Comparison of Copa Libertadores vs Champions League 

The financial, social and economic circumstances between European and South America clubs are vastly different but a curious statistic stands out. Both continents had their best decade of different winners in the 1990s. That makes sense as the game was going through a massive shift in that decade. The European Cup became the Champions League and the Premier League was formed and as a result, more money flowed into the European game. The Bosman ruling was also a seismic shift and meant that European teams could buy more than a limited quota of foreign players (3 in the case of Serie A) which also resulted in a lot of Eastern European and South American players leaving for Western European teams from the late 1990s onwards. In that sense, the 1990s was the last decade where a lot of South American / Eastern European teams could keep their local talent. It is worth noting that Barcelona signed Lionel Messi at the age of 13 from Newell's Old Boys in 2000.

As 2000s started, the big 5 leagues in Europe (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France) started to breakaway from the rest of the European teams in terms of finances gained via new lucrative TV deals or by foreign owners putting in their own millions in stacking up the teams. No such big money flowed into South American clubs whose biggest source of revenue was selling their young talent to European teams. On a slightly positive note, some experienced South American players are returning to their home nations to finish their careers such as Carlos Tevez (currently at Boca Juniors), Dani Alves (signed with São Paulo in 2019) and Roque Santa Cruz who returned to Paraguay's Olimpia in 2016, the same team with whom he started his youth career with.

On the European stage, it appears highly unlikely that a team outside of the top 5 leagues can win the title while it looks like that mostly a Brazilian or Argentinian team can win the Copa Libertadores. The Copa Libertadores quota allows 5 teams each from Brazil and Argentina while only 2 each from the remaining 8 nations. In addition, the winners of the previous year's Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana (similar to Europa League) are allowed entry. That is why in the current 2020-2021 season there are 6 teams each from Brazil and Argentina. Having 5-6 teams each from Brazil and Argentina means that at least the Copa Libertadores may have different Brazilian or Argentine winners each year because their domestic titles aren't dominated by a single team to the extent that the European domestic league titles are.

European Super League

European Super League (April 18, 2021 - April 20, 2021)

It ended even before it began.

On Sunday, April 18 news broke of a proposed 20 team European Super League competition which would involve 6 teams from the Premier League (Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham) along with 3 from Spain (Real Madrid, Barcelona and surprisingly Atlético Madrid) and 3 from Italy (Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan). As per the reports, there would be 15 permanent member clubs with 5 others joining based on league results. This competition would take place during the middle of the week, thereby going in direct competition against the UEFA Champions League.

There was swift backlash from fans, media, some politicians, UEFA and FIFA. This uproar grew on Monday, April 19 and there were even threats of players involved being banned from the World Cup. The two German teams, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, announced that they wouldn’t take part in this new tournament and would prefer to work with UEFA. It emerged that even PSG would not take part. That was the first blow to the competition.

The next and decisive blow came a day later.

On Tuesday, April 20 Man City and Chelsea were the first two clubs to withdraw from the European Super League followed by the remaining Premiere League teams. Eventually, AC Milan, Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan signaled their intention to leave. That left only Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Super League.

The speed of this collapse was a surprise but the announcement of the Super League was not. This was not the first time talks of a breakaway European Super League have surfaced. Such talks of a breakaway competition have been in the air for the better past of the last decade. However, in the past, whenever rumours of a breakaway European Super League emerged, UEFA quickly appeased the big clubs and averted such talks by giving more concessions, revenue and Champions League places to the big 5 European Leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France). However, April 18th was the first time an actual plan was released. The timing of the European Super League announcement wasn’t coincidental either. On Monday, April 19, UEFA were ready to concede with another revamped Champions League with 36 teams instead of 32. Clearly, the big rich clubs wanted to get their intentions on the table before UEFA made their proposal. The big clubs could have been testing the waters or looking to use this threat to get more concessions from UEFA. As it turned out, the news backfired spectacularly.

The European Super League proposal was only about making the big clubs richer and creating a setup where the top teams played each other multiple times and got more revenue from TV revenue deals. The plan had no consideration for the overall good of the game. Of course, the current UEFA Champions League and domestic European league setup aren’t benefitting the health of the local game too much either. It has been clear for the last few years that changes have been needed to address the growing disparity between the big leagues/clubs and the rest of European soccer. UEFA hasn’t addressed this disparity and the big leagues/clubs gobble up plenty of revenue already. This analysis by Swiss Ramble gives an estimate about the revenue the big clubs stand to make from this season’s Champions League.

It is important to highlight that the big clubs will make all this revenue despite earning next to $0 from gate receipts over the last year. With no fans in stadiums, the big clubs still continued to earn millions from TV rights and UEFA’s distribution money for winning games and progressing further in the Champions League. This money was earned while many teams across Europe have been suffering financially and are close to bankruptcy. It is true that despite all this revenue, the big clubs have also been earning less than previously. Some of these teams have been losing money or were in debt before the pandemic. A large portion of these big club’s operating costs/revenue goes towards player salaries. Instead of taking stock of their operating costs and coming up with creative ways to reduce their debts, these clubs decided to go for a strategy that would continue their free spending ways. The European Super League would have given them instant cash, more than double what they can make from the Champions League. Importantly, these clubs would have gotten all this money without even kicking a ball and not by working to earn a spot and then actually winning games to advance in the Champions Leagues. These big clubs wanted all this extra money in the short term without giving any thought to the financial problems plaguing the game in a pandemic world. A big reason why these clubs don’t care for the rest of the teams is because they are soccer clubs in name only but are instead businesses/corporations, run by millionaires and billionaires whose only incentive is to increase profit and grow.

European Cup to Champions League to Super League

This problem of soccer clubs becoming businesses didn’t happen overnight but has been steadily taking place over the last few decades as rich owners jumped to buy soccer teams in order to increase their finances. If one had to trace the start of big money in the modern European game, a good starting point is Silvio Berlusconi’s purchase of AC Milan in 1986. Berlusconi used his wealth to buy AC Milan but in turn, the success of AC Milan also helped Berlusconi to launch his own political career and he became the Italian Prime Minister in 1994. Berlusconi also set in motion the changes that ushered in a new Champions League and set the path for this new Super League.

In the early 1990s, Berlusconi talked of a tournament where the big teams would play each other frequently. His words clearly played a part in UEFA announcing a newly rebranded Champions League in 1992 with a group stage. Although, in the mid 1990s, the Champions League only contained Champions from the different European countries, meaning one team from each participating country. The 1996-97 season was the first time when multiple teams from one country took part as both Juventus and AC Milan represented Italy. The following year, more teams from other countries were allowed eventually leading to the current tournament where the top 4 league teams from England, Spain, Germany and Italy get spots automatically along with the top 3 from France. Some of these 4th place teams haven’t even won a domestic league title in ages and one would be hard-pressed to name when they last won a league title. In order to make space for these 4th place teams, league champions from other lower ranked European nations would fight in multiple play-offs games and many league champions would never make it to the lucrative Champions League group phase. As a result, the disparity between these other leagues and the big 5 leagues has grown over the last two decades. In the current form of the Champions League, it is hard to imagine a team from Eastern Europe can ever win the Champions League. It is also improbable that a team from Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Greece can even make the final although Ajax were minutes from making the final in 2019 and Porto made the Quarter-finals in the current 2020-21 season.

Champions League and Europa League results from 2009-10 to 2019-20

Looking at the results of the Champions League over the last decade (2009-10 to 2019-2020), Real Madrid have won 4 titles, Barcelona and Bayern Munich with 2 each and a single title for Inter Milan, Chelsea, Liverpool. 

In terms of nations, that is Spain with 6 titles, Germany and England with 2 and Italy with 1. The last time a team outside of these 4 nations won the Champions League was Porto (Portugal) led by Jose Mourinho back in 2003-04, 17 years ago. Before Porto, the other team outside of these four to win the title was Ajax in 1995 with their famous young team, most of whom went on and signed for bigger teams. Marseille won the only French title in 1993 while Red Star Belgrade won in 1991.

The Europa League results aren’t that better. From 2010-20, the following teams have won the Europa League: Sevilla (4), Atlético Madrid (3), Porto (1), Chelsea (2), Man Utd (1).

In terms of nations, that is Spain with 7, England with 3 and Portugal with 1.

To make matters worse, 4 of the above winners came from dropping out of the Champions League for that season: Atlético Madrid won the title in 2010 and 2018 after faltering in the Champions League, Sevilla in 2016, Chelsea in 2013.

Combining the results of both the Champions League and Europa League, Spanish teams have won 13 titles, English teams with 5, Germany 2, Italy and Portugal with 1 each.

Of course, this isn’t enough for the big teams from Spain and England who are already dominating these trophies.

The state of European Domestic Leagues

The discussion about the Champions Leagues and even the Super League comes down to a handful of teams from Spain, England and Italy. What about the rest of Europe? A lot of emphasis is put on UEFA’s coefficient system in order to give spots in the qualifying rounds for these European Cups.

I wanted to look at the top 20 ranked teams in UEFA and have a look at the domestic league title winners over the last decade from 2009-10 to the current season 2020-21. In cases, where the current league title hasn’t been decided, I kept the range until the 2019-20 season. Looking at these results makes for a bleak picture. 

Out of 11 or 12 league title seasons, only 3 nations have had 5 different league winners: England, France and Turkey. But even in these 3 nations, a few of the different teams that won a title only did it once. In England, if you remove Leicester City’s dream title in 2016 and Liverpool’s stellar 2020 title, the last decade has been dominated by Man City with 5 titles (I am giving the 2021 title win to Man City), Chelsea with 3 and Man Utd with 2. In France, PSG have won 7 out of the last 11 titles with single title wins by Marseille, Lille, Montpellier and Monaco. In Turkey, Bursaspor and İstanbul Başakşehir have stopped the regular titles won by the big three of Galatasaray, Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe. Although, over the last decade Galatasaray have dominated with 5 wins.

7 out of the 20 nations have only had 2 league winners over the last decade but only 2 of these nations (Portugal, Serbia) have had a close parity between the two winners. In Portugal, Benfica won 6 titles to Porto’s 5 while in Serbia, Partizan won 6 compared to Red Star’s 5. For the other leagues with 2 winners, it has been a single team league such as Germany, Scotland, Croatia, Switzerland. The single team league has also applied to Italy and France.

While winning a league title isn’t easy, repeating it is more difficult. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case over the last decade. In all these 20 nations, there has been at least one team that won two titles in a row. 16 out of these 20 nations (80%) have had teams that won 3 or more titles in a row. 10 out of 20 nations have had teams that won 5 or more titles in a row. Many of these runaway domestic winners such as Dinamo Zagreb (won 14 out of last 15 titles), Olympiacos (won 9 of last 12), Basel (8 of last 12), Celtic (9 of last 12), FC Red Bull Salzburg (9 of last 11) can’t even make a dent in the Champions League. Therefore, it is hard to imagine any other team from Croatia, Greece, Switzerland, Scotland, Austria attempting to go far in the Champions League provided they win the domestic league title and get past the multiple qualifying playoff rounds.

Next Steps

It is a sad state of affairs and the European game is already in trouble with a large disparity in between a select few teams and the rest of Europe. UEFA hasn’t come up with any ways to solve this and the Super League would have made this problem even worse. For now, even though the Super League appears dead, it may only be a temporary pause. Real Madrid’s Florentino Pérez wants this tournament and can’t understand why there was this outrage.

Regardless of what happens with the Super League and Champions League, there are severe problems with the domestic leagues. I haven’t seen any discussion about fixing the domestic leagues. If that doesn’t happen, then there will be no need for a Super League. Most of these other leagues will collapse and we will only be left with the Big 5. Therefore, the Champions League will de facto become the Super League.
--------------------------------

[Update, April 23]

Tariq Panja and Rory Smith's essential article regarding the European Super League plan.

The Mystery of Diego Simeone and Atlético Madrid

 

Diego Simeone. Francisco Seco/Associated Press

It felt like a miracle. Atlético Madrid had managed to avoid defeat at the Camp Nou and held Barcelona 1-1 thereby beating both Barcelona and Real Madrid to the title on the final weekend of the 2013/2014 season. Going into the final weekend of the 2013/14 season, Atlético were only 3 points ahead of both Barcelona and Real Madrid. It felt like Atlético had blown their chance to win the title because Barcelona could win the title with a home win against Atlético. Yet, somehow Diego Simeone’s Atlético denied Barca the title. It was the first time since the 2003-04 season that a team other Barcelona or Real Madrid had won the La Liga title (still the case in 2020). That 2014 title felt like the continuation of Diego Simeone’s remarkable work at Atlético.

Diego Simeone became manager of Atlético in December 2011 and immediately made his mark. He led Atlético to the UEFA Europa League and Super Cup titles in 2012 before shocking eternal rivals Real Madrid to win the Copa Del Rey in 2013 at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium of all places. Therefore, the league result against Barca at the Camp Nou felt the step in the right direction because Simeone followed a European trophy with the Spanish Cup and Spanish La Liga titles in consecutive seasons. It felt like the Champions League would be the next step. In that same 2013/2014 Champions League season, Atlético beat Barcelona in the quarter-finals and reached the final to face Real Madrid. They led Real Madrid 1-0 until the 93th minute when Real scored to take the game to extra-time. In extra-time, the wheels came off and Atlético ended up losing 4-1. It was a bitter loss. Yet, it felt like Atlético would be back.

Atlético Madrid did indeed return to the Champions League final 2 years later but again they lost to rivals Real Madrid, this time on penalties after the game ended 1-1. Throughout this time, Atlético always felt like a team in transition. They didn’t have the spending power to match both Real and Barcelona and were constantly selling their best players. Their persona was the underdog against the big clubs, an identity moulded by Simeone’s tough gritty never-give-up mentality. This little tough club persona helped them collect a list of big results in the Champions League. However, in the last few years, various off-field deals have meant that Atlético can’t be considered a small club anymore.

Atlético have slowly made the transition from being a mostly selling club to becoming a buying club. In the summer of 2018, Atlético spent more than double on buying players compared to selling (approximately $177 million spent compared to $71 million made from sales). They spent a lot of money in the summer of 2019 as well including a lot on João Félix. Of course, a lot of money for those 2019 purchases was fuelled by the mega transfer sale of Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona. Still, they couldn’t be considered an underdog anymore. However, they haven’t come close to winning the La Liga title since 2014. They did manage to win the Europe League title in 2018 but no other major titles have arrived. Somehow, this lack of titles hasn’t appeared to diminish the allure of Diego Simeone. He is still regarded as a major manager and glowing articles about his ‘cholismo’ approach can still be found. His cult status hasn’t been tarnished but it is hard to see what his team offers in footballing terms. Simeone’s teams don’t play attacking or attractive football and in the last few years, his Atlético have mostly ground out 1-0 wins in La Liga, often scoring from set-pieces. This approach hasn’t brought titles and appears to have cemented his Atlético Madrid team as the third-best team in Spain. This is a far cry from the 2013/2014 season when his team were on the verge of a historic La Liga - Champions League double. To make matters worse, a closer look at his team’s results against Barcelona and Real Madrid in the league paint a very stark picture.

Under Simeone, Atlético have 0 wins, 11 defeats and 6 draws against Barca in La Liga. They did knock out Barca twice in the Champions League and won the league title at Barca’s stadium but no wins agianst Barca in the league. Against Real Madrid, Atlético are slightly better with 4 wins, 6 defeats and 7 draws in the league. Unfortunately, there are those 2 Champions League final defeats against Real. In all these years, his Atlético teams have undergone a drastic transformation but the poor results against the big 2 are the only constant along with lack of serious league title contention.

The 2019/20 season appeared to be heading towards another disappointment until Atlético turned back the clock and registered a shock win over the defending Champions League winners Liverpool at Anfield. The 3-2 win at Anfield was yet another typical Simeone performance: defend, defend and get a goal on the break. But after that Anfield game on March 11, global soccer came to a pause due to the Pandemic. When the Champions League finally resumed in August 2020, it was a single match tournament as opposed to the previous two-leg knock-out affair. If there was a team that appeared to be a favourite in a single leg Champions League run, it was Atlético Madrid. Yet, again they fell short. Inexplicably, Atlético lost 2-1 to RB Leipzig, a team that is even more inconsistent than Atlético.

The short 2020 off-season produced some drama in terms of player moves with Luis Suárez arriving in a shock move from rivals Barca while Thomas Partey moving in the last hours of the transfer day circus to Arsenal. In the 2020/21 season’s first game, it appeared that maybe, Atlético might be a team to watch because they trashed Granada 6-1 with Diego Costa, Angel Correa, João Félix, Marcos Llorente getting on the score-sheet before Suárez made an instant impact with 2 late goals. It looked to be a different Atlético team who actually attacked. However, normality was gradually resumed in the next 2 games which Atlético drew 0-0 against Huesca and Villarreal. It was just like the old days.

European soccer is becoming terribly predictable nowadays. In the German League, it is Bayern Munich who always take the title, no matter how the season goes. Bayern have won the title for the last 8 years and it doesn’t appear that anyone else can stop them. In Italy, Juventus look likely to win the league title like they have won for the past 9 seasons. In France, PSG will win the title. In Spain, either Real Madrid or Barcelona will win the title. And like every year, Diego Simeone’s Atlético will finish third. The German, Italian, French league titles can be explained. The ways of Barcelona and Real Madrid can be explained. But I can’t find a rational explanation for why Atlético Madrid continue to falter. They have had major players in all the right positions over the years but there is an invisible barrier preventing them from winning those major titles. The team only appear to turn up for some of the big games but in the regular league games in Spain, Atlético appears to be dull and unmotivated. Is this down to Diego Simeone’s approach of underdog vs big clubs which only appears to work sometimes in the Champions league? When Atlético are the favourites against a smaller club, his team fail to turn up. Is Simeone’s approach finally fading in a changing world, similar to what is happening with José Mourinho? It is hard to pin down exactly what is going on at Atlético Madrid. On paper, they should be winning a lot more games than they are. Diego Simeone looks as intense and stressed on the sidelines like he did 6 years ago. But something isn’t working and the mystery of Atlético Madrid’s results continues.

The Beautiful game lives

March 5, 2019: Real Madrid 1 - 4 Ajax

Once upon a time, a team from Holland appeared out of nowhere and changed the way people thought of football. Ajax Amsterdam changed the global game and while the rest of the world was trying to understand their movement and tactics, Ajax quietly went silent. 

They emerged almost two decades later and once again injected new life into the global game. Then, when big money changed the game, Ajax went silent again.

In the last few years, there were signs that Ajax might be awakening. However, no one really noticed as all the headlines were hogged by agents/players/managers whose egos knew no bounds.

After tuesday's demolition of Real Madrid, Ajax are no longer in the shadows. No matter what else happens this season, their 4-1 win provided moments of delight and was a reminder that the beautiful game isn't dead after all. It was just taking a nap.

Golaso

For the most part, it was a lackluster European season. There were limited moments of beautiful fluid football provided by players of Monaco and Dortmund. Then there was the emerging talent of Dybala who weaved around the pitch as if opponents didn't exist. With these exceptions, everything was as normal. Season after season, it has been all the same.

Then yesterday something extraordinary happened. Mario Mandžukić scored a goal for the ages. Not Ronaldo, not Messi. Mandžukić initially appeared to have blocked himself into a corner, with no angle to shoot at. Then he produced a moment of magic. His goal made it 1-1, opened the game up and led to a thrilling first half.

Mandžukić's goal is being called one of the greatest in the Champions League. It is being compared to that brilliant 2002 volley but it does fall short of that 2002 goal, which was scored by Zinedine Zidane. Yesterday, Zidane the manager, not the player, led Madrid to victory.

Not much is said about Zidane the manager. That is because he doesn't say much. He lets the players shine and quietly stands on the side. In a way, it is refreshing to see that from a soccer manager. Many other managers have made the game about themselves yet Zidane quietly leads his team to success.

Sid Lowe’s article sums up Zidane’s achievements nicely.

The Legend of AVB

In a dimly lit pub, an unshaven man quietly sips his drink. He looks up and sees a score of 4-1 flash on the tv. His head sinks down and his shoulders look like those of a defeated man. He gets up from his stool, puts his hat on and walks out without even finishing his drink.

Someone asks "who was that?"

The bartender, Rango, replies: "They call him AVB"

"I have never heard of this AVB"

Rango: "He was brought here to restore order & build for a bright future. But he didn't know this town already had 3 sheriffs. They drove him out. Every now and then, his ghost appears here."

"What!!! He's not real?"

Rango: "Who is partner, who is?"


Thus ends "The Strange Case of André Villas-Boas", a chapter from "Mysteries of Porto", a previously unpublished work found by a sailor in Valparaiso. The sailor reportedly paid three crowns for this work.

2011 Champions League Final

Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United

Saturday, May 28 2011 will go down in history as the day when a truly classic Champions League final was played out at Wembley between two giants of the modern game. The game unfolded as one would have expected but the extent of Barcelona’s dominance was still mesmerizing to watch. Barca are known to pass their opponents into oblivion but to do that in a final is a truly remarkable feat. Xavi is the king of sideway passes and once again he showed that there is a purpose to every square pass, that patience will duly be rewarded and if one looks hard enough, then spaces will appear out of nowhere. In an honest interview back in February, Xaxi talked about his love for finding spaces:

Think quickly, look for spaces. That's what I do: look for spaces. All day. I'm always looking. All day, all day. [Xavi starts gesturing as if he is looking around, swinging his head]. Here? No. There? No. People who haven't played don't always realise how hard that is. Space, space, space. It's like being on the PlayStation. I think shit, the defender's here, play it there. I see the space and pass. That's what I do.

And he once again found space for Barca’s opening goal. Patrice Evra drifted a few steps towards Messi leaving open a space through which Xavi played a perfect pass towards Pedro who calmly slotted home the opener. It was a truly remarkable goal which combined Barca’s passing, intelligent off the ball movement and their remarkable space manipulation.

Messi’s second goal was equally remarkable as well. He picked up a pass from Iniesta, took a few touches, managed to find space where none existed and then in an instant slammed a powerful shot past a static frozen Manchester defense. Barcelona’s constant pressure paid off for the third when Villa curved home a beautiful shot to seal the game. Interestingly, Manchester managed to score a Barca type goal of their own after Rooney and Giggs exchanged passes before Rooney placed his shot perfectly into the top corner to register Manchester’s only shot on target over the course of the 90 minutes.

Overall, it was a perfectly officiated game as well with the referee hardly visible during the entire game as he let the game flow perfectly without any stoppages. The fact that the first half had no stoppage time speaks for itself. Also, it was nice to see Dani Alves and Busquets not ruin the game by taking unnecessary drives.

My Champions League fantasy league for the final featured the following players:

As per the points rules:

A captain earns double points
A striker earns 4 points for a goal scored
A midfielder earns 6 points for a goal scored
A defender earns 8 points for a goal scored
A defender also gets -1 point for each goal conceded

Messi was my captain because I was certain he would score, which he did thereby earning me double points. I had a feeling that one of Hernández or Rooney would score but I picked both of them. Rooney scored but Hernández was invisible because he was left isolated and had no support. Originally, I started this Champions League season with David Villa in my first 11 but I dropped him a few weeks ago. Villa works extremely hard off the ball but I did not expect him to score a goal in the final because he always seems to get subbed off late in the game. This time around, he scored a precious third goal before getting subbed off, again.

My midfield was easy to pick. I picked the players that I thought would likely score or have an assist. Pedro duly scored off an assist by Xavi while Iniesta also notched an assist. However, I had expected to see a lot more from Valencia but that did not happen.

Defense was always going to be a losing endeavor. I did not expect either team to keep a clean-sheet so I knew I would not get any bonus points for a shut-out so at best I was hoping neither team would concede too many goals. Also, if a defender from Man Utd was likely to score a goal, I figured it had to be Vidic from a corner. But Man Utd got zero corners so Vidic never ventured into Barca’s penalty box.

As per the points system for the goalkeeper, each goal conceded is -1 point but a goalie gets 1 point for every 3 shots saved. This created the bizarre situation where Edwin van der Sar earned more points than Victor Valdés, despite Man Utd letting in 3 goals. Valdés let in one goal (-1 point) and got one yellow card (-1 point) but had no saves to make. Therefore, his total ended being 0 points with his 2 points for starting the game nullified by his yellow card and single goal conceded. On the other hand, van der Sar let in 3 goals (-3 points) but made 9 saves (+3 points), which meant he got 2 points (for being named in the starting 11).

[Update May 29:] van der Sar was only awarded 1 point as soccernet's reports show that he made 6 saves thereby earning him 2 points. This is in contrast to the official UEFA reports which show that he made 9 saves. Defense cost me valuable points as my selected 3 defenders + goalkeeper earned me a total of -1 point. Rafael did not play but I had his brother Fabio listed as a sub, who duly earned 0, the same as Alves and Valdés. Vidic got -1.

Finally.....

Apparently, there is a tradition that when an away team wins a final in the opponents country, the winning team cuts the soccer net and takes it home. So Barcelona’s players and staff found a few pair of scissors and went about removing the goal net after the trophy presentation. Piqué happily ran off with the goal net on his shoulders. Maybe, he will present the net to Shakira as a gift?

4 Goals 3 Injuries 2 Reunions

Arsenal 2 - 2 Barcelona

Barcelona did not waste any time in establishing their superiority and from the first minute they played Arsenal off the field. It should have been 3-0 early on but Almunia, Arsenal's much despised goalie, bravely kept Arsenal in the game. It wasn't until the 22nd minute that Arsenal had their first meaningful shot on Barca's net, when a wicked curving effort by Nasri just went wide of the net. Before half-time, Arsenal lost Arshavin and Gallas through injury and then Cesc got a yellow card thereby suspending him from the return leg at the Nou Camp. He was visibly heartbroken as he was looking forward for the chance to play in his front of his friends and family.  All said and done, Arsenal were lucky to go into the break at 0-0 and not 0-5 down.

22 seconds into the second half, a long ball found Arsenal's defense sleeping and Zlatan coolly lobbed Almunia who was needlessly out of his goal. All of Almunia's good work in the first half was undone by yet another misjudged moment of error, something that he has shown consistently over his Arsenal career. The long ball tactic worked so well that Barca tried it again 13 minutes later with the same end result of Zlatan scoring a goal. With Arsenal 0-2 at home, the tie looked over. However, the introduction of Theo Walcott changed things. His pace and wonderful goal just before the 70th minute mark sparked an Arsenal revival as the last 20 minutes were dominated by the home team.

There was a brief respite around the 77th minute mark when Zlatan went off and ex-Arsenal legend Thierry Henry stepped onto the pitch. Henry's appearance did not change Arsenal's momentum and 5 minutes from time, Arsenal amazingly tied the game up. After Cesc was judged to be blocked by Puyol, the Barca defender got a straight red card and Arsenal a penalty. Cesc smashed the kick home but appeared to hobble after the goal. With Arsenal having used all their three substitutes it seemed the game would be 10 vs 10 players but Cesc returned to the field and continued to limp until the finale.

For an hour, Barca showed why they are the best football side on the planet as their passes and movement was beautiful.  Barcelona are clearly the favourites in the return leg however they will be without their key defenders Puyol and Gerard Piqué both of whom are suspended. Arsenal on the other hand will be without Cesc, Gallas and Arshavin, three injuries which will have a huge impact not only on their European future but also their dreams of landing the league title . Both Cesc and Gallas are out for the rest of the season and it remains to be seen whether Cesc's brave heroics of playing with a broken leg and scoring that crucial penalty amount to anything for Arsenal's 2010 season.

The second leg should be equally entertaining and if Arsenal have any chance of pulling off an unlikely triumph they will need Samir Nasri to be in top form as he is the one remaining fit player who has a chance to provide a moment of genius to lift Arsenal.  On the other hand, Barcelona will be hoping that Messi, the world's best player, might finally make his presence felt as his impact in the first leg was minimal.

The Best Cinema

The two best films of 2010 might be not be seen at Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York or Mumbai. Instead, they might be discovered in 90 minute segments shown only for a single night in both Barcelona & North London. It is hard to imagine how scripted cinema can possibly compete with the technical genius, skill and talent that will be on display when Barcelona play Arsenal over two mouth watering Champions League ties. It would have been pleasure enough to watch the two best football playing sides on the planet go against each other but what makes things fascinating are the other stories that will be found just besides the football.

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry will return back to North London in front of his adoring fans. Plus, Henry will go against players who emerged from his shadow.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fàbregas will return to his home city to the club he joined at the tender age of 10. Arsenal signed Cesc when he turned 16 but there have always been rumours as to when Cesc would resign for Barcelona.

Cesc vs Messi -- both were childhood friends who trained together at Barca's youth team. Now, the two are not only the biggest stars of their respective teams but also the best players in the world.

Wenger vs Guardiola -- Wenger's genius & achievements are well documented along with his flaws & failures, but the young Guardiola has managed to outdo Wenger in winning all club trophies possible in his short managerial career. And it wouldn't be far fetched to imagine that one day Guardiola could replace Wenger at Arsenal because both managers believe in playing good football, involving slick passing and imaginative space creation.

There are plenty of other intriguing match-ups, especially those involving Barca's genius duo of Xavi (provided he recovers from his injury) & Iniesta, who are responsible for pulling all the strings, vs Nasri & Song.

While Arsenal's beautiful football was only formed when Wenger took over the club in 1996, Barcelona's legacy for good football goes all the way back to 1973 when the Dutch Master and co-creator of total football Johan Cruyff stepped foot in the Nou Camp. Both sets of fans have been spoiled for good football over the decades and so one can be sure the two legged affair will not resort to the boring dull 'tactical' football that is played in some other parts of Europe. That being said, the games might not feature a lot of goals, but atleast the technical level of the game will be top notch.

Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno used 17 cameras to capture every moment of Zidane in their film but even 170 cameras will not be enough for these two games as there are plenty of worthy players whose every move deserves to be recorded.

Those other games..

It is easy to forget that there are 3 other quarter-final ties and two of them should be quite interesting.

Lyon vs Bordeaux -- The all French affair is eye catching for many reasons. After Barcelona and Arsenal, it is Lyon who have produced some of the best football in the Champions League over the years but unfortunately for Lyon, their good football normally ends prior to the Quarter Final stages. Domestically, Lyon won 7 straight league titles until Bordeaux ended that run last season and currently, Bordeaux are narrowly sitting atop Ligue 1. So if Lyon are to progress and reach their first ever Champions League Semi-Final then it makes sense they overcome their current domestic rivals. Meanwhile Bordeaux can challenge Lyon's European credentials if they reach the semi's of the CL before Lyon. Plus, the current Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc is highly sought after so this tie gives him a chance to further enhance his reputation as one of Europe's brightest new managers.

Bayern Munich vs Man Utd -- It all goes back to 1999 on an incredible night in the Nou Camp when Man Utd stole the European Cup away from Bayern Munich with two goals in the final minutes. The two have met a few times since then, but that 1999 game should be plenty of incentive for the Germans. And for Manchester, well something about an English vs German rivalry that is hard to miss.

Inter Milan vs CSKA Moscow -- Inter & Jose have been all over the news after their well deserved & phenomenal win over Chelsea. CSKA will not be an easy opponent but it is hard to see how the Russians can stop Inter, especially if Inter are brave enough to continue with three forwards and let Wesley Sneijder do his magic.

Beauty vs Boring

Barcelona 0-0 Chelsea, Champions League, Semi-Final, 1st Leg

pic: ©Getty Images, www.uefa.com

Watching Chelsea play is more boring than watching paint dry!
Watching Chelsea play is more boring than watching paint dry!
Watching Chelsea play is more boring than watching paint dry!
Watching Chelsea play is more boring than watching paint dry!

On the other hand, watching Barcelona play is pure joy. Even though Chelsea parked the bus in front of their goal, Barca still had chances to score a goal or two but failed to take their chances. Despite doing nothing all game, Chelsea did have a chance to steal an away goal when a defensive error by Barca allowed Drogba to race through on goal but Víctor Valdés saved Barca.

It was great when Claudio Ranieri was still at Chelsea as under him they played entertaining football. But then Jose Mourinho came along in the summer of 2004 and destroyed any hopes of decent football as he reduced Chelsea to play boring 1-0 matches. After Jose was fired, Avram Grant continued the trend of mind-numbing football and he was understandably gone at the end of last season. Big Phil was brought to Chelsea last summer so that he could make them play attractive and successful football. But none of the players understood his system as the players were probably hard wired to only defend. So out went Big Phil and in came Guus Hiddink. Chelsea have done well in the league churning out efficient wins but on Tuesday night they showed their true colours and did their best imitation of Bolton and Blackburn by defending in numbers. It is a shame really that with the players Chelsea have, their game plan was to sit back and defend. This is what happens when winning is the ultimate result.

And what was worse than watching negative tactics? Watching the drama queen that is Didier Drogba. There was a time when the Chelsea fans booed him because they were tired of his play acting. He threatened to leave England but stuck around and became a hit with the fans. But he is now back to his old tricks.

Still, with 0-0 anything can happen in the second leg. Chelsea have to score a goal to win and if Barca can get an away goal, then they could progress with a scoring draw. But if there are no goals next week in London, extra time and penalties could result. Although I don't think the second leg will end 0-0.

Meanwhile, Wednesday night's game between Man Utd and Arsenal will most certainly not be a 0-0 game as both teams like to attack and both have shown some defensive weakness recently, although it is Arsenal's defense that is the weaker of the two.

roll the dice...europe...

pic: Getty Images, uefa.com

It wasn't pretty but the young Arsenal team held their nerve to advance to the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League.

Arsenal put in an awful 90 minutes in Rome and looked to be on the verge of elimination after poor defending allowed the defender Juan to give Roma an early lead. But a glaring miss from ex-gunner Julio Baptista let Arsenal off the hook. In the penalty shoot-out, after Arsenal's calm and composed Eduardo missed the first spot kick, things didn't look that bright. But amazingly the rest of the squad held their nerve to convert their kicks, including the young players such as Walcott (20 years) & Denilson (21).


pic: Getty Images, uefa.com

Viva Thierry Henry. Two quick goals in the first half took the wind out of Lyon as Barcelona raced to a 5-2 win over the French champions. Henry had also gotten that all important away goal in France tying the first leg 1-1.

Quarter - Finals

Once again like last season, 4 English teams are in the quarters as Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man Utd managed to eliminate the three Italian teams in Roma, Juventus and Inter Milan, while Liverpool easily handled Real Madrid.

Porto, Villarreal, Bayern Munich and Barcelona round up the final eight. On paper, Porto and Villarreal are probably the weakest of the bunch while Barcelona look the most dangerous. Although, I am sure no team would want Bayern Munich after they destroyed Sporting Lisbon 12-1 on aggregate. After a jaw-dropping 5-0 away win in Lisbon, Bayern showed no sympathy in the second leg and easily won their fixture 7-1.

The other Europe

The round of 16 games for the UEFA Cup kick off on Thursday, March 12 with the return legs to be played next week. The 8 games feature teams from France (St-Etienne, Marseille, PSG), Ukraine (Dynamo, Shakhtar, Metalist), Germany (Bremen, Hamburg), Russia (CSKA, Zenit), Holland (Ajax), Turkey (Galatasaray), Portugal (Braga), Italy (Udinese), England (Man City) & Denmark (AaB).

Bremen vs St-Etienne
Marseille vs Ajax
Dynamo Kyiv vs Metalist
CSKA Moskva vs Shakhtar
Hamburg vs Galatasaray
PSG vs Braga
Udinese vs Zenit
Man. City vs AaB

While the UEFA Cup does not get even half the attention of the Champions league there are some interesting match-ups. The match up between CSKA Moscow and Shakhtar should be an interesting rivalry, while the Marseille vs Ajax match up brings together two former European Cup winners from the 1990's. In terms of financially un-even matchups, look no further than Man City vs Aab. Man City have all the money in the world while AaB from Denmark are a small club. But as they showed in the Champions league, AaB do possess the ability to spring a few surprizes and City could have a rude surprize if they are not careful.

Vintage European Football in 16 flavours

The Champions league is back and there are some mouth-watering ties to look forward to it. Interestingly 6 match-ups stack up evenly given the opponents domestic league standings.

1) Arsenal vs Roma

Arsenal currently lie in 5th place in the EPL 17 points off the top. While Roma lie in 6th place in Serie A 16 points off the top. Both teams possess enough talent on their lineups but unfortunately both have been off key in their respective domestic league season. Roma had an awful start to the domestic season when they found themselves lingering near the relegation zone. The Roman club have recovered since then but still can be found putting in below par performances.

2) Inter Milan vs Manchester United

Inter are 9 points clear at the top of Serie A while Man Utd are 7 points clear at the top of the English league. Essentially both teams have the fate of their respective domestic titles in their hands. For Inter the European trophy represents that elusive holy grail as they seek to improve on the two titles they have won, with the last one coming back in 1965, and continue to live in the shadows of their rivals AC Milan who currently have 7 European titles. The tie promises to garner enough attention because of the Jose vs Fergie mind games but it also brings together the meeting of football’s highest paid player (Zlatan) vs the current world player of the year.

3) Chelsea vs Juventus

Chelsea are 3rd in the EPL 10 points off the top while Juventus trail Inter by 9 points and lie in second place. Both have produced some average performances throughout the season but Chelsea are now under a new manager and might be on their way up. Juventus got some good news recently with the return of Trezeguet after his long injury lay off and do still have Del Pierro who certainly turned it on against Madrid in the group stages.

4) Real Madrid vs Liverpool

Both Madrid and Liverpool lie in second place in their respective leagues 7 points off the top. But Madrid are on the way up and have won 9 straight liga games and gained 5 points against Barcelona in the last two weekends. Liverpool on the other hand have dropped key points in the league since January with 4 draws and have given up their lead.

5) Lyon vs Barcelona

Lyon have been the top team in France for almost an eternity now but this season they briefly slowed down a bit to let other teams believe they had a chance before pulling ahead with a 6 point lead. Barcelona were on an amazing run with 10 straight liga wins until their 2-2 draw with Betis 10 days ago. This weekend’s shock home derby loss to Espanyol certainly has shown Barca to be human. It will be interesting to see if Barca can put the loss behind and regroup.

6) Sporting vs Bayern

Both teams are 4 points off the top in their domestic league with Sporting in 3rd place in Portugal while Bayern are in 4th spot in Germany.

7) Atletico vs Porto

Despite having some very talented players on their squad Atletico Madrid’s domestic season has been a huge let down as they trail Barcelona by 24 points after 24 games. While Porto are where they normally find themselves in the Portuguese league, at the top.

8) Villarreal vs Panathinaikos

Even though Villarreal have been another let down in Spain they still manage to produce some decent results. Robert Pires has shown that he still has some flair left. Panathinaikos trail rivals Olympiakos by 9 points in the Greek league so they will be looking forward to their European tie. The tie also brings together some former Gunners in Cygan, Pires and Gilberto.

Even though all match-ups look promising, they also might end up producing some cautious results because each team has a unique reason to win the Champions league. Still hoping for some great games.

The Old Lady continues to get younger...

A few weeks ago Juventus, the Old Lady of Italian Football, were written off both domestically and in Europe. After all, they had started off poorly in Serie A and only managed a 1-0 home win over Zenit St. Petersburg and a 2-2 draw with Bate in Belarus from their opening two Champions League games. But all that changed when Juventus met Real Madrid in Turin on Oct 21. Del Piero got them off to a perfect start by curling a beautiful goal to lead Juventus to a 2-1 win over a dull Madrid side. Then this past weekend, Juventus added to Roma's misery by registering a 2-0 win, featuring an amazing free kick from Del Piero. And on Wednesday, Nov 5, Del Piero scored two stellar goals to continue Juventus' revival. Despite being 100 years old (ok he will be 34 next week), it is amazing to see Del Piero carry on playing with such intelligence at the highest level. His first goal in Madrid was similar to Messi's goal for Barcelona (in their disappointing 1-1 home draw with Basel) as he perfectly placed the ball into the far corner. Del Piero's second goal was identical to the free kick he scored against Roma but with one big difference -- Madrid's defensive wall was quite poorly placed and Del Piero could have passed the ball into the net but he still perfectly lifted the ball over the wall and dipped it into the corner. Perfection really! And he narrowly missed getting a hat-trick. Seems the Old Lady is not done singing yet.

There were plenty of other interesting games on Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite having a talented squad, Roma are struggling domestically as they sit near the bottom of the league in Serie A with just 2 wins from their opening 9 games. But they managed to redeem themselves by beating Chelsea 3-1 in Rome to keep their European campaign alive.

Barcelona are scoring goals for fun again and returned to the top of La Liga on the weekend and are putting together some eye pleasing passes. But on Tuesday, they were a bit too easy going against Basel and were left to rue their missed chances as the Swiss side scored a late goal to peg Barca to a 1-1 tie. Still, the single point was enough to take Barcelona through to the next round.

Bayern Munich have managed to get both their league season and Champs League back on track and faced a very intriguing fixture away to Florence. This fixture was Fiorentina’s last chance to stay alive in the group stages and it looked like they might have gotten the win they needed after they led through Mutu's 11th minute goal but Bayern tied the game up in the 78th minute to leave Fiorentina with just 3 points from 4 games and almost out of the Champions League.

Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan team continue to struggle in Europe and were fortunate to leave Cyprus with a 3-3 draw against Anorthosis. Inter lead their group with 8 points, 3 ahead of their Cypriot opponents, and should make the next round, but it is interesting to see if Jose will stick around if things continue to not go as per plan.

Arsenal missed a great chance to get closer to qualifying for the round of 16 after they were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Fenerbahce. Now the Gunners need to beat Dynamo Kiev at home in two weeks to progress but Kiev will be looking for a win themselves as well because of their last minute home defeat to Porto. The surprize win by Porto moves them to second place in the group with 6 points with Arsenal leading the group with 8 points. Kiev have 5 points and Fenerbahce are hanging by a thread with 2 points.

A note must be made about AC Milan. Considering how many on-field problems the team has, they managed to go top of Serie A on the weekend, one point ahead of Udinese and their neighbours led by the normal one. Milan are in action in the UEFA Cup on Thu against Braga.

The return of the Champions League

The wait is finally over. Champions League football finally returns this week as 16 teams can briefly put their league worries on hold and focus on the glittering European prize. The original European Cup always had a strong appeal right from its inception in 1956. But in recent years, the quest for this trophy has certainly reached obsessive heights. In fact, quite a few teams have made the Champions League the most important quest of their season while letting their league form dip since winning the league title is no longer a requirement to take part in the competition like in the old days of the European Cup. For example last year even if AC Milan had not won the trophy, they would still have been in the Champions League this season as they finished in the final 4th spot required for the Champs League with 61 points, a staggering 36 points behind the league champions Inter Milan (this includes Milan's 8 point point deduction, without which they would have been still 28 points behind).

The Champions League is once again the only trophy that Milan will be playing for this year as they are currently 21 points adrift of Inter Milan and were dumped out of the Italian Cup in January. In fact they have been in cruise mode in the league for a few weeks now, while Arsenal have been involved in a tight league championship race. Ofcourse, not withstanding this previous weekend's game, Arsenal should return fully motived for this Wednesday's game as they once again bid to go one better than their 2006 runner's up spot.

Arsenal vs AC Milan


This is the first meeting between Arsenal and AC Milan in European competition. Even though both teams have a proud history, this encounter has been atleast two decades in the making.

A new start in 1986

After winning the 1979 Italian league title, AC Milan went through a bad phase in the early 1980's when they got relegated. The team's history was forever changed when Silvio Berlusconi bought the team in 1986. His main master stroke was hiring Arrigo Sacchi from lowly Parma. Sacchi transformed the team by ushering in a new exciting playing style and leading Milan to the league title in 1988, followed by two European Cups in 1989 & 1990. The current Milan team's origins can be traced back to that Sacchi team as Paolo Maldini evolved under Sacchi and Milan's current coach Carlo Ancelotti was part of the European Cup winning squads in 89 & 90 (including scoring a goal in a 5-0 rout of Real Madrid in the 1989 European Cup).

The years 1979 and 1986 also stand out in Arsenal's history. After a famous 3-2 victory over Man Utd in the 1979 F.A Cup final, Arsenal went trough a period of indifferent results and no trophies in the early 1980's. Their success only started after former player George Graham was hired in 1986. A league Cup victory followed in 1987 before a famous league title in 1989. Arsenal went onto win another league title in 1991 (losing only one game), won both domestic cups in 1993 and championed a gritty 1-0 win in the 1994 Cup Winner's Cup final. Arsene Wenger inherited the tough defense that George Graham created and if not for that solid backbone, then it is hard to believe Wenger would have fashioned a championship winning team so quickly in 1998.

So if there was ever a chance that two different playing styles and cultures would have clashed, it should have been in 1990 when a defensive Arsenal could have met an attack minded Milan team in the European Cup. But because of the European ban on English clubs, that meeting was not to be.

1994: Arsenal's defense overcame a skilful Parma team packed with Zola, Asprilla and Thomas Brolin to win the Cup Winner's Cup. Also, in 1994 AC Milan thrashed Barcelona 4-0 to win the European Cup. Prior to the game, Johan Cruyff and a few Barcelona players ridiculed Milan and said that Barcelona's attack would easily overcome Milan's defense. But like that night and many more nights after that, Milan have proved their critics wrong.

Playing styles reversed:

On Feb 20, 2008, as Arsenal prepare to take on AC Milan, both teams playing style has reversed from those under George Graham and Sacchi. Arsenal are not known for their defense like under George Graham and even though Milan possess a talented attacking streak in Kaka, they are not know for their attacking potential like under Sacchi. In a recent interview, Kaka was full of praise for Arsenal and said: "They play football the way we like it to see it in Brazil, with style, changing position all the time, moving the ball among themselves so quickly,". Praise indeed. But as past Champions League games have shown, a team can possess as much talent as possible but it amounts to nothing if the opponent is tactically able to negate their opponents strengths.

While Arsenal vs Milan is easily one of the most eye catching fixtures, there are 7 other games which should provide enough drama.

The European Quest:

Safe to say, all the 16 teams have their own reason for doing well in Europe. In Olympiacos' case, a good European performance will help ease the constant taunts they get in league football. Even though Olympiacos are completely dominant in Greek league football with 35 league titles (including 10 of the last 11 league titles) compared to Panathinaikos's 14 titles, Panathinaikos fans often joke that only their team has true "European pedigree" because of their solitary runner's up spot in the European Cup in 1971 and two semi-final appearances (1985 & 1996). Whereas Olympiacos only have a quarter-final berth in 1998 to show for their European Cup exploits. This taunt is similar to one that the English media often use against Arsenal, thanks to Manchester United & Ferguson. Manchester's solitary European Cup under Ferguson in 1999 is often used to imply their greatness over the Gunners. Even though with each passing year's failure in Europe, Manchester's win in 1999 appears to be more of a fluke than something earned through true quality. But the Champions League failure is used a sword over Wenger and Arsenal.

Lyon are another team that feels the pressure of European glory every year. Last season, their 6th straight league title felt like a consolation prize after another failure in Europe. Real Madrid always have tremendous expectations on their shoulders in the Champions League despite their 9 Cup victories. But considering their last Cup was in 2002, the almost 6 year gap must feel like a drought to the team's owners and fans. And Liverpool have been able to use the Champions League to mask their poor domestic form. It is hard to believe that Rafa Benitez would have earned so much respect from Liverpool fans had Liverpool not conjured up six minutes of magic to erase a 3-0 deficit against a stylish Milan team in 2005.

Final note:

There Will be Brazilians:

15 of the 16 European teams have atleast one registered Brazilian player on their squad. The only exception is Celtic. While some teams revolve around their Brazilian players, other teams such as Arsenal have only been using their Brazilian players when the first team players have been injured.