UEFA Champions League 2012/2013 preview

Nearly two weeks ago, this year’s UEFA Champions League groups have been drawn. After a surprising and very intense final between FC Bayern München and FC Chelsea, us football fans eagerly anticipate the return of Europe’s elite football tournament.
There are quite a few interesting groups again this season, most outstanding however is by far group D. D as in death you might even say, four national champions will fight for a spot to the next round in that group. Nevertheless, a few rather unknown teams have yet again made it to the group stage, including: BATE Baryssau, CRF Cluj, FC Nordsjaelland and the surprise champions of Ligue 1 – Montpellier HSC just to name a few…

Of course, chances are that one of Europe’s big names will win this year’s trophy. The last underdog to win the cup was José Mourinho with FC Porto back in the 2003/2004 season. But let’s take a closer look at the eight groups:

Group A:
FC Porto
Dynamo Kiev
Paris Saint-Germain
Dinamo Zagreb

-> Group A will be interesting, since PSG are considered one of the favorite new teams to climb the ladder of success in Europe, even though that is due to very large sums of transfer capital. FC Porto are also always a contender and favorite to reach the next round, therefore my guess is that these two clubs will progress to the round of sixteen.

Group B:
FC Arsenal
FC Schalke 04
Olympiacos Piraeus
Montpellier HSC

-> While group B definitely looks decided already, if it comes down to club names and reputation, we should not count French champions Montpellier HSC out just yet. It will be tough however for such an inexperienced team to contend with Europe’s top notch clubs…
My tip: FC Arsenal and FC Schalke 04 should make it to the round of 16.

Group C:
AC Milan
Zenit St. Petersburg
RSC Anderlecht
FC Málaga

-> First time group stage contenders FC Málaga are in a tough group with legendary AC Milan. It will be interesting to see how these “inferior” Spanish clubs will perform, in comparison to FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. We should also have a lookout for Zenit St. Petersburg, as Russian clubs have always proven rather difficult to play against, especially within the borders of Earth’s largest country.
Still, I see Zenit and AC Milan progressing, with FC Málaga in a good situation to reach the UEFA Europa League.

Group D:
Real Madrid CF
Manchester City
Ajax Amsterdam
Borussia Dortmund

-> THIS is the toughest group this season. With four national champions in one tiny pond, this year’s Champions League football should prove to be a real feast. It is very difficult to guess the outcome here, but since I am a Madridista, I tend to think Real Madrid and most probably Manchester City will progress to the next round, with German champions Dortmund reaching the UEFA Europa League…

Group E:
FC Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk
Juventus Turin
FC Nordsjaelland

-> This group only has one outcome in my eyes: FC Chelsea and Juventus Turin reaching the next round, I do not expect any surprises here. However, we will have to see how debut group stage contenders FC Nordsjaelland will perform.

Group F:
FC Bayern München
OSC Lille
FC Valencia
BATE Borisov

-> Group F also contains some very interestig names, including last season’s runners up Bayern, who are in as favorites in this group. But not to forget, FC Valencia used to be a tough contender in this competition and could prove to return to their former reputation, as I expect these two to make it to the next round.

Group G:
FC Barcelona
Benfica Lisbon
Spartak Moscow
Celtic Glasgow

-> While Celtic Glasgow will most probably dominate the Scottish Premier League more than usual with Rangers being relegated due to financial problems, it might not be as easy in this competition. As FC Barcelona is expected to win this group, Benfica and Spartak Moscow are two very tough nuts to crack…

Group H:
Manchester United
FC Braga
CFR Cluj
Galatasaray Istanbul

-> And last but not least, group H should see Manchester United win this group with ease. Galatasaray is back in business and will most probably join ManU in the last sixteen. Let’s wait and see if Braga und Cluj are in for a surprise this season.

While I could be very wrong on some of the outcomes, one thing se for sure: this season will not disappoint and football fans around the world will get to enjoy more of Europe’s elite football competition. Group stages start on September 18th.

UEFA Euro 2012

Many of us have been looking forward to this years European Championship, since European club competitions and domestic leagues have come to a pause. Spain, Germany, Netherlands and France came into the competition as favourites to win the cup. Nevertheless, we expected teams like Russia, or the two host nations, Poland and Ukraine, to be in for a surprise as well.

Unfortunately, some key players in the likes of Carles Puyol and David Villa for Spain, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry for England, as well as Domenico Criscito and Giuseppe Rossi for Italy, among others, will all miss the Euro 2012 due to numerous reasons. The most disturbing of these is another huge corruption and bribery case due to a new betting scandal in Italy. It will be interesting to see how this will affect the squadra azzurra during the competition. So far, they performed remarkably well, considering the circumstances.

But it was not just Italy in the spotlight of the media before the start of the competition. Certain racism and fascism allegations made the headlines in numerous western European countries, claiming so-called ultras in Poland and Ukraine depict a serious problem and potential threat to tourists visiting the two nations during the sports event. Furthermore, politics also got into the way of a clean start, as big-name politicians in the likes of Angela Merkel as well as the entire French government decided to boycott the matches taking place within the Ukraine. This is due to the political situation concerning the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the conditions of her prison arrest. Animal cruelty also played a huge part for many tourists deciding not to visit the Ukraine, as a large number of stray dogs were brutally killed off by the government, allegedly. Photos of the extermination have been posted across many social networking sites like Facebook for example. However, the authenticity of these photos should be viewed with a certain amount of objective skepticism.

But let’s leave politics and related topics off the football pitch and get back to the sports part. The group stage is now over and half of the teams progressed to the quarter-finals, the other half had to go home. Let’s have a look at each group individually.

Group A:

Host nation Poland was in with Greece, Russia and the Czech Republic for some interesting football. Poland played quite well and tried very hard to get to the quarter-finals, but in the end they were unlucky. Russia started quite strongly, beating the Czech Republic by 4:1 on the very first match day. Greece on the other hand already seemed to be out of the competition after losing 1:2 to the Czechs and facing Russia on the last match day, people did not really expect the Greeks to come home with anything but a loss. But we were all in for a surprise, as the Czech Republic finished as group winners and Greece managed to beat the Russians in an intense match to progress to the quarter-finals.

Group B:

This group was named this years group of death by the press. And they had every reason to call it that: Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Denmark faced each other in this face-off among European heavyweights. The big surprise: the Dutch sucked! They lost all three matches and went on home with no points and only two goals scored. The Netherlands have never been this bad in the European Cup. The second surprise was Denmark. They played some pretty solid football with great team spirit and made the Germans tremble in the last match of the group stage. Still, Germany went on to the quarter-finals with a pretty solid performance overall, as well as Portugal, who managed to beat the poor Dutchmen with a 2:1 win.

Group C:

Spain and Italy. The last two world champions in one group. It really sounds to good to be true. And it sort of was. The other two teams they faced in this group were the Irish and Croatia. Spain and Italy were a rather big disappointment in the opening match of group C, as they only managed a 1:1 draw and neither side managed to dominate the match. On the other side, one can applaud Italy for playing quite well, considering they are handicapped due to the scandal.  The Irish tried their best under coach Trapattoni, but in the end they did not stand a chance against the other teams. Their fans did not know how to support their team, you’ll have to give them that, as the Irish singing in the football stadiums is always lovely. Croatia nearly managed to cause an upset, as they would have kicked out Spain if they had won the last match. Nevertheless, Croatia showed a solid performance in all three matches.

Group D:

Ukraine, Sweden, France and England complete this years competitors for the Euro 2012. Andriy Shevchenko made Ukraine, the second host nation, shine and nearly managed to get his side through to the quarter-finals, if it wasn’t for England winning with a Wayne Rooney goal and a “Wembley goal” denied by the referee in the last match. France and England were expected to get through to the quarter-finals and they did, but it was a close call. France lost their last match against Sweden by 2:0 and overall, the Swedes showed us some pretty good football.

Now, the quarter-finals start on Thursday, June 21st. Some interesting fixtures are included and will bring us some impressive football, hopefully:

Czech Republic – Portugal

Germany – Greece

Spain – France

England – Italy

My personal tip for the final is Germany vs. Spain, but somehow I see Spain as the winners in that match, considering the last two meetings of the teams all went in Spain’s favour…
Let’s see how it will work out 😉