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 😉

Review: UEFA Champions League last sixteen

There was definitely plenty of interesting football to be seen this week, as half of the last sixteen have decided their fate in Europe’s top notch football competition. Plenty of goals have been scored, in some matches too many, in others too few.

On Tuesday evening, Arsenal took on AC Milan for the return leg in London. After the Gunners were humiliated in a 4:0 defeat in Milan a few weeks earlier, only a few were brave enough to bet on them progressing to the quarter finals. However, during the long wait for the Rossoneri to return the favour of sightseeing, Arsene’s Arsenal have played some very impressive football in-between.

On February 26th, the Gunners faced Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium. After being down 2:0 at home, Wenger’s boys, and men, turned the match around by 180° and ended up winning 5:2. Arsenal’s star striker this season, Robin Van Persie, was the man behind the team’s success, as he kept on fighting until the very last minute and also got rewarded with three goals in the last two matches in the English Premier League. Arsenal also impressed me with their win at Anfield Road, one of the toughest venues to win a match of football, no matter how bad Liverpool’s form may be at the moment.

So, some of the hope of the Arsenal fans was legitimate, as mission-nearly-impossible started off. The Gunners kicked off with a very high pace, one could immediately read their will to turn the aggregate score around. And the audience did not have to wait long, as defender Koscielny headed in the ball after a corner kick from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 6th minute, as he was completely   unmarked by the Italians.

One did not have to wait long for the next goal, as AC Milan’s defense was terrible that night. Plenty of mistakes in their back rows set up numerous chances for the Gunners during the match. Just like that, Rosicky took advantage of a bad pass within the sixteen-yard area and buried the ball with a flat and hard shot into the near post of Christian Abbiati. It was 2:0 already and not even half an hour played.

The game continued Arsenal’s way and the statistics showed at 30 minutes in. Five total attempts at goal for Arsenal, only two for Milan. And keep in mind two of five have already been converted into goals. So it was no surprise that Arsenal kept on pushing forward and also get rewarded for their work. In the 43rd minute Oxlade-Chamberlain got his side a penalty kick, as Milan’s defender Mesbah brought him down with a clumsy tackle. Who else but captain Van Persie stepped up and converted with an unstoppable shot into the top right corner of Abbiati’s goal.

It was now half-time and Arsenal were leading 3:0. Somehow, I was reminded of the epic final in Istanbul.

The second half continued with a high pace, however Milan’s defense was slightly more aware now. Nevertheless, Arsenal still had plenty of chances to increase their lead and by that get on terms on the aggregate scoreline. The best of these chances fell to Robin Van Persie in the 58th minute, as Milan’s defense messed up once again.

But it was not to be for Arsenal, as Milan prevailed. The most dangerous players on Milan’s side were Ibrahimovic and El Sharawy, who both had chances to decide the match at any point, as Arsenal would have needed to score six goals by then, if the Rossoneri had scored in London. The match ended 3:0, on aggregate 3:4 with AC Milan progressing to the quarter finals.

In the other match of Tuesday night, Benfica Lisbon defeated Zenit St. Petersburg with goals to nil. Maxi Pereira opened the scoring for the Portuguese just before half time, which already put Benfica into a progressing state, as the first leg ended 3:2 for St. Petersburg. Reason being that Benfica benefited from their two away goals. Nonetheless, the Portuguese kept on fighting until the very last minute in order to seal their win. Nelson Oliveira scored the second for Benfica in added time.

The two matches on Wednesday also had quite something to offer. FC Barcelona faced German side Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the Camp Nou and Olympique Lyon headed to the island of Cyprus to face APOEL Nikosia.

Barcelona had a rather big advantage heading into the game at home, as they had already won in Germany with three goals to one. In the first leg, Leverkusen seemed to be more of fans of the Barça side themselves than actual opponents. And so it continued in Catalonia.

Sometimes people in Germany ask me, why I do not follow the Bundesliga or the German teams in general as much as I follow the English Premier League or the Spanish LFP. Well, to be honest, it is because of matches like these. Bayer Leverkusen played like little boys with too much respect and awe for the Spanish side. And the Barcelona players caught up on that psychological advantage.

Leverkusen held out for 25 minutes, but then the Lionel Messi show began, as he put his first into the net after a great pass from Xavi. Before that, Barcelona could have led by two or three goals already if it wasn’t for goalkeeper Leno. Barcelona continued to push forward and Messi dribbled his way past the defense in the 42nd minute to put the ball into the net for the second Barça goal. Leverkusen were very lucky that it was only 2:0 at half time.

But that did not stop Barcelona of course. Messi completed his hat trick at just 50 minutes played, as he lifted the ball over Leno for the second time. After a pass from Fabregas, Tello made it 4:0 in the 56th minute, only to take turns on goal scoring with Messi from now on. Hence, the little Argentine scored his fourth goal just two minutes later. Then again, Tello replaced him as the latest scorer in the Camp Nou in the 62nd minute to make it 6:0 for the Spaniards.

After that goal exchange between Messi and Tello, Leverkusen had a few minutes to breathe before the next one flew past Leno. Lionel Messi scored his fifth goal of the evening in the 85th minute to make it an astounding 7:0 for Barcelona. One might wonder, how on earth Bayer Leverkusen even managed to get this far in Europe’s top level competition.

It was quite surprising that the team from Germany managed to get one goal just before the end of the match, as Bellarabi scored a beautiful goal that curled past Víctor Valdés into the right hand corner of the goal. Still, it was the very definition of a consolation goal.

The second match of Wednesday night, APOEL Nikosia vs. Olympique Lyon also handed out a big surprise, as Lyon were defeated in a penalty shootout by 4:3. But I always welcome underdog sides that progress into the quarter finals, as APOEL did this time. It was also the first time a team from Cyprus managed to get to this stage of the competition.