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Month: May 2019

  • Champions League Final

    The 2018-2019 Champions League final will take place in Madrid’s 67,000 capacity Metropolitano Stadium, the home of Atletico Madrid, on June 1, 2019. Tottenham and Liverpool will complete the all English final – he Europa league featured Chelsea beating Arsenal 4-1 in Azerbaijan.

    Tottenham finished fourth in the 2018-2019 premiership a big 26 points behind Liverpool who finished second. Liverpool were last year’s Champions League finalists losing 3-1 to Real Madrid. Tottenham have been under achievers both in domestic and European competition with last winning a major trophy in the 90s – a FA Cup in 1991. Under Mauricio Pochettino, if he stays, and a with a new stadium more is likely to come from the North London team. Jurgen Klopp has many second place finishes on his resume and hopes to change it this time.

    Naby Keita is the only expected injury concern for Liverpool. Harry Kane, Tottenham’s star, is recovering but should be available. Therefore both teams are relatively healthy.

    This is a meeting of two coaches who believe in pressing and moving up and pressuring opponents, this final could be chaotic and entertaining.

    The winner of this games gets €19 million and the loser €15 million. This is only for being at the final, the money accumulated getting here can earn the winning team upwards of €80 million. The reason why the Champions League is so important to teams is very clear.

  • Europa League Final

    The 2018-2019 Europa League final takes place between Chelsea and Arsenal on May 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Not without controversy.

    The distance and the scarcity of direct flights will mean less fans in the stadium. Also, Henrikh Mkhitaryan is an Armenian and it has been decided that he will stay home fearing for his safety in the neighbouring rival country.

    The all English final has two teams that finished third and fifth in the English premiership. The winner will get a spot in the 2019-2020 Champions League so this may provide an extra incentive for Arsenal as their fifth place league position rewards them with only a Europa League spot next season.

    It could be the last game in a Chelsea shirt for Eden Hazard as he is likely to make a big money move to Real Madrid or elsewhere. Maurizio Sarri, the Chelsea manager, could be on his way back to Italy after the game.

    On the other side Aaron Ramsey was to play his final Arsenal game, as he has signed to play for Juventus, but he is out injured. Petr Cech will retire after this this game. In other injury news N’Golo Kante is likely going to miss this game, as will Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Antonio Rudiger, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

  • European Leagues: Gap Between Top Two

    One of the effects of money in football has been the gap between the rich and the poor. As in society there is some evidence that the gap keeps increasing. Several factors including how TV rights money is distributed contributes to this gap.

    Somewhat unrelated to the aforementioned gap is the gap between first and second placed teams. This gap contributes to the excitement in the latter weeks of the season. Below are some numbers for the past three seasons.

    In England the 2018-2019 season was historic in that the top two were very close and accumulated plenty of points. In the end Manchester City won the league by one point over Liverpool. The two teams collected 98 and 97 points respectively. The 2017-2018 season finished with Manchester City 19 points ahead of Manchester United (100 and 81). The season before it Chelsea won the league with 93 points and Tottenham 7 points behind finished second.

    In Italy Juventus is ahead of Napoli by 11 points with one week to go. Last season the same top two finished with a four point difference (95 and 91). In 2016-2017 Juventus finished with 91 and Roma 87.

    In Spain the 2018-2019 La Liga ended with Barcelona ahead of Atletico Madrid with a 11 point gap. 2017-2018 had the same two teams but with a 14 point gap. La Liga’s 2016-2017 season featured Real Madrid besting Barcelona’s 90 points with their 93.

    In France PSG are ahead of surprising Lille by 16 points with a week to go. Last season PSG won the league with 13 points more than second placed Monaco and the year before Monaco had 95 points at the end of the season compared to PSG’s 87.

    In Germany‘s Bundesliga Bayern Munich came back from behind to beat the perennial ‘capitulators’ (aka Dortmund) by two points (78 to 76). The season before Bayern finished ahead of Schalke with a massive 21 point gap. Schalke finished this current season in 14th place! The 2016-2017 season had Bayern first with 82 and RB Leipzig second with 67 points.

    In Portugal‘s Primeira Liga high scoring Benfica won the 2018-2019 season having two more points than Porto’s 85. Last season Porto had 88 and Benfica in second place had 81. The 2016-2017 season finished with Benfica on top with 82 and Porto second with 76.

    In Holland‘s Eredivisie Ajax stormed back and won the title over PSV’s 83 points. Three points separated the two. In 2017-2018 PSV had held on and won the league with 83 compared to Ajax’s 79 points. Feyenoord’s 82 was one better than Ajax’s point tally for the 2016-2017 season.

  • Second Division Leaders

    Portugal’s Gil Vicente take the court case route to the Primeira Liga

    As the 2018-2019 season comes to a close the picture is almost clear as to which teams will join the top division in Europe’s major leagues. A few new names and a few more bigger names are headed to the top for 2019-2020.

    Starting in England‘s Championship Norwich and Sheffield United won the automatic promotion spots. The latter were last in the top level in 2007. The playoff featured a faltering Leed United. The Marcelo Bielsa team led the league for a long while but collapsed late in the season and now have been eliminated in the promotion playoffs by Derby County. The finalists in the promotion playoffs are the aforementioned Derby and Aston Villa.

    Italy‘s Serie B is volatile and irregular. Brescia and Lecce are promoted but the playoff places were thrown into turmoil after Palermo were demoted due to financial issues. Palermo were third at season’s end but now 9th placed Perugia climb to eighth and join the six teams vying for the third promotion spot. Benevento, Pescara, Verona, Spezia, Cittadella are the other teams fighting for that final spot.

    In Spain Osasuna and Granada lead the second division with four games to go. Albacete, once wealthy Malaga, once mighty Deportivo La Coruna, Mallorca and Cadiz are not far behind in the top two and promotion playoff races.

    Germany‘s 2nd Bundesliga is led by FC Koln with one game remaining. Paderborn, Union Berlin and Hamburg will know their fate for the second automatic spot and playoffs on May 19th.

    France‘s Ligue 2 also has one game remaining but the top two spots are set and occupied by Metz and Brest. Troyes, Paris FC, once mighty Lens and Lorient will battle it out for the third promotion spot this month.

    Holland‘s Eerste Divisie has had a runaway leader, Twente have won the division somewhat easily. PSV second team, Jong PSV is in third place but can not be promoted. De Graafschap and Excelsior from the top league are locked in the playoffs with second division’s Sparta Rotterdam, Den Bosch, Go Ahead Eagles and TOP Oss. The latter have never played in the top league.

    Portugal‘s Segunda Liga is a curious case this season. Normally two teams are relegated and two are promoted. This year three are relegated while the top two from the second division win promotion. The third team is already decided to be Gil Vicente. The Northern Braga district based team won a court case against their forced relegation…in 2006! In that season they were accused of fielding an eligible players, Mateus Galiano da Costa. An obviously lengthy court battle has won them promotion alongside Pacos de Ferreira and Famalicao. Feirense and Nacional are heading down alongside one of Tondela and Chaves (to be determined on the final weekend of the season).