Atletico beat Liverpool 1-0 in the round of 16 1st leg and Liverpool’s winning streak (17 in the premier League) comes to an end.
Borussia Dortmund beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 and Erling Haaland continues his amazing form with two more goals. He has now scored 10 Champions League goals and 11 goals in seven match since joining Borussia.
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.
The Champions League quarter finals produced more drama of the VAR variety. The introduction of Video Assistant Referees to the Champions League for the first time was bound to create questions as it has done at various leagues like the Serie A it hasn’t failed in doing so. A separate long read is required to point out the faults and the good of VAR but alas the results were surprising in themselves.
Liverpool might have been expected to over come Porto and Manchester United’s somewhat declining form might have given enough cause to make Barcelona favorites for the tie but the other two matchups provided bigger drama.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have spent massive amounts in all areas of the pitch and over spent on defense in order to achieve balance and stability but when scoring four goals at home is not enough to advance questions must again be asked. Tottenham were widely mocked for spending exactly zero euros last summer but now have reached the Champions League semis against a team that regularly spends over 60 million on individual players. All without their main star, Harry Kane.
In the other semis Ajax surprised Ronaldo and Juventus by producing another surprise after eliminating Real Madrid in the previous round. A young, fluid and composed team beat Juventus away after having tied at home. Ajax’s Matthijs de Ligt enhanced his reputation further and so did Hakim Ziyech.
Ajax meet Tottenham in the semis with the latter featuring numerous former Ajax players like Christian Eriksen, Davinson Sanchez, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld. In the other semi Liverpool must overcome Messi and Barcelona to reach another final. Messi will have a chance to outshine Ronaldo, his generational rival.
↑ Ajax for beating another giant
↑ Tottenham for overcoming a big spender
The 2018-2019 Champions League quarter finals are set for April 9 and April 10 with the return legs one week later. The first leg match up are as follows:
| April 9 | April 10 |
| Liverpool – FC Porto Tottenham Hotspur – Manchester City | Ajax – Juventus Manchester United – Barcelona |
In the round of 16 Ronaldo and Juventus overcame Atletico Madrid. Manchester City destroyed Schalke to do the same and Barcelona did the same to Lyon. Liverpool piled pressure on Nico Kovac and Bayern Munich to get here and so did Manchester United on Thomas Tuchel and PSG. Porto did enough to eliminate an out of form Roma. Tottenham’s relatively easy 4-0 aggregate win over Borussia Dortmund was a small upset. Ajax played a perfect return game at Real Madrid to cause the biggest upset and news of the round of 16.
Since the round of 16 Manchester United have lost some form and are more vulnerable now. Barcelona still first in La Liga and still on form could easily eliminate United.
Ajax may not be able to create another big casualty versus a Juventus team that should have Ronaldo back from injury.
Manchester City are on course on many fronts and probably remain superior to Tottenham that is having a somewhat disappointing second half of season in England.
Liverpool are matching Manchester City in the English Premier League title race and expect to move forward in the Champions League versus the Portuguese club.
The 2018-1019 Champions League round of 16 featured more than two outstanding individual performances. Manchester City’s Leroy Sane scored one and assisted on three in City’s 7-0 win over Schalke. Two other very familiar names did better than the German international.
Ronaldo and Messi continue their super form with a hattrick for the Portuguese and two goals and two assists for the Argentinian. Juventus and Barcelona advanced and eliminated Atletico Madrid and Lyon respectively once again mainly due to the work of the aforementioned.
Ronaldo is 34 and Messi is 31. Both, especially the former, insist on continuing for more years to come and why not. Ronaldo has shattered records by scoring 124 times in 160 Champions League appearances. Messi is just behind and with a slightly better goals to games ratio with 108 in 131 games. The third position is held by
Raul, the Real Madrid legend scored 71 goals in the competition. Ronaldo’s 160 appearances is second only to Iker Casillas’ 175.
The draw for this edition’s quarter finals takes place on Friday with four English teams still in the competition, reversing a recent trend. The last time this many English teams had reached the same stage was 2008-09. That year 3 of 4 semi finalists were English but Barcelona beat Manchester United in the final.
Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur are joined by Juventus, Ajax, Porto and Barcelona.
↑ Ronaldo for his continuing records
↑ Messi for the same
As another football (soccer) season nears its end AC Milan fans are realizing that their beloved club is at a cross roads.
For years financed and saved by billionaire Silvio Berlusconi the financial excesses seem to have ended for the said owner. Expectations however have not and as much as the fans are entitled to demand a continuation of the previous spending ways to compete not only in the Serie A but also in European leagues (Champions League and its wealth) it is up to the owner to do as he wishes and if he is unable or unwilling to do so to consider selling the team.
The major issue and complaint is more than just the (lack of) spending however, it is how the club is run day to day and how the motto of ‘the most successful club’ (in terms of number of domestic and European trophies won) is used as a justification that the team can remain successful. The club is also notoriously stubborn in remaining loyal and to hold on to some players whose best days have passed. Some of those players have high wages which is not helping in these days of restrained spending. At the same time some highly useful assets have been sold (Kaka to Real Madrid) and the threat of further departures (Pato to any one of Chelsea and Real Madrid), to ‘balance the books’ remains.
The 2009/10 season brought a new and inexperienced coach, following the departure of the sometimes maligned but mostly successful Carlo Ancelotti to Chelsea, in Leonardo. The former player who had been at the club as a scout and major negotiator for South American transfers since 2002 was thrust into the coaching position and showed a great deal of intelligence and calm not only in tactics and formation but in dealing with the meddling management and owner wanting to not only dictate lineups but to demand wins despite an aging and weakened squad. Of course there was stubbornness from the coach in insisting on an attacking 4-3-3 formation that resulted in an (early) exit from the Champions League at the the hands of this writer’s least favorite team, Manchester United and an almost as embarrassing wipe out by one of this writer’s other least favorite teams, Inter Milan, in the league. Both teams exploited the team’s weakness and tactics’ naivety to counter attack and kill any chance of a good result.
Recent days have seen reports, not officially confirmed, that the said coach Leonardo might leave because he is being pushed or otherwise and he has admitted to a rocky relationship with the owner. The future of the team is even further in question, the owner is thought to be searching for a yes man type of coach and as mentioned may be tempted into selling Pato and others for even more cash. The squad meanwhile is depleted because of injuries and that has not helped the team when it almost seemed like they may even have a chance at the title this season. This exasperated situation has come despite the daily rumour mill linking highly useful players like Milos Krasic (from CSKA Moscow) and Edin Dzeko (from Wolfsburg) to Milan but it seems unlikely the money for such transfers will be made available and even if they are the team requires more depth and defensive help as well.
It is perhaps time for a new ownership, one that knows the value of investments. It is not necessary to go into a Chelsea or Real Madrid type of spending spree but a more intelligent yet sustained approach at presenting a team worthy of the traditions and value of the club, incidentally one that is still among the top earners in the world. One can name players who perhaps should be let go and others that would serve the team well but above all else this team has the wealth and power to remain among the elites of Europe and the world, if it wants to.