This marks the first time that I can remember where two of the top four teams in the world were unable to make it into the knockout stages of the Champions League. While Man City easily defeated a second string Bayern Munich squad, they needed a hopeless, and injury ridden, Villarreal to at least tie a dangerous Napoli side at home. Villarreal was not able to do City any favors and now City, and their gazillion dollar built squad, can watch the rest of the CL on their tele. With the combination of City's lack of experience playing together mixed with this being arguably the best CL group of my lifetime, I cannot say I am surprised that a team of this quality got knocked out so early. Man U not qualifying, on the other hand, is a complete shocker. Put into a group that looked like a cakewalk, not qualifying for the knockout stages will go down as one of the biggest hiccups in Sir Alex's near flawless resume. Smalling being knocked out for Basel's first goal, Park's lack of creativity in the attacking midfield position, Vidic's injury, Rooney forgetting to bring his shooting boots, or United's lack of an answer for the impressive Shaqiri are all to blame for the pathetic loss. The main takeaways I got from the game are that no path to the CL knockout stages are as easy as they look, Shaqiri is a star in the making (think Messi 2.0), and if Vidic's injury is long-term then we might as well hand the EPL title over to Man City now.
Frenchies Once in a Lifetime Comeback
Lyon did something today that I have never seen before. They went into today's match down 3 points to Ajax and with a 7 goal worse differential to the Dutch champs. Sounds like an impossible gap to make up in one day right? Wrong. While Ajax got beat 3-0 to Real Madrid today, Lyon went a goal down but were able to score 7 consecutive goals to win 7-1. A year away from winning their league, Ajax, with their ongoing leadership troubles (think owners and people who run the club wanna kill each other) look to be in serious trouble and must be near Armageddon right now. With Marseille coming back from 2 goals down yesterday in Dortmund to win 3-2 at the death by Valbuena's wonder strike, the French football club nation is officially on cloud 9. Too bad we cant say the same thing about the national team. Marseille and Lyon can enjoy this week as if they won the whole thing because I do not see them going much farther so enjoy it while you can boys. But hey who saw Dallas winning the NBA title, St. Louis coming from nowhere to take the World Series, or even Man U getting knocked out in the group stages? I guess that's the best thing in sports. Anything can happen and we, the fans, can always be surprised.
3 comments:
Does being in the Europa cup (or whatever its called) make it easier or harder for the Manchesters to do well in the league? If the later, does Tottenham have a chance at finishing top 2 (especially if Vidic's knee is as messed up as it looked)?
Kayvon I am assuming this is you based on the name and I love it. Being in the Europa League can make it easier or harder for them. It depends on numerous things such as how far they go in both, where they have to travel and when their EPL games are, who they are playing, will their managers play their first string players, etc. Bluntly put, they will be playing easier opposition but games are on thursdays so its pretty much evens out. If Vidic is out for a while then Tottenham has the second best starting 11 in the EPL after City, but they lack the strength in depth that the other top 6 have. If they can be extremely lucky on the injury front, as they have been, then 2nd place is a complete free for all between them, Arsenal, Man U, and Chelsea (sorry Liverpool but Lucas and Gerrard's injuries put you out of the running). But if Modric, Bale, Adebayor, or Parker were to suffer a serious injury then 4th place is the best they could ask for.
CL is worked hard soccer players, although two styles to Messi, but I like CL better -- man styles.
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