Champions League Talk

I’ve had some time now to reflect on yesterday’s final and despite my initial displeasure with it, I have to credit Walter Smith for not tinkering with had been a winning formula. He stuck to his tried and tested 4-1-4-1 formation and had his team play a conservative first half, soaking up the pressure Zenit was exerting.

Steven Davis was the Man of the Match for Rangers, he was everywhere, particularly in the second half, Jean-Claude Darcheville was largely isolated up front and aside from a couple of late aerial challenges and raking his studs down Denisov’s thigh, contributed very little to the match.

Zenit boss Dick Advocaat stayed with a 4-3-3 formation. For me, the Man of the Match was Andrei Arshavin. Once he began to get the ball at his feet a bit more in the second half, he showed creativity, vision and great bursts of pace that the Rangers defenders had a hard time dealing with. I thought he and striker Fatih Tekke had a hard time developing any sort of understanding and Tekke’s timing and touches often let him down. That said, Tekke still managed to play an integral part of both goals so Dick Advocaat’s patience in him paid off. Tekke nodded the ball down to Denisov who then played a clever one-two with Andrei Arshavin before firing home the first goal of the match. I thought Tekke might have been subbed off for Alejandro Dominguez around the 65-70 minute mark but Advocaat stuck with his starting XI right to the end.

The second goal again came through Arshavin and Tekke combined to split open the Rangers defence in stoppage time. After Arshavin played him in, Tekke slid the ball across the face of goal to Konstatin Zyryanov who side-footed it in to secure Zenit’s first European trophy.

A big shout out to both sets of fans for their part, at least inside the stadium. The Rangers fans who had the City of Manchester Stadium rocking with their now traditional “bouncy, bouncy” antics. The Zenit fans did their best to match the Rangers fans energy and noise levels despite being outnumbered. The atmosphere, particularly in the second half, was electric and I hope we see as much enthusiasm and signing in Moscow for the Champions League final.

It was great to see the trophy and medal presentation take place in the stands at it has been done in the past. It’s a nice return to tradition. It was also very cool to see Arshavin and one of the other Zenit players carry their children through the medal presentation.

The Zenit players were congratulated in the dressing room afterwards by former Russian prime minister Viktor Zubkov, while Advocaat was phoned by current Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin. After the match, Advocaat admitted he now faces a struggle to hang on to star players such as man of the match Andrei Arshavin. He had already lost Martin Skrtel to Liverpool in the January transfer window. Many clubs will be looking at Arshavin and others from Zenit over the summer. Hopefully, the lure of Champions League football and potential further investment from Russian gas giant Gazprom might be enough to keep the core of his team together. It’s good to see the Russian football league progressing to the point where it might be consider on par with the Bundesliga. It would be nice to see a more distributed balance of power instead of the traditional “Big Three” of Spain, Italy and England.

For Zenit, losing Arshavin to a team from the “Big Three” or even a Bundelsiga club like Schalke 04 or Werder Bremen would be a major blow to their chances in next year’s Champions League though I would never underestimate a side coached by Advocaat. He’s often labelled as a mere “follower of Guus Hiddink” but I think that’s a crass generalization that ignores the facts. He took Holland to the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup (where they lost to Brazil) and the semi-finals in Euro 2004 (a narrow loss to Portugal). He’s won silverware at most of the club positions he’s been at and has proven himself a top coach at all levels. Most importanly, his teams always play good one-touch type of football, are attack-minded and entertaining to watch.

I’ve nothing against Rangers and I respect the hard fight they gave to reach the finals but it was nice to see Zenit, the more deserving of the two finalists, win yesterday. The pedigree of the opposition Zenit beat en route to their maiden final is a testament to that claim. Villarreal CF, Olympique de Marseille, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and then FC Bayern München all fell to the Russian side. Zenit played equally well on the road as they did at home and stayed true to their attack-minded football. The final hurdle was to overcome Rangers’ obdurate defending and they cleared it with some style. Congrats Zenit !

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Just a quick post to congratulate FC Zenit St. Petersburg on their first ever European title. Second-half strikes from Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyrianov gave FC Zenit a 2-0 win over Rangers FC in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup final, Russia’s second triumph in four years.

A more detailed recap of the game will be posted later.

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With the final upon us, I decided to name an all-star XI from this season’s UEFA Cup competition. I will name a Champions League all-star XI on the eve of that final. So, here are my picks:

GK - Sébastien Frey (Fiorentina)
D - Leandro Grimi (Sporting Lisbon)
D - Manuel Friedrich (Bayer Leverkusen)
D - Carlos Cuéllar (Rangers)
D - Tomas Ujfalusi (Fiorentina)
MF - Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)
MF - Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (FC Zenit)
MF - Timmy Simons (PSV Eindhoven)
MF - Tranquillo Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen)
ST - Pavel Pogrebnyak (FC Zenit)
ST - Luca Toni (Bayern Munich)

Subs: GK - Vyacheslav Malafeev (FC Zenit), FW - Andrei Arshavin (FC Zenit), FW - Adrian Mutu, MF - Pablo Hernández Domínguez (Getafe), MF - D - Cosmin Contra (Getafe), D - Carlos Salcido (PSV Eindhoven)

Feel free to leave a comment on who you would have included or left off this list.

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The Times of London has published a PDF version of a special supplement (It’s a 27 MB download so be warned if you’re on a slow connection!) they had included in today’s print version of their newspaper. Enjoy !

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Today’s the big day out for FC Zenit St Petersburg and Rangers FC as they will contest the UEFA Cup final in the City of Manchester Stadium. Rangers, whose European campaign began back on 31 July in the Champions League second qualifying round, can expect noisy backing in the City of Manchester Stadium given their supporters have only a 350km journey south of the border from Glasgow. (The BBC has an article on Rangers supporters traveling from all over to take part in the festivities)

History is not on Rangers side as two Scottish teams have lost UEFA Cup finals – Dundee United FC in 1986/87 and Celtic in 2002/03. Zenit are hoping to follow in the footsteps of CSKA Moscow who beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1 in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup final to become the first Russian club to lift European silverware.

The clubs have a bit of shared history as Zenit’s current manager Dick Advocaat actually replaced Rangers boss Walter Smith when the latter ended his first spell as ‘Gers manager in the summer of 1998. Advocaat was successful in his first two campaigns in Scotland, guiding a rebuilt team to a domestic treble in 1998/99 and then a league-and-cup double the following year, when Rangers finished a record 21 points clear of Celtic. The next two seasons proved less successful, and Advocaat stepped down as manager to become the club’s technical director - with Alex McLeish taking over as manager - before the end of his final campaign in 2001/02.

Taking a quick look at the team news, the big story is that Zenit will be missing leading scorer Pavel Pogrebnyak through suspension. However, playmaker Andrei Arshavin, Czech international Radek Sirl and Dutch midfielder Fernando Ricksen return after their bans. Soon after moving to Zenit from Rangers in 2006, Ricksen and Zenit faced Rangers in a friendly whi ch became overshadowed by a foul by the 31-year-old former Dutch international on Chris Burke, which left the youngster sidelined for a month.

It’s highly unlikely that any hard feelings over that incident will surface today and the focus will be on the football. It is going to be interesting to see if Rangers staunch defending can hold off the potent Zenit attack that ripped apart Bayern Munich in the semi-finals. The Russian Premier League re-arranged their schedule to allow Zenit plenty of time off prior to this match. Zenit decided to warm up for the final with a 2-2 draw in a friendly against AZ Alkmaar. Rangers were not afforded the same luxury by the Scottish Premier League and were involved in a controversial 3-1 victory over Dundee United in the SPL on the weekend.

Rangers will have midfielder Kevin Thomson as he has come through a fitness test on his foot injury and declared himself fit. Striker Daniel Cousin will not be available though as he is banned after being sent off against Fiorentina. First-choice goalkeeper Alan McGregor is still out, as are Charlie Adam, Chris Burke and Stephen Naismith. DaMarcus Beasley, out since November with ligament damage, recently made his return to action and could be considered, as could Lee McCulloch.

If I had to go out on a limb and pick a winner, I would go with Zenit by a 2-1 margin. I think their pace and ball movement will challenge the Rangers defence and an early goal for Zenit could change the face of the match and force Rangers to eventually come out of their defensive shell. Ultimately I am hoping for what I always hope for — a wide-open attack-minded game.

Here’s hoping!

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It’s been a great season for many of the domestic leagues in Europe, as their title races have gone right to the wire. Today we are going to focus on the race in the Czech republic where Slavia Prague are on the verge of winning their first league title since 1996 after a 3-1 win at Sigma Olomouc. Macedonian striker Goce Toleski and Marek Jarolim fired Slavia into a 2-0 first-half lead and Martin Abraham sealed their win after Jakub Heidenreich had pulled one back. With one match left, Slavia now top the standings with 59 points while defending champions Sparta have 57 after a disappointing 2-1 home defeat at the hands of third-placed Banik Ostrava.

Adding to the drama is that Sparta Praha have replaced coach Michal Bílek even though he announced his intention to quit at season’s end following the loss on Saturday. “Immediately after the game I announced to the club chief Mr. Kretinsky and players in the dressing room that I will quit at the end of the season,” Bilek said in a news conference following the game. Daniel Kretinsky is chairman of the Prague club. Sparta’s club president Jozef Chovanec will take charge of the team for their final match.

The 43-year-old Bílek had been in charge since September 2006 and won a domestic double last season. The 48-year-old Chovanec won several Czech titles with Sparta as a player and one as a coach in 1997. He managed the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2001 and then spent short spells at FC Marila Príbram and Russian side FC Kuban Krasnodar before taking on the club president role with Sparta.

Further adding to the drama around the final league matches of the season, Sparta must play Liberec in the Czech Cup final on Tuesday before meeting them again in the league on Saturday. However, the outcome of that game will be of little consequence if Slavia win their final game of the season at home against FK Jablonec 97.

One quick sidenote, Slavia recently opened their new stadium, the Stadion Eden, with a friendly against Oxford University Association Football Club. Now at first, this might seem like a strange pairing but Slavia’s relationship with the English club goes back to 1899, when Slavia hosted the Blues as the first English football club to travel to Prague. The players were met at the train station by Slavia delegates and taken straight to the pitch, where they proceeded to secure a 3-0 victory before being entertained in the most expensive hotel in the city.

A few days later, the Blues played Deutscher Club, with whom Slavia had such a heated rivalry that there had been no match between the teams for numerous years. Oxford’s convincing 9-0 victory was thus well received by the Slavia contingent it gave them the bragging rights within the city having secured the better result against the common opponent.

Above is a shot from a webcam overlooking the stadium. There are also a couple of YouTube videos (one of the opening ceremony and one of construction)of the opening ceremonies, as well as a Radio Prague article on the match and of course a Wikipedia article on the stadium itself.

The new stadium was built on the site of a dilapidated ground in the south of Prague which the club had to leave in 2000 after around half a century. They had first moved to the Eden site in the early 1950s when they were forced to leave their stadium at Letná because of a project to build a massive statue of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stadion Eden has a capacity of about 21,000 people and it is the most modern football stadium in the Czech Republic.

Slavia’s lineup for the opening of the stadium included some well-known former players like Lukas Jarolim and Patrik Berger, who now play for Siena and Aston Villa respectively. With a stacked lineup that also included one of my favourite players — former Liverpool midfielder Vladimir Smicer (currently back at Slavia as a player), as well as Ivo Knoflí?ek and former Fiorentina, Metz and Chicago Fire standout Luboš Kubík, Slavia cruised to a 5-0 win over the Oxford lads.

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Chelsea have reached an agreement with Porto for the £16.2m transfer of right-back Jose Bosingwa. Though he is just 25 years old the full-back helped has been a part of the first XI since the 2004-05 season and was instrumental in their dominant championship run this season. Bosingwa was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo but moved to Portugal as a child. He signed for Port in 2003 from fellow Portugese club Boavista.

He has become a capped international for Portugal and will feature for them in the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament. He was also a target for Manchester United but reports are they felt the fee for him was too high. Now that he has landed a Chelsea, he will now face stiff competition for a place in the starting XI from compatriot Paulo Ferreira and Brazilian Juliano Belletti, although one of them will reportedly leave the club in the summer. Bosingwa replaced Ferreira in Porto’s starting XI when he moved to Chelsea in 2004. There are question marks over both Ferreira and Belletti though as midfielder Michael Essien has often been preferred as a right-back over either of the two. It’s possible with the new signing that both could be given their walking papers.

Converted from a midfielder to a right-back, Bosingwa has great pace going forward but according to Alberto da Silva, a journalist for World Soccer magazine, Bosingwa has been overvalued by Chelsea. “He’s a good player but he’s not worth that much money,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “Chelsea’s current right-back Paulo Ferreira is a better player. I don’t know who negotiated the deal, but he did well for Porto.” He added: “I don’t believe Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson would have been willing to spend that much money on Bosingwa.”

Meanwhile, the agent of Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has claimed that an unnamed European club are set to bid around 25 million pounds for his services. The identity of the club remains unclear, but both Barcelona and Milan are known to be looking for new number ones after putting Victor Valdes and Dida on the transfer list respectively. In Valdes’ situation, I think he’s been let down by his defense and is still a world-class keeper. However, the mood around Barcelona is grim and a purge of players is set to take place.

In a bigger rumour, Didier Drogba has agreed a summer move to AC Milan, according to The Mirror, which claims the Chelsea striker will sign a three-year deal with Rossoneri in order to link up again with former Blues manager Jose Mourinho, whom the paper says will be replacing Carlo Ancelotti for next season. Of course, current AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti insists he has no interest in signing Chelsea striker Didier Drogba this summer. If Milan finish outside the Champions League places, look for Ancelotti to get the sack. AC Milan are currently fifth after a loss on the weekend to Napoli. They were outplayed by a very motivated side who proved to be stronger on the day and lost 3-1. They now sit two points back of Fiorentina for the last qualifying spot for next season’s Champions League.

If Drogba departs it would leave a huge hole in Chelsea’s attack considering that Andriy Shevchenko has only given brief glimpses of the goal-scoring form he had for AC Milan. Neither do Nicolas Anelka, Salomon Kalou or Claudio Pizarro look up to leading the line. Kalou has been effective running out on the flank as an ersatz winger but I am not convinced about his abilities as a out-and-out striker. None of them has shown the ability of Drogba, who when suitably motivated can rip apart a backline with his power and pace.

It looks to be another intriguing summer of transfers at Stamford Bridge. Stay tuned for all the developments.

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Manchester United won the English Premier League title for the second year in a row and it is the 17th time overall they have been champions of England. They defeated Wigan 2-0 on the last day of the season, but it was Ryan Giggs who became the star of the show. The former Wales winger appeared in his 758th game for Manchester United, tying the record set by Bobby Charlton four decades ago. Giggs can, and likely will, break the record in the Champions League final against Chelsea in Moscow.

Until Giggs’ goal nine minutes from time there was always a slight threat of a Wigan intervention. Unfortunately for Wigan, their best player on the day was Chris Kirkland. Kirkland excelled in goal, keeping United at bay numerous times and giving Wigan a brief flicker of hope. A draw and a Chelsea win would have cost United the title. However, when Giggs came on there was a sense, at least to me, that a storybook finish was to be had. Sure enough, the Welsh wing-wizard found himself in clear on the keeper after a great pass from Wayne Rooney and cooly slotted home to end any doubts about the title.

Though Giggs may surpass his record for appearances, no one will eclipse the legend of Sir Bobby Charlton. He is a survivor of the 1958 Munich air crash that killed eight of his teammates and not only survived but went on to win English league titles, a European Cup (predecessor of the Champions League) and a World Cup with England. It’s not a stretch to say that he is one of the greatest English players of all time. Charlton also has ties to Wigan FC having been a director and caretaker manager for the club. He was on-hand yesterday to congratulate the current team and one would not fault him if he took a sense of responsibility for the team’s fortunes. It was Charlton’s pleas for the United board to keep faith with Alex Ferguson during his difficult early years that had a large part in keeping the Scot on the job and giving him the time to build a winning side.

United will take a moment or two to celebrate but they will refocus for next week’s Champions League final against Chelsea. Chelsea, who drew 1-1 with Bolton yesterday, were handed a major blow as captain John Terry dislocated his elbow and at the moment is doubtful for the final in 12 days. To his credit, Terry gave every indication he try to be ready. He said his elbow was “popped back in” while in the ambulance and he added: “I need three of four days rest but I should be fit for Moscow.” You certainly have to applaud his toughness!

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As mentioned over at La Liga Talk, it was announced that Barcelona boss Frank Rijkaard will be leaving Barcelona at the end of this season. After two dominant seasons and a subsequent two seasons without trophies, combined with the 4-1 loss to Real Madrid (Sid Lowe wrote an excellent piece on the match in his Guardian blog), Barcelona has opted to terminate his contract. Rijkaard took charge of Barcelona in 2003 and led them to back-to-back league titles and victory over Arsenal in the Champions League final in Paris in 2006.

In announcing the termination, club president Joan Laporta made it clear that Rijkaard’s assistants Johan Neeskens and former player Eusebio would also be leaving the club.

Fans and management of the club were disappointed by the inconsistency shown this season — the football on display was at times beautiful but far too often was also beastly and lacklustre. Fans and management were also not happy with the club’s exit from the Champions League at the hands of Manchester United. The irony of Barcelona’s defeat was that although they played the more attractive football for much of the tie against United, it was their lack of fire-power up front that ended up sealing their fate. Sporting director Txiki Begiristain told Barca TV that if the club “had got to Moscow almost nothing would have changed.”

There have been conflicting reports coming out of the Barcelona camp all season whether the club have used injuries to hide the fact that a number of players have been sidelined for indiscipline.The president of Barcelona’s economic commission, Xavier Sala Martin, said the club had used injuries as a way of camouflaging disciplinary action against certain players.

“Look at these gentlemen who aren’t working, who aren’t doing anything, who haven’t played for quite a few weeks. Well, they were sidelined by the club some weeks ago,” Sala Martin told Catalunya Radio.  “Although we are disguising things by saying there are injuries and all that, these gentlemen have been sidelined and they are trying to isolate them from the rest of the squad.” Martin is not part of the board of directors but his position as the head of the economic commission means that he takes charge of the club during a presidential election as he did in 2006.

Txiki Begiristain contradicted that claim in an interview with Canal Plus television during halftime of Barcelona’s 1-0 Champions League win over Schalke 04 at the Nou Camp. Begiristain said that players who were absent had legitimate medical reasons for not being in the lineup and that no players were being disciplined by disguised methods.

So, what will happen at Barcelona over the summer? We can expect some player movement as new boss and former Barcelona captain Pep Guardiola takes over. Guardiola, who was a key member of Johan Cruyff’s so-called “Dream Team” which won four consecutive league titles between 1991 and 1994 and the European Cup in 1992, has been the coach of Barcelona’s B side last June and has steered the team to the top of their group in Spain’s regionally-based tercera (fourth tier) division.

Ronaldinho was plagued by fitness problems resulting in a mysterious succession of injuries. There were also rumours that a lack of motivation led to the former World Player of the Year being a non-factor in Barcelona’s season.

Ronaldinho seems certain to move summer though Laporta has stated that Ronaldinho will not be sold for less than 40 millions euros. He may be joined on the discard list by midfielder Deco, defenders Sylvinho, Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram and striker Thierry Henry.

At the start of the season with the arrival of Henry from Arsenal, the talk had been of a “fantastic four” in an attack comprising the French striker, Samuel Eto’o, Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho. The reality has been very different, however, and Barca’s season stalled because of their inability to score goals in key matches. Unsettled by personal problems and struggling to adapt to a new position on the left flank, Henry has failed to live up to his billing in his first season at the Nou Camp.

Both Eto’o and Messi saw their seasons hampered by injury and Eto’o was absent for the African Nations Cup. Many feel that the Cameroon striker lacks the spark and predatory instinct that made him such an effective player two seasons ago but I think perhaps a change of scenery is all that is needed to revive his form. Messi was Barca’s most dangerous player when healthy though he often looked to be fighting a lone battle up front.

All is not gloom and doom at the club though. Some bright spots that come to mind immediately are the emergence of Bojan Krkic, but the 17-year-old is not quite the finished product yet. Yaya Toure showed in his first season with Barcelona that he is capable of holding and protecting the ball in midfield which frees Xavi to be more creative. Xavi also had another good season for Barcelona. Josep Guardiola will be happy to have two deep laying playmakers like Yaya and Xavi to build his side around.

Barca will also be able to rely on Víctor Valdés in goal as he had another solid season and at age 26, he has many good years ahead of him. Rumours are saying that he is no longer an “untouchable” but I don’t think Barcelona will cast him aside so swiftly. In addition to the players likely to move on, Gabriel Milito recently had to undergo major knee surgery and will be out for about 6 months and thus Barcelona need a couple of signings at the back to add depth.

It will be an important summer for the Blaugranes and I’ll be keeping an eye on the goings on at Camp Nou. My transfer list would shape up like this:

Out:
1) Deco
2) Sylvinho
3) Thuram
4) Thierry Henry

In:
1) Daniel Alves
2) Diego
3) Adriano
4) Phillip Lahm
5) Karim Benzema

I would keep Ronaldinho and try to get him back to his best. I don’t know what’s wrong but I’d be very remiss to part with someone with talent beyond 99% of the other footballers out there.

Adriano is a bit of a gamble but if he can get his mind right he is still a dangerous forward and a physical presence up front that Barcelona lack. Adriano has been playing well for Sao Paulo helping them reach the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals. Lahm and Alves would give Barcelona a deadly one-two punch on the flanks allowing them to press the play wide on either side as they chose. The fullback support this season was not sufficient this season for an attacking team like Barcelona. It is unlikely that an incoming manager would be able to institute a system other than one in which attractive football was the focus so more attack-minded players are of essence.

If you were the new manager of Barcelona, who would you try to sign? Who would you cut loose?

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Czech Republic captain Tomas Rosicky has announced that he will not be taking part in next month’s European Championships due to a recurring knee injury.

Rosicky held a news conference to announce the decision. “I’m not capable of starting the European Championships. My injury requires an operation. I will go (for it) at the start of next week. I’m maybe enduring the worst period in my career. I lost out on most of the season with Arsenal. I was really looking forward to the championships.”

Rosicky, 27, was cleared by Arsenal to recover in his homeland in mid-April and he had declared an improvement in his health at the end of the month. Speculation has mounted that Czech manger Karel Bruckner would be forced to try and tempt Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved to return to the national team. Nedved retired from international football soon after the 2006 World Cup.

“The ball is now with Pavel,” commented Czech Football Federation spokesman Lukas Tucek. “He must decide if he wants to return.”

Reading’s Marek Matejovsky, Osasuna’s Jaroslav Plasil or Hamburg’s David Jarolim are other options for the key playmaker role should Nedved not return.

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