Posts Tagged ‘Bayern Munich’

UEFA Champions League – Inter, Roma, Juventus, Fiorentina GROUPS Analyzed

Friday, August 29th, 2008

For the first time in 3 years, the Italian Serie A managed to get 4 Clubs to the UEFA Champions League Group Stage. With the DRAW taking place yesterday, “someone came out smiling” and others not so much. “Four Italian teams and four levels of satisfaction” as Gazzetta would say.

Let’s have a look.

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Group B
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Inter Milan Inter Milan
Werder Bremen Werder Bremen
Panathinaikos Panathinaikos
Anorthosis Famagusta FC Anorthosis

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All things considered, Inter were the luckiest ones. Being seeded in the first pot certainly gave them a big advantage, but they also avoided all the tough obstacles (e.g. Bayern Munich & Villareal from pot 2, Zenit & Marseille from pot 3). José Mourinho & Co. will thus face Diego’s Werder Bremen, Panathinaikos and Cyprus’ Anorthosis Famagosta. On paper a fairly easy group, as it’s difficult to find a squad that could cause problems for Inter.

Werder Bremen ranked 3rd in the Bundesliga last year, solidly ranking in the top 3 since 2004. They also have the reputation of being very productive goalscoring-wise, but alas at a cost: they concede a lot too. Against Mourinho’s openly attacking-style 4-3-3 formation (who unlike Werder contains some pretty solid defenders at the back) expect the Nerazzurri to prevail.

As for the other two teams, Panathinaikos should provide an interesting match-up if only to see Giorgos Karagounis meet his old teammates again (the Greek midfielder spent two seasons in Milan, with only 20 club appearances however). Also, the biggest curiosity will be the match against Anorthosis, champions of the Cyprus first division and a first-timer in the Champions League (getting rid of Rapid Wien and Olympiakos on the way). Their nickname is “the Old Lady”, but… does anyone believe they could be as strong as Juve?
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Match Schedule
16 September Panathinaikos
vs.
Inter
1 October Inter
vs.
Werder Brema
22 October Inter
vs.
Anorthosis
4 November Anorthosis
vs.
Inter
26 November Inter
vs.
Panathinaikos
9 December Werder Brema
vs.
Inter

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Group A
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Chelsea Chelsea
AS Roma Roma
Girondins de Bordeaux Bordeaux
CFR Cluj CFR Cluj

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The silver medal in satisfaction goes to Roma. As a second seed, the Giallorossi couldn’t avoid one of the big ones, but I’m sure every Romanista smiled when the club dodged the big Man Utd bullet here.

Not that Chelsea is necessarily a better deal mind you. The UCL 2007-08 finalists are back stronger than ever this year, scoring 4 unanswered goals in their EPL debut. Since last season, big-name recruits like Deco (£8m), José Bosingwa (£16m) and very soon, Robinho, have fortified the ranks of the EPL juggernaught, who will undoubtedly have a score to settle with fate after losing last year’s competition to penalty kicks.

Apart from playing against the Blues, Roma will have to face Laurent Blanc’s Bordeaux, Ligue 1 runners-up and the only team that could provide a serious title challenge to Lyon last year. They also now have former AC Milan player Yohann Gourcuff in their ranks.

Finally there is CFR Cluj, a Romanian football club from the city of Cluj-Napoca. Another first-timer in the Champions League, but one who managed to outrank veterans like Steaua Bucharest in last year’s Romanian Liga I. If you have a look at their current team roster, you’ll notice they actually have very few Romanians on the squad. Could *they* be the Inter Milan of Transylvania? :mrgreen:
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Match Schedule
16 September Roma
vs.
Cluj
1 October Bordeaux
vs.
Roma
22 October Chelsea
vs.
Roma
4 November Roma
vs.
Chelsea
26 November Cluj
vs.
Roma
9 December Roma
vs.
Bordeaux

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Group H
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Real Madrid Real Madrid
Juventus Juventus
Zenit St. Petersburg Zenit
FC Bate Borisov Bate Borisov

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Things could have turned out a bit better for here. Although they had some luck (Schalke, who had a better UEFA coefficient than the Bianconeri, was conveniently eliminated in the Preliminary Round, putting the Old Lady in pot nº2), Juventus were probably hoping for an easier group.

Real Madrid are a well-known adversary, bringing back painful (1998 UCL Final) but also happy memories (2003 UCL Semi-Finals… I was there by the way :mrgreen: )

Zenit St. Petersburg, who will play the UEFA Super Cup final against Manchester United today, were one of the most feared unknowns. That Andrei Arshavin guy is one freakingly good player, and no, I don’t believe he’s overrated. (and let’s not forget last year’s UEFA Cup topscorer, who managed to score as many goals as Luca Toni, a certain Pavel Pogrebnyak)

Belarus’ Bate Borisov seem to be the easiest opponent in Group H, but let’s not forget they got rid of Anderlecht and Levski Sofia (not exactly UCL newbies) to get here.
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Match Schedule
17 September Juventus
vs.
Zenit
30 September Bate Borisov
vs.
Juventus
21 October Juventus
vs.
Real Madrid
5 November Real Madrid
vs.
Juventus
25 November Zenit
vs.
Juventus
10 December Juventus
vs.
Bate Borisov

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Group F
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Olympique Lyonnais Lyon
Bayern Munich Bayern Munich
Steaua Bucharest Steaua Bucharest
Fiorentina Fiorentina

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Finally, those getting the short end of the stick were undoubtedly Fiorentina, something which everyone expected because of their low ranking (pot 4).

With an ironic twist of fate: Toni and Bayern Munich is a recipe for an exciting match, but one which will prove of considerable difficulty for La Viola. The German giants need no introduction really, having regularly appeared on top of European football in the past decade (and beyond). A bleak 2006-07 campaign resulted in the club’s chairmen to make massive moves on the transfer market, resuling in talented recruits such as Hamit Altintop, Miroslav Klose, Franck Ribéry, and the aforementioned Luca Toni. The following year Bayern won 3/4 tournaments they were competing in.

Lyon and Steaua Bucharest aren’t easy opponents either. The French club has been dominating the Ligue 1 scene since 2002 (when, believe it or not, they won their first French championship). From then on, there was virtually only one club dining at the big 1st-spot table in France, all the others playing for scraps. As for the Romanians, they have not won their home league since 2006 but remain the most decorated football club in the country (with 23 championship titles).
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Match Schedule
17 September Lyon
vs.
Fiorentina
30 September Fiorentina
vs.
Steaua
21 October Bayern Munich
vs.
Fiorentina
5 November Fiorentina
vs.
Bayern Munich
25 November Fiorentina
vs.
Lyon
10 December Steaua
vs.
Fiorentina

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For the full table of the UEFA Champions League 2008-09 Group Stage draw, see this post.

Bayern Munich 0-1 Inter Milan: Nerazzurri Claim First “Trophy” of the Mourinho Era

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

Former German soccer player Franz Beckenbauer, right, presents the trophy to Milan player Javier Zanetti, left, after the soccer friendly match of the Beckenbauer cup between FC Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in the arena in Munich, southern Germany, on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008. Milan won the match 1-0 (AP Photo by CHRISTOF STACHE)

There are two ways to look at Tuesday night’s Bayern Munich vs. Inter Milan match. The first is to say this was a pretty boring game (because in all honesty, it was). It seemed as if neither team was sufficiently inspired to get the win, and this despite the prestigious nature of the fixture (it was Serie A vs. Bundesliga champions after all) and the title at stake (the “Franz Beckenbauer Cup” and “12th Trofeo Pirelli”, as it were). Even after Mançini’s opener (a nice left-footed chip over the keeper and the only real highlight of the night, arriving as late as minute 52) neither team changed their playing attitude a great deal, Inter seemingly content of holding their lead till the end, and Bayern obviously lacking any real motivation to get the equalizer.

That’s one way to look at it.

The other way, and this one’s strictly from the Nerazzurri’s point of view, is to say this was José Mourinho’s first step towards Inter’s transformation, a transformation from Italian league champions to European champions. Let’s face it, the team which has dominated Serie A for the past 2 years has not delivered (to put it lightly) in Europe at all, and that is one thing Inter’s “big boss” Massimo Moratti is surely hoping to change this year. In that light, winning against Bayern Munich (who were missing Toni and Ribéry though) can be definitely seen as a positive thing, since (by Mourinho’s own admission) the Inter manager was primarily focused on getting a good result on Tuesday. No “friendlies” in José’s vocabulary apparently…

So, while Inter prepare step nº3 (tonight’s second match of the Amsterdam tournament against Ajax (live 21:00 CET) -step nº2 was the 0-0 draw vs. FC Sevilla), I’ll leave you to fcbayern.de‘s excellent match report by Chris Hamley. Let’s just hope the spectacle will be better for future matches…

Pre-season 2008-09 - Franz Beckenbauer Cup - Bayern Munich 0-1 Inter Milan

(From fcbayern.de): A 63,000 crowd flocked to the Allianz Arena for the official season opener against the Milan giants, although the first half was a subdued affair as the sides struggled with a patent lack of rhythm. Brazilian midfielder Mançini handed the visitors a 52nd-minute lead (with a bit of help from the crossbar, the post, and Daniel van Buyten), and although Bayern upped the tempo after that, the home side lacked the guile to break down the focused and supremely well-organised Nerazzurri defence.

New Bayern boss Jürgen Klinsmann was already without Franck Ribéry, Luca Toni, Tim Borowski and Willy Sagnol through injury, and was forced into another late rethink when summer flu victim Bastian Schweinsteiger withdrew before kick-off. This forced the ex-Sampdoria striker to opt for a 3-5-2 formation (seen a couple of times already during pre-season) with Lucio, Martin Demichelis and Daniel van Buyten as a trio of centre-halves, Christian Lell and Philipp Lahm at wing back positions, captain Mark van Bommel anchoring the midfield, and Zé Roberto and Hamit Altintop supporting the front two of Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

On the other end, new Inter supremo José Mourinho was missing Patrick Vieira, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Walter Samuel, Ivan Cordoba and Cristian Chivu, but still sent out a star-studded side including the likes of long-serving skipper Javier Zanetti, Brazil hitman Adriano, 2001 World Player of the Year Luis Figo and goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, the sole Italian in the starting eleven.

The home side made the brighter opening, although Lucio headed wide and Van Bommel’s shot was wayward, before new Bayern nº1 Michael Rensing (Oliver Kahn retired at the end of last season) got down well to Adriano’s stinging free-kick. Toldo saved comfortably on Lahm’s effortt, then Altintop whistled a drive past the upright as the Germans continued to set the pace, but Klinsmann was forced into another change of formation midway through the first half when Martin Demichelis limped off following a collision with Adriano. Young Toni Kroos came into midfield with Lell reverting to a conventional right-back role, but the switch to 4-4-2 threw Bayern out of their stride and the Italians were content to rely on their disciplined defence as the game meandered to the interval, half-chances at either end for Lahm and Mançini the only incidents worthy of note.

The visitors took the lead seven minutes after half-time, when Figo dispossessed Zé Roberto of the ball and fed Mançini down the inside-left channel. The ex-AS Roma winger executed a lovely left-footed chip over Rensing, the ball striking the bar and the far post before finally crossing the line, with a minimum of assistance from the off-balance Daniel Van Buyten. 1-0 Inter.

After conceding the lead, Munich played with a great deal more urgency (aided by the introduction of fresh pairs of legs, i.e. Ottl & Jansen), but Inter’s classy rearguard restricted the home side to long-range efforts. In particular, the super-saves of goalkeeper Francesco Toldo provided the essential link for Mourinho’s clean-sheet tonight (Inter’s nº1 saving excellently from Kroos and Van Bommel -hoisting the latter’s shot over the bar- then later dealing acrobatically with Jansen’s curler and producing an even better save to deny Kroos once again). Podolski was a fraction offside as he sought to send the match to penalties, as the Italians more or less comfortably held on to claim the prestige trophy.

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 F.C. Bayern München
BAYERN-INTER
0-1
[Match Highlights]
F.C. Internazionale Milano
GOALSCORERS: 52’ Mançini (I)
BAYERN (4-4-2): Rensing – Lucio, Demichelis (21’ Kroos), Van Buyten – Lell, Van Bommel, Ze Roberto (68’ Ottl), Altintop (68’ Jansen), Lahm – Podolski, Klose (74’ Müller). Coach: Klinsmann.
INTER (4-3-3): Toldo – Maicon, Burdisso, Cambiasso, Maxwell – J.Zanetti (90’ Santon), Stankovic (81’ Dacourt), Muntari (82’ Suazo) – Figo (67’ Pelé), Adriano (67’ Crespo), Mançini (78’ Balotelli). Coach: Mourinho.

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Fun with Franck & Luca: The Toni-Ribéry Show (The Grand Final)

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

France vs. Italy might still be two weeks away (Tuesday June 17, 20:45 CET), but members of the two teams have already began the eager anticipation.

We had Gattuso vs. Malouda back in September (when the two teams met for qualifiers), it’s now time for two other components of the Azzurri and Les Bleus. Presenting to you: the Franck Ribéry vs. Luca Toni show.

These two have become quite inseparable friends since their arrival in Munich last year, so the FC Bayern management had the great idea of putting them together for a TV ad, produced by Allianz (the German insurance company which sponsors the club and after which the Bayern Stadium -Allianz Arena- is named). 

Here’s the result:

Although the clip is pretty much self-explanatory, here’s the translation for those with limited French/Italian knowledge:

The clip starts with Ribéry’s cell phone ringing, playing the French national anthem. At which Toni reacts by taking off his shirt and showing his “Italy Campioni del Mondo” t-shirt.

Ribery: “Hello? Honey?”
Toni: “Honey? What honey? Here, look”. (shows t-shirt)
Ribery: “Man, you suck. All you Italians you suck. Afterwards, we’ll go you and me”
Toni: “Ok, no problem”

Ribery: “Here, can you do THIS, you Spaghetti world champion?” (scoops the ball into basket)
Toni: “Man that’s easy”

Toni: “Here look, let me see you do this” (tries to bounce the ball into the stadium and fails)
Ribery (bursts out laughing, then succeeds where Toni had failed): “Ahhh look at this. Italiano? No. Francais? Yeaaah!”

Toni (attempting to dribble Ribery, then feigns a cramp, then pushes Ribery out of the way): “Come on!”
Ribery: “Hey man, this is not Serie A. Try to play soccer.”
Toni: “Come on, pay attention!”

(more fun on the field, then they go up the stands to shoot in the net. Ribery scores first)

Ribery: “Ah you can’t do that can you? The Italian he can’t, the French he can”
Toni: “Yeah yeah let me show you the Italian now” (goes up more stairs) The French? Ah! La baguette… let me give you the baguette.” (scores into goal)
Ribery: “That was luck”
Toni: “Ok, so let’s go on the roof. Come on! On the roof!”
Ribery: “Okay let’s go”
Stadium steward: “Stop, it’s over! Schluss! Finito!” (kicks them out)

 

The Official website has a few additional features (on top of the video) including pictures, an interview with Toni & Ribery, plus Cut Scenes & Making Of clips to be coming soon.

[Note: special thanks to Kevin of Serie A Talk for letting me know about the ad first]

Italian Players Around the World (5/05)

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Continuing my weekly article inspired by Gazzetta dello Sport, here are the performances of all Italian soccer players operating in foreign European leagues.

Based on Gazzetta’s info, there are currently 22 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 9 of them stepped on the field this week-end.

The table below includes the team the player belongs to, their opponents for the week, the number of minutes they played, their contribution (goal, assist), and the final score of the game.
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ENGLAND    
Player Team Opp. mins. Contrib. Score
Carlo Cudicini Chelsea @Newcastle (bench) / 2-0
.          
SCOTLAND          
Massimo Donati Celtic @Motherwell (bench) / 2-1
.          
GERMANY          
Luca Toni Bayern M. @Wolfsburg 90 / 0-0
.          
SPAIN          
Fabio Cannavaro Real Madrid @Osasuna red card / 2-1
Giuseppe Rossi Villareal Getafe 80 / 2-0
Christian Abbiati Atl. Madrid Recreativo (bench) / 3-0
Gianluca Zambrotta Barcelona Valencia 90 / 6-0
Enzo Maresca Sevilla Valladolid 60 1 assist 2-0
Morgan De Sanctis Sevilla Valladolid (bench) / 2-0
Emiliano Moretti Valencia @Barcelona (injd.) / 0-6
Stefano Sorrentino Recreativo @Atl. Madrid 90 / 0-3
Damiano Tommasi Levante Espanyol (injd.) / 1-1
.          
FRANCE          
Fabio Grosso Lyon @Nice (susp.) / 0-0
Flavio Roma Monaco @Lens (injd.) / 0-0
.          
HOLLAND          
Graziano Pellè AZ Alkmaar / SEASON OVER /
.          
BELGIUM          
Roberto Mirri Mons @St. Truiden 90 / 1-1
Alessandro Pistone Mons @St. Truiden 90 / 1-1
.          
SWITZERLAND          
Stefano Razzetti St. Gallen Sion (bench) / 1-2
Andrea Guatelli FC Zürich @Basel (bench) / 0-4
.          
POLAND          
Stefano Napoleoni Widzew Łódź Sosnowiec 90 / 0-1
.          
RUSSIA          
Ivan Pelizzoli Lok. Moscow Luch Energiya (bench) / 2-2

Heroes of the week

No goals for them (actually even an -undeserved- red card for Fabio), but plenty to celebrate for Mr. Cannavaro and Mr. Toni: Real Madrid and Bayern Munich were crowned respectively La Liga and Bundesliga champions this week. Joining the fun, Mr. Maresca who provided good passes an an assist in Sevilla’s 2-0 match vs. Valladolid.

Luca Toni, age 30 Fabio Cannavaro, age 34 Enzo Maresca, age 28