Other Team News (R)

If things continue like this we might have a 20 points gap before the Chelsea game.

 

Anyone else watch that Lazio-Juve game?

Phantom penalty calls are cool, I guess.

 

Was that on Gol TV? Bah, I really need to get that channel. Not necessarily for La Liga but for the Bundesliga.

 

I am interested to see how the 3-4-3 works at Juve.

Not many sides play that anymore, and I feel like it will be a disadvantage. We will see.

As for the game.. Lazio fully deserved the draw.

 

I saw it, good game, I would say Arsenal got punished and Cech pulled out some acrobatic saves. I think Arsenal played better but Chelsea capitalized. This means Arsenal are definitely out of the race.

 

Arsenal had a chance to bounce back in a big way this weekend and ultimately could not. This team needs some more experience, in the defensive end, but Wenger says they can cope. I don't feel like he is right anymore, but I can't criticize him a lot either as Arsenal keep doing really well in the Champions League. I just feel like if he wants to make that next step he will have to step out of his reality a little bit, something the man doesn't feel like doing.

As for other races... Real keeps putting points on the board but Barcelona keeps up the same. It will be interesting until the very end if it is a 5 point differential come May. I still see Barcelona winning it, but who knows...

As for Germany, Bayern finally caught up. But something tells me there will be more twists. Leverkusen can still fight I feel like, and Schalke is a dark horse considering they have Magath managing them. Nobody thought Wolfsburg would win last year but it happened.

France is opening up again. I though Bordeaux had it sealed somewhat, but a streak of 3 results and just like that Montepellier are back in the race again, and if Marseille win they will only be 6 points back.

Italy as you point out is very interesting besides Inter walking away at a good pace. After Ranieri came he has transformed them, and even when they were playing badly against Firenze they still won.. a quality that is needed in football if you are to do well. Milan are going back a little bit, but I still feel like these three will be top 3 come the end of the season.

The race for fourth is the one I really wish to see though... Napoli, Palermo, Juventus, Genoa, Fiorentina.. if anyone gets a good run going it will be tough for the others. I think it will go down to the wire.

 

As for the Euro 2012 draw... I am really happy to have gotten Italy from Pot 1. It was the team I wished for most.

Croatia would have also been good, but whenever we play them honor transcends the game itself. Thus, in a sense it was good that we didn't draw each other.

Germany would have been my next preference as Holland, France, Spain, and England play too quickly usually for us. We always match up well with the Italians, and I honestly believe we can beat them at home, and with some luck away as well as Montenegro nearly proved this past campaign, and Slovenia did at home.

I would say we got a pretty overall balanced group as Lippi said, but there are others that I am happy we avoided (e.g. the England group).

 

If anybody is interested in watching Lyon vs Real and the game wont be shown on your tv you can find a good stream here on this page tomorrow. The stream shod be in very good quality.

http://dnevnik.hr/

I will be watching Milan vs Man U. on tv and this in the same time on my pc.

 

np Ill do a short summary on what happened

I will watch the Arsenal game to its on wednesday

 

Well this is crap. For whatever reason, Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Español who are both airing Lyon-Real Madrid aren't showing blank screens for me so I'm stuck watching ManU-Milan on Fox Southwest. No idea what the problem could be, I was watching Fox Soccer Channel last night.

 

You can see them here good quality both games its in croatian but better something than nothing

http://sport.dnevnik.hr/rubrika/champions_league/uzivo/

 

Great game between Milan and Manchester. In short Man u. was largely inferior threw the whole game and they managed to score 3 goals, almost unbelievable how many chances Milan missed. 1 half was completely for Milan and they shod have been 3 goals up at least instead Manchester scored a incredible lucky goal threw Scholes in 40 minute from there 2 half chance they had in the whole half to make it 1:1. 2 half started all the same with Milan pressing all over the place and then faded for about 20 minutes and here Manchester scored 2 times from 3 chances. In this time it was even match and I just cant believe how much bad luck they had. Milan had in last 10 minutes two 100% chances to level a part from a magnificent goal created by Ronadhino and Seedorf. The game is certainly not over if Milan can produce a similar performance at Old Traford and win by 2 goals. Ferguson will be thanking God for this result, I almost feel sorry for Milan.

Ronaldhino was fantastic and Rooney took what Milan gave him and finished it in style proving he is the most lethal striker in the world at the moment.

Real was largely inferior to Lyon in there game despite having more possession and they can be happy with the result with only 1 goal behind. Lyon had far better opportunities and they could won with a even bigger margin from what I caught. Ronaldo didn't do anything so Real has a big job to do at home because Lyon closed them down very well.

Good games.

 

I watched both games as well with a couple of mates at the pub.. I must say I agree with most of what you said, but the second half Milan was a touch outplayed in those 25 minutes you mention where they faded. Good teams take their opportunities, especially in away environments and Manchester did that wonderfully. During those 20 minutes Milan showed they lacked speed if Ronaldinho isn't feeling it, and Pato fades out. Once they put in Seedorf everything changed, and I can see him starting instead of Huntelaar in the match at Old Trafford. I agree however that Milan had so many chances to score, it was very untypical of them not to score. They are a team that play in Europe fairly well, so it was a bit surprising. For me it should have been a draw.. but that's football sometimes. They still aren't out of it, but the Manchester defense it must be mentioned did not have Vidic.

As for the Lyon-Real game.. once again totally agree. Even though Real somehow managed to have more possession they kept giving it away. Lyon was by far creating a host of chances and Delgado's volley off the post should have gone in. Had it been a goal it could have been one of the goals of the year. Instead, Makoun pops in and says "Don't forget about me!" What a clinical strike that was... Casillas fully stretched and couldn't even get close to it. Madrid had 2 chances, especially with that Higuain 1v1, but just didn't have it. The pressure is there to deliver... I am curious to see how the second leg will play out because Lyon are very dangerous on the counter. With Bastos, Govou, Pjanic, and Lopez they have a host of attacking talent to quickly come at you. Add Cissokho the raiding left full back and speed will not be an issue. We will see if this new Real can truly come back from a deficit. I think so, but crazier things have happened. Is this finally the year Lyon breaks their duck and wins against a big team?

Can't wait for the rest of the games.

 

I agree, Vidic will be a big factor in the next game + its a big question can Ronaldhino reproduce 1 more game like this because 80% Milan chances where threw him.

Real will have a hard time overcoming Lyon they still lack team play a lot.

I hope we do better against Chelsea. Milan shoved that England top guns aint all that top so after this I can really see us doing good against them if we don't chicken out like we normally do in this games.

Champions league is really the top football competition in the world.