[EU] Champions League 06/07 (27 Viewers)
- Thread starter ReBeL
- Start date
It's Barça and Chelsea ... again
At the Nou Camp last March, Jose Mourinho received the most humbling football lesson of his managerial career to date. Now he has the chance to show how much he learned: Chelsea have been drawn against Barcelona in the Champions League for the third season in a row.
While the contests stand alone as something to savour, the additional presence of Werder Bremen in a high-class Group A mean that it is not inconceivable that one of the two sides could fall at the first hurdle. Levski Sofia should be easy meat, but Bremen are a dangerous side who include the World Cup's leading scorer Miroslav Klose, as well as his impressive team-mates Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski, and they were extremely unlucky not to beat Juventus in the first knockout round of last season's tournament.
Inevitably, however, most eyes will be on Chelsea's reunion with Barcelona. Though they only lost 3-2 on aggregate to Barca last season, the reality was that Chelsea were miles behind, humbled by a team whose movement and quality were on a different plane.
They were outclassed and, for all his bleating about Barça's inability to beat Chelsea when they had 11 men, he knew it. Indeed, many believe it was the quietly emphatic nature of this defeat that prompted Mourinho to dabble in the galactico pool for the first time, buying Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, and the matches with Barcelona will go some way to indicating the wisdom or otherwise of that policy.
For the neutral, too, they should be classic contests. The two clubs are a study in contrasts - fantasy against pragmatism, tradition against nouveau, Rijkaard against Mourinho - and the mutual animosity first evidenced when Chelsea bundled Barça out in 2004-05 make an already compelling prospect even more mouth-watering.
The difficulty of the draw will exacerbate Mourinho's frustration at the exclusion of Chelsea, who have reached two Champions League semi-finals in the past three seasons, in the pot of seeded teams, when underachievers such as Manchester United and Valencia were included.
Of the four English clubs, Chelsea's draw is by far the toughest, although Liverpool have a reasonably tricky draw in Group C: they will play PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux and Galatasaray. Last season's finalists Arsenal will fancy their chances of emerging from a group which includes FC Porto, CSKA Moscow and Hamburg.
United, keen to make amends for their farcical performance last season, when they finished bottom of Group D and scored only one goal from open play in six games, will expect to do the necessary against Celtic, Benfica - who put them out last year - and FC Copenhagen, who qualified after a surprise 2-0 victory away to Ajax last night. But it is round three of Jose v Catalonia that most people will be looking forward to.
Guardian.co.uk
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Even though, I want Barca to be defeated...
At the Nou Camp last March, Jose Mourinho received the most humbling football lesson of his managerial career to date. Now he has the chance to show how much he learned: Chelsea have been drawn against Barcelona in the Champions League for the third season in a row.
While the contests stand alone as something to savour, the additional presence of Werder Bremen in a high-class Group A mean that it is not inconceivable that one of the two sides could fall at the first hurdle. Levski Sofia should be easy meat, but Bremen are a dangerous side who include the World Cup's leading scorer Miroslav Klose, as well as his impressive team-mates Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski, and they were extremely unlucky not to beat Juventus in the first knockout round of last season's tournament.
Inevitably, however, most eyes will be on Chelsea's reunion with Barcelona. Though they only lost 3-2 on aggregate to Barca last season, the reality was that Chelsea were miles behind, humbled by a team whose movement and quality were on a different plane.
They were outclassed and, for all his bleating about Barça's inability to beat Chelsea when they had 11 men, he knew it. Indeed, many believe it was the quietly emphatic nature of this defeat that prompted Mourinho to dabble in the galactico pool for the first time, buying Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, and the matches with Barcelona will go some way to indicating the wisdom or otherwise of that policy.
For the neutral, too, they should be classic contests. The two clubs are a study in contrasts - fantasy against pragmatism, tradition against nouveau, Rijkaard against Mourinho - and the mutual animosity first evidenced when Chelsea bundled Barça out in 2004-05 make an already compelling prospect even more mouth-watering.
The difficulty of the draw will exacerbate Mourinho's frustration at the exclusion of Chelsea, who have reached two Champions League semi-finals in the past three seasons, in the pot of seeded teams, when underachievers such as Manchester United and Valencia were included.
Of the four English clubs, Chelsea's draw is by far the toughest, although Liverpool have a reasonably tricky draw in Group C: they will play PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux and Galatasaray. Last season's finalists Arsenal will fancy their chances of emerging from a group which includes FC Porto, CSKA Moscow and Hamburg.
United, keen to make amends for their farcical performance last season, when they finished bottom of Group D and scored only one goal from open play in six games, will expect to do the necessary against Celtic, Benfica - who put them out last year - and FC Copenhagen, who qualified after a surprise 2-0 victory away to Ajax last night. But it is round three of Jose v Catalonia that most people will be looking forward to.
Guardian.co.uk
---------------------------------
Even though, I want Barca to be defeated...
Inter boss Roberto Mancini isn’t happy with the outcome of the Champions League draw. “Other teams had better luck,” he stated.
The Nerazzurri were drawn in Group B where they will come up against Germany’s Bayern Munich, Sporting Lisbon of Portugal and Russian giants Spartak Moscow.
“We are in a difficult section,” he stated this evening. “Obviously that can be said about all Champions League matches, but other clubs were more fortunate…”
Although the Italian giants should still have enough quality to prevail, Mancio fears the fitness factor.
“We are playing against opponents of value and teams of not only prestige, that’s why we will have to take care and study them over the next few weeks,” he added.
“We will be playing against three different types of footballing philosophy, but they all have one thing in common which is they will have more competitive games in their legs.”
Inter director Gabriele Oriali was also a little subdued, especially as city rivals Milan seemed blessed in the draw.
“I think it could have gone a little better for us,” stated the 1982 World Cup winner. “However, we have the resources to not fear anyone.
“That’s why we believe in our chances of qualifying for the knock out stages.”
Inter are highly fancied to succeed this term after a summer of heavy investment and Oriali certainly has glory on his mind.
“A lot is being said about us,” he noted. “We have certainly reinforced ourselves in every department of the team.
“The new players have given the Coach some real options to go until the very end in all competitions.
“I think the time has arrived for Inter to lift this Champions League trophy in the air.”
Inter fixtures:
Sept 12: Sporting - Inter
Sept 27: Inter - Bayern
Oct 18: Inter - Spartak
Oct 31: Spartak - Inter
Nov 22: Inter - Sporting
Dec 5: Bayern - Inter
do inter ever quit their bitching? nothing makes them happy, hey mancio you only have to call guido rossi up, im sure he can russle up talks with the ref!
The Nerazzurri were drawn in Group B where they will come up against Germany’s Bayern Munich, Sporting Lisbon of Portugal and Russian giants Spartak Moscow.
“We are in a difficult section,” he stated this evening. “Obviously that can be said about all Champions League matches, but other clubs were more fortunate…”
Although the Italian giants should still have enough quality to prevail, Mancio fears the fitness factor.
“We are playing against opponents of value and teams of not only prestige, that’s why we will have to take care and study them over the next few weeks,” he added.
“We will be playing against three different types of footballing philosophy, but they all have one thing in common which is they will have more competitive games in their legs.”
Inter director Gabriele Oriali was also a little subdued, especially as city rivals Milan seemed blessed in the draw.
“I think it could have gone a little better for us,” stated the 1982 World Cup winner. “However, we have the resources to not fear anyone.
“That’s why we believe in our chances of qualifying for the knock out stages.”
Inter are highly fancied to succeed this term after a summer of heavy investment and Oriali certainly has glory on his mind.
“A lot is being said about us,” he noted. “We have certainly reinforced ourselves in every department of the team.
“The new players have given the Coach some real options to go until the very end in all competitions.
“I think the time has arrived for Inter to lift this Champions League trophy in the air.”
Inter fixtures:
Sept 12: Sporting - Inter
Sept 27: Inter - Bayern
Oct 18: Inter - Spartak
Oct 31: Spartak - Inter
Nov 22: Inter - Sporting
Dec 5: Bayern - Inter
do inter ever quit their bitching? nothing makes them happy, hey mancio you only have to call guido rossi up, im sure he can russle up talks with the ref!
