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DrakaZ
Champions League Hello dear readers, I do not know if there are a lot of people who follow the European football scene but I decided to make a blog about the four teams that reached the Semi-finals of the Champions League, the most prestigious competition in Europe. It is very rare to get four teams from four different countries in the semi-finals of the Champions League, that is why I wanted to emphasize it. It is even rarer to see a French team in the semi finals of this competition. If I am right, the last time we saw a French team in the semi finals, it was AS Monaco in 2004 where they won against Chelsea 5 to 3 (Total score) but they unfortunately lost to FC Porto in final 3 to 0. So the four teams that will compete in the Semi-finals are Barcelona (Spain), Internazionale (Italy), Bayern Munich (Germany) and Lyon (France). It is very surprising to not see an English club in the semi-finals such as Manchester-United or Chelsea. It is even shocking to not see Arsenal after their good season. 1) Barcelona After a fantastic season in 2008-2009 having won the Copa del Rey, Liga and the Champions League, Barcelona cannot do as good in 2009-2010. Nonetheless, they are in Semi-finals of the Champions League where they are the favorite to win the title after the elimination of the other top teams such as Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Dani Alves, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and of course Lionel Messi are without any doubt the strength of this team and it is hard for other teams to face them when you have such great talents combined into one team. They easily won against Stuttgart in 1/8 and I must admit it was almost as easy against Arsenal in the Quarter-finals. Nonetheless, I still think that Arsenal should have won if they would have got all their players such as William Gallas, Andrei Arshavin, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie. But well, you know what we say: with “if” we can remake the world. I just find it sad that Arsenal lost the second match with a “B” team. For their next match, Barcelona will face Internazionale. 2) Internazionale I must admit that I do not like at all Italian football but I also must admit that Internazionale did well in the Champions League even if I keep thinking that they should not have won their match against Chelsea in 1/8. It was just so unfair but well, it is football ^ ^ It seems that Mourinho does well in every club, no matter where he goes to. He won the Champions League with FC Porto, he did very well with Chelsea and now he does extremely well with Internazionale. I really do not know what is his secret but he does his job perfectly. He was often criticized when he was in Chelsea because he had the support of a billionaire but it is not the case with his current team. In quarter-finals, they really a got a favorable draw as they met the Russian team, CSKA Moskova. And it seems that they got a hard time to beat them so I doubt they will have a chance to beat Barcelona. Nonetheless, they have a strong team and I think that they will lose the first match and easily win the second match if they adopt the right strategy. In my opinion, the right strategy is to allow Marco Materazzi to play the first match and break both Messi’s legs since he is an expert in this area. If he can do it, then Inter has their chance to win against Barcelona in the second match, otherwise, I doubt they will despite they have talented and experienced players such as Cristian Chivu, Lucio, Marco Tacklerazzi, Wesley Sneijder and of course, the old Barcelona player, Samuel Eto’o. 3) Bayern Munich Bayern Munich was such a very strong team in the past and I have a lot of great souvenirs with them in the Champions League. They were really a top team with such strong players but I feel that now, they are at another level, not enough good to compete with the best teams. I remember that they had such great players in the past such as Michaël Ballack, Stefan Effenberg, Dietmar Hammann, Carsten Jancker, Oliver Kahn, Jürgen Klinsmann, Bixente Lizarazu, Willy Sagnol, Claudio Pizarro etc … Now, I feel like the players are good but not as good as those I named except Franck Ribéry, Philip Lahm, Arjen Robben and Miroslav Klose. I even wonder how they can win important matches when you have Hans Jörg Butt as goalkeeper. In my opinion, he has 2 left hands/feets. They met a good but not impressive team in 1/8 and they logically won over Fiorentina and in Quarter-final, I really think they got lucky to win against Manchester United. The first match was fine even if I think that Manchester United was better and the second match was really a big joke. Manchester totally owned them during the first half and but this idiot called Rafael made a terrible foul whereas he already had a yellow card. So they played the second half with 10 players only and sir Alex Ferguson had to change his strategy and they totally got owned. For the second match, I do not really understand why Berbatov did not start it as well as Park that I do not really like but who is important. They will meet the French team in the Semi-finals and I think they will have some troubles if they underestimate them. 4) Lyon Lyon is the last team that qualified for the Semi-finals after their victory to another French team, Bordeaux. It is the first time that Lyon reaches the Semi-finals and they meet a team that they can beat. After the departure of Karim Benzema to Real Madrid, I really did not think that Lyon would have done that well. Nonetheless, they have a great goalkeeper who saved the team more than once. In the 1/8, they did a very good performance against Real Madrid that played awfully in the first match and that did great in the first half of the second game. Nonetheless, Lyon was really better and they proved us that they do not need that many stars to win against top team. Lyon often failed in Quarter-finals the previous seasons but it seems that they will do well this year. In Quarter-finals, they faced a French team called Bordeaux that they “easily” won despite their defeat in the second match. I think that they will be able to win against Bayern Munich if they can handle the pressure. They have very good players such as Hugo Lloris (who really is THE key of the team), Cris, César Delgado, Kim Källström (who is often conclusive), Jérémy Toulalan, Bafetimbi Gomis, Sidney Govou and Lisandro Lopez. So in my opinion, if they do not put themselves the pressure, I think that they have a chance to win against Bayern Munich and go through the final. Barcelona – Internazionale -> 5 – 2 overall Lyon – Bayern Munich -> 3 – 2 overall So in my opinion, the final will be played between Barcelona and Lyon with a 3/0 score for Barcelona. What is your opinion about these matches? Feel free to discuss about it =] DrakaZ
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