The Champions League draw

‘Big ears’: Europe’s biggest prize, the Champions League trophy. 

This season’s champions league is still to reach the knockout stages and yet it has already managed to serve up some of the best football in recent memory. Group D for example, coined by many as the group of death, and for good reason, pitted the champions of Spain, England, Germany and Holland against one another, creating an almighty display of football over the six matchdays. Matchday one kicked off with one of the best ties of the tournament thus far as Spanish champions Real Madrid entertained Manchester City at the Bernabeu. When Aleksandar Kolarov’s freekick beat Iker Casillas in the 85^th minute to put City 2-1 in the lead it looked as if they would go on to win the match but two quick fire goals from Benzema and Ronaldo ensured that all three points would remain at the Bernabeu and City would be going home with nothing. This was the first of three defeats for City in what can only be described as another disappointing performance in Europe’s elite competition as they became the first English team to fail to win a single group game. Real Madrid were joined in the knockout stages by Group D winners Borussia Dortmund who, having won four matches and drawn two, are one of only four teams that remain undefeated so far this season, along with Juventus, Malaga and fellow Germans Schalke. All four teams incidentally winners of their respective groups.

On top of the antics provided by Group D we had numerous other great European showings from the likes of Shaktar Donetsk, Celtic and Champions League debutants Malaga, all of whom showed their true European credentials and each fully deserve their place in the last 16. Displays of magic from Shaktar’s Willian, the resurgent return of the old lady of Juventus to European football, the strong display from the financially troubled, new boys Malaga, the impressive performance and result from Ajax as they beat Manchester City at home and the failure of Chelsea to progress to the knockout stage, making them the first holders to fail to make it out of their group have all added to the spectacle of this year’s Champions League.

Looking at the draw now and it has produced some very interesting ties indeed none more so than the matchup between Real Madrid and Manchester United, one that sees Cristiano Ronaldo make his first return to Old Trafford since leaving the club in 2009. This is perhaps the highlight of the round of 16, but the draw, held in Nyon, Switzerland, managed to produce many other mouth watering ties and incredibly the result of the draw turned out to be exactly the same as in the rehearsal draw the night before. One such tie was Ac Milan vs Barcelona, one that is a repeat of the knockout stages last year where the two went head to head in the Quarter Finals, which resulted in a 3-1 Barcelona win. As is expected nowadays Barcelona top the possession stats for the competition having garnered 75.5% thus far with Milan having averaged a somewhat lesser share of possession at 48.4%. You have to feel that with both Messi and Barcelona in such fine form Milan would have to produce something very special to progress to the quarter finals. The only thing that lingers over Barcelona is the unfortunate loss of Head Coach Tito Vilanova and it remains to be seen who will be drafted in to take his place for the time being. With the outstanding Stephan El Shaarawy firing on all cylinders and the potential of an unsettled Barcelona camp AC Milan will fancy they have a decent chance of getting a result. Celtic demonstrated to the world on matchday four that Barcelona are in fact beatable during their heroic display at Celtic Park that finished 2-1 and went a long way to seeing Celtic progress through to the knockout stages for the first time since 2008.

Adulation as Celtic beat Barcelona 2-1 at

 Celtic Park (@MatchPhotos).

Following their progression into the knockout stages, Celtic saw themselves drawn against a very impressive Juventus side, that managed to achieve an unbeaten season on their way to becoming the champions of Serie A last term. What’s most interesting about this tie is it pits the team that have had the most shots per game, Juventus (21) against the team that have conceded the most shots per game, Celtic (19.5). That is not to say that the goals will fly in, but it does imply that Celtic will have to be on top of their game defensively over both ties. Interestingly Celtic have also had the lowest amount of possession (33.7%) among the teams that remain in the competition and have spent the greatest amount of time in their own half (36%).

Although the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to Old Trafford makes the headlines of the tie between Real Madrid and Manchester United, it will be about much more than just Ronaldo. It sees Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho go head to head again for the first time since Jose’s Chelsea days as two of the World’s biggest clubs fight it out for a spot in the quarter finals. Manchester United made qualification to this round very easy, winning their group with two matches to spare, in what was considered a fairly easy group nonetheless. Real Madrid on the other hand had the most difficult of the groups, as already mentioned but managed to progress without any problem, scoring the highest number of goals whilst they did it. Domestic form between the two has been very different, Real Madrid have had a very poor start to the season and currently sit in third position, 13 points behind leaders Barcelona. Manchester United on the other hand are in the driver’s seat, top of the league, 6 points above champions Manchester City. It is hard to imagine Real Madrid can win the league from this position and therefore it is likely that Jose Mourinho will put all of his eggs into one basket and focus on Champions League success. Manchester United are a tougher obstacle than he would have liked at this stage of the competition, but Madrid are still favourites to progress and you feel Manchester United would need something special to come out victorious against Real Madrid over two legs.

The Special One: Can Robin van Persie inspire Manchester United to victory over Real Madrid? (@MatchPhotos).

Arsenal complete the trio of British teams through to the knockout stages making it past the group stages for a thirteenth season in a row. Arsenal will face last season’s runners-up Bayern Munich who have started the season in great form in this year’s Bundesliga having conceded a meagre 7 goals from 17 matches.  Arsenal have had somewhat of a shaky season and if they are to avoid a third successive elimination at this stage of the competition they will need to pick up their game significantly. Arsenal are well known for liking to get the ball on the deck and play football but it is Bayern Munich who have the much better statistics in this area at this stage. Bayern Munich have had an average of 61% possession thus far and have occupied the opposition half for the largest amount of time, jointly with Barcelona (35%).

Paris Saint Germain’s return to the Champions League saw them collect the largest tally of points throughout the group stage, collecting 15 points from five wins and a single loss. Not only that but superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic leads the way in the assists chart having laid on 5 assists for his team mates whilst becoming the first player to score for six different teams in the Champions League. PSG will face Valencia in a match that truly could go either way. Valencia have never been an easy team to beat and have some recent pedigree at this level, unlike PSG. A lot also hinges on whether or not Zlatan manages to turn up on the big European stage which he has failed to do in the past. This match could go either way but on paper you’d have to say it favours Paris Saint Germain’s collection of superstars.

Also making their return to the knockout stage this year are Borussia Dortmund, matched up against Shaktar Donetsk. Shaktar have had a very good tournament thus far, playing their part in sending defending champions Chelsea into the Europa League. Star man Willian has been exceptional, especially in his displays against Chelsea, racking up four goals and two assists on his way to helping his team progress. Dortmund have also had an impressive campaign so far having topped their group containing Manchester City, Real Madrid and Ajax, whilst remaining unbeaten. Both teams play a similar brand of attacking; flowing football and each possess some hugely talented footballers. Expect this to be one of the best fixtures of the knockout stage.

Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion is never an easy place to get a result. (@MatchPhotos).

Perhaps the most surprising member of the last 16 line-up comes in the form of Malaga who qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history and thereafter we forced to sell many of their best players; the likes of Santi Cazorla and Salomon Rondon to raise the funds needed to save the club. Despite these evident troubles they managed to top a group containing AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg and Anderlecht whilst remaining undefeated. Their opponents Porto, despite losing their two main goalscorers in the past two seasons; Rademal Falcao and Hulk, still possess a strong squad that knows how to win these types of games. They have managed to keep hold of midfield linchpin Joao Moutinho, despite renewed interest from Tottenham and many other potential suitors from around Europe. Of the players left in the tournament only Xavi (757) has completed more passes thus far than Joao Moutinho (493). The highlight of this matchup is likely to be the two highly talented youngsters Isco and James Rodriguez, Isco in particular has been exceptional for Malaga throughout their campaign so far.

The remaining match sees Galatasaray hosting Group B winners Schalke. Galatasaray, who finished second to  Manchester United having qualified ahead of Cluj on head to head managed to beat Manchester United on matchday five, albeit a weakened Manhcester United side as they were ensured top spot after victory in matchday four. Galatasary’s Burak Yilmaz is also currently joint leading goalscorer with Cristiano Ronaldo, both of whom are on 6 goals. Schalke meanwhile were unbeaten on their way to beating Arsenal to top spot of Group B and although Schalke have showed some promising form in the Champions League they have been having a torrid time of it on the domestic front having collected only two points from their last six games. As a result Manager Huub Stevens was replaced by Under 17’s coach Jens Keller. Schalke will hope that Jens Keller has what it takes to quickly turn around the fortunes of the club and to get them back to winning ways after the winter break. A key factor for Schalke will be holding on to star striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar and other key players such as Lewis Holtby and Julian Draxler during the January transfer window. On Champions League form alone you would fancy Schalke to progress to the next round but anything can happen in the Champions League and frequently does.

The Hunter: Schalke will have to keep hold of prized asset Klaas Jan Huntelaar if they are to progress.

This seasons Champions League knockout stage contains representatives from 9 different nations and has already displayed why it is Europe’s elite club competition. Barcelona and Real Madrid stand out as the top two contenders but every team left in the competition is there on merit and stands a great chance of progressing through the tournament. There are certainly six teams at least that stand a reasonable chance of going all the way but one thing is for sure, we are in for some brilliant football over the next six months. Enjoy.

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St George's Park - the key to the future

As the keys to St George’s Park were finally handed over to the FA last week it seems only right to explore how this £100 million project is expected to turn around the fortunes of English football, enabling us to compete with the very best in the world and perhaps even emulate the iconic success of ’66.

St George’s Park will soon be the home of English football, a ‘centre of excellence’ for all of England’s representative teams. It will be the base for the England’s men’s team but will also be home to England’s disabled side, women’s side and the youth teams at every level. More importantly though St George’s Park will be central to improving the quality of English coaches and increasing the numbers of English coaches in the game. Coaching is seen as the ‘golden thread’ leading to international success and when you look at the number of English coaches in relation to that of Spain, Germany, Italy and France, four of the most successful countries in Europe, it becomes clear why we haven’t won an international tournament for 46 long years. In the latest UEFA report England had 2,769 registered coaches holding the highest available coaching qualifications (UEFA’s B, A and Pro badges) whilst Germany had 34,970, Italy 29,420, Spain 23,995 and France 17,588. Is it really any wonder that we are unable to compete with the very best nations when we only have a fraction of the number of top class coaches they have? Without a large network of top coaches how are we supposed to find, nurture and develop youngsters into world class players? How are we supposed to create a philosophy that dictates how all English players should play when we have a distinct lack of qualified coaches to implement that philosophy? And how can we teach our players the technical ability that is required to be successful at the very top when we only have one UEFA qualified coach for every 812 people playing the game in our country?

To be successful on the international stage you need to have world class players that are capable of winning the games. Spain for example have Xavi and Iniesta, two of the worlds very best players, with a support cast of numerous extremely talented footballers, all of which possess extraordinary technical ability and composure on the ball, willing to receive the ball and pass it on anywhere on the field. England however lag far behind in this sense, resting most of our hopes on our one truly world class player, Wayne Rooney. The technical ability of our players is far below what it should be and this was proven all too clearly at Euro 2012. Roy Hodgson knew it and as a result opted to play a disciplined defensive game focused around conceding very few goals and hoping that we could nick a goal or two at the other end. Nevertheless whenever we were in possession of the ball we lacked composure and the technical ability to create many chances. Against Italy in the Quarter-final we misplaced almost one third of our passes, on top of the fact that we attempted less than half the amount of passes Italy did. This was telling and ultimately fatal as it led to a miserly total of just 4 chances created. Italy on the other hand created 31 chances and although neither team were able to put their chances away, Italy, guided by the majestic Andrea Pirlo demonstrated just how large the gulf in class between the two sides was.

 Herein lies the problem; we have a distinctly average crop of players that struggle to maintain possession of the football, even against weaker teams we seem to struggle to take hold of the game. In both of our pre-tournament friendlies we ended up seeing less of the ball than the opposition, Norway and Belgium, ranked 24 and 53 respectively, both of which failed to qualify for Euro 2012. Seeing less of the ball means fewer chances can be created and when you do get the ball the pressure is on to do something with it. Technical ability again crops up as it is the cornerstone of flowing, attacking football and without it, as England have proven, it is very hard to achieve anything. Germany had a similar problem back in 2004 that culminated in the sacking of Rudi Voller from his position as national coach and a complete overhaul of German football. Jurgen Klinsmann was drafted to lead the ‘German revolution’ deciding upon a new philosophy for the German national team and leading them back in the right direction. The ‘German revolution’ is now bearing fruit with Germany having made it to the final and two semi-finals of the last three major international tournaments, not to mention the host of very impressive youngsters that are playing at the very top level of European football and the many that are closely following in their footsteps. A German-esque revolution is something English football is in desperate need of, not mimicking the German way but taking the idea of reform and implementing it into the English game.

This is where St George’s Park comes into play. It is England’s answer to Spain’s La Masia and France’s Clairefontaine, it is the first step on the road to change and one that sets the foundations for the future. St George’s Park should create a much larger and stronger base of coaches across England with the FA hoping the number of coaches across England will more than double by 2018 to almost 250,000 across all levels, thus enabling us to better educate more youngsters that hold the potential to become great players of the future. In conjunction with the opening of St George’s Park the FA created a 275-page document, entitled ‘The Future Game’ which includes guidelines and requirements for the future develop of players and the new playing and coaching philosophy of the England national teams.

Now we must wait for the FA to officially open St George’s Park and from there it will be a good few years before we see the true rewards from the investment. By no means will it result in a sudden turnaround in fortunes but it should greatly improve the foundations of English football, creating a stepping stone for future investments and developments. Similarly St George’s Park alone will not transform the state of English football; there are many other areas which needed amending, chief among them the relationship between the FA and Premier League. It is said that to have a successful national league the national team will suffer and it couldn’t be truer than in England. The Premier League is considered as the best league in world football and that is largely a result of the vast numbers of foreign players that now play in our league. It is easier, and usually cheaper to buy a good player from the continent than it is to buy a young English player or to develop your own, which has greatly affected the number of top youth players being developed in England. This is just one of many difficulties that face English football but at least now, with the arrival of St George’s Park it is clear we are making a change for the better and a brighter future for English football lies on the horizon. I am not saying we are going to win a World Cup or European Championship within the next decade but I am more confident now than ever before that we might just see an English victory at an international tournament in our lifetime time.

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