Posts Tagged ‘Juventus’

Manchester United & City Hope For The Best

Posted: December 8, 2015 in Champions League, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

image

Manchester City hoped that Sevilla would do them a favour. They weren’t asking for much, just that a team who were already out of the competition should have enough pride and desire to please their fans and beat Juventus, in the process denying them top spot and a marginally easier opponent in the first knockout round.

City’s deal in all this was to beat Borussia Moenchengladbach, thereby enabling them to finish top and get the marginally easier opponent in the first knockout round.

Manchester United hoped that CSKA Moscow would do them a favour. They also weren’t asking for much, just that a team who were already out of the competition should have enough pride and desire to please their fans and beat PSV Eindhoven, in the process denying them qualification to the first knockout round and allowing United to qualify even if they could only manage a draw or even a defeat against Wolfsburg.

What United were hoping for was a safety net in case they couldn’t beat Wolfsburg which, as it turned out, they couldn’t. (more…)

Manchester City Rely On Sevilla

Posted: December 7, 2015 in Champions League, Football, Manchester City, Opinion
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

image

Manchester City have a European tie on Tuesday night that may allow them to achieve what would be a “first” for them.

If they beat Borussia Moenchengladbach and Juventus fail to beat Sevilla, then City will qualify for the next round as group winners. This will be the first time they have achieved that in their Champions League history, following a failure to qualify and two second placed qualifications.

The more likely scenario is that Juventus will beat Sevilla, THEY will qualify as group winners and City will finish second again. All of which means that, in the first knockout round, City could face Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. They could be lucky and get a team which won one of the lesser groups but that would still potentially put them up against the likes of Zenit St. Petersburg, Porto or Atletico Madrid.

At the moment it is all rather immaterial as City can’t even take a point from a team like Stoke City so, even if they were to qualify as group winners, it is unlikely that they would then progress. (more…)

Manchester’s United & City Show How Not To Do It

Posted: November 25, 2015 in Champions League, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1

image

Manchester City had already qualified for the knockout stage of the Champion’s League by the time they arrived in Turin to play Juventus.

This had been achieved by their fine away form in beating both Borussia Moenchengladbach and Sevilla and was in no way thanks to their patchy home form where they had already lost to tonight’s opponent. Unfortunately, their patchy home form became their patchy away form and they lost 1-0 at the Juventus stadium.

Manchester United knew, when they arrived at the Lowry hotel in Salford, that beating PSV Eindhoven tonight would mean that they would qualify for the next round as well.

Their passage had been based on reasonable home form where they have already beaten CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg, not their patchy away form where they had only collected one point. Unfortunately, their patchy away form became their patchy home form and they drew 0-0 in a boring game at Old Trafford. (more…)

Manchester’s Mixed Fortunes

Posted: November 21, 2015 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
Tags: , , ,
0

image

Manchester United managed to beat Watford without ever really playing very well.

In fairness, there were good moments and, with no Rooney to get in the way, they kept possession reasonably well.

A lot of the game was played in a congested midfield so it was nice to see Memphis finish off a good move when the ball eventually went out wide. The wings were where the space was but, with Ashley Young playing totally out of position as usual at wing back, and Jesse Lingard drifting between the wing and linking up with Memphis to form an attacking twosome, the wings were underused.

The Watford equaliser came from the penalty spot when Rojo, on as a second half substitute, made a late, clumsy tackle well inside the area and Troy Deeney scored. (more…)

Capital Nonsense

Posted: October 8, 2015 in Football, Opinion
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

image

At the risk of appearing as though this is becoming my pet project I want to write, for the last time, about the attraction, (or otherwise), of capital cities to football players.

In England, at the moment, there is a feeling that players coming into our game from abroad would rather play for a London team because they would rather live in London.

I don’t think it is the feeling of the majority, but there are certainly some who think this way. I have covered the reasons as to why this isn’t true, specifically about London, in another post, which you can access here.

What I would like to look at now is whether the capital cities in other countries hold any more attraction than the other large cities when a player is making a move. (more…)

Newer Entries