Posts Tagged ‘Sevilla’

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Manchester United are in prime position to finish second in the Premier League after the recent win over Liverpool and it is vital that the club now ends the season on a high note by holding on to that position.

Boss José Mourinho is currently under pressure after the defeat to Sevilla in the Champions League. While United have lost in the knockout stages in Europe’s elite club competition on a number of occasions during the last decade, it was the manner of the loss that rankled with fans. During both legs of the match, United were complacent and passive, failing to attack the La Liga side with any pace or purpose. (more…)

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Second in the Premier League and through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Not too shabby and in fact, if it hadn’t been for the way his team were knocked out of the Champion’s League by Sevilla, the cracks would be well and truly papered over.

However, Mourinho chose, in his warped way of doing things, to criticise his team after they had just won rather than when they deserved it following a pathetic performance in Europe.

Placing his favourite signing, Nemanja Matić, on a pedestal of invincibility, he proceeded to label the rest as not having the character or personality to play for Manchester United. He pointed out, as he had when Chelsea lost to Leicester shortly before he was sacked, that the players had failed to follow his instructions. (more…)

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(José Mourinho’s “couldn’t-care-less” attitude is annoying many United supporters and turning them against him)

Where to begin? That is the question.

José Mourinho is, without doubt, arrogant, selfish, ego-centric and has a superiority complex which would have had even the great Brian Clough questioning his own importance in the presence of such a man!

The difference between Mourinho and a manager Like Brian Clough is that Clough was always fairly honest in his interviews with the press. He knew that a lot of fans watched those question and answer sessions and he thought they deserved the truth.

After their pathetic performance against Sevilla, which resulted in yet another exit from the Champion’s League, the Portuguese had the chance to express his remorse. (more…)

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Following on from our article of yesterday in which we suggested that a draw between Manchester United and Liverpool would be the favoured result for Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur Hotspur, as they would all be able to gain two points on both teams, providing they win, of course.

There is another train of thought which suggests that the actual result of 2-1 to United gives the three a better chance of fighting for the top four as they can now gain THREE points on Liverpool. Providing they win, of course.

After a tactical battle at Old Trafford in which Liverpool had, by far, the majority of possession it was, as we mentioned, Manchester United who came out on top. (more…)

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Ilkay Gündoğan – Man-of-the-Match and two goals to boot.

After emphatic away wins for Manchester City and Liverpool they are both, barring disasters of seismic proportions, through to the quarter finals of the Champion’s League.

Having beaten Basel 4-0 in Switzerland City fans will be thinking that there will be tougher tests ahead and they would be right in so thinking.

The only question raised by the performance of the Swiss team is how they managed to beat Manchester United and Liverpool in the recent past!

On this form, which has been pretty consistent all season, City need fear nobody and are certainly a match for the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Münich. (more…)

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Yet again that mediocre La Liga has three teams through to the quarter finals of the Champion’s League, while that brilliant, exciting, competitive and just all-round good egg Premier League has one.

The good thing is that to prove it’s massive superiority over La Liga, it was a Premier League club which knocked out Sevilla. Yes, little old Leicester did what Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur couldn’t do, they made it through to the quarter finals. (more…)

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Well folks, it’s that time of the year again! European competition has returned with the start of the knockout stages of both the Champion’s League and the Europa League.

This article was supposed to be a preview of the two tournaments BEFORE any of the games had been played but, thanks to missed deadlines due to oversleeping, is now published after the first round of them has finished.

Fortunately only Arsenal, out of the English contingent, have played their first leg game and everybody knew what was going to happen before a ball was even kicked. (more…)

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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…)

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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…)

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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…)