UEFA Champions League
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: ANOTHER TEST FOR MADRID’S CARETAKER COACH
BY APESIN ADEMOLA.
Real Madrid highlight Day 2 of Matchday 4 in the UEFA Champions League. Caretaker coach Santiago Solari has steered the defending champions away from what appears to be a free fall in the last weeks of Julen Lopetegui, who got fired as manager following the 5-1 humiliation by Barcelona at Camp Nou.
In six matches before them at home and in the continent, Los Blancos won only one match in six straight fixtures – and that was against tonight’s opposition at Santiago Bernabeu. A 2-1 win over lightweight Plzeň is quite pedestrian considering Madrid’s pedigree.
Solari has produced 100% percent result since he took over temporarily – one victory in the Copa del Rey followed by another in LaLiga. With the lacklustre performance of Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio at the weekend against Real Valladolid, Isco may be an inclusion on the left of Solari’s three man attack. It is speculated that former Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois may make his Champions League debut for Madrid in place of Keylor Navas.
Madrid won the first leg at home 2-1 and lead Group G on superior goal difference over AS Roma, who are away to CSKA Moscow.
In Rome two weeks ago, Roma beat CSKA 3-0, and the Russian side will be striving at a positive result to step up to second place, at the least.
The teams have met five times in UEFA competitions with Roma winning three times and CSKA once.
Juventus will qualify from Group H for the Round of 16 if they avoid defeat at home to Manchester United who are on revenge mission at Turin. The Old Lady triumphed at Old Trafford 1-0 in the first leg.
Attention will be focused on Cristiano Ronaldo who is yet to score in his last five Champions League matches, including three in the shirts of Juventus. Since converting a 90th minute penalty against his present club for Real Madrid in April, the top class act has played 389 matches and attempted 15 shots without success in the continental competition.
United have only four points from a possible nine and may not advance beyond the group stage unless they produce results beginning from tonight’s match. Jose Mourinho’s side have failed to score in their last two Champions League fixtures.
Valencia breathe down on Manchester United being only two points behind the English club. The LaLiga team settled for a 1-1 result in the reverse fixture away to Young Boys, who are at the foot of the table with one point from three matches.
In Group E, Bayern München and AFC Ajax set the pace, and both sides will book their spots in the second round if they achieve a double over their respective opponents.
The Bavarians are occupying the unlikely third spot in the Bundesliga, which they have won a record 28 times, including successively in the last six seasons. The Germans will have to prove they remain a major force by achieving a double over AEK Athens having won the first leg away 2-0.
Whichever of the top teams in this group that failed to win will still remain in the Round of 16 qualification range since Benfica, in No 3, are presently four points adrift of the top two. Benfica host AFC Ajax, who won the first leg 1-0.
Manchester City are ruthless at home, leading the charge in the English Premier League after winning nine matches and drawing the remaining two. But they need to translate that form to Europe.
In Group F, City have won two and lost one but held on to top spot with one point above Olympique Lyonnais.
Pep Guardiola’s squad are expected to deal with the challenge by Shakhtar Donetsk tonight, who lost the first leg 3-0.
Lyon, in second place in the group, squandered the opportunity to pick maximum points in their last group match as hosts Hoffenheim drew level 3-3 in added time. Another opportunity presents itself for Lyon tonight to go one gear up as they host the German side, who have garnered only two points from their first three group fixtures.
Fixtures…
Group E:
- Bayern München v AEK Athens (first leg Bayern München 2-0)
- Benfica v AFC Ajax (first leg AFC Ajax 1-0) (both 9pm)
Group F:
- Olympique Lyonnais v 1899 Hoffenheim (first leg 3-3)
- Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk (first leg Manchester City 3-0) (9pm)
Group G:
- CSKA Moscow v AS Roma (first leg AS Roma 3-0) (6:55pm),
- FC Viktoria Plzeň v Real Madrid (first leg Real Madrid 2-1) (9pm)
Group H:
- Valencia v Young Boys (first leg 1-1) (6:55pm)
- Juventus v Manchester United (first leg Juventus 1-0) (9pm)
Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.
LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.
England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.
Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.
They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.
-Reuters
Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.
“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”
When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.
But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.
“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.
Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.
“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”
-Reuters
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Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.
Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.
Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.
Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.
They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.
“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”
A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.
But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.
“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”
PENALTY MISS
Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.
Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.
Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.
It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.
After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.
That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.
Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.
Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.
William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.
Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.
-Reuters
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