By Umid Dey.
When Santi Cazorla joined
Juventus are
Milan
lost 2 of their best players in Thiago Silva and Ibrahimovic to PSG – Juve, in
contrast, have strengthened by signing great players like Asamoah and Isla.
Showing no disrespect to Milan ,
Juve look like the only Italian team capable of going far in the Champions
League.
Milan fans will be hoping
that Milan pull off a miracle like Chelsea did last season
…. but it looks unlikely.
Malaga
When Santi Cazorla joined Malaga from Villarreal last summer, the
Yellow Submarines got hit hard. So hard that they failed to win a single game
in the group stages of last season’s Champions League.
This summer, same was expected with Malaga when their talisman was sold to
Arsenal. All of those expectations, however, don’t look like will get fulfilled
as Malaga have
made a terrific start – both in La Liga and the Champions League.
With the sale of Santi Cazorla, the task to perform well and
fill in his boots fell on the young shoulders of Isco – and the 20 year-old
has, so far, done an excellent job for his team.
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| Malaga's New Messiah |
The youngster put in a stunning performance by scoring twice
in Malaga ’s 3-0
win over Zenit on Tuesday – a Zenit team which had the likes of Hulk, Bruno
Alves, Shirokov, Lombaerts et al in it.
Albeit it’s too early in the season, if the way Malaga have played so far this season is anything to go by, then we might as well say that Malaga are doing just fine without Santi Cazorla.
Albeit it’s too early in the season, if the way Malaga have played so far this season is anything to go by, then we might as well say that Malaga are doing just fine without Santi Cazorla.
Barca are over-reliant on Messi….
When Arsenal were being mocked as an one-man-team last
season, there was this another team in Catalonia
who could have been labeled the same: Barcelona .
The Catalan Club, at times last season, had to solely
rely on Messi to win them games – and he indeed won them some games
single-handedly, but that wasn’t enough to secure the Champions League or La
Liga title.
The same happened last night as well – the Argentine
talisman had to score twice in the last ten minutes to win Barca the game after
them being 2-1 down at Camp
Nou
Whether Messi can save Barca like this every time is yet to
be seen, but the chances of that aren’t 100% as Messi is, after all, a Human
and can have bad games – and Barca will need to find a solution when that
happens, or else they might lose it again like last season.
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| Barca's One Man: Messi |
Juventus are Italy
Ah, the Old Lady is back to where it belongs: the Champions
League.
After 3 years of absence in Europe ’s
elite competition, Juve finally kicked off their Champions League campaign
against defending champions, Chelsea. Things weren’t looking bright for Juve
when Oscar scored twice to give Chelsea
a 2-0 lead.
Then a saviour appeared in Arturo Vidal.
The Chilean scored a brilliant goal just before half-time to
give Juve a chance to get back into the game. Vidal looked like he was playing
through an injury barrier – such dedicated players are needed in a team if they
are to challenge for silverware.
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| Juve's Saviour |
And then Quagliarella scored in the 80th minute
to tie the scores at 2-2.
It was a great comeback from Juve, especially considering
that they were up against a very strong Chelsea
side and were playing in the Champions League after a long time. They also
showcased their great mental strength – they went unbeaten last season and have
not lost a game, so far, this season as well.
Things, however, don’t look bright for the other Italian
Club in the Champions League, Milan .
They drew against Anderlecht 0-0 at San Siro
and it was uninspiring.
Milanisti might argue that Juve also drew, so Milan drawing isn’t a big
deal. However, Juve drew against a strong Chelsea
team at Stamford Bridge Milan , on the other hand, drew in
their own backyard against Anderlecht and the
manner in which they played wasn’t inspiring.
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| Frustrated Pazzini |
Champions League is Karim Benzema’s competition….
Didn’t score for Club or Country since May 2012. Had a
torrid Euro 2012 with France .
Had a woeful start with Real Madrid this season. Yes, that’s Karim Benzema.
Prior to the City game, Karim Benzema was going through a
drought – he hadn’t scored a goal for more than 800+ minutes.
Real Madrid were trailing 2-1, with just 5 minutes to go,
after Kolarov gave City the lead once again by scoring from a free-kick. Every
City fan were convinced that their team would come out of the Bernabeu with all
3 points.
But it wasn’t to be because Benzema had something else in
mind.
Benzema received the ball on the edge of the box, turned
Nastasic – who was having a storming game – in the wrong direction with his
first touch and shot the ball straight into the right bottom-corner. Hart
couldn’t save this one and Benzema had finally broken his goal drought.
And what better an occasion to end the drought?
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| 'I own the Champions League!' |
Benzema has scored 26 goals in 43 Champions League
appearances. It was his performances in the Champions League for Lyon that drew a lot of
attention. When it comes to Champions League, it is almost guaranteed that
Benzema will deliver an awe-inspiring performance.
Real Madrid
lost Mr. Champions League, Raul, in 2010 – but they have found another one in
Benzema; Mr. Champions League Junior.
How not to take penalties….
Bayern Munich, Schalke, Dortmund & Manchester United –
what is common between these four teams? All of them were awarded with a penalty each
and all of their takers failed to score from it.
There was once a time when penalties made heroes out of
the takers – they would almost always score from them. Lately, it is the
goalkeepers who are getting the better of the penalty-takers and making them
look like fools instead of heroes.
If you ever want to learn on how to not take penalties, then
you should watch the way Nani, Hummels, Mandzukic & Huntelaar took their
spot-kicks this midweek.
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| This is how you take a penalty....not |
Varane, Nastasic, Isco & Veratti are the stars of the future….
When City’s and Real’s starting XI came out, everyone was
surprised – two talented 19 year-old center backs were in it; one for Real and
the other for City.
Almost everyone expected Ramos to start for Real and Lescott for City. Instead, a 19 year old Varane filled in the boots of Ramos
& another 19 year old Nastasic took Lescott’s place.
And both of them had a tremendous game.
You may ask how did Real concede 2 and City concede 3 if
they both had great games. Here’s why: Kompany had a terrible game; arguably
his worst game ever since becoming an undisputed starter at City (was heavily
at fault for Cristiano’s winning goal) and all of Real Madrid’s goals were
scored from outside the box – blatantly revealing the inability of City’s
deep-midfielder to close down the space.
Apart from Benzema’s goal, where the Frenchmen schooled
Nastasic, the teenager had a brilliant game and showed the World why he is one
of the most hyped defenders out there.
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| The Future Of City's Defense |
And Varane; none of the goals Real conceded were his fault –
one came directly from a set-piece and the other from a counter-attack goal
where he had to close down Yaya Toure (Pepe should have tracked Dzeko). He was
astute with his defending and brilliantly organised the defense when City were
building an attack. His composure is way beyond his years.
Now onto Veratti.
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| The Future Of Real Madrid's Defense |
A lot is expected of him, a lot of Italians see him as the
next Pirlo; but I can assure you that he won’t be the next Pirlo – he will be
the new Veratti.
Against Kiev , he showed that
his incredible performance against Toulouse
was no one-match wonder. Against Toulouse ,
he did everything you could ask from a midfielder: defend, set the tempo by
spraying passes & play some amazing long-balls.
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| The Marco Verratti |
And he did the same against Kiev.
It is absolutely astonishing how a 20 year old has so many
skills; he can read the game so well that he is always in the right defensive
position at the right time, he can pass it, has good ball-control, has great
vision and is really brave.
I have already written about Isco earlier in this article, so I will keep it till there for him. If these 4 keep progressing the way they are now, then that
day isn’t far when these 4 would be in the list of Ballon d’Or candidates.
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