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Posts Tagged ‘Chelsea’

Today we are going to honor one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League. ¿Do you know who we are talking about? We refer to Petr Chec, the Chelsea´s goalkeeper the team that recently won the Champions League.

Chec has won the best Champions League Goalkeeper Award on three occasions. He has also won the Golden Gloves of Premier League Award and he has been recognized as the Best Goalkeeper in the World by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.

In addition to that, Chec is a reference for his country, where he has won seven times the Czech Republic´s Golden Ball. With this kind of track records, it is no wonder everybody considers him the strongest link of his National Team.

His level of excellence does not stop hear. His professionalism gets to the point of studying all penalty shots from the Bayern´s players before the final of Champions League. Will he do the same for his National Team? It’s better not to underestimate him and see what happens.

We have listened some rumors before Guardiola decided to leave FC Barcelona. Of course, the most yellow press advertised that Abramovich was willing to pay a very high amount of money for the Catalan coach to lead the Blues team.

According to The Sun, the Russian billionaire is ready to pay Guardiola a yearly salary of 11 million pounds, with no pressure about winning titles the first two seasons, to give him room to adapt Chelsea to his own way of playing.

It’s seems complicated to convince Guardiola, who has commented more than once his wish to rest for a year. However, Abravovich doesn´t surrender that easily because his generous offers includes hiring Leo Messi, meaning that he is ready to pay the 250 million of Euros clause that Joan Laporta fixed to lock the Argentinean.

It appears that Chelsea owner is determined to get his team off the ground and he doesn´t care about how much it costs to get it done. Will Abramovich have it his way?

Chief Executive League Manager´s Association Richard Bevan says that Chelsea´s owner decision to sack Andre Villas-Boas is an embarrassment to the Premier League.

In nine years Chelsea´s owner Roman Abramovich has hired, and fired, eight managers, with Villas-Boas being the last of the saga.

According to Bevan “What´s for sure is the club, despite unlimited wealth, haven´t yet worked out how to build a successful football club”

On the other hand, Villas-Boas claims that he was not given enough time to connect with the players and to take his plan into the next level.

And now the question is… who will replace the Portuguese?

Roberti Di Matteo second in command up until now will be in charge of the team; at least until the end of the season, but the speculation dance has already begun. The two names that sound the most are right now the top rated managers in the world, playing in the same League: Real Madrid´s Mourinho and FC Barcelona´s Pep Guardiola. The first one has already made clear that he wants to return to the Premier, and Guardiola has not renew his contract with FC Barcelona yet, in fact, is taking him longer than ever to decide over his future in the club.

Who, at the end, will have the courage to become the ninth manager in nine years in a team full of aging players, owned by a capricious multimillionaire difficult to please?

What is going on? Last year three English sides were up for the title in quarter-finals. Now the reputation of English football relies only on Chelsea.

Manchester City and Manchester United did not pass the initial stages of the competition, and Arsenal was swept away by an amazing Milan lead by an even more amazing Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Of course, a second leg still remains to be played, but, frankly, even Arsène Wegner is pessimistic, saying that their performance, last Wednesday, was “the worst in Europe ever”. Something similar was said a few days ago when Chelsea´s manager Andre Villas-Boas stated that his team defeat to Everton (2-0) was the worst of the season so far. So let´s just way that right now it is difficult to have faith on Chelsea, the only English team alive in Champions. They will face Napoli next Tuesday in Stadio San Paolo.

If neither Arsenal nor Chelsea passes this round, it would mean the worst European Cup performance in 16 years by English teams.

On the other side, Italian football seems to be making a comeback. Napoli beat Manchester City, and Milan crashed Arsenal.

Could it be that Italians are back, and English teams are rapidly fading way? Or are we jumping to conclusions too soon?

Allegations of racism in the Premier League are sadly becoming news. One of the most shocking incidents involves Liverpool´s Luis Suárez, who allegedly racially abused Manchester United´s Patrice Evra in a match that took place October 15th in Anfield.

If you are not familiar with what happened, it appears that Suárez kicked Evra, and when Evra asked why he had been so aggressive, Suárez reportedly said that “because you are black”. But the accusations do not stop here. The English Football Association report indicates that Suárez is alleged to have said “black” to Evra seven times in two minutes.

This not the only case of this nature taking place in the Premier league. Also in October, Chelsea´s John Terry reportedly used a racial slur against Queens Park Rangers Anton Ferdinand, although Terry denies it.

The English Football Association has already taken actions against both players, Terry and Suárez. Suárez has been banned for eight games; Liverpool has until January 13 to appeal if the club decides to do so. Terry faces a criminal charge, and his case will be heard at a London magistrate´s court in February.

But whatever the outcome, we can only conclude that it is a real shame that we have to continue talking about this issue, and now involving such great players from such emblematic teams. We hope that racism disappears, not only because of the popularity of the people involved in these incidents, or because the Olympics are getting closer, but because it is the right thing to do, and because London has to show the world that it is a city that embraces its multicultural component with maturity.

Plenty of goals and records in the last round of Champions League matches, all coming from FC Barcelona.

The highlight: Lionel Messi and his fabulous hat-trick, becoming the second 200 goal scorer in FC Barcelona´s history. It was also the day Pep Guardiola coached his 200th official game for Barça and goalkeeper Victor Valdes set a new Barcelona record for minutes without conceding a goal.

On Group G Zenit won Shakhtar Donetsk (1-0) with an only goal from Nicolas Lombaerts. And Apoel surprisingly remains the group´s leader after beating Porto (2-1)

On Group H an early and only goal from Ibrahimovic wasn´t enough for Milan, that had to settled with a draw against Bate Borisov (1-1). And now the match of records: Plzen players did whatever they could but still had to endure the whole force of FC Barcelona (hat-trick from Messi included ) losing (0-4)

On Group E Valencia beat Bayern Leverkusen (3-1) with one of the quickest goals to remember. The Brazilian Jonas scored after only 12 seconds from the start of the match. And Chelsea doesn’t seem to be at its best moment, getting just a draw with Genk (1-1)

On Group F there were few goals. Arsenal and Marseille finished with a draw (0-0). The euphoria after beating Chelsea (5-3) on the Premier did not last and even though they tried, Arsenal players did not score a single time.
The only goal in this group was from Borussia Dortmund ´s Kevin Grosskreutz, giving his team a victory over Olympiacos (1-0)

On Group A there were plenty of goals between Bayern and Napoli, (3-2) with a hat-trick from Mario Gomez that secured the victory for the Germans. On a sad note, Bastian Schwinsteiger fractured his collarbone in the 51st minute in an unfortunate collision with Gökhan Inler. Manchester City smashed Villarreal hopes, now eliminated from the tournament (0-3)

On Group B no goals in Turkey between Trabzonspor and CSKA Moskva (0-0). And Inter beat Lille (2-1), thanks to goals from Walter Samuel and Diego Milito.

On Group C Manchester United did their homework at Old Trafford beating Otelul Galati (2-0). Benfica got a home draw (1-1) against Basel, missing the opportunity to secure qualification.

On Group D Real Madrid did as expected of them in France, beating Olympique Lyonnais (0-2) with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice, thanks to a free-kick and and a penalty. Ajax also won easily, and with style, Dinamo Zagreb (4-0)

Next Champions activity on November 22nd and 23rd

Another round of Champions League matches went by without surprises.

AC Milan, FC Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester, CSKA Moscow, Manchester United, Ajax, Real Madrid, and Olympiakos beat their opponents as expected. The highlights were Madrid´s easy win over Olympique Lyonnais (4-0) and Chelsea’s 5 goals against Genk, two of them from Fernando Torres.

Let´s start with Group H, were AC Milan and Barcelona both shared the same result beating their team (2-0). Milan went ahead with a strong Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and after that the whole match was a stroll for the Italians that won effortless against Bate Borisov. Barcelona had multiple occasions, mostly came from Messi, but at the end it was Iniesta and later on David Villa the ones that ended up scoring.

On Group A, Bayer Munich dropped their first points of the Champions League against Napoli (1-1) and Manchester City beat Villarreal only a few minutes away from the end, thanks to Sergio Aguero that scored the second goal for the City (2-1)

On Group C, Benfica beat Basel, (2-0) and Manchester United registered their first Champions League win of the season against SC Otelul Galati (2-0)

On Group B, CSKA Moskva beat Trabzonspor (3-0) with a stellar performance from Seydou Doumbia who scored twice. Inter Milan won over Lille (0-1)

On Group D, Real Madrid was the highlight of Tuesday night matches beating easily Olympique Lyonnais (4-0). Ajax won away against Dinamo Zagreb (0-2)

The following day, on Group E it was Chelsea’s turn to hit the net on multiple occasions beating Genk (5-0) with two goals from Fernando Torres. Bayer Leverkusen wiped off Valencia´s hope beating the Spanish team (2-1)

On Group F Arsenal beat Marseille (0-1) and Olympiakos won Dortmund (3-1)

On Group G there were two draws, Shakhtar Donetsk against Zenith (2-2) and FC Porto-Apoel Nicosia (1-1)

The first qualifying round will continue on November 1st and 2nd.