A New Champions League & The Old Alex Ferguson

All sorts of insanity happened today. Not only did one of the quarterfinals produce a French team – who saw that coming pregame? – but we’re about to enter uncharted territories: the UEFA Champions League semifinals without an English team.

Not since 2003 – back when Italian teams were still good at football and Real Madrid knew how to get beyond the first found – have we had a funny sounding (read: no English) Champions League semifinal. In fact, all of Europe’s top five leagues are represented but the Premier League. It’s like a foreign land or something.

Let’s start this bad boy off with a slightly controversial quote emanating from somewhere in Europe:

“The key point in the game was red card. No doubt about it,” he told ITV.”

“They would never have got through if we’d had 11 on the field. Young boy, bit of inexperience. They got him sent off. Everyone sprinted towards the referee — typical Germans. You cannot dispute that, they are like that.”

Guess who?

That’s Alex Ferguson, whose teams have never lost a game on their own. Ever. (Technically they didn’t lose this one, either.) And considering there were only four actual Germans in the Bayern outfield, he’d do well to at least be thorough – since it was “everyone” – and slay the “typical” Dutch, French, Croatians, Belgians, and Argentines, too. He’d do just as well to buy YouTube and make sure to erase any evidence of ManU doing the exact same…of which there is surely none.

Sir Alex has said some – perhaps many – unnecessary and ludicrous things in the past, increasing on an almost alarming and worrying scale. (The crazy grandpa scale.) This one has gone too far, and with a helping hand from UEFA, is very likely to bite him back very hard, very soon. Didier Drogba concurs:

Getting on with the actual tournament, here’s how it shapes up:

Quite conveniently, we have precedents on both sides: Barca & Inter have met twice already this year, whilst Bayern & Lyon danced during last year’s groups.

Barca v Inter

There’s little doubt Barcelona are the favorites to retain, which should please Jose, who loves nothing more than when the world is against him, but the even bigger favorite is that little Argentine fellow everyone’s been yammering about for the last 24h.

The first two meetings:

0-0, San Siro
2-0 Barca, Camp Nou

Would a 2-0 aggregate Barcelona win with a stale nil-nil at the San Siro surprise anyone the second time around? Likely not.

Bayern v Lyon

These games are less worthy of comparison for obvious reasons, but the group matchup from 08/09 provides a slight glimpse. For some of the players. Sort of.

1-1, Allianz
3-2 Bayern, Stade Gerland

But the lineups look radically different, as does the coach on one side.

So with that in mind, predictions at the ready….

The final:

Bayern/Lyon v Barca/Inter

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Category: Champions League