Basel Must Get a Win at the Stadio Olimpico

After losing their first two group games in Group E of the Champions League, tonight presents a must-win game for the Swiss Super League champions FC Basel. A defeat puts them all but mathematically out of the competition. This will be no easy task though as they travel to the Stadio Olimpico to take on AS Roma.

Basel do not have a great record on the road in Italy, being unable to get a win in any of their last four visits. Nevertheless they do have experience of knocking the Roman team out of major competition as when these two sides met in the Europa League knock-out stages last season.

Better luck for Roma this time around though in the Italian capital and back in Switzerland would put them in a commanding position in the group after a start which saw a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of Munich. Both sides have had limited Champions League success in recent seasons and will be looking to start making amends tonight.

Rubin Kazan 1-1 Barcelona

My internet at my new flat here is awful but just a quick note to ask what exactly is it about Rubin that seems to bother the mighty Barcelona? It needed a 60th minute penalty from David Villa to rescue a point after the Russian side took a lead in the first half. A full report is here courtesy of ESPN http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=307839&cc=5739 but in my opinion Rubin will still struggle to go through in a group which also has Copenhagen in and the Danish side were in top form tonight with a dominant win away in Greece against Panathinaikos.

Arsenal 6-0 Braga

Arsenal and Braga play very similar styles of play with lovely passing movements and inter-play but this evening it was the London club who showed the pretenders how it is really done and ended up tearing the Portuguese side apart. Braga may have only lost narrowly away at Porto at the weekend but this evening at the Emirates was a short shrifted welcome to the Champions League proper.

Arsenal were dominant right from the first whistle and never looked back. Within three minutes they even had a penalty appeal turned down. Braga, to be fair to them, did try and play their normal expansive game rather than sit back and defend (like most teams would have done at the Emirates) but this did allow the Gunners to play their traditional, stylish brand of football.

We only had to wait eight minutes for the first goal as Chamakh was played through but brought down by Felipe in the Braga goal. The Brazilian stopper received a yellow card for his troubles and even went the right way for the subsequent penalty. Fabregas though knew what he was doing and Arsenal opened their account.

This first goal didn't scare Braga off but rather they settled into the game and began to ask some questions of the Arsenal defence. Their backline though rarely looked out of sorts and the home side continued to control the game with almost two-thirds of possession. They also persisted in stretching the Braga backline in search of goal number two. This came after 30 minutes when some fantastic work by Fabregas allowed Arshavin through and the Russian beat Felipe at the near post; a goalkeeping cardinal sin.

We then only had to wait four minutes for number three which came courtesy of yet more beautiful inter-play between the Arsenal team. It was Wilshire who eventually got the assist with a beautiful flick through which was polished off by Chamakh. It would be unfair to say Braga were clueless because Arsenal were just so good. Even when the home side weren't in possession they continued to press and the visitors simply could not maintain a period of sustained possession themselves.

After the break Braga still looked for a way back into the game but the truth of the matter was that the Gunners were far too good to concede. The game and Braga were, for me, killed off completely in the 53rd minute when the Portuguese sides defence was once again unlocked with apparent ease and a cross floated in by Arshavin found Fabregas unmarked at the backpost who had a simple header for his second and the team's fourth.

Arsenal continued to push and Fabregas, Chamakh and Arshavin all had a chance to add a fifth before substitute Carlos Vela finally did the honours only five minutes after coming on. The game was already over by this point anyway and by the time Vela got the sixth in the 84th minute a number of fans may have already left the stadium.

A dominant and confident start to Arsenal's Champions League campaign then and whilst Braga weren't awful, per se, they were vastly out-classed. The Gunners now face an interesting juxtaposition of games as they travel up North for Saturday's clash with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. It might be a fair assessment to say that this will be the harder game. Arsenal are allowed to play their free-flowing, attractive football in Europe but domestically it is teams like Sunderland that really know how to get under their skin and stop them playing by whatever means necessary. Wenger needs to learn how to adapt to this if his team are to be as successful in the Premier League as they are in the Champions League.

Celtic 2-0 Utrecht

In the end this was a comfortable win for Celtic as two goals in the first half gave them a comfortable lead to take to Holland next week for the second leg.

Apologies for any mistakes in the diagram but the Celtic's own coverage was not great and made the game hard to follow. I think I've just about got it right though. Celtic certainly played a 4-5-1 and for much of the game this was a simple flat midfield. When Celtic were pushing forward though they began to look like a 4-2-3-1 as the diagram tries to indicate. Samaras in particular had a fluid role as the target man which allowed for play to build around him.

The first half was particularly exciting and Utrecht had the first chance after only 4 minutes when Malenga headed over from a lovely ball into the box. On 12 minutes Celtic had their first major chance and really should have gone 1-0 up. Some well worked play down the left by Samaras left Maloney with the goal at his mercy but the Scotsman rolled a tame shot towards the goal that was easily gathered by the sprawling Vorm in the Utrecht goal.

Celtic didn't have to wait much longer for their first goal though as a lovely through ball from central midfield was left by Samaras for Juarez to be through on goal and the Mexican did not disappoint as he finished well. Utrecht nearly got back in the game immediately as Cha gave away an unnecessary free kick near the corner flag and Wuytens headed wide from the crossed ball.

The Scottish side doubled their lead shortly after the half hour mark as some good build-up play by Cha Du-Ri allowed Samaras to strike home. Utrecht nearly got a goal back just before half-time but Mertens long-range strike was fired wide of the right-hand post.

After what had been a wonderfully open first half, the second period proved to be a much more cagey affair as Utrecht seemed to sit back and were prepared to take a 2-0 defeat back to the Netherlands. The main attacking force for the Dutch club became French substitute Duplan down the right but he lacked any real penetration or support from his fellow players to make a dent in the Celtic left. In fact it is worth noting that Ledley had a great game in the left-back position despite it not being his favourite position by any means.

Celtic are favourites to go on and win the tie next week in Utrecht and the Dutch side may come to regret not making more of an effort to go after the game in the second half this evening.

Man of the Match: Baram Kayal
The new signing from Israel commanded the centre of the pitch and showed a maturity far beyond his years during the all important first half in Glasgow this evening. An injury meant he left the pitch in the 69th minute but by this point the game was already won. Celtic fans must be hoping though that the injury is not too serious and that Kayal will be back for the second leg in a weeks time.

Werder Bremen 3-1 Sampdoria

Tactically this was a 4-4-2 diamond vs a straight 4-4-2 but the real battle was one of styles. The tireless onslaught of the Germans against the canny defending by the Italians. With 16 players on the pitch from the country in which their team played this was billed as the real fight between Serie A and the Bundesliga after the Inter team that beat Bayern Munich in May's final were hardly Italian.

This proved to be true this evening and it is the German side who have the advantage going into the second leg in a week's time in Italy. The match began with the Germans coming forward but were unable to break down the resolute Sampdoria defence that would hold on for so long. This was all summed up very nicely on 25 minutes when the TV coverage showed that possession was 66%-34% in favour of Werder Bremen. A few minutes later and they had nearly blown the house down as Almeida connected with a header from close range but the ball went over; clipping the bar on the way.

It was not all one way traffic as just after the half hour mark, Ziegler sent in a free kick from the right and Gastaldello had a good header on goal. It wouldn't have counted though as the referee blew for the foul. So goalless at half-time but an entertaining 45 minutes of football. Bremen were by far and away the more dominant side but did not look like scoring.

The second half began in the same vain until a moment of inspiration from Clemens Fritz in the 50th minute gave the game it's first goal. A poor clearance from the Doria defence gave the ball to Fritz who was about 30 yards out. He took the ball inside and hammered it across goal into the far top-left corner. Probably one of the best goals the right-back will score and potentially the most important too!

Sampdoria did not crack at this point and only about ten minutes later an attacking overload allowed Pazzini through one on one but he was denied an equaliser by the post. Only a few minutes after this Pazzini was through again but was marginally offside.

The main turning point in the game came in the 66th minute. A Werder Bremen corner hardly had time to enter the box before the ref had blown for a penalty and sent off Lucchini for tugging the shirt of a Bremen attacker. Both a controversial and harsh decision in my opinion. The commentator who I had on was ecstatic that finally a referee was doing something about this sort of thing which happens in every game but such a rule is impossible to enforce consistently and the 'foul' is hardly dangerous. Nevertheless Lucchini walked and Frings was fortunate to beat Curci who dived the right way.

A dis-orientated Sampdoria were then beaten again minutes later as Pizarro played a nice one-two with Almeida to beat the defence and then slotted home past Curci for 3-0. Sampdoria then began to settle back into the game but it was only in the 77th minute that they came close again with substitute Guberti curling a long-range effort wide of the post.

Sampdoria probably deserved something from the game and they got an away goal in the final minute as Stankevicius put in a cross form the right, Pazzini lost his marker and headed home. This is what the tie most probably needed. The German side are certainly favourites to go through but are unlikely to score against the Italian sides defence in Genoa next week. However, with Doria being forced to come forward and score at least two goals perhaps this could lead to gaps in the back line and an open game.

Man of the Match: Clemens Fritz
Fritz not only scored the fantastic goal which broke the deadlock but consistently pushed up the pitch on the right side and often looked a threat to the Sampdoria left.

Young Boys 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs got a shock in the opening half an hour of their Champions League campaign going behind 3-0 to a vastly superior Young Boys (YB). The Swiss team dominated the opening phase of the game and took full advantage of a Spurs side who looked out of sorts on the artificial pitch.

One is always wary to blame the pitch in such circumstances as it takes credit away from YB but Spurs had an unusually high defensive line early on which allowed the midfielders to simply play the ball through and penetrate the English sides defence. The pitch helped YB in this tactic as the ball did not skid across the surface in the way that many of the Spurs players would have been used to and this allowed YB to take a 2-0 lead after on 15 minutes played.

Spurs then began to launch something of an attack and Defoe needed only a touch to put in a cross that came in from the left but this really wasn't Spurs half. This attack also did nothing to sure up the defensive frailties as only minutes later Gomes and Bassong collided after indecision on how to deal with a high ball. It was only a matter of time before YB would score again and they duly delivered on the 29th minute when the Spurs defence was exposed again and Hochstrasser left Bassong standing to cooly slot past Gomes.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp knew that he would have to do something and decided not to wait until half-time. Assou-Ekotto (who had a howler) was replaced by Tom Huddlestone. Huddlestone took his place in central midfield as Bale moved back to left back and Modric took up Bale's place on the left-wing (see diagram on right). Such an early change would have unsettled a lot of teams but it seemed to inspire a degree of confidence that meant they did not concede again before half-time. In fact eight minutes after the substitution Spurs got a goal back much to the relief of players, manager and fans alike. The goal was a simple headed corner by Bassong but the effect was powerful.

YB were by far the better side overall in the first period despite being the happier side to hear the half-time whistle. Tactically they were more astute and really made use of the extra man they had in he midfield. Although he didn't score, the best player of that half was Costanzo who was a dominant figure in the centre of the pitch.

Spurs continued at the start of the second half with the dynamism they had shown at the end of the first and only two minutes in, a dangerous cross from Corluka had to be gathered by Wölfli in the YB goal. Spurs were by now playing a much more simple passing game that allowed them to retain possession for extended periods and was a far cry from the 'rabbit in the headlights' team that conceded three times in the first thirty minutes.

The game then began to even out but as we approached the final ten minutes Spurs looked like they wanted a second goal to take back to White Hart Lane in a weeks time. However it was YB who were presented with the chances to put the game out of sight. Within two minutes of each other, YB had fast-paced counter-attacks that left the Spurs defence for dead. On both occasions though YB substitute Schneuwly put the ball over the crossbar.

He would come to regret this minutes later as this time Spurs unlocked the YB defence down the right and Pavlyuchenko hammered the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle; certainly the pick of the goals. From this point both teams looked relatively happy to sit back with the 3-2 scoreline and a great second leg now awaits us next week in North London.

Fenerbahce 0-1 Young Boys

A night to forget for Fenerbahce as they crash out of the Champions League at the start of August. It is only just over a month ago that the Turkish club parted ways with German manager Christoph Daum and since then the Fenerbahce sporting director has become the manager. However such an early exit will make him immediately unpopular and the nature of the defeat only serves to emphasise this.

Their opponents, Young Boys from Switzerland, should still be given their due though. After a 2-2 draw in Bern, Fenerbahce were expected to finish off the job at home but a strong performance by Vladimir Petković's men sees them through to meet a high profile side like Sampdoria or Werder Bremen and only two games away from the group stages.

Fenerbahce started this evenings game brightly enough but were soon forced back by a strong Swiss side who were clearly not going to roll over. Their intention to score goals was made clear by a strong attacking partnership of Costanzo and Bienvenu with Lulic and Degen often penetrating on their respective wings with skill and pace.

Real clear cut chance for Young Boys were few and far between for much of the first half but when Doubai put Bienvenu through in the 40th minute, the Cameroonian made sure he finished. Meanwhile, Fenerbahce made little progress at the other end though this was not for want of trying. The Turkish side though struggled from only having 28 year old Gökhan Ünal up front on his own and he often got lost in the Young Boys back line. This solid defence meant Fenerbahce only had one shot on target during the entire first half and they were not to have any more in the second period.

They did suffer a setback relatively early on in the second half though that clearly affected the team. On 53 minutes,left-winger Stoch was sent off for a second bookable offence. The Slovak was judged to have dived when trying to win a penalty by referee, and fellow Eastern European, Alexey Nikolaev. This and three defensive subsitutions by Young Boys pretty much killed the game off.

A glimmer of hope appeared when Semih Sentürk joined Unal in attack. For the first time, Fenerbahce had two attackers on the pitch and looked a real threat. Unfortunately for Fenerbahce fans the subsitution was only made in the 81st minute and the equaliser never arrived.


In the end Young Boys won the game simply because they could score a goal; unlike their Turkish counterparts. Despite playing at home, Fenerbahce will have learned that relying on away goals to put you through is not a sensible tactic as their inability to penetrate the Swiss defence proved fatal. Of course the sending off didn't help and at the times the partnership of Stoch and Dia looked good. Neither ever looked like actually scoring though and the lone striker rarely looked like getting a touch, never mind hitting the back of the net.

Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 Aktobe

Hopefully not enough people follow this blog yet to take my awful betting advice. This is why I have no such betting accounts. I thought Aktobe from Kazakhstan could beat Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel after they won the first leg 1-0. For this you could even get odds of 14-1 from Betfair. There were shorter odds for the eventual result of 3-1.

Aktobe don't have a good memory of Champions League qualifiers against Israeli opposition. Only last year, after a 0-0 first leg, Aktobe were 3-0 to the good before ending up losing 4-3. This year the Kazakh side took a 1-0 advantage to Tel Aviv and had looked fairly decent in the first leg despite having one Hapoel shot cleared off the line.

Aktobe set out their stall to defend with five at the back and whilst their negative tactics could be criticised the whole catenaccio approach is unsurprising considering their loss of Evgeniy Averchenko in midfield and the injury to front man Ivan Peric.

Hapoel manager, Eli Gutman, though expressed before the game that he was prepared to be patient in the confidence that the best team would eventually win through. In the end he didn't have to wait too long for his side to open their account as after 16 minutes Eran Zehavi put the Tel Aviv side level on aggregate. The 23 year old striker seems to be getting into the knack of scoring vital goals for his club as it was his shot in extra-time that won the Israeli top league on the last day of the season.

Two more goals followed in the first half and for the rest of the game Hapoel looked in control and Aktobe's consolation goal in the 90th minute proved to be just that.

So Hapoel's passenaccio did for Aktobe's catenaccio and the Israeli side go marching on. In order for the team to get into the group stage of the Champions League they must beat another team from the 'Champions' section of the draw. But with this not looking particularly strong this year we could well see Tel Aviv as a venue for group games yet.

Welcome to the Site

First of all thank you very much for visiting.

For too long football blogs have been heavily focussed on one country or even one club and it is often hard to see the wood for the trees. This is my effort to look at football from a European perspective. Obviously this will include the international European Championship qualifiers that are coming up, the Champions League and the Europa League. At times I also plan to delve into one particular team to see how their tactics are faring in their respective league.

All that remains to be said is that I hope you enjoy the blog and the first proper post will be up soon!

(P.S. The name is based on the fact that I play on goal if you hadn't already guessed that. From time to time I will look at the performances of individual goalies as well.)