Champions League 10/11 Group Stage Review

The group stage of the champions league has been concluded with absolutely no major surprises occurring with all the heavyweights progressing to the round of 16. It has been an entertaining round with a total of 276 goals scored; the most since 2002/2003.

Here is a review of all the groups along with my pre-tournament predictions:

Group A

Prediction: 1. Inter, 2. Werder Bremen, 3. Tottenham, 4. FC Twente

Final Standing

1) Tottenham.. 11pts

2) Inter.. 10pts

3) Werder Bremen.. 6pts

4) FC Twente.. 5pts

This group turned out to be one of the most exciting groups with plenty goals being scored and Tottenham surprised us somewhat by finishing above defending champions Inter and in the process setting a new record for number of goals scored by a debutant in the group stages. Tottenham have been tipped by some to have a good run in the tournament but I have my doubts about that. Questions have now been raised as to whether Inter will be able to respectably attempt defend their title.

Group B

Prediction: 1. Lyon, 2. Schalke, 3. Benfica, 4. Hapoel Tel Aviv

Final Standing

1) Schalke.. 13pts

2) Lyon.. 10pts

3) Benfica.. 6pts

4) Hapoel Tel Aviv.. 5pts

No real surprise here with both Lyon and Schalke progressing. These are two teams that the big guns wouldn't mind facing in the next round.

Group C

Prediction: 1. Manchester United, 2. Valencia, 3. Rangers, 4. Bursaspor

Final Standing

1) Manchester United.. 14pts

2) Valencia.. 11pts

3) Rangers.. 6pts

4) Bursaspor.. 1pt

Group C finished as expected. Despite Manchester United scoring very few goals, they finished the group strongly and came very close to setting a clean sheet record. Valencia qualified fairly comfortably in the end but were given a slight challenge by Rangers midway the group stage.

Group D

Prediction: 1. Barcelona, 2. Panathinaikos, 3. Rubin Kazan, 4. FC Kopenhavn

Final Standing

1) Barcelona.. 14pts

2) FC Kopenhavn.. 10pts

3) Rubin Kazan.. 6pts

4) Panathanaikos.. 2pts

Pre-tournament favourites Barcelona faced little resistance in this group and the final standing was virtually already decided. I personally predicted that Panathanaikos would have made it to the next round, however it turns out that they wont even make it to the Europa League.

Group E

Prediction: 1. Bayern Munich, 2. Roma, 3. Basel, 4. Cluj

Final Standing

1) Bayern Munich.. 15pts

2) Roma.. 10pts

3) Basel.. 6pts

4) Cluj.. 4pts

This group finished exactly as predicted, and despite Bayern's poor domestic form this swason, they finished five points clear of second place Roma in the end and qualified weeks in advance.

Group F

Prediction:

1. Chelsea, 2. Marseille, 3. Spartak Moscow, 4. Zilina

Final Standing

1) Chelsea.. 15pts

2) Marseille.. 12pts

3) Spartak Moscow.. 9pts

4) Zilina.. 0pts

Another group that finished as expected. Chelsea fell just short of finishing the group stage with a 100% record when they lost their final game away at Marseille. Before the tournament Chelsea were tipped to be serious challengers for the cup, but at the present moment appear to be rather unsure of themselves especially away from home. They will definitely be hoping they can get back to their best by next February.

Group G

Prediction:

1. Real Madrid, 2. A.C Milan, 3. Ajax, 4. Auxerre

Final Standing

1) Real Madrid.. 16pts

2) A.C Milan.. 8pts

3) Ajax.. 7pts

4) Auxerre.. 3pts

Real Madrid were the only team along with Barcelona and Manchester United to finish the group stage undefeated. Not only that, but they finished with the best goal difference, the most points and with the largest point margin between first and second place. They appear to be serious challengers and will be a force to be reckoned with in the knockout stages. A.C Milan were second best and only just that.

Group H

Prediction:

1. Arsenal, 2. Shakhtar Donetsk, 3. Braga, 4. Partizan

Final Standing

1) Shakhtar Donetsk.. 15pts

2) Arsenal.. 12pts

3) Braga.. 9pts

4) Partizan.. 0pts

Probably the only real surprise of the whole group stage as Arsenal were expected to top this group with ease, especially with how they started the tournament by defeating their opponents convincingly after their first three games. In the end it turned out to be more of a battle with their qualification secured late in their final game.

Round Of 16

The round of 16 draw will be made in Nyon on 17 December.

The group winners will be away in the round of 16 first legs on 15/16 and 22/23 February and at home in the return matches on 8/9 and 15/16 March. No team can play a club from their group or any side from the same association.

Hughton Out, Pardew In

Even though there was speculation, it was quite shocking to me when news broke that Chris Hughton was sacked as manager at Newcastle United. The football world would agree that Hughton did very well last season, leading the club right back into the Premier League by winning the Coca Cola Championship with relative ease, and was also doing fairly well this season. Hughton rightly deserved the opportunity to prove himself at the top level of English football, but once again we have witnessed a manager being sacked prematurely as a result of the impatience of club owners.

Newcastle's standing in the Premier League at the point of Haughton's sacking was 12th position with 19 points (only 5 of 21 promoted clubs to the premier league have achieved 19 points after 12 games), but apparently the Newcastle board was not satisfied. A statement coming out of the club - "the board feels that an individual with more managerial experience is needed to take the club forward".

Today we learn that Newcastle has hired Alan Pardew (if you ask me, a nonsensical decision based on their reasons for sacking Hughton) - with his only Premier League experience being that as manager of West Ham during the 05/06 season in which the club finished 9th and he was eventually sacked early in the 06/07 season after a poor run of results.

No doubt about it, the Magpies heirachy have taken a big gamble, and it is even a greater gamble with the fact that Pardew has signed a 5 year contract with the club.

At the beginning of the season most predictions would probably place Newcastle in a respectable mid-table position come the end of the season. My expectation still remain the same.

Mourinho Rigs Uefa's Disciplinary System ?

European giants Real Madrid on Matchday 5 secured top spot in Group G and qualification to the knockout stages of the Uefa Champions League with one game to spare after drubbing Ajax 4-0 at the Amsterdam Arena. The main topic of discussion after the game however was about the dismissals of both Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos late in the game by Scottish referee Craig Thomson.

The first sending off occurred in the 87th minute (Real Madrid leading 4-0) when Xabi Alonso kept running back and forth before taking a free kick which resulted in the referee issuing a second yellow card to the player after he was booked earlier in the game. The second sending off occurred after 90 minutes in added time when Sergio Ramos delayed the goal kick by first adjusting his socks, then began running back and forth just as Alonso did. The referee had no choice and was required by law to send off both players for time wasting.

It was obvious that Real Madrid were not being seriously pressed by the opposition players as the outcome of the game was virtually decided and thus these delays at the dying moments of the game did seem puzzling, which now leads to questions being raised as to whether or not these dismissals were planned by the coaching staff.

According to competition rules, a player is suspended for the next competition match after three cautions in three different matches. Both players were on two yellow cards prior to being sent off and would be on a yellow card watch for the upcoming games had they ended the match on the field. However, the case now is that they will both miss a pointless game against Auxerre and will now be free from concern about any immediate suspension for the round of 16 games.

In his post-match interview Mourinho claimed that he was unhappy with the sending offs and that his team were in control of the game therefore deeming the dismissals unnecessary. Then again, what do you expect him to say ?

United Finally Win Away

That long awaited victory on the road for Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League has finally come with a 2-1 Victory over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium today. Javier Hernandez registered a fine double, bagging a goal in either half to ensure that the Red Devils secured all three points.

This has been United's 5th away game of the season and once again it would've appeared that they were heading for their fourth straight draw after surrendering their lead late in the second half after leading 1 - 0 for most of the game.

Sir Alex will be hoping that this apparent 'away curse' has finally been broken and that that the team will now regain its confidence on the road after this result. It is also interesting to note that United are still unbeaten in all competitions so far this year.

Rooney Commits Future to United

Great news for anybody supporting Manchester United. Wayne Rooney has signed a contract committing his future to the club for the next five years.

In the first place it was absolutely shocking to hear that Wayne wanted to leave and now to hear that he has made sudden U-turn all in the space of a week makes this even more amazing.

Credit must be given to Sir Alex for how he handled the whole situation. He was determined put the whole situation to bed as soon as possible and get on with the more important matters of the club.

Wayne has already apologized to the manager and his team mates and its now time for him to start performing at the level that we all know he can. Hopefully the fans will all get behind him, as doing otherwise will be of no benefit to Wayne or Manchester United.

I've been hearing talk that the events of this week were staged and was some kind of a stunt, but again that's just speculation. I'm only surprised that a contract was signed as quickly as it was; which may just be an indication that this was not all about money as contract negotiations of such a nature generally take a hell of a time to sort out.

This whole development regarding Wayne's possible departure may not exactly have been a bad thought and might have done the club some good in the end. This may just be a wake up call for the Glaziers in more ways than one and might have also be a wake up call for the current squad of players at the club who may now may feel that there is a point to prove on the pitch.

Looking forward to the game on Sunday against Stoke !

Well Said Fergie

Sir Alex Ferguson's thoughts in his post match press conference, after Manchester United's 1 - 0 victory over Bursaspor in the Champions League, regarding Wayne Rooney's reasons for wanting to leave the club:

"To maintain the success at any football club is not a certainty, i.e. I always believe a four year cycle is probably the most you can achieve in terms of success. Very few teams can create more than that four year cycle. Last season we almost did it, we were one point short of winning the league for a record fourth time.

"We realised that to maintain that high consistency of being there challenging we had to inject youth into the club and we’ve been doing it for the last three or four years. We realised some years ago that Giggs, Scholes and Neville were never going to last forever and our policy is therefore to develop players within the club. We had a player that once said to me Rooney and Ronaldo weren’t good enough. Can you believe that? He actually said they weren’t good enough and he wasn’t prepared to wait until they were. That’s what happens, that’s the problem with potential – people don’t identify potential, they’re very poor at it. I’ve identified it all my life within young people – I know potential, I know how it can be developed and I know how to have faith in it - young people surprise you when you give them an opportunity. And that’s what this club is about. So when you see Manchester United at the moment with all these young players, you can’t see Manchester United three years ahead because you’re not thinking about that.

"We will invest in players when the time is right. This summer wasn’t the right time as far as I was concerned; there was no value for me. There was one player who we would have liked to have got but he chose another club. I don’t think he ever wanted to come to England anyway. Some players don’t want to leave their country, it’s a fact of life, some players are happy in their own country. Some players are happy to leave and Manchester United is always a big attraction for any player. If they don’t want to leave their country then we forget about it.

"In terms of the future of Manchester United there are a lot of things in my favour – history, the respect we have from people – if I told you how many agents phone my secretary every week about players who would love to play for us - and I don’t just mean run of the mill players, I’m talking about players at almost every club in the world - it would amaze you. It’s because this club still has that fantastic romance and respect from everyone.

"Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it’s a better cow than the one you’ve got in your own field. It’s a fact. But it never really works out that way. It’s probably the same cow which is only as good as your own cow. We have to deal with that – some players like to think that it’s a better world somewhere else, it never really works like that.

"As I said, three Premier League titles in a row is fantastic and we were within one point of a record fourth. It didn’t happen for us and we didn’t like that and we want to do something about it. We’ll be okay – I’ve got every confidence in that. We have a structure at the club which is good, we have the right staff, the right manager, the right chief executive, he’s a brilliant man. There’s nothing wrong with Manchester United, not a thing wrong with it. So we’ll carry on."

What Rooney May Have Forgotten

Well it took just 24 hours for Rooney to respond after Sir Alex Ferguson had revealed the surprising news on Tuesday that the player wanted to leave the club.

Rooney issued the following statement:

"I met with David Gill last week and he did not give me any of the assurances I was seeking about the squad. I then told him I would not be signing a new contract.

"I was interested to hear what Sir Alex had to say yesterday and surprised by some of it. It is absolutely true as he said, that my agent and I have had a number of meetings with the club about a new contract. During those meetings in August I asked for assurances about the continued ability of the club to attract top players in the world."

Somehow I find it somewhat difficult to grasp what Rooney is really trying to imply with this statement. He's talking about Manchester United under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson who has a proven track record of rebuilding teams for over two decades now. Clearly, it would appear, that Wayne has forgotten the challenges that Manchester United were facing when he initially joined the club !

When Rooney first came to Manchester United in 2004, Manchester United had just lost the title to an Arsenal team that went undefeated over the entire 2003/2004 season. During that summer of 2004 English football welcomed Jose Mourinho who then joined Chelsea under the Ownership of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovic. With Mourinho at the helm and with Abramovic's millions, Chelsea went on to win back to back Premier League titles in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006.

This left Manchester United now without a trophy for three full seasons. During this barren period, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, David Beckham, Juan Sebastian Veron and Fabien Barthez were all sold, Laurent Blanc had retired and influential captain Roy Keane had left. These were all key players who were involved with Manchester United winning the Premier League title three times in four seasons, including the FA Cup and the League Cup all between 1999 to 2003.

In the background however, players such as John O'Shea, Darren Fletcher, Gerard Pique, Kieran Richardson and Guiseppe Rossi were youngsters that began to emerge from the youth ranks.

Cristiano Ronaldo was signed from total obscurity in 2003 and Wayne Rooney as a young emerging talent in 2004. The Glaziers eventually took control of the club in 2005 and Edwin Van der Sar, Alan Smith, Gabriel Heinze and Evra all joined the club during this time as well.

Interestingly, none of these players signed during this period were considered "top players". During this

time we were told that a dynasty had fallen - it was the beginning of the end, and that Alex Ferguson had lost the plot and should retire. What if the stars such as Scholes and Giggs had decided to leave the team during that time then ?

Well needless to say, the critics had been proven wrong and Manchester United with this group of unproven players had gone on to dominate the English League and Europe between seasons 2006-2009 and lost the league by just a single point last season. In total, Wayne Rooney has won three (3) Premier League titles, two (2) League Cup titles, two (2) Community Sheild titles, one (1) Champions League title and one (1) FIFA World Club Cup title. A total of nine winners' medals in six years.

So what is Wayne Rooney now talking about ?

Arsenal have been unable to win the Premiership since the invincibles in 2004 and have not won a single trophy since the FA Cup in 2005. Liverpool have been trying to regain the Premier League title for over twenty years now, and Chelsea, even though they have won recent titles are still unable to successfully dominate the English League like Manchester United has done.

To say United has no ambition and to suggest that the club is on the way down is totally unwarranted. Even with the Glaziers in control and with the massive debts which they have laden on the club, the future on pitch looks bright with Sir Alex Ferguson in charge.