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Can we make it in the CL this year?

August 30th, 2009 | By: Julian | 12 Comments »

First of all, much like Paul, I’d like to apologize for the lack of posts. Late summer is always a bad time to post- no national team play going on and moving back to college means that there’s little time and little to post about. But since we start playing qualifiers again and the clubs have started playing, there will be plenty of content to talk about from here on in. Hang in there, this blog will be running at full capacity very soon.

Today, I’d like to look at our state in Europe’s top flight competition. Last year, we didn’t do so well. Roma, Juve, and Inter were all knocked out by English opposition pretty early on. This year, Fior, Milan, Inter and Juve try their luck in the group stages. Here are the groups they were drawn into:

Group A: Bayern, Juve, Bordeaux, Maccabi

Tough draw for Juve. Bayern were looking weak until this weekend (And damn, what a show Robben put on for them), and can’t ever be counted out in Europe. Unless they’re playing Barca. Bordeaux, the current French champs, also have world class talent in the form of Gourcuff. Nevertheless, Juve this year look particularly strong. They should no doubt move onto the knockout rounds, with a straight-up fight against Bayern for top dog.

Group C: Madrid, Milan, Marseille, Zurich

Again, another tough group for an Italian club. Milan are looking pretty weak at the moment, between pre-season form and the thrashing they were just given by Inter. Madrid are favorites to win it all arguably, so if they’re not first in the group, I’d be stunned. It should be between Milan and Marseille for second.

Group E: Liverpool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecan

Might as well not sugarcoat it: Fior probably won’t make it past this. I think they still haven’t won a game in the CL, and they’re not looking that great with the loss of Melo. Liverpool should no doubt top this group, and Lyon are still probably stronger than Fior. They’ll need much luck to progress.

Group F: Barca, Inter, Dynamo, Rubin

At the end of the day, Barca and Inter should both go through. Inter stuttered in an easy group last year, but look very strong this year, though probably not strong enough to beat Barca. Still, second place should easily be within their grasp.

So, I predict Inter, Juve, and Milan going through, but only Juve topping their group. What do you think?

Tags: Barca, Bayern, Champions League, Fior, Group E, Inter, Juve, Milan

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Comments

By Marco | August 30th, 2009 at 12:27 am

All four can and should advance from their groups. The weakest Italian team for me is Milan, so we’ll see what happens.

Can someone confirm something for me. I’ve heard that if no italian team makes it to the quarter finals UEFA will reduce the number of Italian teams in CL down to 3 and give Germany the extra team. Can someone elaborate?.

By MAD | August 30th, 2009 at 12:45 am

Yes.

By Joel | August 30th, 2009 at 5:22 am

Bayern will get 1st place. Juve’s weakness is their Right Back and Left Back. That is why they wanted Rafinhia off FC Schalke 04 and Grosso off Lyon. Ribery and Robben will rip Molinaro and Grygera apart.

Lyon’s forward line up looks deadly. Gomis and Lopez are both scoring. They look alot stronger then last year while Fiorentina look depleted due to losing Melo. Also, Bastos is helping Lyon aswell. Selling Benzema and getting Gomis and Lopez was the best decision they done for years.

Ibra isn’t playing good for Barca so, I can see Inter topping if his bad form continues.

Milan will come 3rd. Marseille are a good tight unit.

I predict, Juve to qualify in 2nd place,Inter qualify top of their group and Milan and Fiorentina both come 3rd and go into Europa League

By hant00 | August 30th, 2009 at 8:46 am

http://www.football-italia.net/aug30k.html
http://goal.com/en/news/1863/world-cup-2010/2009/08/30/1470255/italy-squad-named-marco-marchionni-in-antonio-cassano-still

discuss.
or better yet, i’d like to request a whole new post to dig this latest senility of Lippi

Posted from Australia

By Marco | August 30th, 2009 at 9:10 am

Good for Lippi! I hope we don’t even qualify for the world cup anymore – it’ll save us the humiliation. How many chances does Gilardino need?

By Angharad | August 30th, 2009 at 10:18 am

The workings of Lippi’s mind continue to elude me.

Posted from United States

By mickey | August 31st, 2009 at 6:55 pm

well bayern or going to be more difficult then juve expect because now with the addition of arjen robben bayern will have franck ribery and bastian schweinsteiger. Two players who know how to make an impact. It will be no easy game. I anticipate however that juve will take the group on goal difference after they draw twice with the Bavarians. Who knows though perhaps juve will do what they did last year against real madrid. Their group from last year is very similar to his year’s group in that they have a team who has not been playing too well domestically (real madrid/bayern), a team with a young an upcoming playmaker (zenit Arshavin/ Bordeaux Gourcuff), and a not so well known team (Bate Borisov/ Maccabi Haifa). AC Milan against real madrid promises to be a good one to cuz they both have very pressing defensive issues. But I would say that perhaps real madrid have the better attack as they have kaka, ronaldo, and van der vaart. As well as raul, higuain, van nilsteroy, and benzema. However they are very weak defensively and just like milan have problems dealing with aerial balls. They are also weak on set piece defending which milan might try to exploit as they have capable free kick takers such as ronaldinho and pirlo.

By Calisi | August 31st, 2009 at 9:28 pm

Joel, during CL last year Robben was marked pretty well when he was at Madrid.

By Joel | September 2nd, 2009 at 4:51 am

Still Ribery is better then Robben and would cause your LB(Now Grosso but, doesn’t make a huge difference) or RB huge problems. Marking both out of the game will be difficult and I cannot see Juve achieving this.

By Marc | September 2nd, 2009 at 1:13 pm

I think the addition of Sneijder is critical for Inter. It is exactly what their were missing. That was seen in the demolition of AC Milan. He gives them long distance shooting, free kicks, and the killer pass.

Posted from United States

By DiPro | September 3rd, 2009 at 8:35 am

Julian,

Not sure what you mean when you say Fiorentina haven’t won a CL game – perhaps you mean so far this season? Last year they won at Steaua; that was their first season back in the CL since 99-00 when they won two group stage matches including at Wembley against Arsenal.

Posted from United States

By DiPro | September 3rd, 2009 at 8:38 am

I forgot to mention the second group stage in 99-00 when they again won twice (vs. Man U and Valencia).

Posted from United States

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