Champions league kicks off

-         Avnish Barjatya

The champions league has begun and the group stage fixtures are very interesting. In Group A, arch rivals, defending champs Barcelona and English champs Chelsea are pitted together and will face one another for the third straight year. Chelsea however got off to a flying start in their match against Werder Bremen winning 2-0.

Elewhere, Man U beat Celtic 3-2 while

Arsenal won their match 2-1. However the biggest result was Lyon Beating Real Madrid 2-0, just as they had beaten Real last year on the first day of the Champions League last year.

The English Premier League is up and running.

-        Avnish Barjatya.

The EPL has started and some of the results have been somewhat surprising. Three of last year’s four teams who took the first four places on the table – namely Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have already suffered losses this early in the season. Defending campions Chelsea, who boast of great players including their two big signings of the summer, Andriiy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, suffered a huge 1-2 defeat away at Middlesborogh. Liverpool lost 0-3 to Everton in a Darby match while Arsenal has had a dismal start to their campaign with two draws and one defeat. No wins. The only team from last year’s top four which has had a great start is Manchester United who has won all four of their matches so far. They sit at the top of the table followed by surprise package Portsmouth, third placed Everton, Chelsea, who despite their loss claim the fourth spot and Aston Villa, who are doing extremely well.

This Sunday, there are two really great fixtures – Manchester United v/s Arsenal and Chelsea v/s Liverpool.These are really interesting fixtures and I’m really looking forward to watching them. The EPL has taken a flying start so be sure to watch it.

Schumacher will retire at the end of  the season

                                                                   -Avnish Barjatya

The Monza Grand Prix has taken place with Michael Schmacher making the checkered flag. This really affects the driver’s points table. While Schumacher excelled, Fernando Alonso had to retire from the race midway. His not being able to complete the race has resulted in him getting no points off this race whereas Schumi got 10 points for emerging victorious. Before the match began, the gap in the points table between Alonso (who leads the table) and Schumi, was 12. As a result of Schumi getting 10 points more than Alonso, the gap is down to two points.

Who will win the championship this year? Will it be the defending champion Alonso? Or will it be the 7-time world champion Schumacher? This is a really exciting battle.

However, Schumacher has announced that he will be retiring at the end of this season. His team, Ferrari, has already announced his replacement, Kimi Raikkonen, whom they bought from Maclaren and who was the runner up in the driver’s championship behind Alonso last season. Ferrari's other driver, Felipe Massa, who has been in great form will continue for them next season. In the constructors (or teams) Points table, Ferrari has just overtaken Alonso’s team, Renault.

SURPRISE FOR THE CHAMPS

The newly crowned world cup champs Italy were in for a real bad time. Their celebrations were short-lived, as now some of their top teams have been found guilty in a match fixing scandal.

The team most affected was Italian Serie A champions Juventus who were found guilty of doing the most match-fixing and this has led to their manager Fabio Cappelo being heavily punished. The club has also suffered heavily due this scandal. Juve has been the Italian champion for the past two years in succession now. However, due to this scandal, they have been stripped of these two titles and have also been relegated from Serie A to Serie B (the second division league). To add to their woes, they will start with 30 points subtracted automatically from their points.

So they will start off with –30 points.

Lazio is another team who has been relegated to Serie B. AC Milan, another huge team who been the runner up in the past two seasons in the Serie A, has luckily escaped relegation. However, as they too were found guilty of match fixing, they too have been punished. They have been banned from taking part in any UEFA tournament next season.

However, it gets worse for Juventus as key players are leaving the squad as they do not want to play in the Serie B. Players who have already left are Italian national team captain Fabio Cannavaro (headed for Real Madrid) and Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram are off to Barcelona.

Let’s hope that this nightmare can soon end for Juventus

Report for May 21, 2006

  Catalans – European Champs

In a great match at the Stade de France in Paris, Barcelona defeated Arsenal in a thrilling victory (2-1).

It was great from the start and both teams were putting immense pressure on each other. Everybody thought that this match would mainly be between the two maestros – Ronaldinho of Barca and Thierry Henry from Arsenal. Whoever had this conclusion were proved wrong.

Thierry Henry missed several chances and was often denied a goal by Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes. Ronaldinho too did not perform as well as he was expected to. The first major happening in the match was Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann’s sending off after just 18 minutes, after a foul on Samuel Eto’o. However the referee denied the goal scored by Ludovic Giuly as advantage play and sent off Lehmann.

Ten-man Arsenal now began to feel that the referee was a bias one as most decisions began to go in Barca’s favour. However, it was Arsenal who struck first when Sol Campbell headed home a great ball from Thierry Henry. Arsenal managed to hold onto their lead until halftime.

After halftime, Barca still struggled to get the ball past substitute goalkeeper Almonia. However, in the 75^th minute, Henrik Larsson passed the ball beautifully for Samuel Eto’o who scored to make the score 1-1. Soon after Henrik Larsson once again passed the ball wonderfully well for Juliano Belleti and the right back struck a great goal past Almonia to make the score 2-1.

This was Barca’s 2^nd European Champion’s League title having won it last in 1992.      

  New FA Champions

Liverpool, who finished the league at 3^rd position, won the FA Cup on the 13^th of May beating West Ham United to it. It was a thrilling game at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium where the two teams squared off for the biggest trophy in England. West Ham got off to a great start after going up 2-0 during the first half (an own goal from Jamie Carragher and a goal scored due to the mistake of goalkeeper Reina. Djibril Cisse scored and halftime scores were 2-1 up. Steven Gerrard and Konchesky both scored for their respective teams and the score was 3-2. Things looked good for the Hammers until Gerrard scored a scorcher for Liverpool to equal the scores. Extra time couldn’t decide the match so the match went into a penalty shootout. Where Liverpool keeper Jose Pepe Reina had been a weak player for the side during the match became the hero by saving 3 penalties and helping Liverpool win the Cup. The man of the match was Steven Gerrard (Liverpool Captain).    

Do you want to know how the leagues have ended?

The English Premier League did not see any change in as the defending champions Chelsea won the title again this season. Manchester United were 2^nd while Liverpool stood 3^rd. In a classic battle for 4^th place, Arsenal managed to snatch that position from Tottenham Hotspur due to the absence of players who were sick (because of food poisoning. Dirty tricks are suspected) Thiery Henry won the award for scoring the most goals in the league. Barcelona was Spanish champions, Juventus - Italian champions, Lyon - French champions and Bayern Munich - German champs.

In Formula 1 racing Michael Schumacher was looking very good after back to back wins but current world champion Fernando Alonso won his home Grand Prix in Spain.

He now stands first in the Driver’s point’s standings ahead of second Schumacher by over twenty points.

West Indies have won their home series against Zimbabwe and are now ready to face India who have already arrived at the Caribbean Islands. The matches will begin on the 18^th of May. Be sure to watch these matches. What do you think will be the result of the test and one-day series? Mail your answers to elsgroups@gmail.com.   

    Catalans face the Gunners

                                                             -Avnish Barjatya

Villareal were 1-0 down on aggregate against Arsenal and were going to face them in the 2^nd leg (match) of the first semifinal at home while Barcelona had a 1-0 lead over AC Milan over in the other semifinal when they were playing Milan at home. Both the Catalans (players of Barca) and the Gunners (players of Arsenal) held their opponents to goalless draws and secured their place in the Champion’s League final held at Paris. I can’t wait to watch that match as no one can be sure who will win. Barca does have a better team which includes 2-time World Player of the year Ronaldinho, African Player of the year Samuel Etoo & many others. However, we must not forget Liverpool’s win over AC Milan in last year’s Champion’s League final when they were not favourites to win. So you can’t really be sure. What do you think will be the score of that great match? Write to us at elsgroups@gmail.com. Check to see if your answer is right. Be sure to watch the final.         

Champions once more

- by Avnish Barjatya.