Five Quick European Thoughts
(It’s actually going to be way more than that this week.)
- Why did Real Madrid even bother going to Valencia this weekend? Just an awful performance from a team who seems to have written off the rest of this season. Everyone knows Barcelona is a lock for La Liga but losing 3-0 against Valencia, Real Madrid showed they have no fight left in them. Not even for pride purposes.
- Would be a shame if Andres Iniesta misses the Champions League final due to his thigh injured picked up against Villarreal. As a neutral you’d want to see Barcelona’s best go up against Manchester United’s best. Double blow this weekend for Barcelona who have Iniesta and Henry as an injury doubt for May 27th and thanks to a late Villarreal goal they must wait another week to clinch the La Liga crown.
- Advantage Rangers with their 1-0 victory over Celtic at the Ibrox which leap frogs them over Celtic and into 1st in Scotland by two points. Gordon Strachan will most likely spend a great deal of his time explaining why he left Aiden McGeady on the bench against their fiercest rival.
- Nice to see Maurice Edu get the start in an Old Firm game. With each passing week Edu is showing the talent which lead Rangers to shell out 5 million for his services.
- Jupp Heynckes must of figured his coaching career was at an end after being sacked by Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2007. You’d think the same too if you were sacked after a run of 17 games without a win. Funny how things work out at times. Two wins in charge of Bayern Munich after taking over from Jürgen Klinsmann now sees Bayern Munich in a tie for first place with Wolfsburg.
- I still could understand Felix Magath leaving Wolfsburg but his timing is simply awful to cut the legs of this Wolfsburg team so close to the end of the season. After their 4-1 defeat to Stuttgart, it’s advantage Bayern Munich for the Bundesliga crown.
- Two teams going about it in different ways. Heading into the Coppa Italia, Lazio were defeated at home by Udinese 3-1. Sampdoria on the other hand took the sting out of their 3-1 defeat the previous week to Genoa by out classing Reggina 5-0.
- Inter Milan may of had to deal with questions surrounding their 2002 collapse but thanks to a Vincenzo Iaquinta the Serie A finish line is well within reach.
- A handful of times this season Inter has dropped points but the following day A.C Milan and previously Juventus weren’t able to gain ground and dropped points themselves.
- Not everyday you see a second division side win silverware in any European league so it was refreshing to see Guingamp upset Rennes to earn the Coupe De France. After American international Carlos Bocanegra opened up the scoring in the 69th minute. Guingamp’s Eduardo Ribeiro dos Santos struck back three minutes later and then scored the winner in the 83rd minute.