This week marks the start of the Champion's League semi finals. 3 of 4 of the teams I predicted to be here have made it with the only exception being Manchester United (not complaining at all). On Wednesday, Bayern Munich play host to Lyon and on Tuesday Barcelona will play Inter Milan at the San Siro.
Barcelona have been forced to travel by bus to Italy due to the volcanic ash from Iceland. I don't really see this as being a problem and I know Barca will not use it as an excuse. That being said it does give Inter a slight advantage. That aside, Barca will be with out Iniesta through injury and Abidal has not been given the all clear to play though he is traveling with the team. I expect the Barca line up to be Valdes in goal; Maxwell, Puyol or Milito, Pique, and Alves on the back line; Xavi, Busquests, and either Toure for a more defensive approach or Kieta in the mid; and Messi, Ibra, and Pedro up top. Expect Barca to try to maintain possession and limit opportunities for Inter. Inter would love a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 win but Barca will push for that precious away goal and would not be upset with any scoring draw or a one goal loss (2-1, 3-2, etc). Obviously a win would be very welcomed but seems unlikely. Inter will play with Diego Milito up top (yes, brother to Gabi Milito of Barcelona) with Eto'o, Sniejder, and Pandev in an attacking mid role to try to counter. I think Barca will push the whole game like they always do and Inter will try to counter attack. I see this one very tight and would not be surprised with a low scoring draw or Inter win.
Lyon take on Bayern in the other semi. Bayern will probably be slight favorites in this tie though my prediction is for Lyon to get through. With Ribery and Robben on the wings, Bayern will be hard to stop but they also showed they can have give up a fair few goals themselves. This game should also be very tight and I expect Bayern to win but not by much. Lyon with the help of Hugo Lloris in goal will stay close. Lisandro Lopez has served his suspension and will be back ready to go. I think this one could end up 2-1 Bayern.
Hope you enjoy the games tomorrow and wednesday!
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I like your opinion, according to Inter would win at home for their advantage. The rest was a history though ;o)
ReplyDeletehttp://ligafantasi.blogspot.com/2010/05/10-why-to-be-champion-league-2010.html
Well thanks for the comment. I would have loved to see it turn out differently but Inter were great at home and deserved that win
ReplyDeleteAgree with you, and they deserved to win with 'parking all bus' system. Can't help how I hate it when Barcelona was defeated in pragmatism way.
ReplyDeleteVery true. The only consolation is that "parking the bus" didn't work as well as Mourinho would have liked because if Bojan's goal wasn't disallowed (and it shouldn't have been) then Barca get the 2 goals necessary and they go to the final and probably win. Hopefully Barca will be able to deal with Mourinho at Real! Thanks for noticing my blog by the way, you're one of the few haha. I like yours as well, though I don't play fantasy its stil intriguing to read and you have good insights
ReplyDeleteWell, it's arguable for Bojan's goal, imo, same as Pique was in offside position. Barca needs to win with hard conviction with agregat, maybe like Iniesta's goal to slam Cech at Stamford in last season.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, they will meet again in El Clasico, and very nice to chat with you. It's my simple way to broad my blog and to keep in touch then ;o)