Its not a novel by Charles Dickens, Its more like the UEFA champions League round of 16. Today I shall touch on the forgotten 5 more because personally I think its time for a change
The forgotten 5 consists of 2 portugese teams, Sporing Lisbon Portugal and the ever popular F.C. Porto, Bayern Munich,Panathinaikos FC,and Lyon. While Sporting destroyed their chances in Portugal, the other four teams have kept their bids very much alive.
Panathinaikos Fc have traditionally been the "whipping boys" of the UEFA CL. Time and time again they have been written off. However the 1st leg in Spain against Villareal showed something we knew was coming from Greece but chose to look the other way. Talent. Evengelos Mantzios was outstanding against them and produced delecate skills that stunned the Spanish opposition. Nobody expected Greek teams to produce that often dubbed "Boring". I was entertained. The team consists of mostly greek players but the Brazilians in the team seem to be influencing the rest to a good extent.
FC Porto and Bayern Munich are traditional success stories of the league. Porto seem to be picking themselves up from their steady decline since the departure of their ex talisman, a certain Jose Mourinho.Lisandro has put the portugese team in an advantegeous position against Atelico madrid with 2 crucial away goals. However capitalising on athat is tough especially beacuse Atelico produce better away from the Mestella.Bayern took a 5-0 lead at the expense of Sporting who in truth showed lack of ambition. They are a team of non-fighters to be critical and seemed resigned to their fate after the 1st goal went in for Bayern.
Lastly Lyon, a team that was once miles away from others in France Ligue 1. However with Cavenaghi and Chamakh powered teams from Les Girondins and also PSG resurgence their life has been made tougher. The league is getting better but the team is still as powerful. Barcelona at the Nou Camp is the worse possible thing that can happen to a team but Lon have the task and if there are teams that can win there, Lyon are surely one of those surprise packages who can cause an upset.No matter what Lyon will give a good account of themselves even in defeat..
There wil be big games this weekend, But lets hear it for the forgotten 5 because as teams like Red Star and more recently FC Porto have shown. Talent from elsewhere can sometimes be easilly overlooked and it would be wonderful to see a new power emerge from Europe this champions league season as we make our way to Rome.
Hey there, I've just uploaded my version of the first knockout stages. Please do check it out and let us your views on the matches today.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure may will have their eyes on the Liverpool/Real or the Man Utd/Inter game.
But let me tell you that the FC Porto match against Atletico Madrid is equally a big clash considering how did both played out in the first leg.
Porto will need the inspiration of Lucho Gonzalez and the goal scoring exploit of Lisandro Lopes. Playing at home will not be tough job ahead of them but let me remind you what happened last season against Schalke.
Atletico will always be dangerous no matter what the circumstances may be. In Kun Aguero and Maxi Rodriguez there is plenty of fire power available for them.
Overall a match not to be missed. So what is your view on this match?
Hi John, As you can tell I rate Porto very highly and think that players like Lisandro are big inquisitions into the champions league. Lucho Gonzalez has been a constant player for Porto and very much an icon for Porto these days. As for Atelico I have to say the young Kun is on for BIG things and I really do feel that the game will be entertaining and worth a watch.
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