Champions League final tickets

World Soccer update

Real Madrid defeated Barcelona to win the Copa del Rey. However, during the parade celebrating the victory, there was a small disaster involving the winner's trophy.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, the Celtic-Rangers match did not quite live up to the excitement generated by a recent spate of letter bombs sent to prominent figures associated with Celtic.

More announcements from AC Milan

SILVIO BERLUSCONI’S ANNOUNCEMENT

8/28/2010

MILANELLO – President Silvio Berlusconi arrived at Milanello by helicopter at 19.30 CET, met coach Massimiliano Allegri and his staff. Then he visited the players and informed them about the acqusition of Ibrahimovic. Later on President Berlusconi was called by Adriano Galliano, who then handed over the phone to Ibrahimovic, too, thus the President could talk to the Swedish player personally. After their conversation all the players applauded their new teammate. At 20.20 CET the President left Milanello.

A.C. MILAN OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

8/28/2010

MILAN – A.C. MILAN announces the acquisition of the player Zlatan Ibrahimovic from F.C. Barcelona, through a free loan with the option to purchase the athlete’s playing rights for € 24 million at the end of the season 2010-2011. The Swedish champion will go through the medical exams tomorrow morning, before signing the contract that will tie him to the Rossonero club for four years.

More official announcements from Milan

Regarding the UEFA Champions League draw, in which Milan grouped with Real Madrid, Ajax, and AJ Auxerre:

ALLEGRI: ‘Group of death’

8/26/2010

MILAN – Milan coach Massimo Allegri’s comments about the Champions League draw: ‘Our group and that of Inter is certainly the most difficult one. Both of us will face tough and well-prepared teams. Obviously, playing against Real Madrid is exciting, it’s a fascinating match-up. The San Siro and the Santiago Bernabeu will be sold-out as a spectacle is guaranteed. Ajax and Auxerre advanced through the preliminaries making a great impression, they are opponents to be feared. We have to play all these games always maintaining high concentration and full fitness. It’s a group of death, but we’ll play like Milan.’

Regarding the possible transfer of Zlatan Ibrahimovic:

GALLIANI: ‘We postpone everything until tomorrow’

8/26/2010

MILAN – Milan CEO Adriano Galliani’scomments after the meeting held in Barcelona with blaugrana president Sandro Rosell: “We have been chatted and discussed the terms. We know Barcelona’s position and now we’ll consider it. We postpone things until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, after all the transfer window is open until Tuesday. I’ll stay here, I won’t go to Monte Carlo and I think I won’t come to the San Siro for the match on Sunday evening, either. Our position and that of Barcelona is very clear. We’ll go to the bitter ends for Ibrahimovic. I’d say now we have a 50% chance of getting him. In the meantime the eventual alternative would be Robinho I’d like to point out that Borriello will stay at Milan, while as for Huntelaar, we are in negotiations with another team. We’ll see. Now I’ll talk to Ibrahimovic, as I was authorised by president Rosell’.

One more transfer rumor

WE WILL TRY

8/25/2010 8:23:00 PM

Adriano Galliani has been speaking from Barcelona on the negotiations to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Milan which are ongoing.

(In the photo: ADRIANO GALLIANI IN BARCELONA TODAY)

MILAN – Speaking to Milan Channel from Barcelona, Adriano Galliani takes stock of the situation on the meeting with Barcelona and the negotiations that are underway for Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“Negotiations will continue tomorrow. Tomorrow at noon I have an appointment with the president of Barcelona. Let's see. The negotiations are very complex, very difficult, very expensive, but the relationship with Sandro Rosell is really good and he is very nice. The will of Barcelona is to sell the player to Milan, the availability of the player also like that. There is a lot of money to overcome and this is the difficulty.

“But I would point out that there are not any other moves being made by Milan. There is Borriello, there is Huntelaar. I often see in the papers that they are part of the transfer, but there is no truth in that. We are here to try to take Ibrahimovic to Milan, that’s all. There are other hypotheses on the table.

“I will not deceive anyone but I will not even say that we do it for sure. I will try and that’s why I am here, I do not move, even it means not going to Milan against Lecce on Sunday. I do all that is in my ability and capacity to try to bring this great champion to Milan. It is very difficult.

"What effect has made me to see Ibra at the stadium? The effect is as great as always, a great champion who has absolutely given his willingness to come to Milan. Now we must solve the problem.”

Champions League history: The 1994 Final

The match was played in Athens on May 18, 1994. Milan beat Barcelona 4-0.

A favorite Champions League moment from 2009-2010

From the group stage-- 10/20/09 Barcelona 1 - Rubin Kazan 2

Here's a different view-

Champions League update: Barca 1 - Inter 0

Above: Thiago Motta is about to receive a red card.

Below: Thiago Motta receives a red card.

Yesterday, Inter Milan lost 1-0 to Barcelona. However, they won the two legs of the Champions League semi-final by an aggregate score of 3-2. They will face Bayern Munich in the final on May 22. Here are some random thoughts about the match:

• Thiago Motta's straight red card for pushing Sergio Busquets in the face was probably not deserved. It did not matter in the end, though.
• Pique's goal for Barca was clearly offside. It did not matter in the end, though.
• Inter came to defend their two-goal lead and played even more defensively after going down to ten men. By the second half, Barca goalie Victor Valdes was basically playing up at the halfway line.
• Inter's goalie, Julio Cesar, is very, very good. I hate him, and I hate the fact that he doesn't play for a team I like.
• For a fleeting second, I was filled with admiration for how well Inter were coping with adversity. Then I remembered how much I dislike Inter and was mad at myself for thinking such ridiculous things.
• I am also mad at Barca.
• The current Inter squad are basically the 1990s New York Yankees of European soccer-- merciless, unrelenting robot/bullies who always win when they need to.

Above and below: Inter coach Jose Mourinho and Barca keeper Victor Valdes push each other after the match. (Video can be found below.)

For match highlights, click here.

Champions League update: Arsenal 2 - Barcelona 2 (first leg)

This game had everything-

• An early bombardment of scoring chances by Barcelona (only some of which are shown in the video)
• Two nice goals by Ibrahimovic
• Goals by Theo Walcott and Cesc Fabregas
• Three players who will miss the second leg due to suspensions-- Fabregas, Pique, and Puyol
• Fabregas fracturing his shin while taking the game-tying penalty kick

A soccer highlight

I wish Milan had a player who could do something like this (just not Ibrahimovic).

Great moments in World Cup history #3

1994 Quarterfinal: Bulgaria 2 - Germany 1

Bulgarian superstar Hristo Stoichkov played on the great Barcelona squad of the early 1990s. He is best known, however, for this free kick, which helped knock the defending World Champion Germany out of the 1994 tournament. Bulgaria went on to lose to Italy in the semi-finals.

Note-- I believe that the man you can hear shouting before the kick is taken is Germany goalkeeper Bodo Illgner yelling at teammate Lothar Matthaus to move more to the left.

Champions League update: a new team to root for

Rubin Kazan are from Russia, somewhere in the Tatarstan republic. They already have snow on the ground there. Their players appear to be a mix of Russians and Latin Americans. In their last two Champions League matches, they played Barcelona. They won 2-1 away, and, yesterday, the two teams played to a scoreless draw.

Below: Coach Kurban Berdyev celebrates his team's victory in Barcelona.

For highlights of Rubin Kazan's 2-1 victory, watch the video below:

For a more complete view of Rubin Kazan's first goal, click here.

What is going on here?

Below are the results from today's Champions League group stage matches. There are no misprints as far as I can tell. At least two of these scores make no sense at all.

Tuesday October 20
20 Oct, 19:45	Liverpool1 - 2Olympique Lyon	Anfield, Liverpool
20 Oct, 19:45	Debrecen3 - 4Fiorentina	Ferenc Puskás-Stadion, Budapest
20 Oct, 19:45	FC Barcelona1 - 2Rubin Kazan	Camp Nou, Barcelona
20 Oct, 19:45	Internazionale2 - 2Dynamo Kyiv	Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan
20 Oct, 19:45	VfB Stuttgart1 - 3Sevilla FC	Mercedes-Benz-Arena, Stuttgart
20 Oct, 19:45	Rangers1 - 4Unirea Urziceni	Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow
20 Oct, 19:45	AZ Alkmaar1 - 1Arsenal	DSB Stadion, Alkmaar
20 Oct, 19:45	Olympiacos2 - 1Standard Liège	Stadio Karaiskaki, Piraeus

Can you tell which two?

Champions League Final: Barcelona 2 - Manchester United 0

Above: Lionel Messi scores Barcelona's second goal.

Below: Thierry Henry shows off his new trophy.

Above: Barcelona players celebrate their success by tossing rookie manager Josep Guardiola into the air.  In his first season, Guardiola won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League.

Below: Sir Alex Ferguson walks off the pitch after the game.

In case you missed it - Iniesta's goal

Picture(s) of the Day

Above: Champions League semi-final (second leg): Iniesta has just scored for Barcelona in stoppage time. Clearly the Chelsea players can't believe what has just happened. (For a larger, and better, view, click on the photo.)

Below: Minutes later, Chelsea's Michael Ballack is sure the referee just missed a hand ball in the box by Samuel Eto'o.

Barcelona will face Manchester United in Rome on May 27 in the Champions League final. For a complete report on yesterday's semi-final match, click here.

Manchester United v. Barcelona

GAAARGH!

How, I ask you, does a team with such SUPERstars as Thierry Henry, Deco, and Lionel Messi (the supposed 2nd best player in the world), not score a goal in 3hrs (180 minutes over the two legs) of playing time! That is staggering!

Manchester United, delievered a goal, by way of Paul Scholes, so they're on the way to the finals. Not the way you would expect, I know.

The final result was 1-0 Manchester United, the same on aggregate.

"This was a make or break time for Barca. If they had won, they would have my respect, but now I can only think 'What a lousy, useless sack of UGH!'" said one enraged Man. Untd. hater.