Skip to main content

SUM UP OF UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER FINALS



Dortmund, Bayern, Barcelona, and Leicester City all have huge task before them, should they wish to make it to the next phase of 2016/17 edition of the competition as they have let in more goals than they scored in first leg of Quarter Finals. But then, teams who are advantaged to go through may be  vulnerable to disappointments should they permit complacency to set in. Madrid, Monaco, Atletico and Juventus have to maintain a hundred percentage of concentration for a good chance of finishing up the job on a similar note with which they started, bearing in mind how Barcelona did the impossible against French giants PSG.

       JUVENTUS have opened up a wide margin and are favorites to go through given that they parade a well rounded team with strength in almost every department of it. With  multitasking mid of Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanic duo, attack that has got goals in it and a solid defense, Barcenola have a difficult mission to execute. I would put my money on the old ladies, but they cannot afford to be overconfident for a few reasons; MSN on its own day is an agent of utter destruction. Should each member of this unit give a 200% performance, no defense can hold them from banging goals, thus Juventus have to retain focus and remain compact. With controversies surrounding the  performance of  Deniz Aytekin last month, it wouldn't come as a surprise if Allegri prepares his boys for an eventuality of harsh officiation.

   LEICESTER have been remarkable in Europe this campaign and some give them a chance to shock big guns on the continent just like they did in EPL last season. They would have been in a better position if they had an away goal but losing 1-0 at Atletico was not a bad result either. You have to give them a chance at King Power Stadium, since they enjoy to defy odds.  They share a few similarities with Diego Simeone's team, but Atletico's quality going forward might make all the difference.

 DORTMUND Manager, Thomas Tuchel was critical of UEFA's decision to pit his players against Monaco less than Twenty-Four hours after the squad suffered shock from a bomb blast targeted at their Team Bus. His suggestion that the event affected his players' performance negatively cannot be discarded as his team started the encounter on an unusual footing. The damage has perhaps been done but there is however an opportunity to prove Dortmund can perform much better, in a right frame of mind.

If BAYERN manager, Carlo Ancelotti looks to make history as the first to win UCL twice as a football player and four times as a football manager, it lays within his grasp.  The result from their first meeting with Real Madrid could have flipped in his favour if they hadn't lost a potential player of the match, Javi Martinez, to red card, a referee call which forced Xabi Alonso out of the game and automatically slotted Vidal in for a job which practically required two top class midfielders to handle. Lewandowski's fitness is a  boost but Santiago Bernabéu remains a huge mountain to climb. We expect an highly intensified encounter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The story of how Nigeria’s census figures became weaponized - Feyi Fawehinmi

By Feyi Fawehinmi The story of Nigeria’s 1962 census never gets old. Southern politicians seeking to end the north’s dominance of Nigerian politics decided that the only way to do it was through the census. Population figures at the time determined not only parliamentary representation but also revenue allocation and employee distribution in the civil service. In May 1962, the first census under an independent Nigerian government began. There had been a frenzy of mobilization by politicians in the south of the country using pamphlets, radio, schools, churches and mosques. Although the final results were not made public, the preliminary results were quite clear as to what had happened: the north’s population had gone up from 16.5 million in the last census in 1952 to 22.5 million, an increase of 30%. But in some parts of the east, the population had increased by up to 200% and more than 70% in general. The west also reported an increase of 70%. What the preliminary results showed...
Post a Comment
Read more

Game Of Thrones Finale Breaks Record Again

The finale of the 7th season of HBO hit show “Game of Thrones” has again broken the record to become HBO’s most watched show ever. The episode “The Dragon and the Wolf” was seen by 12.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen. HBO said when views from streaming service HBO Go and its stand-alone HBO Now app are included, that number rises to a whooping 16.5 million viewers. The 12.1 million viewers is a 36 percent improvement from last season finale which was seen by 8.9 million people. The previous record for the most watched HBO show belonged to, fittingly, episode 5 of the 7th season Game of Thrones, which was seen by 10.7 million viewers. HBO added that this season averaged 31 million viewers per episode once all live, time-shifted, on-demand, and streaming views are included. This is another record set by the show.
Post a Comment
Read more

Sagay saying nonsense, he should keep quiet -Senate

The Senate on Saturday replied Sagay, asking him to stop making ‘nonsensical statements’ capable of denigrating the nation’s parliament. The red chamber stated this while reacting to a statement credited to the professor of law, which was widely published in the mass media on Saturday. Sagay had described the 8th Senate as the worst in the history of Nigeria, adding that its members would be kicked out in 2019 general election. He also described the ongoing constitution amendment by the National Assembly as a hypocritical exercise, which would lead nowhere. He further lambasted the Bukola Saraki-led Senate for refusing to devolve power to the states, scrapping the State Independent Electoral Commission and for refusing to ensure 35 per cent affirmative action for women. But the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, asked Sagay to go back to the classroom if he had become overwhelmed by the national assignment given to hi...
Post a Comment
Read more