The UEFA Champions League group stage draw to a close this week with some choice ties for some of Europe’s largest clubs. Group A’s second spot is open for to play for with Bayern Munich topping the table with 13 points and thus having already qualified. Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City have been dominant in the Barclay’s Premier League but they have found their first season in the Champions League something of an eye opener.

It may sound cliché but you really do have to adapt to and adopt a new ethos when encountering Europe’s top sides in Europe’s top competition. Last year saw an impressive Tottenham Hotspur side baulk like rabbits in head lights when faced with their first trip to the San Siro and if it wasn’t for Gareth Bale’s hat-trick in a 3-4 defeat, Harry Redknapp’s men would have looked like amateurs after their first game to Internazionale. Their journey finished with a quarter-final exit to Real Madrid and City might find themselves playing in the UEFA Europa League come new year should they not beat Bayern and Villareal, who are already out of Europe, at least hold an impressive Napoli to a draw in Spain. Mancini surely has the backing of his chairman and directors for all the good work he’s done for the Manchester blues and there’ll have been no real expectation on City claiming the European Cup at their first attempt but it will still be a blow to the fans and players should they not make it to the knock-outs. Group A games take place on Wednesday 7th December. Predictions: Manchester City 2-2 Bayern Munich. Villareal 0-1 Napoli. Bayern and Napoli through.

Group B headed by an inconsistent Inter Milan who face CSKA Moscow in Italy for their final group game. The blue and black seem to still be suffering the post-Jose Mourinho blues as their league form has been dire – Claudio Ranieri’s side lost 0-1 at home to Udinese at the weekend and they lie at the bottom of the Serie A table. The real game in this group is between Lille and Trabzonspor. There is just a point between them and with a huge tie on Wednesday in France surely benefiting the home side, you’d argue that Joe Cole’s new club would be favourites to progress to the round of 16. Trabzonspor are not to be taken lightly however, as their 0-1 away win to Inter suggests. How far either team can go in the tournament remains to be seen, but if you want to see a crunch tie that will be full of nerves and possible fireworks, tune in to this match. CSKA are also able to qualify if they beat Inter as they are on 5 points along with Lille but you think that they have the harder task at the San Siro. Predictions: Inter 0-0 CSKA Moscow. Lille 1-1 Trabzonspor. Inter and Trabzonspor through.

Group C poses great interest. Manchester United are away to Basel FC with Benfica topping the group on goal difference and should they lose, they will find themselves playing in the UEFA Europa League for the first time in their history. Benfica are at home to competition new boys Otelul Galati and you’d expect a win there, so the focus is surely on Sir Alex Ferguson’s reds. Not only is there the matter of the win to consider but also trying to leave the group as top seeds in order to avoid the top teams in the knock-out stages. You can fully imagine a ‘go for the throat’ attitude being employed in order to rack up the goals but the English champions will have to be wary of conceding as they cannot afford a loss. Predictions: Basel 1-2 Manchester United. Benfica 2-0 Otelul. Benfica and Manchester United through.

Group D sees Real Madrid face off against second side Ajak in Holland. The Dutch need to avoid a loss to confirm their place in the next round but should they lose and Olympique Lyon grab a win at Dinamo Zagreb, the group will be turned on its head. Madrid, of course, stormed through the group and Jose’s Whites have also been performing well in La Liga. After last year’s exit to Barcelona, all the work has been on solidifying and neutralising the Catalan’s mesmeric midfield and the Madridstas are now one of the most dominant and effective counter-attacking sides. Predictions: Ajax 0-3 Madrid. Dinamo 0-1 Lyon. Madrid and Lyon through.

Another interesting group is Group E. Chelsea are in charge of their own destiny with a game at home to Spanish side Valencia. Andre Villa-Boas’ men need a win to secure qualification and cement a positive performance to counter their stuttering season’s form. Michael Ballack’s Bayern 04 Leverkusen aren’t yet qualified but with 9 points all they need realistically, is one point from their game away against Genk. Predictions: Chelsea 2-2 Valencia. Genk 0-2 Bayern Leverkusen. Leverkusen and Chelsea through.

Group F sees already qualified Arsenal away to Olympiacos, who are still ablee to qualify if they beat Arsene Wenger’s team and Marseille lose. The Frenchmen are away to the under-performing Borussia Dortmund. The Germans, who boast a vast amount of talent in their ranks have suffered in this year’s competition but are able to change the shape of the group. All sense points to a French qualification with Arsenal back on form and Borussia not quite at the races. Predictions: Olympiacos 1-1 Arsenal. Dortmund 1-1 Marseille. Arsenal and Marseille through.

Group G’s surprise comes in the form of Apoel topping the group with 9 points. Apoel are at home to Shaktar Donetsk and a draw will see them safe. The real crunch tie comes between FC Porto and Zenit St Petersburg in Portugal. Both sides are still able to qualify and with only a point between them this should be a match which tests nerves to the limit. Both teams are able to play attacking football but will either side wish to expose themselves to a potentially fatal goal? Predictions: Apoel 0-0 Shaktar. Porto 2-1 Zenit. Apoel and Porto through.

Group H is already wrapped with FC Barcelona as leaders and AC Milan taking the second spot. Still, there are the last games to play and Barca play whipping boys BATE Borisov at home and Milan are away to Viktoria Plzen. Predictions: Barcelona 4-0 BATE. Viktoria 0-2 AC Milan. Barcelona and Milan through.

Tables courtesy of http://www.uefa.com

The UEFA Euro 2012 groups draw has taken place and thrown the world some potentially mouth-watering early ties. Below you will see a list of all four groups and how the 16 teams line up. From the graphic above, you can see that every team has bet their entire economic survival on the tournament; such is the nature of the modern capitalist system – with it being so Gung Ho and fancy-free, why not? Unfortunately nations such as Turkey (and others who haven’t made it to the finals) have been politically dissolved and are currently having their borders annexed by the European Union. Hey, football is more important than life and or death, or cake. Supposedly.

For a somewhat confusing sideways look at the groups’ match schedule, go here. Or, you can look at this (click to enlarge):

As you can see, there are some awesome games of football set to take place. Germany v Portugal is the first big tie on Day 2 of the tournament and the young German side will later come up against Holland in what should be the match of the early rounds. Spain take on Italy, Republic of Ireland and Croatia and England face off against France. Stay tuned for updates closer to the competition.

Early talking points:

Wayne Rooney’s suspension. With the English FA’s appeal against Rooney’s 3-match ban taking place within the next week, all eyes will be on the outcome and subsequent change to Manager Fabio Capello’s 23-man squad. If Rooney is set to miss all the group games, will this be a plus or a minus for the Manchester United man and will it be fair to strikers who have performed well all season should Rooney miss those games and walk straight back into the team?

Italy. Will The Italians fair a lot better than they did at the 2010 South Africa World Cup, at which they failed to even get out of the groups? Coming up against a Spain side who have struggled with their recent friendly matches, will Marcello Lippi’s blues regain some sense of nation pride?

Will anyone bother watching the opening game featuring Poland v Greece?

…and finally…a message from Sepp Blatter:

“I control all…will Messi be at the Euros, in tiny shorts and Minstrel facepaint?”

Our minds have been blown here at World Cup Statistics. You can see a picture below, of Grandmaster Franco: The Lord Dominion of this site, with his ethereal mindscape becoming physical. This only ever happens when Sir Alex Ferguson picks Darron Gibson for his Manchester United matchday team, so you should be aware of the important of the revelation that has hit us as we sit pouring over Europe’s footysoccerball results and news.

“My mind, it is a God Space. Football, is my body.”

The thing that has hit us is the nature of media scapegoats. We’re but weeks into the new football season and most competitions have started off their early stages and already the media has labelled, pinched, harpooned and destroyed countless individuals within the football world. ‘Who is the scapegoat?’ I heard you ask. You, are the scapegoat. You are to blame. It’s your fault, readers, all yours.

The media thrust into our faces articles, blogs, comment pieces and speculation because it’s what the football fan wants. By want, they actually mean, ‘will have and that will hopefully lead to a validation their website’s advertising onslaught’ or to you paying a few pence for a copy of their dying paper publication. This isn’t particularly new and here at WCS we understand that the media savvy public are as tired of the usual ploys and capers of the big papers as we are at having to shout at our mums to iron our shirts because we’re going to the pub to talk about a game we’re rubbish at and women we’ll never marry but don’t know how to do it ourselves.

Okay, hear us out here. You watch football. The media write about every game or event. Naturally they’ll take sections of pre/post-match quotes and apply their own context and the idea is that such a creation will grab your attention and you check that site regularly for their new ‘scoop’ or you pay them money to inform you of things you have now become culturally addicted to: news, gossip, spin, new angles, life, death, expensive steak. They want you to want them because it makes them money. In order to keep ahead of the chasing pack they have various tricks up their sleeves. They have insiders, friends, sources and the out-of-context rent-a-lie ploys already mentioned. The fall out from all of this then becomes rebuttals and rebukes from those who are the focus of articles or blogs or pigeon messengers, and everything else in between. Either way, it generates more news.

They do this because of you. Or so they would have you believe. No, it’s just money and everyone else should be damned so let’s be realistic here.

Before Grandmaster Franco had his startling revelation he sat in a Sake bar with Rock Hard Paul from Hatfield. You remember him, don’t you? He was the guy WCS hired as muscle on transfer deadline day. You can read about him elsewhere on the site. Rock Hard Paul is a fan of Frank Lampard and he said that he was sick to death of how the media were making the most of his minimal exclusion from one England game and a couple of Chelsea games. This got everyone here at WCS Base thinking. Have we become no more than the aimless wafting crowd members you see in FIFA computer games?

Think about it. We sit, we watch football. We rant and rave and form opinions based on snippets of subjective information and we move along and like FIFA games, or people in multi-screen sports bars we are addicted to a lack of action. We need something to be happening at all times. We can’t sit through one match patiently so we put two or three on, with the radio, while playing a game or reading an article. News and sport culture is designed to supplant this behaviour into us and Rock Hard Paul came up with a great example when he stated the case of Frank Lampard. Of course, there are and have been other players who get the same treatment. Fernando Torres, is a case in point.

Articles appear about a top player when he does, well, anything. Frank Lampard was left out of England’s away match against Bulgaria in Sofia. Frank Lampard then found himself in and out of the Chelsea team – he was subbed of at half-time against Manchested United and left out v Swansea before starting against Valencia CF in the UEFA Champions League on the 28th September.

After he had been left out of the England team, papers and sites were awash with ‘Lampard: Finished’, ‘Lampard: Axed’, ‘Lampard: over’ type articles and as soon as he puts the ball past a Spanish defence while playing in a tough away game he is all of a sudden ‘Lampard is Back’. Well, He, and other players never went away. No, really. They weren’t dropped per say and they weren’t thrown on the scrap heap. It was just that a manager decided not to play them in whatever games he decided over the course of a 4 week period. That’s what happens in football, believe it or not but the culture of impatience means we are force fed waves of garbage about every little detail and it has to be dressed up and HUGE NEWS in order to have a reason to exist. It’s saturation media and ultimately the cause for so many improbably opinions about our wonderful game. Kids don’t have to work at playing football because they can press X on the Playstation pad and make a Xavi like pass. Maybe that’s an over-stated link but the point still stands, people are being sieved of their reason in favour of soundbite and popcorn entertainment media.

“I can no longer grasp anything reasonable.”

Look at that wobbling baby. That child has more sense than your local loudmouth at the corner of any given pub who rambles on about whatever he’s read in The Sun that morning. Snippet opinions, they’re called. You know the type of guy we’re talking about. The guy who is at the pub for every single game you could possibly get on television and yet spends the whole 90 minutes talking to someone about something else ony to go ‘Oooh’ and ‘Ahhh’ in all thee right places. This person has no patience beyond the goalmouth scrambles, long shots, super dribbles and handbag-slapping players at the end of injury time and it’s catching on. Football is entertainment, it always has been. It’s a game, a sport, something to do at the weekend so it shouldn’t be taken as serious as it is but news, and thus we, are serious as we are all influenced.

Would it not be a better and more suitable footballing world should we have less pointless gossiping drama about our supposed stars every two minutes? Look at it this way. Why have football clubs hired PR officers? Why are they so closed ranks these day? It’s because they fear the swill that comes from Fleet Street. Erase that, erase the barriers, erase the negativity. If you do that, players will talk more, do more, say more, be more involved with fans. Twitter has been a very good tool for communication between players and fans as now, footballers don’t have to use a middle man to air their opinions. Naturally they are bound by the various do’s and don’ts that most highly paid employees are too but the point is, they can talk to you now. It makes them real. They are no longer CGI Wayne Rooney, they are that bloke on the internet you say hello to in the morning.

So remember that when you click on that article or pick up that paper you’re probably being lied to. Take a leap of faith, stick with WCS in future…

MID -WEEK FOOTBALL RESULTS: UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE :

It seems Mr. Jose Mourinho, the manager of Real Madrid, had a masterplan. This plan was to play for a draw in the Champions League semi-final 1st leg at home, and then score away to their opponents, Barcelona. It kinda worked, that’s the thing. It was telling that the 2nd leg finished 1-1. Real Madrid were, of course, outplayed, but they scored and away goal. They also ‘had a go,’ they tried to attack Barcelona but not in the gung-ho fashion that saw them battered 5-0 earlier in the season.

Barcelona are now in the final of the Champions League, a game that will take place at Wembley in London on Saturday May 28. They are likely to face Manchester United, who as it stands are 2-0 up against the German side, Schalke. This will be the second time these sides face off for the European Cup, the last game ending 2-0 to the Catalans.

The world’s gaze will now be upon the behaviour of Pep Guardiola’s side given that the 4 games that made up the El Clasico actually resulted in El diving about and cheating like a bunch of *****o

Mourinho was banished from pitch-side for last night’s match and it was said he was watching in his hotel room. Given that he was once known to hid in a laundry basket in order to speak to his at-the-time, Chelsea players, perhaps he employed such tactics this time around also. So, World Cup Statistics presents to you:

No Way, Jose: International Man of Espionage.

Welcome. We invite you to peruse a list of possible clandestine machinations used by the Real Madrid manager in order to contact his players last night. Be warned…this information is of the highest sensitivity and should not bee discussed openly.

1. The Pitch Sub. Jose wasn’t at his hotel as speculated but, having spent the previous day and night digging tunnels under the Camp Nou pitch, he was situated in a Real white coloured capsule under the centre-circle. In his Hola Hub he could tap into the world’s television feeds, operate his wireless communication interface between himself and his bench. He could also, and this was the coup de grace in his plan, operate a 2 metre high, vertical pole with orb-like optical reticule attachment that could pop up from the kick-off spot whenever commanded. It was this that tripped Ronaldo, Mascherano and it was this that zapped Adebayor in the back of the head; the result of which was to make him foul like a mad man. Why couldn’t we see it? Well, he was in control of the television and his clever on-the-spot live photoshopping skills are second to none. The only reason the players didn’t mind was because they were told at birth that this would happen should they ever become professonal footballers and meet. Yep, it was part of his plan all along.

2. Gliding high, flying low. Jose was mid-Halo jump when a freak wind shear kept him trapped at roughly 14,000ft. He had planned to descend on to the pitch at great speed and from a great height in order to swoop like a bird of prey and capture the obviously biased, UEFA conspirator referee. A man tried this before. It didn’t quite work out.

3. Men in Mourinho. Did you notice Kaka on the pitch? Think it strange that he was back in the team for such a big game? Yeah, we all did too. Well, here’s the news. That wasn’t Kaka, it was Jose Mourinho. Mourinho could be heard singing and playing a mondolin on Sunday night outside a bar. It turned out he was drunk and giving clues as to his plan for the match. Lyrics involved: “Laundry baskets were small fry, this is the work of a pure spy, you’ll have to look twice my man, because I’ll be gone in the blink of an eye. They call me the Special One, well I’d attest to that, Son, and I’ve melded my flesh to that of the Brazilian one, oh baby…I’m Kaka.” So, it seems Mourinho is now able to shrink and inject himself into the bloodstream of mortal men in order to influence their, much like Dennis Quaid in Inner Space, or maybe he finally created the kind of technology that Will Smith discovered much to his shock, which sees tiny aliens in large android bodies. Given that Kaka, the real Kaka, hasn’t been seen for a while, maybe this was the case. Either way, Kakinho was substitued late one.

4. Porto-Loo.. He was in the toilet with a walky talky. That’s it.

5. Dr. Mou. Mourinho spent the entire night watching repeats of Doctor Who on Youtube and BBC iplayer, preferring to witness a self-obsessed loud mouth run around dictating people’s lives, assuming there is some kind of universal evil threatening time and space as oppose to acting like a self-obsessed loud mouth who runs around dictating people’s lives, assuming UEFA are against him.

6. Love Mou. He took the time to make love to his wife. All good men should want to but on this night, it was his duty. I’m sure the long-suffering Mrs. Mourinho deserves a candlelit dinner, rose petal-covered bed sheets and a nice, fragrant soak before being made to feel like a woman every so often so, why not when he has the night off? He probably keeps her awake watching repeats of Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatest moments on DVD, in tears, so he owes her one. Or two. Better he do it than John Terry.

7. Finally… Maybe he was just sat in his hotel room in his slacks, drinking a nice wine, eating some fine cake while flicking between the match, the news, a re-run of Predator featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Spanish version of Eastenders. Or was he doing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrOwcZPwDO8&playnext=1&list=PL784FBC8B858F4274?

Oh dear. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We weren’t supposed to see a bunch of highly-paid, diving, moaning, unscrupulous footballers trying their hardest to disgrace themselves in any way possible in the name of victory. Is victory worth your soul? Apparently it is.

The Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Barcelona was supposed to the creme de la creme of football; the ultimate in theory, thought, passion, technicality, expertise and glory. We didn’t see that. We saw something else. We saw a gross adherence to one’s own vulgar sense of self – a self that doesn’t care about the millions of people watching the world’s favourite game; a self whose dishonesty is considered just as key a skill as accurate passing.

The game ended 2-0 to Barcelona, after Lionel Messi scored in the 76th and 87th minute. Admittedly, both of his goals were grand affairs, his second especially. Messi picked up the ball just shy of the centre circle and flew past six Madrid players (including Madrid keeper, Iker Casillas) and popped the ball over the line to give his team a double away goal advantage. It was a thing of beauty, perhaps the only thing if beauty on show unless your taste is one geared toward the archaic.

That’s pretty much all there is to say about the football. That however, isn’t what is left to say about the event.

This was 90-minutes of hell in which the Barcelona reserve keeper, Jose Pinto, was sent to the dressing room for his part in the half-time scuffle between both sets of players; Madrid defender-cum-midfielder Pepe saw red for a challenge on Barcelona right-back, Dani Alves – who subsequently rolled around on the floor, was stretchered off then returned to the filed as if nothing had happened. The Madrid manager, Jose Mourinho, was then sent off for his protestations over the incident and Barcelona reserve keeper; Barca winger, Pedro took ‘running into someone’s shoulder and falling over holding your face’ to a new level.

It’s a shame Barcelona players resorted to play-acting and trying to con the referee, because when they wish they can play the greatest style of football possible. They do however, have a nasty streak, one that represents what you do not want to see in the game. The hounding of German ref, Wolfgang Stark, was completely uncalled for and signalled a side that had little clue in how to break down the white wall in front of them. The thing is, they have broken that wall down before and they did in this game, but only in the last 20-minutes when they decided to start playing some actual football.

Madrid were nowhere. With such talents as Mesut Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel Di Maria, Xabi Alonso and Marcelo at their disposal it was appalling to see a series of long balls punted up front to either Ronaldo or the second-half substitute, Emmanuel Adebayor. Madrid offered no attacking forcefulness, what so ever and they made no shots on target, much to Ronaldo’s frustration.

This was the third game in a row in which Madrid have had a man sent off and Mourinho’s post-match press conference was awash with accusations of a conspiracy in favour of Barcelona’s progression to the final, and surely such an outburst will warrant serious ramifications from UEFA who have begun proceedings against both clubs for their part in making football look vile. The Barcelona board have also held a two-hour board meeting to decide what independent action to take over the slurs.

“The case against Real Madrid is in relation to the throwing of missiles, a pitch invasion, the red card shown to Pepe, the dismissal of the coach José Mourinho, as well as the inappropriate statement given by Mr Mourinho to the media after the match,” said UEFA. UEFA plan to launch action against Barcelona relates to Pinto’s sending off, and the player melee.

The return leg, at the Camp Nou next Tuesday should all but be a formality unless a manager-less Madrid – who will also be missing Sergio Ramos and Pepe – can utilise the likes of Kaka, Karim Benzema, Ronaldo, Di Maria and Ozil to swing the tie in their favour. It seems unlikely but it is possible.

Many hold Barcelona’s football with the highest of regard, but they do seem to turn the tide when things don’t go as they like and Madrid are no amateurs to having to bend the rules when the going gets tough. But, are these the kind of players, with such risible actions in their arsenal, we want to see in the continents most prized football competition?

With the genius of Messi seemingly now set to face an in-form Manchester United in what would be a repeat of the 2008/9 Champions League final, the world waits to see if the little man from Argentina can truly surpass his national idol, Diego Maradona. You’d like to think that such a tie would present the world with fine football and two teams going ‘hell for leather’ to become champions of Europe. The outcome remains to be seen, as both semi-final’s 2nd legs loom.

Manchester United have all but made their passage to the 2011 Champions League final a certainty with a 2-0 victory over Schalke 04 in the semi-final 1st leg in Gelsenkirchen.

Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney scored United’s goals in the second-half of a game that could very well be the most one-sided semi-final tie held in the cup’s recent history.

The first-half saw United begin to dominate after 20 minutes. Chance after chance fell to Sir Alex Ferguson’s men and you’d have thought the goals would have come thick and fast but the startling performance of German international, Manuel Neuer kept any early lead at bay.

It was his fine saves and commanding penalty box presence that saw Schalke go into the dressing rooms 0-0 after 45-minutes. However it was in the 67th-minute that the first United goal came courtesy of a defence-splitting pass from Wayne Rooney. It was the Manchester veteran, Ryan Giggs who finally slotted the ball home following a series of missed opportunities throughout the game. The second goal came moments later when Rooney found himself through one-on-one with the German keeper and the ex-Everton man slid the ball past the stoic stopper to make it 2-0.

Ralf Rangnick’s men now face a major uphill battle in reclaiming any kind of advantage in this tie, but with sour memories of defeats to German teams in the past, Ferguson won’t take the home game lightly and he won’t take any unnecessary chances.

Talking Points:

Wayne Rooney’s performances in recent games have seen the Liverpool-born forward back to his best. He has been afforded his own ‘false 10′ role, in which he is allowed to wreak havoc in whatever way he desires. His movement, passing and vision have given Manchester United a driving force, one that they have perhaps lacked all season or rather, have found through determination and the magic of the Bulgarian, Dimitar Berbatov.

The emergence of Javier Hernandez has helped the Reds’ cause, with the Mexican showing he was £7 million well spent last summer. With Berbatov leading the scoring in the Barclay’s Premier League, this year’s forward line has proven to be a catalyst for success.

Raul’s summer switch to Schalke surprised some, and not others. His performances this year have been outstanding and even when his team were 2-0 down in the 1st leg of the semi-final, he still ran as hard as he could in chasing down the ball to try and give his team a leg up. The ex-Madrid ‘prince’ still shows the class in finish and touch he has in his heyday in Spain and seeing both he and Ryan Giggs on the pitch for what could be the last time highlights what great careers both men have had.

If reports are to be believed, Bayern Munich are first in line to sign keeper, Manuel Neuer and if so, they are in for one hell of a player. It was his performance that single-handedly kept his side in this game until the inevitable happened. With such a showing it wouldn’t be surprising if many other top teams chance their arm at trying to sign the German. This should be an interesting summer of transfers.

As the 2010/11 season starts to draw to a close in most leagues across Europe, we are left questioning whether or not seasons following a World Cup are as riddled with the kind of football we would wish, or does a summer tournament shatter even the most gifted of stars? If you take a look at La Liga’s finest, it’s plain to see that the sparkling Barcelona are completely exhausted with most of their players having been present in Africa last year. Of course, many would point to Pep Guardiola’s obviously thin squad as a prime cause for the club’s over-use of the same players week in, week out, but the point still stands: Does international football prove detrimental to our domestic games and if so, should something be done about it?

Ask yourself about how you would value the season. What have been the highest and lows? If you take a look at last year’s Champions League winner, Inter Milan, you see a team that was mentally reshuffled from the foundations up by one Mr Rafa Benitez, become arcane and then find their form again – albeit with perhaps a little too much gung ho spirit – through the ex-Milan player, Leonardo. Was a thrashing at the hands of German underachievers Schalke really what was expected of the current European and world club champions? Well, no, and you can argue the management merry-go-round put paid to the idea of Inter getting anywhere near the final.

Staying with a German theme, it seems that players from the German national side have been looked upon differently in the wake of the World Cup. The side that gave an uninspiring England team a battering and only lost out to the tournament’s eventual victors found that the players with their ranks were some of the youngest talents around; who now look to be hand-picked by some of the top clubs in Europe – Madrid’s purchase of Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil pre-season were the highest of profile and the word of mouth spread about, and startling performance of Manuel Neuer against Manchester United in the Champions League Semi-Final makes it almost impossible that the keeper from Gelsenkirchen won’t be at a top club next year.

The 2010/11 season has seen the footballing momentum of the mighty Barcelona continue; the evolution of a Real Madrid side under José Mourinho; the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Wayne Rooney on and off the field; a turbulent Inter Milan; a resurgent AC Milan under Massimiliano Allegri; a disastrous Bayern Munich; a burgeoning Manchester City; a fluctuating Chelsea; a sparkling Udinese, Lazio and Napoli; a Liverpool rebirth and every French side go completely under the radar as usual.

The season is coming to a close and you can’t help but feel that it’s all been a little barmy. Perhaps exhaustion does that to a bunch of sportsmen. It’s been a good season, but something tells me that next year will be even better. Players will be fresh, rested and ready and we can start this ludicrous journey all over again for another ten months, with the small matter of some International European Championship hovering around in the summer of 2012, along with the Olympics. Well, that’s if the world doesn’t end.

Yesterday Bayern won 3:0 against the former season champion Wolfsburg with an extraordinary playing Arjen Robben who just arrived from Real Madrid on Friday.

After two ties against Hoffenheim and Bremen and a lost against the leagues greenhorn Mainz Louis van Gaals’ team was under high pressure to win in the Allianz Arena. Starting without Ribery and Robben Bayern played a good first half scoring through Mario Gomez. After the brake Wolfsburg showed a bit of their quality what they were known for last season but even best chances were given away twice by Dzeko and Grafite. So then it was the Robben show which decided the game. With two goals in his first half time for Bayern he calmed the begining nervousness in the Munich soroundings. Bayerns outgoing manager Uli Hoeneß stated that Robben might not be the last catch on the transfer market to consolidate their starting position for the Champions League which might be a link to the brazilian left defender Rafinha from Schalke 04.

Chelsea beat Manchester Utd on penalties in the Community sheild at Wembly. Chelsea prosperd 4-1 on penalties with Solamen Kalou scoring the final penalty.
Goals from Nani, Carvalho, Lampard and Wayne Rooney gave a 2-2 scoreline at full time.

The season’s curtain raiser got off to a flyer, usualy drab but cagey affaires, this yeras community sheild was the perfect tonic for the new season.
A highly competitive game which no team dared lose showed through Chelsea’s second goal, Michael Ballack and Patrice Evra collided and tempers flared as Frank Lampard ended up giving Chelsea the lead.

There was’nt to much dwelling on Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure, it was all but forgotern within ten minutes. Nani, utd’s other Portugese winger fired a stunning shoot towards Cech’s goal to give the Champion’s the lead. The replay showed maybe Cech could have done better.
The first half prety much stayed in Utd’s favour Cech possibly making up for his soft mistake with a string of fine saves. Utd looked good throughout the first half with Rooney impresing and Lampard going unnoticed due to the dominance of Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick, but it was still only 1-0 at half time.

Chelsea started the second half strong Lampard and drogba’s presence was incressing and both were involved in Chelsea’s equalizer.
Drogba and Ben Foster collided which gave Carvaliho an open net to hed into.
Controvesy surronded Chelsea’s second, Utd expected Chelsea to kick the ball out of play as evra was taken out off the ball by ballack, Drogba played on and Lampard’s shoot was weakly parried by Foste on to the post and then acros the line for the lead. Lady luc smileing on Chelsea once agin.

Michael Owen and Valencia were introduced as Nani was carried off with a shoulder injury. Owen put himself about and nearly headed the equalizer but was beaten to the ball by Cech. It was’nt till the 93rd minute that Rooney pounced on to Giggs ball and neatly finished to send the game to penaltiy’s.
Ryan Giggs mised Utd’s first kick and they never recoverd Lampard, Ballack, Drogba and Kalou were all successful which gave Ancolotti his first Chelsea win.
Impresive game all round surely Utd and Chelsea are favourite again.

Juventus have made the transfer complete of Brazilian tough tackeler Felipe Melo from Fiorentina.

News reports in Italy hve suggested Melo has joined the old lady from the viola in a deal worth about 21m Euro. Melo is believed to earn 2.5 million Euro a season as Juve bid to bring glory days back to Stadio Delle Alpi.

Transfers in Italy never seem straight forward this deal involves Juve winger Marco Marchionni heading to Florence, with Juventus paying a reportedly extra 4 million to retain the players ownership.

Melo will join fellow Brazilian Diego at Juventus, Melo has had a quick rise to fame in European football after a convincing performances with Brazil in the confederations cup, a good season with Fiorentina after a spell in Spain with Almeria.