Reuters Soccer Blog

First Europa League final has a familiar feel

The first Europa League season, following its rebranding from UEFA Cup, draws to a close with a final line-up no-one would have expected here in Hamburg, but still, there is a familiar feel heading into this match.

Fulham’s roller coaster ride is reminiscent of the journey made by Spain’s Alaves, when they made it all the way to the final in 2000-01.

The final that year was in Dortmund, a three-hour drive down the A1 from Hamburg, and ultimately the underdogs came up short, losing in sudden-death extra-time to Liverpool.

You could make a case for Atletico Madrid being the rough equivalent of that Liverpool team nine years ago. Liverpool’s European glories looked a little faded back then: they had never so much as qualified for the Champions League at that stage and were being thoroughly overshadowed by Manchester United.

Atletico don’t quite have the same European pedigree but they have always regarded themselves as big stage players, having won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1962 and lost three other European finals.

These days they remain in the shadow of their richer neighbours, having won their last piece of silverware when they completed a league and cup double in 1996. This could be the first part of another double, with a Copa del Rey final to come, and they are determined to enjoy their return to the spotlight. As Liverpool discovered in the semi-finals, they are a streetwise team, with skillful players who have been around a long time and know a thing or two about killing off a game when they hold a lead.

As for Fulham,  who knows how they will deal with the pressure of their first major European final? They have upset expectations so often that they will feel anything is possible. When Alaves played Liverpool in that 2001 final the Spaniards looked like being overwhelmed but they recovered from a 2-0 deficit early in the game to give the English side a real fright.

Europa League semi-finals — live

The Champions League has brought little joy to English clubs this season but the Europa League has been a different story, with Liverpool and Fulham both in with a chance of making the final.

Join us for live chat and on-the-spot details from our reporters as Liverpool take on Atletico Madrid and Fulham face Hamburg in the semi-final second legs.

Istanbul heads list of Games of the Decade

Here’s a total random idea: go and choose the best five matches of the last 10 years – a lot easier said than done.

Where do you begin? Do you only pick matches you have seen yourself ? As I am based in England, do I pick only matches played in England, or as I am lucky enough to travel round the world and watch football, do I go for international matches too?

Do you allow your personal preferences to come into it? After all, any fan could easily pick five great victories achieved by the team they support.

Well, I’ve weighed it up and gone for the bigger picture: any match played anywhere. It’s a totally subjective list with no “right” or “wrong” choices so here goes: Mike Collett’s Best Five Matches of the last decade:

Liverpool 3 AC Milan 3: The epic 2005 Champions League final which Liverpool won on penalties after fighting back from a 3-0 halftime deficit. Milan thought they had won the title — Liverpool, inspired by Steven Gerrard, proved them wrong.

AS Monaco 8 Deportivo Coruna 3: An extraordinary match which set a Champions League scoring record in November 2003 and included four goals from striker Dado Prso on his 29th birthday.

from UK News:

Share your memories of Sir Bobby Robson

The death of Sir Bobby Robson, England's most successful manager after Sir Alf Ramsey, had been expected given his long battle with cancer, but his passing still jolts.

The son of a miner, Robson's career was characterised by dignity, loyalty and hard graft and no little success.

As a player he won 20 England caps, but it was as an innovative manager that he will be best remembered, notably his success in guiding England to a World Cup semi-final in 1990, when his side came agonisingly close to reaching the final.

Before his stint with the national team, Robson managed Ipswich for 13 years, guiding the Suffolk club to FA and UEFA Cup success and twice led the Portman Road side to the runners-up spot in the old First Division.

At Ipswich, Robson brought in two Dutch players -- Arnold Muhren and Franz Thijssen -- who helped forge Ipswich's reputation as a passing side playing attractive and enterprising football.

After stepping down as England manager in 1990, Robson then went to Holland, where he managed PSV Eindhoven, before going on to coach Sporting Lisbon and Porto in Portugal and then Barcelona in Spain.

While he was at Barca he helped to preside over the development of the Brazilian striker Ronaldo, before he returned to England to manage Newcastle in his native north-east.

Shakhtar win is fitting end for UEFA Cup

The way the UEFA Cup has been going, it was fitting, perhaps even inevitable, that Shakhtar Donetsk triumphed over Werder Bremen to win the competition’s final final before its rebranding as the Europa League.

As Sonia Oxley pointed out, Easter European teams have been the ones taking it seriously of late, and as Justin Palmer noted, the Brazilian influence on the competition has been getting ever stronger. Werder were missing Diego and it showed, as they searched in vain for inspiration after falling behind for a second time. Shakhtar, of course, have far the greater Brazilian contingent.

We’ll have more on this later but for now, click here for our full report, here for reaction and here for a great slideshow of photos.

And as someone who was based in Germany for a long time, I must just spare a thought for Tim Wiese, who had another European night to forget.

PHOTO: Shakhtar Donetsk celebrate with the UEFA Cup trophy after defeating Werder Bremen in final soccer match at Sukru Saracoglu stadium in Istanbul May 20, 2009. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

No Diego but UEFA Cup final will have strong Brazilian influence

There will be a heavy Brazilian influence in Wednesday’s UEFA Cup final between Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen in Istanbul — despite the absence of Werder’s influential playmaker Diego through suspension.

Brazilian players have made a major impact in recent finals and with Ukraine’s Shakhtar boasting five in their ranks, and Naldo lining up for their German rivals, expect the boys from South America to take centre stage.

A quick look back at previous finals this decade shows the influence Brazilians have made.

In 2003, Porto became the first team to win the trophy on the now-defunct ‘silver goal’ rule thanks to Brazilian Derlei’s strike in extra time against Celtic.

Two years later Brazilian playmaker Daniel Carvalho played a starring role for CSKA Moscow, setting up all three of the Russian side’s goals, including one for compatriot Vagner Love, in the 3-1 victory over Sporting in the Lisbon final.

In 2006, Sevilla cantered to their first UEFA Cup triumph as a goal from Brazilian Luis Fabiano set the Spaniards on their way to a one-sided 4-0 demolition of Middlesbrough in Eindhoven.

Sevilla did it again the following year in Glasgow, Adriano scoring their opening goal before fellow Brazilian Jonatas got Espanyol’s equaliser in extra time in the 2-2 draw.

Eastern Europe’s UEFA Cup love affair still burning

What have the UEFA Cup and the Eurovision song contest got in common?

A) Some people don’t take them as seriously as they could.

B) They give lesser known participants the chance to appear on prime-time TV.

C) East European countries have started to dominate them

And the answer, I’m starting to think, is C … because of A and B.

This year will be the third year in the past six that an ex-Soviet team plays in the UEFA Cup final after victories by Russian sides Zenit St Petersburg last year and CSKA Moscow in 2005.

A Super League is a non-starter

Comments by UEFA officials that the body’s president Michel Platini is “dead set” against a European Super League must come as a huge relief to a vast majority of Europe’s clubs.

“People should not mix up philosophy and reality. As far as the president is concerned, such a proposal is a non-starter,” a senior official close to Platini told Reuters.

The statement came several hours after France Football and Gazzetta dello Sport had published, without naming sources, detailed plans for a three-tier continental league to replace the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

For most national leagues in Europe, which would have to be reorganised to allow Super League teams to play in both competitions, that would have been the final straw.

How would anyone benefit from shredding the Premier League, Europe’s wealthiest and most entertaining national championship, into five groups of four teams and a subsequent play-off so that Manchester United and Liverpool could compete?

Would it not turn Europe’s top leagues into a mockery and the Premier League trophy into a piece of worthless scrap metal?

Did Spain’s Euro 2008 win jinx the clubs?

Spain overcame 44 years of underachievement on the international stage when they were crowned European champions at Euro 2008. Not only did they win the tournament, but their players, their style and their attacking ambition were hailed around the world.

However, that success appears to have had a detrimental effect on their domestic teams, who have traditionally been some of the strongest performers in Europe’s club competitions.

Last week’s Champions League and UEFA Cup results are some of the worst in recent seasons.

Nine-times European Cup winners Real Madrid were beaten 1-0 at home by Liverpool in their last 16 first leg, while both Villarreal and Atletico Madrid were held to score draws at home by Panathinaikos and Porto respectively.

Only Barcelona achieved what could be considered a positive result, coming from behind to draw 1-1 away to Olympique Lyon and it was hardly an impressive performance.

In the UEFA Cup they fared even worse.

The 2004 winners Valencia drew at home to Dynamo Kiev to go out on the away goals rule 3-3 on aggregate, while Deportivo Coruna were humbled 6-1 on aggregate by AaB Aalborg. The 2006 and 2007 winners Sevilla failed to make it out of the group stages along with Racing Santander.

UEFA Cup becomes an irrelevance for clubs like Spurs

Twice UEFA Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur are most likely heading out of the competition after a 2-0 first-leg defeat at Shakhtar Donetsk in the first knockout round on Thursday.

The fact they fielded a ‘B’ team was not surprising. Manager Harry Redknapp had already stated several times that Premier League survival and the League Cup were his priorities. After the game Redknapp said: “I had a 17-year-old playing tonight and I will probably have four playing next week.”   The reason they will play with an under-strength team in the return leg next Thursday is that it comes three days after a crunch league match at Hull City and three days before their League Cup final against Manchester United.

Spurs have already lost to the Old Trafford side in the FA Cup fourth round after selecting a weakened team so it will be a welcome change for their fans that the starting lineup for the Wembley final will be the strongest they can muster.   The irony is that it was their surprise victory over Chelsea in last year’s League Cup final that got Spurs into the UEFA Cup in the first place. The delight that the supporters took in qualifying for a European campaign has been soured by the fact that it was not a priority to try to win the competition.

Fans spent their hard-earned money stumping up for tickets for the group stage matches only to find that the competition has almost turned into an irrelevance.   Of course, if Spurs were not struggling near the foot of the Premier League, cups would be more important but it is a sad indictment of the UEFA Cup’s standing that a team with a proud European history have had to relegate the competition to an irritant.

There will be a 48-team group stage in the competition next season when it is renamed the Europa League. I doubt Harry will be relishing the prospect.

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