We are just a couple of days away from the final match day of the group stages of Europe’s elite competition, the UEFA champions league. As always the top guns of England have all made it to the group stage including first timer’s Manchester city – thanks to a superfluous influx of money and players into the City of Manchester. But the irony of the story is that Chelsea, United, and City are all hanging by a thread, and are in dire need of victories in their last group stage games.
Looking back at the groups, it was expected that they would be comfortably sitting on the top of their respective groups, preparing for the knock-out phase, but that has not been the case, and they would be lucky to even get through the group stages. But it’s a completely contrasting image when you look at the Premier League, where City sit on the top with a 5 point lead followed by United, and Chelsea, slowly crawling up the table to the 4th position.
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Manchester City
City have been unbeaten in the premier league so far, winning 12 of the 14 games played, and remain in top form after recently drubbing United 6-1 at Old Trafford. Finally the tide has turned for the Citizens under Roberto Mancini, and they are on the cusp of joining England’s elite clubs. Its their first time ever, qualifying for the Group Stages of the Champions league, and they are indeed having a hard time. City was drawn into group A, alongside German giants Bayern Munich – who have won this tournament 4 times in - Itaian club Napoli, and Spanish Primera Division Football Club Villarreal .
Now they face an uphill battle to claim their spot in the Knockout round, lying third in the group with 7 points from a possible 15 , with Villarreal at the nadir. Having managed to clinch only two wins, both against Villarreal, they now not only face a must win situation, but also put their fate in the hands of Villarreal.
To proceed further in the competition they not only have to get over Bayern Munich in their final fixture, but also expect villarreal to grab their first points over Napoli, which seems an incredibly herculean task for both the teams. Having been defeated by Bayern 2-0 -credit to a Mario Gomez brace in the reverse fixture – they will be hugely relying on their home ground advantage this time around. With Sergio Aguero on an incendiary form – already scoring a staggering 11 goals in his 13 appearances – we cannot completely rule out the possibility of a City win.
Chelsea
Andre Villas-Boas
Chelsea are wallowing second in Group E and are level on points with Valencia while Bayer Leverkusen top the table, but only a single point separates them from the second spot. The Belgian Club Genk is at the bottom end of the table, are yet to win a match , managing two draws against Valencia, and surprisingly even against Chelsea. They were rather Unlucky to lose their last fixture against Leverkusen with the winner coming of Manuel Friedrich’s head in the dying seconds of the game.
The blues are in dire need of victory against one of the most successful Spanish clubs, Valencia, at Stamford Bridge. The Blues are in a do or die situation, and only go through to the top 16 if they get past Valencia.
The pressure has been piling up on the Chelsea players as well as their Manager Andres Villas-Boas with the recent run of intermittent wins and losses. With his job on the line he has to soon pull out something from his hat or he will be shown the door. With Fernando Torres still groveling in the dark trying to find his ‘lost form’, and rumours of Drogba shedding the blue jersey, there is a lot of work to be done at Stamford Bridge.
Manchester United has 3 Champions league titles sitting pretty in their closet, but they are still struggling to find a place in the last 16 of the champions league. The Red Devils have had a fine season in the premier league so far, securing 33 of a possible 42 points, and we know from their glorious past, that this is the time when they really start to up the ante, and march ahead of the pack.
United and Benfica in action
Its a whole new story when you look at their foray in the Champions league, Manchester United were expected to cruise through into the top 16, but United managed to win just two of their games, and settled for draws in the remaining three. The first of which came in their first fixture against Benfica. The second draw was against a resilient Basel who were rather unfortunate to lose three points after leading by a goal until the dying minutes of the game when Ashley Young struck gold, and saved United from ignominy. It was a Deja-Vu in the return fixture against Benfica, when once again United came from behind to snatch a point ending with a 2-2 draw.
That leaves Benfica and United with 9 points a piece while Basel is looming just a point behind them. A Win or at least a draw against Basel in their final fixture will see them through to the next round, but it is all down to Galati to decide who is going to top the table – which would make life much easier in the Knock out round.
Right now Benfica top the table based on the away goals scored, and if they fail to win against Otelul Galati in their final fixture at home , and Manchester United manage to squeeze a point out of Basel, United will leapfrog them into the first place. Sure that’s a lot of wishful thinking, well I guess we will have to wait till the D-day, and find out who will finally be exonerated from the curse of the Champions League while the others will be damned to the underworld (Europa League).
