2007/08 UEFA Champions League Technical Report
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TECHNICAL REPORT 2007/08 ENGLISH SECTION PARTIE FRANÇAISE DEUTSCHER TEIL STATISTICS PHOTO: WILFRIED WITTERS SPORT-PRESSE-FOTOS TECHNICAL REPORT This Report has been prepared to serve not only as a record of the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League but also with the aim of offering some data, reflections and opinions which, we hope, will give technicians food for thought and help to detect trends, analyse the present and lay the foundations for further enhancement of the club competition which is hailed by the critics as the best in the world. But, in football, there is no time to rest on laurels - least of all in the UEFA Champions League. The past, however, can be used as the basis for future improvement. With Joe Cole and Michael Essien (5) too far away to intervene, Cristiano Ronaldo leaps with balance and power to direct his header past Petr Cech after 26 minutes of the final in Moscow. But it proved to be the only time the Chelsea FC goalkeeper was beaten until the penalty shoot-out which gave Manchester United FC their third European crown. PLUS ÇA CHANGE… When the campaign kicked-off in September, it would have been reasonable to bet on Chelsea FC’s first-ever presence in the UEFA Champions League final. Few, however, would have predicted that the London club would part company with José Mourinho after an opening-day draw with Rosenborg BK. It was a curtain-raiser in more ways than one. In quick-fire sequence, seven more UEFA Champions League coaches bade farewell to their players. When Valencia CF and Rosenborg BK met on the third and fourth matchdays, both clubs had PHOTO: FOTO-NET There’s anxiety in the FC Schalke 04 defence but goalkeeper Manuel changed coaches during the intervening two weeks. Neuer - who was to become the German club’s hero during the penalty shoot-out - palms the ball over the bar despite a strong aerial challenge by FC Porto striker Lisandro. Even though the presence of Sir Alex Ferguson on the Man- chester United FC bench in Moscow represented an advertise- ment for continuity, the season’s casualty list inevitably mid-stream, summed up the feeling by commenting “I’m provided food for thought - not least about the levels of pleased with our performances in the Champions League but patience and expectations in the modern-day boardroom and we were let down by individual mistakes.” the time-spans nowadays available for ‘team-building’. It did not pass unnoticed that the four semi-finalists were clubs As usual, such mistakes were mercilessly punished and, as who occupied leading places in the game’s financial league usual, the group stage represented a learning curve for some and that, for the second successive season, three of them outsiders. Yet, in general, there was equality among teams hailed from England’s Premier League, arguably the globe’s who played football of the highest level. Debutants SK Slavia richest championship. Praha suffered a heavy defeat against Arsenal FC in London, while Besiktas JK were on the receiving end of a competition- These ingredients combine to produce unrelenting pressure record 8-0 defeat against a Liverpool FC side whose hunger on the technician - which is why the UEFA Champions League had been sharpened by one draw and two defeats in its is such an adrenalin-rich challenge. The ultimate measure- opening three matches. However, such one-sided contests ments of ‘success’ were taken in Moscow, but many of the were exceptions which proved a rule. Other groups were coaches who were forced off the road to Russia sportingly outrageously tight - none more so than Group B, where FC admitted defeat but were reluctant to admit that, in foot- Schalke 04 - with eight points - reached the knock-out phase balling terms, victors had been superior to the vanquished. for the first time, having defeated only one of the other Erik Gerets, who took the reins at Olympique de Marseille in three contenders. Four former champions of Europe were fallers in the group stage, along with Valencia CF, finalists in 2000 and 2001. All five teams had undergone changes on the bench, with FC Steaua Bucuresti and Valencia CF fielding three different coaches in six games. Only three teams remained undefeated - the two finalists and one of the semi-finalists, FC Barcelona, while the three teams who ended their groups without a win hailed from the former ‘Soviet bloc’ countries who, for the fourth successive season, failed to pass the ‘cut’ in December. Indeed, one of the paradoxes of the European Fenerbahçe SK’s campaign was that, while FC Zenit were carrying the Russian Brazilian coach Zico shares a laugh with flag from St. Petersburg all the way to the UEFA Cup final his PSV counterpart Ronald Koeman during in Manchester, CSKA Moskva’s dividend from six games was the goal-less draw in one point. FC Dynamo Kyiv also finished at the bottom of Eindhoven. When the teams met in Istanbul their group after six straight defeats, during which their two weeks later, defence shipped 19 goals. Their Ukrainian rivals, FC Shakhtar Koeman had left for PHOTO: PETER DE JONG / AP KEYSTONE Valencia CF. Donetsk, had a more fruitful campaign, only for hopes of an 4•5 appearance in the knock-out phase to be dissipated when of their quarter-final to become the only team to defeat Mircea Lucescu’s side lost at home to SL Benfica - a result Chelsea FC and, arguably, gave the Londoners their most which opened the knock-out door to Celtic FC who, once uncomfortable ride of the season during the return at again, exploited home advantage to the full yet failed to Stamford Bridge. obtain a point - or even a goal - outside Glasgow. At the start of the season, only two knock-out ties had ever Such ‘consistency’ is surely something Gordon Strachan would been settled by penalty shoot-outs. This total was doubled have preferred to do without. Yet other teams encountered when, 24 hours after Fenerbahçe had edged home in Seville, peaks and troughs within the condensed six-game group another visiting team - FC Schalke 04 - did likewise in Porto, phase. Liverpool FC painted the most striking picture in with Manuel Neuer performing some goalkeeping heroics. It chiaroscuro by taking maximum points from their last three allowed the Gelsenkirchen side to make club history and to games (and scoring 16 times) after earning only one from keep the German flag flying. But lack of punch was their their first three. In the same group, Olympique de Marseille undoing against FC Barcelona and they were eliminated after became Midas in reverse by winning seven points from the scoring only six in their ten games - five of them against first three fixtures - and then none more. After a brace Rosenborg BK. of 3-0 defeats, Olympique Lyonnais took 10 of the next 12 points to claim second place behind FC Barcelona. The They were not alone in struggling to find the net during win-or-lose tendency produced a 28% drop in the number a lean and hungry knock-out phase. Games involving Liver- of drawn games: from 25 to 18 (three of which involved pool FC supplied over 30% of the 63 goals (at 2.17 per game) Chelsea FC), while 27 games were won by the visitors (four but clubs with reputations for flamboyance were unusually more than in 2006/07). subdued. FC Barcelona scored three times in their last four matches; and Manchester United FC made it all the way to The outcome was that, when the competition resumed in the final after conceding one goal in their first knock-out February, 12 of the 16 names on the fixture list were the match in Lyon and then keeping their net unruffled for over same as in the previous season and 10 of them were from 500 minutes - no mean achievement at the heady heights of England, Italy or Spain, underlining the trend towards a the UEFA Champions League. An old English saying reads European elite. It also breeds a degree of familiarity. Sir ‘there’s many a slip between cup and lip’ and, during Alex Ferguson, when asked whether playing the final against the penalty shoot-out in Moscow, one slip was enough to domestic rivals Chelsea FC was an advantage in terms of determine who was to win the cup and provide a dramatic tactical preparation, commented “not really, because you finale to a competition of outstanding quality and equality. tend to know everything about the teams in the Cham- pions League anyway”. Manchester United FC reinforced his thesis by playing AS Roma six times in a calendar year. The final obstacle in Chelsea FC’s path to the rendezvous in Moscow was a semi-final against Liverpool FC - an opponent the Londoners have met in four successive UEFA Champions League campaigns. By contrast, the number of heavyweights hitting the canvas in December allowed some outsiders to step into the ring. Olympiacos CFP shook off their traditional travel-sickness to record healthy victories in Bremen and Rome, only to be overcome by the sheer power of Chelsea FC in the first PHOTO: DAVE THOMPSON / AP KEYSTONE Hakan Arikan is at full stretch but the Besiktas JK goalkeeper fails knock-out round. Zico persuaded Fenerbahçe SK to cast aside to prevent the ball from hitting the net at Anfield where, on inhibitions and, after earning 11 points in the group phase, Matchday 4, Liverpool FC set a new competition record by beating the Turkish visitors 8-0.