Champions League: Bayern Through. Wolfsburg Out.

By: Jan | December 8th, 2009

   

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Bayern. Hats off to Bayern. They didn’t just get the result they needed, they got it in style beating Juventus 4-1. This match certainly rates as the best Bayern performance of the season. Something I didn’t really expect. Bayern got their season back on track as far as results were concerned recently, but the football was below par, and more worryingly the defense started to get shaky. Bayern relied on their goalkeeper a bit too much. Well, they relied on him again against Juventus, but as an expert penalty taker this time around. The Bayern Offside will pick it up from here.

Trivia. Hans-Jörg Butt has now scored three Champions League goals – all of them against Juventus and while representing three different Bundesliga sides: Hamburg (2000), Leverkusen (2002) and Bayern (2009)

Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg lost 1-3 at home against Manchester United and have been dumped to the Europa League. Wolfsburg played a courageous match actually and should have had a penalty early in the first half. In the end, a couple of trademark defensive errors allowed Manchester to convert the few chances they had. On the other end, Wolfsburg wasted theirs by the dozen. Grafite being completely out of form didn’t help either. All things considered, Wolfsburg just didn’t play it smart enough throughout their maiden Champions League campaign. They gave up a lead and subsequently the momentum in their match at home against Besiktas. The same happened away against Moscow. Those were the crucial points Wolfsburg dropped. You can probably blame some of that on the lack of Champions League and big match experience. Their defensive woes have been a problem all season long though and have also cost them a lot of points in the Bundesliga. Wolfsburg need to work on that and probably invest into their defense during the winter break, otherwise they won’t go far in the Europa League either and they will have a hard time competing for the European spots in the Bundesliga.

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Comments  

• diana |  December 8th, 2009 at 11:16 pm

  
  
  

  ‘Something I didn’t really expect.’
  Me too. And looks like Butt seemed to have a knack for scoring against Juventus, eh? It continues, even now that he is at Bayern.

  But then speaking as a Manchester United supporter, I am stunned at this scoreline (alright, you can hate me now). We got a defence barely unrecognisable heading to Germany. And to imagine, Wayne Rooney was not in action (I think I read that he was slightly injured or something since over the weekend action). Over at United, Michael Owen is the substitute most of the time if Rooney is in action.

  I say, Owen scoring a hat-trick…I can guarantee this will increase more pressure for the England manager.

  

• Jan |  December 9th, 2009 at 2:34 am

  
  
  

  “Me too. And looks like Butt seemed to have a knack for scoring against Juventus, eh?”

  I’m pretty sure that’s the reason why he wanted to take the PK in the first place. And it looked like there wasn’t really any discussion about who would take a PK, so the team must have talked this through prior to the match.

  “But then speaking as a Manchester United supporter, I am stunned at this scoreline (alright, you can hate me now).”

  I’m not a Wolfsburg fan so no harm done. These things can happen when one team needs to open up and take risks to try and score a goal. The last two goals were classic counter attacks. Wolfsburg was forced to increase the pressure after CSKA had taken the lead in the other game. Commit more, open up the game and Manchester played it clever then. But Wolfsburg had enough chances to get the result they needed anyway.

  

• diana |  December 9th, 2009 at 5:55 am

  
  
  

  ‘I’m not a Wolfsburg fan so no harm done.’
  I’m aware of that, Jan. But considering given I thought what if I declare that Manchester United is the club I support in the Premier League, how many will like it if I say that?

  It still left me in amazement in how we did it. And it’s no surprise Owen’s hat-trick has gotten the English press all singing his praises today. The more he does that at club level (that is if he get regular games), it will be an added headache for Fabio Capello. But deep down I admit there is a long shot for that to happen if Capello announces his final squad for the World Cup.

  But did it occur to you Jan, that this is the second hat-trick he has on German soil after that 5-1 scoreline back in Munich in 2001 during the 2002 World Cup qualifiers? That thought came to me after what he did against Wolfsburg.