Tuesday, March 9, 2010

A Comprehensive Weekly Look at the Top Teams in European Football

Good morning to one and all, and welcome to the latest edition of European Football Rankings Weekly, brought to you by Tom and Blaine. For the most part this week was pretty uneventful, with few upsets and even fewer particularly interesting matches, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have some rankings to publish! The most interesting development this week was probably the flip-flopping of Real Madrid and Barcelona at the top of La Liga, with Madrid taking the lead at the top of the table after a 3-2 win vs. Sevilla. Barcelona was only able to manage a draw away at Almeria, which allowed Madrid to take the lead based on goal differential (they each have a whopping 62 points after 25 games, but Madrid’s GD is +47 compared to Barca’s +45). This will undoubtedly increase the importance of the second leg of “El Clasico”, set to be played at the Bernabeu on April 11th. In England it was more of the usual, with Chelsea beating Stoke City 2-0 in their FA Cup quarterfinal match. Portsmouth’s dreadful season was given a glimmer of hope with their advancement to the FA Cup Semifinal with a 2-0 win over mid-table Birmingham. The win was a bit of a flashback to the Pompey of last season, who were able to win the FA Cup and finish 6th in the Premiership, and it gives their long-suffering fans something to cheer about in an otherwise disgraceful, painful season. Manchester United looked decidedly lackluster without their main man Wayne Rooney in a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. Paul Scholes (he scores goals) scored his 100th premier league goal in the win, which saw United climb to the top of the table with one more match played than Chelsea. Arsenal continued to roll with an easy win over Burnley. They are now 2 points back of United with the same number of matches played, and even with Chelsea with one more match played. They suffered a significant setback, however, with an injury to Cesc Fabregas. The only other premiership match of note this week was Everton’s 5-1 thrashing of Hull City. Several other matches were postponed due to weather. In Serie A, both AC Milan and Inter Milan were only able to draw, with Juventus pulling off a 2-1 win to give them some bit of respectability. AC Milan’s draw was with Roma, which prevented Roma from climbing further towards the top of the table. Serie A currently sits with Inter at the top, 4 points ahead of AC Milan and 7 points ahead of AS Roma, with 4th place Palermo a distant 13 points back. In the Bundesliga, Bayer Leverkusen lost for the first time all season, which sees them pushed down to 3rd place (granted, they have 11 draws in 25 matches, so their previously unbeaten record was not that impressive). Bayern Munich only managed a draw, which allowed Schalke 04 to creep within 2 points of them at the top of the table. FC Twente climbed to the top of the Eredivisie table after their win and PSV Eindhoven’s loss, while Ajax continues to sit in 3rd. In France, AJ Auxerre, a club that was at the top of the table about 2 months ago, saw an attendance at their home match of 9,114. Last time I checked that’s about Iowa Cubs range, but who am I to judge the French on their football fandom. For the record, they won 1-0. Bordeaux remains at the top of the table along with Montpelier, though Bordeaux has 2 less matches played. Lyon continues to sit back in 3rd, with their chances of another Ligue 1 title fading every week. This week we’re back to Champions’ League action, so expect some shakeups in the rankings next week. Undoubtedly the biggest clashes will be Wednesday, with Manchester United playing AC Milan (first leg Milan 2-3 Manchester United), and Real Madrid vs. Lyon (first leg Lyon 1-0 Madrid). The other 2 matches this week are Fiorentina vs. Bayern Munich (Bayern 2-1 Fiorentina first leg), and Arsenal vs. FC Porto (FC Porto 2-1 Arsenal first leg). It appears that United will be without Wayne Rooney again, which could be a huge blow. However, in order to advance, AC Milan effectively needs to win by 2 based on the away goals rule. Later in the week we have a decent batch of Europa League matches, with the highlights being Juventus-Fulham, Valencia-Werder Bremen, and Lille-Liverpool. That’s about all I can muster to say about this week. As I said, it was pretty uneventful, without many heroic efforts. One match of note as far as a lopsided scoreline would be Newcastle United’s 6-1 win over Barnsley, which more or less clinches the Championship for them (8 point lead with game in hand). Other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot this week, so I suppose I’ll end this before it gets too long (though granted, it already is a bit rambling, so if you’ve made it this far, hats off). Have a good week, and remember, if you’re ever in Singapore, make sure to eat at the Banana Leaf Apolo on Race Course Road! Best Indian food I’ve ever had.

And now here are the rankings! Some of the more interesting ones we’ve had yet. Everton and Panathinaikos debut while me and Blaine show some true variation in our rankings at the top for the first time in a while.

Rank Team Country Points
1. Barcelona (Esp) 49
Barcelona barely scraped out a 2-2 draw at Almeria on the weekend that saw them drop from the top of La Liga. They twice came from a goal down and fought through a Zlatan Ibrahimovic red card and Carles Puyol own goal in a match sprinkled with some puzzling refereeing decisions. Barcelona was almost spared embarrassment but a 90th minute Rafael Van der Vaart goal claimed three points for Real Madrid in their comeback from 2-0 against Sevilla as Madrid placed themselves at the top of the table. Barcelona will look to bounce back with a visit from third-place Valencia next weekend followed by a visit from Stuttgart for the second leg of the Champions League knockout stage just after that.
2. Real Madrid (Esp) 47
T3. Chelsea (Eng) 45
T3. Inter Milan (Ita) 45
5. Manchester United (Eng) 44
Manchester United won a squeaker on the weekend with a 1-0 win at Wolverhampton on the back of Paul Scholes’ 100th Premier League goal. It was a mediocre effort that saw Wolves nearly put away an equalizer in stoppage time and poor performances from Berbatov up front and Nani and Valencia on the wings. The over-reliance on Wayne Rooney was exposed as he sat out the clash after two games on the poor pitch of Wembley Stadium in four days, which apparently gave him a knee injury. Still, United has regained their spot at the top of the table even though they have an extra game on trailers Chelsea. The second leg of the first knockout round of the Champions League looms mid-week as AC Milan visits from Italy. Rooney should be back and should be in top form to defend United’s 3-2 lead from the first leg.
6. AC Milan (Ita) 40
7. Arsenal (Eng) 37
T8. Bayern Munich (Ger) 32
T8. Bordeaux (Fra) 32
10. Manchester City (Eng) 28
T11. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) 27
T11. Valencia (Esp) 27
13. Schalke 04 (Ger) 26
14. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 24
15. Twente Enschede (Ned) 23
T16. Aston Villa (Eng) 21
T16. Benfica (Por) 21
18. AS Roma (Ita) 19
T19. Ajax Amsterdam (Ned) 10
T19. Montpellier (Fra) 10
T21. Braga (Por) 7
T21. Marseille (Fra) 7
T23. Everton (Eng) 5
T23. Lyon (Fra) 5
T25. Palermo (Ita) 4
T25. Panathinaikos (Gre) 4

Also Receiving Votes: PSV Eindhoven (Ned) 3, Galatasaray (Tur) 3, Mallorca (Esp) 2, Juventus (Ita) 2, Hamburg SV (Ger) 1

And here's how the voters voted (Sorry, no fancy table this time, I am doing this before my 9 AM class so not enough time!):
Tom
Real Madrid
Barcelona
Manchester United
Chelsea
Inter Milan
AC Milan
Arsenal
Bayern Munich
Schalke 04
Bordeaux
Manchester City
Benfica
Bayer Leverkusen
Tottenham Hotspur
AS Roma
Montpellier
Aston Villa
Valencia
Marseille
Twente Enschede
Lyon
Panathinaikos
PSV Eindhoven
Mallorca
Braga

Blaine:
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Chelsea
Real Madrid
Manchester United
AC Milan
Valencia
Arsenal
Twente Enschede
Bordeaux
Tottenham Hotspur
Bayern Munich
Manchester City
Aston Villa
Bayer Leverkusen
Ajax Amsterdam
Schalke 04
AS Roma
Benfica
Braga
Everton
Palermo
Galatasaray
Juventus
Hamburg SV

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