Champions League 2012-13

Most everything has been covered here, but that was as dreadful of a semi final UCL match as I ever remember seeing. Whew, what a let down.

FWIW, several others have been mentioned, but I thought Ribery was the m o t m from beginning to end for BM.

Maybe this will be the year the final rises well above the semi finals' level of play and drama! We can sure hope so!

Perhaps that is true Sporting but on the other hand the league title while not yet officially theirs is now a mere formality, they can win it any week now, including this coming weekend if all goes as expected.

I think both Barcelona and Spain need to worry about Xavi, he does not seem the influential player he was even 6 months ago.

Bayern played the 2nd leg to perfection, they pressed barcelona, absorbed what Barcelona attempted to do they destroyed them with their speed and width. Many realised Barcelona were vulnerable defensively but few of us thought they would be beaten so decisively by Bayern. Results like this can mark a change in a team's epoch. It will now be up to Barcelona to make sure this was just a bad set of two games and now a sign of the team's decline.

That is what I think should be troubling to Barcelona fans, how there seemed to be no leadership on the team, nobody to grab the wheel and try and straighten things out. Ok, Puyol, Messi and Mascherano, three such types were misisng but you do have to say this series was an unmitigated disaster for both Xavi and Iniesta and that must make Vicente Del Bosque, and Spain fans like myself a little bit nervous. With the other three out, I would have expected more from both Xavi and Iniesta.

On the other hand Javier Martinez' play must really be encouraging to Del Bosque. Martinez and Bastian Schweinsteiger just mixed perfectly in both sets of games against Barcelona and frankly controlled the center of the field. Schweinsteiger in particular was absolutely superb in leg 2, so strong and intelligent on the ball, he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and made the correct decision on the ball. A monster of a game from him.

86,000 seats at Wembley, 50,000 to be split between the two teams. I am not sure how many requests Bayern fans have made but half a million Dortmund fans made requests for their approximately 25,000 tickets! Needless to say Dortmund fans want to see their team in their first European final since 1997.

Bayern are the clear favorite now. In fact from the start of the tournament.... They showed their strength by crushing 7-0

A fine interview with Dortmund's coach Jurgen Klopp in the Guardian. He really comes across as a nice character, and we already see he knows how to coach.

That is an interview worth reading. Klopp is not your everyday manager and does come across as a likeable sort. I found it interesting to read where he has now become telephone pals with Jose Mourinho since the Dortmund-Madrid matches. A little known tidbit about how top level coaches do keep in touch with their colleagues.

Some Dortmund injury news; Hummels will play, Gotze will not. At least we won't have to deal with the talk about whether Gotze will be going all out against his future employers. But his absence does leave a big void for Dortmund going into the final.

Gotze is a big loss. I guess Grosskreutz comes in for him but he is more perspiration than inspiration as my friend Martin likes to say!

Haha, I like that expression and more perspiration than inspiration probably is a good description of Grosskreutz, particularly in comparison with Gotze. No Gotze means Gundogan will be needed even more than before to be creative in midfield despite the close marking of Schweinsteiger and Martinez while Dortmund will also need the direct running of Kuba and Reus to keep Bayern's defence from pushing up too much.