The weekend of 17th and 18th September 2011 serves the football world some special football games. Supporters, spectators and fans of the round leather sport will be licking their lips in anticipation of these extraordinary matches. I mean what will you say about duels involving Manchester United and Chelsea, Napoli and Milan, PSV-Ajax etc. It is only Spain that there are no such matches this weekend.
Below is a run-down of what to expect from the heavyweight bouts.
- INTER MILAN - AS ROMA
Gian piero Gasperini is under so much pressure at the moment. He has every reason to be worried as he is at a club where the President (Don Massimo Moratti) is extremely impatient, but success driven. The former Genoa tactician took over from Leonardo in the summer, and has led the Beneamata to three consecutive losses, including the Italian super cup v AC Milan. The Uefa Champions League hasn't alleviated his problems, as his charges flattered to deceive in their shock 1-0 loss at the Meazza on Wednesday. It left a sour taste in the mouths of those who love the club and the divorce bells have already started ringing. Although the Inter Supremo allayed such fears, stating firmly that he believes in the manager, GpG will do well to ignore such leading statements, as his predecessors have learnt the hard way.
Today, the black and blue host another club in similar situation at the moment, AS Roma. Spanish manager, Luis Enrique has found life as a professional manager a herculean task. The Capital club is not having it their way at all, as they have also been knocked out of the Europa League, and lost in their own backyard to Cagliari last time out. All these coupled with the strained relationship between II Bimbo d'oro (Totti) and the manager, are reasons why the club must put things right as soon as possible if they are to turn their season around. Inter's loss to Palermo at the Barbera was largely due to the exceptional display of Fabrizio Miccoli who consistently tore the defence of Walter Samuel and co apart. Enrique will be full of belief and hope that new signings, Bojan and Oswaldo can inflict a similar harm on their more distinguished opponents. Promising Argentine youngster, Eric Lamela is fit again and ready to play his part.
Internazionale have players like the divine Javier Zanetti, Wesley Sneijder, Diego Milito who amazingly missed a golden opportunity to put Inter ahead in midweek, Mauro Zarate, Diego Forlan, Gianpaolo Pazzini, Ricky Alvarez and others to count on. Despite Inter's loss last weekend, El Principe (Milito) still managed to register two goals and no one will bet against him adding to that tally tonight. Diego Forlan can also build on the confidence emanating from his debut goal against the Sicilians.
PREDICTION- An Inter win.
PSV -AJAX
Two of the most successful clubs in Dutch football history and two of the famous big three (ajax, feyenoord, and psv) lurk horns this weekend at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven. It hasn't been a flying start for the Boerens as they lie fifth in the table behind ajax, az, feyenoord, and fc twente. But they will aim to put one over one of their main rivals for the Eredevisie title. Ajax on the other hand, lead the table with 4 wins from 5 games, with the other a draw against an Ahmed Musa inspired VVV Venlo side who at a point led by two quality goals.
Fred Rutten has dismissed Media reports and assertions that his team will be favourites when they do battle, but in his heart of hearts, he will be very optimistic that the Landlords of the Philips Stadion can be the first team to bring the godenzonen to their knees this season. He has every reason to be.........new signing, Dries Mertens has been a revelation this season in spite of PSV's not too exemplary start. The Belgian has scored in each of his five league games for the club and tops the scorers charts with 7 goals. He was signed alongside dutch international, kevin strootman from fellow dutch club, fc Utrecht for about 13 million euros and has proved a bargain ever since.
Frank De Boer, one of the best footballers of his generation and manager of Ajax has been a blessing to the Eredevisie giants since he joined first as caretaker coach in the middle of last season. He led the Amsterdam club to their first league title in 7 years last season---a triumph that qualified them automatically for the UCL. He hasn't done badly this season either as he is sitting atop the league standings with his team largely due to the astonishing form of Miralem Sulejmani, Icelandic sharp shooter, Kolbeinn Sigporsson, captain, Jan Vertonghen, new signing from twente, Theo Janssen,(now vice captain), Danish teenager wonder, Christian Eriksen and other quality players. The stand out performers for them this season has been Sigporsson and Sulejmani who will look to continue their scary partnership up front. Undeterred by the loss of Dutch first choice goaltender, Martin Stekelenburg to DiBenedetto's revamped Roma, De Boer swiftly made Kenneth Vermmer the first choice safe hands and it hasn't been a bad decision up till now.....they face a daunting task this weekend against one of their arch-enemies, but winning is the objective as it is this kind of games that differentiates a good team from a great team.
PREDICTION: an entertaining draw.
NAPOLI - MILAN
It has been a fantastic rebuilding process and the turnaround has been breathtaking as only a few years ago, Aurelio De Laurentiiss' Napoli was Languishing in the lower tier of Italian football, but within a space of 3 to 4 years, they are back among the exclusive class of Italian Football, hoping to redeem their lost pride and place.
Walter Mazzarri has been charged with the unenviable task of leading them to diadem once again. They came third in the league last season thereby qualifying for the prestigious UCL and they have started brightly, taking a point of mega rich and quality assembled Manchester City at the Etihad stadium. Paolo Cannavaro and his colleagues have also started the season brightly, picking up their first points of the season away at Cesena with a goal from Hugo Campagnaro who miraculously recovered from a fatal accident which occurred in June.
Milan, on the other hand, haven't started as they expected. Maxi Allegri was very ecstatic especially when they defeated Inter in the Super Coppa Italia title match, that this season will be a continuation of the last where they ran away with the Serie A crown for the first time in seven years.
The Italian champions started the season with a very watchable feisty 2 all draw with Lazio, who had new signings, Klose and Cisse to thank for putting them two goals up in the early stages of the first half.....the Rossoneri rallied back to even matters with goals from Ibra and Cassano. The performance was satisfactory, but the end result was disappointing. The however went to the Camp Nou in mid-week to pull an unlikely draw v European Champions, Barcelona. Alex Pato the 'duck' scored a goal in the 24th second of the match to the dismay of of the Spanish side. Nevertheless, It was Thiago Silva's injury time bullet header that ensured that Milan did not leave Barca empty handed.
The match will be a great duel between two excellent teams who know themselves very well..Stars like Hamsik, Lavezzi, Edison 'el matador' Cavani, Clarence Seedorf, Pippo Inzaghi and co will be on show.
PREDICTION: A narrow win for Milan
SCHALKE - BAYERN
Gelsenkirchen which hosted the 2004 UCL final between Porto and Monaco is owned by Ralf Rangnick's Schalke. They play host to a very dangerous and in-form FC Hollywood (Bayern Munich/Munchen) on Sunday.
The match holds a lot of importance in many ways. It is the clash of two Bundesliga giants and then the small matter of Mnauel Neuer coming back to his old stomping ground. The Germany goalkeeper captained the team last season to a respectable quarter-final (l to Man Utd) place in the UCL and the DFB Pokal crown, beating his new employers Bayern Munich in the semi-finals, courtesy of a Raul goal. The 25 year old is expected to face a hostile crowd when the game kicks-off.
Bayern Munich are top of the pile in Germany, albeit only on goals difference and are looking so good under Jupp Heynckes, who is in his 3rd spell at the Bavarian club. In domestic matters, Freiburg were the latest victims of the rampaging bavarians as they romped to a 7-0 victory with Mario Gomez scoring a quadruple(4 goals) and Ribery contributing two fine goals. In Europe, they were again impressive as a Toni Kroos first half strike and a Rafinha clincher secured a 2 goal win for them at the El Madrigal v Villareal.
Schalke in their own case haven't done badly for themselves,taking 9 points from their 1st 5 games. However, last weekend they lost to Magath's Wolfsburg at the Wolkswagen stadium by 2 goals to one and will look to get back to winning ways. They have the awesome strike force of the bionic Raul and the predatory Klaas Jan Huntelaar 'the hunter' to rely for the goals, with the indefatigable Jefferson Farfan supplying the balls.
FC Hollywood have a lot of quality players in their ranks-.....the likes of Franck Ribery, Thomas Muller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, and goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer have it in them to turn a match on its head and in their team's favour, but they will miss the goals of Gomez and the attacking wizardry of Arjen Robben.
PREDICTION:a great game with both teams sharing the spoils.
MAN UTD - CHELSEA
Premiership Champions and European cup finalists, Manchester United host AVB's Chelsea for the 19th time at the Theatre of Dreams (OLD TRAFFORD), The red devils have a slim advantage over their new found rivals with six wins to Chelsea's 5. There is not much between them in the EPL standings too as United are only 2 points ahead of the pensioners and know quite alright that despite that jaw dropping start to the season, have it all to play for, come Sunday.
It will be a disservice to say Manchester United haven't been ferocious this season and that is putting it mildly. The red devils have glowingly set the pace for others so early in the season, going against their traditional way of playing catch up in the early stages in previous years. Wayne Rooney and co have scored a record 18 goals in 4 games and let in a paltry 3. The highlight of the season was an 8-2 annihilation of fellow top four side and previous main rivals, Arsenal. That performance sent a direct message to challengers that they are not prepared to relinquish the Title this season. Rooney has scored a career first 8 goals in 4 EPL games and equalled Ruud Van Nistelrooy's record of scoring in the first four games of an EPL season for the Manchester giants. New signings,Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David De Gea have contributed their parts in the amazing run, with Ashley and Phil racking up 2 goals and more than 5 assists between them. It has been a dream start for the lads who have already bagged the Community Shield and it was even sweeter because it was at the expense of Manchester City.
AVB and Chelsea may be third in the League, but they have just managed to win their matches so far and there is nothing really exceptional about them thus far. Fernando Torres is still searching for his scoring boots, DD is out injured, Lampard, a shadow of his former self, ALex and Luiz are error prone and Malouda hasn't really found his form. They have been however boosted by the return to fitness of Petr Cech, the acquisitions of Mata and Merieles and the good form of Daniel Sturridge who scored the winner in their last domestic outing v Sunderland. They can build on the victory over Bayer Leverkusen in midweek as Torres showed flashes of his old form when he set up two goals for luiz and compatriot, Mata to seal a 2-0 win.
The hosts will be without Vidic, Rafael, and Cleverley who are long term absentees. Welbeck is back in training, but will not feature and Rio is fit and raring to go. The team will be once again led out by new vice captain, Patrice Evra and they hope to continue from where they left off last weekend when they steamrolled Bolton. Chelsea represents a tougher proposition and they will go all out to prove a point as their young and very intelligent manager has not lost a League game since April 2010 and hopes to prolong that record at least for another week.
PREDICTION:Man Utd to win
That does it.
ff Ohireime Eboreime on twitter at @ohiskaka1990
