Graphic: the
European Cup draw
Not too many of Sir Alex Ferguson’s finest moments in his long European
odyssey have been reserved for the Stade Louis II in Monaco. It is the scene
of a quarter-final exit in the Champions League, and for two late August
nights, the hard, bumpy surface on which his European champions have fallen
back to earth. The European Super Cup, which Manchester United lost on
Friday to Zenit St Petersburg, can be easily enough dismissed as
superficial, but it often has the knack of reminding the holders of the
Champions League that their trophy is harder to keep a grip on than any
other.
Since the European Cup began reshaping itself as a mixture of league and
knockout competition in the early 1990s, none of its champions have retained
it and it is almost two decades now since Milan became the last club to
raise the trophy in consecutive seasons. While the domestic leagues that
supply the eight or 10 principal contenders for each new Champions League
concentrate their championship across smaller and smaller couplings or trios
of clubs, the European Cup fidgets between cities and over frontiers each
May. By next spring, Manchester will have been its home for as long as
anywhere over the past 10 years — Milan and Madrid will have also housed it
twice — but habit would then see it moving on. These patterns are there to
break, Ferguson would insist, and if the leading pack, United included,
would all be pleased by the absence of Milan, the most regular finalists in
recent Champions League history, the rest of the line-up looks more
distinguished than it did 12 months ago. Germany’s most decorated, Bayern
Munich, are back in after their year consolidating, as are Juventus, Italy’s
most prolific domestic club, after two seasons in the disciplinary doghouse.
The far horizon for any European champion brings a thicket of journeys and
fixtures — Monaco last Friday, Japan in December — and renders an extended
list of absentees the more worrying for the examination of stamina to come.
Paul Scholes’ ill-disguised handball against Zenit puts him out of the
opening game of United’s defence of the Champions League and out of a
midfield currently short of Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves with fitness
problems. Some good news came from the most conspicuous figure on United’s
injury list, Cristiano Ronaldo apparently bringing forward his likely return
after ankle surgery.
“The recuperation is going well,” he said, “and I’m hoping to be ready by the
end of September.” United play Bolton Wanderers on the 27th of next month,
and though Ronaldo may have injected some optimism into his prognosis, that
is his target. He will certainly miss the opening night, the visit of
Villarreal, and with them some disturbing memories of the Spanish club’s
part in United’s poorest European season since the expansion of the
Champions League in 2005-06, when they finished bottom of a moribund group
including the Spanish club.
Ferguson preferred to look forward to the jousts with Celtic in Group E. “My
history with Glasgow adds some spice there,” he said with some
understatement. Celtic, though seeded third, have lately discovered the
secret of reaching the last 16 of this competition. “It’s a good draw for
us,” says Paul Hartley, the Celtic captain. “We think we have a chance of
qualifying and though we know United will start as the favourites because
they have a stronger squad than anyone in the Champions League, a lot of
teams fear coming to Parkhead now, because we’ve got such a formidable
record at home. And we managed to beat them last time, so they will know
they’re in for a tough night.” Denmark’s Aalborg are the pool’s fourth
member, and the third with a Scottish manager, Bruce Rioch.
Villarreal, whose initial excursion into club football’s senior competition
finished at the semi-final stage in 2006, would normally look one of the
best candidates for anybody seeking a new winner of the Champions League,
except that their pre-season form has been patchy at best. Their head coach,
Manuel Pellegrini, has two league games to correct the faults before his
team go to Old Trafford.
Spain’s still darker horses, Atletico Madrid, have probably been too long out
of the Champions League, and are still too congenitally brittle for anybody
to hazard a bet on their making extended progress on their comeback. What
they will do is make Liverpool’s autumn that bit more complicated. Atleti,
who Fernando Torres could never quite lead into the European Cup, are strong
fourth seeds in Group D. Slots two and three are hardly low-key either: the
Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven and Olympique Marseilles, who beat Liverpool
at Anfield last year.
Bordeaux, under the impressive starter to management that is Laurent Blanc,
may give Chelsea a test in France but will not relish their returning to the
competition at Stamford Bridge. “It will be a real achievement for us to get
through,” says Blanc of a Group A that also includes Roma, runners-up in
Serie A, and the upstart champions of Romania, CFR Cluj, whose name few of
their Group A opponents seemed have much of an idea how to pronounce, let
alone having a cluj about their potential.
Arsenal again play Porto, found guilty earlier this year of irregularities
with regard to domestic match officials five seasons ago and thus fortunate
to be permitted to take part in the competition they won in 2004. Arsène
Wenger would legitimately regard Group G as the hardest of the four
including Premier League teams. Fenerbahce went as far Arsenal did last
season, the quarter-finals, and managed something widely envied, the beating
of Chelsea, in the home leg of that tie. Their new centre forward, Spaniard
Dani Guiza has made a good start there under the coach with whom he shared
success at Euro 2008, Luis Aragones. Dynamo Kiev, fourth seeds, also have a
momentum. They thrashed Spartak Moscow 4-1 last week to gain their ticket
into the last 32.
If Fenerbahce were the tournament’s most enduring outsiders until last spring,
the obligation is to look further east for long-shot contenders. Such was
the optimism among the supporters of Zenit in Monte Carlo that many of them
could imagine the Champions League travelling to Russia for the first time,
a pleasing flight of fancy for the Uefa president, Michel Platini, whose 18
months in the chair have provided regular reminders that he came in to the
post with a significant constituency behind what used to be called the Iron
Curtain.
Most of the new names among the 31 clubs granted the chance of deposing United
come from there, with a team from Belarus, BATE, and the Romanians of Cluj
joining Zenit among the starters.
The St Petersburg team deserve at least to be considered a throroughbred dark
horse, not simply because they beat United but for the style with which they
did it and their determination to hold onto footballers like Andrei Arshavin
and to spend bullishly on players like Danny, the Portugal international who
scored the winning goal against United. Zenit will be expected to feel some
awe at the challenge allocated them in a group including Real Madrid and
Juventus, though they can go to the Spanish capital and to Turin and ask:
How many knockout ties in Europe have Madrid and Juve won in the seasons
Zenit have collected the Uefa Cup and the Super Cup? The answer is none.
With the likes of Danny and of Arshavin to be there, Zenit can accomplish what ever teams the face. It is not about the history in which they have secure any trophy, but today is what matters the most. They can break through this barrier.
Dhazer, Aizawl, India