Today sees some huge football matches across Europe. Arsenal play Hull City in the FA Cup final at Wembley at 17:00 BST, while across the border St Johnstone play Dundee United in the Scottish Cup final a couple of hours earlier. In Spain, Barcelona host Atletico Madrid in a winner takes all La Liga title decider, while in Germany, the countrys two footballing giants, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, will contest the German Cup final in Berlin at 19:00. Starting with Arsenal. This is a Cup I will like them to win despite our rivalry. Arsene Wengers side has not won a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup. When Arsenal face Hull City today at Wembley, it will be four days short of nine years since manager Arsene Wenger last sampled the joy of lifting a trophy. Since the moment Patrick Vieiras final kick as an Arsenal player secured victory on penalties over Manchester United at Cardiffs Millennium Stadium in 2005, Wenger and the Gunners have been forced to measure their success in terms of Champions League qualification. Wenger once described reaching the Champions League as the fifth trophy on offer to clubs at the start of the season - and it is one they succeeded in claiming for the 17th year in a row after fighting off the challenge of Roberto Martinezs Everton. In reality, however, a club of Arsenals stature and history cannot seriously be sustained by annual qualification for a competition they have yet to win as a substitute for tangible success. The second is the La liga. For Saturdays title decider, the Nou Camp crowd will make a massive mosaic from nearly 100,000 cards to form the slogan Som el Barca - We are Barca. Hahahaha...I think thats just for home support because that cant never automatically win you the title. Dont mind me anyway. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid meet for the sixth time this season on Saturday in a meeting that will decide the La Liga title. Atletico lead Barca by three points with one game to go, but the Catalans will take the title on home soil at the Nou Camp with victory thanks to a better head-to-head record. If Barca claim their fifth league title of the last six seasons by beating Atletico Madrid, it will be the 12th time the club have won the trophy on home soil, with five championship celebrations at the old Les Corts ground and six more at the Nou Camp. Can today be the Messis day after signing a lucrative contract? We shall wait to see. The third is the German Cup. For me, I expect this match to be explosive, in as much as Bayern have been wonderful this season, I think Dortmund too deserve to win something this season. Pep Guardiola confirmed during press conference that injured midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger will miss the German Cup final in Berlin while striker Mario Mandzukic has been dropped. And I begin to wonder the future of Mandzukic because the manager said dropping him is his decision. With much speculations and rumours surrounding him, it may likely be that he wont be there for the German giant next season. Hes on the radar of Chelsea and host of other clubs.
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 08:57:31 +0000
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