Real aiming to break Lyon record

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that is a completely pointless comment. all the other football blogs are written about UK football. Phil Mcnulty even wrote an article on the chances that John Terry would get the captaincy back for one game for England. It's good that we can see how other major teams in europe are performing and it's always nice to hear about some of the best players in the world, ronaldo, ozil, casillas etc..

better this than some useless media infatuation that ensures England never do well in any competitions.

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And let's not get BBC News mixed up with BBC Footnall.

If anything, BBC do not cover enough world football!

Who, realistically, are the top 3 contenders for the Champions League?

My three:

Barcelona
Real Madrid
Manchester United - just ahead of Inter.

Mourinho might be marmite, but I am in the love marmite camp.

Not many managers have that X Factor, but he has it.

"F the beautiful game, just win" summed up Inter's get in, get out visit to Camp Nou last season.

I would love, just love it, if he pulled it off again.

Why on earth wouldn't the BBC blog about European football? There are even English teams in it!
I'm pretty sure BBC Footnall is still part the BBC which still for what it is worth considers itself impartial.
Would you like to see the BBC Stop covering European games once the English (or is British OK) teams get knocked out? Maybe we could ask for the articles to be written in a more partisan fashion? Maybe the BBC should stop covering the premier league since it's full of johnny foreigner and it's not "real" football anyway, the championship is heading that way, league 1 is where the real football is.

Ha, I watched the Lyon vs Madrid game last year and the way Lyon survived an absolute battering and changed things at half time absolutely deserve looking at in a tactics blog, personally I'd like them to have gone into a bit more depth. Maybe next week they can cover the way rushden & diamonds changed from playing direct to long ball at half time to snatch a deserved 0-0 draw.

Man Utd were lucky today... As they usually are.

Stop with this average position nonsense already, for goodness sake an average without a standard deviation is a useless statistic when taking about positions.

A player might sit in the centre circle all match yet have the same average position as one who runs up and down the pitch the entire time.

city ground resident

surely being usually lucky is a contradiction in terms.

hackerjack

since one can assume the sample is normally distributed (as almost certainly more than 25 observations were made) one can assume that 66% of the sample is within one standard deviation of the mean, and 95% of the sample is within two SDs of the mean. Hence the mean (position) is a very useful statistic. Though in fairness stats is a murky business as the good Mr Disraeli will tell you.

#1: Yeah clearly there aren't enough stories about UK football on the BBC website; instead we should prevent that the rest of European football doesn't exist.

Instead of concerntrating on games like Lyon vs Real Madrid, we could be talking about whats happening in the Welsh Premier Divison, I'm sure that would be more exciting.

1. At 11:21pm on 15 Mar 2011, CoalitionOfTheWilting wrote:
Would be lovely if the BBC were more interested in UK football.

This blog is an utter waste of BBC resources.

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Your comment is an utter waste of blog space.

As has been mentioned by others already, if anything the BBC website is already heavily skewed towards UK football coverage and a bit of European coverage is refreshing.

You need to open your mind, expand your horizons a little bit and appreciate that football is a universal game and that the UK isn't the only country that plays it.

1. At 11:21pm on 15 Mar 2011, CoalitionOfTheWilting wrote:

Would be lovely if the BBC were more interested in UK football.

This blog is an utter waste of BBC resources.

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I'm guessing you're not very bright CoalitionOfTheWilting. It's very easy to find the links to the numerous daily articles about British football on here. Well, easy for most people.

United Way:

My top three contenders for the Champions League this season would be:

1) Barcelona
2) Chelsea
3) Man Utd

*and no. 4 would be Inter ahead of Real.

I can't see that Real is quite there at the moment, despite the huge advantage of Mourinho. La Liga is simply not testing enough week to week at present with the relative decline of Sevilla & Valencia from where they were a few seasons ago. Barca has had the advantage of regular forways into the CL last 4 over the past few years which has kept them sharp. Real need a semi-final at least this year to gain experience - but they're too predictable to outsmart the best foreign sides (or Barca, as proven earlier in the season). Mourinho will do what he did at Inter - perfect them in his second season...

quote of hackerjack:

Stop with this average position nonsense already, for goodness sake an average without a standard deviation is a useless statistic when taking about positions.

A player might sit in the centre circle all match yet have the same average position as one who runs up and down the pitch the entire time.
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Agreed. It can make it look like for example the central defenders are misaligned, when it probably just means one goes up for more corners and free kicks than the other.

Lyon have created some sort of record in becoming Real Madrid's destructor. This time round, Real's advantage will be on the bench, in the presense of Murinho but if there's a team that can go to Bernabeu without fear, that team has to be Lyon.

The day after Bayern Munich were dumped out of the Champions League, if Real were to lose, the English teams would feel more comfortable, regarding their presense in Wembley, in the Champions League final.

A refreshing article, the first I have read where the tactics are broken down to such a degree and very interesting.
Admitted, I only read it because it was Madrid and as already been said, I am firmly a marmite lover :)

Very good blog anyway.

Mourinho's home record has to go sometime.. Lyon could just be that team to accomplish it.. they have a psychological edge by the looks of it and the coach was there and done it last year.. Lloris having a good game could be the key..

Such a waste of resources #1 that you took the time to read it. Hmmm...

Loving these tactics blogs but I've got to say, the higuain miss sounds to me like Real should have won it. Would we be talking about Lyon's great tactics then?

A good article I feel.

Madrid are a far more solid unit than last season. I'd like them to win it.

Definately the game to watch tonight, Chelsea game is already surely done and dusted.

No way back for Lyon, Madrid are a different force at home this season, I do expect a cracking game with both teams to score, but I expect Madrid to qualify.

Excellent blog, and as an adopted Ghône (Lyon fan), I will be watching tonight's game with extra interest.

Blogs like this are informative and interesting.Up there with the blogs of Mr Vickery from the south american perspective, which is something to which we are not often exposed by the british media.

I suspect there will be little, or no, TV or press coverage of the Copa America this summer, even though it will showcase talent very likely to make an impact at the next world cup, also in South America.

@ 5 The United Way & 13 Spaced Invader

As a United fan I'm thrilled to see my team in the Top 3 but I can't help but feel that's a tad generous considering the way we've been playing the whole season. On top form with some of our injured players back then we have a good shot but, at the moment, I just can't see us progressing past anyone who puts up a decent fight and gets some shots on target...

Good blog, much prefer the tactical analysis (even if lightweight) compared to the opionated, mostly uninsightful blogs. Tactics, reports and interviews, not opinion please. Continuing that, I actually think you should remove the space for comments. Far too many idiots like #1, and it surely costs money to moderate etc - save some money for BBC Sport and get better quality reports etc.

And having said that I enjoy the analysis, I watched the Real-Lyon game last season. It wasn't just Higuain's chance - Real's finishing was awful and Lyon should have been destroyed! Not sure much of the result was down to Lyon's tactics.

Lol, they are closing 606 so people can write boring blogs like this?

Not sure Ronaldo coming back is such a good thing Real's one touch football has been brilliant without him hogging the ball. Benzema and Ozil have looked far more effective without Ronaldo there.

#1

I pay my licence fee and would actually like the BBC to bid for the champions league rights tbh. European football holds far more interest than wolves-blackburn with 11 englishmen on each side. Get over it

The fact that this is an interesting blog that requires the use of several brain cells means that most of the "normal" blog hijackers have avoided it. (Kudos to Coalition of the wilting & ..Stretty end... for having tried to ensure that some total garbage appears though)
Hopefully, occasionally the blinkers are removed from the eyes of and some of the fans and some intelligence is allowed in. Sadly I won't hold my breath.
Good blog IMO. Thanks

1. At 11:21pm on 15 Mar 2011, CoalitionOfTheWilting wrote:

Would be lovely if the BBC were more interested in UK football.

This blog is an utter waste of BBC resources.

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Worst comment ever.

I actually think Lyon will go through. Real didnt pose that many problems in the first game and the Bernabeau crowd are VERY nervous on nights like this, that could transmit to the players, and indeed it did last year.

If things arent running smooth after 20 mins then you can bet they will get on the players backs.

Its all irrelevant though, at some stage you need to face barca if your gonna win it........

"Would be lovely if the BBC were more interested in UK football.

This blog is an utter waste of BBC resources."

Why?

They have pages dedicated to football in the UK, there are a lot of british people who love foreign football and follow it closley. I watch Serie A and Bundesliga action just as much as I watch Premiership, and I'm sure there are plenty of others who do to.

Real can be easily compared to Arsenal, a side packed with talent who are capable of scoring for fun but who often flatter to deceive when it comes to their domestic/European title credentials. Whereas Arsenal's problem over the years has been a lack of midfield bite and absence of a backup plan when things aren't working, Real (particularly in Europe) often appear to lack any desire and motivation - arguably one of the most important factors, especially on those big European nights.

8. city ground resident wrote:

Man Utd were lucky today... As they usually are.
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Course they were, I think it was Arnold Palmer (but I'm ready to be corrected), who said in reply to a comment that the Americans were lucky sinking chips from the bunker, "We get luckier the more we practice" (paraphrased, obviously).

Incidentally, would you like some salt to go with the chip on your shoulder? or perhaps a packet of crisps to go with your pint of 'bitter'.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

CoalitionOfTheWilting - you've already received far too much attention for your inane comment, probably due to the fact that you are no.1, but I would actually say that BBC football concentrates too much on UK football and would do well to include more articles about European/World football (I know there are some already, but more would be welcome).

To Karlito 1987 (#10)

Yes you can assume the fact that 66% of the samples are within 1 standard deviation. That is because that is the definition of 1 standard deviation (and 95% is 2 sd's)
The standard deviation tells you how close most of the samples are to the average. Without it you can't always tell if the average is useful.
Eg say a marketing company want's to sell something to a target market aged 40-50.
It does market research in two areas both of which give an average age of 45.
Just looking at the average says try to sell in both areas.
However the standard deviation of one might be 10 (ie 66% of the people are agd 35 to 55) so it looks very good
The second area could have a standard deviation of 25 (now 66% of the population is 20 to 70) and it doesn't look as if there is such a big market in this area now.

In the case of average position the standard deviation would give us an idea of how far the player is moving (very useful to see when talking about tactics/workrate)so would show a player that is staying still and a player that is up and down the pitch. (Could possibly be shown as larger and smaller circles dependant on size of sd)

Sorry,

Also forgot to say that, other than finding the average postion charts a little bit lacking, I generally like this blog and find it quite informative.
Please keep up the good work.

Good work, appropriate article ahead of the game.
I have a feeling that Mourinho will pull it off and deliver his third champions league triumph. If so, he will be a joy to watch/unbearable in the EPL when he returns... "I am the greatest!" etc, etc.
Can't help thinking the Chelsea tie is not done and dusted, it should be but feel they may have an eye on the draw for the quarters.
https://scottssportsandsocial.blogspot.com/

Whilst I agree that the BBC should cover more than just UK football, this piece largely trades on the commercial entity that is Real Madrid and gives them no amount of free publicity, which plays into their commercial machine.

Was there a blog prior to last night's Bayern v Inter match, a repeat of last year's final? Surely that would be more worthwhile than this blog on teams that haven't troubled the final stages of the competition in some time.

It's all too much. Football tactics, for god's sake. TOO MUCH football wether its English British European or world. It's rubbish, crying like baby girls for falling over a blade of grass, spitting, disgusting, get a handkerchief.
My top 3 for CL
Nice
Sampdoria
Woking

29. At 12:13pm on 16 Mar 2011, Alistair M - BBC Sport wrote:

Just for the record, it is true there have not been many tactical blogs on European teams outside of the British ones up until now

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With all due respect, I think you should replace the word 'British' with 'English'. There is absolutely no tactical analysis by the BBC on the SPL this season. In fact, the only time your lot have cared to put the SPL as a headline is when the Old Firm players and dugouts clashed. Which you totally blew out of proportion by the way.

Real Madrid will comfortably see Lyon off...3-1

10. At 00:56am on 16 Mar 2011, karlito1987 wrote:
city ground resident

surely being usually lucky is a contradiction in terms.

hackerjack

since one can assume the sample is normally distributed (as almost certainly more than 25 observations were made) one can assume that 66% of the sample is within one standard deviation of the mean, and 95% of the sample is within two SDs of the mean. Hence the mean (position) is a very useful statistic. Though in fairness stats is a murky business as the good Mr Disraeli will tell you.
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Please stop pretending to be educated. All you have done is unwittingly confirmed my point. Without the standard deviation in addition to the mean then you have no way of deriving the distribution, even if it does conform to a normal. Is the standard deviation of lateral movement for the centre forward for instance 5 yards? If so it would mean a player who pretty much stayed central the entire match, probabaly a target man. Or is it 15 yards? If so then the player probably spent a large portion of the match moving from one channel to another. Without the SD you can't tell anything from the average.

Yes it is funded by the British taxpayer's money, so I can understand why some of you English people complain about the BBC covering of European football, but you forget how many people around the world look to the BBC as an alternative to their totally bias local media, and in my case here in the U.S., not knowledgeable enough about football. I follow the EPL and European football and I find these articles and blogs interesting and helpful.

Anyway, I never post comments but I thought in this case I throw in my 5 cents.

To NewEnglandYank #44,

I would also point out that I'm pretty certain that the international (outside UK) version of the website that these people are visiting is bringing in some of the money pays for the website through advertising that isn't present on the domestic version.

"I thought in this case I throw in my 5 cents."
I suppose that's inflation for you. When I was younger I'm sure it was only 2

Another point for those saying it shouldn't be on here because there was no British team involved.
There is a reasonable chance that an English team will meet one of these teams in the next round (or further on in the competition). Therefore wouldn't it be interesting to know what tactics you can expect to see from future opponents?

5. At 00:06am on 16 Mar 2011, The United Way wrote:
If anything, BBC do not cover enough world football!

Who, realistically, are the top 3 contenders for the Champions League?

My three:

Barcelona
Real Madrid
Manchester United - just ahead of Inter.

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Fair play but Inter? Nah- their defence isn't good enough anymore. They could have gone out yesterday (although I did want Bayern to get through anyway).

And yeah I agree with you- the BBC does not cover world football often enough! I often get bored of the English media glorifying the Premier League and I'd rather watch something like the Bundesliga.

I hope Real can pull it off. Will be a fascinating match-up - can't wait to see if Madrid can finally exorcise last year's demons. Viva Ronaldo!

https://www.iloverealmadrid.net

Real Madrid won 3-0 (4-1) tonight. Real Madrid played very good and deserve to win.

done already...