The Beautiful Game

Welcome back David….

From the world…..

It’s been a wonderful summer of sport, but The Premiership is back, ready to dominate the back pages as usual.

The whole of the British public is suffering a post-Olympic hangover, and rightly so. We’ve witnessed 16 days of magnificent sport right on our doorstep, and that following swiftly on the heels of Euro 2012. It really doesn’t feel that long since Aguero fired that last-gasp winner past Paddy Kenny and snatched the title from Fergie’s grasp.

A lot can change in 3 months though.

• CHELSEA

                 Cech

Bosingwa Luiz Cahill Cole

                 Mikel

Mata Essien Lampard Malouda

                Drogba

• BAYERN

                    Neuer

Rafinha Boateng Tymoshchuk Lahm

        Schweinsteiger Kroos

 Robben       Mueller          Ribery

                   Gomez

• Key Battles and predicted winners of those battles

Rafinha      vs        Malouda : Rafinha

Lahm         vs        Mata    Lahm

Lampard    vs       Schweinsteiger : Schweinsteiger

Essien        vs       Kroos : Essien

Gomez       vs       Cahill : Cahill

Drogba       vs       Tymoshchuk : Drogba

I’d reckon this is pretty much the biggest week of Barca’s recent history now.

This team has the chance to become immortal. We are still in contention to win;

• A fourth league title in a row
• A third Champions League in 4 seasons, and also become the first team in the Champions League era to win it back-to-back
• A second Copa Del Rey in 4 seasons
• Altogether win the treble for only the second time in Spanish football history.

This team really is on the verge of true greatness, of achieving confirmation of their status as one of the best teams in ever.

We were unlucky to lose midweek at Stamford Bridge, but we were also beaten by gameplan we’ve been beaten by before, and we were extremely wasteful. Normally Sanchez would’ve had two goals, Adriano at least one, Messi one and Fabregas one given the chances they had, and don’t get me wrong, Chelsea’s defending and Cech’s goalkeeping in particular was outstanding… but we still should’ve got a draw, if not a win.

Now we’ve got to pick ourselves up for El Clasico. There is no way to describe this game other than, quite simply, the biggest match in the world.

Pretty sure if we win it then we’ll go on to sweep Chelsea aside on Tuesday and advance to the final, and then proceed to overhaul Real, win the league, and inadvertently get Mourinho the sack (and what a shame that would be).

I haven’t been this nervous about a football match for a long time. Ever since Iniesta’s goal and that famous Guardiola celebration as he ran down the Stamford Bridge touchline it’s been one big rollercoaster that the wheels never looked like falling off. Even when we lost to Mourinho’s Inter we were still acknowledged as the best team in the world, it was like we knew that we were only being temporarily halted.

This week the wheels could come off tho. If we lose this clasico, lose the league, lose the semi-final and only win the Spanish Cup (and there’s the danger of us losing that too), then I can see Guardiola leaving and taking a break from management.

Part of me is cautious about all this because there is so much at stake… but on the other hand I’ve always trusted in this team and I’m not going to stop now.

At the moment I’m ridiculously optimistic about our chances, and that’s why my prediction for the match is 4-1, Sanchez, Fabregas and a Messi double, with Benzema scoring for Madrid.

Foolish? Maybe.

But just imagine if that actually happened..

By Peter Hine ©