The group stage matches have ended and now we are about to watch 1/8 final of the most prestigious European clubs tournament – The Champions League. There has been really big surprises in this campaign. Many of the smaller clubs played very well against the favourites and showed why this is the most interesting and entertaining game in the world.

Teams like Manchester United, Sevilla, Galatasaray, Bayer Leverkusen, Porto, Valencia and Olimpique Lyonnais are out of the tournament. Instead of these teams, many unassuming teams qualified, such as Gent and Wolfsburg, for example.

One of the most interesting battles in the round of 1/8 finals is Arsenal against Barcelona. Can The Gunners finally make something special in The Champions League? I think they are able to beat Barca. The Spanish champion has very short squad and if some of the key players are injured, Arsene Wenger’s team has very big chances to go through! In addition, The Gunners are performing really well this season and they made impossible things to qualify for this stage of the tournament.

Another interesting match is between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. The French team has already shocked The Blues, who are not in their best form. But, there is still a lot of time to pass and I am sure that Jose Mourinho will do his best to motivate his team against the multi-million selection of PSG.

Of course, there are matches that look easy to predict. At first glance I can tell you that Wolfsburg and Manchester City are going to continue to the quarter finals of The Champions League. In my opinion, The Citizens are just too good for Gent, without underestimating the Belgian side. But, City’s luck will finish after these two games, because then they will have to play against very strong team.

In conclusion, the main favourites for winning the title in The Champions League are again Barcelona. Another team, who has very good chances is Bayern Munich. Then, we have to say Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Juventus are also good enough this season, but will have serious problems when playing against Barcelona or Bayern Munich. These two teams are simply better than the others. But, eventually nobody knows what will happen. I will give you an example – in 2004 the final match was between Porto and Monaco and the Portuguese side eventually won the title, so everything is possible in The Champions League!

What’s happening in The Premier League after almost half of the season has passed? Well, this is maybe the most competitive season ever. Teams like Leicester, Watford and Bournemouth are able to surprise all the biggest teams in the division. What to say about West Ham? Well, The Hammers beat all the best teams and lost to the weakest.

To begin with, Leicester City are the leaders! These words were impossible to be used in a sentence before the start of the season. But, all The Foxes’ players are showing great consistency and are performing at top level. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez are clinical; Vardy even set a new record for most goals in consecutive matches. The Englishman scored in 11 consecutive games.

Then, Chelsea, who are the current champions, will fight for avoiding relegation!? The Blues lost 9 of 16 matches so far! That’s another thing that if I had told you before the start of the season you wouldn’t have believed me. In addition, Chelsea have won only 4 matches. One of the best managers ever, Mourinho, is about to be sacked…

But that’s not all! Aston Villa have recorded only 6 points and if they don’t do something to improve, The Lions are going to relegate… They can improve a negative record for the biggest number of defeats in The Premier League, set by Derby County in 2007/2008 season. The Villains are the team with the worst attack and the worst defence so far in the league.

Sunderland are also endangered of relegation. The Black Cats need to perform at top level in the matches till the end of the season if they want to keep their place among the best teams in England.

To continue; the newly promoted Watford are doing sensational things. Their great efforts have led to 7 victories and 4 draws in the first 16 league games. Their duo in attack – Deeney and Ighalo are scoring goal after goal. The Hornets are just 10 points behind the first team in the standings and Watford are not worried about their place in the league in the next season!

The teams from 1st to 13th place in the standings are separated by only 15 points! The differences are really small. The strengths are really levelled and everything is possible this campaign. It all depends on the current form of the teams and the injury problems.

In conclusion, this is maybe the hardest competition for predicting. But, also is the most interesting in the world. We will see what will happen to Leicester, Chelsea, Man United, Man City and Arsenal.The best is yet to come!

Manchester United lost 3-2 to Wolfsburg on Tuesday and finished in third place in Group B of The Champions League. A month ago, it seemed almost impossible such a failure for The Red Devils. But, they proved they struggle when it goes to scoring goals. They have scored only 9 goals in their last 11 games. In addition, Manchester United have failed to score in 5 of these matches. Moreover, United lost on penalties against Middlesbrough and were eliminated of The Capital One Cup. The Red Devils’ fans, obviously don’t like the current playing style of the team.

On the other hand, United don’t concede lots of goals in their net, but the team has always performed outstandingly in attack. The Red Devils showed a real infirmity against West Ham, finishing with a 0-0 draw. Then, despite scoring two goals against Wolfsburg, the second one was quite accidental. The fans are blaming mainly Fellaini for the defeat, whose haircut is bigger than his head…

To continue; another reason for the inconsistency in the performance of Manchester United is the wrong transfer policy. ‘Rafael, Nemanja Vidic, Johny Evans, Patrice Evra, Nani, Kagawa, Robin van Persie, Javier Hernandez, Januzaj and Danny Welbeck should have never left the squad,’ said the former Liverpool and Manchester United striker Michael Owen.

Despite his goals, Anthony Martial is not ready to take the whole responsibility for United’s performance in attack. In addition, Wayne Rooney has performed at an average level from the beginning of the season. Furthermore, there are no other options in United’s attack, expect for Wilson, who is still not ready to play at such level.

The Red Devils’ legend Paul Scholes was even more cruel and attacked the United’s manager van Gaal. ‘Manchester United look like an average team with an average performance. They spent £250 m. and are unable to pass this shockingly weak group,’ added Scholsey. This is the second time, the ex midfielder attacks van Gaal. The Englishman criticized Martial a month ago and he might have been right in the situation.

Another ex Manchester United player, Rio Ferdinand, is very disappointed with the recent poor results and the third place in The Champions League Group B. ‘This is disappointing. I was in the squad when we played in the Europa League and this is really a big disappointment. People look at you and say they’re not good enough, questioning your skills. However, this is a team that has not passed the group stage,’ the ex defender said.

However, Louis van Gaal is a great football manager, but maybe this is not the right club for him. His preferred playing style is not supported by the vast majority of The Red Devils’ fans. Of course, we have to admit that he took the club in a very difficult situation after the disastrous management of David Moyes. The Dutchman stabilized the performance of the team in defence and proved he is a great expert. But, is he flexible enough to change the style of the team and win the sympathy of the fans again?

Arsenal did something quite significant, after completing a perfect way the “Mission Impossible” to win with more than one goal difference over the Greek champion Olympiakos and qualified for the phase of direct eliminations in The Champions League. Arsene Wenger was in a very difficult situation, because he could not rely on a big number of his star players as Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshire, Francis Coquelin and many others. However, The Gunners showed a great motivation, played perfectly and eventually won with the classic 3-0 to qualify for the 16th consecutive time for the 1/8 finals of The Champions League. Olivier Giroud was the hero for Arsenal. He scored three goals for The Gunners and overtook by goals in Europe one of the greatest players in the history of Arsenal – Dennis Bergkamp.

Giroud opened the score in the 29th minute of the match after a cross from Aaron Ramsey. He doubled his team’s advance four minutes into the second half. Frenchman scored his hat-trick in the 67th minute from the penalty spot.

The match began with a massive domestic pressure. Even though guests were those who needed goals, Olympiakos played better in the first quarter of the game and created several interesting moments in front of Petr Cech’s goal. The most dangerous situation for the host team was an Ideye’s shot, which went wide.

However, after 24 minutes, The Gunners missed a great clear goal-scoring chance. Arsenal created an excellent combination in the penalty area, but Flamini’s shot reflected off the crossbar. Just five minutes later, The Gunners opened the score. Olivier Giroud finished with a header a good cross of his teammate Aaron Ramsey. Mesut Özil was “the engine” of this attack with an excellent through ball to Ramsey.

After the break the visitors were lucky to reach the second goal very quickly. Its author was again Olivier Giroud, who scored in the 49th minute. The main contribution of his goals had Joel Campbell, who showed a great technique and passed a through ball in the Olympiakos’ box, which found unmarked Giroud, who had no troubles and scored with just one touch 0-2! With this goal Giroud passed one of the legends of Arsenal – Dennis Bergkamp by goals in The Champions League.

In the 67th minute everything collapsed for the hosts, after a defender stopped a cross with a hand in the box and the referee Nicola Rizzoli awarded Arsenal with a penalty kick. Olivier Giroud scored from the penalty spot his third goal in the Roberto’s net and made the task in front of the Greeks impossible.

Welcome to the world of the most competitive football league – Premiership. This is the place, where nothing is sure, where the weakest teams beat the strongest. This is the most interesting division with the best players in the world.

There are a lot of different records in The Premier League. To start with, the team with the biggest number of titles is Manchester United. The Red Devils also hold the record for the most consecutive title wins and the biggest winning margin.

Another interesting record is held by Chelsea. The Blues are the team with the biggest number of wins in a season (29 of 38) and they did it twice – in 2004/05 and 2005/06. They also have recorded the biggest number of home victories per season (18 of 19), alongside with Manchester United and Manchester City. Chelsea had also scored 103 goals in season 2009/10, which is the best goal-scoring record in the history of The Premier League. The Blues also hold the record for the best defence, keeping a clean sheet on 25 occasions in 2004/05 season.

Arsenal are the only unbeaten team in a campaign (2003/04). The Gunners are the team with the longest winning run (14 games) between 10th Feb. 2002 and 24th Aug. They have also been unbeaten for 49 games, which is the longest run in The Premier League.

Alongside with the positive records, there are lots of shameful stats. For example, Derby County have recorded only 1 home victory of 19 matches in season 2007/08. And that was their only victory for the season. How bad should be your performance, in order to win once in 38 matches?

On the other hand, one of the current participants in The Premier League, Sunderland, holds another negative record. The Black Cats have recorded 20 consecutive defeats not on 1 occasion, but twice! In fact, in season 2005/06 Sunderland lost 29 matches in total. Derby County have the same record at 2007/08.

The best forward of The Premier League remains Alan Shearer, who has scored 260 goals in 441 matches. This means he has scored 0,59 goals per match. The only player, who currently plays in The Premiership and is close to him in the chart is Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United’s player has scored 187 and will hardly reach the Shearer’s record. Ex Blackburn and Newcastle striker hold another record – the biggest number of goals in a season (34), (joint record with Andrew Cole).

Petr Cech is the current best goalkeeper in The Premier League. The Arsenal’s player has kept a clean sheet on 172 occasions. And he is still improving his record.

The biggest win in The Premier League is Manchester United’s victory over Ipswich Town (9-0) on 4th March 1995. The Red Devils hold another record – for the biggest away win (8-1 vs. Nottingham Forest in 1999).

In conclusion, The Premier League is now more interesting than ever. This season is maybe one of the most competitive and nobody knows what will happen in the end. So, we can expect some records to be broken.

Let me tell you a story about a boy, who was born in Sheffield and who has always wanted to become a professional footballer. His name is Jamie Richard Vardy. Jamie started his development in the Sheffield Wednesday’s academy, but was released at the age of 16, because was set to has no prospects in football.

Then, Vardy joined Stocksbridge Park Steels, where he scored 66 goals in 107 matches in The Northern Premier League Division One. He continued to be a semi-professional footballer after joining Halifax and then playing for Fleetwood. Before turning professional, Jamie Vardy worked as a technician, making medical splints. Vardy made a big impression for the first time in 2011/12 campaign when he scored 3 goals in 6 games for Fleetwood in The FA Cup.

Eventually Leicester City signed the striker and he became an essential part of The Foxes’ first team. Now, at the age of 28, Vardy is the current top goal-scorer in The English Premier League and has recently received his first international call-up. In the last round of the Premiership, Vardy scored against Newcastle and equalised van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in 10 consecutive league matches.

Now, Leicester City’s clinical striker Jamie Vardy is observed by all the major European clubs. His speed and finishing skills makes me compare him to Michael Owen, who also was taking advantage of his sprint speed. I hope Vardy won’t make the same mistake, Owen did, replacing the Premiership with Primera Division. The question is can Vardy help his current team reach historical participation in The Champions League? Only the time can answer to this question. If he preserves himself of injuries and keep scoring, there is a big chance of achieving such thing.

The most important thing in his character is that except for his qualities on the pitch, he has a very good confidence. In addition, he has intended a clause in his contract with Leicester that includes bonuses if he is invited in the English national squad.

If Jamie Vardy continue showing such a performance, he will surely be called up in the English squad for UEFA Euro 2016 in France, which will be great for his further career. But we shouldn’t underestimate his teammates’ efforts, because primarily this is a team sport and Vardy is shinning that bright because of his understanding with the other Leicester City’s players. Unfortunately, he had to wait until the age of 26 to take part in his first Premier League match, but it is better late than never.

At both ends, Jamie Vardy is undoubtedly a very talented striker and if he keeps scoring and playing on top level, he can become a world-class attacker. Now, everyone is going to follow his development. We wish him all the best!

Whatever happens, no matter which team appoint Benitez and no matter which one is playing for the club he is manager at, the Spanish coach will always remain a potty in the profession. Of course, this is my opinion and now I will tell you why I think so.

To begin; we have to admit that Benitez’s effort at Liverpool was amazing when The Merseysiders won The Champions League. He also has won several major trophies, but if you take a closer look at his philosophy, you will see he is a very weak manager.

You just cannot be a head coach at Real Madrid and want your players to play on counter-attacks against Sporting Gijon, for example. When you are a manager at a club of such range and such classy players are in your squad, you will have to smash teams like Sporting Gijon and Malaga, not ending with 0-0 draws. In my opinion, it is better to try earning 3 points or nothing, instead of collecting just 1 and fall behind Barcelona.

Furthermore, you simply mustn’t let Paris Saint Germain overplay you at Santiago Bernabeu! No matter Real Madrid won 1-0, Los Blancos deserved to lose by several goals. I don’t think PSG have better players than Real, but they definitely have a better head coach! So, if Rafa Benitez stays, the club won’t win anything this season.

In addition, Real Madrid should be discarded of the Copa del Rey, because Benitez used a suspended player. How forgetful you have to be, doing such a stupid thing. So, my question is why they pay him. I also want to receive millions for doing nothing. If you tell Ronaldo to make the line up, I am sure he will do it better than Benitez!

Oh, I almost forget about the match against Barcelona. Even Roma who lose 1-6 to Barca played more brave than Real Madrid. This result (0-4) is a pure humiliation. I am wondering is Benitez a man of the pride? If he was, he would have left his position, hasn’t he?

Now I am asking, how he managed to win so many trophies and I can’t find the answer. Maybe he is very very lucky… So, I am telling you – no matter who you are and how much you understand about football, you would have done better than Rafa Benitez.

To conclude, I am not a Real Madrid fan. I just hate watching bunglers. I suggest Benitez retire for the good of football!

Is this possible? The most reasonable response to this question is ‘money talks’! Manchester City will try to make the biggest transfer in the football history. According to the British tabloid ‘Sun’, The Citizens will do everything possible to convince the Barcelona star Lionel Messi to change his beloved club with Man City. For the purpose The City’s owner is going to make a mind-boggling offer of £800k per week to the Argentinian ‘magician’, which with the bonuses can reach nearly 40 million pounds per year. Messi’s representatives have already met with City’s chiefs and heard the proposal of the English club. The first reaction from the Messi’s camp was positive.

Currently, 28-year-old Messi gets about 500k pounds a week at Barcelona. Manchester City have prepared another ace in their attempt to persuade Leo to make the big step. This will be the possible appointment of Josep Guardiola, who can eventually leave Bayern (Munich) and take exactly Manchester City.

But we mustn’t forget about the amount Barcelona have to receive in order to sell their best player. The release clause in the contract of Messi is the amount of £250 m., but Manchester City have decided to start their offensive with a proposal of £120 m.

Until now, Kevin De Bruyne is the most expensive Manchester City’s transfer. The amount paid for him is about £54-58m. The Belgian international is the most expensive player, purchased by an English team. The world football transfer record at the moment is the transfer of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid. The Welsh international costed £85.3 m., which amount is about £5 m. more than the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Opposite to these colossal sums, I will mention the cheapest transfer in the modern era of football, excluding the free transfers. Have you heard of Tony Cascarino? Crockenhill sold their young striker Cascarino to Gillingham in 1981 for only £180. The irony is that he scored 78 goals in 219 games and 6 years later was sold for about £200k to Millwall. Cascarino even became an Irish international in 1985 and scored 19 goals in 88 matches for his country. So, please, Man City’s bosses, don’t cause this to football. Give a chance to your youngsters. Among them could be the next Messi.

In conclusion, if Manchester City buy Leo Messi, football will continue to be ‘inflated financial bubble’, which will be cracked some day. Because it is not normal a player to cost £250 m. and to take £40 m. per year. And that’s why the English national team won’t win a major trophy soon – because the managers don’t give a chance to the young English talents and buy million-pounds players!