Passion Football

  Hey guys, it’s a time of extreme excitement and fun for all the fans of football across the globe, as Euro 2020 has finished with the group stage matches, and everyone is just too excited for the Round of 16 ties, and we can’t wait for them to kick off. After analyzing the Group stage matches in our previous post, we are now set to make predictions for the Round of 16 now. The first tie of the very exciting competition is between Wales and Denmark, and is evenly matched tie with both the teams being almost equal in their team strengths, Wales has some talented and very skilled players like Gareth Bale, Daniel James, and Ramsey, on the other hand, Denmark has the likes of players like Braithwaite, Poulsen, Hojbjerg, and Christensen, in this tie, I predict Wales to qualify in the quarter finals. The second tie is between Italy and Austria, and would be very interesting tie to watch as Italy being the best team in the group stages with players like Immobile, Verratti, Insigne, Jor...

  Hey guys, as we all know, the group stage matches of the UEFA Euro 2020 ended last night with some breath-taking matches happening, with quite a few surprises, and quite expected results, the Euro cup is all set for knockout stages beginning with the Round of 16 ties. Now, let’s analyze the Group stage performances with the expectations we had. Group A was very interesting group, with quite strong teams such as Wales and Italy present in the group, we predicted that Italy and Wales would qualify to the Round of 16, and our prediction went right, as Italy held on to their winning run made to the top of the group, and Wales finishing second with one win, one draw, and one loss, and we had a surprise by Switzerland qualifying to the Round of 16 as a part of the four best third position teams, all thanks to Shaqiri’s two goals against Turkey which allowed them to finish with four points in the group. Group B was a fairly matched group, and we predicted Belgium and Denmark to qualif...

  Hey guys, it’s been a while, and as we all know the UEFA Euro Cup has started and is taking all over the football fans with some really exciting and thrilling fixtures coming up. First, I’ll start with a little introduction about the competition, and then we’ll move onto reviewing the predictions’ part. The UEFA Euro cup was started in 1960 and is being held every four years since then, and is a competition solely held for the European countries, and is the second most watched international football competition after the FIFA World Cup. Germany and Spain are the two most successful teams in the competition having won the competition 3 times each, and the last Euro Cup held in 2016 was won by Portugal. The format of the Euro Cup is similar to the UEFA Champions League, as there are 24 qualifying countries, divided into 6 groups of 4 teams each, and each team plays the 3 opponent teams placed in its group. At the end of the group stage matches, the top 2 teams from each group q...

Hey guys, it’s been a while, we all are through many things. The champions league round of 16 has ended and even the quarter finals have been finished with, however, I will discuss the same in another post. Yesterday was a historic day in the history of football, as 12 European clubs announced the formation of a new European Super League, fans all around the world have been unhappy with their clubs and have been constantly demanding for abolishment of such league. Let’s discuss what is the super league all about and why has it got football fans enraged around the world. The European Super League has currently 12 founding members which are Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool FC, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs, Internazionale, AC Milan, and Juventus. During this pandemic, the owners of these football clubs realized that football’s economic model was fragile and fans loved watching big clubs playing against each other, hence,...

  Hey guys, as we all know a few weeks back the group stage for the champions league ended, and the draws for the Round of 16 were also announced. Today I’m going to tell you all about my predictions on the Round of 16, and who’ll qualify for this season’s quarter finals. Before I make my predictions, let’s talk a bit about the group stage results. In group A, Bayern Munich were the clear table toppers, the champions just had a draw from Atletico Madrid, and the runner ups, Atletico Madrid made their quality felt in the second match against the reigning champions, Bayern Munich. In Group B, Real Madrid had quite a difficult time in clearing the group, as they were almost on the verge of getting relegated to Europa League, however, the champions held on in the last match and finished at the top of the table, the runner ups, Borussia Monchengladbach, were the surprise runner ups, as this was their first time qualifying the group stage of UCL. In group C, Manchester City and FC Po...

Hello all, today we’re going to discuss about a position in the field which is quite mysterious to outsiders or less informed people, or the persons who are new to football and have recently started following it. The reason I call this position mysterious is because people often confuse this position with some other, and don’t get the importance and significance of it. For all of you who know about this position, might be aware that this position cannot and does not exist in all the formations, the manager has to place a special attention on the player operating in this position and has to use the player very carefully in order to fully exploit the benefits of it. The position is known as the Support Striker (SS) position or the Centre Forward (CF) position or some people and managers may refer to this position as the False 9 position. The player operating in the SS position has a role of both the attacking mid fielder (CAM) and the number 9 striker. This player moves freely on the f...

Many of us who are new to the football world have been wondering about this question, about how the greatest ever competition in the whole Europe really works? Today, I’m going to explain about this competition, how are the participants decided, how the qualify, how the winner is decided, what position does the winning team hold, it’s link to the UEFA Super Cup, and the Club World Cup, and why every club in Europe wants to win the trophy. The UEFA Champions League was started in 1955 as a competition in the whole of Europe, to make clubs from all over the European countries compete against each other, and see which club was the best club, it was rebranded around 1990’s. This competition consists of 32 teams which are selected from the domestic leagues of different countries. The number of teams each association enters into the UEFA Champions League is based upon the UEFA coefficients of the member associations. These scores are generated by the results of clubs rep...

  Finally, this season’s champions league has kicked off and all teams are looking forward to winning it. We already have the groups, and football fans can rejoice as Barcelona and Juventus have been placed in the same group, and we will get to see Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo once again face to face with each other. However, bad news broke out that Cristiano Ronaldo has been infected with the coronavirus, making it doubtful for him to attend the October clash between the two clubs, and we hope he recovers soon and we get to see him play in the December clash. As for the teams, in the Premier League, Liverpool look strong as they maintain their dominant position in the EPL, however due to the injury of Virgil Van Dijk, the club could be facing some defensive backlash. Manchester City look all string and hungry to win this season, and have further strengthened their team by signing defensive players like Ruben Dias, and Ake and hence have a high chance of winning this seas...

  I think there are many problems. Firstly, they lack a good manager, and even if they appoint a manager, the team doesn't really cooperate very well with it. Secondly, they are not making any strategic signings, they signed Coutinho for 160 million, and he's being loaned out, they signed Dembele for 100 million, and he didn't get a chance to play, they signed Griezmann for 150 million, and he gets to play on the left wing, which is not his natural position. The team is practically playing with no left winger at all. Thirdly, the team relies heavily on Messi to create their chances and finish them too, and Messi isn't the same as he was before, he can't win matches like this alone now, the team, and Messi, both need some support. Fourth, senior players like Suarez, are not being let go, they waste chances due to their lack of speed and also waste position, as other players Don't get to play there. In conclusion, if Barcelona wants to remain Barcelona, it needs...

  1.      The UEFA Champions League is over with FC Bayern Munich winning the title for the sixth time. 2.      They have defeated the runner-up’s Paris Saint Germain, 1-0, in the finals. 3.      The season went nearly as predicted by me before the quarter finals started, with the difference being in FC Bayern Munich being crowned as the winner, and PSG being the runner up. 4.      I had predicted a win for PSG or Manchester City (who were everyone’s favorites to win this season’s title) or Atletico Madrid, and a knockout for Bayern Munich in the semifinals. 5.      The season as usual had some shocks and surprises, like the biggest shock being Barcelona getting knocked out 8-2 in the quarter finals by Bayern Munich. Another surprise was Lyon beating Manchester City in the quarter finals with Raheem Sterling being heavily criticized for leaving an open goal, and a surprise was when R...

1.      After getting defeated by Bayern Munich in the quarter finals of UEFA Champions League 2020, that too by a score of 8-2, Barcelona has confirmed that Messi wants to leave Barcelona. 2.      Lionel Messi has also been skipping training sessions, and is looking highly motivated to leave Barcelona, following a continuous string of defeats in the UEFA Champions league since 2015 season. 3.      FC Barcelona has been spending huge amounts of money in past years, for example, the bought Dembele for almost 100 million, Coutinho for 160 million, and Griezmann for almost 150 million, but are failing to perform in the champions league. After their latest knockout against Bayern Munich, the have sacked their coach Quique Setien, and appointed Ronald Koeman as the new coach, much surprisingly, this is Barcelona’s non-Spanish manager after quite a long time. 4.      Upon his arrival, Ronald Koeman has announced t...

1.      This year’s champions league has been different from any season before mainly due to COVID-19. This season all the matches will be played in Portugal, and in single legs in the quarter finals, semi-finals, and the final. 2.      UEFA released the draws for quarters finals and further a few weeks before and this is my opinion on who’s going to be crowned as the winner this season. 3.      There are many strong teams playing and many under-dogs who are performing brilliantly in their domestic leagues. However, teams like Juventus, Real Madrid will be knocked out as per me by the likes of Manchester City, and similarly Barcelona or Napoli, and Chelsea will be knocked out by the likes of Bayern Munich. On the other side as per me, the teams who will enter the semi finals will be PSG and Atletico Madrid, knocking out Atlanta and RB Leipzig respectively. 4.      Amongst all the predicted semi-finalists (Ba...

 1       This formation is another and a most sophisticated version of the original 4-3-3 basic formation. 2.      In this formation, the team comprises of two center backs, two full backs, three mid fielders, and 3 attackers. The modification comes in the placement and positioning of the attackers. 3.      As similar to the original 4-3-3 formation, this formation too has both wingers, but the striker takes a backseat in this formation and acts as a center forward (CF), and takes charge of creating more chances for the wingers to score. 4.      The opponent team finds it hard to defend because, it is relatively easy to man mark the striker as compared to the wingers, and this formation has it’s main attack from the wingers. Hence this formation can be easily used to defeat a team which is more used for playing against the basic 4-3-3 formation. 5.      For this formation to work mos...

1.       Serie A : This is the top league in Italy. Here the teams play with a very defensive approach to the game. Defenders in this league are some of the best in Europe, and their excellent defending technique makes this league very difficult to score in for the strikers. The defensive approach to the game is also called “Catenaccio”. Top football clubs in serie a include Juventus, Internazionale, AC Milan, AS Roma, and Napoli. Juventus are the current champions, and have also won the league the most number of times (35 times). 2.       Bundesliga : It is the top league in Germany. The teams in Bundesliga play with lot of pace, physical, and tactics. As similar to their country Germany, teams in Bundesliga make an engineering ground of the football field. Techniques and tactics used by players in the Bundesliga are recognised as “Total Football” in Europe. Top football clubs in Bundesliga are Bayern München (called as Bayern Munic...

1.       This formation is a modified version of the basic 4-3-3 formation. 2.       In this formation, the manager deploys the central midfielder out of the 3 midfielders into a central attacking mid fielder role, also known as the CAM position. 3.       The other two mid fielders, however, switch to more defensive roles, and focus on intercepting the ball from the opponents. 4.       In this formation, the team is more attack minded, and usually works well in a possession style of play. The CAM is the main man of the formation and should be a great dribbler, with pace, and good passing. The CAM has the role of creating chances in the mid field for the attackers to attack, dribbling through opponents, and is the main play maker of the game. 5.       The formation works excellently, when the mid field is used properly, and the team has all types of attac...

1.       This is the basic 4-3-3 formation. 2.       This is the most general form of formation to be used in any football team. 3.       This formation consists of 3 attackers, 3 mid-fielders, and 4 defenders. 4.       The attackers consist of two wingers, and a striker. The mid-field consists of 3 central mid-fielders. The defence consists of 2 centre backs, and 2 full backs. 5.       Here the defenders solely play the role in defending, the mid-fielders to the task of intercepting opponent passes, creating chances for the attackers, and getting the ball through the mid field. The attackers play the role of creating chances and finishing. The striker is the main man for finishing the attacks, and wingers are primarily for dribbling through the opponents, making chances for the striker, and finishing if required. 6.       This...

1.      The club represents the country of Catalonia which was captured by Spain. 2.      Club was established in 1899. 3.      The club’s main colours are blue and red. 4.      The club tried to sign alfredo di Stefano but Spanish govt took advantage of its position of authority and power to send him to real madrid. 5.      The club’s main era of dominance came when Johan Cruyff joined the club. The club won la Liga after 14 years. 6.      Johan Cruyff wasn’t just a great player, he was the foundation of Barcelona and gave the club its philosophy of playing football, i.e., tiki taka. 7.      Tiki taka implied playing through passing and extensive and smart dribbling and maintaining possession. 8.      Johan Cruyff returned as a coach to deepen the roots of tiki taka in Barcelona, and coached another great player ...