On Sunday English football witnessed one of the most dramatic final days in its history. With just five minutes of additional time remaining, the blue half of Manchester were on the brink of the perfect failure. Despite conquering their rivals twice during the season, City could not match United's score on the last day. Rather, they were trailing QPR, the team with the worst away record in the league.
Of all the days for City to loose their first home game of the season, this was by far the worst. But just as the full time whistle blew at the Stadium of Light, Edin Dzeko gave Man City a ray of hope. The Bosnian hitman grabbed his 14th goal of the season, ending a run of eleven games without a goal. And just two minutes later, Sergio Aguero sent the Etihad Stadium in to raptures.
Scenes from Sunderland saw United fans prepare to celebrate a twentieth league title. As they desperately awaited the news they so dearly wanted, if they had listened hard enough they might have heard the cheers back home, as Aguero scored a last gasp winner that would secure a third league title for City.
There is no doubt that the scenes witnessed on Sunday the 13th of May 2012, may never be replicated. They are and will continue to be the talk of European football for a long time to come. Despite the hype in the British media, the English League was not the only one to witness a dramatic final day.
Although the outcome at the top of La Liga was sealed a couple of weeks prior, with Real Madrid winning their first title in three years, the drama in Spain was developing at the bottom of the table.
Sporting Gijon and Racing Santander were confirmed as two of the three to be relegated to the second tier of Spanish football. The final place would be filled by either Villarreal, Real Zaragoza, Rayo Vallecano or Granada.
Zaragoza avoided the drop with a 2-0 win over Getafe, in a match that was littered with red cards. Goals from Apono and Helder Postiga ensured their safety. The drama was intensified with Vallecano and Granada going head to head. Vallecano had won just won of their previous ten games and were sitting in the bottom three with just minutes to go. That was until veteran striker Tamudo scored a stoppage time winner to keep them in the Spanish footballing promised land.
This meant that the four had became two. Just Villarreal and Granada were the only two hovering over the trap door. With Vallecano's last minute winner Granada would only stay up if Villarreal lost to Uefa cup winners Atletico Madrid. But surely the yellow submarine who finished fourth last season and were regulars in the Champions League, could not go down?
Granada's prayers were answered with a Falcao goal two minutes from time, that saw Villarreal's twelve year residence in La Liga come to an end. The media were shocked, the supporters were stunned, but as the players, several whom will feature at the forthcoming Euros, stared each other in the face, it was they who seemed in the most disbelief.
The German Bundesliga ended the previous weekend, with Borussia Dortmund winning back to back titles. After defeating Munich last month the title was a foregone conclusion. The German cup, however, was firmly in the balance.
Dortmund had won four on the bounce against Munich and no team in the history of German football had won five in a row against Bayern. However, history was rewritten, as Dortmund sealed their first ever league and cup double with an emphatic 5-2 win over Munich. This confirmed Dortmund's dominance of German football, for the time being anyway, and resigned Munich to a trophiless domestic campaign for the second season in a row. However, Munich's time to shine may still arrive on the 19th of May when they face Chelsea in their own Allianz Arena to contest for the title in Europe's maiden competition.
The final day in Serie A was very much veterans day. The title had been wrapped up the week before by the 'Old Lady'. Juventus had went some way to removing the shackles of the last five years, and they did it in style. The men from Turin completed the season without a defeat to their name, a feat matched only by Perugia and AC Milan in years gone by. It was the men from Milan that finished runners-up thanks to a defeat the week prior. The irony was that it was AC's dearest rivals, Inter, who enflicted the finishing blow, in a season plagued with low points for Internatzionale.
Veterans Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi signed off in fitting style. Both players were playing their final games for Juve and AC respectively, and both netted to secure wins for their sides, in what was a somewhat whimsical day in Serie A.
The drama at the bottom was non existent. Cesena's relegation could have been confirmed as early as February, having only acummulated four wins all season. Novarra did not fair much better, with their fate being sealed a few weeks prior. The final team to face relegation to Serie B was Lecce. They had to win their final game against Chievo and hope that underachievers of the season, Genoa, lost to Palermo. Neither result went the desired way and Lecce failed to match their heroics of last season that saw them beat the drop on the final day.
In the French Ligue 1, with one set of fixtures still remaining, Auxerre were the first team to be relegated. Their 3-0 defeat to Marseille ended their 32 year stay in the French top flight. The last time Auxerre played outwith Ligue 1 was the same year Pac Man was released, Ronald Regan was named President of USA and John Lennon was assassinated.
At the top, Montpellier put themselves on the brink of their first ever league title with a dramatic 1-0 win at last years champions, Lille. Karim Ait-Fana came off the bench to secure the three points that leaves Montpellier needing just a draw in their final game against already relegated Auxerre.
The battle at the bottom is set to offer arguably the most exciting football of all the end of season going on's in Europe, outside of England. No less than seven teams all face the drop, with three points separating Nice in thirteenth and Dijon in nineteenth. The most likely of the seven to go down are Dijon, Nice and Lorient, who face the most difficult opponents. Whatever the outcome, it is sure to be a gripping final day.
In Europe's other top leagues, Celtic picked up their 43rd league title in Scotland. In Portugal, Porto only just missed out on matching last season's undefeated campaign, clinching the title with just one defeat. Ajax returned to the helm of Dutch football, finishing six points ahead of Feyenoord. Zenit St. Petersburg made easy work of the Russian league, brushing aside much talked about Anzhi Makhachkala who finished a disappointing fifth. In a Turkish season marred by match fixing scandals, Galatasary won their 18th league title. The Greek league was another to follow the ever increasing trend of points deductions, with Olympiacos being crowned champions ahead of rivals Panathinaikos, who were deducted points for severe crowd trouble. And in Ukraine Shaktar Donetsk successfully defended their crown.
Oh, and lets not forget about the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine which kick off on the 8th June.
No comments:
Post a Comment