This tournament was inaugurated in 1955 at the suggestion of the French sports journalist and editor of L’Equipe Gabriel Hanot as a continental competition for winners of the European national football leagues, as the European Champion Club’s Cup,  abbreviated to European Cup.

The competition began in 1955/56 using a two-leg knockout format where the teams would play two matches, one at home and one away, and the team with the highest overall score qualifying for the next round of the competition. Entry was restricted to the teams that won their national league championships, plus the current European Cup holder. This qualification system continued until 1992. In the 1992/93 season, the tournament was renamed to UEFA Champions League and in 1997/98, eligibility was expanded to include not just domestic champions but also the best performing runners up according to UEFA’s coefficient ranking list. In UEFA’s coefficient system, a team finishing second in the Spanish La Liga would be more deserving of an automatic place in the Champions League than a team finishing first in, for example, Polish Orange Ekstraklasa. As a result, the system was restructured to force “weaker” national champions to qualify for the group stages, while other, “stronger” national runners-up would automatically get places.According list below, since 1955  52 clubs and 10 countries have written his name in the European Football winners. Clubs: Real Madrid (9 wins), Milan (7), Liverpool (5), Ajax and Bayern Munich (4), Barcelona, Benfica, Inter, Juventus, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Porto (2) and Aston Villa, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic Glasgow, Feyenoord, Hamburg, Olympique Marseille, PSV Eindhoven, Steaua Bucarest and Red Star Belgrade (1).  

Countries: Italy and Spain (11 times), England (10), Germany and Holland (6), Portugal (4) and France, Rumania, Scotland and Serbia (1).

Have you ever been to the Theatre of Dreams? No, what a pity! Is a wonderful place! Instead of a proper stage there’s a field full of the greenest grass you’ve ever seen. Instead of actors and actresses there are the greatest players you’ve ever seen. Instead of a theatre there’s the nicest stadium you’ve ever seen. Instead of costumes there are the reddest t-shirts you have ever seen. Instead of Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando or Meryl Streep there are Cristiano Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney… on stage. Would you waste the chance of dreaming awake? In the theatre of dreams everything is possible.

After a good match in Barcelona (the European semi-final’s first leg), you’ve got a second opportunity to watch one of this year’s greatest match. In Camp Nou, Barcelona was superior. FCB did know how to play this complicated match. Not loosing any balls in the midfield with the return of Deco and the security given by Yaya Toure. Good transitions to the forward players. And good chances of scoring goals. Eto’o, Messi, Henry, Bojan played good but didn’t find how to create serious problems for United’s goalkeeper, Van der Sar.

Ferguson didn’t transmit to ManU players all the intentions he had planning the game. Maybe when Cristiano Ronaldo missed the penalty kick everything went upside down for Ferguson’s plans.

But now we’ve got a second chance of enjoying (in the theatre of dreams – Old Trafford) the second leg of what was a marvellous game of football. The dice are thrown and there’s only an aim: Moscow!

Buy tickets!

Finally we can watch a new edition of the catalan derby between FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol. Both teams are in need of victory in order to overcome their critical situation which assure us a tense and fighty match. The pride of the teams is in game.



RCD Espanyol comes from a horrible month where they have lost all their matches but this is not the worst. From the last 14 matches, they have only been able to get some points in 3 of them. That’s the reason to fall from the top positions of the Spanish League to the eighth place. In fact, RCD Espanyol have been losing positions until getting out of European competition qualifications and nowadays, it seems impossible for them to overcome this negative dynamic. It’s said that with 40-42 points a team can avoid descending to the second division. Maybe Valverde had all of this calculated beforehand…



On the other hand, FC Barcelona, put under pressure by Villarreal at only one point from them, look for a victory to end their poor image in the last matches of the Spanish League. Although they are seconds, the 9 points distance from Real Madrid seems unreacheable and if we add the Ronaldinho affair and the Johan Cruyff’s opinions about the team, then it doesn’t help at all.



For this reason, the derby is going to be a bit atypical where FC Barcelona have a great opportunity to get revenge from RCD Espanyol - the last match between them decided the last season Spanish League champion (2-2) -. However, both teams need to recover their supporter’s faith in them.

When there is only about one month for the 2007/08 season end of the most important football European leagues the probable winners in each country have already a name or at least some teams are clear favourites to obtain the championship.Let’s have a look to the present situation of the football leagues in Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Belgium and Greece.Liga bwin in Portugal: This is the only of the above mentioned countries where there is already a winner of the major football league. Porto with 66 points is the winner when still there are four matches to be played before the end.Super League in Greece: When only one match must be played, Olympiakos with 67 points could be the winner. AEK with 65 points is second. Eredivisie in Holland: Also there is only one match to be played and PSV Eindhoven with 69 points will probably win the championship this season.Jupiter League in Belgium: Four matches to be played and Standard Liege (68 points) has 7 points advantage over Anderlecht (61 points).Premiership in England: Also four matches to be played and Manchester United (80 points) has a comfortable advantage of five points over Chelsea who is second in the table (75 points).Ligue 1 in France: Olympique Lyon with 68 points is the leader followed by Girondins Bordeaux with 64 points when there are still five matches to be played.Serie A in Italy: 4 points is the advantage of Inter (75 points) over Rome (71 points) when still five matches must be played.1 Bundesliga in Germany: 10 points is the comfortable advantage of Bayern Munich over Werder Bremen six matches before the end of the season.Primera Division in Spain: Real Madrid with 69 points is the maximum favourite to obtain the championship because second in the table is FC Barcelona with 60 points when only six matches must be played.According this up to date situation it is almost probable that following teams will go directly into the Champions League next season: Porto, Olympiakos, PSV Eindhoven, Standard Liege, Manchester United, Chelsea, Olympique Lyon, Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Last week José María Gutiérrez Hernández (also known as Guti) signed a new contract of renewal with Real Madrid, the team he has played in during his whole career. The 31 year old player succeeds to extend his contract until June 30 of 2011 and it will be renewed year by year once it finishes if both Guti and Real Madrid desire this. It will be a clause of auto-renewal if he plays a minimum of 30 official matches per season. Also, his salary will be of 1.8 million euro, a bit lower than his current one (2.1 million euro) but we can’t forget that this new contract will be for life.

With this agreement, Real Madrid expand to three their number of players with a contract for life - Iker Casillas and Raul González signed their contract last February 14 - and prevent other teams to tempt them. After thirteen seasons at Real Madrid, Guti is now recognised as one of the Spanish team’s emblems as stated by Ramon Calderón. This means they are part of Real Madrid, even after they retire from playing football.

Essential or not, the truth is Guti renewed his contract and he promises to bring Real Madrid as many victories as he can while he is still an active football player. Against FC Barcelona, he has sworn to not be merciful.

Champions League semi-finals are served. The big clashes between Liverpool FC and  Chelsea FC and FC Barcelona and Manchester United FC will select the two teams who will travel to Moscow for the Final on 21^st May. Reds boss Sir Alex Ferguson can’t wait to face Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final and is advancing some of his thoughts.
The Catalans beat Schalke 1-0 (2-0 on aggregate) to progress to the semi-final, but they will be without suspended skipper Carlos Puyol for the first-leg tie at the Camp Nou on 23^rd April and Alex Ferguson opinion on this fact after United’s 1-0 win over Rome, which takes the Reds comfortably through 3-0 on aggregate is: “Payola’s is a very good player, so that’s interesting,”
And he adds: “We have the opportunity now to achieve something really special. We want to go to Barcelona and show we’re a good team. Barcelona are a wonderful club but we can’t go there and be negative. If we do that then we’ve got a chance.”
The United manager surprised everyone with his starting line-up against AS Rome, leaving Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes on the bench. But he defended his decision and maintained his faith was repaid by the performance and the final result.
“We have to think about Arsenal on Sunday and you have to look at the big picture at times,” Sir Alex added: “We were going into a game at Old Trafford with a two-goal lead and I have to trust the players in that situation.
“I keep saying it’s the best squad I’ve ever had so if that’s the case then why shouldn’t I play them? I took out Scholes, Rooney and Ronaldo, but Ji-sung Park, Carlos Tevez and Owen Hargreaves were our three best players.”Having said all this, Alex Ferguson as well as all football fans must await the matches to be played at Camp Nou on 23r^d April and at Old Trafford on 29^th April to know the final result although what it is 100% sure is that at least an English team – Liverpool or Chelsea – will be one of the finalists. 

A first UEFA Champions League goal for Bojan Krkic gave FC Barcelona a significant advantage in their quarter-final against FC Schalke 04 as the Catalan side withstood fierce second-half pressure to win in Gelsenkirchen. Frank Rijkaard’s men may be struggling for form in the Primera Division but having continued their impressive European run, they will be confident of booking a semi-final place in next Wednesday’s second leg match after expertly nullifying their German opponents. Regarding Manchester United it has the best options in sight since Ronaldo headed the English champions in front after 39 minutes and, after United’s defence had resisted a determined rally from the home side, Rooney doubled the lead in the 66th minute. Given that the United has already beaten the “Giallorossi” twice at Old Trafford in the last 12 months, few would bet against them sealing a semi-final berth when the teams meet again next Wednesday.For Liverpool FC from Rafael Benitez is also a good opportunity to find out another important final and he has the theoretical advantage after the draw (1-1) obtained in first leg match played at Emirates Stadium last Wednesday. The situation of Liverpool FC in the Premiership is not excessively buoyant and therefore a new European tittle    Would be enough to save the season.Finally and in spite of his defeat (2-1) in Turkey in front of Fenerbahce FC last Wednesday, Chelsea FC is still the favourite because just a win 1-0 at Stamford Bridge would be enough to qualifies for semi-finals and try to obtain the Champions League tittle for first time in his history.The solution to all these conjectures will be known very soon. 

The German coach was keenly aware just how special Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final clash with Barcelona. He had identified the defensive midfield pairing of Xavi and Iniesta as key players alongside Barcelona’s exceptional strike force and the defences Eric Abidal and Gianluca Zambrotta, who operate almost as wingers whenever the Catalans attack, are others meriting close attention because FC Barcelona play almost in the style of a handball team.  Nevertheless, the “two faces” of Barcelona have not escaped Slomka’s attention. Barça is having an outstanding season in Europe and are unbeaten so far having picked up six wins and two draws but in the league and the Spanish cup they have only won one of their last six and have conceded 15 goals and the hope of the Schalke boss was that his team will be able to exploit this. Barcelona’s recent results are not the only reason why the Royal Blues feel they are in with a chance at the Veltins Arena. Determination, strength in the tackle, pace and drive going forward have been features of Schalke in the Bundesliga just recently, and these are the things that Germans will be hoping to reproduce against Barcelona. The atmosphere inside the Veltins Arena was excellent, as was the effort and the passion put in by the players, but too much reverence in the opening 45 minutes of the quarter-final first leg against Barcelona cost Schalke 04 a better position going into the return at the Camp Nou. Mirko Slomka’s men will now have to reverse a 1-0 deficit there on 9 April if they are to progress to the semi-final.

It seems that relationship of Ronaldinho with FC Barcelona is every time much more distant and that the Brazilian star, far away to be the same player than two years ago, could leave Barça soon. The last new is that Dunga, the coach of Brazil national team, has refused to take in account Ronaldinho for any future competition, including the Olympic Games in Beijing next August. On top of this Ronaldinho has not been  concentrate for both last Liga and Champion League matches. Assis, Ronaldinho’s brother and manager, has assumed when he talked to “Globoesporter” in Brazil, that his brother could cancel his contract with Barcelona after paying to the Catalan club the equivalent of their future salaries and a percentage of the amount of the initial cost when he was transferred from PSG. Assis who also do not discard Real Madrid as future destination of Ronaldinho as it happened some years ago with Luis Figo, seems convinced that his brother will abandon Camp Nou soon because every day in newspaper first page appears the comment that the cycle of Ronaldinho at Barcelona has already finish making also reference to the party nights he organises a lot of days now much more popular than his performance in the pitch.In the other hand nobody from FC Barcelona clearly mention what it is happening with the player and nobody justifies why he is not training and playing.Anyway Assis is also convinced that wining the Champions League would completely change all. “The situation is now very bad but imagine that Barcelona arrives and win the Moscow Final. Perhaps with this tittle things could be quite different”, he said.Johan Cruyff, former Barça player and coach, had also attacked Ronaldinho few months ago and the player defended himself saying that he will replay to all criticisms in the pitch although this unfortunately has not happened.