Expect Saints to go marching out
Chelsea favoured to advance to final against either Spurs or ‘cagey’ Manchester United
The FA Cup semifinals are this weekend as Manchester United faces Tottenham on Saturday, while Chelsea plays Southampton on Sunday. Both games are at Wembley, which gives Spurs a home advantage of sorts.
I expect we’ll probably see another cagey performance from United in this one. Southampton is the odd team out among these big clubs, as the Saints are battling relegation and looking likely to go down.
Chelsea and Southampton faced each other in league play last Saturday, with the Saints blowing a twogoal lead and losing 3-2 at home. At least Southampton manager Mark Hughes knows his team can do well against Chelsea, at least for 60 minutes. His team’s inability to defend against crosses in that match must be a concern though.
That’s a reason we may see Chelsea give target man Olivier Giroud the start up front in place of Alvaro Morata.
Chelsea appears destined to finish fifth, so I expect the Blues to go all out for the win Sunday.
‘Mother of all games’
The title race is definitely on in Italy, after Juventus stumbled Wednesday to a 1-1 draw away to relegation-threatened Crotone. Juve leads Napoli by just four points, and the two square off Sunday in Turin, in a match the Italian press are calling the “Mother of All Games.”
A Napoli win would leave Juventus in difficulty, as the defending champions have a tricky set of fixtures to close out the season, including matches against Inter and Roma.
Napoli is unbeaten on the road in league play in 18 months, which is an impressive run. The team has also shown great character, coming from behind to win nine times this season.
There’s a lot to play for in Serie A as the season winds down. In addition to the title race, there is a three-team dogfight for the final two Champions League spots, and the relegation battle is close, too.
First leg
The first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals kick off next week. On Tuesday, Liverpool hosts Roma while Wednesday’s match sees Real Madrid on the road to face Bayern Munich.
Liverpool’s confidence is high after crushing Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals and Porto 5-0 before that. However, after watching Roma storm back from three goals down to beat Barcelona, the Reds must be wondering what kind of result they need to get at Anfield in order to feel safe for the return leg.
The key player in this series is, of course, Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, who will be facing his former club. Salah spent two seasons at Roma, where he finished as top scorer and Player of the Year. And that was before people figured out he was a goal scorer.
Bayern against Real is a classic encounter. They’ve played each other 24 times, more than any other two teams in the history of European competition. The all-time record is level with 11 wins apiece, but the last two series between them, last season’s quarter-finals and the 2014 semifinals, were both won decisively by Madrid.
Will Cristiano Ronaldo be the deciding factor this time? I wouldn’t bet against it.
Going up
Congratulations to Wolverhampton Wanderers for gaining promotion to the Premier League. Wolves lead the Championship standings by 12 points over Cardiff City.
It’s nice to see them going back up to the top flight after several years absence.
There are a couple of good local connections with Wolverhampton. Back in 1963, Wolves played a B.C. all-star team and a young Vancouver teen named Les Wilson impressed enough to get an invitation to trial at the club.
Wilson was just 15 when he went to England, and he ended up playing more than 100 games for the Wolves. He was one of the first Canadians to play in Europe, making it easier for me and all those who followed.
Wilson later played for the Whitecaps, and was GM of the Canadian national team for many years, among his many administrative roles in the sport.
Whitecaps’ coach Carl Robinson also got his professional start at Wolverhampton. He joined the club as a youth and played more than 160 games there.
Bob Lenarduzzi is president of Vancouver Whitecaps FC. For tickets visit whitecapsfc.com/tickets