Typical Germans

Cheating Krauts, the Premier League in disarray or just another Champions League lottery…

“They got him sent off...typical Germans”.

I’m sure we’ve all seen Alex Ferguson’s remarks following another thrilling Champions League game last night. In many ways, he’s right. In the first part of his assessment anyway. The Bayern Munich players did largely contribute to Rafael’s sending off. Similarly, Arsenal’s players did their best to get Karl Henry of Wolves sent off on Saturday for a relatively innocuous challenge. And many, many teams all over the world will continue to do the same. Including most, if not every, side in the Premier League. It’s simply something that happens – it’s part of the game, and certainly not exclusive to European outfits.

Plus, if we want to get technical, how many of the players surrounding the referee last night were actually German? Ribery? Robben? Van Bommel? The latter has been winding up opponents and chiding referees for the past ten years in Europe. He’s a past master, whether playing for PSV, Barcelona or Bayern. Ferguson’s jibe about Germans appeared to be born out of frustration – it was petty, inaccurate but ultimately relatively harmless.

Also, from my perspective anyway, the turning point of last night’s game was actually the goal from Ivica Olic just before half time. Until that moment, Bayern were horribly paralysed, completely overwhelmed by Manchester United’s electric start. If the German side had gone in at half time 3-0 down, needing two in the second half, I really don’t believe they would have got anywhere near the result they needed. It’s an awful cliché, but that goal before half time changed the game – more than the sending off. Michael Carrick’s attempt to muscle Olic off the ball was pitiful, and Edwin Van Der Sar must take responsibility for letting a weak shot past him. It was great opportunism from Olic, but poor goalkeeping nonetheless.

Moving away from this minimal match report though, the point I’m trying to make is that Champions League knock-out ties regularly rest on the finer details. One small moment goes against you, and you’re out. That’s what tends to happen. You need a huge slice of luck to win the competition. Much has been made of the lack of an English side in the semi-final stage for the first time since 2003, but it’s really not that surprising. And it doesn’t suggest the Premier League is in decline either.

There are so many factors which come into the equation, more than can possibly be listed in this post. Take the draw as the easiest example – two French teams were paired together. Would Bordeaux or Lyon have qualified for the semi-final had they been playing Inter, Barcelona or Bayern? English sides have been drawn together in previous seasons too, boosting the statistics. It was inevitable that sooner or later an English side wouldn’t make the final, or semi-final. Is the Premier League now on the slide? Of course not. Will an English team make next year’s semi-final? Probably.

It may seem like a basic and glib analysis, but I honestly believe luck plays a huge role in such a high-quality, pressurised, knock-out competition. Luck is important in all football matches, but even more so in this environment. Look at the fortunes of two English sides in recent years – Chelsea dominated their semi-final second leg against Barcelona last season, were denied three or even four clear penalties, and went out in the last second thanks to a wonder strike which came out of nothing. In contrast, when Liverpool beat AC Milan in the 2005 final, Andriy Shevchenko had a glorious chance to seal the contest but his close-range finish somehow hit Jerzy Dudek and went over the bar. Small margins.

And we can also be certain that if our team was in the final, and an opponent made a challenge worthy of a second yellow card, the players we support would be encouraging the referee to send that man off. And we’d very likely be doing the same.