A VIBRANT DERBY (articel available in English and Españo)

This Sunday night we could watch a great and vibrant Roman derby between AS Roma and SS Lazio.

Although one could think that the game was not going to be very equalized, as AS Roma is very near to the bottom of the standing and SS Lazio is disputing the possibility of playing the next Champions League, the true is that the derby had equality at the start with many shots on target-Mirko Vucinic and Julio Baptista for AS Roma and Tommasso Rocchi and Mauro Zarate for Lazio-, but gradually AS Roma began to take the control of the game and finally it got a goal thanks to the duo Francesco Totti-he is always a determinant player, it is a pity his bad fit!- and Julio Baptista-he was the best of the game and now it is possible that Real Madrid think that it was a mistake his departure last summer-. After the Baptista´s goal at minute 50, AS Roma was the owner of the match until the 66 minutes, when the Laziale player Ledesma was sent off. Since this circumstance, the game changed totally and I do not know if because AS Roma was relaxed or it had the problem of Totti and Panucci´s fatigue, or because Lazio showed its proud and it played with a winning mentality, but the truth is that from that moment, the AS Roma with 11 players was totally overwhelmed by Lazio, whose players and specially Mauro Zarate showed good 20 last minutes of the games, having many chances to score, specially thanks to the brilliant plays of Zarate, who was a continuous danger for the left Laziale attack and he made excellent passes to Simone Inzaghi and Stephan Lichsteiner-the Swiss right back is playing very well this season-, who were unlucky and they could not score a goal-we could see the same bad luck in other players like Goran Padev (he had a clear chance in front of Doni), Tommasso Rocchi and the Roman Jérémy Menez, who missed a great chance to score after a great Mirko Vucinic´s assist-we can say that Menez is quite fiasco, since he is playing bad with a imprecise play-. But finally, AS Roma could resist the score and even it finished with 10 men-Simone Perrota was sent off- it got the 3 vital points to breathe calm this week and besides to damage its eternal rival, since Lazio lost positions and now it is behind the 3 Italian giants: Inter Milan, Juventus Torino and AC Milan. By the way, Inter Milan is the Italian leader, so the criticized Mourinho is doing a good job, people can say many things about Mourinho but the only truth is that his team is the leader with only one defeat and it is the team with less goals received-7 goals in 12 Italian games-, who wants more?

For the rest, we want to remark the strength of FC Barcelona –it got its 9 consecutive Spanish League´s victory-, Olympique Lyon-it had an excellent weekend, since it won its difficult game against its big rival, Girondins Bordeaux and besides it took advantage of the Olympique Marseille´s unexpected defeat in the game played at Vélodrome against Lorient, it was unexpected and incomprehensible because Olympique won 2-0 until the 75 minute, but we know Olympique, anything is possible with it- FC Chelsea, Liverpool FC and Manchester United-they won their matches with authority-, Bayer 04 Leverkusen-it won a difficult game against Schalke 04 thanks to goals from its determinant strikers Patrick Helmes and Stefan Kiessling (Bayer also took advantage of the Bayern Munich´s puncture, since finally it only could draw the game played against Borussia Mönchengladbach (until the 78 minutes it won 0-2 thanks to Luca Toni and Frank Ribery´s goal) - and Olympiakos Piraeus –it beat PAOK Thessaloniki, the second of the Greek standing-.

We must also emphasize the fragility of Real Madrid –there is not any excuse, it is playing horrible and of course it is far from the excellence promised and I do not understand the reason of the Fabio Capello´s destitution, because Capello has one thing secure, the results….we will see if there is any news during the next days in this club about the coach or any new acquisition – and of Arsenal-it has already lost 4 games in the Premier League! It is not enough to win to Manchester United if one week later it loses an attainable game against Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium… it is very difficult to win a title with this kind of defeats!

Finally, I will speak about a mad championship, the Turkish Süper Lig. I say that it is a mad championship because since the first day of this season it almost impossible to see a weekend where all the giants can win the respective league´s game and this weekend was not an exception and a Turkish giant, Besiktas JK, could not win its game played against Bursaspor. The truth is that, as I am seeing the Turkish Süper Lig, the criticized Luis Aragones can be the man, whose team achieved the Turkish Title, because although his team played horrible during these months, it is very near to the top team-there is one point between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray SK, 3 between Fenerbahçe and Besiktas JK and 7 between Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor-the Trabzon´s team is the only team, whose players are showing some strength, although if we take a look at its squad, we do not believe that it can stay until the end in this Top position-.So, be careful with Fenerbahçe SK, especially because we know the level of a Luis Aragones´s team, since his teams always start very bad and they finish with an spectacular level, because Aragones wants that his team shows an excellent level during the last 10-12 games of the championship. So, if Fenerbahçe arrive to these 10-12 last games more or less like now-near the top team-, it will be the best candidate for the title (by the way, next weekend can be an excellent weekend for Fenerbahçe, since it will play a comfortable game against Anakargücü-15-and its rivals will play direct face, Ankaraspor-3-against Galatasaray-5- and Trabzonspor-1- against Sivasspor-4-).... Although I think that if Fenerbahçe wants to win the title, it must acquire during the winter market a left back and an experienced central defender to have a solider team, although obviously it has much improved in that aspect, because in the last 3 matches-2 Süper Lig and 1 Champions League´s games-, it received only 1 goal.

Cheers,

J&F