Ronaldo wins best player of Champions League 2007-2008
Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo won the best player of Champions League for 2007-2008 award. Ronaldo had a perfect season with Manchester last year scoring 8 goals in Champions League and 31 in Premier League, competitions that he also won.
He received also the best forward award by Uefa. The other winners were Petr Cech for best goalkeeper, John Terry as best defender and Frank Lampard for the best midfielder.
Ronaldo was chosen the best Premier League player and received the golden boot after scoring an impressive 31 goals.
Certainly he will be also a candidate for all major trophies next year. Ronaldo decides to stay with Manchester United for at least another year, despite all Real Madrid attempts to take him to Bernabeu. Ronaldo admitted that his dream is to play in the future for Real Madrid.
Ronaldo is currently recovering from an ankle injury.
Roma signed another forward
Roma was looking for a striker whole summer, and there were a lot of names on the shortlist. Their first option was Adrian Mutu from Fiorentina who was supposed to be unsatisfied with the contract at Fiorentina.
Finally Fiorentina ended the speculations and announced that Mutu had signed a new contract and that the player is not for sale.
Roma moved quickly and signed Baptista from Real Madrid. Roma reported to be interesting in signing another forward due to the medicall problems of Totti and Vucinic and the departure of Mancini who moved to rivalls Inter.
Menez, Suazo and Malouda were on the shortlist for Roma. The official site of Monaco announced that Roma and Monaco reached an agreement.
Menez is one of the most talented youngster from Eurome and he was many times associated with Zidane. Menez was the youngest hattrick scorer from french league, scored 34 goals in the last two seasons and made the step to France B.
There were several important clubs from Europe which were interested in signing Menez, the most notable Inter and Manchester.
Uefa Champions League Draw
Group A: Chelsea, Roma, Bordeaux, CFR 1907 Cluj
Group B: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, Panathanaikos, Anorthosis
Group C: Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, FC Basel, Shakhtar Donetsk
Group D: Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Marseille, Atletico Madrid,
Group E: Manchester United, Villareall, Celtic, Alborg BK
Group F: Lyon, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucharest, Fiorentina
Group G: Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbahce, Dynamo Kyev
Group H: Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit, Bate Borisov
The most echilibrated and touchest group is group D. But we can mention here also groups A, E and F were at least three teams have real chances to qualify for the next round.
The easiest group is group B were Inter should have no problem in winning the group.
In group H there are two favorites Real and Juventus. I don’t think that Zenit will repeat the good performances from last season.
Groups C and G have a clear favorite, and the three other teams will fight for the second place.
Liverpool still unbeaten
Liverpool continued the good form they showed from the start of the season by qualifying into the group stages of Uefa Champions League.
Before the qualifying match Liverpool had six points from two matches.
The qualifying match against Belgium champions Standard Liege was prepared carefully by manager Rafa Benites. Liverpool were very carefully in defence, knowing that any mistake could cost them the qualification. Liverpool won the game in the last minutes of the second extra time period with a goal signed by Kuyt.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benites declared that he is happy with the qualification and he knew that
it was going to be difficult because they played well in the first leg especially in defence.
Liverpool also won the previous match against Middlesbrough in the last minutes coming back from 0-1 to 2-1.
Another aspect shows the importance of the qualifying match is that Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard opted to play despite being in pain.
Gerrard knew about the problem even from the international game that he played with England but he decide to postpone the surgery after the second leg with Standard.
This will keep the Liverpool captain away between 10 and 15 days.
Liverpool will play in Champions League group stage with PSV, Atletico Madrid and Marseille.